 |
|
|
 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 513, April 5, 2009 "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper."
Send Letters to editor@ncc-1776.org
RE: "No Bailout for America's Newspapers!" by L. Neil Smith. Years ago, it used to be a hobby of mine to write the The Oregonian (aka Whoregonian) in letters to the editor, correcting some of the lies—er, I mean, misstatements—found in the paper. Usually I focused on two issues, guns and schools. Over time, I noticed my letters being edited. I compensated by making them as trim and concise as possible to avoid this, because the editing was clumsy, and damaged the credibility of my efforts. Yes, I assumed the editing was to make the letter fit on the editorial page. Then one day, reading my latest butchered effort defending the right to bear arms, it occurred to me to count the words there. I found on that letter, and in a subsequent one, that the edited version of what I wrote was not only clumsy and dumbed down, but also longer than the original. The only reason it was being edited was to make it appear that gun owners are semi-literate. Needless to say, I gave up my letter-writing hobby, at least to that newspaper. Jefferson noted, "It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle." It will be a great day for freedom when the last rotten propaganda rag finally bites the dust. Paul Bonneau
Comments on Various Topics Somehow the title on my letter on how tyrants create monsters was attached to my article on exit tests and the way schools are trapped into keeping people ignorant. Since keeping people ignorant and/or half educated is part of the process of making them into monsters this is more of a correction/ improvement than an error. I miss Jeff Cooper. He wrote at a highly literate level and demanded that his readers keep up with him. Gun magazines were (and still are) delighted to publish his work. Yet it is obvious that he was happy writing at the 8th grade level most computer style editors favor or at college level, depending on which was most appropriate to his subject matter. He often did this in the same article. If you wanted to read his work, you had to take these changes in stride. I would not be surprised to learn he helped improve people's reading skill more than half the so called reading specialists in America. He assumed that if you wanted to read what he had to say about guns, fighting, hunting, politics, and life you would learn how to read well enough to follow his thought. As he one time quoted the Underground Grammarian in his Guns and Ammo column in late 1986 (and here I paraphrase) "People must learn how to read so they can learn how to write clearly. They must learn how to write clearly so they can learn how to speak clearly. They must learn how to speak clearly so they can think clearly. They must learn to think clearly so they can control their destinies..." Compare this to the dumbed down pap (and crap) in most news magazines and textbooks. It's been a while since I read Nietzsche but I remember him defining a monster as a superman blocked from achieving his potential. Many of the same steps towards turning a potential Nietzschean superman into a monster can arguably be used to turn potentially free people into slaves and monsters. By the by, the Underground Grammarian is available on line. It is not really a book, but is a journal published over several years. Besides perusing it at leisure, I recommend that those of you active in school politics militate to make it mandatory reading for principals, assistant principals, assistant superintendents, and school district superintendents. A.X. Perez
 I just did this new bumper sticker, available here. Rex May
This is a very funny parody of real life problems. It shows the road to hell paved with good intentions (mostly by ignorant people who want to be babysat for life, and don't want to exclude you from the privilege). Morning Show Host Starts Charity To Rid World Of Flying Debris Don Wilson
Dear Ken: I've just finished reading Weapons of Mass Instruction and recommend you print "The Bartleby Project" in the Libertarian Enterprise. A website on John Taylor Gatto, the author, might have a copy. Renata Russell, Signatory
[Done, this issue. Thanks!—Editor] For those of you who do not live on the Border: The murders due to the drug wars in Juarez have dropped down to a "reasonable" rate (there is no such thing as a reasonable murder rate. At best there is a statistically and regrettably inevitable number of murders in even the most decent society. However to the victims and survivors this is not reasonable, nor given their suffering should it be.). This was accomplished by bringing in a brigade of uncorrupted troops. Hopefully by the time these men begin to supplement their inadequate pay with mordida (bribe money, literally "bite") the dealers will have remembered that murder and mayhem are bad for business and reached an accommodation with the authorities. Juarez and the Border will thus enjoy peace, until the next time lack of political liberty and economic opportunity trigger another spasm of violence. Meanwhile Obama's Cabinet is blaming the problem on lax American gun law and American demand for drugs. I cannot argue the second but as to the first I have only one thing to say: Crap. To be more exact, pure unadulterated crap. It was not American gun laws that made Mexican elections a joke for generations. It was not American gun laws that caused and continues to cause ten percent of Mexico's citizenry to come to this country to find economic and political freedom for generations. It was not American gun laws that created a police force so busy protecting the privileged elite and collecting bribes that they were unable to solve, let alone prevent, the mass murder of 300 plus female factory workers and prostitutes. It was not American gun laws that triggered the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas. It was the attempts by repressive rulers to try kill the Mexican people's love for liberty that caused these things, and part of this effort was and continues to be gun control laws that the recycled Clintonistas in Obama's Cabinet would love to impose on the people of the US. So now American liberals want to jump into solving the Mexican drug war problem by denying the rights of American citizens and turning the USA into the plutocratic kleptocracy (or is kakistocracy better here? All three apply.)? Sorry, my families fled that mess and those who want to bring it here can fuck off. Alberto Xavier Perez-Ramirez
TLE AFFILIATE
Help Support TLE by patronizing our advertisers and affiliates. We cheerfully accept donations!
|
|
|
|
Contents
Next
