Second Amendment Protection Act of 2005
"I am absolutely, 100% opposed to a national 'license' to participate in society, and that's what Real ID is." -- Erin
# Patricia Neill at LewRockwell.com - Squeeze, Baby, Squeeze - in these days of accelerating infringements on basic liberties, this oldie but very very goodie from Ms. Neill still rings true. [codrea]
I don't care what you call yourselves, communists or fascists, Democrats or Republicans, Congressmen or Presidents, judges or lawyers, feudal Lords or Monarchs, Multinational Corporations, Friends of the Great Spotted Suck Toad, Gas and Electric Utilities, the Sierra Club, the United Nations or the World Bank. You all have a totalitarian bent and aim for the State to own and control everything and everyone.
You are, in the words of one of the philosophers writing today, moral vultures.
You squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and the more the people of any nation yelp and protest, the more brutal you become.
Good. The more brutal you become, the more the people become aware of your game.
...
Squeeze us even more, oh "kind-hearted" totalitarians. Until our eyeballs bleed.
On that day, we shall see you reap what you have sown.
# David Codrea - NRA AWOL on Second Amendment Protection Act--Part One - the NRA is refusing to support Ron Paul's H.R. 1703, the "Second Amendment Protection Act of 2005", because they don't think it will get out of committee. They might be right, but it certainly won't if they don't support it. It's a wonderful bill. Repeals the Brady Bill, Public Law 103-159 (click on "Major Congressional Actions" to see this), and removes "sporting purposes" language from everywhere it appears in the U.S. Code. It's also short. Bravo, Dr. Paul! I sent the following to my congress critter: [codrea]
Please cosponsor Ron Paul's H.R. 1703, the "Second Amendment Protection Act of 2005". This legislation is a good start towards rolling back the red tide of second amendment infringements that have blackened the U.S. Code.
# Thomas Frank at USA Today - Air travelers stripped bare with X-ray machine - back-scatter X-Ray machines are back in the news for searching passengers at airports. Looks like the brownshirts are really gonna do it this time. You know, I could live with these if the only thing that was forbidden on airplanes was explosives. If they let us carry our knives, our batons, our guns, our mace, our pepper spray, and any other individually targetable weapon we please, and if they completely eliminated the concept of "controlled substance", I wouldn't mind being searched more carefully for explosives. Bombs are really the only thing that are dangerous to allow on airplanes. Stripping us of self-defense weapons makes us less safe. The article includes an image from Rapiscan Systems. They make a backscatter people scanner called the Rapiscan Secure 1000. USA Today used the same image as in this datasheet (PDF), but they cut off the bottom half of the guy. I included the whole thing. Looks like they obscured his penis, but you can see that it leaves very little to the imagination. It appears from the article that the Taking Scissors Away goons plan to use American Science and Engineering's BodySearch system. [clairefiles]
The ACLU says the scanners invade personal privacy. "This leads directly to a surveillance society," says Barry Steinhardt, who runs the group's technology program.
But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate subcommittee last month that he wants to employ the technology and doesn't want an "endless debate" over privacy issues.
Security consultant Douglas Laird says the machines are essential to spot explosives, which aren't detected by metal detectors.
# L. Reichard White - The Hi-Jacking of Civilization - a book in progress. The introduction and six chapters are available. Much of the rest of it has been written, but not yet released. I haven't read much yet. I like his thesis that most of us are wired for non-hierarchical "government", i.e. small tribes with no boss.
# Kim du Toit - AAR: BoomerShoot 2005 - a report on this year's BoomerShoot, long-range rifle shooting at explosive targets. [kimdutoit]