Reinke Faces Life

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/librarians-desc.html

Librarians Describe Life Under An FBI Gag Order
By Luke O’Brien EmailJune 24, 2007 | 2:22:57 PM

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Life in an FBI muzzle is no fun. Two Connecticut librarians on Sunday described what it was like to be slapped with an FBI national security letter and accompanying gag order. It sounded like a spy movie or, gulp, something that happens under a repressive foreign government. Peter Chase and Barbara Bailey, librarians in Plainville, Connecticut, received an NSL to turn over computer records in their library on July 13, 2005. Unlike a suspected thousands of other people around the country, Chase, Bailey and two of their colleagues stood up to the Man and refused to comply, convinced that the feds had no right to intrude on anyone’s privacy without a court order (NSLs don’t require a judge’s approval). That’s when things turned ugly.

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America is supposed to be a free speech zone!

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/calderwood/calderwood15.html

OSHA Visits Wonderland
by David Calderwood

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Published to cricket-chirping silence in the Federal Register on April 13, 2007 was a rule proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to govern the manufacture, transport, and distribution of explosives.

The Alice-in-Wonderland aspect is that the rule includes small arms ammunition and reloading components like smokeless propellant and small arms primers in its definition of “explosives.” If the rule were implemented as written, it would effectively eliminate the manufacture, transport, wholesaling and retailing of ammunition in the United States.

You read that correctly.

For years anti-private-gun-ownership zealots have wished that another head of the federal regulatory hydra, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, would “ban guns” as articles too dangerous for mere civilian mortals to handle or own. Apparently they are getting their wish, instead, from OSHA under the notion that firearm ammunition cartridges are so unstable and explosive that anyone storing or selling them would have to insure (by search if necessary) that no one carrying matches, a lighter, or any other source of flame or sparks approached within 50 feet in all directions. This is but one of several requirements that would make it impossible to make or sell ammunition.

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http://www.nssf.org/news/PR_idx.cfm?PRloc=common/PR/&PR=BP070207.cfm

has a letter to submit.

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Friday, July 06, 2007

OSHA Docket Office
Docket No. OSHA-2007-0032
U.S. Department of Labor
Room N-2625 200
Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210

RE: Docket No. OSHA-2007-0032
Request to Extend Public Comment Period and Request for Hearing on
“Significant Regulatory Action” as Defined in Executive Order 12866

Dear Secretary Chao:

I am writing to request an extension for public comment set to expire on July 12, 2007 for Preliminary & Initial General Observations on OSHA Explosives Proposed Rule (29 CFR Part 1910) – Published at Federal Register Vo. 72, No. 71, at P. 18792 (April 13, 2007).

After reviewing the proposed regulations it is my belief that the proposed rule is a “significant regulatory action” as defined in Executive Order 12866 (1993) Sec. 1(f)(1) in that it will clearly “adversely affect in a material way” the retail sector of the firearms and ammunition industry, productivity, competition and jobs and that the annual compliance cost for all retailers of ammunition will far exceed $100 million dollars.

Below is a bulleted list of what I am most concerned about:

” Massive Costs: The cost to comply with the proposed rule for the ammunition industry, including manufacturer, wholesale distributors and retailers, will be massive and easily exceed $100 million. For example, ammunition and smokeless propellant manufacturers would have to shut down and evacuate a factory when a thunderstorm approached. The proposal mistakenly states that this is an industry standard practice. A retailer would have to do likewise. Thus retailers, such as Wal-Mart, selling ammunition would have to close down and evacuate customers. This is simply not realistic.

” Unrealistic Assumptions: Portions of the proposed rule are not feasible and cannot realistically be complied with. The concept of evacuation to “a safe remote location” in case of thunderstorms or accident is untenable to manufacturers and retailers and is in disagreement with the DoD Safety Manual for Ammunition and Explosives.

” One Size Fits All Approach: The provisions in this proposal treat all explosives as if they have the same degree of hazard to employees. Retail outlets for small arms ammunition, primers and smokeless propellants, including massive facilities such as Wal-Mart, must maintain a fifty-foot barrier and specifically authorize all customers to enter only after searching them for matches or lighters (c.3.iii.A) and determining that they are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol (c.1.vii). This is despite the fact that small arms ammunition is extremely safe even when subjected to open flame, heat and shock. A customer still wouldn’t be able to purchase the ammunition because under this rule they are not allowed to carry it from the counter to the exit (c.3.iii.C). Even more damaging, the many “mom and pop” firearm outlets located in strip malls would be forced to shutdown as they have neighbor stores fewer than 50-feet away.

” Shipping is Halted: Proposed restrictions on transportation exceed current DOT Regulations. Mandating wood-covered, non-spark-producing material in trailers for small arms ammunition shipments would bring the transportation of ammunition to a near halt. There are simply not enough trailers in existence today that would be able to substitute for traditional, metal covered surfaces. Small package carriers such as UPS and Fed-Ex would be prohibited from carrying ammunition and components which would shut down mail order houses such as Cabalas and Bass Pro shops and many business to business transactions. This section alone, with all it would entail (such as two drivers at all times), is capable of paralyzing our industry.

” National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) Rules Exceeded: Proposed restrictions exceed NFPA regulations and would, for example, reduce commercial establishment displays of smokeless propellant from 50 to 20 lbs with no commensurate increase in safety. This will only add to dramatically increasing the cost to manufacturers and consumers.

It bears noting that scientific testing and safety records clearly illustrate that small arms ammunition is inherently an extremely safe product. I cannot recall a single instance where fire, shock, heat or lightening has resulted in injury from the accidental detonation of small-caliber ammunition. Billions of rounds of ammunition are sold each year in the U.S. and records demonstrate that current production and safety requirements are working.

I urge OSHA to grant an extension to this critical regulatory process. And then kill this nonsense. It’s rule making like this that give the “tin foil hat” crowd reasons to believe that this is a backdoor attempt to ban guns. It isn’t is it? Or is it.

Sincerely,
Ferdinand J. Reinke
3 Tyne Court
Kendall Park, NJ 08824

c.c.: My Federal Senators and Representative

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/gutzman4.html

Myths of the 4th of July
by Kevin R. C. Gutzman

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2. The 4th of July was the day that the 13 states established their independence.

No, it was not. In fact, Virginia established its independence on May 15, 1776, when its revolutionary Convention adopted resolutions for a declaration of rights, a permanent republican constitution, and federal and treaty relationships with other states and foreign countries. It was because the Old Dominion had already established its independence – had, in fact, already sworn in the first governor under its permanent republican constitution of 1776, Patrick Henry, on June 29 – that Virginia’s congressmen, uniquely, had been given categorical instructions from their state legislature to declare independence. Virginia was not the only state whose independence was not established by the Declaration on the 4th, as New York’s congressional delegation did not then join in the Declaration. In short, the states became independent in their own good time – some on July 4, some before, some after.

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Yup, the DOWGs made a lot of mistakes that over time have proved to be fatal to the American experiment. The only question is “can it be made right without bloodshed?”. Watch The Browns in New Hampshire. Watch the Vermont Succession movement. Watch the incipient tax revolts like the “redress of grievances” folks. If they get killed, then you’ll have your answer.

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http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/013898.html

July 02, 2007
VA’s $3550 traffic ticket
Posted by Wendy McElroy at July 2, 2007 12:40 PM

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The situation is not limited to Virginia. It is everywhere. For example, Illinois recently passed a new work-zone law for speeding in construction zones on expressways. The enforcement includes cameras. Without ever seeing a cop, you can get a $375 ticket in the mail for driving so much as one mile over the limit even in the middle of the night when no workers are present. A second offense is a $1000.

So be careful whenever you back out of your driveway. Traffic police are nothing so much as roving tax collectors who are looking for any excuse to confiscate the money with which you feed your family and pay the mortgage. Highway patrolmen cops are highwaymen in the original meaning of the word: thefts that roam the highways in search of victims.

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Sigh! I you thought this was the Land of Liberty!

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Where does the gooferment get off sticking its nose into medicine?

Every month, I am reminded of this intrusion. Here’s why. My wife has been a type 1 diabetic for more than THREE DECADES. (Nasty disease, but that’s another topic.) She’s been injecting insulin for those three decades. She uses a syringe. Every month the gooferment sticks its nose in her business. Syringes are regulate. Intelligent Designer forbid that drug addicts might buy clean syringes. So every month, the gooferment regulated pharmacy must check with the gooferment regulated insurance company for approval that she can have them. Every few months, the gooferment regulated pharmacy must check with the gooferment regulated doctor to see if she can have them. Here’s a novel idea. Leave her alone.

Laws, regulations, and diktats can not prevent humans from putting stuff in their bodies. Further, it’s THEIR body. If people want to do dumb things, who are you to tell them they can’t?

The government is not the nanny. End the gooferment’s “drug war” now. Shut down all the regulators. Stop licensing. There’s no gooferment inspection of electric appliances. There is Underwriters Libratory. Think WalMart will sell a non-UL appliance? Don’t get me started on the FDA! And, how it is killing us “for our own good”!

And, while Bush is doing pardons, he should pardon all non-violent drug offenders.

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FROM A LETTER TO THE SOUTH BRUNSWICK POST

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Too bad in all the graduation speeches, no one thought to thank the taxpayers, who were robbed of their wealth to “educate” these people.

Amusing that everyone congratulated everyone for a great job. It was like having a party on some one else’s tab. When you think of the thousands of dollars that went into this effort, one has to ask if it was money well spent.

• If “education” is such a vital service that “everyone” wants, why can’t it be funded voluntarily?
• If it’s such an important thing, why leave it to the gooferment, that doesn’t do anything right?
• If we divide 131 M$ school budget over ~700 students, then each education cost about 185k. Was that well spent? IMHO no. If I sent everyone to the Peddie School in Princeton it would be about 30k$ per year. So I’d have 60k to pay for the school bus. Anyone think the educations are similar?

Any one think that the taxpayer got anything but hosed tot he tune of 131M$?

Sigh!

Independence Day reminds us that the Dead Old White Guys fought and died over a 1% tax. They must be rolling over at what we are putting up with! It’s sad.

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If you do, how do you justify being forced to give an incalculable amount of you income to the Gooferment of the USA. Don’t forget the hidden tax of inflation, all the taxes you don’t see that are passed along in your purchases, the Social Security Ponzi scheme, and the unavoidable “fees” that are really taxes. Still feel independent?

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams

Was he talking to us?

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EDITORIAL: July 4th – Put Away The Flags, by Howard Zinn
God bless the “Untied States” – Let 50 (or 1,000) flags fly…
Put Away The Flags
by Howard Zinn

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On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, alongwith racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking — cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on — have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours — huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction — what might have been harmless pride becomesan arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.

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Howard Zinn, a World War II bombardier, is the author of the best-
selling “A People’s History of the United States” (Perennial Classics, 2003,
latest edition).

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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18519215&BRD=1291&PAG=461&dept_id=532622&rfi=6

God not allowed
Valedictorian pulls speech rather than remove prayer
By Al Sullivan
Reporter senior staff writer
06/26/2007

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The Bayonne High School graduation ceremonies on July 20 were marred by a controversy over the inclusion of a prayer in this year’s Valedictory Address.

Traditionally, the top student of the graduating class speaks during the ceremonies, often expressing feelings about the past and hopes for the future.

But a few days before the June 20 ceremonies, Jeremy Jerschina – this year’s valedictorian – was asked to submit his speech for review.

The speech ended with a prayer to God, which was deemed unacceptable by school officials.

{Extraneous Deleted}

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See the problem is the gooferment operating the skoolz. Only the gooferment can be praised!

Since the site is copyrighted, I’ve only took a fair use quote.

The Valedictorian probably would mind sharing his speech that he couldn’t give.

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Text of Jeremy Jerschina’s Valedictory Address

Welcome faculty, parents, friends, students, graduates, Core Four, and other honored guests.

You all know tonight is a special night. You all know that it took us four years of hard work to finally get up on this stage to accept our diplomas. And you all know we are excited to graduate and spend some time with our friends and families. And so, tonight, to keep this relatively brief, I would just like to speak about one of the most striking and unique elements of our high school experience – the great significance of one’s background – namely their ethnicity.

At the beginning of the past century reigned the harkening towards cultural assimilation – America was, as Israel Zangwill called it, “God’s Crucible, the great melting pot.” In that century, America itself was melted and reformed by countless conflicts and movements, as well as a somewhat-unwilling emergence from beneath a protective shroud of isolationism. In fact, these changes were so dramatic, that in the latter portion of the bygone 20th century, former President Jimmy Carter declared of America, “We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.”

The magnificent shift in perspective is one that we cannot help but realize, especially in this highly diversified metropolitan area, in which we daily live the mosaic. Indeed, each one of us is an infinitesimal element of this brilliant intricacy.

Thus our individual ethnicity impacts us and those around us. Every facet of our fragment of the whole was sculpted, directly or indirectly, by our race, culture and family, and accordingly, so was our contribution to the totality of the magnificent work which is our world.

This connectivity through diversity is something that we ought to appreciate, something we ought to value.

We should, first of all, realize this on a personal level. We should acknowledge, as individuals, what particular traits were most shaped by our ethnicities. Whether it be a strong work ethic or outspokenness, determination or an inclination [to] objectivity, a strong moral foundation or creativity, we should be grateful and aware of the positive influence our cultures had, and continue to have, on us.

Moreover, we should realize and appreciate this whole mosaic formation concept on an interpersonal and universal level. The strength that emanates from multiplicity is one of the greatest elements of the vigor of America, and, ultimately, of the vitality of humanity.

Honor this diversity, but do not be strangled by political correctness, which tends to insult diversity more than it intends to support it; appreciate your own background, understand its history, learn from it, and thus let the roots of your life penetrate deep into the wellsprings of human understanding.

I’d like to end in prayer:

Dear God,

I am to You forever grateful for Your Creation. You placed Your eternal Hand upon the Earth and created Man. You have created him of every tongue and race, and gave him the capacity to grasp at least some of the vast multiplicity which You precisely engineered.
Thank You, Lord, for bringing us together tonight to celebrate both our achievements and those individuals who have helped lead us to this level of accomplishment.

Also, lest we forget about You in the midst of our individual successes, I ask You impart in us an understanding and remembrance of Your omnipresent power and might.

Lord, I pray that You guide, protect and bless us.

I give You all praise and honor for Your Creation, for Your love, for Your mercy, and for the life that You proffer to us daily. In Jesus Christ’s Name, Amen.

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Yup. In the article the family asks “Is this censorship?”. Of course it is.

So much for the First Amendment.

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FROM AN EMAIL TO MLPF

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>Military paradigms in business (Re:The War for Talent)
>Posted by: “Scott Allen”
>Tue Jul 3, 2007 10:00 am (PST)
>Do you want to create more peace in the world? I do.
{Extraneous Deleted}
>If you want to create peace in the world, you must first create peace within
>yourself, your home, your community and, I believe, your business.
{Extraneous Deleted}
>Is it any wonder our current political leaders don’t seem to really
>understand how to create peace through any other means than superior
>firepower, or at least the threat of it?

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Interesting that this comes up on (around) Independence Day which, like most “facts” taught in gooferment skoolz, is wrong. But that’s a topic for another day.

I usually try to make people smarted by laughter. However, this is a “deadly” topic. So I’ll be “deadly serious”.

It’s hard to conceive of a peaceful world. Humans have paradigms and memes.

(Paradigm is consultant speak for how you see things; like an optical illusion.) (Meme is like the concept of gene applied to ideas; a fad is a meme that sweeps thru humanity like a virus while “democracy” is the specific meme of majority rule.)

It’s our paradigms and memes that may help us survive or kill us. We didn’t become a dominant species by virtue of anything but out brains.

So how can we have “peace” (a meme that implies either “the lambs and lions lie down together” or “we stop using force on our fellow humans”)?

Well, more and more, it appears that the meme of government kills us, prevents “peace”, and generally makes our lives more miserable. It’s inefficient, ineffective, and some times immoral.

As a little L libertarian, I disavow the use of force to achieve political or social goals. I also vote (a meaningless exercise) small government every time. And, I try as best I can to “respect the rights of others”, but as the good Nuns in grammar school graded me, I’m a sinner there. But, I try. Gooferment isn’t really even trying!

So “democracy” is a flawed meme (i.e., two wolves and sheep deciding what’s for dinner). “Government” may be a very flawed meme (i.e., consult the works of Lysander Spooner). And, “genocide” is how governments can go “rogue”. “Political leaders” are usually a disaster (i.e., power attracts the people who want to use it to enforce their own vision). And the meme of “scarcity” ensures that we see the world in a “dog eat dog” view.

What works?

• A republic (i.e., the two wolves are voting about dinner with one well-armed sheep — everyone has certain Lockian “negative” rights) with minimal power to use against the people appears to have worked for a few decades from the American Revolution until Lincoln.
• The free market (think no regulation, no law, no gooferment) seems to peacefully allow humans to integrate their respective needs and wants in a complex calculation that satisfies everyone to as great an extent as possible. It enforces peacefully (a contradiction in terms) a balancing or matching of inputs and outputs. As the input, it’s the quantity and quality of your contributions to satisfy the needs of your fellow humans. As the output, it how your specific needs are satisfied.
• The meme of “money” is used to facilitate these transactions. Money allows the division of labor to take place (i.e., the shoe maker does NOT have to find a baker who needs shoes. The marketplace buys the shoe maker’s shoes and sells him bread. It does this by locating the candlestick maker who wants shoes and had a candlestick that the baker wants. For simplicity, lets leave out the butcher, the farmer, and the fisherman for now. See Milton Freedman’s excellent video on the pencil and how countless greedy people cooperate to give him a cheap pencil. Money makes the world go round. It itself has to be created by a free market to prevent government inflation (i.e., the silent tax). When the gooferment has to overtly tax people (i.e., steal their money for services they don’t want) for wars and social programs, people tend to get testy. Printing money without backing it with something is a fraud on the people and the marketplace.

We NEED honest money to allow the division of labor. We NEED a meme that values peaceful coexistence with our fellow humans to prevent all the bad isms that will enslave us. We MAY NEED a tiny republic to prevent force or fraud upon the people and the marketplace. We NEED smarter human beings to learn from our past blunders (i.e., genocides) to avoid them in the future. We NEED political institutions that minimize the power of one person, tribe (i.e., Democrats; Republicans; even Libertarians), clan (Kennedy’s, Bush’s, Clinton’s) or gang (i.e., Hells Angels; the Crips ‘n’ Bloods; the DC politicians) can acquire.

I think that is how we create peace. Not with “political leaders”, but with the right paradigms, memes, and “moral leaders”. We need to end the DOLE (i.e., welfare for people and companies), end intrusive Big Gooferment, free people from the Gooferment Propaganda and Reeducation Camps, and return to honest money (i.e., not fiat paper but backed by gold and silver.

Sigh, I don’t feel very “independent” today.

Funnier is more fun,
fjohn

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If governments draw their power from the consent of the governed, then here’s one who does NOT consent.

If you don’t agree, then you are saying that you support:

(1) the theft, by taxes, inflation, and regulation, of wealth from others;

(2) the endless unconstitutional wars by the gooferment;

(3) the enslavement by the gooferment of people by the unconstitutional dole for individuals and companies;

(4) the Ponzi scheme of intergenerational racist theft of “social security insurance”;

(5) the dumbing down of future voters with the gooferment running “education”.

I don’t consent. Alone, I am weak. There’s no obligation from anyone to throw themselves under the proverbial train. But, let’s not pretend that I comply for any other reason than the fear of their superior arms.

There will come a day when the “little people” will throw off their chains AGAIN. Maybe then we will be wiser.

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