End the War on Freedom

"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable." -- H.L. Mencken

Todd Leopold at CNN - 'Man in Black' Johnny Cash dead at 71 - yesterday morning of complications from diabetes. I played flute and trombone in a rock band in the early seventies. We did a number we called the "Johnny Trash Show", where the base and guitar laid down "Hear that Train a Comin'", the drummer did a crazy monologue, and I played crazy stuff on the recorder. Hehe. I think my favorite Jonnny Cash song is Shel Silverestein's Boy Named Sue.

Next Friday, September 19, is Talk Like a Pirate Day.

From this Claire File Message Board thread on the "assault" weapons ban renewal, by Hunter:

Let me obliquely refer to my favorite gun writer here. Too lazy to go dig out the book and quote BTP directly at the moment. But he advises in "Boston's Gun Bible" that we not get uptight about this BS.

Folks, I think Ian has it right, this particular round of nastiness is going to go down in flames. Those of us who still play the grassroots activist game have been lighting fires under the toesies of the idiot crooks on the republican side for two years now - and that INCLUDES the cowards at the NRA. I've used every contact I've made with any of them for all that while to make it utterly clear to them that if ANY version of re-enactment goes through in ANY form we gunnies WILL exact a political price from them. And it ain't just me; I directly know of dozens of other activists delivering the same message. Sam Cohen up here in NH made the AP wire back in May by getting into a public shouting match with Karl Rove on this very subject.

Boston's point was that it really does not matter WHAT they do. So they outlaw the damn things. WHo cares? They are afraid to enforce their stupid laws. Look up Brian Puckett's articles on KABA and elsewhere about his attempts to get arrested for possession of an illegal SKS in California so he can challenge the law in court. Guy can't even get arrested in his own town.

The message is this. We are eyeball-to-eyeball with the tyrant wannabes, and they are blinking madly and stammering platitudes. Keep your arms to hand, keep your ammo stocks up, and stay in training. So long as you do that, and so long as any significant portion of your neighbors do the same, they will not dare act. Their tactics show over and over again just how scared of us they are. Stay resolute, stay ready, and do the best you can to spread that resolve to as many of your friends and associates as you can. It is not guns, or ammo, or training, or organization that freedom most needs right now - but plain old moral courage and the will to put your life on the line for what is right.

Rick Casey at The Houston Chronicle - Call the heat on Fahrenheit 451 - Debbie Norton used a creative method to teach the ideas in Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451. [landrith]

Fahrenheit 451 is a great vehicle for getting budding minds to think about and discuss civic values. But few teachers have taught it as creatively as Norton did.

She and the students discussed some of the themes as they were making their way through the book, but on the day set aside for the final discussion they were interrupted.

Without so much as a knock on the door the assistant principal and a uniformed policewoman stormed into the classroom.

While the assistant principal chewed Norton out for assigning this book, a book that celebrates quiet rebellion, the policewoman demanded that the students turn in their copies.

Stunned, they meekly handed over the books.

Then the assistant principal instructed Norton to step outside, leaving the class under the supervision of a college intern. At first the students sat silent. Then they began buzzing, and the intern invited them to talk about what had just happened.

"They were scared and they were upset," Norton would recall later.

But before they proceeded far into the discussion, the classroom door reopened. As Norton and the assistant principal held back, the policewoman walked to the front of the classroom and waited for the students to quiet down. It didn't take long until the room was silent.

Then this uniformed officer chewed out those young teenagers for giving up their books so easily.

PBS - NOVA: The Elegant Universe - "Eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made out of strings. It's not science fiction, it's string theory." A three-hour miniseries, airs on PBS TV stations, mostly on October 28 and November 4 at 8pm, but check local listings in October.

Jim Reames at The Patriotist - Police Abuse is Common - in these days of the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, it's good to know and excercise your fourth amendment guaranteed rights. Mr. Reames has worked as a police officer.

The bottom line is this: A police officer is permitted to pull a driver over for a traffic infraction. But he or she only has a few minutes to do their official business because the United States Supreme Court has already decided, a person has been seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment if, in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave. Nor is a police officer permitted to physically frisk [pat down] a person's body unless there is evidence to support justification for the search. A police pat down for the sake of performing a pat down is a violation of the United States Constitution.

But for too many American's: The only understanding of our Constitutional Rights is what Hollywood portrays them as being. What a horrible fragility of freedom that postulate represents!

If I am approached by a police officer on the street who stops my freedom of movement I have every right under the United States Constitution to insist that I not be contained any longer than is reasonably necessary in order for the police officer to perform his or her official duties, under the law. I possess every right to verbally announce, "It is my Constitutional Right to not be stopped and held for any unreasonable time by the police unless I'm committing a crime in their personal presence [if a misdemeanor] or unless they possess 'Probable Cause' that I committed a serious crime [a felony.] I have every right to ask if I'm under arrest, with a 'Yes' or 'No' response. And if the answer is 'No' then it is my right to announce that I intend to go about my personal business, unrestrained. If I am held anyway, then according to United States vs. Mendenhall the officer has a very small period of time [we're talking just minutes here] to conduct his or her business before allowing me to proceed on. To detain me further constitutes a 'seizure' of my person - I was arrested."

In fact, I am not even compelled to speak to a police officer if I decide NOT to. And the burden is upon them to explain my being stopped.

Ed Lewis at World Newsstand - The Act That Isn't - a little lesson in Constitutional law. Worth learning well in these U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act days. [stanleyscoop]

I cannot yell this loud enough but I will try -- CONGRESS HAS NO POWER OVER THE PEOPLE OF THE STATES, NOR OF STATE GOVERNING. IT MATTERS NOT WHETHER THERE IS A WAR OR NOT, WHETHER THERE IS ANY OTHER EMERGENCY OR NOT. IF IT ISN'T IN THE CONSTITUTION, AUTHORITY IS NOT GRANTED.

YOU, AND I, AND ALL AMERICANS, HAVE BEEN HOODWINKED LONG ENOUGH -- FEDERAL LAWS DO NOT APPLY TO ANY PLACE EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CONSTITUTION FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

The federal government and the STATE Corporate governments, including political subdivisions, have been getting by with fraud and the myth of government sovereignty over the people long enough. None have power over the people and no legislator no matter how rich or how stupid he is has been given authority to regulate living souls that are American by birthright Citizens. IT IS A MYTH perpetrated and perpetuated by officials and officers of courts that have allegiance other than to the people and this union of states.

...

Please, please, please, please read the above documents. They are not difficult to read nor are they difficult to understand. Quit being dummied down. SMARTEN UP. Quit paying attention to legislators, judiciary, and Bar attorneys opinions on this or that. THEIR OPINIONS ARE JUST THAT -- OPINIONS -- and are generally meant to mislead giving some butthead(s) in government fraudulently acquired power over the people.

Not exactly that, though, as the power is obtained solely by armed force. Don't believe it? Like I told a lady the other day -- "Go out and take the registration plate off your car or truck. It is NOT a motor vehicle and you cannot be made to license it for use on roads owned by we the people. Then, drive it around flaunting the lack of a license plate in front of armed enforcers of de facto law. Refuse to stop or refuse to answer questions or refuse to do what the cop orders you to do. Then, tell me that you aren't being coerced into complying with unconstitutional statutes through the use of arms and extreme aggressions (terrorism) against the people."

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