On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 11:20 AM, Bill Frantz wrote:
He talks the talk, but his Justice Department continues to enforce assault weapon laws (which are ipso fact unconstitutional, as the language of the Second makes it clear that military-type rifles for the citizen militia were the intent, not just "target pistols" and ".22 plinkers"). His DOJ continues to raid houses where "gun stockpilers" are believed to be.At 10:44 AM -0800 2/11/03, Tim May wrote:But in postmodern America mentioning guns is simply NOT DONE. Not even on the Fox Network, a more rightward network than the others. (Being right no longer means mentioning guns, as Ashcroft and Cheney and the like would prefer that guns be in the hands of der polizei. There's a reason Hitler confiscated guns held privately by Germans.)I thought Ashcroft was on record as stating that the second amendment confered an individual right to own arms. Are his actions are not in accord with his words?
His DOJ has not charged Ruby Ridge sniper Lon Horiuchi with capital murder.
And so on. He talks the talk, but he and his buddies in HomeSec are establishing a national police force, "states rights" be damned.
If Ashcroft and Company really believed the line they publically speak, they would, for example, initiate a court challenge in California to strike down California's restrictions on "evil black rifles" as being unconstitutional.
The impending clusterfuck (I hope) should be interesting to watch.
The good news is that France and Germany are saying "no" to the use of NATO for Bush's war. This may break apart NATO, especially as the "NATO wannabees" like Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, etc. are all kowtowing to the U.S. demands.
(Saddam is not an ally of liberty, and Iraq looks to be a repressive place. But I take "no entangling alliances" quite seriously. And unless there is a "clear and present danger" of an attack by or from a foreign nation, I say "stay at home and avoid foreign entanglements." I have seen no evidence that Iraq launched the 9/11 attacks, so carpet-bombing Baghdad seems unjustified. Powell's "smoking gun" was a fizzle.)
--Tim May
"Dogs can't conceive of a group of cats without an alpha cat." --David Honig, on the Cypherpunks list, 2001-11
