Three Unrelated Notes
1) The SKS is a semi-automatic carbine, not an assault rifle. It has a ten round magazine integral to the weapon, and is fed from a stripper clip. It does not have the capacity for selective fire (ie, burst or automatic fire modes).
According to one website,
"Because of their historic and novel nature, SKS rifles are classified by the BATF as "Curio & Relic" items under US law, allowing them to be sold with features that might otherwise be restricted."
For those interested, this website has some nice pictures and the manual for the weapon.
2) Julie Cochrane has one of the best refutations of libertarianism I've ever read up on her LJ. It's even funnier coming from a Baen author, given Baen's tendency to publish Libertarian Wetdream Utopian Fiction. I've often said that the only way for Libertarian utopias to function would be if, freed from a 'government compulsion' to be altruistic, everyone suddenly becomes altruistic of their own free will. You see this a lot in SF of this nature, including least favorite milSF book, which I gave to the used book store after running across the Biowarfare Hookers.
I've seen the sort of thing she references regarding de facto 'governments' (which more resemble what we would call organized crime), in parts of the world where the central government has become defunct, both in the Balkans and the Middle East. This required me (and a couple thousand of my closest friends) to make a professional visit.
3) Regading the 6th of December, the Feast of St. Nicholas, I offer a couple links.
On the Face of Santa, the History of Santa, and the hymns and readings of the day.
According to one website,
"Because of their historic and novel nature, SKS rifles are classified by the BATF as "Curio & Relic" items under US law, allowing them to be sold with features that might otherwise be restricted."
For those interested, this website has some nice pictures and the manual for the weapon.
2) Julie Cochrane has one of the best refutations of libertarianism I've ever read up on her LJ. It's even funnier coming from a Baen author, given Baen's tendency to publish Libertarian Wetdream Utopian Fiction. I've often said that the only way for Libertarian utopias to function would be if, freed from a 'government compulsion' to be altruistic, everyone suddenly becomes altruistic of their own free will. You see this a lot in SF of this nature, including least favorite milSF book, which I gave to the used book store after running across the Biowarfare Hookers.
I've seen the sort of thing she references regarding de facto 'governments' (which more resemble what we would call organized crime), in parts of the world where the central government has become defunct, both in the Balkans and the Middle East. This required me (and a couple thousand of my closest friends) to make a professional visit.
3) Regading the 6th of December, the Feast of St. Nicholas, I offer a couple links.
On the Face of Santa, the History of Santa, and the hymns and readings of the day.
posted by Just A Decurion at 12/06/2007 04:00:00 PM
7 Comments:
I was more interested in the hymns and readings than in the SKS rifle. I gotta love the guy who clobbered Arius. Many are the times when I was inspired to violence when I heard heresy, but the greater heresy is violence itself and so my inclination was restrained.
Heresy angers me no more. What angers me are the "orthodox" who are not "orthoprax"; but the same kind of anger for the same reason was also exhibited by the One for whom the religion was named. So I'm in Good Company when that kind of anger flashes in me.
-cv
On libertarian utopias: I've recently heard of The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society. Haven't read it yet but from the Amazon blurb I expect that you can't really get entirely away from government. What you can do is make sure that a lot of government is limited in absolute size--security and fire protection contracts would be handled by your neighborhood association, for instance, rather than the city. Some stuff has to be handled at a higher level, though--defense is an obvious one but you also have pollution, water rights and such--any "tragedy of the commons" problem.
I envoyed the Williamson book but one suspects he didn't really work out what Grainne's government actually does, or where it gets its funding. Given that contrasting UN vs Grainne was such a key element of the book, that was a little disappointing.
That's a good argument for why I'm in the minarchist camp instead of the anarchist one. "Minarchy" doesn't have much popular recognition, though. That's why I took the "libertarianhawk" handle.
As for Williamson, he's on my "never read" list now.
My primary long gun is a SKS. Not an assault weapon!
Once fancied myself a Libertarian until I read their platform.
Tomorrow's date should have been synonymous with September 11. That it is not is the reason I have a lot of ammo for my SKS.
Aside: never really considered the bayonet, etc.
While I have sharply libertarian leanings (repeal back to and including the NFA, abolishing property and income taxes, don't get me started on Federal bureaucracy), I also fully admit that Anarchotopia is, in the original sense, a 'Utopia'; nowhere. Can't get there from here, and I'm not sure that in reality I'd want to.
Afterthought: a micro-sized government can be just as obnoxious as the larger ones--if you don't believe this, see what your homeowner's association says about your painting your house bright pink, or putting your cars on blocks in the front yard. The advantages of a microgovernment are that you had a choice on moving in, and you can move out without also having to change church, job, friends, bank, etc.
I've started calling myself a confused Jacksonian/Jeffersonian.
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