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These famous words are from the Declaration of Independence, written by the fore-fathers of our country. To them, the primary purpose for government was to secure those natural rights. The founders of our country created a government dedicated to protecting the natural rights of its citizens. They set up checks and balances to slow down the process by which it might forget what its original purpose was. It took a while, but the government has forgotten. Over the years, government decided that some natural rights of the individual could be sacrificed for the "good causes" of the majority. It decided that for the "common good" it was justified in forcing society's values onto peaceful citizens with different values. The path was set toward more government intervention. The rest is history. What resulted was a stampede of groups seeking special benefits for themselves and demanding that government get involved in and control every aspect of everyone else's life and business. Government was there cheering us on with promises of equality, fairness and prosperity if only we would just give up that last freedom in our lives and that last dollar of our paychecks. Don't let them take it. We have lost too much already.
Dead Right by Sam Aurelius Milam III On Tuesday, May 16, 1995, by a vote of 101 to 46, the Texas legislature passed a law providing that Texans can now apply for a permit to carry concealed weapons.1 Gun rights advocates are celebrating another victory. That's utter nonsense. Any right the people of Texas might have had to carry concealed weapons is now as good as dead. The final nail will be driven into its coffin when Governor George W. Bush signs the bill. A right is something that is within your ability, for which you don't need permission, and that is generally or customarily accepted or condoned. If you have to ask for permission, it isn't a right. It's a privilege. In order to exercise this particular privilege, an applicant will (so far) have to be 21 years of age or older, submit to as many as 15 hours of training, pass a test, and pay a fee of $140 for a 4 year permit. No doubt the good folks of Texas will fall eagerly into line. The power to grant a privilege is identical with the power to control or to deny that privilege. In this particular case, there is nothing to prevent the Texas legislature from increasing the age requirement or the training time or the fee. Only God knows how onerous the training and testing might eventually become. Of the 40 states that now allow concealed weapons, 16 already require that an applicant must demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the licensing agency, a need to conceal the weapon. Absolutely any requirement can be imposed is a prerequisite to the exercise of a privilege. A little imagination stimulated by some knowledge of history will easily convince you that the government will certainly abuse this kind of arrangement. It's no surprise that the law passed the legislature by such a wide margin. This law doesn't increase people's access to weapons. It gives the Texas government yet another tool by which the people's access to weapons can be restricted. If people want a right to carry concealed weapons, there's only one way to get it. They must just do it, en masse, without notice or apology, and above all else, without asking their masters for permission.
More Thugs by Sam Aurelius Milam III On Thursday, May 18, 1995, in San Diego, California, the police killed another American.2 He had stolen an army tank and used it to smash various cars and other obstacles. When they shot him, the tank was effectively disabled, its weapons were not loaded, and the man was effectively surrounded. He could not, at that point, do further harm so why did they kill him? Maybe it was revenge. After all, one of the slaves had dared to defy them. Maybe they thought they could teach the rest of us a lesson about obedience. Most likely, they did it simply because they're jackbooted Gestapo style thugs. If they think with more than their trigger fingers, they seem to think that it's better and cheaper for the government to kill a suspect than to prosecute him. Unlike those wimps at the NRA, I won't apologize for my statement. If the government goons don't like people calling them names, they'll just have to stop deserving it.
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Social Contract:
The Series
Part 4: Imagine by Sam Aurelius Milam III Some time before or during the Middle Ages, men began their efforts to convert governments from those based on the sovereignty of the monarch to those based on the sovereignty of the people. In historical terms, this process isn't very far advanced. While most governments in the world today make a pretense of acknowledging the sovereignty of their people, none of them behave as if it is actually true. They display their various constitutions, and broadcast the rhetoric of human rights, but rigidly maintain their geographical boundaries, and forcibly control the people within those boundaries. An example of this inconsistency can be found in the State of California, where the sovereignty of the people is acknowledged.
Most state constitutions have some such verbiage. However, it is completely ignored by the actual operation of government at the local level. Consider Black's definition of a municipal corporation.
Some of the apparatus of governments has thus undergone a change which is not reflected by the functions of governments. This is why elections, which allegedly exert the will of the people, have so little real effect on the actions of governments. Present governments continue to exercise the ancient powers of the despot, disguised by the recent apparatus of the Social Contract. If the Doctrine of Social Contract is to be considered valid, then we must learn a radically different world view, and a fundamentally different understanding of the relationship between governments and people, and of the relationships between and among individuals. Governments continue to behave the way they do because people have not yet learned to understand the Doctrine of Social Contract, their obligations under it, or their ability to legitimately forego those obligations. Today, the struggle toward understanding continues, as men dispute old notions, trying to imagine a better world. We're in a long transition, at the end of which, if it's completed, our descendents will be free and sovereign adults. Along the way, there will be a lot of government to overcome, and a lot of human nature to somehow accommodate. The end isn't yet in sight, and may be centuries away. Meanwhile, to sustain us in the struggle, we have the legacy of the past, the strength of our convictions, and the example of the dreamers. We also have the dream.
Excrement Occurs by Sam Aurelius Milam III The Communications Decency Act of 1995 (SB314 and HR1004) will, if passed, establish criminal penalties for any transmission of images or text which is deemed obscene, lewd, or harassing.1 The puritans, of course, will decide which words indicate such content. Yet, if they can prevent our children from seeing smut like ...
If we want to keep our freedoms of expression, we must accept a grim fact. While the use of the sword should always be justified by the pen, it is equally true that the use of the pen must sometimes be defended by the sword. When necessary, violence in the defense of liberty is a virtue.
Personals (for our amusement by Dante DeAmicis)
Buck Hunter Shoots Off His Mouth Dear Buck My girlfriend is so sexually demanding that I can't keep up with her. What can I do to reduce her interest a little? — Worn Out
Dear Worn Out Marry her. |
If you don't want to keep receiving this newsletter, print RETURN TO SENDER above your name and address, cross out your name and address, and return the newsletter. When I receive it, I'll terminate your subscription. Back issues or extra copies of this newsletter are available upon request. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. Please note that I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other publications. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material. I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words, but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. I give credit for all items printed unless the author specifies otherwise. This newsletter isn't for sale. If you care to make a voluntary contribution, you may do so. The continued existence of the newsletter will depend, in part, on such contributions. I accept cash and postage stamps. I don't accept checks, money orders, anything that will smell bad by the time it arrives, or anything that requires me to provide ID or a signature to receive it. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc. I'm sure you get the idea. The Evils They Have Wrought by Sam Aurelius Milam III Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. — 3 John 11, Holy Bible, King James Version
Definition: religion... - 4. A
cause, a principle, or an activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion
....
— from the American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language
Definition: cult - Any group of devout religious
believers that becomes the target of government disapproval, persecution,
or atrocities.
On July 1, 1987, armed IRS agents invaded the home of Bill White, a member of the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County. The invasion was based on an allegation that the United Libertarian Fellowship, a church established by Bill, wasn't really a church at all but was really a fraudulent attempt at tax evasion. During the following so-called investigation, the IRS sought collaborators from within the membership of the United Libertarian Fellowship. John Webster was one of the members they approached. Below is the text of the letter that John wrote in response to the IRS query.
Shortly thereafter, John also became a target. The perpetrators this time were yet a different group of thugs, the local police. They trapped John into a contrived and so-called criminal act, forcibly entered his home, and stole (among other things) the computer containing the text of the letter that he had written about Bill White. After keeping the computer for about 5 years, the police finally decided that it didn't contain information that could be used to prove either John's innocence or their guilt. Only then did they return the computer. When it was recently returned, the text of John's letter became available. I'm happy to print it here. Both Bill White and John Webster spent many months behind bars as a result of the trumped up charges that were concocted against them. They are both, in my opinion, victims of an evil that has now become insufferable.
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The Federal Law Enforcement Aptitude Test
Originally appeared in California Liberty # 11. Reprinted with permission of Atlas Communications, P.O. Box 1400, Burbank, California 91507 Editor's Note: The Frontiersman cannot give permission to reprint this item. That permission can be obtained only from California Liberty. A religious minority is suspected of stockpiling weapons. What do you do?
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It is frequently claimed that most crime is caused
by drug addicts stealing to get money for drugs. But according to
1991 Department of Justice statistics less than 14% of all crime is caused
in this manner. How would you explain this at a public meeting?
Scoring: For every "a" answer give yourself 0 points. For every "b" answer give yourself 2 points. For every "c" answer give yourself 4 points. Total score
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