Buzz Cut

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

I got sick of wearing the same hairdo for 30 years (modulo length), so I asked Christopher to give me a buzz cut last night. Am I an ugly bastard, or what?

Carl Bussjaeger - February 2003, Jackbooted Thug of the Month: Homeland Security Kommisar Tom Ridge - somehow I missed this earlier.

As the stock market plummeted, and panic-stricken citizens fought over scraps of defensive plastic film, Mr. Ridge and his cohorts in media screw-ups sat in a bemused daze wondering why vague warnings of terrorist attacks coupled with Fuhrer Dubya's invasion of Iraq had frightened anyone.

KABC-TV Los Angeles - Gibson Family Under Fire for Anti-Semitism - "curiouser and curiouser," said Alice. [birdman]

Mel Gibson and his parents are under fire today from a leading Jewish group for reportedly anti-semitic impulses in the former's new film and the latter's denial that Al Qaeda executed the Sept. 11 attacks.

The actor's father, Hutton Gibson, told The New York Times he flatly rejected that the terrorist group led by Usama bin Laden had any role in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon Sept. 11.

"Anybody can put out a passenger list," the elder Gibson told The Times.

"So what happened? They were crashed by remote control."

Andy Stow at anti-state.com - Stiff the Taxman, Not Your Waiter - put a miniscule tip on the credit card slip and the rest in cash. That way the IRS tip "estimate" will be lower than the actual tip income, and the waiter can easily pocket the lion's share of the real tips tax-free. [anti-state]

Alexander Daube at The Libertarian Enterprise - Juries Have The Power To Rein In Government - concerning the criminal tyranny that has overtaken our courts. [tle]

America is at war. Our nation is locked in a war for ideas that will end with either a return to true freedom and limited government, or rule by despots. While most Americans have their heads in the sand, our government is progressively reducing our rights to mere privileges and our constitutional guarantees to confetti, with no end in sight.

One crucial battlefront is our right to a fair trial by jury, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Our Founding Fathers knew that one of the main purposes of jury trials was to protect people's rights from infringement by the government. To quote Thomas Jefferson: "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." That means it is a jury's duty to hold government power in check and insure that it doesn't overstep its constitutional limits and violate the God- given rights of citizens. How? Jurors can "just say no" to bad laws by refusing to convict people accused of violating them. Lysander Spooner said, "It is also their [the jurors'] right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive." That power is called jury nullification or jury veto-power and it is foundational to our freedom as Americans.

Java 1.4.1 is available for Macintosh (24.7 megs). You need Mac OS v.10.2.3 (the latest Jaguar release) or later. [wes]

Add comment Edit post Add post

Previous Posts:
Zero Intelligence Strikes Again
.700 Schmernandez
Tears of the Sun
Wife Trouble
The Geneva Conventions and Protocols
The Myth of War Prosperity
George W. Bush Is Out of Control!
Libertarian Party: Warmongers Not Welcome
War - Tool of Oppression
December 2002

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