I've gotten into some interesting arguments on slashdot lately, and I have this funny feeling that I should clarify my stance on this.

I don't have a desire to see the government toppled through violence. I know for a fact that VIOLENCE WILL NOT end tyranny, neither will voting, nor petitioning, nor begging, nor demanding, nor threatening. NONE of these things has stopped tyranny in the past.

[Snipped out a harsh comment.]

I adhere to the age old concept that "those who are ready, will not ask anything of government, neither help, nor peace, like ripened fruit, they shall drop from the vine and find their own way." I've come to that stage in my life, or am fairly close.

I cannot and will not force any of you to adopt any path, be it better or worse, be it mine or someone else's, and all i can ask is that you do not use your "democratic" process to infringe upon my person, thoughts, or rights. As any actual free man (or woman, I haven't forgotten you, ladies) can tell you, of the present or the past: "All rights are reserved, except those expressly waived."

I frankly believe that coercive, involuntary government is an idea whose time is past... Its time was past some 400 years ago or longer.

Judging from some of my arguments here, and the replies I got, my opinion that no one can be "saved" or "convinced" has been upheld. We each "save" or "convince" ourselves.

As the saying goes. "Tyrannical totalitarian government and its various agencies and abuses will not go away when people beg it to leave, it will not be crushed by force of arms when the people rebel against it, or foreigners invade it and bring their government in its place. Government will only disappear when men and women behave as free men and free women and neither ASK anything of it, nor GIVE anything unto government or its agents. Only then, will tyranny and its agencies disappear from among men."

What most collectivist types don't understand is that there is no "collective". Even in the most tightly knit groups, they are not one unit, they are still a group of individuals, joined together in a common endeavor. Regardless, they are still individuals. There is no "society" there is no "government". These are abstracts that people have somehow come to believe are more real than the flesh and blood beings walking right next to them. Regardless of our definition of reality, a piece of paper in a lawyer's drawer (a corporation) is not a living being, it cannot be contracted with, the individual that handles that paperwork is contracted with. HE, is the one you do business with, not the piece of paper he represents. The vast majority of individuals have come to identify with imposed views. "Canadians are like this and we think Americans are that." "Americans are tough and can kick everyone's ass." "We are better than they are."

People identify with abstracts and even into their old age, never search for who they are individually. Many I've met are in a mental limbo, and it seems to start in the cradle and is force fed until the grave. We have lovely things, TV, Radio, Work... lots of mindless, boring, meaningless, uninspiring work. And of course, we have the eternal quest of "following in someone else's footsteps." If you set back and ask "what the fuck is it all for?" People call you crazy. Lazy. Aimless. And yet they don't see themselves scurrying about in a cage, trying to keep up with the Joneses, or being herded like cattle to wherever the puppeteers would have them go.

Whenever an individual or "the few" are sacrificed for "the benefit of the many", without the fully informed consent of those being sacrificed, there is neither freedom, nor justice, nor any kind of pretense at goodness. While the majority will always feel good when crushing the minority, the majority has rarely, if ever, been on the side of "right" or "good". In fact, judging by historic precedent, the majority, regardless of where, have always had several factors in common, and none of them really all that great.

Lack of courage..
Lack of curiosity.
Lack of initiative.
Lack of vitality.

I believe that time is near, when totalitarian, external, coercive government in all its forms will be seen for what it is, and I think it is nearer than most think, but I neither know WHEN such an enlightenment will occur, nor what will trigger it, nor how it will change things. All I can say is that I've used my various methods from the friendly banter to the more rude and argumentative, to observe other people wherever I've traveled, wherever I've chatted, offline and on, and there are some amongst all, even among the socialists, who "kind of" almost get it. I kind of "almost get it" also. And as far as I can tell, when they finally STOP asking for others to be violated on their behalf, they will be free. It isn't something that needs to be forced, however, since everyone comes to that realization sooner or later. Many do it when they're old, decrepit and their bodies are failing. I prefer to have done it now, because it leaves me more of my life ahead to enjoy.

Perhaps this will clear up some things for those of you I've argued with lately. I bear none of you ill will. Now please excuse me... a glass of Rum and a good friend await me near the grill.

TFA LINK, CLICK HERE

Isn't that amazing?

From TFA:

Boeing was awarded an $860 million contract to provide the technology, physical fences and vehicle barriers.

"Boeing has delivered a system that the Border Patrol currently is operating 24 hours a day," Boeing spokeswoman Deborah Bosick said. She declined further comment.

Project 28 was not intended to be the final, state-of-the-art system for catching illegal immigrants, Giddens said. "I think some people understood that and some didn't. We didn't communicate that well."

Is it just me or is it becoming more visible that if they really wanted to NOT waste 860 million bucks on on more ineffective police state gear, they could've just PAID the companies that hire the so called "illegal" mexicans the difference it would cost to simply hire the legal type? How hard would it be for the overpaid boys and girls in Washington to simply offer H1B Visas for Cabbage Pickers?

I will make a prediction... *gasp*. After TWICE the budgeted 860 million is spent on keeping out "illegal aliens" they will STILL be getting in. Its just a reason to enlarge ANOTHER bureaucracy and increase spending. And who pays for it? The idiots who voted for all this and who still buy the party line... what party line you ask?

Why, the Boot On Your Neck Party, of course.

There have been 3 mass shootings in the last week (at least the ones being reported by the press)... what is being debated on the back pages??? The Supreme Court is debating whether "the People's right to keep and bear arms" actually means "the People's right to keep and bear arms" or if it means "the Government's Goons right to bear arms and keep them from the People."

Its just like it happened before the Democrat Congress sweep. It looked like the Iraq war alone might not get all the Demoncrats elected... so there were a good half dozen UGLY shootings right before the elections, ramped up and cut off RIGHT before the elections. Democrats went in, and we never heard another shooting again.

Also, is it not curious how all these "Cho Seung Hui" types tend to always follow the proper formula from The Manchurian Candidate? They shoot someone or a bunch of someones and then they give the gun a blowjob? The few that do not, end up vanishing or being "murdered" while in prison. Always before they can talk... remember McVeigh? Remember Oswald?

This shit is becoming so predictable it is amazing that nobody's noticing in the media and that the masses are still so easy to sway when the pattern is so blatantly obvious (it is yet more scary since so many geeks and hacker types who normally oppose government abuse, miss this thing and continue to support socialists and gun control, no differently than the freedom types continue to support organized religion and authoritarian armed forces, whether they be police or armies.)

I predict that if HR 1022 goes up for vote (the massive gun ban proposed last year and brought up for debate) there will be a rash of shootings that will make Columbine and Virginia Tech look like a paintball tourney. And I can pretty much bet 1:100 odds that the authorities will A, be late, and B, find a way to NOT get near the shooter until AFTER the color corrected damage has been done and filmed. Afterwards, the gun control measure will be rammed down the throat of the People, by Congress and regardless of how the results turn out, I can guarantee that no matter where those shootings take place, it will be in a "gun free zone" and yet NOBODY among the cattle will so much as notice.

WTF? Why do these things NEVER occur at shooting ranges or military facilities or even cop shops?

And this comes from the Government's own statistics and propaganda outlet, Perry just quotes it.

How nice. There's even a very nice quote from the Colonel (Cooper, not the KFC guy) at the end. How very nice.

EDIT: Here's a snippet you'll like off bat... talks about that forgotten trait... "responsibility for your actions."

Let me offer two caveats. First of all, I have difficulty accepting the term accidental injury/death when it relates to guns. I accept only negligent injury/death. If the four rules of gun safety are adhered to (Will the BATF Seize Cheney's Gun?) there will be no gun accidents. Whoever pulls the trigger is responsible for the placement of the bullet, intentional or otherwise. I'll stick with the improper term accident for this article simply because that's the wording used in the study.

From the Article (by Eric S. Raymond, of OSS fame, no less!):

Human beings are not natural killers; very, very few ever learn to enjoy murder or torture. Human beings, however, are sufficiently docile that many can eventually be taught to kill, to support killing, or to consent to killing on the command of an alpha male, entirely dissociating themselves from responsibility for the act. Our original sin is not murderousness -- it is obedience.

Myth of Man The Killer Ape and its effect on humanity does a brilliant job of putting the major hobgoblin of the last 1000 years into the proper viewing frame of reference.

From the Article (from Eric S. Raymond's website, off his user page):

Human beings are not natural killers; very, very few ever learn to enjoy murder or torture. Human beings, however, are sufficiently docile that many can eventually be taught to kill, to support killing, or to consent to killing on the command of an alpha male, entirely dissociating themselves from responsibility for the act. Our original sin is not murderousness -- it is obedience.

Myth of Man The Killer Ape and its effect on humanity does a brilliant job of putting the major hobgoblin of the last 1000 years into the proper viewing frame of reference.

"Men cannot be governed and remain men. Domesticate the wolf and he changes both physically and mentally. His muzzle shrinks, his teeth diminish, he loses size, speed, and strength, He grows spots. His ears flop. His brain withers. He becomes a dog. Men are on the verge of becoming dogs -- the changes are underway already -- unless we do something to stop it."

The article is about something else, and remarkably accurate. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... the majority of mankind has been domesticated, but a few remain free and are the only hope the great herd has, that what man once rarely was, what man rarely is, and what man likely forever will merely "rarely" be, is free, and able to achieve his own potential. The rest aren't even worthy of being called dogs, because at least dogs can survive on their own, and can often recognize a hostile individual. Domesticated man, cannot even do that much.

http://www.jpfo.org/smith/smith-omaha.htm

Some good reading. If you decide to comment, try reading the WHOLE article.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/red-state-fascism.html

'preciate it.

Every time something hits the news, in ANY country, that has any scandalous value, LOOK AT THE BACK PAGE. Something is being buried. To paraphrase Houdini, "its all about misdirection." There hasn't been a single scandal in the country that hasn't signalled some small grievance committed by the lawmakers or their enforcers. (USA here, but European and "free world" countries all have similar propaganda arms called "news outlets".)

Most recent major fiasco, that lovely piece of lawmaker mayhem, MARK FOLEY... sure he was going to hump some little kid, but the question to be asked is WHY would the senate (who've long been taking turns fucking the American people) throw one of their own kind under the bus? What would drive them to do this? Hmmm... September 28, in the dark of night (reminiscent of the 1913 Federal Reserve act passed in the middle of winter recess) the Military Comissions Act was passed. Sure, no issue, after all, America has been under military rule since about 1867 or so. It was just made "official" now.

However, as always, how to you distract attention from such a wanton crime? You sacrifice a pawn! You throw one of your fellow boy fucking senators under the bus. Or better yet, he throws himself under the bus. The good senator resigned on September 29... Odd? It wasn't that he was busy fucking some little boy or writing steamy emails, his fellow senators and representatives were busy fucking the whole of the American people. Yet nobody made note of it until sometime later, when CNN finally saw it in their good graces to bring it to attention. Like almost everything else, it is brought up later, when people view it as a "done deal". It is never brought up while it is done, or immediately thereafter, unless it is not really that important.

O.J. Simpson recently hit the news... main story!! Who gives a damn about O.J. and his continued search for "tha real killah??" What was on the back page? A little known piece about the recent machinations of the international bankers and the Federal Reserve. Some stuff about rates and legislature being changed to keep the money presses going, yet shafting the American saver and those with nest eggs (like old people who thought they wouldn't have to depend on Medicare or Social Security, are they ever going to be in for a surprise!)

Every time a major sensational article hits the front pages READ THE BACK PAGES, SOMETHING IS BEING COVERED UP, and the SHEEP WILL BUY IT. It is up to you to choose whether you'll be a sheep, bleating to be fleeced, milked and butchered. The info is always available.

http://courierpress.com/news/2007/nov/15/liberty-dollar-office-raided/

So to those who say "the free market doesn't work"... I must ask... how is this "free"? I have known more than few individuals who dealt with this company and none seem to have been "cheated" or dealt with in a way that warrants a Jack Booted Thug squad kicking in this particular door.

Questions, answers? I'm as curious as you are how someone will sell me the "free markets are evil" concept, when none of us have yet seen a "free market" outside of black markets fulfilling needs or wants (especially those that harm nobody but the user of the thing in question) that the government has prohibited (and the list of prohibitions is quite long.)

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/henderson3.html

Yet again a very good article by another semi-insider of the political system. Seems you have to partake to learn that "the system" isn't in the favor of those it claims to "represent", which in fact it more often than not, "rules" over.

RTA before you comment, or even if you don't comment.

Now here's a tidbit of attention in the media (which always uses the "demonization before prohibition" formula before some form of ban or restriction).

This pattern has been followed for sometime now. Guns were demonized in the papers and in Hollywood (gotta love a full 30 round burst of accurate full auto fire from a small pistol, only Hollywood can deliver so accurate a shooter, but between movies and newspapers, people become so afraid of guns that a mere .22LR shot will cause an individual to drop dead from an arm shot, despite the lack of damage such a round would cause)... and voila, we got various forms of gun control.

Now, encryption is starting to get mentions in the paper, and one finally makes it to slashdot... http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/08/1618229

To quote: "Matt Phillips, spokesman for the UK record industry trade association explains, 'Our internet investigations team, internet service providers and the police are well aware of encryption technology: it's been around for a long time and is commonplace in other areas of internet crime. It should come as no surprise that if people think they can hide illegal activity they will attempt to.'"

Remember? England suffers under a total gun ban, they've even gotten started on demonizing and "buying back" knives now. (Aka buy up, or waste of taxpayer resources to *buy* and destroy taxpayer property, double waste, AFAIK).

I could almost laugh. I have met people in line at grocery stores, computer shops, hunting shops, (Bass Pro, Dicks, etc) who say "if you've nothing to hide, why worry about privacy?"

Can people TRULY be this stupid? We all have something to hide, but many of the sheeple don't realize this until someone airs THEIR dirty laundry and then they suddenly discover that, voila, privacy really IS a nice thing. Most people repress things they don't want remembered, and presume that if THEY forgot, the record of said skeletons in the closet is lost. Alas it often is not, and even the details of one's sex life or "unusual" hobbies may be used to demonize an individual or destroy life or career. Try being into model rocketry and get pulled over by a cop while carrying an exhibit... if you get Terry searched and don't have the brains to lock the car and be on the offense during the questioning, you may likely be nailed for "transporting explosives" or some such.

True, I think all a ban will do, is fully bring the contrarian nature of humanity to bear, and those of any kind of orneriness will immediately deploy encryption to their everyday computing. As with all "prohibitions", nobody is ever harmed, except perhaps the user, yet governments the world over will trip all over their dicks to "pass laws" and "make illegal" the "concealment of illegal downloading through encryption"... or somesuch.

In the end, most of us won't get touched, but the goon squads will get their way, kick in some doors and hurt/dissuade the normal everyday J6P's (Joe 6 Pack) of the world. Probably will beat some little "h4x0r" kiddie into paste for "resisting arrest" (as if some 13 year old "scr1pt k1dd13" would be able to do anything but faint at the sight of M16 muzzles in his face and screaming ninja masked thugs in his bedroom.)

Ordinary users trying stuff out will get hurt. Those with skill and without the will to play ball will continue to encrypt their traffic unharmed, though selective enforcement will continue to be used to "make examples" of political dissidents and "undesirables", though the governments of the world, generally go after soft targets. This has always been the way.

Who here wants to bet that once the guns are nearly extinct (the affordable ammunition market is being dried up as we speak through artificial shortages) we will see another form of "control"?

After all, those in perceived power need to actually ACHIEVE power, sooner or later, else they be overthrown when the mass consensus, for that rare instance, every millenia or so, achieves critical mass and results in mass revolt by the serfs who notice they not only got the short end of the deal, but that they were outright shafted.

So what is the next form of "control" you ask? Simple. My prediction is "encryption control". After all, only "terrorists" and "criminals" have "anything to hide". Or so the "authorities" and braindamaged sheeple tell me.

Two more election cycles in America and Western Europe and we will see ALL non backdoored encryption programs and algorithms declared illegal... taking your Linux laptop on a plane? Voila, free trip to Gitmo for "exporting forbidden encryption" or "possession of subversive materials".

Legislative fiat and Hollywood propaganda has made sure that ALL forms of control become permanent, by being incorporated into the prevalent zeitgeist.

This one, is unlikely to be any different. Remember this when you strive to crush other's rights, yours may soon become a "crime" alongside those you helped destroy.

A libertarian / free market online rag, quoted in its entirety by the leftist Counter Currents.

Wow, will the surprises never end?

Read Here

Call me nuts, but I went and tested windows server 2008 (downloadable from Microsoft if you have a tech net subscription, otherwise they require you to fill out an info form, asking all but you signature in blood).

Now, seriously, is it just me, or does their "patented new interface" look REMARKABLY like KDE has looked for the last 7 or 8 years or Gnome for the last 5?

I wonder if GNU or KDE orgs can demand remuneration and sue Vista out of production for violating "prior art"?

The shiny themes and browser based (with search box) file management is ALL prior art, last I checked (especially less buggy prior art).

Once I get around to the "crackability" tests, I'll post more in depth... I just don't know that I have the patience to run Windows again.