End the War on Freedom

"Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society." -- Thomas Jefferson

Heard on NPR's The Writers Almanac, from an article written during the 2000 election campaign:

"George W. Bush sounds like English is his second language, and Al Gore sounds like he thinks it's yours." -- Molly Ivins

# Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - Don't Waste Blood - Mr. Reese berates the Busheviks for wasting American blood. I undeleted the two [expletives] that Mr. Reese printed as "(expletive deleted)". I too am fucking tired of government pissing away our lives. [lew]

Vietnam today is a communist country. It could have become a communist country without 57,000 Americans dying in its jungles, mountains and rice paddies. At no time were the communists in Vietnam a threat to the United States.

Now we have Americans dying in another country that was not and never could have been a threat to the United States. Iraq had a bad dictator. Lots of countries have or have had bad dictators. Some of the dictators were installed by the United States, and others were aided by it. Merely toppling a foreign dictator is not a legitimate use of the U.S. military.

...

It might not be on the same scale, but it's Vietnam all over again. A war in a foreign country that was no threat to the United States. No strategy for victory. A complete misreading of both the country and its people. In the end, the Americans who die in Iraq will, like their brothers who died in Vietnam, have died for nothing. We'll end up installing a replacement dictator. But even if the Iraqis have elections, those elections should not be purchased with American blood.

I would hope that the American people would be [fucking] tired of politicians [pissing] away the lives of our sons and daughters for stupid or hidden reasons. No American soldier should ever die, except in defense of his or her own country. Period. End of story. And every politician who wastes American blood should be thrown out of office.

# Mike Vanderboegh at Double Ought - What Good Can A Handgun Do Against An Army.....? - utterly defeat it, of course, if used well, by a man of will with good friends. Replace "Clintonistas" with "Busheviks" and this essay rings as true today as it did when it was written. Henrietta Bowman's Sagebrush Salloon commentary is here, along with commentary on Mr. Vanderboegh's The Window War. [sierra]

But can a handgun defeat an army? Yes. It remains to be seen whether the struggle of our generation against the tyrants of our day in the first decade of the 21st Century will bring a restoration of liberty and the rule of law or a dark and bloody descent into chaos and slavery.

If it is to be the former, I will meet you at the new Yorktown. If it is to be the latter, I will meet you at Masada. But I will not be a slave. And I know that whether we succeed or fail, if we should fall along the way, our graves will one day be visited by other free Americans, thanking us that we did not forget that, with help of Almighty God, in the hands of a free man a handgun CAN defeat a tyrant's army.

# Katherine Mangu-Ward at The Weekly Standard - Everything Is Permitted - some light-hearted coverage of the Manhattan Libertarian Party's unauthorized protest in Central Park. [claire]

Having painstakingly outlined this and other guiding principles, my source wanders off humming "This land belongs to you and me" to join the LPers in a new chant: "Amendment one for everyone," they shout. "Amendment two for me and you." There's a pause--apparently even the Manhattan Libertarians can't think of anything catchy to say about the third amendment, since no one has tried to quarter any troops in their homes recently. But they quickly recover and move on to "Amendment four, no drug war."

Holding signs suggesting that the government "Drop Taxes, Not Bombs," proclaiming "Gun Rights: The real homeland security," and yelling for "The Right to Marry, The Right to Carry" the crowd consists mostly of registered Libertarians. First among them is the Libertarian candidate for president Michael Badnarik, who declares: "Anywhere I am standing is a free-speech zone."

Many people in the small group wear black T-shirts. They bear the legend "Unauthorized Protester" on the front and "Permits? We don't need no stinking permits" on the back. Like good capitalists, the LP is hawking the shirts for $10 a pop. As Manhattan LP chair Jim Lesczynski accepts payment from a girl who later accessorizes with a skirt fashioned out of "Badnarik for president" posters, he jokes that he is "an anti-war profiteer."

# Sportmen for Kerry / Edwards is the most damning site I've seen to date on the rabid anti-gun record of Johns Kerry and Edwards. Unfortunately, this guy hasn't looked at the Bush record. Bush and company speak a good second amendment line, but then enforce all the existing blatantly unconstitutional gun control laws. [trt-ny]

# GeekWithA.45 - Second Amendment and the Party Platforms, Revisited - links to the Geek's take on the major party platforms in 2000 and an analysis of the 2004 democrat platform as it concerns the second amendment. [geekwitha.45]

>>We will protect Americans' Second Amendment right to own firearms

{waits patiently for guffaws to die down.}

We all know to a Democrat, this means the right to own a duck gun, at best. Kerry himself went out of his way to actually show up in congress to make this point crystal clear.

>> and we will keep guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists by fighting gun crime

I covered what Donks mean by gun crime above. You've got 20,000 laws to stay in compliance with if you want to avoid the designation "gun criminal"

>>reauthorizing the assault weapons ban

Well, there you have it. The official Donk position that the AWB and 2A are perfectly consistent with each other.

>>and closing the gun show loophole,

I've dealt with this ad nauseum. Summary: the Donk view is that your right to sell your property is a terrorist enabling loophole. To that end, they seek to create special rules concerning the sale of your guns when this is done under circumstances described as "gun shows". Considering their gulaglike "Free Speech" zone in Boston, special rules for "2nd Amendment zones" are hardly surprising.

>>as President Bush proposed and failed to do.

Well, this is no surprise. The entire platform (pdf) is very little more than a scaffold for cheap shots at Bush every 2nd or 3rd paragraph or so.

# Publicola - Californication - the latest gun-grabbing excrement to come out of Kalifornia. If Arnold signs it, Ammunition registration will be a reality there. The bill requires sellers of ammunition to record and save:

• Date of transaction
• Name, address, and date of birth of the purchaser
• Driver's license or other ID number, including state of issuance
• Brand, type, and amount of ammunition
• The signature of the customer
• The name of the salesperson
• The right thumbprint of the purchaser

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