Kort Explores conundrums of the human condition

Politics and terrorism are both functions of human nature. New technologies may increase the capabilities of individuals, but basic human nature remains the same. The fact that bombs targeting Americans have become more common recently has nothing to do with the development and availability of bomb technology, and everything to do with human nature and the abandonment of the basic principles on which our civilization was founded.

The technology required to build the type of bomb used at the Olympics has been widely available for centuries. The technology needed to construct powerful fertilizer bombs like the one in Oklahoma City has been widely available for nearly as long.

The bomb at the Olympics was a black powder pipe bomb. The Chinese figured out how to make black powder from pig urine thousands of years ago. Should we now register all pigs with the BATF and require farmers to tag and document all of the effluent from their terrorist porkers? Will we now recognize the PLO (Pig Liberation Organization) in the empty hope that their attacks on civilization will diminish if we surrender all our human rights in the face of their porcine aggression? Should we register and regulate all plumbing supplies and plumbers just because pipe fittings were used to commit violence? Or will we instead focus on the underlying human factors that are the real cause of terrorism.

Black powder and metal plumbing materials were at times in American history so commonplace it's reasonable to assume that nearly all citizens possessed the means to construct this type of bomb if they wanted to. The key factor is "if they wanted to". The fact that in the past people didn't plant bombs in airplanes and public gatherings even when the means were more widely available and security practically nonexistent proves that bombings occur not because of availability but rather because of intention.

The key to the rise of our modern technological civilization was the empowerment of the individual in both technology and political philosophy to effectively defend himself and his property from criminals, terrorists, and tyrants. This empowerment occurred through the development of personal firearms and the recognition of individual rights in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Federalist Papers.

Terrorist acts are committed to accomplish an intended result - usually the surrender of the rights of the targeted population group. To the extent we react as the terrorist intends we validate and honor the terrorist act. To the extent we reject and suppress out of principle those groups that attempt to promote their cause through terrorism, we eliminate the usefulness of terrorist acts and thereby eliminate terrorism itself.

Clinton's response to terrorism is to redouble his attacks on the rights of lawful citizens - especially the rights of self defense that have always been the primary deterrent to criminal violence. Down through history the morally and ethically bankrupt philosophy Clinton is now attempting to impose on the land of the formerly free has consistently resulted in increased terrorism and the oppression of the innocent. One might wonder whether Clinton is acting out of incompetent ignorance of history, or out of fully informed malicious intent to manipulate the citizens of America into willingly abandoning their rights in the empty hope that an all-powerful Federal government can guarantee their safety. This same tactic worked for Hitler in 1930's Germany, resulting in those covertly responsible for the violence gaining absolute power over their victims.

Clinton constantly claims to know what he's doing, so we must assume that his actions and the restrictions on the constitutional rights of American citizens he's already achieved are intentional. Since history proves that the measures Clinton is advocating have never achieved the goals he claims to want, we must question the true motives behind the relentless liberal demands for increased emergency powers to combat "terrorism".

The measures Clinton claims are a response to the recent terrorist attacks are in reality nothing more than a continuation of his campaign to eliminate all constitutional rights for all Americans. Ultimately, the only possible motivation for the escalating government attacks on the rights of citizens can only be to eliminate the ability of citizens to resist the recurrent acts of murder and terrorism committed against us with increasing frequency by government agents.

It should bother everyone that government agents now routinely don ski masks to conceal their identities while performing their "duties". The true terror should be the realization that government agents are routinely engaging in activities so morally questionable that they can't commit them openly in the plain view of the citizenry, and must conceal their identities for fear of being held accountable in the future if their superiors lose political power.

Attack terrorism at its roots by eliminating the political value of terror, not by stripping its victims of their few remaining rights and imprisoning them in walls of fear. Those who claim to be protecting us from terrorism are clearly a far greater threat to our long term safety and freedom than the terrorists themselves. No nation that surrendered its personal rights in the hope of personal safety ever recovered their rights or achieved the promised personal safety.