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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 226, June 1, 2003 Mr. Ed Tells All!
Mr. Ed's Stable
Exclusive to The Libertarian Enterprise Greetings to all the readers of The Libertarian Enterprise from your new editor! My name is Dan Weiner, also known as Mr. Ed. I expect that many of you were quite surprised to see the small notice at the beginning of Issue 225, my first ever editing position for any publication at all. I was too, as I thought there would be a notice of some sort in issue 224, but apparently not. There was no time for me to introduce myself, either, so I thought this issue would be the time. I suppose few publications give notice to its readership of such changes, so no big deal, so I will do so myself! I was born 53 years ago in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved to Houston at the ripe young age of 27. I am still here, but probably not for long. My parents are in their late eighty's now, and getting to be not able to take care of themselves, so perhaps it's time for me to move to Albuquerque, where they now live, and be there for them. They were certainly there for me, no matter how stormy our relationship was much of the time. I have had 2 careers now, first as an auto mechanic for 16 years, spending 5 of them restoring classic cars. And I have been a copier technician for 16 years now as well. I am looking to change once again, to some sort of computer geek profession, though I haven't settled on any specialties yet. I have lots to learn, but have learned my other two careers mostly with OJT and Self-study, and lots of questions. I may take more courses for IT subjects, and go from there. I am here for no other reason than that my predecessor, John Taylor, wanted to retire, and nothing else. He did a fine job here, and I hope to at least try to fill his shoes. And I am learning this job by the same methods I used to learn to fix cars and copiers. I was handpicked by our illustrious publisher, L. Neil Smith, from a short list of 3 candidates. The first apparently turned him down, and with some trepidation, I said yes. Wow! Such an honor, my amigo! I have admired Neil's work and this publication for years now, and I was on the Ad Hoc Conspiracy to Ruin L. Neil Smith's Life, and I guess he thought I was pretty cool! Or sumpin', I suppose. I had written him when things were getting pretty hot between him and Dean Chambers a few years ago, and he wrote back quite an email in response! I find him a pretty darn cool fellow as well, and he says I am articulate, and understand the principles very well. I certainly agree with the latter, but I am not always so sure about the former! But, I do quite well, and I am pleased with the offer and what I have done elsewhere, and I think I can do well here as well. I have much to learn, and seem to be doing okay right now. Not too many scewups...yet! So nuuu, as my fellow Jews often say, what am I gonna do that's so different? Not that much, really as this publication is already well done, and so I plan to keep it up, and perhaps add a few new things as well. I have suggested two changes to the masthead, including the addition of Simon Jester images, courtesy of Carl Bussjaeger. See www.simonjester.org for more, and download some more. And tell him where you heard about him! I also suggested the addition of the "Proud member of" statement just under the title of our publication. Neil has yet another idea as well, but I will let you wait to see what that one is. I bet you'll like it! I do! It's not quite ready yet. I am also creating two new columns or article segments of my own, both of which will run when they need to be done (this one) and another one I have tentatively labeled "Mr. Ed's Neighsayers". Its purpose is to enable debate of ideas that are controversial to us, though abortion will *not* be one of the topics. Perhaps anarchy vs. Minarchy, for one. In spite of the Dallas Accords, this one still generates problems, and I admit I am a bit of a fence sitter on this one, though I recognize excellent reasons for anarchy and less excellent ones for minarchy. I, for one, simply remain undecided, and would like to see this discussed some more. Not flamed, as happens so often, but worked on. I have to be careful with some of these, as they can cause a lot of unneeded aggravation, so I will set terms and limits to replies. It should be interesting, if nothing else. There also plans afoot to make The Old Movement an ongoing feature here, as well as plans to bring NetPlanetNews.com from the fictional world of Hope to our very own universe as well. I will do everything I can to promote both, but I, too, need more information on what's planned, so I can do more to get both of these ideas going! There is one thing in this issue to comment on. There is one article that may cause fussing and fuming this month. Try to answer it with intelligence, please, flaming emails are not welcome, especially those directed at people. Flame ideas, but make sure they are well done. I plan to beat out something on this very keyboard. Many people hold mistaken ideas, and flaming just pisses them off, and I don't want flame wars here! Certainly not if they are stupid! I have Special Plans for the really bad ones! I will let you find out the hard way! I have a devious mind...heh heh heh. Also, I have put some special web sites in Libits this month, so happy surfing! And keep enjoying your porn and politics as well, campers. Sorry, folks, the porn ain't here, but the politics and cultural commentaries are!
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