PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This disaster-marred week was also punctuated by the death of a man I regard as one of the most heroic figures of 20th century human history. World-famous Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, age 96, has passed away.

According to reports I've seen, Wiesenthal and his wife, between them, lost eighty-nine members of their family to Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Problem". Wiesenthal himself survived three separate concentration camps. But what was remarkable about the man was that afterward -- often against the expressed wishes of the establishment, and sometimes to the embarrassment of many of his own people who would simply rather forget -- he was not content merely to have been a victim, merely to have been a survivor, of the Third Reich nightmare.

Instead, Wiesenthal became an avenging angel, hated and feared by those Nazis who had escaped justice and were successfully living in a postwar world where, insanely, it had become possible for murderers and torturers to become advisors and consultants to their former enemies.

In the end, he helped to identify, capture, and punish some 1100 so-called "war criminals" (not the most appropriate of phrases, when the same kind of monster can do the same kinds of things to people at Waco and Ruby Ridge without benefit of war as an excuse). Shortly before his death, he acknowledged that he derived even more satisfaction from the fact that even those he couldn't catch probably had a difficult time sleeping for the rest of their lives, knowing he was on their trail.

Wiesenthal was by no means a libertarian. He held many positions and opinions libertarians would disagree with. He never seems to have absorbed, for example, the principal lesson the Holocaust has to teach us: never let the government take away your weapons. Yet he never let the remaining Nazis slide; he never forgave, he never forgot what they did.

And because of that, he was, and will always be, a great man.

L. Neil Smith
Publisher, The Libertarian Enterprise
lneil@lneilsmith.org

EDITORIAL MATTERS:

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Ken Holder
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Editor

ARTICLES

Letters to the Editor
from Jim Davidson, Lady Liberty, and E.J. Totty
• FULL STORY

Libertarians: The Connies Speak Out (Part One)
by L. Neil Smith
I have been accused—and I didn't like it much—of saying that the people of the United States are sleeping. All that we libertarians (or Marxists or Georgists or Monarchists or Nudists or Flat-Earthists or Anti-Darwinists) need to do to achieve victory over the Forces of Evil (whoever they happen to be at the moment) is to awaken our fellow countrymen (and our countrywomen, too) from their deep and dangerous slumber.
• FULL STORY

Lessons That Will Never Be Learned
by Charles Stone, Jr.
Hurricane Katrina was a much nastier piece of work than was expected. Perhaps thousands of deaths, over eighty percent of New Orleans flooded, a city of a million will soon be nearly deserted.
• FULL STORY

In Search of Jonathan David Morris
by Jonathan David Morris
I got an email over the weekend from someone who works for Fox News, whose name is Jonathan David Morris. He said he was writing just to let me know that there's another guy in the media who goes by the same name as me. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
• FULL STORY

Laying the Bricks of Blame
by Lady Liberty
Whether it's advisable or not, there was really never any doubt that the city of New Orleans would be rebuilt. When it is, the experience of Hurricane Katrina will doubtless also ensure that the levees surrounding those areas below sea level are improved to withstand stronger storms and higher water.
• FULL STORY

Why Did it Have to be ... Guns?
by L. Neil Smith
Over the past 30 years, I've been paid to write almost two million words, every one of which, sooner or later, came back to the issue of guns and gun-ownership. Naturally, I've thought about the issue a lot, and it has always determined the way I vote.
• FULL STORY

Faith Based Initiative Stirs Debate
by Wendy McElroy
On Sept. 11, Dalton McGuinty—the Premier of Ontario—announced that his province would not become the first Western jurisdiction to allow Islamic law to settle family disputes such as divorce, child custody and property settlements.
• FULL STORY

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