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67
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 67, March 15, 2000
Ides of March Special
Libbits
Reply to
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CIVIL LIBERTIES, FREEDOM, SELF-RELIANCE ... IT'S ALL JUNK IN CHICAGO
The Chicago City Council approved a new anti-gang loitering ordinance Wednesday tailor-made to satisfy the U.S. Supreme Court, amid warnings that it will "legalize racial profiling."
Debate on the ordinance, which defines "gang and narcotics loitering" and limits enforcement to designated "hot spots," took 2 1/2 hours and divided the Council's black caucus. ...
Fifteen ... aldermen argued ... that it was time to stand up for senior citizens "incarcerated in their homes," and children who cannot play on streets overrun by gang members and dope dealers. ...
"It's not about civil libertarians or any of that junk. It's about people selling heroin to our kids," Ald. Michael Chandler (24th) said.
Source: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/city17.html
New anti-gang law passes
February 17, 2000
by Fran SpielmanWELL, HERE'S A SURPRISE!
"We think [Colorado governor Bill Owens is] on the wrong side of this [gun control legislation] issue," said NRA spokesman Jim Manown. "He's on the wrong side of his party, and he's on the wrong side of gun owners in Colorado." The NRA endorsed Owens and financially backed him in his 1998 election.
Source: http://www.denverpost.com/news/leg/leg0218g.htm
Owens: Put gun bills on ballot
by Mike Soraghan, Denver Post Capitol Bureau, 2/18/00LET THEM EAT TACOS
The president ... chose a pretty poor example to underscore his fondness for mingling with the common folk. "I've tried to not get too aloof from the people," he said in response to a question about whether the presidency is becoming too disconnected from the public.
"I went down to the Rio Grande Valley the other day. I was the first president since President Eisenhower to go down there and I've been there three times. And a lot of people came out and I stopped along the street and talked to them and visited with them."
What kind of people did the president meet in Texas that day last week? Mostly rich ones. The only events on his public schedule were two closed-to-cameras fundraisers: one for the DNC, one for Congressman Ruben Hinojosa.
According to a pool reporter who traveled in the motorcade, both took place in private homes in a gated community. Tickets for the DNC fundraiser were $5,000 a person. Those attending Hinojosa's event paid just $1,000. The president did stop for food at a taco restaurant in McAllen and shake a few hands before getting back on Air Force One to head to Dallas to raise a half-million dollars for the DNC.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/WhitehouseWag/wag.html
A TRIO OF TREASURY TRUISMS
Rather than ban outright the purchase of machineguns and sawed-off shotguns -- the weapons of choice for the mobsters -- Congress in 1934 simply imposed a tax those weapons. Paying the tax required registering the weapon. The registration requirement was intended to discourage ownership of such weapons without outlawing them. No self-respecting gangster would want to register, much less pay the tax, on his Tommygun. Their evasion of the tax gave the government another legal tool to use in arresting the gangsters and breaking up the mobs.
Source: Report of The Department of the Treasury on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms: Investigation of Vernon Wayne Howell, also known as David Koresh September 1993; Appendix G
DISPERSE, YOU REBELS!
The raid by ATF agents on the Branch Davidian compound resulted from its enforcement of contemporary federal firearms laws. In a larger sense, however, the raid fit within an historic, well-established and well-defended government interest in prohibiting and breaking up all organized groups that sought to arm or fortify themselves. The 1934 law taxing weapons was only the first time the federal government addressed private ownership of weapons; it was not the first federal effort to control firearms. From its earliest formation, the federal government has actively suppressed any effort by disgruntled or rebellious citizens to coalesce into an armed group, however small the group, petty its complaint, or grandiose its ambition. ...
Source: ibid.
THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS ... THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES
The passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934, the first federal effort to control private ownership of firearms, grew out of this historic fear of armed organizations. [In other words, in order to control gangs, we must control the general population as a whole.] The various collections of gangsters that proliferated during Prohibition were the true targets of the law, which required a tax and registration on the sale of their weapons of choice--machineguns and sawed-off shotguns. [So, as soon as Prohibition ended and the alleged gangster threat subsided, the law was repealed -- right? - ed.] Subsequent federal firearms laws have been of a piece. [A truer statement than intended. - ed.] Other than the 1968 ban on mail-order sales, which was in direct, though delayed, [yeah, five years delayed! - ed.] response to the assassination of President Kennedy, federal gun laws have typically been concerned with the weapons of considerable destructive power generally preferred by organized groups--bombs, machineguns, and automatic weapons. [Hey, don't forget silencers, short barrels, ugly guns, cheap guns, foreign guns, flash suppressors, bayonet lugs, thumb-hole stocks, pistol grips, magazines, multiple sales, and private sales. - ed.]
Source: ibid.
NO KIDDING?!
In recent times, the federal government has shown itself even less patient with armed groups than it had historically.
Source: ibid.
SAY WHAT?
... South Carolinian Republicans preferred Bush's brand of conservatism to John McCain's, for a number of good reasons. They didn't like the way McCain appealed to Democrats and independents (plus libertarians and vegetarians), ...
Source: www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_excomm/20000222_xex_why_conserva.shtml
Why conservatism won big in South Carolina
by Samuel L. Blumenfeld[OK, quickly now, let's have a show of hands of "libertarians for McCain". ... Anyone? ... Bueller?]
PLANNING TO HANG ON TO THOSE GUNS?
I am uniquely qualified to comment on the "hacker hysteria" we now see in the global media. A reformed hacker myself, I spent nearly four-and-a-half years in federal detention in US prisons awaiting trial. For 49 months I was denied a bail hearing (unprecedented in US history according to my defence team's research) and denied release on bail.
After learning of the prosecutors' "promise" to keep me in prison without bail and to retry me repeatedly in different jurisdictions until they obtained a conviction, I realised that pleading guilty to nine of the original 27 charges, eight of which I did not commit, was my only realistic choice.
Source: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,139322,00.html
They call me a criminal
by Kevin MitnickCLINTON LEGACY REVEALED!
Let me ask you to take a little quiz.
Question: The greatest expansion in federal social spending took place during which period:
a) Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal -- 1930s
b) Lyndon Johnson's Great Society -- 1960s
c) The Clinton years/Republican-dominated Congress -- 1990sIf you answered a or b, you are wrong.
Source: http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/11/9/42242
1990s: The Socialist Decade
Christopher Ruddy
November 9, 1999NEJM AUTHORS BIASED AND DISHONEST? SAY IT AIN'T SO!
In an extraordinary apology to readers, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine admitted violating its financial conflict-of-interest policy 19 times over the past three years in its selection of doctors to review new drug treatments.
The Boston-based weekly journal, considered one of the world's premier medical publications, disclosed in Thursday's issue that it let doctors who had financial ties to the drug makers write the articles. [...]
Source: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000223/hl/journal_apology_1.html
Wednesday February 23 5:01 PM ET
Medical Journal Apologizes
By Linda A. Johnson, AP
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