Category Archives: Individual Rights

Should the Fretboard Man Fret?

Business, Free Markets, Government, Individual Rights, Law, Music, Natural Law, Regulation, Technology

The house virtuoso does not own a Gibson guitar; he dislikes them with a passion. Being one hell of a neoclassical, instrumental guitarist, Sean Mercer has his reasons. (Listen to the YouTube posted below.) He does, however, own the following fine instruments, which are crafted with assorted hardwoods, some rare, and possibly illegal:

Carvin DC747 (Maple)
Carvin AC275 (Hawaiian Koa body & neck, Ebony bridge)
Carvin AC175 (maple, ebony)
Carvin LB76 (Curly maple)
Carvin IC6 (Walnut, maple)
Carvin NS1 classical (mahogany, ebony bridge & fretboard)
Warwick Streamer (Wenge, maple) – Germany
Warwick Double Buck (Wenge neck, Alder)
Yamaha Classical (Rosewood back & sides, Ebony, Spruce)
Jackson SL1 (maple)
Kramer Stagemaster (Maple, ebony fretboard)
Kramer Pacer (Rosewood fretboard, maple)
Dean 7 string (mahogany body, maple neck, ebony fretboard)
Brian Moore iGuitar (Rosewood fretboard, alder border)

For the possession/importation/smuggling of “rare ebony wood from India used to make some of the world’s most coveted guitars,” US federales have raided the Tennessee plants of Gibson Guitars.

The meek chief executive of Gibson Guitars, Henry Juszkiewicz, pleaded plaintively with the public: “We were not engaged in smuggling. ‘We have been importing fingerboard stock on a regular basis from India for 17 years.'”

He might have pointed to the fact that this is part of the feds’ ongoing criminalization of naturally licit behavior, and that, last he looked, ex post facto prosecutions were unconstitutional. In other words, when Gibson began importing these woods, the practice was legal. It is unconstitutional to criminalize actions that were legal when committed.

Business in the US is anything but Randian; it adopts an obsequious manner with the both the pitchfork-hoisting public and our DC Overlords.

Downsize the “Oink Sector”!

As promised, here is a piece from the CD “Electric Storm,” by instrumental guitarist Sean Mercer. Sean’s compositions were featured in Guitar Player Magazine. Wrote the great Mike Varney:

Sean’s demo showcases his skills as a producer, engineer, writer, performer, and keyboardist. His set of neo-classical instrumentals are [sic] reminiscent at times of works by Tony MacAlpine. Complex arrangements, tightly played ensemble lines, and a grand display of thematic solo work should make this tape of particular interest to neo-classical fusion fans. [Mike Varney, Guitar Player, October 1991]

A Storm in a Nanny State

Democracy, Government, Homeland Security, Individual Rights, Journalism, Liberty, Media, Private Property, Propaganda, The State

Take this post to be part of the blog series, “What They Do In Dictatorships.” In a highly evolved Managerial State such as ours, where the population has been cowed into submission, storms—even—Category 1 storms—give rise to forced evacuations. Just about half the country has been terrorized, or threatened into fleeing. It’s called “leadership,” and subjects seem to apprecaite being coaxed from their homes by lazy bureaucrats and oink-sector workers who’d rather run themselves, than stick around and do the job taxpayers pay them to do: rescue taxpayers.

In “bad” dictatorships—Libya being the latest one the US and its allies have just voided of a dictator—people might have been left in their homes. OMG. The horror! But not in the US, because the American Managerial State is so much more efficient in encroaching on its citizens than are these tin-pot dictators, whom we have built-up into mega-monsters in our infantile, Disneyfied minds.

In any case, the crappy media in this country forms a cartel of cretins. Such is the nature of this monopoly that all news outlets can safely decide to hype one story—in this case, the storm that petered out—and none of these media see the need to hedge their bets, or moderate the level of hysteria on this most fickle of topics: weather.

Here’s the definition of a “Category 1 storm”:

They “usually cause no significant structural damage; however, they can topple unanchored mobile homes, as well as uproot or snap trees. Poorly attached roof shingles or tiles can blow off. Coastal flooding and pier damage are often associated with Category 1 storms. Power outages are typically widespread to extensive, sometimes lasting several days. Even though it is the least intense type of hurricane, the storm can still produce plenty of widespread damage and can be a life-threatening storm.”

What They Do In Dictatorships

Democracy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Ethics, Individual Rights, Journalism, Justice, Law, Media, Middle East, Private Property

The courts, stacked as they are with judges who work for the dictator, want to put a brave rebel behind bars for shooting a predator on his property. The rebel shot and killed a wild, extremely dangerous animal that thrives in the dictator’s country. All the tribesman did was to aggressively repel from human habitat a creature that had become brazen, making itself at home near the man’s children as they played. It used to be that these tribesmen instilled fear in encroaching creatures. But thanks to decades of cultural and legal emasculation under the dictator, the queered men folk are no longer licensed to protect home and hearth. If they do, they lose their liberty.

I bet you thought this was Anderson Cooper reporting from Libya, botching the job of journalism, as is his wont.

No, this is about an American, one among many (Jeremy M. Hill, 33), who pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to killing a grizzly bear with a rifle on his 20-acre property near Porthill, Idaho, at the Canadian border.

Jeremy Hill has six kids, ranging in age from 14 years old to 10 months old. At least five were home when the grizzly was killed, Mike Hill said. The bears had gone after some pigs in a pen that the kids had been raising, Mike Hill said.

I wonder how many Libyans have been arrested for shooting wild animals that threatened their families.

If given the choice, I’d choose the right to defend my life and property over the vote, any day.

UPDATED: Home-Free on Facebook? Think Again

English, Individual Rights, Internet, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Political Correctness, Private Property, Racism, Technology, The Zeitgeist

The following is an excerpt from “Home-Free on Facebook? Think Again,” now on WND.COM:

“… certain habitual social meddlers have tried to imply that the Facebook forum is racist.

In particular, a public-spirited ditz named Danah Boyd, who is ‘Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, and a Research Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.’

A while back, Boyd was given a significant cameo on CNN to discuss a deeply silly ‘research’ paper she had slapped together.

Boyd’s narrative, cloaked in the raiment of ‘research,’ is titled ‘White Flight in Networked Publics: How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook.’ Sic and sic again: Yes, not even Microsoft’s woefully inadequate grammar and syntax checks have caught up with such linguistic infelicities.

Boyd’s infantile efforts were published by Routledge in the Digital Race Anthology.

The banal Ms. Boyd claims to have smashed our ‘techno—utopian belief’ that the internet has eradicated undesirable divisions. All this was accomplishes not with evidence of rank racism, but with a smashing postmodern word salad—-‘spatial referents,’ ‘taste markers,’ ‘reproduction of social categories,’ on and on.”

Yes, “I am now convinced that American society will collapse upon itself like a black hole under the weight of a young (mostly WASP), idiocracy rising”

The complete column, now on WND.COM, is “Home-Free on Facebook? Think Again.”

My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon. The “Temporarily out of stock” notice on Amazon is a function of a “temporary” publisher-printer glitch. This should be corrected shortly. Place your order, and the always-awesome Amazon will ship the book as soon as humanly possible.

Readily available is the lower-cost Kindle copy of “The Cannibal.” And you do not have to own a Kindle to download your copy of “The Cannibal”—all you need is a PC or a hand-held device (iPad or phone). This hyperlink describes the free Amazon software application for these devices. You don’t need a gadget to read “Into the Cannibal’s-Pot” on Kindle.

Help this work’s mission, and raise awareness of the issues covered in depth and detail in the book, by posting your reviews to Amazon. And you need not have have purchased the book from Amazon to review it on the site.

UPDATE (July 29): Kennon Gilson writes on WND’s Facebook thread:
“Thanks for the article. … Statistically, both women and minorities are over-represented in the Libertarian movement.
Like

Ilana Mercer replies: “You offer no proof for your assertion, KG. The lonely plight of libertarian men—at least hard-core libertarians who are strong on self-defense, guns, property rights, and against welfarism—has been a long-standing joke in the community. Of course, ‘Libertarians Lite,’ who conflate liberty with Gaga and Glee: they get plenty of dates.