L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise: working to fulfill the promise of the American Revolution since 1995

The Shoulders I Stand On
(The Feature Article)

The Libertarian Enterprise

Official Journal of the National Recall Coordinating Committees
A Reader Supported Web Magazine
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Number 511, March 22, 2009
"The Mother Of All Demos"

Income Tax Dependents?
by Rex May
http://www.baloocartoons.com
http://balooscartoonblog.blogspot.com (note new URL)
Stuff for sale: http://www.zazzle.com/rexfmay/gifts

THE CURRENT ISSUE

EDITORIAL MATTERS:

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

Our good friend and partner, master cartoonist Rex "Baloo" May informs us that he has once again improved his main website at
www.baloocartoons.com

Now, there's a new Baloo cartoon displayed every day, and below that, links to 13 other new dailies divided by category. Also, you can click from the main site to the first category—"Science"—and from there you can go to the second, from the second to the third, and so on, or click to return to the main site each time. In other words, it's worth bookmarking and checking back every day.

Rex also has several new political cartoons each week at:
balooscartoonblog.blogspot.com
And don't forget the amazing treasures to be found at www.zazzle.com/rexfmay/gifts. I have an item or two there, myself.

Happy day,

L. Neil Smith
Publisher and Senior Columnist
The Libertarian Enterprise

EDITOR'S NOTE:

In case y'all aren't aware of the recent bit of idiocy from Our Masters Who Art In D.C. requiring the military to destroy all used brass ammo cartridges (a popular source of material for us reloaders), we have this bit of good news from the Montana Shooting Sports Association:

Dear MSSA Friends,
I just received a phone call from the office of U.S. Senator Tester of Montana to inform me that at 5:15 (EST) today a letter cosigned by Senator Tester (D-MT) and Senator Baucus (D-MT) was faxed to the Department of Defense asking DoD to reverse its new policy requiring destruction of fired military cartridge brass. At 5:30, I am told, Tester's office received a fax back from DoD saying that the brass destruction policy IS reversed.
Others report to me that they are already seeing evidence of this on the Websites of entities that liquidate surplus DoD commodities.
Our thanks go out to Senator Tester and Senator Baucus, and their staff, for getting on this problem promptly and making the reversal happen.
Staff for Tester and Baucus promise they will get me the documentation for this reversal tomorrow morning. I'll forward that when I get it.
Best wishes,
Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
www.mtssa.org

Sometimes Our Masters remember they are supposed to be Our Servants. Mark down one for the Good Guys.

In addition (as Henry Gibson used to say) there is a very interesting "give 'em hell" article on the recent economic mess in Rolling Stone that is worth reading:

www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

Or you can download a .pdf file from:
filebin.ca/ugyyov/TheBigTakeover.pdf

An excerpt:

So it's time to admit it: We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity. And the worst part about it is that we're still in denial—we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream.

I should note that we are a Reader-Supported eMagazine. Information on various ways to help keep us going are here:

http://ncc-1776.org/donate.html

along with our links to advertisers and affiliates that can generate a bit of cash for us.

Finally, don't forget L. Neil Smith's novel Ceres is being published on the web, with a new chapter every Monday:
www.bigheadpress.com/lneilsmith/?page_id=53

And on that note, welcome to issue 511.

Ken Holder
Editor
editor@ncc-1776.org

ARTICLES

Letters to the Editor
from Jim Davidson, L. Neil Smith, Rex May, Bill Koehler, Curt Howland, A.X. Perez, Simon Jester, Scott Graves, and the Don't Go Movement
• FULL STORY

The Shoulders I Stand On
by L. Neil Smith
From time to time, various interviewers ask me to identify the important influences in my writing and my life. My answers have been pretty consistent over the years, but I haven't had too many chances to go into any detail. Visiting with a friend on the telephone, I realized that three men, more than any others, have helped me to be what I am. I can't thank them, they're no longer with us, but I can tell my readers about them and share the benefits I've received from them.
• FULL STORY

Morals and Morality
by Ron Beatty
Whew! This is going to be a tough one. I know that many people are going to vehemently disagree with me on this one, but it's time to speak out. Many years ago, in a college psychology course, my cousin and I teamed up to do a report on the writings of Robert A. Heinlein. It was supposed to be a three page report, with a five minute class presentation. What we turned in was the required three pages, plus four pages of quotes and citations. The five minute class presentation turned into three class days of questions and answers.
• FULL STORY

Vermont Fudge
by L. Neil Smith
It says here the federal Centers for Disease Control, abetted by a state bureaucracy, are trying to find out who owns guns in Vermont. The story is they're calling people and asking them to participate in a "health" survey. Buried among other unwarranted intrusions is a question government employees should be jailed (at the least) for asking: "Got Guns?"
• FULL STORY

Now Something Changed
by Jim Davidson
One has to be careful when predicting the future. Robert Heinlein noted that it never pays a prophet to be too specific. He also pointed out that Cassandra didn't get nearly as much kicking around as she had coming. In my last essay on the subject of these horrid companies that have been, absurdly, bailed out with taxpayer money, I asked what had changed, really, that would make the markets rise. My answer then was that nothing much had changed.
• FULL STORY

The Kevin Dowd Lecture on Free banking
by Johnathan Pearce
On Tuesday the 17th March 2009, Professor Kevin Dowd gave the Second Chris R. Tame Memorial Lecture at the National Liberal Club in London. His subject was "Lessons from the Financial Crisis: A Libertarian Perspective".
• FULL STORY

Digital Hall of Fame: Kevin Poulsen, Senior Editor, Wired.com
by MinOnline
The digital world has introduced a new kind and level of threat to our personal privacy and civil liberties. Without Wired's Kevin Poulsen, we wouldn't know the half of it. Starting on the wrong side of the issue as a convicted and imprisoned computer hacker, Poulsen donned the white hat of digital security watchdog over a decade ago.
• FULL STORY

Atlantea The Beautiful
by L. Neil Smith and Rex May
Number 16 of a weekly cartoon series.
• FULL STORY

Agenda 21: The United Nations Programme of Action