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January 31, 2011 Libertarian
Commentary on The News
The God Not Guns Coalition is an interfaith
partnership consisting
of faith-based groups that promote sensible gun policies at the local,
state and national levels.By Nathan A. Barton © 2011 Nazgul
- Politics 2011
Scalia appears at Tea Party US House meeting Los Angeles Times "Justice Antonin Scalia's appearance at a meeting organized by the House Tea Party caucus and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Monday provoked new cries from liberals and some academics that conservative justices are shedding the appearance of impartiality. The session, part of what Bachmann calls a series of constitutional seminars, was closed to the media. Lawmakers said Scalia advised them to read the Federalist Papers and to follow the Constitution as it was written." (01/24/11) Oh, he’s in trouble now. Not for his associations as much as for what he told them - how can a decent Nazgul tell someone to follow the Constitution? (Read the rest here) Let's
Not Lose This Opportunity!
By Nathan Barton © 2011 Bill
Introduced in Arizona challenges Birthright Citizenship
Unfortunately, a site which reposted this story did so with the commentary-type headline “Idiot pols think state legislature can amend US Constitution,” demonstrating that even people who claim to be libertarian can be guilty of prejudice and incredibly fuzzy thinking. As the article makes clear, and discussion over the past few months amplifies, there is a growing number of people who believe that the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment (an interpretation which dates only from about 1912 and was not accepted until much later (1982 - see the note), even though the amendment was ratified almost fifty years earlier) is wrong and was not intended by either Congress or the states. Therefore, this is not an attempt to bogusly “amend” the Constitution as the libertarian site claims, but similar to the action taken by Montana and other states in the last couple of years to reestablish states’ authority under the 9th and 10th Amendments and force the reevaluation of the federal government’s claims of power under (and interpretation of) the Interstate Commerce Clause (a claim also dating from the 1930s). (Read the rest here) External Articles America Needs Community, Not Collectivism By Giordano Bruno Tyranny thrives by feeding on human necessity.
It examines what
sustains us, what we hope for, what we desire, what we love, and uses
those needs as leverage against us. If you want safety, they will take
it away and barter it back to you at a steep price. If you want success
or respect, then you must bow to the existing arbitrary pecking order
and play the game nicely. If you want to raise a family, then you must
accept the state as a part-time parent. If you want kinship, then you
must settle for a thin veneer of empty pleasantries and insincere
associations. If you want independence, then you are simply labeled as
a threat and done away with altogether. Autocratic rulers are first and
foremost salesmen; they convince us that life itself has a “cost”, that
we are born indebted, and all bills must be made payable to the
establishment. First and foremost, we are sold on the idea that in all
of this, we are ultimately alone…
It is within these manipulated concepts of cost and isolation that we discover the foundation of all totalitarian cultures: Collectivism. (Read the rest here) (Use the back button to return.) Why We Couldn't Abolish Slavery Then and Can't Abolish Government Now By Robert Higgs Slavery existed for thousands of years, in all
sorts of societies and
all parts of the world. To imagine human social life without it
required an extraordinary effort. Yet, from time to time, eccentrics
emerged to oppose it, most of them arguing that slavery is a moral
monstrosity and therefore people should get rid of it. Such advocates
generally elicited reactions that ranged from gentle amusement to harsh
scorn and violent assault.
The
Unintended Consequences of Political ActionWhen people bothered to give reasons for opposing the proposed abolition, they advanced many different ideas. In the first column of the accompanying table, I list ten such ideas that I have encountered in my reading. At one time, countless people found one or more of these reasons an adequate ground on which to oppose the abolition of slavery. (Read the rest here) (Use the back button to return.) By Debbie and Carl If you recall, Smith previously went into
painstaking detail to give us
an institutional analysis of the state in order to explain Voluntaryist
principles. He believes this institutional analysis is vital to
understanding why it makes no sense to use political action, because
the state is “invasive per se.”
Smith shows us that political libertarians already clearly understand and use institutional analysis when it comes to economics and then makes this point: "From our theory of the market there emerges a "strategy" of what to do. We respect justice in property titles and leave the market alone. Our theory "predicts" that this strategy will produce optimal results, but it cannot tell us precisely what these results will be. "Optimal," in this context, is a relative term. It means that the results of nonintervention will be better than any other alternative." (Read the rest here) (Use the back button to return.)
National Gun Rights Examiner Brady anti-gun ‘faith’ coalition fails to stir evangelical fervor in multitudes by David Codrea
Surely this strategy could be a game-changer, as religious leaders can exert profound influences on their followers, and while valid reporting numbers may be hard to pin down, it’s an observable fact that there are a lot of houses of worship, and a lot of Americans regularly attend their services. [snip] So what happened? Why has the Brady-backed interfaith initiative…disappeared? Why is it when we click on the link to the “God Not Guns” website expecting to be transported to a gun-free Nirvana, we instead ascend to…a search page? (Read
the rest here) (Use
the back button to return.)
Libertarians understand that America isn’t "becoming" a police state because America is already a police state. Those still holding onto the fantasy that American is the "Land of the Free" should consider these few examples among thousands. Beloved rights activist Julian Heicklen refused to attend his court appearance on Monday but reported Wednesday that a Tyranny Fighter was there. She related that (a) the Assistant US Attorney charged Heicklen with "distributing literature without a permit," a violation of a Homeland Security regulation, and (b) the judge issued a warrant for his arrest. (Read
the rest here) (Use the back button to return)
Features From The Last Issue
Libertarian Commentary on The News 01/24/11 By Nathan A. Barton © 2010 [Forgot to change the link again last week. Here is the link to the commentary of 01/17/11] External Articles
By Thomas Szasz Is "legalization" the right strategy?
by Steve Kubby
Sipsey
Street Irregulars
Peggy Noonan pronouces me a person of "bad intent." Yeah? So deal with it. By Mike Vanderboegh National Gun Rights Examiner Would you call the cops on your kids? Click Here for the Archives PLEASE let me know
if
you find a broken link! Do
you
know a
good liberty centered blog?
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