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 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 670, May 13, 2012 The Bill of Rights isn't about us, it's about them. It isn't a list of things we're permitted to do, it's a list of things they aren't allowed even to consider.
Send Letters to editor@ncc-1776.org
Letter from Gun Owners of America Another Letter from Dr. Duck via L. Neil Smith Dear Ken, I carry two Shire Silver cards in my wallet. One is for a gram of pure silver, the other is a tenth gram of pure gold. Ron Helwig has been making and selling his Shire Silver cards for years. I met him in person at the Porcupine Festival in New Hampshire last June. He's a very good guy, diligent, clever, industrious, a good father, and a friend. Ron makes the cards using jeweller's silver wire, silver tape, and gold wire. He showed me the process of carefully measuring, weighing, and cutting the wire, then laminating the wire with a card describing it in detail. You can see it yourself if you go to the Porcupine Festival late next month. Mind you, with Robin Freiheit posing for photos of herself with her finger on the trigger of an M16 rifle while not looking down the barrel and otherwise embarrassingly not practising good gun safety, you may not find the Porcupine Festival an agreeable event to attend. I gather she's a mainstay of the event's dances; maybe someone will show her a few basic facts at a gun range some day. Of course, you have to go deep into Yankee land to get to New Hampshire. So not on my list for this year. Regards, [ I've been East of the Mississippi twice and will likely never be again. Thanks for the info! That URL again is shiresilver.com—Editor ] Was that worth reading? Re: "A Brief History of the Bill of Rights" by Neale Osborn [and Lee Norton] I am looking forward to reading Neale's and Lee's forthcoming analyses of the Bill of Rights. One minor quibble: Lee believes that the originally-proposed second Article in amendment to the Constitution (regarding compensation of legislators) might have made a major change in how the legislature of the U.S. was constituted. I find that I have to disagree. In the unlikely event that anyone is unfamiliar with the fact, allow me to mention that this Article was eventually adopted as the 27th Amendment, with the last required state ratifying in 1992. Congress (or at least certain Congresscritters) were, as you may imagine, not well pleased by this revolting development. Reaction was swift and decisive. The first thing that Congress did was appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Amendment couldn't possibly be valid since more than seven years had elapsed since the Article was proposed. Surprisingly, the Supremes rightly said, basically, "Yah. So what?" Of course the next thing the cynical bastards did was vote themselves an automatic pay raise in each ensuing year unless they specifically voted to deny it at that time. I have yet to see Congress vote to deny itself additional largesse from the public trough. Sorry, Lee—Article adopted; business as usual. Robert J. Gibson
[ As politicans like to remind us, it's just a piece of paper—Editor ] Was that worth reading? Miscellenia While researching the citation to back a claim re: Thomas Jefferson's writings I discovered that MEMOIR, CORRESPONDENCE, AND MISCELLANIES, FROM THE PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Jefferson, Thomas (2009-10-04). Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1,2, & 3 (Kindle Location 2). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition—that is three volumes of TJ's original writings as edited by Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, his grandson, are available for free from amazon on Kindle. This way we can see exactly what at least one of the Founding Fathers was trying to do when this country was started. Rex May republished an article of mine published in TLE entitled "Attack of the Dog Men". It is obviously more editorial opinion than hard science (though as far as I know the science is reliable.) . II credited L. Neil Smith for his contribution to my train of thought, however I did not credit Jerry Pournelle for planting the first seed of the idea back in the Eighties with one of the characters in his Janissary series who said he was a domestic human, starship pilot working for alien slavers he was if I remember right. Don't want Falkenberg's Legion coming after me. A.X. Perez
[ Volumes 1 through 4 of that work can also be found for free at Project Gutenberg in HTML, ePub, Kindle, Plucker, QiOO Mobile and good ol' Plain Text—Editor ] Was that worth reading? Obama Administration Pushing UN Gun Control
Kansas Senator Jerry Moran introduced legislation to prohibit the Obama administration from negotiating away our gun rights as part of the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The ATT is a backdoor attempt to impose massive restrictions on U.S. gun rights. While negotiations on the treaty are being held behind closed doors, it is certain to include language that will: * Require the registration and licensure of American firearms; * Ban large categories of firearms; * Require the mandatory destruction of surplus ammo and confiscated firearms; * Define manufacturing so broadly that any gun owner who adds an accessory such as a scope or changes a stock on a firearm would be required to obtain a manufacturing license; * Require "microstamping" of ammunition. The treaty could also be self-executing, which would mean that it would achieve its anti-gun objectives whether or not implementing legislation was passed by Congress. Some people think the U.S. would never sign off on such a treaty. Well, think again. In 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the U.S. agreed to negotiate on the treaty. That's a shift from the Bush administration, which declared the ATT dead on arrival. President Bush wouldn't have delivered the treaty to the Senate for ratification, but Obama can't wait to use this vehicle as a way to show his anti-gun base that he is doing something on the gun control front. GOA is continually briefing Senators on the dangers of this treaty. We even have a number of Senators who have committed in writing to oppose the treaty. But one thing we fear is that the ATT is so massive (it would regulate everything from battleships to bullets) that many Senators may feel that the small arms portion is insignificant compared to the entire document. A number of Senators who purport to be pro-gun could possibly go along with the treaty. It is also likely that no Democrat Senators — even those from so-called red states — will vote against the president in the months leading up to the election. All this makes the Moran bill vitally important. S. 2205 will not allow the Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration to even attempt to negotiate away our gun rights. The Moran bill is also a good test of which Senators are willing to stand against the president and oppose the ATT. Please take a minute to urge your own Senators to cosponsor S. 2205, the Second Amendment Sovereignty Act of 2012. And then please consider contributing to help GOA continue to battle this treaty and other attacks on the right to keep and bear arms. It is important to act right away. Negotiations on the ATT are happening NOW! The committee at the UN in charge of the treaty expects to have a final draft ready by this summer. We need to use every means available to stop it in its tracks. Please click here to contact your Senators today. Gun Owners of America
—Begin Forwarded Message—
—End Forwarded Message— Forwarded by Dr. Duck
Was that worth reading? Here's a nifty graphic from my friend, radio host Dr. Duck.
L. Neil Smith
A bug in our collective ear Fellow lovers of liberty, I am sure that this is not an original thought as there are so very few of those in this world. But I haven't seen this meme being seeded or dispersed anywhere else and this forum one of my favorites. Thank you Ken and L Neil for TLE. But enough of that- I am a delegate in a northern socialist state home to places like Frostbite Falls (hint...). I am a Ron Paul supporter, not because he's perfect, but because he has displayed the only consistent integrity and courage in the district of criminals in my lifetime. RP is quietly adding to his delegate count in state after state, mostly since we who supported him learned in 2008 firsthand the chicanery of the Republican establishment, and started to get serious about gaming the system like it has gamed us. Nonetheless, we all know there is nothing the big boys won't stoop to to maintain their illicit power and everything they've stolen from us. I am a Republican delegate (I know, but I simply cannot ever work with the guys even more likely to try to get their bully boys to kill me and my kids because they're afraid of my guns). Because of this I cannot ethically be a Libertarian delegate, aside from the fact that the LP-US has all the flaws so well documented here and elsewhere. However, might it not make a bit of sense for the LP to nominate Ron Paul as their presidential candidate? This would put his name on the ballots of all fifty States for the popular vote, regardless of what the Establishment Republicans pull. We all face the spectacle of the disgusting east coast marxist Moneymitts up against our current post colonial African Marxist graduate of Patrice Lumbaba University. (OK, I haven't a shred of evidence that Barry Soetero did go there—his name actually isn't listed among the notable alumni here Might we all contribute to the upset of the century??? In Liberty— Earnest Partisan
Was that worth reading? Secret negotiations to regulate the Internet Dear Friend of Digital Freedom, This week in Dallas, trade representatives are secretly negotiating new regulations for the Internet — including intellectual property provisions that could choke off online speech. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement may be even worse than ACTA; it could tie the hands of democratically-elected legislators and create new, international standards for intellectual property enforcement. Worst of all, Internet users and free expression advocates like EFF aren't allowed in the room and are forbidden from seeing the negotiated text. Click here to join EFF in demanding a Congressional hearing so lawmakers can learn what's in the TPP and hear from all affected stakeholders, not just deep-pocketed industry representatives. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk claims they have made "extraordinary efforts" to include public stakeholders in negotiations, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Like ACTA, negotiations have actively excluded civil society and the public, while welcoming private industry representatives with open arms. EFF's International IP Director Gwen Hinze traveled to Dallas to demand transparency, but she wasn't allowed to see the draft text or be present for the negotiations. Here's how Gwen described the tactics the USTR is using to shut Internet users out from the negotiations:
The public should be front and center in these negotiations, not relegated to a table outside. Join EFF in calling on Congress for more transparency in TPP. Negotiators can't just shut out the public and their elected representatives. Defending your digital rights,
Re: "Epiphany in A Major" by L. Neil Smith I read your "Epiphany" column on TLE. Maybe you didn't mean to misspell "Book of MormAn," but letting this typo get by when you claim to have read the book several times undercuts your claim of personal-experience authority, especially given that you are a writer, who is expected to care about words. Many typos can be forgiven and/or ignored, but one like this can create reasonable doubt... Best; James Anderson Merritt
[ Mr. Smith reports that while he knows how to spell, sometimes his fingers don't. Monman/Mormon, both sound the same to me, but then I'm from Texas—Editor ] Was that worth reading?
TLE AFFILIATE
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. Perhaps an honorary degree is in order at some future point???
