End the War on Freedom

L. Neil Smith at Sierra Times - Why Aren't We There Yet? - Pundits for the nanny state will never understand the reason free men and women travel into space. If it weren't for them, our children would have the option to live in the stars.

As to Easterbrook, his notions about "rebuilding" NASA -- he wants to send the shuttles to a museum and let the space station burn up in the atmosphere just like Skylab did -- are exactly like the notions of those who want to rebuild the World Trade Center to a smaller, more humble design. Me, I'd rebuild it a mile tall and put Phalanx guns on top.

Of course I'd do it with private money.

I confess that I don't come to a debate over spaceflight and NASA with clean hands. I was a "space enthusiast" (how trivial that makes it sound) long before I was a libertarian. I began a scrapbook to collect newspaper and magazine clippings about space travel before Sputnik. I feel sympathy with Ayn Rand's view that if the government spends money on anything, it should be getting into space, and even more with correspondents who told me, after Challenger and again after Columbia, that, despite the risk, they'd go on the very next flight.

So would I.

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The first and most important thing to understand about politics is this: forget Right, Left, Center, socialism, fascism, or democracy. Every government that exists -- or ever existed, or ever will exist -- is a kleptocracy, meaning "rule by thieves". Competing ideologies merely provide different excuses to separate the Productive Class from what they produce. If the taxpayer/voters won't willingly fork over to end poverty, then maybe they'll cough up to fight drugs or terrorism. Conflicting ideologies, as presently constituted, are nothing more than a cover for what's really going on, like the colors of competing gangs.

This isn't at all to say that ideas are unimportant -- in some ways, ideas are everything there is. But ideas have less to do with politics today than they have with fat crows and seagulls battering at each other in a MacDonald's parking lot to get at a dropped bag of fries. Until now, NASA has just been another excuse to collect money at gunpoint and, in this case, bestow it on otherwise unemployable tech-types.

TruthAboutWar.org is a new web site from the American Liberty Foundation. Not a lot there yet, but they do have some radio ad scripts and are soliciting donations to air them.

Ronnie Barrett at NRA Members' Councils of California - Barrett Firearms Letter of Opposition to the proposed .50 cal Ban - A letter from the owner and president of the best known manufacturer of .50 caliber rifles to William Bratton, the chief of the LA Police Department, explaining why Mr. Barrett will be slow to service one of his rifles sent back for repair. Wouldn't it be nice if firearms manufacturers refused to sell to "law enforcement" agencies that infringe our rights? [smith2004]

Please excuse my slow response on the repair service of the rifle. I am battling to what service I am repairing the rifle for. I will not sell, nor service, my rifles to those seeking to infringe upon the Constitution and the crystal clear rights it affords individuals to own firearms.

Tibor R. Machan at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - Machan's Little Libertarian Encyclopedia - I haven't read this yet, but it looks worthwhile, though long. [grabbe]

Libertarians uphold the sovereignty of each adult individual in social life. They distinguish themselves in the political arena in most western countries from both the Left and the Right because, on the one hand, the Left is inclined primarily to impose restrictions on individuals pertaining to their economic or material actions, while the Right embarks upon imposing on individuals when it comes to their spiritual or mental actions. Both Left and Right enlist government for the purpose of regimenting certain aspects of the individual's life, whereas the libertarian sanctions only those laws or rules that aim at keeping everyone's sovereignty, at protecting individual rights to life, liberty and property.

POPFile 0.18.0 is out. Much bigger (2 megs vs. 600K). Claims to be better. I noticed one improvement already. It fetches multiple mail accounts in parallel.

David Rostcheck at Sierra Times - Why We Need To Counterattack - gun rights activists need to learn aggressive strategies for fighting the Brady Bunch. They can do so this weekend in Dallas at Counterattack 2003.

The gun control debate is like a boxing match. Specifically, it's like a boxing match in which the pro-gun-rights fighter blocks but never hits back.

At the North Bridge Training Institute, we would like to change this. We're running CounterAttack 2003, a training conference for grassroots activists, where successful pro-gun activists can teach others their techniques for cultural change.

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Clayton E. Cramer, who debunked the book "Arming America", will give a keynote address. Suzanna Hupp, who pushed through Texas' CHL law after being caught in a mass shooting, will give a welcome speech. Other speakers include Rick Stanley, who founded the Bill of Rights Rally, was arrested for civil disobedience opposing Denver's gun ban, and proposed the Million Gun March. Kenn Blanchard, security expert, author of "Black Man With A Gun", and founder of the African-American "Tenth Cavalry Gun Club", will also speak. And we did not neglect the social side - a machine gun shoot outing on Saturday Night will give attendees a chance to shoot with friends. But the real heart of CounterAttack is the training workshops, where the activists who make headlines on KABA can show others how to do what they do. Jim March and Nadja Adolph shut down the Million Mom March. Would you like to have Jim teach you how he did it? Or spend some time learning from former NRA-ILA executive director Neal Knox? Or have Kenn show you how to talk to anyone? Our high-powered instructor list includes them all, plus KeepAndBearArms.com founder Angel Shamaya and a cast of other skilled activists.

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