Before You Step on the Rattlesnake

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 26 Nov 2004 13:00:00 GMT

From rense: Happy Thanksgiving from the Bush Administration

# Craig Urda Russell at Endervidualism - Blood, Power, and Freedom - an impassioned plea to freedom lovers to stop eating animal cadavers. [sunni]

# Nicky Samengo-Turner at The Spectator - New Labour's police state - it appears that England has reached the stage where the only rational response to being stopped by the police is to kill them. Ms. Samengo-Turner was stopped for a random search, and arrested for carrying a Swiss army knife. Mirrored at LewRockwell.com. [samizdata]

I unlocked the doors and they went through my car and its contents: my overnight bag, my wash bag and glove box. Next, they gestured towards my briefcase and asked if I could open it. Of course, I said, and as I lifted the lid I pointed out to them a Victorinox Swiss multi-tool, contained in a small webbing case, and a small collapsible baton, contained in another piece of webbing.

It is perfectly legal to buy both of these items. The penknife I carry because I find it useful for many small everyday tasks --cutting through packaging, opening bottles. The baton I bought over the Internet to keep at home for security reasons. I live in a rural part of Suffolk that, although thankfully relatively crime-free, is policed very sparsely. I often hear people outside the house at night -- that same Wednesday evening, for instance, my wife discovered a harmless but mentally ill tramp yelling loudly in a nearby barn -- and I feel more comfortable with the baton inside the front door. A week or so before my police search, I had discovered my nine- and twelve-year-old girls playing with it and had locked it in my briefcase for safekeeping.

The community support officers reacted immediately. They behaved as if they had never seen a penknife before, pulling out the bottle-opener, the corkscrew, the thing that gets stones out of horses' hooves. 'This device has a locking blade,' said the constable, after which a short, whispered debate ensued. My goodwill towards the police began to give way to alarm. I reached for my mobile to call the lawyers and explain that I was going to be late for my meeting, but the constable stopped me. 'Turn that phone off,' he said. 'You're about to be arrested for possessing offensive weapons and carrying a bladed instrument in public. You'll be allowed one call when we get you to Charing Cross police station.'

# Bruce Simpson at InterestingProjects.com - Do you need a cheap cruise missile? - Mr. Simpson built a low-costcruise missile last year (under $5,000 in parts). Because of that, he has been denied employment by the New Zealand government. He's looking to relocate and build cruise missiles. He says that he "will not knowingly work for anyone involved in the planning or committing of terrorist acts." Hmmm... What else is there to do with a cruise missile? Or does he think that government-sponsored wars are somehow different than garden-variety terrorist attacks? [notreasonblog]

# anonymous at Fred's M14 Stocks - Kofi: "Before you step on the rattlesnake... - a letter to Kofi Annan explaining in very clear language why it would not be a good idea to attempt to disarm Americans. [publicola]

I didn't used to be so blunt. For many years I have argued history, law, facts and logic with liberal gun-grabbers of my own country. I have come to the conclusion that such arguments are useless exercises. In the end it always boils down to a conversation I once had with a child psychiatrist just before a "gun violence seminar".

The psychiatrist announced boldly (he thought): "Well, I think ALL guns should be banned."

"Really?" I responded, "Do YOU have a gun?"

"WWWWW Well, NO!" he stammered, seemingly as shocked as a lesbian would be if asked about male anatomy or Dracula if asked to hold a pcrucifix.

"Well, then," I smiled, "How do you propose to get mine then?" I asked.

That one puzzled him, but only for a second: "Why, we'll pass a law and you'll have to turn them into the government."

"Wrong, sport," I replied, "let me tell you how this works: If you want my gun you're gonna have to kill me to get it. You're gonna have to kill my son. You're gonna have to kill my brother. You're gonna have to kill all my friends. And if even 10% of American gun owners feel the way I do, you're gonna have to kill upwards of eight and a half million people, and that doesn't count all the godless gungrabbers like you that we'll kill in righteous self-defense before we meet our Maker, and we intend to make that more than a one-to-one ratio, so you've got to ask yourself: 'Is it worth it?'"

The psychiatrist, somewhat nonplussed by my vehemence, started backing up about half way through this oration and responded by stammering: "WWWWWWhy you're paranoid!"

I smiled and said softly, "Well, let's accept the expertness of that snap judgement, you being a psychiatrist and all. Let's say I'm 'paranoid.'" I offered. "Let's say I'm crazy." I winked at him. "I'm still armed to the teeth, that just complicates your problem, doesn't it?"

He turned to flee but I hooked him with one last question: "Can you just do me one favor, sport?"

He turned, listening.

"Just do me this favor: you want my guns, YOU come get them. Have the courage of your convictions and YOU come get them. Don't send somebody else's son or daughter in federal service to come get them. YOU come get them. And hey, I may even let you have 'em after I unload 'em."

The psychiatrist, like me, was on the seminar panel, and he waited in the back of the room until I took a seat, and then found the chair as far away from me as he could get.

# Metropipe - The Portable Virtual Privacy Machine is a tiny Linux system that runs in a virtual machine emulator. It's designed to be installed on a pocket USB drive or other portable storage device. It uses Damn Small Linux (DSL). Currently runs on Windows and Linux, with an OSX version in the works. It's an 84 meg zip file that expands into 122 megs. Ran pretty slowly on my 1 GHz laptop (especially Firefox, use the Dillo web browser instead), but still kule. It appears that the virtual machine emulator, qemu, will work with any bootable ISO. I had a Knoppix ISO on my disk, and it booted fine, though it was very slow; booting from the Knoppix CD is quite fast on my machine.

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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