9/11/2005

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 11 Sep 2005 12:00:00 GMT

From larkin:

"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." -- unknown

From smith2004:

"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice." -- unknown

From jomama:

"Democracy, a euphemism for voting for someone else to do your killing and looting for you by his rules and not yours." -- jomama

# John in Central Texas at Lonestar MVPA - Hurricane Katrina - Labor Day 2005 - a vet who drove his deuce and a half into Beloxi and New Orleans shortly after the hurricane, and delivered food and cleared debris. This would be an amazing story from a young guy, but John has some medical problems. God bless you, sir. [kimdutoit]

I was trying to untangle some of the two by fours in the street when my back gave up on me. At this point, I had better clarify my medical condition. During one of my many overseas vacations with Uncle Sam, I suffered multiple explosive impact traumas against my spine. T his left me with multiple broken vertebrae and a lifetime of prescription painkillers. After years of poking and prodding by the Veterans Administration, the federal government declared me 100% disabled and I now became an official burden to society. Whatever you say, Doc. Driving, standing and sitting is painful, but walking is agony. Bending and lifting is torture beyond belief...

# John Ross - Thoughts on Tragedy, or JR Doles Out "Tough Love" in the Wake of Katrina - can you say "target-rich environment"? Thought you could. Good story.

# John Ross - Thoughts on Large-Scale Tragedy II, or Is Nature More Devastating Than Terrorism, and If So, Why Don't We Act Like It? - good question about the difference between our responses to man-made and natural destruction.

# Neil Alexander - Traffic Accident - a parable. [clairefiles]

# Carl F. Worden at Sierra Times - So Where Is The NRA??? - the "authorities" are going door to door in New Orleans confiscating guns, and the National Rifle Association hasn't yet filed papers in federal court. Can't say I'm surprised. And I agree 110% with Mr. Worden's take on what will happen if they try this in his neck of the woods. [clairefiles]

If any government agency of any kind, be it local, state or federal, ever tries to come in to Southern Oregon and disarm our citizens of their firearms in their homes, we'll be sending you all back to Mommy in bags. That is a solemn promise.

# Kurt Nimmo - Katrina and the Constitution: the Rules Have Changed - the government no longer has to follow any rules. A bullet to the head will still stop their minions, however. I doubt it will take more than a few thousand dead federales before they turn tail and run. Don't let them take you alive. [grabbe]

Brian Williams, writing for MSNBC: "While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States."

Williams may not know it, but New Orleans is "separate from the United States." It is now a testing ground for the sort of incremental military dictatorship our elitist rulers have in mind for us. In the new New Orleans, parts of the Bill of Rights were hacked off over the last week--first the Fourth Amendment (cops and National Guard kicking in doors) and then the Second Amendment (same bunch confiscating guns) and, as Williams reveals, finally the First Amendment.

# Dave Kopel at Reason - Defenseless On the Bayou - on the confiscation of arms in New Orleans. [geekwitha.45]

# Pawpaw - Gun Confiscation? - a retired central Louisiana cop recommends that New Orleans allow the gendarmes to disarm them and go along with the evacuation, then sue them till their noses bleed. Interesting idea, but if it were me, I'd prefer to shoot the bastards. [geekwitha.45]

# Cindy Sheehan at LewRockwell.com p What Kind of Extremist Will You Be? - Ms. Sheehan intends to be a relentless extremist, until every American soldier comes home from Iraq. [smith2004]

# Peter McKnight at The Vancouver Sun - Cotler caught in a web of hemp - some analysis of Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler's choices in the U.S. attempt to extradite Marc Emery. Bottom line: selling marijuana seeds, though officially criminal, is defacto legal in Canada. Hence the extradition treaty does not apply. [loretta]

Say what you will about Marc Emery, but in getting himself indicted on marijuana charges by a United States grand jury, the Prince of Pot might well achieve what he's failed to realize through decades of activism -- his life ambition of legalizing marijuana.

# Jason Cherniak - Tommy Chong came before Emery - a review of the documentary a/k/a/ Tommy Chong. It shines a bright light on the entrapment the drug enforcement assholes pulled on a comedian. [pole]

# Jeff Quinn at Gunblast - Smith & Wesson's .460 XVR Magnum Revolver - includes experimental handloads with a variety of bullets and powders. [gunblast]

# Eric S. Raymond - Microsoft tries to recruit me - a clueless grunt from the evil empire attempts to hire Microsoft's worst nightmare. Hehe. [smith2004]

# PCHelp.org - How to Obscure Any URL - some little known obscure details about web addresses.

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Gun Confiscation in The Big Easy
Summer Died Today
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State-Induced Chaos Is Not Anarchy
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August 2005

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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