State of the Homeland

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 29 Jan 2003 13:00:00 GMT

From tst:

"Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer." -- Ludwig Von Mises

"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations." -- David Friedman

Kevin Tuma - Kennedy - cartoon commentary on the dismissal of the McDonald's obesity lawsuit. Hehe.

My son decided he wanted an email account. I'll probably eventually set one up for him at billstclair.com, but I decided to start with one of the free web-based services, so we tried Yahoo mail. He filled out the form, including his birthdate, and it asked for the help of his parent. They required a credit card, so I switched to MailVault instead. He's got mail!

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - Government Policy and False Prosperity - expansion on the Ludwig Von Mises quote above. Yes, taxes should be cut, but not for any imagined stimulus to the economy. They should be cut because the size of the federal government needs to be drastically reduced.

President Bush's plan to end the double taxation of stock dividends, which I support, has been both lauded and denounced by the usual factions in Washington. Some of the President's supporters, however, make the argument that a dividend tax cut will boost stock prices. While tax cuts are always good for the economy, it's dangerous to promote the idea that government can create value in the financial markets. The collapse of stock prices in the last two years provides stark evidence that the Federal Reserve's monetary policies of the 1990s did not create lasting prosperity, and we should understand that tax policy is no different. Centralized planning via tax policy is every bit as harmful as centralized planning in monetary policy.

The Liberty Committee - We're all Democrats now - something worth watching on C-Span this afternoon.

Congressman Ron Paul will deliver the first half of his "Sorry Mr. Franklin, We're all Democrats Now" address Wednesday, January 29th. Dr. Paul will make his address on the House floor tomorrow during one-hour special orders.

Due to the often-changing House floor schedule, the exact time of Dr. Paul's speech can not be known. We anticipate his speech will be delivered between 5:00 p.m. ET and 7:00 p.m. ET. It will be broadcast by C-SPAN as part of its normal coverage of the House floor proceedings.

Sean Corrigan at LewRockwell.com - Willy Chocolate's Wonky Factory - a little story illustrating why printing money (government debt, AKA Keynesian economics) can't possibly solve any economic problem, for long. [lew]

Russell Madden at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - In the Arms of the State: The Heinous Crime of Keeping Your Own Money - Commentary on an interview by Lynn Sherr of tax educator Lynn Meredith on ABC News' 20/20. [grabbe]

I don't know if Meredith really believes what she is saying. I don't know if what she says about the legality of the federal income tax is true. I don't know if Meredith is merely deluding herself or willfully defrauding her customers. I don't know from trusts, legal or otherwise. I don't know if the Sixteenth Amendment was ever legally ratified.

I also don't care.

The essential, the important issue in this story that "20/20" so breathlessly aired is not whether the income tax or the IRS or any of its paraphernalia or rules or practices are legal or constitutional. The modern State has no fundamental or deep-seated regard or respect for the law beyond how it can twist and cajole the legal system to obtain what it wants from its slaves-in-all-but-name subjects.

...

The income tax -- Constitutional or legal or not -- is morally bankrupt and practically corrupt. No one -- no one -- has an ethical obligation to obey a perniciously immoral law. Whether the law concerns owning or carrying a weapon, using gold for money, seeking financial privacy or an anonymous lifestyle, deciding how to educate one's children, practicing discrimination, owning pets, smoking on private property, engaging in sex acts, or obtaining professional licensing, one is morally free to ignore any rights-violating law...but one must also be willing to accept the results of asserting one's moral autonomy, of being caught and prosecuted for the evil of thinking -- and acting -- for one's self.

Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com - Beware the Ides of March: Ignore the First Chickenhawk's "State of the Union" -- listen, instead, to General Schwarzkopf - A reminder that men who have been there, Schwazkopf , James Webb, General Anthony Zinni, retired Marine colonel Larry Williams, and Colonel David Hackworth, think that going to war in Iraq is a really bad idea. The power-mad desk-sitters, like Bushnev, on the other hand, think it's just peachy-keen. [grabbe]

Okay, so I did watch the speech, and taped EastEnders, and wasn't I right? The phony connection made between Iraq and Al Qaeda, even murkier than I imagined: the braying bellicosity, the furrowed brow, the mean squint. I must say, however, that I was taken aback when the President opined:

"Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations ... built armies and arsenals ... and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world. In each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit."

A Freudian slip? An antiwar mole among the speechwriters? Or a single moment of honesty amid a fusillade of lies? What Bush is describing is his own rotten regime, up to and including the neoconservative cabal that has seized the reins of power in Washington, and set us rushing off to war. The whole point of the President's demagogic tirade was to intimidate the world, and most of all the American people. Conjuring up the self-fulfilling prophecy of an Iraqi attack on the U.S., the Bushies expect us to quake in fear -- and surrender ourselves helplessly to their war plans.

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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