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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 200, November 25, 2002 BICENTENNIAL!
Send Letters to [email protected]
Letters from MacGregor K. Phillips, Charlie Clayton, and Equifax Support RE: "A LIBERTARIAN IS ..." Gentlemen, Based upon this ridiculous left wing radical definition, I am not one of your libertarians and therefore request that you "unsubscribe" me. Upon your definition, the USA should not have responded to the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, we should have not resisted Hitler and the attack upon the World Trade Center should have resulted in our sternly admonishing Osama Bin Laden. You are damaging the libertarian cause. Thank you
- - - I REPLIED Dear Mr. Strong, By "this ridiculous left wing radical definition", I am guessing - since you were not inclined to be more specific - that you are referring to our "credo" at the top of the newsletter, to wit:
Since your tone was not one that leads me to believe that you are even remotely interested in understnding the statement (and since it is equally clear that you do not), I am probably wasting my time in trying to explain. Nonetheless ... The key element that you seem to be missing, or misunderstanding, is contained entirely in the word "initiate":
So, within your first analogue, it was the Japanese who initiated force. (We'll set aside, for the sake of the discussion, the curious chain of events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor - no event exists in isolation, Mr. Strong). The US responded to the initiation of force with a commensurate response. I have no idea to what in particular you are referring when you say that we are "... damaging the libertarian cause". If you mean the "cause" of the LPNC, then I hope you're correct. If you mean, as you typed, that we're damaging the "lower case 'L'" libertarian cause, then please explain how we are doing so. It's my impression that the principle in question defines libertarianism as does no other. But without more specifics from you than a general indictment, I really cannot understand the charge, much less defend against it. Now, on to more "technical" matters. Did you subscribe to TLE? If so, you must have noticed that "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" instructions are contiguous. And if someone else subscribed you, then shame on them for wasting your time and ours. In either case, the instructions are at the bottom of each and every newsletter, so please unsubscribe yourself. Nope, wait a minute ... if you have as much trouble comprehending the plain language of those instructions as you did with the plain language of the opening paragraph, then I'd better "unsubscribe" you myself. There ... all done! We won't bother you again. Feel free to re-subscribe if you ever change your mind. John Taylor
I don't understand why "libertarian" think tanks like Cato don't put
out any useful information on foreign aid. I don't mean the usual
compilations of anecdotes, or the irrelevant studies on the relatively
small "official" foreign aid programs; I mean actual information on
how much money is transferred to foreign dictatorships through
"monetizing foreign debt" via Federal Reserve payments to money-center
banks for bad foreign-government loans. I've made a first stab at the
issue in my "Aid To Dependent Dictators", archived [here], but I
would really like to see some up-to-date figures. Does anyone have
suggestions for up-to-date sources on:
I think this issue has been ignored long enough. Thanks for any help. Bill Walker [[email protected]] TO SCOTT TILLMAN (AMONG OTHERS): Your CPAP idea is an interesting one, but I'm not sure if an aquarium pump is powerful enough. Maybe a design that allows for replacing the pump as needed, like those tabletop fountains have, would work better. I use a CPAP as well, and require 11# pressure to keep breathing. Then again, I have sleep apnea so bad that I've actually had my throat collapse and cut off my breathing when relaxing in a rocking chair. As for weight control, this is one of many areas where one solution does not fit all people. I also have a weight problem, but it is secondary to other medical problems (fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivities, osteoarthritis, insulin resistance, PTSD, migraines, sleep apnea, and those are just the major problems) that have left me disabled (and a victim of UNUMProvident's chicanery). One thing I've learned is that the number of calories I take in every day is not nearly as important as what form they are in. Thanks to being unable to hold a steady job for nearly 10 years now, my primary diet has been beans and rice. My daily intake is 1 cup of pinto beans, 1/2 cup of rice, and 1/2 chicken leg. If I'm lucky enough to have a little extra money, I can supplement that with 1/2 cup of popcorn. (Note: the measurements are all pre-cooked measures.) On that diet, I have gained 150 pounds since 1996. I've learned through experimentation that it's the nature of my diet, not the calories I take in, that's the primary cause of my weight problem. When I've had a job, and been able to buy better food, I've been able to temporarily lose as much as 40 pounds by following a balanced diet plan like the Zone diet. I'd dearly love to try the kind of diet Neil talks about in Pallas, but let's face it: there's a major difference between $8 for 20 pounds of pinto beans or 20 pounds of rice, and $2+ for 1 pound of beef roast. The point I'm trying to make is that a person's weight is not necessarily caused by a lack of self-control or outright gluttony. At a conservative estimate, there's at least 12 million people in the US alone who have at least one of the medical problems I do, and that means there's at least 12 million people in the US alone who are doomed to the same kind of weight problems (unless they have a wealthy relative, spouse in a high-paying job, or other source of income that allows them to eat the kinds of foods that help with weight loss). Bill Hartwell [[email protected]] E-GOLD SCAM Here is some more on that e-gold scam that your readers may want to know about. Sincerely,
Dear Mr. Phillips, We are not at liberty to discuss this matter at this time. Charlie Clayton, CISSP
-----Original Message-----
Charlie,
Sincerely, Matt Rapid Response Unit @ GeoTrust
-----Original Message-----
Dear Sir, I currently accept payments on my web site http://www.topsecretcrypto.com through my e-gold account. I have just received the following e-mail from a fraudulent site pretending to be e-gold at https://www.e-gold.cc/acct/manager.htm that is using a certificate issued by you, Equifax Secure Certificate Authority, that allows them to operate a secure site to defraud people out of any money they have in their e-gold account. The valid url is https://www.e-gold.com/acct/manager.htm. A copy of the fraudulent site's certificate is attached. The second url in the message below will show this fraudulent url in the status bar when you hover the mouse on it if you do not have the option turned on to read all messages in plain text. It shows very poor business practices when you issue a certificate to a site that will use it to defraud people out of their hard earned money. You cannot be checking the sites that apply for a certificate very much, or at all, if you issue a certificate to a site that has a name so close to the well know www.e-gold.com web site. As soon as you saw the name www.e-gold.cc you should have known that something was amiss and checked a lot further instead of just taking their money and issuing them a certificate. Please revoke this certificate immediately and help shut down this web site! Sincerely,
PENTAGON TO TRACK AMERICAN CONSUMER PURCHASES A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity." Aldridge said the database would collect and use software to analyze consumer purchases in hopes of catching terrorists before it's too late. ... Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons. It would also combine consumer information with visa records, passports, arrest records or reports of suspicious activity given to law enforcement or intelligence services. ...>> Source: Fox News
Great article on the Anointed's annoying public service announcement hectoring. When you pointed out that these Mary Poppinses in jackboots (I like that, it's right up there with "humanitarians with guillotines") are after power, you neglected to mention that it is more than likely that for a given PSA, the moral preening ego gratification was accomplished with money stolen from you in the first place! [Thomas] Jefferson said it best: "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." Robert Lallier [[email protected]]
TLE AFFILIATE
We have an e-gold account,
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