They Poll Herefords, Don't They?
Victim Disarmament and
The Productive Class
By L. Neil Smith lneil@netzero.com
For http://www.TakeYourMoneyBack.com
I recently took a trip with my wife, from where we live in Fort Collins,
Colorado, just south of the Wyoming border, to Tucson, Arizona. Traveling through
the Great American West, you see a lot of interesting things on the other side
of those weathered fenceposts and rusty strands of barbed wire that line the
country's interstate highways.
Some of those interesting things are animals: mule deer, pronghorn
antelope, buffalo, the occasional sheep, horses, llamas, and in Texas,
even emus. More than anything, cattle of every possible size, shape,
and color. One magnificent old boy I saw, about the color of a Brahma,
but not a Brahma, had horns that rose parallel from his skull at a
backward angle, swooped forward suddenly, and swept up at the tips.
He was protecting his ladies by patrolling the fence line like a guard
dog.
Oddly enough, it was this big fellow who started me thinking about
the symbiotic relationship that exists between the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Internal Revenue "Service".
Here in the west, cattlemen may prefer to leave their free-ranging
livestock intact, so they can defend themselves from cougars and other
predators. But it has long been the practice of others (I looked this
up later) to relieve the animals they raise of their horns. This keeps
the critters from hurting one another -- costing their owners money
-- it makes them much safer for workers to handle, and they clamp
better into certain kinds of machinery so that various things can
be done to them.
Whether they want it done or not.
To "poll" an animal, according to Dictionary.com, is to
cut off or otherwise remove its horns. An exception is animals that
are born polled as the result of a fairly common mutation that occurs
in certain varieties of cattle (Herefords) which are then interbred
for hornlessness. A bull that is born without horns will never be
a threat to its owners and will be easy and convenient to transform
into a steer.
Producing "Rocky Mountain oysters" as a by-product.
Be aware that, like the income tax, Rocky Mountain oysters are non-kosher.
There are a great many individuals today, both in government and
in the think-tanks and foundations that constitute their intellectual
bodyguard, who look down on you and me and our families as livestock.
The only thing they want from us is silent, compliant labor, so that
they can take whatever we earn away from us and use it as they desire.
Some of it they use against us in various ways to keep us silent
and compliant.
Listen to them closely and you'll hear that we might as well be
different species. They are an elite -- near demigods who are above
everything, including the law. We are less than nothing, of no concern
to them except for the tasks we perform and the wealth we create for
them to steal. If some of us can play the violin, create beautiful
paintings or sculptures, or bring audiences to tears with our singing
or acting, those are just "stupid pet tricks" without real
value or significance.
If some of us are attacked by others, what difference does guilt
or innocence make when you're talking about livestock? Animals that
defend themselves are no different from the animals being defended
against -- unruly cattle are unruly cattle. Any ability we may develop
to protect ourselves from predators simply isn't worth the risk it
poses to our "owners", which is why crime statistics that
prove gun ownership reduces crime mean nothing to them.
To make it clear: politicians and bureaucrats are the owners. The
IRS does the milking and butchering. BATFE is engaged in a decades-
long campaign to "poll" the American public by taking away
their horns. There's a Chinese proverb somewhere about how disarming
people makes them easier to tax. I can't find it just now, but the
point is made.
The slightest hint of individuality perceived among us -- let alone
of individualism -- is reflexively interpreted as a threat or at least
a problem in crowd management, which is a polite euphemism for herding.
We are less than slaves, we are the beasts of the field.
If you think I'm exaggerating, take a look at this webpage from
our friends over at the International
Society for Individual Liberty:
. If you weren't
aware that this is what "your" government
thinks of you, you'd better learn.
For some, of course, this is the way things alway have been and
the way they always will be. Born without defenses or any concept
of defending themselves, they are the polled Herefords of the human
race, arriving in the world utterly harmless, stupidly content to
be property, happy to be fed, groomed, taken care of, protected from
predators (not to mention those dangerous, disturbing ideas), in the
end, possibly even willing to be slaughtered.
For the rest of us, however -- those of us who know the difference
between metaphor and reality -- this situation is intolerable and
must be changed drastically. Some of us have a vision of free, independent,
autonomous individuals, standing tall, each of us reaching out and
upward to fulfill our destinies. And to accomplish that we must shake
off, once and for all, the parasites who mistakenly believe they own
us.
To do that, to join in this historic effort, you must first "grow" some
horns. It's one thing to talk about the right to keep and bear arms,
and it's another altogether to own and carry weapons yourself. Don't
whimper (or moo, to keep up the parallel) that your herdsmen won't
let you have horns, they have nothing legitimate to say about it.
Next, you must educate yourself. There's a lifetime of learning
out there that the public schools and the mass media don't want you
to know about, let alone participate in, an entire culture with its
own history and customs, more deeply rooted in what it really means
to be an American than anything you'll ever hear in a classroom or
see on television.
Wherever you happen to be reading this, you've made a good start.
Follow whatever links you find to go places and meet people who have
made -- and are still making -- the same journey you've embarked upon.
If any of them want to blame other folks because of what they are,
rather than what they do, you've followed a blind alley and must work
your way back. Differences between us of race, religion, or national
origin are just ways the cattle herders have of keeping us from acting
together.
Try solutions. Some will be political, some will be social, some
will be economic, some will be combinations. Political parties haven't
worked out very well so far. Civil rights groups and other membership
organizations are all built along different lines of thought and have
different emphases. Some may be right for you, some not. Having been
a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, I think the very
best are Jews for the Preservation
of Firearms Ownership and Gun
Owners of America.
For thoughts on what a politician's stand on Second Amendment issues
tells us of his ideas about everything else, see my essay "Why
Did It Have To Be Guns?" Go to http://www.lneilsmith.org and
scroll down.
Over the decades that the general freedom movement has existed,
there have been many ideas about what we might to do break free. It's
been 46 years for me, since 1962; the best idea I've heard comes from
the fertile mind of Aaron Zelman. It's very simple: take your money
back.
When everything else is said and done, the cattle barons can't run
their ranch, exploit their cattle, if they don't have your money to
do it with. To abandon the bucolic metaphor, if there's no funding
for FEMA, Homeland Security, the BATFE, the EPA, and dozens of other
alphabet agencies -- many would add spy agencies the FBI, NSA, CIA,
because they're unconstitutional -- they'll be harmless, and we'll
be free and richer.
It's simply the most cost-effective, time-efficient way to achieve
everything the general freedom movement ever wanted to accomplish.
Abolish the federal income tax alone, and we'll have 40 percent more
money to buy cars, houses, nifty guns -- anything -- with. Meanwhile,
they'll be left standing by the roadside with a crudely-lettered cardboard
sign that says "Will Beat People Up And Kill Them -- for Food".
Here at http://www.TakeYourMoneyBack.com,
read what you find and watch the abbreviated video -- better
yet, send for the full 11-minute presentation, recent recipient of
a Videographer Award of Distinction -- which, among other things,
shows you how you could accumulate half a million to a million dollars
if your income were untaxed. Become part of a growing national movement.
Together we can take America back and make it our own once again.
You don't have to feel like the Lone Ranger anymore.
Download the abolition form. This
is not a polite, hat-in-hand request. It is a direct order to
your elected representative, your servant, that he report to you immediately
with regard to your demand that he abolish the IRS and the federal
income tax -- a simple, cheap, time-efficient way to find out who's
really your friend and who's your enemy. If he sends you an automated
reply, tells you to fribble off, or fails to answer, you tell TYMB
and they'll make it a matter of public record. Politicians hate that
sort of thing, and though it may take a while to turn (or replace)
them, the ultimate effect will be real and measurable.
Encourage enough of your friends and allies to do what you've done,
and in the end, it won't matter a bit next time around whether Democats,
Republicans, or Flat-Earthers get elected. You're the boss, and they'll all have
to do your bidding.
They want your money.
And your blind, bovine obedience.
Tell them they can't have it, and reclaim your lost liberty. --
"Men cannot be governed and remain men. Domesticate the wolf
and he changes both physically and mentally. His muzzle shrinks, his
teeth diminish, he loses size, speed, and strength, He grows spots.
His ears flop. His brain withers. He becomes a dog. Men are
on the verge of becoming dogs -- the changes are underway already
-- unless we do something to stop it."
-- The Ceo Lia Wheeler, Phoebus Krumm, forthcoming
Four-time Prometheus Award-winner L. Neil Smith has been writing
about guns and gun ownership for more than 30 years. He is the author
of 27 books, the most widely-published and prolific libertarian novelist
in the world, and is considered an expert on the ethics of self-defense.
His writings may be seen on the following sites:
LNS at JPFO: http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/lneilsmith.htm
The Webley Page: http://www.lneilsmith.org
The Libertarian Enterprise: http://www.ncc-1776.org
The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel, Roswell, Texas,
and TimePeeper (August 2007): http://www.bigheadpress.com
LNS at Random (blog): http://www.bigheadpress.com/lneilsmith/
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