FAQ

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:10:37 GMT <== Webmaster stuff ==>

This page is a guide to the features of End the War on Freedom.

First, you may be confused by my slogan: "Ramblings of an agorist wizard".

Agorism is revolutionary market anarchism, made real by counter-economics. An agorist is an advocate or conscious practitioner of counter-economics. It was first described by Samuel Edward Konkin III (SEK3) in New Libertarian Manifesto (219K PDF).

I call myself a wizard because I'm very good at writing computer code. I wrote Lisplog, the code that runs this blog, and Truledger, an anonymous, digitally-signed general ledger and trading system, both in Lisp.

On to the blog details.

The "Search" box at right side of the top of each page is a Google site search. I may eventually implement a local search, but it's not high on my priority list, since Google does a very good job of indexing this site.

At the top of the left column is an orange "XML" icon, which links to my RSS feed. Add it to your favorite RSS aggregator to see new posts. The "Skype me!" image has a "callto" link to contact me on Skype. Text first, please. To help pay my hosting costs, you can donate with Pecunix or Paypal (the yellow "Donate" button). Please do!

The "Navigation" section links to sections of my site. "home" goes to my home page, billstclair.com, where I have links to lots of static content. Good essays and photos there. Check it out. "blog home" goes to the index page of this blog, as does clicking on the "End the War On Freedom" banner in the top-left-hand corner of each page. "settings" takes you to a login screen. If you have registered and logged in, it will allow you to logout. More dynamic features coming. "links" goes to my old, out-of-date links page. "blogroll" goes to a page of links to sites I frequent and banners of projects I supprt. "news aggregator" takes you to a Google Reader aggregator of the RSS feeds of sites I follow. I visit there daily to find stories worth highlighting with blog posts. "stories" is my page of stories, written by me and others. "gloryroad" goes to my archive of the writings of George Potter. "vin" is an ancient archive of the writings of Vin Suprynowicz. "faq" is a link to this page.

The "History" section contains links to pages aggregating all the posts in the blog. Each month page contains a section for each day of that month, including each post for that day with every outgoing link for that post. Each year page contains a list of all posts for each month of that year.

On the index page only is a "Recent Comments" section, showing the last 10 comments.

The "Quotes" section contains quotes I like by people I respect, largely L. Neil Smith. They're on every page for a reason. Read them.

At the top right-hand side of each post, below the blue title line, is a list of the categories for that post (usually only one category), with links to the previous and next post in that category, e.g.:

<== Politics ==>

"<==" is a link to the previous post. "==>" is a link to the next post. It's a circular list, so the next link for the newest post goes to the oldest post, and the previous link for the oldest post goes to the newest post. I intend to make an index page for all the categories, with the last 10 posts for each.

At the bottom of each story on the index page, and before and after the comments on a post page, are three links. The first one allows you to "Add comment". If there ARE already comments, then the index page shows you the comment count, and you have to click that before you can comment (to encourage reading other comments before adding your own). If you're logged in, your comments will be immediately visible on the site. If not, you need to solve a simple arithmetic problem, to prove you're a human (or a Lisplog-savvy bot), and your comment will not appear until I have moderated it. Include an obvious commercial link that is not directly related to the post on which you're commenting, and I will delete it.

There are also "Edit post" and "Add post" links below each post. Those bring up a login page if you're not logged in, or an error page telling you you're not allowed to do that, unless your account has admin or poster permission.

You can register here by clicking the "Register a new account" link on the login page or at the top of the "Add Comment" page. You'll be sent an email with a link to click on to complete your registration. If you're logged in, you can post comments without captcha or moderation, and you can edit and delete your own comments.

I want to stress again to read the quotes in the left-hand column, visit my home page, look at the stories page, read George Potter's writings, and, above all, have fun.

Liberty!

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Previous Posts:
StunFone
Fly With Dignity
Bram Cohen on the Future of BitTorrent
Quote
My First Cavity Search
PT World Map
Truledger
Wet Dream
Claire Wolfe's Great New Book: The Bad Attitude Guide to Good Citizenship
Let's Attack Iran! (Children with Matches)

Navigation

History

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