Define 'paraphernalia'

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:03:30 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED MAY 22, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Define 'paraphernalia'

No one had told them till recently there was any problem with the stuff they were selling -- not sofa-sized Turkish hookahs, mind you, but perfectly legal novelty glass vials (some containing artificial novelty rosebuds) and miniature copper scouring brushes which police say can be used to facilitate the consumption of crack cocaine.

The proprietors of the two west side convenience stores -- including Koreans Ki Son and Suk Son -- even promised they would stop selling the items, now that the problem has been pointed out.

But that wasn't enough for Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly, who was set on staging a publicity stunt Wednesday apparently aimed at driving the Korean merchants from his primarily black neighborhood -- a proceeding more than a little tinged with racism and xenophobia.

The Rev. Gary Hunter of the Greater St. James Baptist Church hauled about 40 young children into the council chambers for this show, the better to illustrate his point that the Sons' new Jackson Market was too close to his church at 316 Madison Ave. (The Sons needed to apply for for council permission to shift their license from the store they now operate on F Street to their new location on D Street, two blocks away, because selling liquor is deemed a "privilege.")

"The behavior pattern of these store owners are disrespectful to our children and our women," the Rev. Hunter told the City Council.

Their behavior pattern ... or their race and national origin?

"People who don't understand English don't understand respect," the Rev. Hunter continued, referring to the fact that the Sons -- Korean natives -- depended on interpreters during Wednesday's council hearing.

In the end, the liquor licenses were denied. (The owners of the second store, J. & D. Mini Market on North Martin Luther King, had also promised to stop selling the items to which Mr. Weekly objected ... to no avail. He's an Arab.)

Nor were these denials based on repeated liquor sales to minors or any such violations of law, mind you. No, the merchants were penalized for selling perfectly legal products.

"I think there's something really, really wrong with what I've heard in the last month," commented Mayor Oscar Goodman, who along Councilman Larry Brown voted against the regulatory lynching. "If there's something wrong with the (novelty) roses ... I want to know why we didn't do something about it before two weeks ago."

Regulators say both license applications were considered routine till Mr. Weekly saw his chance to make political hay. The Councilman - and those who sided with him - have thus set a very dangerous precedent. If they want to outlaw certain glass bottles and copper brushes, let them see if they can come up with an effective, constitutional ordinance that anyone can make sense of, so everyone can look up the law and see where they stand. (And lots of luck.)

Meantime, what next? Shall local supermarkets with the "wrong kinds" of owners lose their business licenses in surprise proceedings for selling Dow Corning and Union Carbide sandwich bags - perfectly legal products, but items in which we all know controlled drugs are sometimes stored and transported?

Deprived of their liquor licenses, will the two stores in question now shut down -- depriving Mr. Weekly's constituents of handy places to buy milk and diapers -- or instead raise their prices on other items to make up for their lost liquor revenues? Either way, it's hard to see how Mr. Weekly's constituents benefit.

Or does Mr. Weekly now intend to approach these businessmen and urge them to sell out their now devalued businesses, perhaps to new owners more likely to win liquor license approval, given that their skin color and accents would doubtless be more pleasing -- more "respectful" to the sensitivities -- of Mr. Weekly and the esteemed Rev. Hunter?

This is dangerous stuff.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 1475 Terminal Way, Suite E for Easy, Reno, NV 89502. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at 1-800-244-2224, or via web site www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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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