End the War on Freedom

"Democracy is more dangerous than fire. Fire can't vote itself immune to water." -- Michael Z. Williamson

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure." -- Clarence Darrow

"If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws." -- Edward Abbey

Ben Sargent - "Liberty," Eh? - cartoon commentary on the Supreme's latest Papieren Bitte ruling. Hehe. [clairefiles]

# GunTech.com - Hillberg Insurgency Weapons - two multi-barrel shotguns that would be a great addition to anybody's collection (but you have to ask permission to "legally" own them). Pictured here is the Colt Defender with eight 12-inch 20-gauge barrels and a tear gas sprayer. [smith2004]

# Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - The Nuclear Arms Race - lest we forget, George Bush is still in possession of the nuclear football, and there are lots of nukes that can hit America in Russia and China. Giving idiots that much destructive power is really stupid. [lew]

According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russia today is estimated to have 7,800 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal. I emphasize "estimated" because Russia, like all the nuclear powers, remains quite secretive about its nuclear arsenal. Altogether, Russia's nuclear arsenal of intact warheads is put at 17,000. The difference is classified as being in an "indeterminate" status.

...

The major threat to Americans lives is not terrorism, but stupid leaders who don't have the sense to recognize that the equivalent of mental children should not be allowed to play with nuclear weapons.

Since the politicians refuse to do it, the American people will have to put nuclear disarmament back on the agenda. Your life and the lives of your children and grandchildren might depend on it.

# Joseph L. Galloway of Knight Ridder Newspapers at FortWayne.com - Iraq combat: What it's really like over there - an unnamed 2003 West Point graduate tells his story from the ground in Iraq. [sierra]

Well, I'm here in Iraq, and I've seen it, and done it. I've seen everything you've ever seen in a war movie. I've seen cowardice; I've seen heroism; I've seen fear; and I've seen relief. I've seen blood and brains all over the back of a vehicle, and I've seen men bleed to death surrounded by their comrades. I've seen people throw up when it's all over, and I've seen the same shell-shocked look in 35-year-old experienced sergeants as in 19-year-old privates.

...

I've seen that, sadly, that men who try to kill other men aren't monsters, and most of them aren't even brave - they aren't defiant to the last - they're ordinary people. Men are men, and that's it. I've prayed for a man to make a move toward the wire, so I could flip my weapon off safe and put two rounds in his chest - if I could beat my platoon sergeant's shotgun to the punch. I've been wanted dead, and I've wanted to kill.

...

"I've bought drinks from Iraqis while new units watched in wonder from their trucks, pointing weapons in every direction, including the Iraqis my men were buying a Pepsi from. I've patrolled roads for eight hours at a time that combat support units spend days preparing to travel 10 miles on. I've laughed as other units sit terrified in traffic, fingers nervously on triggers, while my soldiers and I deftly whip around, drive on the wrong side of the road, and wave to Iraqis as we pass. I can recognize a Sadiqqi (Arabic for friend) from a Haji (Arabic word for someone who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, but our word for a bad guy); I know who to point my weapons at, and who to let pass.

"I've come in from my third 18-hour patrol in as many days with a full beard and stared at a major in a pressed uniform who hasn't left the wire since we've been here, daring him to tell me to shave. He looked at me, looked at the dust and sweat and dirt on my uniform, and went back to typing at his computer.

# Devvy Kidd - Election 2004 Campaign Issue: No More New Laws - Ms. Kidd reiterates an idea I remember from a while back. It's time for a five year moratorium on the making of new laws. Spend the time examining the old "laws" and eliminating any that do not pass constitutional muster. [kaba]

# Tibor R. Machan at Rational Review - What terrorists' targets reveal - that they're a bunch of savages, sort of like our masters in Washington. [smith2004]

It is an elementary principle of civilization that one punishes only those who have been found guilty of having seriously wronged others. Lashing about like some toddler who is angry because things aren't going well for him is the farthest thing from trying to solve the problems created by the misconduct of others.

# William Norman Grigg at LewRockwell.com - Fahrenheit 9/11: A Conservative Critique - Mr. Grigg saw Mr. Moore's film. He thinks Bushnev is toast. [lew]

It should be pointed out as well that the film -- despite being lambasted as an exercise in unalloyed Bush-bashing -- doesn't spare Democrats who acquiesced in Bush the Lesser's power grabs and his criminal war against Iraq. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle comes off particularly poorly, which in his case merely requires a recording device of some kind.

An interesting encounter immediately after seeing the film underscores its fundamentally non-partisan nature. Some poor schlep had positioned himself outside the theater with a clipboard soliciting signatures on a nominating position for a would-be Democrat congressional candidate. A couple of people seized the petition and started to sign. Impertinent sort that I am, I asked, "What's this fellow's position on the war?"

The scribbling stopped, and several sets of eyes focused intently on the hapless volunteer. "Well, um, ah, he thinks we should do something," he began, stammeringly. "Ah, he just thinks we should be more careful." On hearing this, a lady looked at her husband, who had signed the petition, and snapped, "Scratch off your name." I told the volunteer that I'm what most people would regard as an "ultra-conservative -- not just a `conservative' -- but if your guy came out against the war I'd vote for him, and knock on doors." "Well, I can't really address all the details of his positions," the increasingly flustered guy responded. "Just let him know what I said," I suggested, telling him that there are a lot of people who have the same point of view.

# Harvey Silverglate at LewRockwell.com - Ashcroft's Gulag - on the Communist Russian tactics of the Busheviks' "justice" department. [lew]

See the emerging picture? It's an endless series of faux prosecutions in which defendants are threatened to "cooperate" and plead guilty, or face indefinite incommunicado imprisonment, with all the physical and psychological terrors that accompany finding oneself in a bottomless legal pit. Like a Ponzi scheme, the structure of these prosecutions resembles a pyramid: defendants are pressured to testify against other friends, associates, and cohorts, who are then indicted regardless of whether the testimony, given under enormous pressure, would ever stand up in a real trial -- and, in fact, it never will have to stand up at a real trial. Those new defendants are then, in turn, subjected to the same pressures. None of the "evidence" ever gets to be heard and evaluated by a jury of honest Americans, but the march of prosecutions and guilty pleas rolls onward, and the Bush administration's war on terror is palmed off on the public as a huge success.

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