Mars Thundered

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 05 May 2003 12:00:00 GMT
Yesterday, I read Wolf DeVoon's Mars Shall Thunder sci-fi novel and the first three chapters of its sequel, Mars Is My Planet, and The Good Walk Alone, a novella that was serialized in Laissez Faire Times back in 2000. I thoroughly enjoyed them, though my wife complained about me sitting on the couch like a zombie most of the day.

New York City Independent Media Center - Large Turnout for NY Pot Rally - by Police - about 300 protesters marched on Saturday down Broadway to Battery Square Park. There were lots of police, uniformed and not. Fred Askew photos here.

Vin Suprynowicz at The Las Vegas Review-Journal - Making the world safe for mob rule - a few comments on creating "democracy" in conquered Iraq.

America is -- or was intended to be -- a constitutional republic.

A democracy can easily vote to create a state religion, and punish those who decline to fall into line. Sound like a good idea? It can't happen in a constitutional republic.

In a republic with a Constitution and a Bill of Rights like the one America had up through 1912 (or 1932, interpretations vary), here's what happens if the people go to the polls and vote, all nice and democratic-like, by a margin of 219,999,999-to-1, that they want the government to enact some "sensible gun control laws," requiring citizens to -- oh -- show a photo ID, and register their weapons by serial number when they buy them ... and submit to fingerprinting and pay a tax if it's a machine gun:

The 219,999,999 voters lose, because the Constitution says the right of that last lonely gun owner to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed" -- and rights can neither be eroded, nor new powers delegated to the government, by a simple popular vote, under the system of government established on this continent in 1787.

...

And why are we blowing up all those AK-47s, by the way? Bring them home and hand them out to freedom-loving Americans. We taxpayers ought to get something out of these adventures.

Missouri Concealed Carry - US Map of CCW Laws - what is it about the midwest that makes its governments fear concealed carry so. Not that it's easy to get permits in the big population communist states, but at least its legally possible. Oh, for an entirely green map! [survivalarts]

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