Down the Hatch
"This is becoming a really interesting place. The only country in the world where your largest note - $500 - can't buy you a beer, which is $650. A roll of 1-ply toilet paper costs $1000. There are approximately 72 sections on the average roll, so it is cheaper to take your $1000, change it into $10's, wipe your arse on 72 of them and get $280 change. I wonder if this great theorem of mine will go down in history along with Pythagoras. In 100 years, will they call it Freddy's Fiscal @ rse-Wipe Finding? Who knows? I am actually enjoying this now, as we are all spectators at the absolute melt-down. The whole of ZANU- PF included. Their crisis management no longer works and events will surely bury them."
I used the Brady Bunch'es State Gun Laws Contact Page to send the following to New York's governor, George E. Pataki, my state senator, Stephen M. Saland, and assemblyman, Pat M. Casale:
The second amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that our God-given right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. There are already 20,000 unconstitutional infringements. Don't create any more. Ever.I forwarded the above letter to one of the mailing lists I read, and when asked about it, responded thusly:
Instead, spend your time eliminating existing gun laws. For starters, get rid of New York's so-called "assault weapons" ban so that when the federal ban sunsets in September of 2004, New York will stay in sync. Then abolish the Sullivan Act and all other parts of the penal code that require a license or registration of any kind to obtain or carry a defensive weapon.
Let's make New York the third state, after Vermont and Alaska, to fully support the right of every man, woman, and responsible child to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, the tools necessary to defend themselves, their families, their communities, and their country against attacks by criminals, terrorists, and tyrants.
>Your idea is excellent. What is your plan of battle?
I don't have a plan of battle. I actually consider any legislative effort to be doomed at the outset. I believe that our government at all levels is corrupt beyond repair. I believe that this corruption is an inescapable result of the democratic process. I write letters to my congress critters because I find it entertaining, something to do while I wait to die in a hail of bullets when they come to my door to take my guns. Or, if I'm lucky, something to do while I wait for the behemoth to collapse under its own weight.
This fight will not be won by legislative maneuvers. The real fight is to convince a large enough portion of the population that crimes may not be legislated into being. There are common laws crimes, recognized for centuries: theft, assault, murder, rape, fraud, maybe a few others. There are no other crimes. If you harm a person's body, kidnap him, or take or damage his property, against his will, you have committed a crime. There are no other crimes. Nothing else may be the subject of any penal code. Note that this means that taxation is a crime.
Tort law is another issue. It deals with contracts. Tort law needs to be fixed as well, but at present it's not worth much effort, in my opinion, until we fix the horrendous problems with penal law.
Once enough of the people realize that crimes may not be legislated into being, and refuse to cooperate, with extreme prejudice when necessary, the problem will be largely solved. I don't know how many need to learn this. Maybe 10% of the population. Probably less.
Blue sky, as usual. That's my nature. I only came to the planet because the glossy brochures in the travel agent's office made it look like a neat place to visit. And it is. Sometimes.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch at Deseret News - Patriot Act enhances our freedoms - Yeah. Right. And I've got a bridge to sell you. Key kids, can you say, "Nazi"? Thought so. [claire]
Harry Goslin a Prison Planet - A Supreme Act Of Treason - a much more accurate interpretation of the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act. Encourages following Alaska's lead in nullifying it. Other communities and states have made statements, but Alaska is so far the only state to actually put teeth in their protest. [whatreallyhappened]
The USA Patriot Act is a legislative paradox. Like every other piece of legislation emanating from Washington it is blatantly unconstitutional. Yet, it is also unique. Unlike other pieces of legislation which typically assault our liberties one at a time, the Patriot Act completely shreds the Bill of Rights.
Our Founders would have never even debated such a proposition; they probably would have reached for their guns.
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By logical interpretation, there is no federal power to provide Social Security, conduct random searches at airports, fund education, feed the children of the poor, provide medical care for the elderly, or declare certain substances to be illegal. Regardless of the wishes of a majority of Americans, no such powers are enumerated in the Constitution.
Also absent from the enumerated powers of the federal government is the power to abridge any of the liberties of the people enumerated in the Bill of Rights. The Patriot Act, which does exactly this, is therefore null, void, and unenforceable. It should be treated as an act of treason against the Constitution, and when necessary, forcefully resisted.
Ted Bridis of AP at The Washington Post -
Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading 
- more insanity from Orrin
G. [rachel]
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet.
Eliot Weinberger at Rense.com - What Is Happening In America? - a view from "Vorwarts" in Germany of the Nazification of America. [whatreallyhappened]
Diana Lynne at World Net Daily - Shot forced on newborn over parents' objections - armed guards forced a Colorado couple, over their religious and philosophical objections, to vaccinate their newborn baby for hepatitis B. Looks like fathers will henceforth need to go armed to the hospital so that they are prepared to defend the lives of their newborn babies. [prisonplanet]
"It makes me feel like the country I live in is no better than communist China or the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, and that's a very sobering and scary outlook," the father, who does not want to be named, told WorldNetDaily.
Pierre Lemieux at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - State Lies and WMDs - why we need a theory of the state. [grabbe]
Dr. Susan Block at Counterpunch - Lying and Dying: Sex, Lies & WMDs - Slick Willy lied about sex, and got impeached. Dubya lied about war, killed thousands, and appears to be getting away with it. Go figure. [grabbe]
So, which lie should be an impeachable offense? A personal fib to cover-up a blow-job, or an elaborately orchestrated web of deceit, forgery and Big Internationally Broadcast Whoppers about Vast Stores of End-Times Armaments, for the clear purpose of terrorizing Americans into supporting war, even when all the evidence showed us that Saddam, Evil-Doer that he was, hadn't developed any major weapons since the Gulf War I.
Jim Peron at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - "Look See" Thinking and the Intellectual Crisis - many "intellectuals" somehow can't learn basic logic. They use the whole-word-reading method for dealing with the world instead of what works: fundamental principles coupled with reason. [grabbe]
In reading children are often taught the "look see" method. They are shown words and taught to remember them. In phonics, old fashioned as it is considered, they are taught how to dissect words and pronounce them from their individual components. They see each syllable, and putting them all together are able to form a word. Under the "look-see" method unless they know the entire word already they are at loss. One result is a lack of desire on their part to read.
When it comes to thinking itself the same methods are used. Instead of looking for fundamental principles and building their thought patterns upon them they are merely taught specific facts. The integration of those facts is left missing. And this is directly linked to one of the reasons it is so difficult to explain how a free society works. The fact remains that freedom and reason are intertwined and people who can't think are willing to turn over everything to the state. For them life is a series of complicated and unrelated phenomena crying out for someone to take charge of it all and make it make sense.
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Keep the discussion in the same class of entities and the intellectuals will follow your logic. Apply the principles to another class and you lose them. They think that basic principles may work for one class of entities but not for another. They might, for instance, acknowledge that property rights works for the care and maintenance of homes, cars, or even crops. But somehow they think the same thing is untrue if applied to rhinos, cheetahs, or water. But whether it's a mineral or an animal is almost as irrelevant as whether you are talking about copper or brass.
Left intellectuals, these days, concede that markets are effective at supplying televisions, bagels, or Hondas. But they can't conceive of how they could work with medical care, education or highways.
They have failed to grasp the fundamental principles. The world, to them, is one of unrelated entities floating about without any discernible laws behind them. Like the school child who is taught to read through the "look-see" method they have failed to grasp the principles that help us understand the world in which we live. Instead of each word existing in isolation from every other word they see each problem as existing in isolation from every other problem. And that means they are unable to see how basic concepts apply across categories, irrespective of the unimportant specifics. For them each problem is entirely a new one and they grabble with each one forgetting what was learned from other experiments in the past. Sure communism failed, but call the same economic system environmentalism or sustainable development and they'll line up once again behind the jack-booted troops marching us into oblivion.
New York Press - High As a Worm: A pro-drug polemic falls asleep at the spoon - the Press' reviewer didn't like Jacob Sullum's Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use because Mr. Sullum was too reasonable. He thinks that reason will not work with the drug warriors. They will not stop until we cause them to fear for their lives. He may be right. [smith2004]
The real issue in the drug debate shouldn't be framed by whether drugs can be taken in moderation or whether drugs are inherently evil. The real issue is more plain: Should a person who takes drugs in the privacy of his own home have his life destroyed by the state? Does choosing smack over that filthy peasant drug alcohol warrant years of rapes and beatings in prison? Clearly, the answer is no. America's drug laws are savage and cruel, period.
Face facts: Those who promote the drug war are neither reasonable nor nice. They are our Taliban, our hardline mullahs. They lie, and they've destroyed lives by the millions. They've got the middle of the country--the silent majority of drug users--scared into siding with them because the lunatics don't play fair. Neither should the legalization movement.
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This should provide a good lesson to those of us who view the drug war for the evil that it is. A counter-war should be waged. We need more and better cultural propaganda to promote the joys of drug use, marginalize the drug war lunatics and expose the destruction that the drug war causes to innocent lives. It should no longer be respectable to promote the drug war. In fact, it should be dangerous.
Lisa Nelson at The Abolitionist Examiner - Speech: Categorization Equals Racism - some thoughts on why we should stop categorizing people on the color of their skin.
Editorial Note: This commentary has been adapted from a speech presented in May by the author. In order to maintain proper context, visualize the words "Tiger Woods" written in blue on a white board with a star symbol before his name.
I'll begin by asking, "How many golfers do we have here?" Knowing that I have one student who is an avid golfer, I will call upon him, gesture to the white board, and ask him, "What color is Tiger Woods?" Then asking the same person "What color is the star?".(while pointing again to the white board.) I anticipate this student to answer without hesitation, that Tiger Woods is "Black".
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When my children are asked whether they consider themselves to be black or white, they respond that they are "both" to those who are identifying them based only by physical appearance. If they are asked which "Race," they'll inform you that they are simply "human, just like you." They will also be quick to point out that their skin tone is realistically tan or brown, not black or white. My youngest will propose the purple analogy. If red and blue make purple, it is no longer just red or blue; it is recognized as its own color.
Don't Confirm the Raids provides a mechanism for faxing the U.S. Senate asking them to stop the d.e.a. from raiding state-legal medical marijuana providers. [mpp]
William A. Shields at EtherZone - Section 861: The Law They Hope You Never Read - a short exposition of the thesis of Larken Rose's Theft by Deception, which claims that the law says that most of the income of most Americans is not subject to the income tax. But the IRS thinks otherwise, loudly and violently.
Chris Cox at NRAILA - Mr. and Mrs. America, Turn Them All In - all your guns, that is. Warns about congressional bills that would reinstate and hugely expand the 1994 "assault weapons" ban. I warned about both of these back in May (click and look for "assault"). Hopefully, neither will get out of committee. [scopeny]
