Letters to the Editor

Send Letters to mr-ed@webleyweb.com

[Letters to the editor are welcome on any and all subjects. To ensure their acceptance, please try to keep them under 500 words. Sign your letter in the text body with your name and e-mail address as you wish them to appear.]

Letter from Nydra Karlen

Letter from Free West Net

Letter from Nydra Karlen

Honest Security

A young college man is in big trouble. He smuggled some box cutters onto two planes using different airports and clearly instructing the federal government of their location. Of course, as a Libertarian, I believe the crime to be the act of hijacking, not the act of carrying on a weapon. ABC News smuggled some nuclear materials into one of our West Coast ports. At first, the idea of prosecuting them was kicked around, too. More recently, on Halloween, a toy pistol (part of a costume) made it into a federal office building in DC. The building was emptied and people treated to a SWAT team swarming the building.

But this act of defiance, the ABC test and the dumb Halloween news story started me thinking. If federal screeners actually wanted improved security, I have an idea for them.

Post a challenge at the door of any "secure perimeter":

Notice:

Smuggle in any contraband weapon, and collect $10,000.

Drop your weapon into the clearly marked secure lockbox behind security and press the red button.

Your $10,000 cashier�s check will be brought to you directly after examination of the weapon and after you demonstrate "how" you did it.

In other words, test our security. Make my day!

What doesn�t have to be posted near the security gate is the consequences for the screeners. Let in a weapon and you are all immediately replaced. Your pension is used to pay the $10,000 prize, as well.

The weapon is not the problem ... just like the 2nd Amendment guarantees. But if we are going to pretend that weapons are the problem, lets at least make the buggers work for their pay.

Nydra Karlen
State Chair of Libertarian Party of Nebraska
[email protected]

Back to the top

Letter from Free West Net

Participate in a Live Interactive Interview with Dr. Walter Block

When? November 19th 2003 - 5:00 pm mst
Where? The Saloon at Free West Net www.freewest.net/

Drop in and ask Walter a question then watch the discussion as he answers your question and those of other participants.

Walter Block earned his PhD in Economics at Columbia University. He is an author, editor, and co-editor of many books which include Defending the Undefendable; Lexicon of Economic Thought, Economic Freedom of the World 1975-1995; Rent Control: Myths and Realities; Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and Equal Opportunity; Theology, Third Word Development and Economic Justice; Man, Economy, and Liberty: Essays in Honor of Murray N. Rothbard; Religion, Econonomics, and Social Thought; and Economic Freedom: Toward a Theory of Measurement.

Dr. Block has written more than 500 articles for various non-refereed journals, magazines and newspapers, and is a contributor to such journals as The Review of Austrian Economics, Journal of Libertarian Studies, The Journal of Labor Economics, Cultural Dynamics, and the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He is currently a professor and chair of economics, college of business administration, at Loyola University. ^[1]

The Saloon @ Free West Net - no conversation like it on earth! www.freewest.net/yabbse/

For more info, or to submit a question in advance, please contact: [email protected]

Note: we recommend arriving 5-10 minutes in advance in order to register if you wish to post any questions.

^[1] As per Dr. Block's bio on his personal website walterblock.com/bio/index.php

Back to the top

TLE AFFILIATE

Help Support TLE by patronizing our advertisers and affiliates. We cheerfully accept donations!