Veteran cannabis law reform campaigner Dakta Green’s Armistice Tour culminated in a hikoi on Parliament on Armistice Day, 11 November 2010.
Mr Green said it was called the Armistice Tour because he wanted to stop fighting with the Government over cannabis legislation.
“When two warring parties choose to stop fighting without either side conceeding defeat that’s what an armistice is,” he said.
“We are waving a white flag … we want peace.”
The white flag is the “flag of temporary truce in order to parley.” Inspired by the Armistice Tour, the Wellington branch of NORML started a tradition of White Flag meetings on the first Tuesday of the month when Parliament sits. We convene at the Cenotaph at 12:45 pm, then at 1:00 pm fly the white flag of negotiation to the Richard Sedden statue outside Parliament Buildings. Once there, we pause for a One Minute Silence for the victims of the global War on Drugs. Following that, a few words spoken regarding our actions, and our intentions for these meetings, with a reading of a letter to an MP, and then a photo or two …
At the first white flag meeting on Armistice Day 2010, many of those protesting the War on Drugs™ also celebrated New Zealand’s cannabis culture by smoking cannabis on Parliament grounds. Cannabis campaigners light up at Parliament, reported TV3. But no one was arrested.
Protesters marched to Parliament to demand a law change decriminalising cannabis; it’s a law they have no respect for and one they were quick to break, and all under the watchful eye of police.
“Our role is to make sure this protest is peaceful and everyone gets away on time and in good humour,” said senior sergeant Scott Miller.
Bucket bongs, joints and a pipe lit with a magnifying glass were used to smoke up; there was even a hash cake although the decorator may have eaten some first.
But no matter how much was puffed there was still no movement from police – does this signal a change in stance by police?
“Well that’s not a comment I can make in relation to an overall stance by the police,” Mr Miller said.
Police say it was the Speaker Lockwood Smith’s office who issued the directive to only arrest protesters if they climbed over the barrier or became violent. Those two problems never threatened to fire up.
At today’s White Flag meeting, cannabis campaigners again lit up at Parliament. And no one was arrested. Presumably, the Speaker’s directive is still in force. Anyway, that’s the premise behind regular 4:20 meetings at 4:20 pm every Friday on Parliament lawns. See you there. 🙂
Judge Napolitano: The Right to shoot Tyrants, not Deer.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms is an extension of the natural right to self-defense and a hallmark of personal sovereignty. It is specifically insulated from governmental interference by the Constitution and has historically been the linchpin of resistance to tyranny. Yet the progressives in both political parties stand ready to use the coercive power of the government to interfere with the exercise of that right by law-abiding persons because of the gross abuse of that right by some crazies in our midst.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, he was marrying the nation at its birth to the ancient principles of the natural law that have animated the Judeo-Christian tradition in the West. Those principles have operated as a brake on all governments that recognize them by enunciating the concept of natural rights.
As we have been created in the image and likeness of God the Father, we are perfectly free just as He is. Thus, the natural law teaches that our freedoms are pre-political and come from our humanity and not from the government. As our humanity is ultimately divine in origin, the government, even by majority vote, cannot morally take natural rights away from us. A natural right is an area of individual human behavior — like thought, speech, worship, travel, self-defense, privacy, ownership and use of property, consensual personal intimacy — immune from government interference and for the exercise of which we don’t need the government’s permission.
The essence of humanity is freedom. Government — whether voted in peacefully or thrust upon us by force — is essentially the negation of freedom. Throughout the history of the world, people have achieved freedom when those in power have begrudgingly given it up. From the assassination of Julius Caesar to King John’s forced signing of the Magna Carta, from the English Civil War to the triumph of the allies at the end of World War II, from the fall of communism to the Arab Spring, governments have permitted so-called nobles and everyday folk to exercise more personal freedom as a result of their demands for it and their fighting for it. This constitutes power permitting liberty.
The American experience was the opposite. Here, each human being is sovereign, as the colonists were after the Revolution. Here, the delegation to the government of some sovereignty — the personal dominion over self — by each American permitted the government to have limited power in order to safeguard the liberties we retained. Stated differently, Americans gave up some limited personal freedom to the new government so it could have the authority and resources to protect the freedoms we retained. Individuals are sovereign in America, not the government. This constitutes liberty permitting power.
Yet we did not give up any natural rights; rather, we retained them. It is the choice of every individual whether to give them up. Neither our neighbors nor the government can make those choices for us, because we are all without the moral or legal authority to interfere with anyone else’s natural rights. Since the government derives all of its powers from the consent of the governed, and since we each lack the power to interfere with the natural rights of another, how could the government lawfully have that power? It doesn’t. Were this not so, our rights would not be natural; they would be subject to the government’s whims.
To assure that no government would infringe the natural rights of anyone here, the Founders incorporated Jefferson’s thesis underlying the Declaration into the Constitution and, with respect to self-defense, into the Second Amendment. As recently as two years ago, the Supreme Court recognized this when it held that the right to keep and bear arms in one’s home is a pre-political individual right that only sovereign Americans can surrender and that the government cannot take from us, absent our individual waiver.
There have been practical historical reasons for the near universal historical acceptance of the individual possession of this right. The dictators and monsters of the 20th century — from Stalin to Hitler, from Castro to Pol Pot, from Mao to Assad — have disarmed their people. Only because some of those people resisted the disarming were all eventually enabled to fight the dictators for freedom. Sometimes they lost. Sometimes they won.
The principal reason the colonists won the American Revolution is that they possessed weapons equivalent in power and precision to those of the British government. If the colonists had been limited to crossbows that they had registered with the king’s government in London, while the British troops used gunpowder when they fought us here, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have been captured and hanged.
We also defeated the king’s soldiers because they didn’t know who among us was armed, because there was no requirement of a permission slip from the government in order to exercise the right to self-defense. (Imagine the howls of protest if permission were required as a precondition to exercising the freedom of speech.) Today, the limitations on the power and precision of the guns we can lawfully own not only violate our natural right to self-defense and our personal sovereignties, they assure that a tyrant can more easily disarm and overcome us.
The historical reality of the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to keep and bear arms is not that it protects the right to shoot deer. It protects the right to shoot tyrants, and it protects the right to shoot at them effectively, with the same instruments they would use upon us. If the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto had had the firepower and ammunition that the Nazis had, some of Poland might have stayed free and more persons would have survived the Holocaust.
Most people in government reject natural rights and personal sovereignty. Most people in government believe that the exercise of everyone’s rights is subject to the will of those in the government. Most people in government believe that they can write any law and regulate any behavior, not subject to the natural law, not subject to the sovereignty of individuals, not cognizant of history’s tyrants, but subject only to what they can get away with.
Did you empower the government to impair the freedom of us all because of the mania and terror of a few?
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. He is author of “It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom” (Thomas Nelson, 2011).
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/10/the-right-to-shoot-tyrants-not-deer/#ixzz2JWu8eli4
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This is an important subject I have been wanting to blog for some time.
It has to do with the Nature vs Nurture debate.
It’s a very big topic which will only lightly be touched upon in this post.
I would like to talk about a few examples which prove the importance of how Parents nurture their children.
While it may not be strictly true to say We start our ideological/ mental lives ‘Tabular Rasa’ (with an empty slate) we… like Birds who don’t need to be taught to build nests…We humans too possess some ‘instincts’/ innate knowledge, and despite the latest controversial/ absurd claims by Evolutionary biologists that try and assert that we are born politically Left, or Right, or Libertarian….the reality is how we end up ideologically speaking as adults has a hell of a lot to do with the environment in which we live and the external influences we imbibe.
It is patently obvious to me that both Nature and Nurture work together in producing Human personalities, yet for now let put aside the discussion of Nature and focus on Nurture.
I raise this subject for discussion to highlight just how important our behavior as parents is in respect to effecting our Children’s perspective of the world and how they learn to deal with life, and how vitally important the Ideas and values we embody and teach them are to our children’s future well being.
Just two examples will suffice to get this discussion going…
The first is an article which appeared in the NZ herald
‘Hate-filled Family made monster’ read it Here:
Now in this article the brother of a Terrorist… the French Scooter Killer Mohamed Merah whom Murdered 7 people (including 3 Jewish children) and died in a hail of Bullets resisting arrest.
Yet Mohamed was not born in a vacuume.
In a book he has written this Terrorist’s brother dis-owns and condemns his own family members for filling his brothers head with hatred.
I would suggest that this is a very common thread within the Lions share of Radical Islamic extremists whom end up with a Rabid Race hatred for the Jews and others, and go on to become Terrorists, suicide bombers, etc.
Not having read the book I must ask why it is that this other brother did not become a terrorist too?
What saved him?
In what way was his individual nature and Nurturing different to that of his fanatical Brother?
Racist radical and Mana Party Leader and MP Hone Harawera.
The Next example I would like to raise is closer to home (for Kiwis)….that of the Racist Radical MP and Leader of The Mana Party John (Hone) Harawera son of the Rabid Racist… the Evil Titiwhi Harawera.
Now it is obvious to all what sort of upbringing Titiwhi gave her son!
She filled his head with stories of how the Pakeha (European invaders) executed a ‘Holocaust’ against the Maori people, and robbed them of their land, and have left them destitute. She has taught him that ever since the establishment of ‘White rule’ Maori people have been trodden underfoot and suffered vile Race oppressions.
The end result has been to produce one of the countries most militantly hateful and racist personalities… Hone Harawera.
Mummy must be proud!
This tale would be common to many of our worst Maori Radical… like Tame Iti.
Thus from these two examples we can easily see that Haters do in fact grow on trees… They are carefully propagated… nurtured… Indoctrinated.
We can be sure that had Hone been adopted out as a child to a Pakeha family (like my uncle was) that he would not be the same person today.
That many of the most vile Haters are born from Hate filled environments surely means we ought to mitigate our condemnation of Hone’s current attitudes and activities.
Putting it bluntly… he’s been brainwashed from a very early age, and his attitude is almost to be expected.
We can see that his hatred for Pakeha, and his desire for UTU has less to do with factual history, and more to do with the vile racism of his mother.
It’s like an moral virus he picked up.
I suspect Titiwhi herself had a similar upbringing.
Of course depending upon how solid a moral foundation we ourselves have been taught by our parents, (and others) will determine how resilient we are against the hatred and prejudices of others throughout our lives. Ie if we have been taught enlightened values as a child, and wisdom about how the world really works, we will be able to fend off the vile lies and hate filled Bigotry of others rather than assimilating it.
This points to just how vital it is that we as parents take pains to instill enlightened and humane values in our children to fortify them when they go to school, and eventually out into the world.
So many evils are taught in school!
Today from primary school to University our politically corrupted Education system since the late 70’s has actually taught our nations children many of the lies that Titiwhi taught her son!
And due to a serious lack of wisdom on the part of the average parent today we have an indoctrinated society of sheeple whom accept a heinously distorted view of the history of New Zealand, and embrace an apartheid system of Government!
The Great Booker T Washington.
I do not suggest that All haters result from hateful upbringings, or indoctrination. I know horrible events in peoples lives can also generate hatered.
Nor am a saying Hone’s upbringing renders him morally blameless for his prejudices and activities as an MP. I have said what I have said with hope of understanding how such a bigot came to be… where many haters come from.
As an adult he is morally culpable.
If we look at such Moral exemplars as ex slaves, Frederick Douglas, Booker T Washington, or Equal rights activist Martin Luther King, we learn from them that oppression and prejudice does not justify reciprocation.
These Humanitarians were followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ… “Render no man evil for evil but overcome evil with good” .
They broke their chains… not only the legal chains which kept their peoples under, but most importantly, the Chains that link intergenerational Race hate.
So I ask Parents here … esp to Maori parents…” What values are you teaching your children?”
“What example do you set?”
Are You holding up a torch to lighten their paths, or are you filling their hearts with malice against their white friends and neighbors?
Will the values you have instilled help them to succeed in the world or will they hobble their ability to make good judgments… free of malice?
Tim Wikiriwhi
Christian Libertarian.
Update: 28-4-13 Who Radicalised Boston BomberTamerlan Tsarnaev?
At Christmas, 1914, there occurred several informal truces at various points along the trench-lines of Northern France and Belgium. It may well be that there were other places where truces took place, but our precise knowledge of events is limited by the amount of direct, eyewitness testimony which has so far been discovered. Nevertheless, there are enough trustworthy reports (and even a few photographs) to convince us that something extraordinary happened that first Christmas of the war, and that it was not entirely an isolated happening.
The image of opposing soldiers, shaking hands with each other on one day and then deliberately trying to kill each other the next, is a powerful one, and one which is part and parcel of remembrance of the Great War. It was, perhaps, a last example of open-handed chivalry before the squalor and horror of the next three years changed the old world for ever.
The Vid below is one of the greatest speeches on what’s wrong with Western civilisation ever delivered.
God Bless you Mr Ron Paul.
Update: 16-11-12
Transcript of Ron Paul’s Historic Farwell Address Here:
Update 2.
On Hearing Ron Paul is retiring,…even after his monumental address an Objectivist says…
“Best news in the last eight days. I wish the rest of the Tinfoil Hatters would follow his lead into retirement” Here:
From her facebook feed…
“Congratulations to *everyone* who worked on all of the marijuana campaigns in the United States! Enormous thanks to, and praise for, YES on WA’s Marijuana Initiative 502 and Vote “Yes” on Amendment 64, Legalize Marijuana – YOU DID IT! The whole world is watching, it’s big, big news! Much more hard work and perseverance is needed in the USA, Canada, and internationally to keep the momentum going!”
For those of you who dont know who Jodie is… Shes the Legendary Flipside of the Legendary Cannabis Reform activist and Political Prisoner… Canadian Marc Emery, who is currently serving time in the US for his activism to legalise Cannabis.
Marc had a Postal seed business which he used to generate millions of dollars which he poured into the struggle to legalise Pot.
This made him Emery Number 1 with the American drug enforcement agencies.. you see few people whom capitalise from cannabis actaully want to decriminalise it and even fewer use their revenue for the cause!
What a Woman!
Not only has she’s stood by her husband through His ordeal, she has taken on his Mantle and is a Mighty Warrior… an Amazon for the cause!
Man that’s some good shit!:-)
That Marc has been separated from his Hot Babe is an Injustice upon Injustice!
Why do so many of you people out there whom enjoy Cannabis, and are persecuted for it… do nothing to in your own defence?
That’s Lame!
It is time to stand up Bitches!
Join Jodie on Facebook Here:
And help them with the continuing struggle for justice… Ending the War on drugs.
Little Madison is battling for her life.
Her Mummy needs finacial help to get her the opperation she needs to survive!
They are a long way away from the $200 000 that they are hoping to raise.
Please do what you can to help them.
Make a payment… $200.00, $300.00, $500.00 +
Can you ignore this?
You say you need a new Smart phone?, to upgrade your laptop?
Do you really think thats more important than helping this little darling?
Its time for some altruist self sacrifice!
Do it!
Do what you would hope and pray that others might do for your child if you found yourself in their shoes!
Care enough to make a personal sacrifice.
Be a Guardain Angel for this Family!
Come on Christian Brothers and Sisters!
We are the Body of Christ!
God’s Hands and feet.
He works through our love of humanity and faithfulness.
Show the World the love of Christ.
Rise up ye Libertarians!
You say Socialism is evil because it uses coersion.
You say that you dont need to be forced to do what is right.
Now is the time to prove it!
Let’s help get this little girl the medical care she needs!
A Reward of 100 thousand dollars is being Offered for the capture of the Taliban scum whom treid to murder this little girl.
Read more Here:
Pakistan has observed a National Day of Prayer for her Recovery.
I too pray for Her Recovery, for the safety of her Family, and that this event stimulates a mighty storm against the Taliban and Extremism. That Religious Liberty and Tollerance wins the day.
