Kosciuszko the Abolitionist, and Jefferson's Weakness

This post deserves its own entry, for it shows Thomas Jefferson's weakness, and the unwavering devotion to freedom of one Thadeus Kosciuszko.  From the article:

I beg Mr. Jefferson that in the case I should die without will or testament he should bye out of my money So many Negroes and free them, that the restante [remaining] sums should be Sufficient to give them aducation and provide for thier maintenance, that . . . each should know before, the duty of a Cytyzen in the free Government, that he must defend his country against foreign as well as internal Enemies who would wish to change the Constitution for the worst to inslave them by degree afterwards, to have good and human heart Sensible for the Sufferings of others, each must be married and have 100 Ackres of land, wyth instruments, Cattle for tillage and know how to manage and Gouvern it well as well to know [how to] behave to neyboughs [neighbors], always wyth Kindnes and ready to help them . . . . T. Kościuszko.

Too bad the former President couldn't honor his promise to his friend.

Saudi girls packing heat

Yeah, that's one way to stick it to the powers that be.

Cannons for Everyone

From NC Gun Blog, a little reading between the lines in the Constitution shows that private ownership of cannons were intended!  To wit:

What’s going to be really interesting is when he’s presented with the historical information about crew served weapons. He thinks that cannons are not covered. He’s going to be shocked when he learns that at the founding of this country to well past the writing of the Constitution, cannons and warships were privately owned. In fact, we can prove that the writers of the Constitution considered cannon and warship ownership by private citizens to be normal.

[Congress shall have Power...] To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

We don’t issue Letters of Marque anymore. While we are not a signatory to the treaty forbidding them, we generally follow that treaty. What is a letter of Marque? It’s basically an official commission from the government for a private person to attack enemy shipping without being branded a pirate. What do you think that a person would have to have in order to attack enemy ships with? You guessed it, a ship, armed with weapons appropriate to naval combat.

So there you have it. The very text of the Constitution tells us that it was not considered wrong for private citizens to own a ship nor to fill that ship with cannons.

Makes it pretty tough to argue that the Government has the power to prevent people from having cannons without running afoul of the Second Amendment, doesn’t it.

I'm all for it!

Injustice Everywhere

In the vein of Codrea's "Only Ones" category except more broad, there's the site Injustice Everywhere.  There's a lot of police misconduct nationwide....

RTAmerica Video

Featuring clips of Vanderboegh and Codrea, from the latter's GRE column.

I wish that the first guy interviewed had a better definition for tyranny, like the "where the people fear the government" one.

1984

This is loco.  If I were to find such a device on my vehicle, I'd leave it there till trash day and then chuck it in.  The Fubby can have fun chasing the garbage truck.  If they bill me I'll counter that it must've fallen off, and someone else disposed of it.  After all, I can't be held responsible for the whereabouts of their clandestine surveillance devices.  One judge's remarks on the case:

The needs of law enforcement, to which my colleagues seem inclined to refuse nothing, are quickly making personal privacy a distant memory. 1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it’s here at last.

Government Intrusion

The difficulty with being a libertarian is that it's really neither traditional conservative nor liberal. Case in point, I find myself having to agree with ACLU types regarding government intrusion, which is more often than I'd care to based on some of their other positions.

From a c|net article:

"Who wants to live in a world where the government can listen in on every communication without any evidence of crime?" he said. "The consequences of that are that people won't communicate freely and the country would be very different as a result. Imagine how your conversation with a close personal friend would change if you knew someone else was listening. That's what is at stake. That's what needs to be protected."

Original Intent

I found this website called Original Intent that has some interesting articles on various base legal topics, such as the origin of government authority, constitutional law, etc. The one I was looking for was regarding the basis of state sales tax. It wasn't readily apparent by reading the law itself what's covered, much less what authority gives them the right to lay claim to a piece of every transaction.

50 Things to Do Now

Not into anarcho-capitalism—anarchy doesn't work any more than communism—but this list on desirable behaviors I found to be rather interesting.