Census 2010

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 02 May 2010 11:13:55 GMT <== Politics ==>

On Thursday, a gentle 70-year-old guy came to my door. My daughter answered, and came to get me, telling me a guy was here from the census. I went to the door, stood at the threshold of the mud room, and told him, "The answer is four." He said that it was his job to keep asking until I answered his questions. I told him it was my job to keep saying "four" until he went away, or to close the door in his face if he took too long to do that. We had an enjoyable conversation, and he managed to get my age out of me, by calling me a "young guy" (which I guess I was to him), but he got nothing else from me. Then my wife came out, and rescued him from my anarchist tentacles, and I went back inside and back to work. She told me later that she answered all his questions, including my name, which I asked her not to tell, and that my race was "white". I was annoyed that she told him my name, over my explicit request to the contrary, but I was downright angry that she told them that I'm "white". My race is "human". Period.

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Comments (3):

Why would you allow someone

Submitted by George Donnelly on Sun, 02 May 2010 14:09:36 GMT

Why would you allow someone so close to you to sell you out like that, as if you were some kind of nutty crank to be sent away when the grownups are talking?

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Betrayal......

Submitted by One Random Guy on Sun, 02 May 2010 14:48:33 GMT

Women can always be trusted to point directly to where the Jews are hiding in the interest of "avoiding a conflict". Mr. Vanderboegh hit the nail on the head with his observation that a woman keeps no secrets but her own. I have not met one yet I would trust with location of my parked car, much less anything important. For bonus Firefly points you could have yelled "Curse your sudden and inevitable betrayal!"

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There is an ancient

Submitted by Windpressor on Mon, 03 May 2010 17:27:59 GMT

There is an ancient encounter, a matter of public record archived and duplicated across a broad spectrum of media, that tells of an interview with a wife and questions of the adequacy of being simply "human". If memory serves, I think a fine garden home was lost among other much debatable matters of no small consequence to the man.

I dislike surveys and forms that box me in, from thinking outside the box as we are supposedly encouraged, with limited multi-choice boxes that lack "other" or "none of the above". If I do, on rare occasion submit to such an inquiry, I add an additional check box and supply an "X" therein.

"Grrrrr" ... and yeah, "human" has also been my answer where possible.

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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