Bill Maher is a Libertarian and a stand-up comedian. He’s so right on point on this one. America - together with other former colonies *cough Australia cough cough* is a (quote) young and dumb country (end quote) and they have so many people believing that the world is a pancake and the moon is made [...]
I realize it's a hard sell, but I've got a suggestion for the attendees of the Ron Paul counter convention, as well as libertarians who can not quite cozy up to a lifelong Dixiecrat Drug Warrior, who now professes a libertarian rebirth— maybe we should consider giving the Republicans one more chance. God knows they need it—a political party can not continue to exist if the bulk of their deleg
A lot of my readers don't seem to realize that I believe conservatives and liberals are the respective ass cheeks that surround the same thing—and if libertarian minded folks are not real careful, being somewhere in the middle, they end up being the dirtiest of all.Yesterday, I wrote a piece about the popular trashing of freedom in the name of diversity, tolerance, hate crimes, political correc
On May 5, the We Demand a Vote.com Coalition announced that it was organizing a petition drive to prohibit the use of red light cameras from coming to Cincinnati. Every major city in Ohio has put up the cameras to ticket motorists from running red lights. The coalition hopes that Cincinnati will be the first major Ohio city to ban them. Long time Libertarian Party member and activist Josh
Tom Frank of the Wall Street Journal covers the America's Future Foundation discussion the other evening about whether those who are fighting for liberty should work in the non-profit or for-profit world. He picks the latter.
Welcome to the May 11, 2008 edition of carnival of the libertarians.
I was invited a month or more ago to host this carnival. I’m happy to do so. I’ve got libertarian leaning myself, as well as some not so libertarian ones as those who’ve crawled the blog might be [...]
(H/T: Doug)I would have to say that even the most militant libertarian would agree that this is appalling and ought not to be allowed:In 2007, the ‘artist’ Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, tied him to a rope in an art gallery, and starved him to death. For several days, the ‘artist’ and the visitors of the exhibition have watched emotionless the shameful ‘masterpiece’ based on the dog’s agony, until eventually he died.But this is not all… the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of Central America decided that the ‘installation’ was actually art, so that Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008.This is a question that comes up from time to time in libertarian circles, and to which I have yet to see a
The Republican nomination is all wrapped up. The Democrats are still fighting but, as Chris Dodd said, “I think it’s very difficult to imagine how anyone can believe that Barack Obama can’t be the nominee of the party. I think that’s a foregone conclusion, in my view, at this juncture given where things are.” [...]
Kos asks where the libertarians are on fighting against the current FISA bill.This is largely an important and fair question. Little is ever heard publicly from libertarian organizations on this issue, yet it is something going on - right now - that implicates libertarian values as much as anything else.Libertarians have not been silent on this issue. Ron Paul - to the extent he is a legitimate representative of libertarianism (debatable) - is quite clearly opposed to warrantless wiretapping, and has been fairly vocal about it to my knowledge. Reason has also come out quite clearly against the wiretapping bill, including this article by Julian Sanchez. And of course Radley Balko has made a career of documenting abuses by law enforcement in general in a way that perhaps no one on the Progre
What is behind the improbably successful presidential campaign of Ron Paul, a 72-year-old 10-term Republican congressman from Texas who favors the gold standard? How did Paul manage to set a one-day GOP record by raising $4.3 million on the Internet? Paul's campaign didn't even organize the fundraiser -- an independent-minded supporter did.
According to this Washington Post editorial, a new and potentially transformative force is growing in American politics. Americans are increasingly disillusioned with government becoming ever more intrusive at all levels. Paul’s philosophy of principled libertarianism, predicated on the fundamental notion that a smaller government allows individuals more freedom, appeals to these voters.
Nine percent of Americans -- more than enough to swing every presidential election since 1988 -- now espouse a libertarian ideology that opposes "government regulation in both the economic and the social spheres." They are fiscally conservative and socially lib
What is behind the improbably successful presidential campaign of Ron Paul, a 72-year-old 10-term Republican congressman from Texas who favors the gold standard? How did Paul manage to set a one-day GOP record by raising $4.3 million on the Internet? Paul's campaign didn't even organize the fundraiser -- an independent-minded supporter did.
According to this Washington Post editorial, a new and potentially transformative force is growing in American politics. Americans are increasingly disillusioned with government becoming ever more intrusive at all levels. Paul’s philosophy of principled libertarianism, predicated on the fundamental notion that a smaller government allows individuals more freedom, appeals to these voters.
Nine percent of Americans -- more than enough to swing every presidential election since 1988 -- now espouse a libertarian ideology that opposes "government regulation in both the economic and the social spheres." They are fiscally conservative and socially lib
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, editors of the libertarian magazine Reason, have an op-ed in The Washington Post where they see having a candidate who polls at around five percent as being a sign of a revolution. The two are correct in pointing out trends, many of which I’ve discussed here in the past, of a desire for greater freedom. I’ve often noted the trend for “Starbucks Republicans” and “South Park Republicans” to break with the GOP over its support for the war and the social agenda of the religious right. Similarly I’ve commended Democrats for opposing the war and restrictions on civil liberties (even if more weakly than I would like) but have warned that if they return to “tax and spend” economic policies which have unfortunately become associated with liberalism they will become a minority party for yet another generation.
With these trends, why are libertarians in general and Ron Paul in particular only supported by a small
Following the recent U.S. District Court ruling barring Independents from voting in Libertarian primaries, the Arizona Libertarian Party (ALP) braced for an onslaught of angry Independent voters. That barrage never came. Now, a few weeks later, the sense of defiance has turned to a feeling of regret.“I am not going to lie,” said Michael Kielsky, Chairman of the Arizona Libertarian Party, “I was a little bummed when the phone didn’t start ringing off the hook. I saw this as a way to tell some people about our libertarian principles, but no one seems to care.”“It sort of feels like we threw a party and nobody came,” lamented David B. Schlosser,ALP’s Secretary, “I thought we would have a wave of people changing their voter registration or calling us begging to allow them to vote in our primary. I even picked up the phone a few times to check the dial tone to make sure the thing was working.”According to the Secretary of State’s most recent voter counts, there are ab
Michael Kinsley has an interesting, if somewhat misinformed, essay in Time Magazine about the growth of the libertarian movement.After describing libertarianism as he sees it, Kinsley asksAnd what is the opposite of libertarianism? Libertarians would say fascism. But in the American political context, it is something infinitely milder that calls itself communitarianism. The term is not as familiar, and communitarians are far less organized as a movement than libertarians, ironically enough. But in general communitarians emphasize society rather than the individual and believe that group responsibilities (to family, community, nation, the globe) should trump individual rights.I guess "communitarianism" is the new socialism? He goes on to say, in what I'd call the money quote:Libertarians and communitarians (to continue this unjustified generalizing) are different character types. Communitarians tend to be bossy, boring and self-important, if they're not being oversweetened and touchy-
Breitbart has a terrifying account of the the current assault being conducted by liberals against the advertisers on all of Fox News channels. This leftist thuggery of course is cheered on by the mainstream media as well as the leadership of the Democrat Party (they refuse to debate on Fox).In 2006, the GOP got thrown out because they were a bunch of corrupt crooks. We should have known better. The left has moved further and faster to its fascist roots then I ever could have imagined. This fascist drift of the Dems has the support of the media and they want Fox News dead (not to mention Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Boortz, Savage, etc.); they can't even tolerate Lou Dobbs.Libertarians and Conservatives alike must act. The American left has exposed itself as the greatest threat to individual liberty we have faced in a generation. Giving these people the keys to the car would be the end of our Republic in so many ways.Related EditorialsLiberals And TaxesDaily Kos Bans Copious DissentLiber
I wandered upon what I have to assume is a now defunct project– it was last updated in February of 2006. This is unfortunate. It was an interesting project.
The Blogosphere Political Compass Project is graphing the approximate political affiliation of bloggers from all corners of the Internet. The chart below shows the relative positions of the bloggers who have responded thus far; graphing is done two-dimensionally in order to show both economic (liberal vs. conservative) and social (authoritarian vs. libertarian) leanings.
The Zoo: The Blogosphere Political Compass Project
The interesting thing about it is the chart that the project generated. (Because of the apparent defunct nature of the project and hence the possibility that the chart will vanish from the web, I’ve linked to copies of the originals.)
Notice how those who score toward the liberal side– appropriately the left side– almost all score toward the libertarian side as well. (I fit in this catego
I wandered upon what I have to assume is a now defunct project– it was last updated in February of 2006. This is unfortunate. It was an interesting project.
The Blogosphere Political Compass Project is graphing the approximate political affiliation of bloggers from all corners of the Internet. The chart below shows the relative positions of the bloggers who have responded thus far; graphing is done two-dimensionally in order to show both economic (liberal vs. conservative) and social (authoritarian vs. libertarian) leanings.
The Zoo: The Blogosphere Political Compass Project
The interesting thing about it is the chart that the project generated. (Because of the apparent defunct nature of the project and hence the possibility that the chart will vanish from the web, I’ve linked to copies of the originals.)
Notice how those who score toward the liberal side– appropriately the left side– almost all score toward the libertarian side as well. (I fit in this catego
The choices are learning how to fish or letting the government take fish from some people to feed others. The latter doesn’t sound very “American” to me.
Liberals differ from Libertarians mainly in two aspects: Government and redistribution of private wealth and autonomy for private enterprise. Government has always been the tool to promote coerced redistribution of wealth. Liberals want to take it away from those who managed to generate some degree of financial security and give it to those who weren't smart or maybe weren't hard-working enough. Liberals despise private enterprise because they are uncomfortable with the thought of someone getting wealthy due to their enterprising attitude.
There is an old Chinese proverb that goes as follows: “Give me a fish and you will feed me for a day. Teach me how to fish and you will feed me for life.” Social welfare creates a sense of security that keeps people from discovering their true potential. The
Complicated Visionary posted a piece a while back that categorized different types of libertarians. The author put libertarians into 10 broad categories:Randians/Objectivists/Egoists - Meet John or Jane Galt. While most card-carrying Objectivists assert that they are not libertarian in name, the movement started by Ayn Rand (author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) was and is an important influence on the thought of modern American Libertarianism (Cathy Young says that “Libertarianism, the movement most closely connected to Rand's ideas, is less an offspring than a rebel stepchild.”). They imagine an individualist/collectivist and egoist/altruist dichotomy and put it at the heart of their entire worldview as the supreme good vs. evil (along with some peculiar axioms like “A is A” and “existence exists”). According to those influenced by Randian Egoism, greed is a virtue, while compassion is a deadly sin. The word capitalism can stimulate a spontaneous orgasm. They ar
Both the Grover Cleveland Library and the Libertarian Hall of Fame will be valuable cultural assets to the City of Buffalo honoring the past and celebrating the future.
The following essay appeared on Lewrockwell.com last night. Lewrockwell has a good sized national following drawing well over a half million visitors per month. The articles are informative and entertaining, provided by a highly skilled staff of columnists, including the most highly principled member of Congress, Rep. Ron Paul, Texas. The complete list of Jim Ostrowski’s columns can be viewed here.
A great irony has occurred to me just in the last few months of jousting on the web about politics.
I've been a libertarian since I was in college. I've never hidden that fact and have always been proud of it. I'm always amazed when liberals complain about being called “liberals.” What are you ashamed of? If you're ashamed of what you are, change! And calling yourself “progre
As noted over here, the 3% of the Montana Senate vote that went to the Libertarian candidate likely drew more from the Republican than the Democrat…
The Republicans would be wise to remember this in a couple years.
2 LPO Endorsed Candidates on the Ballot
1. Executive Committee Endorses M. Jason Vasko for Fulton County Commission Jason Vasko has a new radio ad set to play during the final days of this campaign. (See and Hear Attached)
For every $9, yes nine dollars, that you contribute, Jason's radio ad will be played one more time at Fulton County's only radio station.
Is spreading Liberty and Freedom throughout Ohio worth $9? How about electing Ohio's first Libertarian County Commissioner? Worth $9? Please visit Jason Vasko's website now, and buy radio advertising for our candidate! http://www.vasko2006.com/help/
2. Peirce Debate Available Online
We are excited to announce that the historic October 4th, 2006 debate between Bob Fitrakis and Bill Peirce is available for viewing online at:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2034685932569123845
In the second part of the debate, independent candidate Dr. James Lundeen joins the conversation:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6612490897
News ReleaseFor Immediate DistributionAugust 6, 2006 Contact: Robert Butler :(740) 204-3036 c:(614) 805-8292hq@lpo.orgwww.lpo.orgLibertarians Win Lawsuit with Secretary of State, Ohio Election Law Ruled UnconstitutionalThe US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled today that Ohio's election laws are unconstitional, restricting the rights of voters, candidates, and political parties of reasonable access to the ballot." The evidence in the record shows that in Ohio, elections have indeed been monopolized by two parties...The LPO has put forth evidence that Ohio is among the most restrictive, if not the most restrictive, state in granting minor parties access to the ballot," wrote the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons, US 6th Circuit Court Judge. "Put simply, the restrictions at issue in this case serve to prevent a minor political party from engaging in the most fundamental of political activities - recruiting supporters, selecting a candidate, placing that candidate on the general electio
