cBS

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 18 Oct 2004 12:00:00 GMT

From smith2004:

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into." -- Jonathan Swift

# The Countertop Chronicles - cBS - an entertaining animated GIF about the inventors of America's news. Hehe. [publicola]

# Endervidual at Sunni and the Conspirators - Team America, World Police - it appears the the makers of South Park have hit one out of the park with their new movie. Guess I'll have to see this next weekend. In case you hadn't noticed, I love to laugh. [sunni]

# Lex Concord at The Libertarian Enteprise - Just This Once - if just this once, people would follow Mr. Concord's advice, we could kick the Boot on Your Neck Party out of Washington. [tle]

Just this once, what if all the anarchists who don't vote because they don't want to participate in a system they consider immoral took the advice of noted anarchist Lysander Spooner, who saw using a ballot in self-defense against those who would take your property or your liberty as no worse than using a bullet in self-defense against those who would take your property or your life?

# James J Odle at The Libertarian Enterprise - Toward a 'practical, real-world, hard-nosed, get-your-hands-dirty' political education: Part 1 - the first of six parts, this part contains "Authors notes". [tle]

In my unhumble opinion, all properly politically educated people should be able to do at least two of the following,

1. Work up an FBI-type psychological profile on the institution of government, any government under any administration;
2. Recognize propaganda when we see it;
3. Distill from the mass of mostly useless historical and political information some universal principles of government. Basically, here I'm looking for something along the lines of,

Lord Acton: Absolute power corrupts absolutely!
H.L. Mencken: Taxation is not for the benefit of the taxed!
Me: Across every Voters Guide the following should be printed in the boldest possible letters:

Warning! Politicians and their bureaucracies are hazardous to your health, wealth, freedom and sanity!
Me: If doing the right thing will cost a politician his power, then you can depend on him to do the wrong thing! You can depend on this the way you can depend on the sun to rise in the morning! (If I ran a casino I would take bets on it.)

I submit that anyone who can't do this and who has a Bachelor's degree or better in Political Science, Economics, or Journalism with an emphasis in politics doesn't really understand the subject matter.

# Lady Liberty at The Libertarian Enterprise - More Than Words - Lady Liberty visits the District of Columbia. [tle]

Yes, the IRS is still housed not far from the National Archives, and yes, I was still disgusted. But what apparently didn't sink in the last time I was there is any consideration of which government entity resides in a building even closer to the Archives. And that, my friends, is the US Department of Justice. I stopped dead on the sidewalk and stared at the signage. The current Department of Justice--the one with so little apparent respect for the Constitution and Bill of Rights--is barely a hop, skip, and a jump from the building housing the originals of those admirable documents! I was stunned at the obvious implications.

I walked the next half block in a fit of pique. And then I stopped walking again because another revelation occurred to me. Just a short distance away on the other side of the National Archives is the US Capitol building. You know, the place where most of the rest of the people in Washington who have no respect for the Constitution spend much of their time. And I was appalled. In fact, I was so unhappy about it that I resolved to ask a few questions of Archive employees once I got inside.

# Ron Beatty at The Libertarian Enterprise - What is a Libertarian? - commentary on the Zero Aggression Priciple and the Covenant of Unanimous Consent. [tle]

I could actually make a pretty good case here that the ZAP/NAP, the Golden Rule of modern Christianity and the Wiccan Rede, when combined together make an almost perfect moral code, but would probably get burned at the stake by all three camps, plus the atheists!

# AP via CNN - Terror fears don't trump Constitution, court rules - some good news from the 11th Circuit court. They have ruled that protesters at next month's rally outside the School of the Americas (newspeak: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) cannot be required to pass through a metal detector before assembling outside the school's fence. There's a little more here at School of the Americas Watch (soaw.org, the folks who organize the yearly rally) The full text of the court's ruling is here (PDF). [geekwitha.45]

"We cannot simply suspend or restrict civil liberties until the War of Terror is over, because the War on Terror is unlikely ever to be truly over," Judge Gerald Tjoflat wrote for the three-member court. "September 11, 2001, already a day of immeasurable tragedy, cannot be the day liberty perished in this country."

...

"In the absence of some reason to believe that international terrorists would target or infiltrate this protest, there is no basis for using September 11 as an excuse for searching the protesters," the court said.

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair