Tangent BBS

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:00:00 GMT

An "old saw" from smith2004:

"If the Muslims put down their weapons today there would be peace in Israel tomorrow. If the Israelis put down their weapons there would be no Israel tomorrow."

librarian.net - Five Technically Legal Signs for Your Library. How a library can inform its patrons that they are being monitored by the FBI under the conditions of the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act (hint: they can't). I wish this were funny, but it's much too close to the truth for that. [smith2004]

www.vader.com is Jeffrey L. "Hunter" Jordan's "TANGENT BBS Memorial Home Page". It contains links to many known-to-be-good and interesting looking essays. It also contains a page containing "the obligatory huge list of links." I'll be investigating the linked articles over the next little while, in sha' allah. [smith2004]

Dan Farber at Tech Update - A day at the office in 2013 - a cautionary tale on the "potential" of RFID technology. [picks]

Jackbooted Thug of the Month, January 2003 - Officer Anthony "Mack the Knife" Johnson - "For demonstrating special skill in advance hand-cuffing technique." Cutting off part of an unarmed woman's finger, that is. [tle]

Kim du Toit - Crossing America - the final write-up of answers to Mr. du Toit's question about which rifle, handgun, and knives people would take with them on a trip across America in 1650. [kimdutoit]

lendringser at The Firing Line - A Declaration of Civil Disobedience - a classic. Mirrored here. [highroad]

William Stone, III at The Libertarian Enterprise - The Happy Days Ahead - What Mr. Stone wants out of life is very simple: "Freedom, immortality, and the stars! Really, that's the promise of individual liberty." His article explores what his enemies, e.g. Rush Limbaugh, want from life. I hope he's right about the beast's death throes. [tle]

Take our assembly-line automobile: would an all-controlling FedGov have allowed Henry Ford to put into the hands of virtually every individual in the country a device capable of delivering ANY payload of ANY kind to virtually any destination at any time? Clearly, this device (which we'll call an "assault vehicle" after modern parlance) could enable a disgruntled or disturbed individual to deposit, say, fuel oil and fertilizer in front of a Federal building.
Clearly, given the destructive potential of assault vehicles, they could not possibly have been allowed into the marketplace. The potential for misuse is far too high.

...

Human civilization has been around something in excess of 20,000 years. Except for a virtually negligible amount of time, the most advanced technology developed was simple refinements to the processes of manual labor. It's only in the last 250 years that we've crawled out of the mud and made our first tentative grasp for the stars.

Why? Simple: for the first time in all of human history, a large group of people were left alone to pursue their own personal goals. This is in stark contrast to the preceding TWENTY MILLENNIA, when human beings slaved from dawn to dark for the benefit of kings and emperors.

...

The Beast is thrashing in its death throes. What we're interpreting as a sudden crackdown on individual freedom is in fact the Beast flailing wildly about, roaring and breathing fire, as it finally gasps its last.

The truly amazing thing is that day in and day out, neither Rush nor his listeners can grasp these simple facts. Nor do they understand the simple, easily-provable concept that the best defense against terrorists, criminals, and other evil-doers isn't government and victim disarmament. Rather, it is free individuals armed with anything they have the means to buy.

Thomas - H.J.Res. 11 - "Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President." Can you say, "FDR"? Sponsored by Mr. Serano. No cosponsors. Is this how GW becomes emperor? Naw...

Thomas - H.J.Res. 4 - "Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The 108th Congress is barely in session and they've already proposed another flag burning amendment. The senate has stopped this in the last two sessions. When will these guys give up, already?

Julia Scheeres at Wired - Judge to Hear Air ID Challenge - ignoring motions to dismiss, from the government and two airlines, a U.S. district judge in San Franciso has agreed to hear John Gilmore's case against requiring an ID for airline travel. High Road discussion here. [cryptome]

Gilmore, a longtime libertarian, arrived at the federal building wearing Birkenstocks and a purple suit jacket. Pinned to the lapel, was a button with the words "suspected terrorist" superimposed over the shape of an airplane.

Joseph Sobran - The Sobran Administration - how an honest man would behave as president. [smith2004]

Which brings me to my campaign promise: as president, I will veto any act of Congress I deem unconstitutional; I will impound any funds Congress appropriates for unconstitutional purposes; and I will refuse to enforce any Federal law on the books if it isn't authorized by the Constitution. I will ask Congress to repeal most existing Federal laws and spending programs.

Faulty decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court will also be unenforced. In fact, no Federal law will be enforced in the former Confederate States of America, since I will recognize the right of those states to secede from the Union and consider the Lincoln administration's denial of their sovereignty grossly unconstitutional. I will abide by the Declaration of Independence, which declares that all the states "are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States."

All this will guarantee my swift impeachment and removal from the presidency, since Congress will surely regard keeping my oath to uphold the Constitution as chief among "high crimes and misdemeanors." But I can always run again in 2008, 2112, and so forth.

Add comment Edit post Add post

Previous Posts:
A Declaration of Civil Disobedience
"Tens of Thousands" in DC
Opera 7.0 Rocks!
Opera 7.0
Political Self-Defense
Happy Birthday, Christopher!
The Death of Politics
Reefer Madness Revived
Guns Still Allowed in Checked Luggage
Rule II: Never Let the Muzzle Cover Anything You Are Not Willing to Destroy

Navigation

History

Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair