If you're not a Rifleman — you're just a hobbyist.
By choosing to move to a state where you can't become a Rifleman, a hobbyist is what you'll remain.
The Nerf and Egghead Libertarians don't like hearing this, obviously, but facts are stubborn things.
The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.
— Thucydides
FSPers in New Hampshire without battle rifles are like libertarians in Manhattan without handguns. All are at the mercy of any determined band of thugs. If you're not a Rifleman in the country or a Pistolero in the city, then you're merely food waiting to be eaten.
You can scream No initiation of force! all the way down your aggressor's gullet. Big deal. All fish wriggle when caught. Only fish with teeth are dangerous to anglers, and New Hampshire fish will find it very difficult to grow the teeth they need.
Also, New Hampshire is quite vulnerable to the counter-response of a neutralizing number of East coast liberals. Vermont had been socially and politically poisoned in exactly the same way by 1988.
Most folks living left of the Mississippi River, however, will not move East. They understand the magic of the West and its unique suitability for a free state initiative. Thus, about 18% of original FSPers had opted out of New Hampshire, but wish the FSP every success there.
Wyoming is our favorite choice. It enjoys the space, the culture, and the resources to make "Free State West" work. It's also too rugged for liberals to contemplate (and Jackson is already full).
We were moving to Wyoming regardless, but had waited until today to see if the rest of our FSP comrades would be joining us. While we are sad to lose up to 4,500 of them to New Hampshire (assuming they actually move there), we've no choice but to create a second organization for our own Western purposes.
Besides, with most national attention on the FSP, a quiet Wyoming project just might succeed. As a magician misdirects audience scrutiny to hide the hare, New Hampshire may serve to misdirect the ruling powers. The rabbit could come from a Wyoming hat, versus a New Hampshire sleeve.
2004
2004 USA political news
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
— William Pitt
In the classic American way, a lone gunman on Prozac® with a so-called "assault rifle" opens fire on a festival crowd, killing 11 and wounding 17. Although he is killed by a randomly-armed citizen, this is not reported by the national media. What is widely reported is that the gunman used a 30 round "high-capacity" magazine in his Mini14. Accordingly, the "Crime Bill" of 1994, due to expire on 13 September, is renewed in perpetuity by Congress, and signed by President Bush. "In the continuing war against terrorists, we must maintain those laws which keep our cities and families safe from gun violence," explains the "gun-friendly" Texan President.
I'm not for free trade and I'm not for protection.
I approve of them both, and to both have objection.
In going through life I continually find
It's a terrible business to make up one's mind.
So in spite of all comments, reproach, and predictions,
I firmly adhere to unsettled convictions.
— British House of Commons, 1903
2nd Amendment groups and Republican PACs who had expected Bush to veto the "Crime Bill" extension are stunned. Their rally cry of "Second Term? Second Amendment!" had not been taken up by Bush. 1.5 million NRA members switch to no-compromise RKBA groups, such as Gun Owners of America, Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, and the Second Amendment Foundation, to name a few.
In memory of Bush 1.0 in 1992, these yet-again betrayed gunowners try to deny reelection to President Bush. This time, it doesn't work. There is no spoiler third-party Perot, and the Bush machine is laden with campaign contributions. Also, the Democratic Party fields an ineffective and vacillating candidate. Finally, much of the public is nervous about "changing horses in mid-stream" during the (Forever) War on Terrorism.
2004 USA economic news
Through a classic series of cruel bear rallies and War on Terrorism panic, the Dow falls to 6,812 as increasingly nervous capital quickly moves into commodities. All the market gains since 1995 have been given back. Gold is $515/ounce, and silver $8.60. Crude oil is $34 a barrel, and pump prices $2.50/gallon.
GOING THE DISTANCE,
NO MATTER WHAT
* * *
Fewer than half of libertarians armed
Exclusive to The Modern Jeffersonian, by "Whisk E. Rebellion" December 2004
In his poem "The Second Coming" Yeats squarely framed the issue: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Ayn Rand echoed that in Atlas Shrugged with:
When men reduce their virtues to the approximate, then evil acquires the force of an absolute; when loyalty to an unyielding purpose is dropped by the virtuous, it's picked up by scoundrels — and you get the indecent spectacle of a cringing, bargaining, traitorous good and a self-righteously uncompromising evil.
Many Libertarians will not accept the possibility that armed struggle may become necessary to restore our freedoms, much less prepare for it with any training. They are simply too intellectually-vested in Rand and Rothbard and Rockwell.
Libertarians forgot, or never learned, that the purpose of thought is to foment and guide action. You've got the largest libertarian bookstore in the world selling titles on the philosophical underpinnings of gun ownership and the 2nd Amendment, but refusing to carry Boston's Gun Bible — arguably one of the single most useful gun books ever written — because it's "gruesome" and a "blueprint for revolution." Libertarians are too often like kids who play "Doctor" but avoid med school. On the morning of 19 April 1775, do you think the Minutemen had their noses buried in Adam Smith's Invisible Hand?
Absolutely not. These men had been training together for months!
How many Libertarians today do you suppose actually own a battle rifle, or even a hunting rifle? And I'm not talking about those who got all nervous about Y2K or urban riots and finally condescended to buy a Mini14, which has been collecting dust in the closet, unfired. I'm talking battle rifles: M1 Garands, M1As, FALs, HK91s. One in 50? And how many of them have actually trained with it? Spent days in the woods with it? One in 200?
That's one in 10,000 Libertarians whose ass is not a lump of cookie dough. That's one in 10,000 Libertarians who is ready, willing, and able to instantly defend home and hearth with a .30 caliber, military-pattern, battlefield-proven, Honest-to-God rifle.
Libertarians are like Tibetan monks facing the Red Chinese Army in 1950. Sure, they're nice, well-meaning people, but they pose absolutely no threat to armed aggressors, and that's disgraceful. There is no excuse. Libertarians had an entire generation to arm and train, and a country in which such was legal and affordable and even socially tolerated. They chose not to arm, not to train, and now they're paying for it. All of us are.
In short, the real problem is good people who remain only good enough to live with themselves, and refuse to follow their philosophical, religious, and political premises to full conclusion. If Republicans had become Libertarians, if Libertarians had become Riflemen, and if conservative Christians had become either, we would have been enjoying limited government since the 1950s. After they had sorted out the world, the WWII vets had an epic chance to sort out America and return her to the true path. They did not. Beating the Japs and Nazis was only "half the prescription." The "full bottle" involved wiping out the Communists, both abroad and at home. Kill only half your enemies and then retire to the couch gloating about it will guarantee quite the surprise later on. To compound this error of omission, the vets raised their children in suburban A/C luxury, only to be rewarded by their revolt in the 1960s.
As in anything, the "good enough" is the enemy of the best. We must at last apply the total remed
y — taking the entire prescription, not simply "half the bottle."
Good must boldly call evil for what it is. When Reagan did so to the USSR and pledged America to designing and building a space-based missile defense, the Soviets went nuts. They finally faced an American President who would not be placated, who would not blind himself to the brutal fact that the USSR was an "evil empire." Reagan's greatest asset was his adherence to basic principles. To be sure, he was a simpleton, but in the best sense. So are Americans.
Reagan appealed to that, demonstrated superb leadership, and the Soviets knew that it was Game Over. And all it took was a declaration of moral war — something FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, and Carter avoided. Seven presidents cowered for forty years! Finally, a decent and simple man pointed a Zolan finger and said "J'accuse." Ten years later you could get a Big Mac in Red Square or buy surplus MiGs. It needn't have taken forty years to end the Cold War. It only took the first President to say "Boo!" and that entire rotting shack collapsed.
Americans could have gotten rid of Clinton had they thrown up enough fuss. Instead of asking the right questions about Vince Foster's obvious homicide and the Oklahoma City bombings, they reelected him in 1996! For their trouble they were dragged through still further mud of his continued scandals up until his very last day in office with those outrageous pardons.
His second term was even more putrid than his first.
That is the price of cowardice.
2005
To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.
— C P.J. Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), pp. 293 294
Corruptisima republica plurimae leges. (The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.)
— Tacitus, Anals III 27
A subtle, though vital, human dynamic is what I call "voltage." It is paramount regarding the heart of an American. Voltage. Positive or negative.
If you have a government job, if you believe that citizens "cannot take the law into their own hands," if you believe it immoral to "cheat" on your taxes, then not even conservative political beliefs will save you. Your voltage is on the side of oppression. You have the heart of a slave. You are a collaborator.
Conversely, if you don't understand why you should pay sales tax on a used car from a private seller, if you have ever acquitted a defendant charged with a harmless malum prohibitum, if you see an obvious distinction between your country and the government, then you have the soul of a Patriot — even if you vote Democratic. Your voltage is on the side of freedom.
It is necessary that you daily commit acts to maintain your proper voltage. Ignore government forms, refuse to provide truthful answers to government officials, cultivate radical friendships, make undeclared income from "under the table," buy unregistered guns, circulate news about corrupt federal officials, and generally withhold your cooperation.
Done consistently, you will more likely be capable of acting valiantly and decisively when der Tag arrives. Courage is a muscle. Subject it to daily use, or it will wither beyond revival.
— James Wayne Preston, Journals
2005 USA political news
After he appoints two new Supreme Court Justices, President Bush wastes no time signing sweeping new legislation restricting personal freedoms in the name of the (Forever) War On Terrorism. The USA PATRIOT Act 2 outlaws: cash transactions over $5,000; cash purchases of telephone calling cards, airline tickets, gasoline, and ammunition (and their components); and private transfers at gun shows (all go through NICS).
Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and associations; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, order for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.
— Adolf Hitler, 1933 speech calling for "an Enabling Act" for "the protection of the People and the State" in response to the Reichstag fire (which Goering's people had secretly lit but publicly blamed on the Communists)
The Prevention of Gun Violence Act of 2005 declares .50BMG target rifles and ammunition as "destructive devices" under the National Firearms Act of 1934. Also included are (except for a few exempted African heavy game calibers) all calibers with muzzle energies over 4,000 foot/pounds, which means the .338 Lapua Mag, .30-378 Weatherby, .408 CheyTac, etc. Also, the tax stamp fee is raised from $200 to $1,000 (which is fruitlessly challenged under the Drexall Furniture ruling). Prohibited for civilian possession are armorpiercing ammo, Level IIIA and IV bulletproof vests, Gen3 night vision goggles, all night vision scopes, and all infrared laser sights. A-90 day amnesty period is provided for, after which such gear is felonious contraband punishable by 10 years in a federal penitentiary.
Prohibited from further domestic production or importation are detachable magazine semi auto centerfire rifles (AR15s, Mini14s, AK47s, FALs, etc. as well as the Rem 7400, Marlin Camp Carbine, etc.). The "handwriting is on the wall" for all but the most stubbornly blind.
near Lander, Wyoming
"Look, Honey you got another reply from Senator Doxer."
Susan Bradford hands her husband the familiar envelope with its franked postage and blue inked return address.
Kyle Bradford, a third generation farmer near Lander, has just come in for lunch. His wife made absolutely the best lasagna, which won the Fremont County Fair "Best Meat Dish." He could smell it all the way from the barn as he hurriedly parked the tractor.
"Oooh, maybe I oughta save this for a special occasion," he says with sarcastic awe. Holding the envelope in his callused hands, he languidly tears it open and reads the letter aloud:
Dear Mr. Bradfurd ,
I was very pleased to receive your letter(s). As you know, I always like to hear from concerned citizens such as yourself.
I, too, am most interested in the Bill of Rights .
I am also interested in your right to keep and bear arms .
Such vital topics are very important, and it is important that we continue to think about vital topics. I think about them every day.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. I will most assuredly remember your views as I work for America in the U.S. Senate.
Very truly yours,
Senator Dorothy Doxer
"Another masterpiece suitable for framing," observes Susan.
"Yeah, but why upset the parrot?" Kyle replies.
Pitchforks and politicians! screams Bondo, their double yellowhead from the living room. Susan's father had taught him that phrase during the Clinton regime, and the old bird seemed to belt it out at the most uncanny moments. The Bradfords swore that their parrot was a feathered human.
"Bondo is not in the mood for Dorothy Doxer today," laughs Susan. "Well, gee, who would be? I mean, who could possibly read a cheesy letter like that without throwing up?" Kyle bemoans. "'I, too, am most interested in the Bill of Rights'
we could fertilize the back 40 with that! I know we're only farmers, but do they really believe we're that stupid?"
Opening the oven door with a Taz potholder, Susan says over her shoulder, "My favorite bit was 'I will most assuredly remember your views.' Kyle, why do they even bother with this . . . this charade anymore?"
"This charade is all they've got left, Sweetie. It's not exactly Jefferson and Madison out there anymore," answers her husband. "Democracy is just a way of saying Nice Doggie! until you can find a rock."
As Susan brings the lasagna to the table she lightly pats her husband's head and says, "Nice Doggie!"
Kyle Bradford jokingly growls, then grows serious. Why do I even bother writing them? Just to be part of the same charade? Well not anymore! Maybe it's time for the people to find a 'rock' instead of — "Honey, are you going to say grace?" asks Susan.
"Oh, right sorry!" says Kyle. "Dear Lord, we thank you for " Pitchforks and politicians!
"Bondo!" yell the Bradfords in unison.
Irreverent as the bird could be, he went into a fury whenever Hillary Rodham Clinton was shown on TV, so his frequent outbursts were tolerated.
As they began to eat, Susan says, "And you'd think they could have at least spelled our name right!"
"Actually, the 'u' was the original spelling, but Grandpa Bradfurd had to change it years ago, before I was born after the 'unpleasantness of '59', you know," Kyle replies in mock seriousness. "Yep, the whole family was run outta town like Commie lepers, and they "
"Oh, hush, you!" Susan giggles.
Molon Labe! Page 9