Love Your Arteries: Eat Dark Chocolate

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 27 Jun 2005 12:00:00 GMT

# Kevin Tuma - Homewreckers - cartoon commentary. The Supreme Court takes a wrecking ball to property rights. Not funny.

# Silver at WolfesBlog - The Nine Nazgul - even a better name than "whore" for the guys in black dresses. Hehe. [claire]

# L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - The Naked Supremes - angry commentary on Rodriguez v. Raich and Kelo v. New London. Recommendation: "Vote for No Incumbent". [tle]

Never mind that there is absolutely nothing in the Constitution--which represents the basic "operating system" for the United States government (See Article 1, Section 8, which spells it out in detail)--that gives it any power whatsoever to outlaw drugs or much of anything else.

Never mind that a century of drug laws--and hordes of mad-dog machinegun-toting cops swarming across the countryside enforcing them--have clearly damaged the nation more than any kind of drug ever did.

What's important, of course, is that the authority of the state never be questioned or challenged, and that the paychecks and pensions of the politicians and police never be threatened or diminished in any way. As Abraham Lincoln clearly demonstrated back in the 1860s by slaughtering 620,000 individuals simply to preserve an artificial political construct, no amount of suffering and death (other people's suffering and death, that is) is too much when political power is at stake.

This, of course, is what modern legal pundits mean when they refer to the Constitution as a "living" document--in the same way a loaf of bread can be said to be "living" when it's covered with mildew and maggots.

# Vin Suprynowicz at The Las Vegas Review-Journal - If Michael Kane isn't nuts, someone else is - take LSD, murder your friend, get put in the loony bin for insanity, get over the insanity, and Michael Kane may be a free man next month. All because of the myth that drugs make you do things you wouldn't otherwise do. Yes, they sometimes lower your inhibitions. No, that doesn't stop you from being responsible for your actions.

# Will Durst at AlterNet - Scoundrel City - on the difference between disparaging the troops and disparaging the idiots who are responsible for putting them in harms way. "War: bad. Troops: good." [progressivenews]

You're all so fired-up desperate to know what endangers our troops; I'll tell you what endangers our troops. Greedy cretinous toad leaders who send them 12,000 miles away to a desert to fight a war based on lies. Lies about the threat and lies about a phantom desire to negotiate. That is what is responsible for putting our troops in harm's way. The idiots who sent them into this, and yes, its time to say it out loud, this quagmire.

Quagmire, as in bottomless morass. Quagmire, as in Vietnam. A minor conflict that tore our country apart about three decades ago. Perhaps some of you patriotic Republicans remember? I know none of you bothered to serve over there, but you must have have seen a History Channel special on it. Does the movie "Apocalypse Now" ring a bell?

# Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - We Live on the Frontier - common sense about the fact that the only way to effectively defend yourself is to do it yourself. And why a handgun is a very efficient self-defense tool. [lew]

Gun ownership involves responsibilities. You have a responsibility to keep your weapon in a safe and secure location, out of the reach of children. If you have children, you have a responsibility to teach them gun safety. You have a responsibility to become so familiar with your gun that you can use it in the dark under stress. You have a responsibility to become proficient with it -- at least proficient enough to put all your shots in a circle the size of a dinner plate. You have a responsibility to know the applicable laws and to obey them. Remember, the gun is an inanimate object with no brain. It will kill anybody or anything in front of the barrel when it's fired.

You must also decide ahead of any confrontation whether you are willing to take a human life. If you turn on the lights and your dead burglar is a 17-year-old kid with an angelic face, can you live with that? Can you face the family of the person you kill? Can you handle the police investigation? If the answers are "no" or "I don't know," then forgo the gun and buy pepper spray and running shoes.

# Reuters - Dark chocolate seen healthy for arteries - who'd have guessed? Dark chocolate, my favorite kind, is good for the cardiovascular system. In moderation, of course. [lew]

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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

End the War on Freedom

Love Your Arteries: Eat Dark Chocolate