Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-01C: New Year’s Blues

Posted on 2013-01-05 by TPOL Nathan

Stupid Cop Tricks
Former Utah Patrolwoman Accused of Faking DUIs
(Yahoo) A class-action lawsuit has been filed against a former Utah Highway Patrol trooper and her superiors alleging that she filed false DUI charges during her career. The department fired Lisa Steed in November for alleged misconduct related to her duties. Attorney Michael Studebaker, who is one of the lawyers leading the class-action lawsuit, says he has been contacted by at least 40 people claiming Steed wrongfully arrested them on DUI or drug charges.

Nathan: The problem is far more than this one person.  We find corrupt cops doing stupid things constantly, and creating misery for a LOT of people.  Especially in remote rural areas, Utah patrolmen have a bad reputation for abuse and arrogance.

Stupid Politician Tricks
Judicial Watch: Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians
(CAA) The [Judicial Watch’s] top ten list, in alphabetical order, includes two Republican lawmakers, three Democrat lawmakers, the President of the United States and five members of the Obama administration:

•Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)

•Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

•Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice

•Attorney General Eric Holder

•Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.)

•Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)

•President Barack Obama

•Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

•Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.)

•Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius

Nathan: Yes, that is actually eleven:  according to the best reports, Rice and Clinton are NOT joined at the hip.  Some of these names I don’t recognize, but most are household-famous (or notorious).  Holder, Chu, Clinton, and Sebelius are shills for the First Citizen, of course: I think the names were selected for balance as far as branch.  Those in Congress are exempt from many criminal proceedings, but the minions of the First Citizen are not: an honest and courageous jury and judge would find these people (and most of their colleagues) guilty of capital treason and corruption.

Crash of 2009 – Lying government
Unemployment Rises for Women, African-Americans in December
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Never mind the 165,000 new jobs or the freeze in the (bogus) unemployment level, the depression is still with us, and the situation is getting worse.

Mama’s Note: The numbers would be astronomical if all the bogus government “jobs” were eliminated from the stats. If people really saw how few honest, productive jobs are left in this country, I truly think heads would roll. But OF COURSE that’s why such numbers will never be published.

Stupid government tricks
Chicago’s Cardinal: Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Like Repealing Law of Gravity
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Obviously, the good cardinal has not paid as much attention to the national Congress or state legislatures (including some near and maybe even IN his bailiwick) which HAVE passed laws in effect trying to repeal the law of gravity.  I recall one in Wisconsin years ago, where the legislature passed a law stating that water flowing through wood waste would not go more than ten feet into the soil.  Since infiltration of water into the ground works because of gravity, this was an attempt to repeal gravity.  But then, remember the way to determine the IQ of a committee (which includes congresses and legislatures):  take the IQ of the smartest person in the group and divide by the total number of feet (or hands) in the group.

Hoploclasts and Hoplophobes
FBI: Hammers and Clubs kill more than Rifles do
(Breitbart.com) In 2005, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 445, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 605. In 2006, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 438, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 618.  … For example, in 2011, there was (sic) 323 murders committed with a rifle but 496 murders committed with hammers and clubs.

Gun control isn’t about guns, it is about control.  Seeing the progress of “human rights” in the UK, where knives (KITCHEN knives) are likely to be banned in a matter of months, we can expect something similar here, at least to have people push for it.  (No wonder one Salt Lake area gun shop offers a free rock with every gun sale!)  As more and more evidence is found that points to some real serious doubts about the public story concerning the Sandy Hook killings (similar to questions raised about the Aurora theatre and several other mass killings), the entire idea behind WHY longarms are being targeted is clear:  they are more suited (despite L. Neil Smith’s claims in some stories! <grin>) to defense against organized gangs, and therefore more valuable for protection against government-gone-wild (or ANY government).

Pelosi: ‘Many Members of the Republican Caucus Don’t Believe in Government’(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: IF ONLY this were true.

Billy Graham Named to Gallup ‘Top 10 Most Admired Men’ List — for 56th Time
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: I am (as always) surprised about this for several reasons.  First, professional religious people are NOT a very admirable lot, and Graham is the most successful of that category in a century.  His hypocrisy is not as blatant as many of his competitors, but he still is a hypocrite in many areas and a lover of the state.  Second, supposedly religion is unwelcome in the public sphere, and the public wants no religion in public life – yet Graham has frequently dabbled in politics.  Third, why does Gallup (given the idea that religion is bad in public life) allow people to include any preacher or cleric in their list?  Speaking of hypocritical…

Mama’s Note: Sure… but such lists are about as relevant as the winners of “American Idol” to any rational person. If ugly people want to hold a “beauty contest,” why should that upset me? I might laugh myself silly but… Who cares?

Stupid government – New religions: environists killing people
EPA Human Experiments could violate Nuremburg Code
(Washington Times) Environmental Protection Agency says no law empowers any judge to stop it from conducting illegal scientific experiments on seniors, children and the sick. That astounding assertion will be tested Friday, when a federal district court in Alexandria decides whether it has jurisdiction to hear claims made by the American Tradition Institute that EPA researchers are exposing unwary and genetically susceptible senior citizens to air pollutants the agency says can cause a variety of serious cardiac and respiratory problems, including sudden death.

Nathan: Well, this certainly warrants the appellation of “Enviro-Nazis” favored by Rush Limbaugh, doesn’t it?  Of course, if the Nuremburg Trials had been held in, say, Richmond, by a tribunal made up of German, Japanese, and Italian jurists, would the Tuskegee experiments and the internment camps have been reason to send American officials to the gallows?  Government is evil – more evil at times than other times, but evil.  Anything that is “for the common good” means that some eggs must be broken for the omelets on which the “leaders” and the bureaucrats and their loyal supporters (the majority, supposedly, in a “democracy”) get fat.

Home front – Our right to self-defense
Gun Rights Advocates: ‘There Will Be Resistance’ to Gun Control
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Apparently there is already:  I am reading and hearing more and more flat-out statements that war is inevitable: that of the 100 million or so of us who own weapons (300 million +++) there might be a couple million who will “resist” by doing more than writing a letter to their Congressman.  Funny, isn’t it?  These hoploclasts pooh-pooh the idea that the Second Amendment “authorizes” (recognizes) bearing arms as a defense against government tyranny, and thus push the very government tyranny that weapons are needed to counter.

Killing babies
CDC: 784,507 Reported Abortions in Obama’s First Year – Lowest Number in Nine Years
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan:  “ONLY” 3/4 of a million dead:  but people panic over less than 500 rifle deaths a year…

First Citizen mark 1.2
Obama’s Second Inauguration Begins With Another Call to Community Service
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan:  Not bad, if “community service” is what he might get after he has enough time on good behavior at the SuperMax outside Canon City.  Unfortunately, that is NOT what he has in mind.  It occurs to me, if we really DO get MJ decriminalized, all those prison spaces used by the POWs of the War on Some Drugs are going to be empty, and just sitting there all ready for those who are objectors to the “messiah’s” war on liberty:  the gun owners and the people who resist the ObummerCare mandates and all the rest.  Unintended consequences?

Self defense – Congress in action
New Congress: Ten Gun Bills introduced on day one
(Freedom Outpost) [Eight anti-self-defense bills were introduced by the usual suspects.] …In addition, Republican congressmen Steve Stockman (R-TX) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) put forth HR 35 and HR 133 which would end the federal law requires areas around schools to be designated as “gun free zones.” Their bills are based in reality with data that demonstrates that violence both in and around schools increased when the federal law took effect in 1990.

Nathan: As other stories report, resistance is growing – and I think this raft of bills in the House (in the Senate, they aren’t supposed to introduce any bills until the 22nd) will spark MORE resistance.  When you combine that with state-level efforts in Illinois and New York, the real question seems to be not IF there is a spark that erupts into open and actual warfare, but WHEN the spark will be struck.

I had a very sane and rational and patient person ask if New York will be the place that the “shot heard round the world” is fired THIS time.  Elderly people being told that a possible majority in Congress are planning on making their prized possessions (like WW2 vintage M1 Carbines) illegal, troops home from and sick of the mess we’ve made across the world who are now being told they can’t be trusted, and lots of other people are getting angry.

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There’s an FBI in my soup

Posted on 2013-01-04 by MamaLiberty

[I had a nightmare the other day, and in trying to describe it to someone, this short story came to be. It’s not prophesy, and it’s not history… yet. MamaLiberty]

Someone was banging on the door upstairs, hard. Mostly deaf, Molly usually had to trust the dog to bark to know someone was at the back door facing the driveway, but this time there was no question about it. And it didn’t sound good at all.

Taking the time to put the little dog in his crate, just so he would remain safe, she grabbed the 20 gauge shotgun from beside the bed and started upstairs. The steel core door was making an awful racket with their pounding, so she didn’t bother asking who they were or what they wanted.

She had a pretty good idea already.

Picking up the phone, she wasn’t surprised to find the line dead. They would cut that first. The only hope would be if her neighbor saw the commotion, but he was probably sound asleep in bed himself, as she had been.

Now she had to decide what to do about this. If she fired at the men about to break in, she would have little chance of survival. Was there some further purpose to her life after 66 years? Would allowing these goons to arrest her produce anything good? How could she know… and how long did she have to consider it?

The banging had started on the front door, meaning they’d cut the lock on the gate. She was glad she hadn’t tried putting the wee dog out there. He would surely have been killed.

Both doors crashed in at the same time, and black clad strangers made fools of themselves trying to rush in all at once, screaming obscenities and with guns drawn. She was just waiting for one of them to start shooting, hoping they wouldn’t hit her or each other.

Molly had stashed the shotgun in the office and was calmly sitting on the couch in her coat and warm, tall slippers. She had no desire to be dragged through the snow in her nightgown, but she’d not had any opportunity to change. She hopped they’d leave her coat on anyway.

The screaming continued as the goons untangled themselves from the crush at the door, but the ones in front of the crowd seemed to look puzzled behind their masks… well, Molly thought their eyes showed the beginning of it anyway – and they stopped yelling.

In a few seconds, they were all standing around pointing their rifles at her, some making nasty or snide remarks to a companion, but they were strangely still otherwise. Molly sat quietly, relaxed as much as she could manage with guns pointed at her, and waited for what came next.

The cold was coming in fast through the open doors, and Molly wished she’d thought to turn off the heater. Her electric bill next time was going to be a monster…

Then another man entered, dressed very differently from the goons and obviously their superior. His uniform was black, but he had no mask or armor, and only a simple sidearm on his belt. Molly was surprised a big brass hat like that would carry a lowly 9mm, but figured that might be all he could qualify with… as if that made any difference, of course. It was obviously only symbolic anyway.

He waved the goons aside and most of them dropped their gun muzzles to the floor as he advanced and stood with his arms crossed as if he were confronting some recalcitrant underling. “What is your name?” he demanded in a gruff and very bluff voice.

Molly could tell that he was very much impressed with himself, and was used to everyone being terrified of his pronouncements. She smiled at him and said, “I suspect that’s a rhetorical question. What do you want besides answers you already have?” The funny thing was, she thought, that she really could not have told him anything he didn’t already know – at least anything he was interested in hearing.

“Let’s go,” he said, pointing at two of the goons, and then at Molly.

She didn’t resist, and she didn’t waste any time or breath asking about being detained, what the charges were, or anything else. They were all just rhetorical questions these days. The goons, and especially their bosses, did just exactly what they wanted to do and there was zero recourse… at least officially.

They were rough, and the handcuffs hurt abominably, but at least the big SUV was warm inside, and they had let her keep her coat after going through it carefully, even cutting the seams on the collar and the cuffs. She wondered how long it would take until they cut up her slippers and only hopped there would be no body cavity search. But she figured she’d bought into all of it when she decided not to shoot, so she just gritted her teeth and said nothing.

The ride to the local police department only took a few moments, though she did wish they’d slow down on the icy roads. The young man at the wheel seemed completely flummoxed about how to drive on the ice. Molly figured he must have come from somewhere down south… way down south.

Molly had visited the building the city police shared with the sheriff’s department a good number of times in the past. As a certified firearms instructor, she had done the CCW classes for the county sheriff for years, and had become friends with him, as she had his predecessor. The current sheriff had vowed that he was an “Oathkeeper” and would most certainly maintain the constitutional rights of the people who were in his jurisdiction. She wondered how that was going to work out now.

Going through the back door of the city police area was a new and disagreeable experience for her. The smell alone told her that it hadn’t been cleaned good back there for some time. Not that anyone actually expects a jail to smell nice, of course, but clean should be possible. They had to carry her from the SUV because the rough treatment and handcuffs had made it almost impossible for her to stand alone, but they were certainly not nice about it, stuffing her into a cracked plastic chair in what appeared to be an interrogation room. No windows, no clock, no features except the scarred table and rickety chairs. The chair she was in was too far from the table for her to lean on it, so she did her best to sit quietly where she was in spite of the pain in her arms and back. At least the handcuffs had been removed.

Mr. big shot boss swaggered into the room and stood before her, legs spread and arms crossed against his chest as before. “What is your name?” he demanded again, eyes hot and mouth grim.

“I have nothing to say to you or anyone else here,” Molly said quietly. Then, closing her mouth, she vowed not to speak again until they let her go… or she died, whichever came first.

She had no idea after that how long the “interrogation” lasted. She did ask to use the bathroom, and then eventually had to let her urine go into the chair through her clothing when she couldn’t hold it any longer. She was only slightly amused to see that some of the young men were at least a little embarrassed then, and glad that the smell seemed to keep “big shot” a few feet farther back than before. Thirsty, hungry and very tired, she gritted her teeth again at the pain in her arms and, increasingly in her back and rear end… while the men alternately threatened and cajoled her with their foolish questions.

She had no idea how long all this had gone on, and the slow tears had seeped out for so long that her eyes were red and irritated. She couldn’t blow her nose properly with no tissues, and that was a torment almost as bad as the pain. Her back ached miserably and she knew that she would eventually fall to the floor when she could no longer maintain her balance on the old chair.

The door opened then, and she saw the sheriff look in. His face was a study of horror and something like fear, but she had to ask him. “Are you still an oathkeeper?”

He looked around, almost in a panic, and backed out quickly, banging the door shut.

That seemed to answer the question, but she was puzzled at the distress in his eyes. “What’s up with that?” she thought.

Ignoring everything said and done to her got harder and harder, but sheer exhaustion finally won and she fell out of the chair onto the hard floor, rolling to her her side and falling asleep almost immediately.

A new and very annoying sound woke her, and Molly was too disoriented to understand where she was when she first opened her eyes. The sound struck a chord of old memory, and she realized it was the siren of an ambulance. Looking around, she saw that she was actually riding in one, strapped to a gurney and covered with a wonderfully warm blanket. She didn’t like the look of the IV stuck in her arm, but the face of the EMT that drifted into range just then was reassuring. He was someone she knew…

“Don’t try to talk, Molly,” he said, patting her shoulder. “You are going to be ok. Bill and some of the guys got your doors fixed and Jerry took the dog home. He’s going to be spoiled rotten after a day or two with his kids. Lulu is staying at your house to clean up and keep the heat going so things don’t freeze. You don’t need to worry about anything. Oh, and the sheriff got your guns and computer back too. He’ll bring them – says he needs to talk to you.”

“But, but… how did I get here and were are all the goons?” she sputtered.

“You’ll know all about it soon enough, I suspect. Fifteen western states finally seceded from the union yesterday after all these months of talking about it, and the ‘goons’ here are now all under arrest.  No telling what that will mean in the long run, of course.

We do live in “interesting times,” Molly said, and drifted off to sleep again.

Posted in Mama's Rants | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

No Guarantees

Posted on 2013-01-03 by MamaLiberty

By Susan Callaway, Editor

From the PoL archives, July 23, 2012
(The whole subject, and the questions asked here are even more relevant now than they were after the Aurora theater incident.)

The “news,” blogosphere, and almost every forum on the internet is ablaze with speculations and pontifications regarding the latest mass murder in Aurora, Colorado. The sheer volume of statist and self serving posturing, jumps to conclusions absent facts, and plain old stupidity are almost as staggering as the actual death toll.

I don’t know exactly what happened there. Until a careful and impartial investigation is completed, nobody is likely to know any more about it than I do. And that includes all of the people who were actually there. Whether or not there can BE any impartial and honest investigation remains to be seen, of course, but the lack of it has not stopped the speculation and hype in the least.

One thing I do know…

There are no real guarantees in life. There is no place on the planet where safety is 100% guaranteed, except maybe in the graveyards. Those are the only folks who can no longer be harmed by anything.

For the rest of us, life is risky. ALL life is risky, no matter where you are or what you do. Some places and situations are simply more risky than others. It would seem wise to spend some time actually thinking about that and doing what is possible to mitigate that risk by our own reasoned actions and choices, rather than foolishly thinking any and all risk can successfully be legislated into oblivion.

The theater in Aurora might have been set on fire, killing as many or more than died by gunfire. Would all of those now loudly calling for ever more victim disarmament (otherwise known as “gun control”) be calling for background checks and “waiting periods” for match purchases? Would they think arson could be prevented if they could just force everyone to “register” and “license” their BBQ lighers and Bics? Would they campaign to make campfires, BBQ grills, and home fireplaces “illegal?” Would they really think there was any hope of stopping the next arson with those “laws?”

I doubt it, because only the most completely deluded or dishonest person believes it is possible to legislate safety, morality, intelligence or anything else that causes people to act – by controlling (or attempting to control) the tools they use. The tool is not the cause of the action. All of the tools in the world, guns included, are inanimate objects and incapable of acting on their own.

The “laws” can certainly be used after the fact to punish people, legitimately or not, but they play little or no part in preventing actual crime. Why is that? Because the criminal is already happy to violate the laws against murder and everything else, so a prohibition on buying (or owning) a box of matches, or a gun, is immaterial to them. As always, criminals are quite happy to steal the tools they wish to use – and there are already plenty of laws against theft.

I’m told that there were obvious “no gun” signs in place, as well as laws that prohibited carrying guns into the theater in Aurora. [Update: no laws against CC with “permit,” only theater policy and public opinion barriers.] Why do you suppose the shooter ignored all those signs and laws? Did Aurora or Colorado simply need to legislate larger signs or more ponderous laws?

Disarming the rest of the population, even if it were possible in America today (a different essay), only creates more and more relatively helpless victims for criminals to kill – both freelance and those hired by governments around the globe. The horrible and inescapable fact of the Aurora incident is that the place was filled with unarmed, helpless victims – and the signs at the door advertised this fact clearly. The shooter knew he would face no real resistance at all.

Think about that.

Others have written about the horrific history of disarmament over just the last century, but if you doubt the importance or relevance of that, I urge you to see Innocents Betrayed, a video put out by the Jews for The Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Innocents Betrayed

Sit and watch for just 58 minutes. You’ll see the photos, the footage, the people, the faces. You’ll read the laws and hear the proclamations. You’ll witness just enough horror to understand how easy it is for armed killers to slaughter the disarmed, the powerless, the innocents.

Genocide examples from all over the world: Russia, China, Germany, Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda, Rwanda and more. Examples showing how disarmed people in America have suffered persecution, mass murder, slavery, and terrorist attacks.

A fast-moving, modern production, Innocents Betrayed presents the entirely true accounts of how civilian disarmament made possible the killing of millions.

Will the people of America allow this and similar incidents to stampede them into even more insanity – accepting political lies of safety instead of taking responsibility for themselves? Will the massacre at Aurora become the new 9-11 horror that robs people of their common sense and brings on the destruction of what remains of individual liberty and justice? Will the BATFE become an even greater monster than it already is? Will a new “TSA” arise to tuck us all into our imaginary bubble wrap each night – after being suitably molested and humiliated, of course?

Or will the people of America see through this latest act by statists and socialists, dancing in the blood of innocents, as a calculated and, perhaps, deliberate new attempt to gain ever more control over the lives and property of everyone.

And, more important, what would they do about it?

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-01B – Stupid government = stupid laws

Posted on 2013-01-03 by TPOL Nathan

Home Front – Stupid Government
Massachusetts: Concord first US city to ban plastic water bottles
(USNews)

Thanks to Jeffrey for pointing out this story.  Here are his comments:

“The town that witnessed the first live rounds fired during the American Revolution now has the distinction of being the first city in the country to… (drumroll)… ban single-serving plastic water bottles. As such, they top a sampling of things you’re no longer allowed to do in 2013.”

He provided more detail worth noting: Effective yesterday, the sale of plain drinking water in plastic bottles of one liter or less is banned in Concord, Mass. An environmental menace, supporters of the ban argued — an argument that, uh, carried water with a slender majority at a town meeting last year, 403-364. “Local government and special interest groups should not be dictating to residents what they can eat, drink and buy,” objects Concord resident Adriana Cohen. “Those are core civil liberties that should not be encroached. Especially in a free-market economy driven by consumer choice.” Jeffrey added:  “Free market? Consumer choice? How quaint.”

Nathan:  Indeed.  I have noted for nearly 40 years that New England – yes, even that vaunted Porcupine “Free State” – is more like OLD England than it was like America.  Everything that those patriots of 1774-1783 fought and died for – and killed Brit soldiers and Loyalists and AmerInds and mercenaries for – has in essence been thrown away.  George III and the Parliament of 1775 never DREAMED of exercising the kind of power that the masses in Massachusetts and the other five states of New England have given to their local town meetings and government officials at the town, state, and federal level.  It disgusts me, it turns my stomach, and it makes me want to have NOTHING to do with them.  But every other town in this land is on the same track to total slavery.

Home Front – Stupid Government
California: Sales taxes go up, long guns are barred in public
(LA Times) In all, more than 750 new laws take ef­fect Jan.1.

Thanks to MamaLiberty for this one; her comments: They’ll get it right any year now. Once there are enough “laws,” California will be a utopia. No?

Nathan:  As I’ve discussed on-line with several folks, the nut cases (like the next one, also courtesy Lady Susan) may be exactly the same sort of behavior that develops when there are too many rats in a cage.  In our case, the confinement is as much psychological as physical:  we are all becoming psychotic to some degree, but some of us are more nuts than is “normal” in a land where tens of thousands of laws exist and thousands more are put into place every year.  California (and Concord, Mass) are just the tip of the iceberg.  But the nut cases are running wild in both California AND Florida.

Home Front – Stupid Government
California: Naked man with sword confronts San Jose police
(CBS News)

Mama’s Note: So, of course the first words are about the “assault rifle” and related hysteria from all the usual idiots.

Nathan:  The more new laws and rules and other confinement and restrictions and everything else, the more people go stark raving mad.  And then you start putting the psycho-drugs in the mix and we really start to see the insanity hit.  If it hadn’t been an “AR-15 style weapon” (I don’t think those are illegal yet even in California, are they?) it would have been the sword, or maybe a rubber-band wind-up airplane labeled as a Predator or a cruise missile that would have caused some do-gooder (or someone scared out of their wits by all the propaganda) to call the cops.  Of course, keep in mind that nudity is NOT a public offense most places in California any more.  But it may still be in Florida:

Home Front – Self Defense
Florida: Naked Man Who Was Choking Dog Shot by Homeowner in Miami:
(NBC News) Homeowner opens fire on naked intruder in Miami: …Police said the suspect, who refused to give his identity, will be charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault, animal cruelty, resisting arrest with violence and lewd and lascivious behavior.

Mama’s Note: Look at the picture at the end of the first story. He was shot in the leg, but is now on a respirator? Something else major going on here. He was trying to bite the dogs and the people… sounds like the guy who ate the face off someone a while back.  And he was trying to choke and bite a Rottweiler? He MUST have been crazy.

Nathan:  Or perhaps another example of someone who is under “medical treatment” and on some weird drug regimen?  Or another case of someone who has flipped out in the rat cage?  A drug reaction would explain the respirator.

Mama’s Note: Serious drug reaction would very likely be part of the story. That’s what I meant. No mention of that, just the gunshot wound to the leg.

Swiss Home Front – Self Defense
Switzerland: three murdered two wounded in Valais Canton
(Foxcrawl.com) Three people were murdered and two others injured in Switzerland after a gunman opened fire Wednesday night.Local news outlets reported that more people were seen lying on the ground after the deadly gunshots sparked. The shooting rampage took place in the village of Daillon, in immediate proximity to Valais canton’s capital of Sion and about 60 kilometers southeast of Lausanne. Authorities in Valais revealed that “3 victims died on the spot and 2 others were taken to hospital”. Law forces managed to arrest the alleged killer who was shot during a standoff, said Swiss media RTS cited by BBC. The suspect, whose name has not been released yet, is reported to be a Daillon villager, aged 30.

News reports are spotty and contradictory: this is rare in Switzerland and it is very likely that some local person (not the cops) shot him so that they could arrest him; similar to what happened in that Oregon mall and in a San Antonio theatre here in the last few weeks: something the mainstream media prefers NOT to report, since it interferes with the memes they are implanting.  But this is a lot to ask: is Switzerland also suffering “rat cage syndrome” perhaps?  What is the nationality and ethnic origin and religion of the killer?  We know this will be used to try and disarm the Swiss people.

Mama’s Note: Just WOW!

Quote of the day:

“The scientific name for an animal that doesn’t either run from or fight its enemies is lunch.” – Michael Friedman

Smart parent – Modern technology
‘No porn, no dirty texts and no ignoring our calls’: Mom makes son, 13, sign 18 terms and conditions before giving him an iPhone for Christmas
(Daily Mail)’

I have to reprint the entire agreement – I like it very much:

‘WITH THE ACCEPTANCE OF THIS GIFT COMES RULES’: THE AGREEMENT

1. It is my phone. I bought it. I pay for it. I am loaning it to you. Aren’t I the greatest?

2. I will always know the password.

3. If it rings, answer it. It is a phone. Say hello, use your manners. Do not ever ignore a phone call if the screen reads “Mom” or “Dad”. Not ever.

4. Hand the phone to one of your parents promptly at 7:30pm every school night & every weekend night at 9:00pm. It will be shut off for the night and turned on again at 7:30am. If you would not make a call to someone’s land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text. Listen to those instincts and respect other families like we would like to be respected.

5. It does not go to school with you. Have a conversation with the people you text in person. It’s a life skill. *Half days, field trips and after school activities will require special consideration.

6. If it falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air, you are responsible for the replacement costs or repairs. Mow a lawn, babysit, stash some birthday money. It will happen, you should be prepared.

7. Do not use this technology to lie, fool, or deceive another human being. Do not involve yourself in conversations that are hurtful to others. Be a good friend first or stay the hell out of the crossfire.

8. Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person.

9. Do not text, email, or say anything to someone that you would not say out loud with their parents in the room. Censor yourself.

10. No porn. Search the web for information you would openly share with me. If you have a question about anything, ask a person – preferably me or your father.

11. Turn it off, silence it, put it away in public. Especially in a restaurant, at the movies, or while speaking with another human being. You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that.

12. Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else’s private parts. Don’t laugh. Someday you will be tempted to do this despite your high intelligence. It is risky and could ruin your teenage/college/adult life. It is always a bad idea. Cyberspace is vast and more powerful than you. And it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear — including a bad reputation.

13. Don’t take a zillion pictures and videos. There is no need to document everything. Live your experiences. They will be stored in your memory for eternity.

14. Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision. It is not alive or an extension of you. Learn to live without it. Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO — fear of missing out.

15. Download music that is new or classic or different than the millions of your peers that listen to the same exact stuff. Your generation has access to music like never before in history. Take advantage of that gift. Expand your horizons.

16. Play a game with words or puzzles or brain teasers every now and then.

17. Keep your eyes up. See the world happening around you. Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger. Wonder without googling.

18. You will mess up. I will take away your phone. We will sit down and talk about it. We will start over again. You & I, we are always learning. I am on your team. We are in this together.

Source: Janell Hofman’s blog

Nathan: As I said, I like it very much.  New technology CAN be controlled by basic human interaction and thoughtfulness.  New technology and new stresses do change our children into monsters: inadequate parenting and insufficient love do.

Mama’s Note: What I don’t see is why any child – including teens – would have any real need for such a device in the first place. A simple “tracphone” would be adequate if he was going out somewhere on his own and might need to call for help or to let Mom know he’d be late… if there were to be no regular phones available … and that’s even a stretch.

These things are built to enable all sorts of dangerous behavior, to enable and actively encourage ALL of the objectionable behaviors the contract lists. I don’t see any real positive functions for it – at least not any that can’t be done in other ways. But then, that’s just me… I wouldn’t have one as a gift.

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Flip Wilson’s Defense and Personal Responsibility

Posted on 2013-01-02 by TPOL Nathan

Liberty and Accountability

Lew Rockwell in a recent article made this statement: “If something is wrong for you or me, it is also wrong for the cop, the soldier, the mayor, the governor, the general, the Fed chairman, the president. Theft does not become acceptable when they call it taxation, counterfeiting when they call it monetary policy, kidnapping when they call it the draft, mass murder when they call it foreign policy. We understand that it is never acceptable to wield violence nor the threat of violence against the innocent, whether by the mugger or the politician.”

Nathan:  This attitude and philosophy which Lew correctly rails against is precisely the problem we have seen through history:  one group (a “priesthood” or a “king and his nobles” or one tribe or one clan or one dynasty or any other sort of elite) says that THEY are special and that the normal rules do not apply to them, just to everyone else.  (And the opposite side of the coin is that these elites designate certain other people or groups of people as being LESS than human, and therefore the normal rules do not apply to those creatures and so they can be treated as animals or dirt.)  We find this in Mesopotamia and Egypt and China 4,000 years ago, and in Mesopotamia and Egypt and China and America and Europe in AD 2012:  it is a constant evil that must be battled against.

Sometimes these “elites” are seen for what they are: a bunch of thugs with egos and delusions of grandeur:  a street gang, a courthouse cabal, a revolutionary conspiracy, a political boss and his cronies.  But too often, throughout history, enough people have been willing (or forced) to accept their claims that they have gained power.  No longer “thugs” or “rebels” or “outlaws,” they have become “leaders:”  mayors, barons, dukes, dictators, kings, queens, presidents, premiers, chairmen, chiefs, and so forth.

And the people who are willing or forced to accept them then go around and say “We must follow our leaders.  If they lead us wrong, they will have to answer for our mistakes.”

And so we end up with the god-kings of Akkad and Sumaria, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Senate of Rome, the kings of France and England, the Emperors of Germany and Russia, and the Congress and President of the United States – right down to the local mayor and chairman of the board of the sanitation district and the secretary of the cemetery board, all an “elite” and able to do things that are recognized as wrong (evil) for normal people.  Because they were appointed, or inherited or were elected or whatever.

We end up with the evil:  aggression, theft, slavery, killing not in self-defense, and all the rest of the ills of society: not just modern but through the ages.  We could call it the “Flip Wilson” defense:  “The Devil made me do it.”  Or at least “a devil” – a leader of a party or a organization or a committee or a government.  And the rest of the people proclaim “we aren’t responsible: we are just doing what our leaders told us to do.  Blame them.”

Enough.

It matters NOT whether our leaders are “elected” or “self-appointed” or take over at gunpoint, WE INDIVIDUALS are responsible for our own actions.  Whether you believe in a “higher power” (that is, God, or the Alien lifeseeders or “karma”) or just in history and justice, it should be obvious that each of us must answer for our actions or inaction, and individually.  We cannot cede our accountability to someone else, no matter how charismatic or how many battalions or how many dollars he or they have.  Nor can we expect to get away, in the long term, without some sort of judgment – even if just the judgment of the future’s historians – when we try to blame someone else for our own personal actions.

“Befehl ist befehl” (An order is an order) was not accepted by the victors at Nuremberg, but today, the descendents (actual or “political”) of those victors are using the same argument.  It did not work in 1945 and ultimately it will not work in 2012.  It is ironic.  Today, a few last (very junior) German personnel – guards at camps and collection points -are still being hunted down for “following orders.”   At the same time, more and more people in the very nations that defeated and tried and executed men and women for their “legal” actions between 1933 and 1945 are using the same excuse.  And as in the Third Reich, and Ottoman Turkey, and Nova Roma, and Uganda and India and Cambodia, and Alexander’s Greece and Xerxes’ Persia, from the top of the heap right down to the dogcatcher, the welfare specialist, the code enforcement officer, and the township clerk, they all pass the buck.  Today, the highest of the high can claim it is “for the people” and thus make it even more disgusting.

Many libertarians have correctly pointed out that loyalty to a person or a group, even a nation or society, is not inherently wrong. What makes loyalty evil – and dangerous politically and socioeconomically – is loyalty which is – to some degree, at least – blind.  Either it is “my loyalty is to my leader/family/tribe/clan/city/state/nation/company/union and they can do no wrong,” or “because I am loyal to them, they can do things which would be wrong if I or other people did it, but are right because my leader/etc. is doing it.

The most common example of this misplaced or blind loyalty is found in taxation.  Almost all libertarians have addressed the difference between theft and taxation. Who does not recognize that ANY taking of money (or any other property) by use of force or the threat of force is theft, no matter whether a gauleiter or ward boss or king or president or congress or legislature or junta or townhall meeting votes to make it legal or not?  Only those who ultimately, support the state and all its activities.  It is like being a little bit pregnant.

Now, let this apply to the tax collector.  If taxation is theft, and you are told to collect the tax (property tax, excise tax, sales tax, etc.) and you do so, YOU are in effect claiming “befehl ist befehl.”  Your only justification for doing so is being forced to do so on some severe penalty.

But it is not just to taxes that this principle applies:  it applies to ANY evil done in the name of a leader or a messiah or a philosophy or a religion or a cause. It applies to ANY action which is evil if one person does it. There is NOTHING which we do for which WE are not accountable.

God gives us liberty and we are responsible, to Him, to one another, to history, to “society” or “family”  or whatever entity we wish to invoke, for how we use that liberty.  Ultimately, we must answer to ourselves.  As the old spiritual goes, “not my brother nor my sister but it’s me, O Lord… not the pastor nor the preacher, but it’s me, O Lord…”  Liberty, freedom, responsibility, accountability – these do not belong to groups or organizations but to people: to individuals.  Until we learn this lesson, we will NEVER be free.

You can find another of my original articles here, if you are interested.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-01A: Let Freedom Ring

Posted on 2013-01-02 by TPOL Nathan

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Let the bells ring out, and proclaim liberty to all the land.

Just a few stories, but lots of thoughts about them, to start out this new year!

Home front – War against crime – Stupid cop tricks
Florida pilot spots theft at own house while flying plane
(Fox News) LABELLE, Fla. –  Authorities say a Florida man flying home from North Carolina caught a man stealing a trailer while piloting his plane over his own home.

Mama’s Note: The odds are astronomical. Is this guy lucky or what?

Nathan: And the difference between this and a drone piloted by the local sheriff’s office is?

Mama’s Note: The sheriff’s drone probably wouldn’t see the theft in progress, and the sheriff’s dept. probably wouldn’t do anything about it if it did. The drones will be snooping to find us preppers, individualists and gun owners… what do they care about mere theft?

Nathan:  In other words, despite their claims to be “serving the public,” they are as self-interested as any private individual.  Indeed, if this man saw a neighbor’s trailer being stolen, he’d be more likely to do something about than the cops would, because he values his neighbor’s friendship more than the cops value anyone “under their care.”  More and more, “to serve and protect” is nothing but an excuse to exercise power over the very people they are supposed to serve.

Our right to self-defense – Stupid cop tricks
Indian bus rape: Delhi sees rush for guns
(Guardian) Hundreds of women inquire about gun licences following woman’s murder, showing the lack of faith in law enforcement. … Indian media are currently reporting incidents of sexual violence that would rarely gain attention previously. In the last 24 hours these have included a teenager fleeing repeated abuse by her brother, who was allegedly assaulted on a bus by a conductor, a 15-year-old held for 15 days by three men in a village in Uttar Pradesh and repeatedly assaulted, an 11-year-old allegedly raped by three teenagers in the north-eastern city of Guwahati and two cases of rape in the city of Amritsar. One case reported on Tuesday involved a woman, also in a village in Uttar Pradesh, who suffered 90% burns after being doused in kerosene, allegedly by a man who had been stalking her for months. … The rush for firearms will cause concern, however. Police in Delhi have received 274 requests for licences and 1,200 inquiries from women since 18 December, two days after the woman and a male friend were attacked in a bus cruising on busy roads between 9pm and 10pm. … Delhi police received around 500 applications for the whole of 2011, up from 320 the previous year. … There are estimated to be 40m guns in India, the second highest number in the world after the US. Licences are hard to obtain and most are illegal weapons, many manufactured in backstreet workshops. Official ownership levels remain low – three guns for every 100 people – but in recent years the number of women holding arms has risen.

Mama’s Note: YES!  Of course, the “license” c*** is too bad, but it sure is better than nothing.

Nathan:  I’ve been following this, and it seems to have been a turning point in Indian society, where the old British insanity of disarming the people has lingered on far too long.  In the same way, here in the US, although suppressed by the mainstream media, the Connecticut killings seem to have triggered in many people a demand to END the “hunting preserves for innocent victims” that Gun Free Zones have created.  May this quickly become thousands and tens of thousands of women seeking to protect themselves. We KNOW the cops won’t – and can’t – do it.

However, that won’t stop them from trying to prevent ordinary citizens from doing it.  As the above story points out, an unarmed society is a very DANGEROUS society, especially for women and children.  The cops, ultimately, don’t care: indeed, the MORE dangerous the society, the more secure their jobs are.  But just maybe even in India this evil cycle is being broken.

Home front – War against faith – Theft by government
Obama Administration says it can force Americans to act against their religion
(CNSNews.com) In a legal argument formally presented in federal court in the case of Hobby Lobby v. Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama administration is claiming that the First Amendment—which expressly denies the government the authority to prohibit the “free exercise” of religion—nonetheless allows it to force Christians to directly violate their religious beliefs even on a matter that involves the life and death of innocent human beings. …

The first argument the administration makes against the owners of Hobby Lobby is that Americans lose their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion when they form a corporation and engage in commerce. A person’s Christianity, the administration argues, cannot be carried out through activities he engages in through an incorporated business.  …

The second argument the administration makes to justify forcing Christians to act against their faith is more sweeping. Here the administration argues it can force a person to act against his religion so long as the coercion is done under the authority of a law that is neutral and generally applicable—in other words, as long as the law was not written specifically to persecute Christians as Christians, the government can use that law to persecute Christians.

Nathan: If this standard is accepted and applied across the board, the religious liberty of the past several hundred years is a dead letter.  Indeed, the stage is cleared for full Roman-style persecution.  For example, the mandated act of offering a sacrifice to the “divinity” of the emperor was not published “specifically to persecute Christians” but to ensure loyalty to the emperor, so the Congress could enact a similar law and use that law to punish Christians.  How convenient.  And if a family corporation (S or C) is organized to protect the family’s property and reduce liability – or even a partnership, limited liability company or any other form of organization, those people who are the “owners” or “employees” have NO rights protected by the Constitution when they are acting on behalf of the organization or as owners/employees of that organization:  no right to free speech, no right to religious expression, no right to bail or trial by jury, no right of habeas corpus, indeed, no rights at all.

Of course, this would really matter a lot more if we HAD a Constitution that was actually in effect, and if we HAD a government (governments) constrained by it.  But the Supreme Court in essence proclaimed the Constitution dead in their decision on the Abominable Act (ObummerCare) some time ago.  So all that Hobby Lobby does is provide a graphic example and warning to anyone else of what will happen if we dare to revolt, however mildly.  I applaud Hobby Lobby’s efforts, as stated in the next story.

Hobby Lobby says it will defy Obama
(Vision to America) This week Hobby Lobby announced it will defy the Obama HHS mandate and risk potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day. Life News reported:

Following a decision by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denying Hobby Lobby’s request for an exemption from the Obama administration’s HHS mandate, the Christian retail company said it will defy the mandate.

Nathan: So much for the “Wise Latina Woman” routine, eh?  As I said, I applaud their effort, but believe that the only thing that will happen is that Hobby Lobby will be destroyed by the government in order to make an example of them for the encouragement of the rest of business.

Mama’s Note: Small business, at least outside the underground economy, is a rapidly vanishing thing anyway. I don’t see any reason why religion should make a difference. Theft and coercion are evil, regardless of religious convictions or affiliation.

The Big Lie (Mainstream Media) – Theft by government
Most will face a rare tax increase with or without ‘fiscal cliff’ resolution
(Washington Post) Americans will face a broad increase in taxes Tuesday for the first time in at least two decades, ending a prolonged period of declining taxation that has become a defining characteristic of the U.S. economy.

The idea that Americans have been paying less in taxes for two decades is such an incredible lie that the mind boggles, but millions of people apparently sincerely “believe” this.  The WaPo has a vested interest in having taxes increase, and in lying about taxes “going down.”

Mama’s Note: Which, of course, avoids the whole issue of any tax being outright theft to begin with. Theft is theft, regardless of the amount – or the victim.

Stupid government – Theft by government
Canada to give grants to parents of murdered, missing children
(Digital Journal) Ottawa – On Sunday it was announced that parents of missing and murdered children will be able to apply for income support, allowing them to take time from work. The program begins on Jan. 1.

Mama’s Note: Instead of leaving people alone to actually protect themselves and their children…

Nathan: IF this were the government’s business, it would make more sense to do things like reduce taxes so that the parents would be able to spend more time with their children and still make a living: preventing the problem, instead of a Band-Aid approach after the harm is done.

But none of this will matter: instead, yet another class of people will be indebted to the government.  And the bureaucrats will have more control over that many more people.

And of course, as Mama Liberty suggests, we should note that if Canadian families still had the right to defend themselves, there might not be so many murdered and missing children.  Canada should realize that India’s lesson applies to it.

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EPA’s CO2 Regulations are NOT Based on Sound Science

Posted on 2012-12-29 by MamaLiberty

This is a very long and complex essay, but contains much that we need to understand if we are to discuss climate change rationally. I urge everyone to post this link to every forum and social network possible.

An open letter challenging the EPA on CO2 regulation
(From: Watts Up With That?)

The Supreme Court, in Mass v. EPA, stated that the EPA must treat CO2 and other Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), as “pollutants” and then carryout an analysis to determine whether the increasing concentrations in atmospheric CO2 may reasonably be anticipated to endanger human health and welfare. The Court did not mandate regulation; rather it mandated that EPA go through an Endangerment Finding process.

EPA did so and on December 15, 2009 issued its ruling that CO2 and other GHGs must be regulated. This EPA finding and associated rulings were immediately challenged in the DC Circuit Court. The DC Circuit ruled in favor of EPA, but given the two dissents from the December 20, 2012 decision denying rehearing en banc, the matter will very likely go to the Supreme Court.

If allowed to stand, the very existence of EPA’s Endangerment Finding requires regulation that significantly increases U.S. fossil fuel and electricity prices–negatively impacting job creation as well as energy, economic and national security.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #12-53B: This and that

Posted on 2012-12-28 by TPOL Nathan

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Theft by government
Social Security Ran $47.8B Deficit in FY 2012; Disabled Workers Hit New Record in December: 8,827,795
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Ah, do you smell the definite smell of a burned-out credit card? And perhaps overheated printing presses? It is a psychic smell, of course – but the stench is evident.

Home Front
ICE Scraps 287(g) Program That Allowed Local Police to Enforce Immigration Law
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: “Allowed?” What a quaint term. Can you find ANYTHING in the Constitution that says that “immigration law” is to be decided OR administered (enforced) by the Federal government? Seems like the only thing that states need to enforce immigration law is the Tenth Amendment.

Culture wars – Government-run, tax-funded schools
Free Condoms for Students at 22 Philly High Schools
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: What? No free birth-control pills? No free Kleenex? No free nasal spray? No free IUDs? What kind of selfish people are these school administrators? What do you expect out of a public school?

Islamic wars: Arab street revolt
State Dep’t Avoids Direct Criticism of Egypt’s New Islamist Constitution
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Of course – they are too busy criticizing various private American citizens. No time for this, is there?

Home front
ICE Audits Record Number of Companies for Illegal Immigrants on Payrolls
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Ah, yes, didn’t the “messiah” make some promise about immigration reform? I guess the border jumpers didn’t contribute as much to the campaign coffers and voting totals as he thought they should.

World wars
More Christians Killed As Pope Decries ‘Savage Acts of Terrorism’ in Nigeria
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Of course more christians are being killed. After all, how many battalions does the Pope have? And those people in Nigeria are just expressing their frustration and concern about the failure of the West to stop allowing missionaries and GM foods and other such evils from being exported to Nigeria.

Our right to defend ourselves
Nadler: ‘The State Ought to Have a Monopoly on Legitimate Violence’
(CNSNews.com) Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said only the federal government should have “high-capacity” gun magazines and that the “state ought to have a monopoly on legitimate violence.”

Nathan: So that the REAL massacres can begin, like they did in Turkey and Russia and Germany, of course. He would make self-defense illegal – a crime to defend yourself, like they have in the UK. Somehow, I suspect that TSA or DEA or BATFE already has Nadler on their list for the “protective” relocation camps.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Home front stupid people
Arne Duncan: ‘We Have Common Values That Go Far Beyond the Constitutional Right to Bear Arms’
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Of course we do, but (first) this isn’t a “constitutional right” but a GOD-given right that EVERY human on earth has, and (second) it is that right of defense against aggression and those who would steal our other rights and pervert our common values that Duncan and others want to pervert and steal.

Mama’s Note: The major reason these controllers wish to take our guns is so they can do things to us we wouldn’t allow if we had guns…

Home front stupid people

Michael Moore: ‘Calm Down, White People, and Put Away Your Guns’
(CNS News.com)
Nathan: Oh, of course, as a “person of color” Moore can make comments like these. Not that he has ever exhibited a whole lot of calm as an example. I am sure he is pleased at the timing of all this coming to a head near the end of the year.

Mama’s Note: A “person of color?” The only color I see on Moor is YELLOW – as in gut wrenching coward.

Theft by government
‘Jobless Workers’ Getting More Taxpayer Money to Pay Their Health Insurance Premiums
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Taxpayers’ money? Really? Taxpayers of the future, maybe, but all this spending isn’t being supported by taxes, now or next year, even if ALL the Bush tax-cuts are repealed. Borrowing, yes. But what we should really note is WHO this money is going to: allies of Congress or even directly to Senators and Representatives: one more pipeline of immoral funding.

Nazgul – Freedom of Religion
Supreme Court Refuses Emergency Request to Block Obama Contraception Mandate
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Sotomeyer and her fellow Nazguli are making it clear: There are no more enforceable rights such as freedom of religion.

Congress in action – Culture wars: killing babies
Congress Expands Abortion Coverage for Women in U.S. Military
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Yes, taxpayer and borrowed dollars at work – killing babies without using drones. Used to be that medical personnel were or could be noncombatant, non-killers No more.

Theft by government
Geithner: Debt Limit of $16.39 Trillion Will Be Met New Year’s Eve
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Congress is of course very unlikely to agree on ANYthing, much less a debt ceiling increase. Never mind the bogus fiscal cliff of tax increases: OPM is again screaming in panic about “unscheduled vacations” and supposedly federal employees are worried about their “missions.” Frankly, we could all stand for not having a federal government around – we might figure out that we can take care of ourselves.

Theft by government
U.S. Treasury, Trying to Duck Borrowing Limit, Will Stop Investing in Gov’t Retirement Funds
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: I don’t pretend to understand what this means: it appears that the debt limit (itself a dubious fiction) may be dodged by pulling IOUs out of one pocket and shoving it into another pocket – or perhaps putting it into their shoes. So, suddenly federal retirees may have to face the same thing that many private sector retirees have: the money they were promised isn’t there. Oh, dear. Didn’t see that coming, eh?

Home front
Gallup: Americans 77% Christian, 0.6% Muslim
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: For what we can believe from the polls, and from round population numbers, that means we have about 2 million Muslims in the US. I suspect we have more Wiccans and Odinists; certainly more believers in the old Celtic religions. So why not more postage stamps and accommodations for these religionists? They don’t pass fatwas and run around with suicide-murder bomb vests.

Stupid government
Long Lines, As Los Angeles Holds Groceries-for-Guns Exchange
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: After government stupidity allows 20 children to be killed in a hunting preserve like Sandy Hook, of course it is very important to create and maintain a state of collective guilt, which combined with the hyped fears of a “fiscal cliff” for us to be led lemming-like, so that these sort of PR stunts can get maximum hype.

Mama’s Note: From what I hear, most of those guns were junk. You don’t think the gangs are turning in their good stuff, do you? I’m sure they have a very good stash of crap to give the cops in exchange for whatever they’re offering. And if they run out of that junk, they can always steal more. Such a DEAL.

Russo-American issues
Even Some Russians Oppose New Law Banning Americans From Adopting Russian Children
(CNS News.com)

Nathan: Duh. Supposedly Russia is a republic, so why should it come as a surprise to find that not all Russians agree? On this or anything else? It does always disturb me when we see large numbers of children being in essence sold – not as slaves but as adoptees – outside their native land. It happens right here in the US, with AmerInd children. As a libertarian, I suppose I should be concerned that government is dictating this: but in reality, government was already dictating that many of these children be put up for adoption, so the status quo has not changed very much. It wasn’t the parents who could decide in the past and it won’t be now.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #12-53A: Killing and guns and lies

Posted on 2012-12-27 by TPOL Nathan

This week the beginning-of-winter doldrums continues in the news:  it seems that 80% of the stories have to do with the Sandy Hook killings and the “fiscal cliff” – both of which seem to be perfect examples of politicians and the mainstream media lying their lips off and screaming in false panic in order to get the nation to stampede over the cliff to the waves below.  But as a result, a LOT of interesting things are cropping up.

Over at  Townhall there is a great review on Banning Guns with all kinds of fascinating links, like this one:

Maybe the US Isn’t As Violent As We Think…
Maybe the US isn’t as violent as we think?
(Electecon.net via Townhall) Does the US really have fewer violent crimes per capita than the UK, Austria, Belgium, Holland, and even Sweden? Data reported in the Telegraph say it does (h/t Tom Hanna): [V]iolent crime in the UK … increased from 652,974 offences in 1998 to more than 1.15 million crimes in 2007. It means there are over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the UK, making it the most violent place in Europe. Austria is second, with a rate of 1,677 per 100,000 people, followed by Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Holland. By comparison, America has an estimated rate of 466 violent crimes per 100,000 population.

Now, knowing the history of America, for a good thousand-years plus, it has never bothered me – nor have I ever questioned – that the United States is a more violent society.  Not only is our foundational culture strongly Celtic (always a violent race of people, going back at least 2500 years), but for the last 500+ years, we have accepted and assimilated the malcontents of the other six continents: the mixing of cultures is expected to be often violent and with a good deal of rancor and resentment – the same reason that the UK’s four (or more) nations have been so violent as well.  But it seems that I was wrong, at least according to the Daily Telegraph (admittedly a conservative paper but somewhat reliable when it comes to data).  The UK is FOUR times more violent than the US?  Okay, that I can see some reason for, especially in recent years when guns have been “banned” and so the criminal element has less reason to restrain themselves.  But Austria:  dear, monocultural, civilized, landlocked, peaceful AUSTRIA is still THREE times more violent than the US?

Well, there IS always Canada.  There is ALWAYS Canada: the kinder, gentler, weaker, younger kid sister of the US: the one who didn’t go prodigal son, and who has since had a sex change operation.  And low and behold, the folks at Townhall had ANOTHER story, from an excellent blog: Political Calculations Canada, it seems, is MORE violent than the US:  they don’t kill as many folks, but not for lack of trying:  violent crimes: 770 per  100,000 population in Canada versus 535 per 100,000 in the US.  Canadian intentional homicides are 1.6 per 100,000 against the US 4.2 per 100,000.  (Mexico is 22.7, and Nordic Greenland is 19.2 – even that wonderful peaceful land of Costa Rico is 10.)  Apparently, Canadians just aren’t very good at killing each other, but they try a lot more than we do.

Indeed, when we look at overall homicides, the US is WAY down the list.  In fact, its 4.2 is way below the world average of 6.9.  So much for that garbage spewed by the hoploclasts about the US being so murderous – at least at home.

Same thing when we look at crime in general: at a website, World’s Highest Crime Rates, it seems that the US is the worst, but it turns out they have the title wrong: the numbers are total crimes reported, not “crime rates” (usually, as above, done as X per 100,000) – in other words, they are using the statistics to LIE to show the US as bad.  Yes, we had nearly 12 million crimes reported, but we have a population of over 300 million (World’s Most Populous Nations) , but the UK and Germany each had about 6.5 million crimes, with only 63 and 81 million people respectively:  in other words, the US has a crime rate about half that of Germany and only 40% that of the UK.  (And yes, Canada’s crime rate is about 75% higher than that of the US.  I don’t know how many of those crimes are printing Bible verses that condemn homosexuality or making sexist jokes, of course.)

Gee, you don’t suppose – if our society is not as crime-ridden and violent and murderous as people want us to believe – what is the cause of that?

And why do you suppose the hoplophobes and hoploclasts and politicians (of both old political parties) are lying about it?

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Larry Correia’s JPFO Article: When it IS time to shoot…

Posted on 2012-12-27 by TPOL Nathan

A good many TPOL readers have hopefully read and benefited from Larry’s five-part article at the JPFO website, which begins here: “An opinion on gun control – Part 1” Larry is an excellent fiction writer with a personal history that reminds me of Heinlein’s and L’Amour’s;  he may not test out as high as a libertarian as I wish, but he still has a lot of common sense and knowledge about weapons, fighting, and people.

His discussion on this part interested me quite a bit.  My comments are italic:

“So let’s talk about confiscation.

“They say that there are 80 million gun owners in America. I personally think that number is low for a few reasons. The majority of gun owners I know, when contacted for a phone survey and asked if they own guns, will become suspicious and simply lie. Those of us who don’t want to end like England or Australia will say that we lost all of our guns in a freak canoe accident.

Nathan:  Well, his numbers seem low to me, as well.  Then, maybe low numbers are best to use to calculate as he does.  And because we don’t want to scare and panic the hoplophobes and hoploclasts into a premature revolution.

“Guns do not really wear out. I have perfectly functioning guns from WWI, and I’ve got friends who have still useable firearms from the 1800s. Plus we’ve been building more of them this entire time. There are more guns than there are people in America, and some of us have enough to arm our entire neighborhood.

I understand the estimated quantity is 340 million, and again, think that this number is low.  Although he doesn’t touch on it, I do not see how anyone can ban manufacturing guns using 3-d printers – not that there are not thousands of shops with the ability to make weapons.  I don’t know what he exactly means by “entire neighborhood,” but I know there are people who can arm at least a platoon; a LOT more that can arm a squad.

But for the sake of math, let’s say that there are only 80 million gun owners, and let’s say that the government decides to round up all those pesky guns once and for all. Let’s be generous and say that 90% of the gun owners don’t really believe in the 2nd Amendment, and their guns are just for duck hunting. Which is what politicians keep telling us, but is actually rather hilarious when you think about how the most commonly sold guns in America are the same detachable magazine semiautomatic rifles I talked about earlier.

Although he is saying 90%, I fear that it will be more like 95% that will roll over.

So ten percent refuse to turn their guns in. That is 8 million instantaneous felons. Let’s say that 90% of them are not wanting to comply out of sheer stubbornness. Let’s be super generous and say that 90% of them would still just roll over and turn their guns when pressed or legally threatened. That leaves 800,000 Americans who are not turning their guns in, no matter what. To put that in perspective there are only about 700,000 police officers in the whole country.

I guess I can agree with this reduction.  This 800,000 sounds about right, although depending on the conditions and exact circumstances, the number could be as high as 3,000,000 (1%).  But as he discusses below, some of these 800,000 include at least SOME of the cops.

Let’s say that these hypothetical 10% of 10% are willing to actually fight to keep their guns. Even if my hypothetical estimate of 800,000 gun nuts willing to fight for their guns is correct, it is still 97% higher than the number of insurgents we faced at any one time in Iraq, a country about the size of Texas.

The comparison is not that good, in my opinion:  the average insurgent in Iraq was used to a far more austere style of living, and more committed to their cause.  And they were in a population that was, at least neutral.  Here, I think that too many of the population (not even a large minority, but enough) would be willing to support a war of extermination against gun owners.

However, I do honestly believe that it would be much bigger than 10%. Once the confiscations turned violent, then it would push many otherwise peaceful people over the edge. I saw somebody on Twitter post about how the 2nd Amendment is stupid because my stupid assault rifles are useless against drones … That person has obviously never worked with the people who build the drones, fly the drones, and service the drones. I have. Where to you think the majority of the US military falls on the political spectrum exactly? There’s a reason Mitt Romney won the military vote by over 40 points, and it wasn’t because of his hair.

He is saying MORE than thirty million?  I just don’t know.  In many states, yes – but would Wyoming go as high as 20 or 25% to offset Massachusetts or Maryland  with their 1%?  As for military, I realize he is simplifying things.  We have several things here regarding drones.

(1)  It only takes 1 or 2 people in a squadron to render the OR rate of the drones to zero.  But that is a brute force approach, and would quickly lead to purges and arrests, even executions.

(2)  More likely would be a really significant decline in efficiency, of not being able to find targets or flying on the margins of the envelope to cause more aircraft losses by crashes or making the UAVs too vulnerable to ground fire.

(3)  Even more likely might be “lost” aircraft falling into insurgent hands, or even entire equipment sets disappearing.

(4) The number of “blue-on-blue” attacks would also be very likely to climb

The question would be how many people in the military simply resign immediately when the military starts fighting this domestic war, versus those who stay in with the intent of degrading the operations and seeking to pull more people with them when they resign.  I still fear that this will not be as high a number as he thinks: 10-20%  Too many are products of the degraded and contaminated training and environment of the last two decades.

It is the same thing with the population as a whole:  I think a lot of people will play ostrich and hope it all blows over.  And a lot more people will hunker down (and bunker up) and wait for things to settle down.

And as for those 700,000 cops, how many of them would side with the gun owners? All the gun nuts, that’s for sure. As much as some people like to complain about the gun culture, many of the people you hire to protect you, and darn near all of them who can shoot well, belong to that gun culture. And as I hear people complain about the gun industry, like it is some nebulous, faceless, all powerful corporate thing which hungers for war and anarchy, I just have to laugh, because the gun industry probably has the highest percentage of former cops and former military of any industry in the country. My being a civilian was odd in the circles I worked in. The men and women you pay to protect you have honor and integrity, and they will fight for what they believe in.

He does not take into account that you can be a gun nut and STILL be a tyrannical, statist monster.  Much as I wish, the percentage of cops would be even less than military: 5-10%.  And I DO hope that my brothers and sisters in arms WILL take the honorable route of standing up for liberty and for what we were taught the Constitution meant, and NOT roll over the way, say, the Wehrmacht did in 1933-45.  But I am not so optimistic as Larry, I fear.

So the real question the anti-gun, ban and confiscate, crowd should be asking themselves is this, how many of your fellow Americans are you willing to have killed in order to bring about your utopian vision of the future?”

The hoploclasts DON’T CARE how many they kill.  The stupid ones are going to refuse to think that anyone will be killed except those that are “really bad, evil people,” and the smart ones figure that they can use this as an excuse to kill all they want figuring that you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.  After all, they are willing to condemn millions to die around the world; what matters a couple or five or ten million here?

Or even 30 million:  after all the Russians, the Chinese, the Cambodians – even the Nazis! were willing to shed 10% of the population to achieve their goals. Even France was willing to kill off 4% of its population in the Revolution (1 million of an estimated 4 million in combat deaths and executions).  I can well imagine the Tranzis willing to kill three to twelve million of us: especially given their environist posturings.  After all, nits make lice.

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