"Engraved Invitation - To Steal" by L. Neil Smith

I suppose you have heard about the BATFE's request for Leatherman tools engraved with the reminder to its agent to steal all they can get their paws on. I have been thinking about this news item for a couple of days. I even have a protoblog written about "right and wrong" inspired by the disgraceful arrogance and complete lack of morals in statists like these. L. Neil has written a good article about it. Go read it, please.

Again For the "Anarchy-Phobes"

Another "argument" against anarchy that I run into frequently is that "humans need organization and leaders", so they will never accept anarchy.

I see no problem with organizations or hierarchies for those that need them. However, unlike today's society, these organizations would be strictly voluntary. You could organize yourself into any groups you desired, even communistic ones if that is your dream, but you would not be able to force your group onto anyone else. This is a great disappointment to people who get their jollies from coercion. It would be hard to convince people to join your happy little dictatorship if they have a choice in the matter.

As I have said before, there is a great difference between "leaders" and "rulers". Leaders would have a place of honor in anarchist society; rulers would be exposed as the parasites they are. Leaders lead by example; like a trailblazer through the wilderness showing others how to safely traverse the territory. Rulers avoid personal danger; sending others to take the risks, often at gun point or through deception, while reaping the rewards for themselves and their co-conspirators. Rulers also have a pathological need to meddle in affairs that are not their concern, usually using "it's for your own good" or "for the children" as the ready-made justification.

The superiority of a society organized on anarchy is clear. Unless you don't wish to accept responsibility for your own actions or have the need to see others ruled. Or if you are a thief who wants the illusion of legitimacy backing you up. In which case you might be uncomfortable or scared. Poor baby.

Proof That Government is BAD!

The most common argument against anarchy that I have run into is that it won't work because there will always be some thugs who will pay people to fight for them and just steal from everyone around them. So, basically, the argument is that anarchy won't work because bad people will re-establish another government. Isn't that a funny argument? It seems to me to be a pretty clear admission that government is established by the bad guys for the bad guys.

Freedom From Hatred

It feels good to be a libertarian/anarchist. While the rest of the world wallows around in hatred over silly things like race, gender, sexual preferences, the status of "official documentation", region of origin, wealth, generational differences, religion, or appearance, I only concern myself with those things that cause actual harm to people. Things like theft, coercion, aggression... you know, things that government and its sympathizers (and the other true criminals) do best.

Some days, it is good to step back and remember how much easier we can have it if we just let a lot of things roll off our backs. I know it works for me when I see the conniptions others have over the weirdest things.

"Gays in the Military"

I was recently watching an online debate about whether "gays" should be allowed in the military. The hatred and hysteria was shocking. But the division among the war-mongers is encouraging in a lot of ways. When the next American revolution begins, I won't care who is beside me shooting at the government troops. They can be straight, gay, bi, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Wiccan, black, white, Hispanic, oriental, or from Alpha Centauri for all I'll care. Those of you on the government-sympathizer side would be wise to adopt the same mind-set, but if you don't, it'll make the revolution easier for us liberty-lovers to win.

"Time's Up" Flag on Lew Rockwell

I feel like my "Time's Up" flag has hit the big-time now that it made it onto Lew Rockwell. Thanks Manuel Lora!

Here is the story behind the flag, for those of you who don't know:

I came up with this design during the summer of 2006 while I was vacationing with my family near Albuquerque, New Mexico (at the cushy American RV park, to be specific). I was relaxing in a chair at the "campsite", looking at my Gadsden flag (which was flying on my parent's motor home nearby) and thought "that snake has been rattling for over 200 years. It is time he finally struck at those who keep treading on him." I pulled a scrap of paper from my vest pocket and did the first sketch. I toyed with different captions (such as "Liberty") before settling on "Time's Up". The final design is a direct scan of my second sketch, which was almost as good as the first sketch. Isn't that the way it always works? The flags I sell have a slightly modified design (for better printing by the flag manufacturer), but I am very happy with them.

Entering the Matrix

I read a fascinating online book called The Day You Discard Your Body by Marshall Brain. He is speaking of trading your body and the external reality it inhabits with an internal computer-simulation of reality.

The reason why you will discard your body so willingly is simple. In the
process of losing your body, you will achieve a level of freedom and longevity
that is unimaginable to us today.

In this book, you will come to understand why you will be so happy to
discard your body. We will look at the many problems that your body creates for
you today, along with the many limitations that it imposes on you. We will then
discuss the technology that will make your body obsolete, and the powerful
social forces that will encourage you to abandon it.

He makes a lot of good points, but I can't help feeling that he is talking about building "The Matrix". Would you be willing to give up reality for a fiction that seemed more real than reality, and was basically a perfect paradise? You could live in your ideal world regardless of what others thought of its impracticality. I worry about who would control and maintain such a system, and who would pay for it. It is definitely food for thought. I highly recommend you read his ideas.

There is one way I would gladly do it, as long as I had paid for it myself, instead of "society" picking up the tab. At the end of my natural life, I would be willing to begin my "unnatural life". At that point, what have you got to lose? Everything is just icing from then on.

“But you support the State by your own actions!”

I really liked this post from Check Your Premises and felt the need to swipe it, with proper credit, of course. This part really got to me:

I don’t understand how could a patriot could say “if you don’t like it, move.”
Must his country be perfect for him to accept it? Fine patriot he is! ......... what’s the point of believing in something if you refuse to help it
when something goes wrong?

Paranoia? No, Curiosity.

I check my Sitemeter quite often to see how many visits this blog gets, and where those visits originate. It helps me keep tabs on where people are talking about me. Recently I have been getting more and more visits from an anonymous IP that has piqued my curiosity. I'm not saying that I think "98.220.70.# (Unknown Organization)" is really the BATFE trying to catch me threatening their evil thugs. It is probably just someone who is really bored. It does make me wonder, though.
I suppose if that is you, and you care to, you could send me a note to say "hi".

"Heller" Goes to Washington, DC (District of Crime)

The Supreme Court has now heard the arguments in the "Heller" case. I was surprised that they agreed to hear the case at all, since they have a long history of ignoring Second Amendment cases. Either they think they have figured out how to weasel their way out of making a real ruling, or they have a "fix" in place. Perhaps they will view it so narrowly that they will claim that the ruling can't be applied to any other case.

What I don't expect is that anything substantive will change. As I said once before:

"They could say that the right to bear arms is an individual right, but of
course the gun ban doesn't violate that in any way since (...insert twisted
justification of your choice here...). They could rule that the right to keep
and bear arms is a collective right and so only applies to "militias" controlled
by the villains themselves. I don't think the Supremes will have the integrity
to rule against the villains who want to keep DC helpless."

I have long been of the opinion that:

"If they flat-out state that there is no Right to Keep and Bear Arms, they know
they face an armed revolution. If they admit that the Second Amendment means
what it plainly says, they will be admitting that every victim disarmament
scheme that has ever been perpetrated on America is illegal, and therefore null
and void. .....The lie is that you need it 'interpreted' by legal scholars. You
do not. The authors wrote it for everyone. That includes YOU."

Judging by the DC mayor's desperate verbal flatulence in support of his little empire of tyranny, interesting times may be ahead.

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A Gov-thug Sends Threats

From JPFO:

An Open Letter To US Marshal Judicial Security Inspector David A. Meyer

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The Target of Self-Responsibility

*****I am sick. Just a cold, but the baby is also sick and teething. That makes me more philosophical. So, here is the result of my fevered philosophizing:

The Target of Self-Responsibility.

The further off-center the political philosophy, the less personal responsibility is inherent, and the less liberty exists, from complete self-responsibility and great personal freedom in the center, to a total lack of self-responsibility and ubiquitous, draconian tyranny on the edge.

New rings of increased horror and control can always be added to the outside, especially as technology empowers government to reach new levels of tyranny.

Self-responsibility and liberty withers as government responsibility and control grows. Some individuals may have more or less responsibility that the general population that shares their politics, but that probably means they have actually mislabeled themselves.

Important Causes

I think that many people get involved with dubious causes because they have a deep-seated need to be a part of something important. Something "big". I completely understand that. It is the reason I do the things I do for the cause of absolute individual liberty. Yet, when I look at the logical results of many of the causes and actions that others take up, I wonder if they really think about where their road leads.

Many of them choose to prop up and support the state with their lives. Do you want a world where you are completely "safe"; supposedly protected from all harm by a totalitarian government that controls every aspect of your life? Or do you want a world filled with realistic risks, but where you are free to live as you see fit, as long as you harm no one else? I know which one I would choose, for myself and for my children.

"Thank You For Your Service"

Some days I think that if I hear that phrase again, I may gag. It has become the "Gesundheit" of our culture. Chanted without thought to the wrong people. Why isn't it said to people like Wayne Fincher who put his life on the line for the right to bear arms and who is now imprisoned for standing up for our freedom? Or to Len Savage who fights against the vindictive and corrupt BATFE and exposes its corruption at great personal risk? Or to Ryan Horsley of Red's Trading Post for his fight to keep his honest business going after devious and dishonest attacks by the BATFE? Or to David Codrea for his War on Guns blog, where he has had threats passed along to from angry agents of the government?

Why do people not say "Thank you for your service" to the people who have stood up against the War on some Drugs and lost everything, including their lives? Or those who fight against the IRS?

It turns out that the phrase is reserved for those who fight for the US federal government; not for those who truly are "fighting for our freedom".

Well, I will hereby break with the rest of America and say "Thank you for your service"; all of you who stand up against government oppression in ANY form. Your stance may one day break the beast and make us all a little more free.

"Brothers"

Whenever I am reading something or listening to someone talk, I get suspicious if I hear the term "my brothers". I usually run into the term when I criticize some members of a group, or when I am reading about some blatant abuse that is defended by the offender's "brothers". Whether the speaker is talking about "my brother soldiers", "my brother officers", or "my union brothers" it seems that the term is used to end all rational discussion of any possible wrongdoing.

I can see that shared goals and shared experiences would forge a bond that could be called "brotherhood". I understand that. It doesn't excuse a cover-up of the flaws of those "brothers". It almost seems to be a knee-jerk reaction; called forth before the facts are even known.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that brotherhood is a bad thing, just that it seems to be granted too lightly in many cases to those who do not deserve the title, simply because of a common career path. I also wonder what makes people so desperate for a connection that they grab onto some of these "brotherhoods".

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What's In Your Moral Tool-Kit?

I am constantly amazed at the number of people who apparently have an empty "moral tool-kit". To them, only government and its laws dictate right and wrong. If they disagree with the state at all, it is only to insist upon what they want or they need. If it benefits them it must be OK, even if the government says it is bad, but they go no further than that. What about things that harm the other guy even if "legal", or things that help you out "legally", but are not right? Selfishness in liking government edicts is a real problem. My moral tool-kit contains "right and wrong" that are completely independent of "laws". Not that I always live up to them, but I do try.

America: Love It or Leave It?

I am not the only advocate of liberty who gets told "If you hate the government so much, move somewhere else!" Where exactly would these yappers suggest I go? The cancer of government is a global problem. I have a suspicion that even if a new minicontinent were to suddenly appear, it would immediately be claimed by some country.

Besides, if you know a woman is being abused by her husband, even if she says nothing is wrong, do you turn away and ignore it, or do you try to help in some way? How is the government abuse any better?

What is the right thing to do? Run away or stay and fight for liberty? Why didn't Patrick Henry say "Give me liberty, or I'll move somewhere else." I stay and fight because I care deeply about individual liberty. For me, for you, for my kids, and even for those who don't care.

Why I Don't Fly the "Stars and Stripes"

I used to fly the "Stars and Stripes". I did not like what the federal government had become, but I tried to tell myself that the flag still stood for the ideals of "liberty and justice for all". I never liked it when it was called "the US flag" instead of "the American flag", but I am an oddball in that I see a vast difference between the two. As the federal government transformed into the feral government (specifically after the Waco massacre), I turned away from the 50-starred flag and began to only fly the 13-starred "Betsy Ross" flag of a somewhat more noble era. Upon seeing my flag, people would comment "I understand, and I agree" without me saying a word. Yet, even that was not enough.

I came to realize that when government thugs see "regular Americans" flying the "Stars and Stripes", they take it as an implicit endorsement of everything they do, regardless of your true intent. It is like waving signs cheering on your favorite sports team or wearing their jerseys. You are wearing their colors, and showing that you are on their side. Even if, as in my case, nothing could have been further from the truth. I love America and because of that love, I hate everything the US government has done that destroys and belittles America, and violates individual liberty. I don't want any misunderstanding. I am an advocate of individual liberty: the recognition that as long as you harm no one else, you are free to live however you wish, without asking permission from anyone. That is why I now fly either the Gadsden flag with its "DONT TREAD ON ME" message, or my own "Time's Up" flag with its even more plain message.

Nuremberg II

I just returned from a scouting trip to Nuremberg, Pennsylvania for the "Nuremberg II" project. I needed a road trip! Cute town.

The united states of "America"

Here is a thought that was wandering around lost in my head. Take it for what it is worth:

North America (the continent) contains the countries of Canada, America, and Mexico. It also contains the countries of the Central America region as well as many island countries.

Saying "The united States of America" was originally just a way of saying something similar to"All the parts of my car". Only after the states were defeated by the federal government in Lincoln's War did the "name" of the country start being mistakenly thought of as "The United States of America". I realize that once again, the dictionary will disagree with me.

Thank you, and remember to be a fully-informed juror.



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