End the War on Freedom

From scopeny:

"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." -- Ronald Reagan

From The Federalist:

"You have no right to a job. You do have a right to be left alone by government and your fellow citizens to develop your own God-given talents in such a way that employers will seek you out. You also have a right to ignore educational opportunities and to develop a slovenly work ethic so that employers will shun you. You make your choices, and you live with the consequences of your decisions. ... You need to understand that you are a free and sovereign individual. You don't belong to the government, and it's not the government's responsibility to provide you with a job. It's the government's job to clear the way for you to exercise your free choices, develop your skills, hone your work ethic, and contract with an employer eager to hire someone like you. Past that, you're on your own, and that's life in a free society. ... Wages are something to be negotiated between the employer and the employee. It is not the job of government to set wages for private sector employees. Our Constitution specifically states that the government is not to alter the terms of a contract between individuals. The matter of wages paid for services rendered is something to be resolved in negotiations between the employer and employee and then expressed in the terms of a contract between the parties. The government has no role here." -- Neal Boortz

"[M]y big complaint about the Republican Party, of which I am a reluctant member, is that I think Republican office holders in general have become too much like Democrats. Like them, we are a party of big government, of too many rules, regulations and laws that intrude deeply and unnecessarily into our lives. We rely on government instead of on ourselves. We've come to believe that government has an obligation to look after us and take care of us, and lay down rules for living our personal lives. Like the Dems, we are big spenders; in fact, we are becoming even bigger spenders than they are. In truth there is hardly a dime's worth of difference between the two parties and, in equal truth, a lot of people like it that way, especially as it pertains to the Congress. They have this nonsensical idea that if a majority in both parties agree on a law it automatically is a good law. I give you Prohibition as an example." -- Lyn Nofziger

# Rachel Lucas - Wallpaper: Master Tool of Satan - Ms. Lucas apparently just finished removing the wallpaper from her kitchen wall. This screed is for the folks who attached it.

Looking for a quick, inexpensive way to do something disgusting, hateful, and downright evil? I have the perfect suggestion: Install unattractive wallpaper directly to unprimed drywall. Go ahead, indulge your unmatched misanthropy! The cruelty of this deed will be truly insurpassable, and you'll have the pleasure of knowing that, years from now, your act will cause some innocent, decent, kind homeowner hours and hours of unmitigated, merciless, apocalyptic misery.

This poor soul, the future owner of your house, will curse you and spit on your family name. She will feel so spectacularly abused by your belligerent deed that she'll pray you have a chronic groin rash. Scraping, ripping, spraying, scraping some more, realizing half the goddamn drywall is coming off with the hideous wallpaper, crying uncontrollably - this will be her lot during days and days of toil. Just think of the pain you can cause!

# Brent "The Duke" Johnson at No Apologies Press - Bush Won't Run on Drug-Use, Desertion, Failed-Business, DUI Platform in Next Election - a little satire for your Tuesday morning. Hehe. [root]

William Sapphire, conservative columnist for The New York Times, agrees.

"Bush has built up his resume over the past two years, and doesn't need to depend on the tried-and-true formula of drugs, drinks, desertion and business hi-jinks to get votes."

"Now, Bush has got a tanking economy, the biggest deficit in history following the greatest surplus, and backing away from promises to rebuild countries he's invaded -- what's not to like?" Sapphire said.

"Plus, you know, he's made the United Nations irrelevant, pissed off our allies and takes more vacation time than any other president, ever, " Sapphire continued. "Hell, the guy took nearly the entire month of August off before 9/11, creating one the greatest security lapses of all time."

"In a word, the man's a winner come next election. Americans just love this kind of stuff from the guy they pay to run the country."

# Jordan Carleo-Evangelist at The Albany (NY) Times Union - Special Reports: Gun Control - well done series concluding, to my mind, that the way to stop "gun violence" is, as Bush stressed in the third debate, to work hard to apprehend the criminals who abuse guns. From Guns and crime: the great debate, which covers the irrationality on both sides of the gun control debate, with lots of good information about the fact that controlling guns does very little to control criminals: [scopeny]

According to a University at Albany publication of 2001 FBI statistics, the most recent available, the percentage of violent crimes committed with guns in New York state was virtually the same as in Montana -- 17.7 percent in New York and 17.4 percent in Montana.

The same is true for other states: Colorado and Connecticut, for example, have gun laws as different as New York's from Montana's, but they have about the same percentage of violent crime committed with guns.

Statistics show no clear relationship between strict gun laws and the rate of gun crimes -- a fact that raises questions about the politically charged debate over gun control as a means of combating crime.

Buttman says he knows why states with diametrically opposite gun control laws have such similar crime statistics.

"There are no evil guns," Buttman said, sounding a bit exasperated over the telephone. "There are only evil people. And when you can figure out how to stop all the evil people, sir, you'll be the next Messiah."

...

As the two sides continue their struggle over the place of firearms in America, a growing number of academics, politicians and policy analysts are coming to what seems to some a radical conclusion: Gun control may have at best an ambiguous impact on crime, and successful strategies for reducing gun violence must be based on new approaches that have more to do with focusing law enforcement on those who commit crimes than in restricting gun ownership.

# AP via Yahoo News - Tampa Newspaper Withholds Endorsement - The Tampa Tribune and the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, two Media General rags, have endorsed nobody for president, instead editorializing about how neither major-party candidate deserves their endorsement. [smith2004]

# Jim Davies at Strike the Root - Five Reasons Not to Vote - I'll probably vote for Badnarik on November 2, just to send a protest message, but I might change my mind and refuse to support the charade. [root]

Here are the round numbers of non-voters, out of our 280 million population:

30% aren't allowed
20% don't register
20% don't bother
----
70% stay home

The remaining 30% take part in the circus and about half of those (16% of the whole, or about 1 in 6) vote for the victor, who then governs all 100% for the next 4 years; only in the fairyland of democratic theory can this be called "majority rule."

...

The very act of pulling a lever, or writing an "X", or punching out a chad, is an act of violence against our fellow humans; it is an act which says, for a common example, "I know full well that I have no right to steal my neighbor's money to pay for my child's education, so I want you, Ms Candidate, to go do it for me."

And somehow, in the mysterious shell-game of democratic political theory, a power that does not exist in reality is conjured up out of nothing whatever by the process of voting. Our right to govern others is zero; and in real-life math, a million times zero is still zero. Only in the magic math of political myth does a million times zero equal something greater than zero.

It is 100% fraudulent; your neighbor's 20-year old son has by right 100% control over his own life, yet by the strong magic of voting, he can be made to surrender that right to your will and be made to go kill Iraqis of whom he has never heard. Yes, I know the draft is suspended; I also know it can be restored if and when the political cabal thinks it "necessary" and I know the voter is writing it a blank check to do exactly that, by the very act of voting.

# George F. Smith at Strike the Root - Congress Runs the Gauntlet - Mr. Smith proposes that members of Congress be required to endure a test run of their planned legislation before saddling us with it. Hehe. [root]

Let's examine these tests in some detail, beginning with the draft law. Clearly, it's in the national interest to have some men order other men to go fight their wars for them, making them risk death, mutilation, and sickness, including severe psychological disorders, while imposing untold hardships on their families. Since the "national interest" is unassailable as a moral ideal, as any Adolf or Vladimir will tell you, we can dismiss all opposition to it as unpatriotic.

So, when you're planning your boondoggles for the coming year, jot down "Parris Island, SC," say, for March 15th. For your convenience, superannuated school buses will pick you up on Capitol Hill at 5 a.m. sharp on the day of your departure and transport you directly to the facility, a rough 550 miles away.

The staff at Parris will see to your every need, ensuring that you breathe and exercise often, and obtain basic nutrition. When you finish your stay six weeks later, you'll be fit, gung-ho, and ready to kill on command.

Being ready to kill is not the same as killing, though. And here's where our testing gets a little sticky. Phase II calls for splitting you into two groups. We'll scribble down a dozen or so pious reasons and toss them in a helmet, then pull one to serve as a cause so you'll feel like the killing you do is more than murder. (Later, when that reason gets stale, we'll pull another one.) We'll find a swamp or desert somewhere, strip half of you to the waist so you'll know which side you're on, and get you started killing each other. Picture yourself as Arnold and his boys in "The Predator."

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