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L. Neil Smith's
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 531, August 9, 2009
"Hadn't I made it clear that Ambrose is a cat?"

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Letters to the Editor

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[Letters to the editor are welcome on any and all subjects. Sign your letter in the text body with your name and e-mail address as you wish them to appear, otherwise we will use the information in the "From:" header!]


Letter from Bill St. Clair

Letter from Jim Davidson

Letter from A.X. Perez

Letter from Kent McManigal

Letter from Donald Meinshausen

Letter from Lehr Duquesne

Letter from Rachel H.

Another Letter from A.X. Perez

Yet Another Letter from A.X. Perez

In TLE #529, in his essay entitled "And Charo, Too", L. Neil Smith proposed requiring all bills before the US Congress to be read in full, and a quorum to be redefined as 100% of the legislators.

Downsize DC has been marketing their "Read the Bills Act" for a few years now. This bill requires that every bill be read in full to a quorum in both the House and Senate, and requires a legislator, in order to vote on a bill, to sign a sworn affidavit that (s)he has read the bill, or listened attentively to the public reading.

It also requires bills to be published on the internet at least seven days before the vote, along with the day and time of the vote. Failure to do this makes the bill null and void and is a defense against criminal or civil prosecution.

If you still believe in democracy (I don't), supporting Downsize DC is one way you can support Neil's idea.

Here's the text of the proposed "Read the Bills Act":
www.downsizedc.org/page/rtba_legislation

Bill St. Clair
billstclair@gmail.com
billstclair.com/blog/

Dear Editor,

It is good news that the $25 that Ken Royce took from me under false pretenses of providing membership in his organisation has finaly been returned. I have taken notice of your receipt of same.

Therefore, I am very sorry that Ken Royce is such a worthless person that he can only pretend to anti-racism while continuing to harangue people with racially motivated commentary. I'm also very sorry to have ever been involved with his xenophobic outfit that opposes freedom of travel.

Nevertheless, I've learned not to get involved with groups that don't have ethical principles. I continue to regard Free State Wyoming as being more about statism and less about freedom. I continue to recommend that it not be on the list of freedom enthusiasts.

Regards,

Jim Davidson
planetaryjim@yahoo.com

[Isn't it a good idea to not get involved with any group? "Are we not men? individuals?"—Editor]

I read the news today

"As many as an estimated 170 of the detainees now at Guantanamo are unlikely to be prosecuted. Some are being held indefinitely because government officials do not want to take the chance of seeing them acquitted in a trial. The rest are considered candidates for release, but the U.S. cannot find foreign countries willing to take them. Almost all have yet to be charged with crimes."

I honestly can't count the ways this statement taken off of MSN on the 2nd of August 2009 describes violations of the US Constitution, international accords, and common human decency. Please remember that the current Democrat majority in Congress and the current administration were elected to put an end to this. Also please note that the rest of the world is ready to condemn our violations of the Gitmo detainees' rights but are unwilling to accept these men within their borders. We thus run into a case of "meet the old boss same as the new boss," mixed with being stuck with being the rest of the world's designated goon/bogeyman. America, the land built on protecting people's rights, now reduced to being the guy you call in when the world agrees someone's rights need violating.

This is not the country any of us, with the possible exception of Messers Rumsfeld and Cheney, want to create. Since those men are out of office, why are we continuing their warped policies?

A.X. Perez
perez180ehs@hotmail.com

AK-47

AK-47 of a different sort

The recent news story about the man in New York City who got in trouble with the authoriturds because of his new flintlock rifle gave me an idea. I'm not sure why my brain works this way, but it does and I am forced to simply deal with it the best I can. Anyway, my idea is for some whimsical gunsmith to build an AK-47- "Altered Kentucky-1747", that is.

Please excuse the crudity of the drawing. It is not to scale or colored, nor are any of the lines straight. However, I hope it conveys the basic notion.

It should be a flintlock, of course. I toyed with the notion of making it full-stock, as any decent Kentucky (or "Pennsylvania" for the purists) rifle would be, but with the other alterations I decided this, too, could be changed to give it more of an "AK-47" look.

It would look very elegant if the pistol grip and stock could be carved from a single piece of wood, but I know this might be difficult, and probably not as strong as making them separate. The magazine would be a detachable loading block that could snap into place. You could even attach a bayonette in order to scare the sheep even more, but I didn't draw that part.

If anyone knows a gunsmith who would like to tackle this project, let me know. I doubt I would be able to afford the finished product, but I'd love to at least have pictures of the final result.

Kent McManigal
dullhawk@hotmail.com
Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
KentForLiberty.com

Some info one has to get outside the US

I forward this without comment to interested media people

—On Tue, 8/4/09, Basil Childress wrote:

[LINK] (the fist picture on down into the article is of HK Edgerton—in Confederate Artillery uniform [the red piping] in front of the Battleflag). The piece is by economist Walter Williams, free market economist of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who displays a Confederate Battleflag in this office.

As HK has told me many times—be who you are—if there are rough places between folks, work them out. You don't need government ideology to do that for you. The only way learning to get along with one another can happen is between actual humans, without the layers of lies the political class wants to complicate it all for their benefit.

Donald Meinshausen
freedonnow@yahoo.com

Bubba Scores

Cruising for chicks in North Korea yesterday, Bill Clinton returns with two smokin' babes. Apparently he secured their release by promising to introduce Kim to "that hot Margaret Cho", carefully neglecting to tell him that she plays for the other team.

Lehr Duquesne
lehr@zoomtown.com

You all are invited to join me at Lake Loveland, CO for sterile open carry picnic

(I know that some of you are long distance, you were included just FYI—please feel free, no, feel obliged to spread around to anyone local and interested! :o)

Ladies and Gentlemen—

I response to the City of Loveland violating the rights of a man because he presumed to exercise his Second Amendment rights, we're going to have a picnic!

For those of you not real familiar with the terms, CO is an "open carry" state—that means that you have the right to carry your gun openly (outside clothing) in a holster. Sterile means that you've left the ID somewhere else. I'll either leave it in the car, or have a designated driver.

This part of the article particularly concerned me "The police officers, according to the ACLU's letter, seized Miller's pistol "without consent, and emptied it of ammunition."

The officers then ordered Miller to give them his driver's license, over his objections."

Now, I hope that you all see my concerns, but since when do police officers seize the property and demand the ID of a law-abiding citizen?

The gentleman is 71 years old, and reports "They also said to me just at the end and out of the blue, "No one has thrown you to the ground."

Throwing a 71 year old man to the ground could be lethal force.

Wednesday, August 26 5:30pm (or when you can get there) at the Statue of Liberty.

Potluck—bring food, plan to share. Video cameras encouraged, as are chairs, etc. There's not much there, from what I remember.

I'm sure that you all wouldn't even think of it, but just in case, soft drinks only, please.

I'll be wearing the Libertarian Party of Washington shirt and Taurus Titanium .38. (And probably blue jeans and shoes. ;o)

Rachel H.
lpwa.com1@gmail.com

It is not racism to take care of your own kin.

The explanation I was given many years ago for quotas and reverse racism is based on the following logic. I do not say I agree with it, I simply note it as a postulate behind certain policies. At one time in the past (before the 1950's/ 1960's, depending on who's telling it) Blacks and members of other minorities were indeed denied entry into trade unions and better universities and graduate programs due to racism. As America became less racist African Americans and members of other minority groups were no longer denied entry because of race. Instead the problem was that they lacked the hook up into the good old boys network to get into the appropriate guilds. For example, a member of the plumbers' union has four recommendations he can give in his lifetime to admit people to the union. Does he give them to his sons and nephews, or to a Black stranger? Picking his kin does not constitute racism. So, the government intervened and required that a certain number of black, brown, yellow or whatever members be admitted so that down the line an adequate number of minority members would be in the guilds (and to a certain degree holding a diploma from the right university or grad school is a guild card) to overcome the racism of the past by controlling recommendations, by being part of the good old boys network as it were.

I do not necessarily agree or disagree with this explanation. As said above, this was the explanation given me. I have a strong feeling that government bureaucrats (and even corporate bureaucrats) will continue quota systems long after they have achieved their goals because said red tape tanglers are not about to break their own rice bowls.

Of course if the economy is running strong there are so many alternative ways to advance economically and guilds are expanding their membership so rapidly that we don't need the service of quota keepers. However,what happens during a recession or depression?

Do I hire my nephew Fulano* (fictional person) to help me do my home repairs or that nice Anglo kid down the block? trust me Mr. Rogers is thinking the same thing about hiring his nephew instead of Fulano to work in Rogers Dune Buggy Custom Repair. Come a depression or recession people are making choices like this all over the country. Maybe Rogers and I will sit down for a beer or two together and swap nephews as employees. Maybe, probably, not. But taking care of our own kin comes first and that isn't racism.

Too many bureaucrats would love nothing better than to slap us both with racial quotas and force us to hire each other's nephews. Too many crooked politicians would love to incite my neighbor and me to hate each other over race with the battle cry "Those people are stealing food from your children's mouths!" and in a weak economy a lot of people are going to be desperate enough to listen. And crooked politicians will do all they can to turn our decent urge to take care of our own into racism that gains them power.

Our Esteemed Publisher quotes the line, "War is the health of the state." Well poverty and the desperation it creates are the health of the tyrant. And corrupting people into becoming racists and reverse racists are exercises in that health. Given that, can statists be trusted to effectively deal with the current economic crisis or prevent the next one?

Or should we handle it ourselves and create an economy so strong that Rogers and I are commiserating over our beer that our nephews are ungrateful brats who went off and got jobs on their own and don't appreciate our efforts to help them (which leads into discussion of other kinds of tyranny that someone else can handle)?

A.X. Perez
perez180ehs@hotmail.com

*Fulano Tirilon (I think I spelled it right) is a generic Spanish nickname meaning Baggy Pants Ragbag. you know, the guy that you don't want hanging around your daughter.

Crazy al was right!

So let me see if I've got this right. Two American journalists were busted entering illegally into North Korea and sentenced to harsh punishments, at least partially to embarrass the US and to be used as bargaining chips. Kim Jong Il, the "bruddy rittle dictator from ass end of nowhere" (thank you Rex May) asks that Bill Clinton be sent as the envoy to negotiate their release. Slick Willy goes, the girls are let go, and the Huffington Post runs two articles on Wednesday the 5th of August 2009 celebrating Obama's foreign policy wisdom and Bill Clinton's comeback.

Well, God bless Bill Clinton as the rescuer of cute girls from durance vile. However, I think most of us recognize that the young ladies in question were set free because the US stroked the ego of a madman. While I don't particularly like him, I will not detract from what Mr. Clinton accomplished this time. Neither will I heap him with unearned praise as some extreme liberals seem bent on doing.

As my buddy Crazy Al (or is he my alter ego? oh well) says, The lunatics have taken over the asylum, and they didn't invite us to the frakkin' party." I just never thought it would get so blatant.

A.X. Perez
perez180ehs@hotmail.com


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