Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 16:53:35 -0700
From: r.destephens@WORLDNET.ATT.NET (Richard DeStephens)
Subject: Re: The strategy of strawmen
To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
Don Cline wrote:
> The room for doubt is that if you are a U.S. resident,
Don, for someone who wished to disengage, you keep coming back for more.
> you are using every technique the "Anarchist/Libertarian" opposes to do it:
> "Insurance broker?"
> "Insurance?"
First you call him a liar and say that he does not have insurance, and then you say that Progressive will not honor the contract if he does.
The only thing that need by done, if you are correct is to change the law so that the insurance company can cover Carlos with his West Indies DL. If Carlos doesn't have to take a test to get a DL there, does that mean that we should not allow someone with a safe driving record from that country to drive either?
All your arguments are based on what our current laws allow. If they were changed, Carlos would have no problem whatsoever. And from what Carlos says, he is covered. Nothing that you have offered has gone above the level of speculation.
> You do all this just to avoid being on the government database, which you
> despise, and yet I have accomplished the same thing by simply giving them a
> maildrop address. That way I am still available to respond to legal
> process, and yet they can't lay their hands on me without me knowing about
> it first and being able to respond in a defensive posture if necessary.
A maildrop? Then you could have the option of going into hiding since they really don't know where you live. The only thing that keep *you* from hanging around is your moral obligation to do so. Same with someone traveling under the system I propose. You argument gets weaker with each post. I'll bet the Mail Boxes Etc employees will be in for a shock when the SWAT unit comes for you.
> Do you vote, Carlos? Here's another news flash: The voter rolls give a lot
> more personal information and require a home street address; if you don't
> give one you will be stricken from the rolls in the next audit. Do you
> likewise object to being on the government database for the "privilege" of
> voting when in fact voting is supposed to be a right?
Don, you shouldn't be pitching softballs to Carlos (and Ernie for that matter). During a recent GOP debate, NBC anchor, Tom Brokaw lavished praise on the participants for engaging in the political arena. He added that voting for president was the most important thing an American can do. Hogwas. It is one of the least important. The most important is to take care of your family. A $50 campaign contribution to help get a candidate's message out goes a lot farther than a vote.
> No insurance company is going to voluntarily expose themselves to
> that kind of risk.
Carlos seems to represent a rather low risk, since he hasn't killed anyone and is unlikely to do so, even without your Holy Laminated Card.
>
> (Sigh.) The lengths some people will go to for the purpose of evading the
> requirements of law: Sometimes they even meet the requirements of law in
> order to evade the requirements of law. Good grief, Carlos!
So what's it to you, Mr. Mail Drop?
> I am forced to conclude we are arguing about nothing. You think you are
> resisting government tyranny by evading the law, yet you are simply using
> another available aspect of law to evade the law. Whoop-te-do. Why bother?
Carlos spends less on his method than you do on your mail drop. And he can "register" his vehicles off shore for less than ne-fifth the amount of money you do. The other reason, I suspect, is that it must be really fun.
> Why not just get a drivers' license for the purpose for which a drivers'
You solution. Not his. Mind your own business.
> I would
> recommend that you lock that copy of your international permit, and that
> dismissal with the judge's signature... and be prepared to use that to prove
> was I
> operating a motor vehicle legally.
Carlos, ya ever think of that? Did I hear someone say, "duh"?
> Of course, you still have a *license* which has now been recognized by
> *government*, so I hope that doesn't mess up your perception of yourself as
> a freedom fighter too much.
The difference is, Mr. Mail Drop, is that his issuing government does not sell the data to the highest bidder, and does not ask him to forego a good chunk of his rights.
> Foreign plates? I hadn't heard about that.
When he has any plates at all. When I visited him in Tucson last week, he didn't
have any plates on his rice-rocket.
> and having a government-issued license
> would not volunteer you into their authority at an illegal roadblock.
Two different issues.
> The "slightest of reservations" is in the fact that the manner in which you
> did it was very confrontational.
It's about friggin time.
> they get confrontational with people who are
> trained to be in control of a situation and to react violently if it appears
> they are losing control of a situation.
Somebody's gotta do it. Somebody's gotta work to expose them. In both cases, I assure you, it will be Carlos.
> Those of us who accept the responsibility of quietly letting them know that
> if they are more concerned about their personal safety than they are about the
> rights of the citizens
Quietly? It is long-passed time to raise our voices.
> And they have no power to control your travel whether you have a
> state-issued drivers' license or not. They only have power to prohibit your
> operation of a lethal machine at public risk.
They need no permit system to do that. What laminated card do they use to keep me from being drunk and disorderly on a sidewalk? Absent some "civil contract" are they unable to deal with it? If a man begins swinging a bat and taunting a crowd of people, may not the police arrest and charge him? If a car is driving with abandon weaving in an out of traffic is there no recourse without a DL? Carlos doesn't have an Arizona DL yet he pays his speeding tickets? What contract did he sign? And if he didn't why doesn't he just tell the to hump off?
> And *no one* is going to interfere with my right
> to travel within the borders of the U.S. by virtue of that license or by any
> other color of law.
Driving While Black. Felony Bumper Sticker. Terry Stops. Patdowns....
But, gee, thirty minutes on the side of the road for no good reason is hardly an
infringement. You eventually get to where you are going. What was it the judge said to Ken Rineer? "You can walk around the park."