Letters to the Editor
from L. Neil Smith, Rex May, Jim Davidson, Paul Bonneau,
Sean Clifton, and A.X. Perez
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Rocky Mountain News: Not R.I.P., Good Riddance
by L. Neil Smith
Like many another "great" American newspaper, Denver's Rocky
Mountain News, founded just before the War Between the States, is
going out of business. Friday, February 27, 2009 was its final day of
publication.
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In Defense of Capitalism
by Sean Gangol
Thanks to America's financial crisis, the economic system known
as capitalism has found itself under fire by statists, leftists, socialists, and
just about any other group that doesn't understand basic economics. Ever since the
beginning of this financial crisis, the people who oppose capitalism have gloated
about how free markets don't work. These people also go on to tell us how
libertarianism is a discredited ideology. Sadly, most of these people don't even
know what they are talking about.
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A Little Austrian Flea
by L. Neil Smith
To tell the truth, I'm getting very tired of writing about
economics. I'm not really interested in it, compared to other things I am
interested in, and compared to them, I don't know much about it. In perfect
honesty, I slept through most of my initial college economics classes, which
were held as early in the morning as possible, boringly recorded on videotape,
and inflicted on huge auditoria full of dozing students over TV monitors
mounted in strategic places around the room. I remember much more vividly
various sprightly selections from Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass that
they played before and after each presentation.
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Assault Weapons Ban—Wrong Again
by Jim Davidson
The assault weapons ban of 1994 was wrong. It was a bad law.
It infringed the right to keep and bear arms. It also made idiotic and ridiculous
distinctions amongst items of ordinary sheet metal and plastic. The world was a
slightly better place when it expired in 2004—in spite of ignoramus tyrant
George W. Bush's promise to sign into law an extension if Congress would only
pass one.
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The Whining Right
by L. Neil Smith
I've told the story before, of one of Hollywood's most
celebrated producer-directors, a character who leans as far to the left as
anyone can without falling out of his limousine, a Great Man who distorts
and omits truth in his big-budget movies in order to advance the socialist
agenda. Despite all of this (and much, much more), the Great Man is said
to possess an enormous collection of weapons—notably "black" or "ugly"
guns of the kind he and his ilk call "assault rifles" (and I've been urging
gun folks to call "sport-utility rifles")—that he enjoys showing off from
time to time in a setting to rival Charleton Heston's fabled gun room. The
person this story comes from asked the famous man, "Aren't these the very
guns you say you want to pass laws against?" "Those laws," the Great Man
replied, "are for them." Meaning you and me, the lowly peasantry—and,
incidentally, his customers. The Great Man gets to keep his weapons, whereas
for us, let the genocide commence.
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Just a Few Thoughts on Fixing the Economy
by A.X. Perez
A recent article on MSN Money reported that fears that President
Obama might enact anti gun laws and policies have spurred gun sales so much that
gun company stocks have risen up to 56% while the Standard and Poor average has
dropped 2%. This leads to an intriguing plan to break the recession/depression:
Keep rumors of gun control legislation floating, never actually pass any and let
gun sales help restart the economy.
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The Lessons of 1722
by Jim Davidson
It was a long time ago in a Europe which survives mostly in
dusty history books, a few novels of the era, and the occasional historical
novel about that period. So, what could we possibly learn from AD 1722 that
would be applicable today? In many ways, it was a time much like our own. The
size of the world had greatly expanded a few hundred years earlier with the
discovery of what proved to be two new large continents in the Western Hemisphere.
Technologies like the steam engine were being developed to advance rapidly the
industrial revolution. Political thought had been advanced by minds like John
Locke and science by minds like Isaac Newton. Mercantilism was still a favorite
economic policy, and wars were a big enterprise for making money. Politics was
easily as corrupt as it is today.
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Atlantea The Beautiful
by L. Neil Smith and Rex May
Number 13 of a weekly cartoon series.
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