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A Tale of Two Frauds
by L. Neil Smith
lneil@netzero.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

It's official.

In a blazing triumph of ignorance, stupidity, bigotry, and junk science, members of the Colorado State Board of Agriculture—by bizarre historical accident, the governing body for Colorado State University—have decided they would rather see a coed raped in an alley and strangled with her own pantyhose, than see her with a gun in her hand.

Regrettably, they have made this indefensible decision, not just for themselves, but for thousands of students, faculty, visitors, and staff who must now brave the hazards of a well-advertised criminal free-fire zone, simply to attend classes, do their jobs, move from one location to another on the campus, and return home again each night. Screw democracy, screw the republic, screw the Constitution, screw the Second Amendment, screw decent common sense and decades of established scientific fact regarding the vital necessity and efficacy of armed self-defense.

We might as well just call the place "Screw U."

The Board of Agriculture consists of nine political hacks (an expression I seldom use, but which is the only accurate description in this instance) appointed by the governor (a leftist greenie currently knee-deep in corruption trouble himself and about to go hip-deep) and six elected members who, ironically, are advisory only, and have no vote. Pretty obviously they have been guided in their rancid behavior by their anticipation of what parents and the media—especially the media—might say had they failed to stifle the individual right to self-defense and remained consistent with the highest law of the land, instead.

This kind of phenomenon has been occurring all over the country recently, as die-hard fanatical advocates of victim disarmament—commonly and inaccurately known as "gun control"—struggle vainly to cope with various aspects of the rise of an armed citizenry, in particular, the so-called "concealed carry movement". Informed and supported by a demented emotionalism, fed by propaganda rather than facts and logic, the tortured posture they must assume is thoroughly discredited, laughably obsolete, embarrassingly absurd, and completely evil.

Some university administrations have gone as far as to formally ban public discussion of this subject. So much for open and unfettered academic inquiry and debate. Under the First and Second Amendments, these are not properly decisions, concerning either free speech or the right to own and carry weapons, that bodies like this have any moral or legal power to make. Self-defense advocates have been warning us for decades that successful inroads against the latter right would lead inevitably to attempts to abolish the former. And now, here we are.

The fact is that, over fifty or sixty years, advocates of victim disarmament have been exposed as the authors of lie after lie, and fraud after fraud. Some have been candid enough to admit that their objective overrides any obligation they feel to the truth or the rule of law. Senator Howard Metzenbaum admitted to reporters on more than one occasion—off the record—that he didn't give a damn whether gun control affected crime statistics one way or another. The old mouthpiece for communist labor groups simply wanted the middle class disarmed.

Where else have we seen this sort of thing, of late?

Here's a hint: for years, one "researcher" claimed that a gun in the home was 43 times more likely to be used against a member of the household than on a potential criminal intruder. This contention was investigated and debunked by a social scientist named Gary Kleck and the individual responsible was eventually exposed as having made it up.

Here's another: a "scholar" named Michael Belisles was forced to resign his academic post—and return a prestigious award—when it was revealed that certain claims he had made about gun ownership were fraudulent.

For each of them, how many have lied and gotten away with it?

Organizations which, for reasons of their own, oppose the act of individual self-defense—like the Brady Center, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (under the Second Amendment there is no such thing) and the hideously missnamed Anti-Defamation League—are no different from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, the atmospheric science division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and their opposite numbers at Pennsylvania State University. They are more that willing—even eager—to distort the facts of reality for the sake of advancing a collectivist political agenda.

Although they have been caught at it time after time, with the help of their allies in the Old Mass Media they have been able to survive.

It has taken saner, more honest thinkers years to counteract and expose the pseudoscientific fraud of global warming—er, pardon me, "climate change". I first denounced it and similar scams as a hoax in The Libertarian Enterprise, Issue Number 12, August 14, 1996, in my article "Don Henley's Revenge, An Open Letter to America's Old Media".

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle1996/le9608b01.html

It took forty years to discredit Piltdown Man.

Look it up.

In time, the victim disarmers will be forced to crawl back under the rocks they came from. Creatures like them can't stand the harsh light of the truth; thanks to global warming, we now have practice using the Internet in its behalf. You can bet files are being deleted and documents shredded down at Brady headquarters, even as you read this.

Nationally, for better in some instances, and from a libertarian standpoint, for worse in others, the political tide is about to turn, thanks in part to a wide understanding people now have about another fraud.

Universal healthcare—medicalized Marxism.

In due course, if only because libertarians will nag and make fun of them incessantly until they do it, Republicans will reverse this incredibly stupid, crazy, and evil decision by the Colorado Board of Agriculture. I hope to be able to name these fools in an issue of The Libertarian Enterprise, providing their e-dresses and details of the vote.

Until then, the National Recall Coordinating Committees (those damn pesky libertarians, again) will make sure that victims of the board's policies sue individual members of the board, with any legal shield they imagine is protecting them overridden judicially with the identical disregard for existing law as demonstrated by the board itself.

It will be a good first step toward separation of education and state.

Four-time Prometheus Award-winner L. Neil Smith has been called one of the world's foremost authorities on the ethics of self-defense. He is the author of more than 25 books, including The American Zone, Forge of the Elders, Pallas, The Probability Broach, Hope (with Aaron Zelman), and his collected articles and speeches, Lever Action, all of which may be purchased through his website "The Webley Page" at lneilsmith.org.

Ceres, an exciting sequel to Neil's 1993 Ngu family novel Pallas is currently running as a free weekly serial at www.bigheadpress.com/lneilsmith/?page_id=53

Neil is presently at work on Ares, the middle volume of the epic Ngu Family Cycle, and on Where We Stand: Libertarian Policy in a Time of Crisis with his daughter, Rylla.

See stunning full-color graphic-novelizations of The Probability Broach and Roswell, Texas which feature the art of Scott Bieser at www.BigHeadPress.com Dead-tree versions may be had through the publisher, or at www.Amazon.com where you will also find Phoenix Pick editions of some of Neil's earlier novels. Links to Neil's books at Amazon.com are on his website

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