THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 272, May 23, 2004
The Most Pathetically Incompetent Empire in History

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

From The Libertarian Enterprise: Please Pass This Along

The Libertarian Party has been fortunate this year that two out of three of its serious candidates are decent, highly-principled, and thoroughly libertarian individuals anyone would be glad to vote for in November. I've come to know these two reasonably well, and it's been a pleasure.

About the third, the less said here about him the better. From the moment he blew into a state party convention I happened to be speaking at, to the moment he blew out as fast as he could, having delivered the same bland contentless speech I've come to expect from his type, I knew what we had here was another Republicanoid LINO—a "libertarian in name only"—who professes to believe that the public can somehow be fooled or jollied into voting themselves free, but in reality is only terrified that he might offend his right wing establishmentarian contributors.

We've been there.

We've done that.

In this year of all years, when the federal police state has taken off its mask and gloves, this is the very last kind of candidate our party or our country needs. What they desperately need instead is the strongest possible language at the podium, and the most decisive possible action, aimed at alerting the populace to the grave danger they face, and persuading them that things must change if we are all to survive. What we need is a Paul Revere, not some kind of game show host.

As many of our readers know, I very enthusiastically endorsed Michael Badnarik last year, shortly after meeting him at the New Mexico state LP convention, chiefly because of his great energy, his enthusiasm, his deep background in the movement, and his dedication to principle. He's a genuine scholar, and remarkably articulate and photogenic. It didn't hurt that he's an advocate of Bill of Rights enforcement, or that he stuck around through the entire weekend, willing to talk with anyone and everyone who wanted to talk with him. I stand by Mike, and hope he's nominated as the LP presidential candidate.

A while later, I met Aaron Russo—in e-mail and on the phone, the way so much of our communicating and socializing is done nowadays—and I was impressed with him, as well. He's a rare combination of level-headed businessman and creative sideways thinker, and I like him. He detests this administration, vehemently opposes the draft, is an enemy to every form of gun control, and as a successful movie producer, doesn't give a rat's ass what the rest of Hollywood thinks of him. For me, it also helps that Aaron's only detractors in the movement are one of its flakiest cuckoos and an infamous Republican stooge.

Each of these men would make a better Presidential candidate than the LP has had for a very long time. In fact I'm having a hard time remembering when we had a better Presidential candidate. John Hospers? Roger MacBride? Worst of all, one has to bite one's virtual tongue to avoid suggesting that one of them should become the other's Vice Presidential sidekick. If the race were between them, it would be a celebration.

One way in which Mike is at a disadvantage, is that, like a great many libertarians, he has very little money. I personally think it's important to support competition between good men, so I'm asking you to help Mike out until he's either chosen as the LP's candidate or not.

Go to http://www.badnarik.com and click where it says, "Donate Now!" Mike will thank you, I will thank you, and someday history will, too.

* Please Pass This Along *

L. Neil Smith

EDITORIAL MATTERS:

TLE will be appearing somewhat late next issue, as we wait for the news as to the Presidential candidate chosen by the National Libertarian Party at their convention next weekend in Atlanta. Our Mr. Smith will be having comments on the outcome of that shindig.

Please feel free to encourage people to come to

www.webleyweb.com/tle/

and read our magazine. And please feel free to post our articles far and wide (just remember: complete article, title and author included, and the URL of the article on our web site).

Ken Holder
Your Mr. Ed

ARTICLES

Letters to the Editor
Letters from L. Neil Smith, Bill St. Clair, two from EJ Totty, Rex Curry, Michael Brightbill, Audie Gaddis, Todd Andrew Barnett, Frank Ney, and Mike Lorrey.:
• FULL STORY

Reply to Lorrey
by L. Neil Smith
A little while ago, somebody named Mike Lorrey wrote to The Libertarian Enterprise, accusing me, in effect, of lying, and taking me to task for assigning (he doesn't say to whom) what he imagined was collective guilt in my recent TLE anti-war article, "Torturing the Truth".
• FULL STORY

The Truth Hurts
by Lady Liberty
There's a wonderful site on the Internet referred titled "Urban Legend Reference Pages". The information at snopes.com has proved an invaluable reference tool for me on occasion, and has prevented me from mistakenly forwarding false information to others more than once. My rule of thumb is typically this: If it's something so surprising or controversial I want to send it out to everybody right this very minute, it's a good idea to head on over to snopes.com first.
• FULL STORY

The Kaptain's Log
To Hell With Football
by Kaptain Kanada, a.k.a. Manuel Miles
...and baseball and basketball and soccer and hockey and cricket and rugby. As a matter of fact, to hell with all "team sports" played with ball or puck. They promote fascism, communism and imperialism.
• FULL STORY

Cassandra, Censorship, and Credibility
by Ron Beatty
In Homer's epic the Iliad, Cassandra was the Trojan prophetess who was cursed by Apollo to always speak the truth, but to never be believed. Colloquially, her name has come to mean a 'prophet of doom', with the upspoken assumption that what the person has to say is not to be believed or given credibility.
• FULL STORY

The High Price of Gas
by L. Neil Smith
These must be halcyon days for finger-shaking ecoboobies and mass transportation fascists. The price of a gallon of gasoline has risen in the state where I live—and Colorado has the lowest prices in the nation—to over two dollars. For those of us with large, powerful cars—ours is the Durango with the big V8—it's getting a little annoying.
• FULL STORY

A Feminist Version of "Joe Millionaire"?
by Wendy McElroy
The popular reality show "Joe Millionaire" chronicled a fierce competition among 20 women to marry a man who was advertised as a multi-millionaire but who was actually a low-paid construction worker. Audiences squirmed as the contestants portrayed women as stereotypical, money-grubbing, superficial social climbers.
• FULL STORY

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