Are You a Subject, or a Citizen?
"Principles have no real force except when one is well fed." -- Mark Twainand:
"Public servants: Persons chosen by the people to distribute the graft." -- Mark Twainand:
"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." -- Mark Twain
From survivalarts:
"The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren't is the willingness to work very, very hard." -- Helen Gurley Brown
Bjørn-Magne Stuestøl and Dana Lyons at www.shagrat.net - Cows with Guns - An hilarious Flash animation. About a megabyte (5 minutes on a modem). Worth waiting for. [smith2004]
Carter Laren at Capitalism Magazine - American Gestapo: A Primer - we've got at least as much to fear from our own alphabet soup of federal "police" as we do from foreign terrorists. Mr. Laren reminds us of the proliferation of armed agents. [grabbe]
As the U.S. government tightens its grip on der homeland, citizens are constantly reminded of terrorist threats from religious zealots in the Middle East. While these threats are real and should be eliminated, it is vital that Americans--especially rational intellectuals--denounce and combat the ever-growing network of thugs hatched from Washington itself. It is probably a good idea to do this sometime before all "unpopular" Americans find themselves staring down the muzzle of a machine gun.
After all, if the ATF, IRS, DEA, INS, and other paramilitary agencies are allowed to operate freely from within America's borders, then what good are the U.S. Marines?
Aaron Zelman at JPFO - An Open Letter to Our Fathers and Grandfathers - "You Won the Battle But Lost the War". A tour de force for Memorial Day and any holiday that reminds us of those who fought for our liberty. From 2002, but just as pertinent today. The ideas our Fathers and Grandfathers fought against in WWII have taken over in America. This must stop. Now. Bravo! Mirrored here. [jpfo]
The country you fought for was a land of self-reliant people, people proud to stand on their own two feet. It was a country of decency, of neighbors and neighborhoods, where people took care of each other, their families and themselves. It was a country where citizens had a say in what their government did, a country where the government respected private property, family life, the right to worship, the right to express opinions without fear, the right to own firearms, and the whole way of life those freedoms stood for.
It wasn't perfect, but it was America.
The countries you fought against were rule-ridden bureaucracies where citizens did what they were told -- or else. They were countries where people were supposed to hate whomever the government wanted them to hate, and to love and trust the government more than they loved and trusted themselves. In these countries, children belonged more to the rulers than to their mothers and fathers, and private property was subject to control by bureaucrats. In these countries people didn't dare do or say anything the politicians didn't approve of.
Today in the United States there are people who spit on the memory of your sacrifices -- people like Sen. Charles Schumer, who successfully pushes "gun control" laws that trash the Second Amendment, and Sen. John McCain, whose infamous "campaign finance" law made free speech a federal crime for independent advocacy groups. We shrink before officials who decree that unpopular opinions are "hate speech." We endure leaders who tell us that it's wrong to hate certain groups of people, but perfectly okay for those groups to hate and malign others. Today much of America is controlled by people who'll fine us or even put us in prison for doing perfectly harmless things to our own land and homes.
Free speech. The right to keep and bear arms. Property rights. The right to live your daily life free of interference from people who want to push you around. Weren't these rights the very things you were fighting for?
Robert Matthews at The Telegraph - Warning: the health police can seriously addle your brain - a new study shows that second-hand smoke isn't harmful. But the health nazis won't publish or consider it. Don't bother them with facts. They already know the politically correct lie. [trt-ny]
It was a rare good news story in an otherwise grim week. A landmark study into the effects of inhaling other people's smoke revealed that fears that passive smoking kills more than 1,000 a year in the UK alone are unfounded.
After studying the health of tens of thousands of people married to smokers, US researchers found that they face no significant extra risk of lung cancer or heart disease. It may sting your eyes, take your breath away and make your clothes smell, but other people's cigarette smoke will not kill you.
The demise of a supposed major risk to public health might be expected to prompt celebration among medical experts and campaigners. Instead, they scrambled to condemn the study, its authors, its conclusions, and the journal that published them. The reaction came as no surprise to those who have tried to uncover the facts about passive smoking. More than any other health debate, the question of whether smokers kill others as well as themselves is engulfed in a smog of political correctness and dubious science.
...
In the meantime, health campaigners show no enthusiasm for giving up their most potent claim: that the person puffing away next to you is not merely making your eyes water, but killing you as well. The scientific evidence is just not there, says Prof Enstrom. "But maybe we've gone past the point where anyone cares about the facts."
Marni Soupcoff at The American Enterprise - I am a Subject, Not a Citizen (But You Should See Me With a Gun) - a Canadian learns, in her gut, at a Florida shooting range, the difference between a citizen and a subject. [scopeny]
"Try not to look like a deer caught in headlights," my boyfriend whispered to me with a smile, as he took my hand and led me over to a table where he could fill out the many sheets of paperwork that were required before the kind folks at the range would turn over one of their automatic weapons to him.
"O.K.," I said. But my entire body shook with each muted "bang" that leaked through the thick glass and double doors separating the lobby from the shooting lanes.
I suppose that's how the slim, compact, white-haired man in the Army shirt knew I was scared. He spotted me quickly and came over and asked if I was planning to shoot. I told him I wasn't. He told me I should. I told him I wouldn't.
"It's your duty as a citizen," the man said.
"I'm not a citizen," I said. "I'm Canadian."
"Then, you're right" he said. "You're not a citizen, you're a subject."
"What kind of gun would you recommend?" I said.
What can I tell you? The truth hurts. But it leads us to action.
Thomas L. Knapp at Rational Review - Should we shut down Rational Review? - Mr. Knapp would like to continue spending all his time publishing and creating content for Rational Review, but unless people pony up more coin of the realm, he'll have to find a day job and do a smaller site after hours. If you like Rational Review, please donate, subscribe, or pay for premium content.
