End the War on Freedom

From LibertyThink.com via Nexialist News -

"The Constitution has been overtaken by events, by time and is no longer relevant to modern society." -- Henry Hyde

Thoughts thought while driving:

"American elections have become a choice between the lesser of two evils, but this year is even worse. If the Prince of Darkness himself were on the 2004 presidential ballot, I would unhesitatingly choose him over Bush or Kerry." -- Bill St. Clair

From samizdata:

"Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses." -- H. L. Mencken

and:

If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side. - Orson Scott Card

# KeepAndBearArms.com - KeepAndBearArms.com Under New Management - they've been sold to The Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. No clue as to Angel Shamaya's plans, though from this press release it appears that he won't be at kaba any more. Claire Wolfe is not happy about this: [claire]

Unfortunately, gun owners didn't give KABA the kind of support KABA gave to the movement. I have the highest respect for Angel Shamaya. Let's say I have somewhat less respect for SAF/CCRKBA. I'm glad KABA didn't simply have to fold. But we'll be lucky if SAF/CCRKBA can do 1/10th as good a job as Angel did.

# Hugh Emerson at LibertarianThought.com - I Gave Up a Little Liberty - good short screed on what happens when you attempt to gain security by giving up liberty. [claire]

I gave up a little liberty for security because I wasn't as prudent as my ancestors. I couldn't be trusted to plan for my retirement, so I let them withhold money from my paycheck for social security.

When I found out there wasn't a trust fund and that I could guarantee myself a better retirement if I could just keep my own money, I felt less secure.

I wanted my liberty back.

I gave up a little liberty for security because I wasn't as strong as my ancestors. I would probably just become a drug addict if drugs weren't so hard to get, so I let them wage the war on drugs in order to be more secure.

When I heard that a friend had experienced a "no-knock" search by accident because the police had transposed two digits of an address, and when I realized drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition before, was creating the profits for gangs of organized criminals who terrorized the residents of our cities, I felt less secure.

I wanted my liberty back.

# Tom Hays at My Way News - Man Held for Coming Within Feet of Cheney - posed as an RNC volunteer. Shouted anti-war statements at Mr. Cheney. Charged with assaulting federal officers and impeding the operation of the Secret Service. [saltypig]

# L. Reichard White at Nexialist News - Skype OUT!!!! - on the Busheviks desire to tap all communications and on why they can't tap Skype internet phone calls, short of making it illegal for us to use it and somehow determining that we are doing so (or man-in-the-middle attacks or any of the other out-of-channel attacks to encrypted communication). This article is the source of the quote at the beginning of today's edition. [smith2004]

So, whatever you do, DON'T go to Skype.com!! And if you DO somehow go there, whatever you do, DON'T click on the Download Skype 1.0 link on that page!! And you certainly wouldn't want to click on this link -- or the Download latest version (white print on green background button) - - - because we wouldn't want to distress John Ashcroft, Tom Ridge and his Homeland "Security" nor pressure U.S. corporations to respect our privacy, now would we?

And most of all, we wouldn't want to diss the U.S.A. Patriot Act -- or force our public servants to abide by their oaths to obey and uphold the U.S. Constitution - - - - now would we?

# Ron Paul at LewRockwell.com - A Texas Platform for the GOP - if only we could knock all the neocons and RINOs out of the Republican Party. It would then be a party I could, mostly, support. Ron Paul's Republican party. [lew]

When it comes to 2nd amendment rights, the Texas GOP platform is uncompromising. It calls for outright abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. It also calls for repeal of all laws infringing upon 2nd amendment rights. This is another example of grassroots conservatives in Texas taking a position that Republicans in Washington lack the courage to endorse.

Education? The Texas GOP platform calls for the abolition of the Department of Education. Taxes? Texas Republicans urge the repeal of the 16th amendment and the abolition of the IRS, an agency the platform says is "Unacceptable to taxpayers." On dozens of other issues, from abortion to activist judges to religious freedom, the Texas Republican party promotes true conservative values and strict adherence to the Constitution. Real conservatives should demand the same from the national Republican Party this week in New York.

# David MacGregor at Strike the Root - What Exactly Is Freedom? - equating freedom to property rights works pretty well.

Andrew Galambos - the astrophysicist who formed the Free Enterprise Institute in the 1960s - came up with a neat and precise definition of freedom. He said:

"Freedom is the societal condition that exists when every individual has full (i.e. 100%) control over his own property."

This is certainly a radical statement. And I believe it to be 100% true.

Provided the word "property" is understood, then there can be no misunderstanding as to how to apply this dictum.

So, what is property? Well, first of all, you are your own property. Your body is your property. Your mind is your property. When you apply your mind to the creation of a physical good, that is your property. When you apply your mind and body to working for someone else, the money you receive in exchange for your effort is your property. When you buy something off someone else, it becomes your property.

The whole free market is the mechanism by which property is exchanged by voluntarily agreed means. If there was no property, there would be no market.

In fact, proper protection of property is a necessary precursor to any economic advancement. And it is this little-understood fact that is causing so much lack of progress in most of the undeveloped world.

If you establish a foundation of justice, based on the protection of property - then a market economy is the natural consequence.

...

Next time you read or hear of any contentious issue, try applying the question, "Whose property is involved here?", and you'll be surprised how much clarity it brings to bear.

# Don Nash at Unknown News - Got Hope? - don't get too blown out of shape over political happenings in the world. It ain't gonna change quickly. Enjoy what you can during your short stay on the planet. [unknown]

Barring some astrological cataclysm that can in no measure be prevented or warned about, the sun will rise tomorrow. George Bush will still be our nation's president. John Kerry will still be playing the "veteran" candidate and wanting to be the next president so badly he salivates like Pavlov's politician upon hearing a dinner bell. And come November 3, one of the two political offerings will be our next president.

Realistically, there is not much difference between Bush and Kerry. Bush is a simplistic criminal and prick. Kerry is a condescending prick and a huge hypocrite. So America will not be much different, no matter who is left standing when all of the political smoke and carnage are over.

American soldiers will still be in Iraq and being killed by the 'insurgent' Iraqis that only want for the Americans to go back to America. Israel and Palestine will still be lip-locked together in a bizarre tango of mutual death and hatred. This will further incense the Arab people, as American foreign policy will continue to give Israel the complicit nod and a wink. No tangible peace process will be forthcoming, so it is a drawn game. There is no sense in beating the obvious to death:

Things are not going to change much.

...

This lack of choice is one source for the frustration that Americans are feeling and are unable to precisely put their finger on. The political parties offer America really lousy choices. Bush or Kerry? That is our choice?

World events are almost at the point of being completely out of control, and America gets to choose between Bush or Kerry. The prospect isn't very satisfying and it isn't satisfactory. America deserves better and America's children and grandchildren deserve better.

# Gore Vidal at The Nation - State of the Union, 2004 - reminiscencing about the issues in the seventies, in his inimitable style. I often disagree with Mr. Vidal's socialist opinions, but I always enjoy his style. [unknown]

In the decades since this state of the union, the United States has had more people, per capita, locked away in prisons than any other country, while the sick economy of '72 is long forgotten as worse problems--and deficits--beset us. For one thing, we no longer live in a nation, but in a Homeland. In 1972, "roughly 80 percent of police work in the United States has to do with the regulation of our private morals. By that I mean controlling what we smoke, eat, put in our veins--not to mention trying to regulate with whom and how we have sex, with whom and how we gamble. As a result our police are among the most corrupt in the Western world."

I don't think this would get the same gasp today that it did back then. I point out police collusion with gamblers, drug dealers, prostitutes and, indeed, anyone whose sexual activities have been proscribed by a series of state legal codes that were--are--the scandal of what we like to call a free society. These codes are often defended because they are very old. For instance, the laws against sodomy go back 1,400 years to the Emperor Justinian, who felt that there should be such laws because, "as everyone knows," he declared, "sodomy is a principal cause of earthquake."

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