For As Long As Our Love Shall Last

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:00:00 GMT

From tacticalforums:

"On your tombstone there will be two dates, separated by a dash. That dash was your life." -- Austin

and:

"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." -- C.S. Lewis

and:

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." -- John Adams

# Perry de Havilland at Samizdata.net - The appropriate use of force - Billy Beck wanted some clarification of the post I printed here yesterday. Here's what I wrote: [samizdata]

Billy,

It wasn't you who branded me a "leftist". That was G. Cooper, dittoed by Verity. You compared me to an "ordinary commie anencephalic", the last word of which I had to look up: "Anencephaly is the congenital absence of the cranial vault with the cerebral hemispheres completely missing or reduced to small masses. The malformation results in a severely underdeveloped, or undeveloped, cerebral cortex. However, the brain stem, or lower brain, does develop and integrates digestion, respiration, and other human functions at least for a short time if the infant is born alive." Somehow I doubt that anyone with that condition will be having any kind of discussion on the internet. So I ignored that comment as irrelevant.

I neglected to define my terms. By "war" I mean the military conflict that governments seem to be so fond of. Two "world wars" and the Korean war reportedly happened before I was born. I turned eighteen in 1974, shortly after the draft stopped for the Viet Nam war. I have watched U.S. military adventures since then, but not very closely. I've paid a little more attention to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, enough to know that there have been tens of thousands of non-combatant deaths. I agree with you that crew-served weapons used to destroy property or kill large numbers of people have become easier to control. If they ever become as repeatedly aimable as a rifle, so that those who control them can do better than trying not to kill innocents and actually cause no unintended injuries, I will admit them as weapons that can be used by moral humans. Even current explosive weapons are possible to use in a moral manner, but only if those using them know for certain that no non-combatant is close enough to be injured.

It's always been time to kill the bad guys. The bad guys who killed 82 people at Waco, 22 of them innocent helpless little children, should be killed. The cretin who shot Vicki Weaver in the head should be hanged by the neck until dead. Whoever was actually responsible for the demolition of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma city should die. All of those responsible for taking down the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, should suffer slow, horrible, public deaths. The inhuman slugs who set off bombs in the London Underground and busses should perish, ASAP.

But every one of these travesties was carried out by a group of individuals. Sharing a nationality, city of residence, language, culture, religion, skin color, whatever with the perpetrators does not make anyone a fair target. Only the individual criminals are culpable, and they are the only people who it is OK to kill. Ascertaining the guilt of suspected actors takes some doing, except by the individuals who personally witnessed it. That process is usually called a trial.

So I agree with you. Capture the perps. Bring them to trial. Execute the guilty.

But war as commonly fought today has way too many unintended consequences. It destroys civil liberties for the innocent who happen to live in the war's location. It puts people with no personal stake on the ground killing other people that were not originally involved. It creates a huge cloud of evil and confusion and death and suffering. It makes more problems then it solves.

Now if by "war" you mean a Hatfield & McCoy type feud between small groups of people all of whom have a personal stake in the outcome and where every combatant knows every other one, that makes more sense to me. Or if you mean perforating blue helmets should the U.N. ever put "peacekeeping" forces in the United States, I'm with you. For that matter, the bombs the Iraqis are using against "coalition" forces seem perfectly justified to me. U.S. and British troops have invaded their communities. They are defending them. I would do the same if someone appeared near my house and started shooting and bombing my neighbors. No matter what rhetoric their political leaders were spouting.

-Bill

# Associated Press via The First Amendment Center - Man awarded damages for arrest while videotaping troopers - sometimes the courts get it right. [smith2004]

# Jennifer D'Angelo at Fox News - 'Til Death Do Us Part' Is Dying Out - some people are acknowledging reality by changing the traditional wedding vow to "for as long as our love shall last" or "until our time together is over" or similar. [progressivenews]

# "Dirtyharriet" at LibertyForum via Rense.com - US Military Ordered To Prepare Nuke Attack On Iran? - consider the source, but I would not be surprised if this is true. [smith2004]

# Thomas L. Knapp at The Libertarian Enterprise - My Rebuttal to Chris Claypoole's Rebuttal of My Rebuttal of His Rebuttal of the LP'S "Exit Strategy For Iraq" - good discussion of the differences between a political party, an ideological party, and a revolutionary party. Mr. Knapp contends that the Libertarian Party is heading from ideological/political to pure political. He wants to create a new ideological/revolutionary party. [tle]

# Ron Beatty at The Libertarian Enterprise - The Dream - Mr. Beatty is reminded of his duty by two true American patriots. [tle]

Tom looked at me, his eyes sharp. "The Bill of Rights has become no more than a moldy parchment! The people have allowed the cowardly curs in government today to totally disregard all the safeguards that were put there! Where is the fire for freedom? What has happened to so totally enslave such a proud people? Why do they not hold these craven excuses for men to their oaths? Why do they choose to remain slaves?"

# Tactical Forums S.W.A.T. Magazine Forum - Please take out the trash! - 10 long pages of often cogent discussion prompted by Claire Wolfe's "Enemy at the Gate" article (PDF) in the latest issue of S.W.A.T. Magazine. The quotes at the top of today's blog came from sig lines in this discussion. [clairefiles]

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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