In Like a Lamb
March has come in like a lamb here. It was in the forties yesterday, didn't even get below freezing last night, and it's supposed to get warmer this week before winter comes back. We got no January thaw this year, so it's nice to see some hints of Spring, but there's likely still plenty of cold and snow before May.
# Kim du Toit - Never Again - Kim's story of visiting what remains of the German concentration camp at Dachau. Ends with a warning to those who would hold up signs equating Bush with Hitler. [kimdutoit]
I can take it further. Your grotesque equation of the two leaders is a profound exaggeration: and it's the same kind of gross exaggeration used by Hitler and his henchmen to inflate the "Jewish problem" into a manifest danger, whereby people could ignore the excesses of places like Dachau as being justified. In case that isn't clear enough to you, let me connect the dots. George W. Bush isn't using Hitlerian tactics, you are.
Here's my personal promise:
If I am ever confronted by such a sign, or if anyone ever even attempts to equate George W. Bush to Hitler in my presence, I will beat them half to death with my bare hands. I will not stand for it. I have seen the truth, and I will not allow it to be perverted for the sake of a silly little political slogan.You have been warned.
Ich habe Dachau gesehen. [I have seen Dachau.]
# Tom Kratman at Baen Boooks - A State of Disobedience. Finished the on-line tickler chapters yesterday. I'm hooked. Here's the marketing screed:
It's Time to Remember the Alamo All Over Again!
In the long war against terrorism, the US Government had taken on extraordinary powers. And now that the war was won, powerful forces in the government had no intention of relinquishing those powers. As in 1860, the country was on the verge of civil war. And as in 1860, a leader arose to save the country--but it was not the President this time. Instead, the Governor of Texas was the woman of destiny. And, though the Federal Government had more guns and troops, David was about to give Goliath a run for his money. . . .
"Probably the most realistic depiction of a second American Revolution ever written." -- John Ringo
# Fred Cummins at The Libertarian Enterprise - The Empty Holster Gathering - Rick Stanley requested in a recent stanleyscoop issue that people show up with full holsters. [tle]
We are now sponsoring a protest march and eight-day gathering in support of Rick Stanley's upcoming trial in Brighton, Colorado. Participants will be ask to wear Empty Holsters to indicate the abuse we have suffered to our second amendment rights.
"The right of a citizen to bear arms, in a lawful defense of himself or state, is absolute. He does not derive it from the state government. It is one of High Powers, delegated directly to the citizen by the United States constitution, Amendment II, and is excepted out of the general powers of government. A law cannot be passed to infringe upon it or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the law - making power." - Supreme Court of Texas, Cockrum v. state of Texas (1859)
We are also proposing that the Nation participate by wearing Empty Holsters everywhere they go for the full eight days. We want America to see how many citizens are fed up with the heavy hand of Government and could easily fill those holsters if made to do so.
With your help spreading the word and for those who would come to Brighton June 19th thru June 26 we welcome you with open arms. So that we can readily be recognized we are suggesting that you wear a white hat of some kind or cowboy (preferred). Most of us from Texas will of course dress Western. We think it would make for a very useful tool if the entire nation of gun owners and gun supporters do the same everywhere for those dates.
# Frank Ney at The Libertarian Enterprise - Banned From Flying - Mr. Ney recently discovered that he is on the No-Fly list. He has taken on the job of "Editor Reporting on the Travel Gestapo" at TLE. [tle]
The reason why I am not happy about taking this job is the simple fact that this job should not exist. We should not be having to worry about finding ourselves on some government list that denies us the freedom to travel as we please. TSA and Homeland Security should not exist -- not as they are now, not in some more efficient, "kinder and gentler" form either. We should not have to live in fear of official "under the table" retaliation for exercising our constitutional rights, if this is in fact what happened and I'm reasonably sure it is. This is the United States of America, not 1970's Eastern Europe thank-you-very-much.
# L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - RE: Banned from Flying - Neil's response when Frank Ney posted to [smith2004] his story of being banned from flying. [tle]
It's hard for me to remember being as angry as this before. At the personal level, I've known Frank Ney for a long, long time. He has been to my house, and he once loaned me his tapes of the first two or three seasons of Babylon 5 and let me keep them for months. I can think of no one who -- in any sense that makes sense -- is a better friend or a better American than Frank.
At another level, this fascist nonsense cannot be permitted to go on. It must be stopped now. This year. Not only must all political candidates be pestered about this repeatedly until they either commit themselves unequivocally as Constitution-compliant, or until they expose themselves as the authoritarian trash most of them are.
# Lex Concord at The Libertarian Enterprise - The Blessings of Liberty - why we should be happy for a strong central government. Not! Subtle satire. [tle]
9. The FDA keeps potentially dangerous new drugs away from terminally ill patients who might be tempted to try them otherwise. Since all commerce is, in essence, interstate commerce, even locally grown herbal treatments for pain or nausea should be centrally regulated, to prevent them from being used for non-medicinal purposes.
...
6. If you own a business, OSHA makes sure you don't inadvertently create a workplace that's dangerous for your employees, since you wouldn't care if some of them got hurt or killed otherwise. You might be a decent, caring human being, but we all know that your greed to make another buck would trump your concern for your fellow man, if not for OSHA's forms, regulations, and inspectors.
# Larry Pratt at News with Views - When the People Were the Police - How American justice worked, and it worked very well, before the concept of government police was invented. [stanleyscoop]
There was a time when the word "police" was not usually used as a noun. It was a verb that described what the people did to keep order in society. Today the people only police a campground, or some similar action.
The history of the changing meaning of police is a history of the transformation of America from a society of limited government serving the people to our present plight where the people serve the government.
# Garry Reed, the Loose Cannon Libertarian - The Smoketax Hoax - government employed idiots talk about how they'll reduce smoking by raising taxes, but then make big plans for how to spend the increased tax revenue. "Which is it?" asks Mr. Reed. Of course, push the taxes too high, and all you'll accomplish is a healthy black market.
# Jack Boone at The Libertarian Enterprise - The Brown Peril - what Mr. Boone learned in the fifties about "illegal" Mexican immigrants. [tle]
