Mr. Rogers, RIP

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 27 Feb 2003 13:00:00 GMT

Kevin Tuma - Duct Tape - cartoon commentary on something useful to do with duct tape. Hehe.

russmo.com - Gutter Negotiations - cartoon commentary on Turkey's price for a U.S. war base. Hehe.

Todd Spangler of AP via The Boston Globe - Fred Rogers, host of `Mister Rogers' Neighborhood', dies of cancer at 74 - Can you say, "bummer"? I hope he likes his new neighborhood. [smith2004]

Fred Rogers, who gently invited millions of children to be his neighbor as host of the public television show ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' for more than 30 years, died of cancer early Thursday. He was 74.

Rogers died at his Pittsburgh home, said family spokesman David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on the show. Rogers had been diagnosed with stomach cancer sometime after the holidays, Newell said.

"He was so genuinely, genuinely kind, a wonderful person," Newell said. "His mission was to work with families and children for television. He produced not only these thousands of programs, but these books and records. That was his passion, his mission, and he did it from day one."

Anthony Lewis at The New York Times - Marbury v. Madison v. Ashcroft - on the importance of judicial rulings of unconsitutionality during our extended war on "terror". [trt-ny]

But the measure that most gravely menaces constitutional rights is the arrest and indefinite detention of Americans without trial and without access to a lawyer. The president has claimed the power to thus seize and hold any American whom he designates an "enemy combatant." And the basis of the designation, administration lawyers argue, is not subject to effective review in any court.

Two American citizens are now held in solitary confinement under this asserted presidential power. One, Yasser Hamdi, was found under unexplained circumstances on a battlefield in Afghanistan. The other, Jose Padilla, was arrested on arrival at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago after spending time in Egypt and Pakistan. Both are totally isolated. They are not allowed to speak to a lawyer. They may not see their families.

NRA-ILA Updates and Alerts - Ninth Circuit Disputes Silveira Decision, Judge Calls Second Amendment an Individual Right - a win for the good guys. [scopeny]

The bottom line in the Nordyke case is that the three-judge panel agreed that (1) a ban on gun possession on county property does not on its face violate the right to free speech, but (2) that same ban as applied to gun shows might be a violation, and the plaintiffs here are free to bring such an action. Further, (3) the Silveira opinion was ill-advised and wrong, and the Ninth Circuit's prior Second Amendment cases should be reviewed. Judge Gould went further and positively embraced the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment, further undermining Silveira and buttressing Emerson. These are further signs that the collective-rights construct within the federal judiciary is starting to crumble and that the individual-rights view is steadily gaining the recognition it deserves.

Charley Reese - Don't Worry About Terrorism - terrorist acts have a very limited range. Especially chemical weapons. They cannot be properly called weapons of mass destruction. [rrnd]

I hope no one thinks that the participants in World War II declined to use chemical weapons out of humanitarian concerns. Hardly. They managed to kill 55 million people with conventional weapons. Chemical weapons weren't used because everybody learned in World War I that they simply aren't that effective.

...

Biological agents probably have a greater potential to kill a lot of people, but even these are no reason to panic. Mankind has been living with anthrax, smallpox, plague and whatever for thousands of years. Anthrax and plague can be treated today. Smallpox was still around when I was a kid, and we all got a vaccination. Today, there are no known cases of smallpox anywhere on Earth, and so far as anyone knows for a dead certainty, only Russia and the United States have smallpox viruses in storage.

I heard one moron on television recently say that smallpox could kill 25 million people. Well, only if 75 million people were infected, since smallpox's mortality is only about 30 percent. For a terrorist to infect 75 million people is impossible.

In 2001, 3,000 Americans died in the terrorist attacks; 91,000 died in accidents; and 19,000 were murdered by homegrown criminals. In addition, about 2 million Americans died of various natural causes. There are 6 billion people on this planet. Do you know how many were killed in 2001 by terrorists in addition to the 3,000? Just 409.

Of all the things you can worry about, being killed by a terrorist is one of the least. Gertrude Stein once described America as having "more places where people aren't than there are places where people are." That's still true. We are 268 million people living in 3 million square miles. The chances of any one of us being killed by a terrorist are infinitesimal.

Robert Greenslade at Sierra Times - Firearms and the Fourteenth Amendment - everyone points at the second amendment as guaranteeing our right to keep and bear arms. Until the fourteenth, states were not bound by it. Now they are. [rrnd]

Charlotte Aldebron at Information Clearing House - A 12 Year Old's Plea To America - a speech given at a peace rally in Maine on February 15. Pure emotion, but a good reminder of the horrors of war. [rrnd]

When people think about bombing Iraq, they see a picture in their heads of Saddam Hussein in a military uniform, or maybe soldiers with big black mustaches carrying guns, or the mosaic of George Bush Sr. on the lobby floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel with the word "criminal". But guess what? More than half of Iraq's 24 million people are children under the age of 15. That's 12 million kids. Kids like me. Well, I'm almost 13, so some are a little older, and some a lot younger, some boys instead of girls, some with brown hair, not red. But kids who are pretty much like me just the same. So take a look at me-a good long look. Because I am what you should see in your head when you think about bombing Iraq. I am what you are going to destroy.

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Girls are Evil, QED
Norah Jones
Gods and Generals
George Washington's Birthday, 2003
The Farewell Address of President George Washington
being there, being here
When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow
A letter to the London Observer from Terry Jones
Running Out of Patience

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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