SLAX
"What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long." -- Thomas Sowell
# Thomas Andrew Olson at The Libertarian Enterprise - Presumed Guilty: Caught in the American Gulag - concerning the detention, nay torture, of Walt Anderson, accused of not paying federal taxes, and discovered to possess books the goons didn't like. God damn these pigs to hell. And may their trip there be long and agonizing. Crucifiction? [tle]
(5) Finally, of course, is his physical and psychological treatment in the detention facility itself, as described above, the express purpose of which can only be to break his spirit. When he finally goes to trial, he will physically "look guilty" to a jury totally ignorant of what actually goes on in those facilities. His uphill battle will only get worse.
The Feds presumably fear their case is not airtight; so if they can prevent Anderson from adequately defending himself, the better chance they will have of overwhelming a jury into convicting him.
The outrageousness of all this is exceeded only by its hypocrisy. O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake were allowed to pay their lawyers from personal assets. Those involved in the Enron, WorldCom and Tyco scandals all ran around free--for three years, in some cases--before even being indicted.
Anderson, by contrast, never assaulted or ripped off anyone. He's simply accused of not paying his taxes--so one could infer that, to a Fed, tax evasion is more heinous a crime than rape or murder. Taxation is the sustenance of the State itself, and that maw must be fed continuously, be it with money or the blood of innocents. A strong message must be sent: that failure to comply is never to be considered an option.
# The Arms Site - Steyr - photographs and descriptions of Steyr's entire line. Very interesting. I found this via a Google Search for "Steyr M", their semi-auto handgun, after reading a commendation of it at the Claire Files Forums. The TMP (Tactical Machine Pistol) looks particularly interesting: [google]
When I arrived at Steyr's shooting range, I felt quite skeptical about the effectiveness of the TMP at the given range. I knew from previousThe Arms Site also covers FAMAS, FN, GLOCK, HK, IMI, SIG, and Walther. HK's 40mm Grenade Machine Gun also looks interesting, though at $38 per round, most of us wouldn't shoot it much. Added to my links page in the "Organizations" column of the RKBA section.experiences that short-sized SMGs are rather difficult to control, especially if you do not practice every day or every week, which is the case for most intended users. In any case the weapon impressed me favorably, as the two grips immediately offer a perfect hold due to careful design, spacing and slope. When you hold the TMP at arm's length with the forward hand pushing the front grip and the trigger-hand pulling the pistol grip as if to "stretch" the weapon, the gun is automatically brought into a central position, at face level (please notice this was done without a sling). It doesn't matter whether you are left- or right-handed; you not only get a very instinctive firing position, but you also spontaneously use both eyes when aiming. As I had been advised to fire in sustained bursts from the start (this had also to prove the mechanism), I had magazines filled with 15 and 20 rounds. I had nothing to do but empty each magazine in a single burst at a 10m target. That's what I did.
It is difficult to tell how deeply astonished I was at seeing the TMP remain almost perfectly on line, without climbing and without having to pay special attention to the grip on the weapon. Even before seeing the target, I had a new idea of what stability means. This was confirmed by the results of the successive full-length bursts; the early one was concentrated in a 25cm group, but the size of the groups decreased as the TMP became more familiar to me. It may reasonably be assumed therefore that 15cm groups at that range would be possible with little practice. Of course, there is a little spread, but this is mostly due to the shaking of the weapon when firing successive shots at high rate. Indeed, at a 25m range, the spread could help to improve the probability of hit, since it might compensate for slight aiming errors which are fairly usual in close-combat situations.
# Guy Herbert at Samizdata - A new kind of freedom - commentary on fascist rhetoric from British Lord Gould of Brookwood. Freedom to vote. Freedom to feel safer because of your shiny new identity card. Vomit. [samizdata]
# Linux-Live.org - SLAX is a compact Slackware Linux that will run from read-only media. It is designed to fit on a small (3.14") CD, under 185 megs. There are a number of pre-built versions, and you can customize your own, or download modules on-the-fly. I haven't tried it yet, but will likely do so soon. [misanthropes]
