Who Owns The Future?
(The Feature Article)

L. Neil Smith's
The Libertarian Enterprise

Official Journal of the National Recall Coordinating Committees

A Reader Supported Web Magazine
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Number 541, October 18, 2009
"There is no genuinly forward-looking
science fiction left in mainstream America."


The Governator
The Governator
(send to your friends in California)
(Here's a large size for printing)


 
L. Neil Smith personally recommends Climate Depot
as the best general source of infomation on the subject.
 




THE CURRENT ISSUE

EDITORIAL MATTERS:

Welcome to Issue Number 541. We just keep rolling along, like Old Man River, except we're mostly dry.

We are a Reader-Supported eMagazine:

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

Another way of helping out is by clicking on our advertisers and affiliates and spending some money with them. Yeah, I know. If ya can, thanks! See also "On Buttons and Clicks by L. Neil Smith"

(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)

Be sure and check-in at Neil's new blog-thing at

"The Moratorium"

And his other blog-thing at www.bigheadpress.com/lneilsmith/

The graphical novel Phoebus Krumm by L. Neil Smith, Scott Bieser and the artist known as ~3~ is now appearing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at:

http://www.bigheadpress.com/pk

Such riches!

Ken Holder
Editor

editor@ncc-1776.org


Time Peeper

ARTICLES

Birth Certificate?

Letters to the Editor
from The Editor, Russell D. Longcore, L. Neil Smith, Rob Gillespie, Paul Bonneau, A.X. Perez, Bo Fredricsson, Rex May, and Crazy Al
FULL STORY

Who Owns The Future?
by L. Neil Smith
Thanks to the botched-up mess of positively Obamaic proportions that forced digitization has made of broadcast television, the Smiths have been turning more and more for entertainment to our computers and the Internet. We found HULU and enjoy it very much. We've discovered new programs like Warehouse 13, Eureka, and Sanctuary, and have even begun watching certain broadcast favorites like Fringe the same way. There's also a fair amount of history and science to be found there.
FULL STORY

The Economics of Star Trek
or
What is Good for Business?

by Dmitry Chernikov
In one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Captain Sisko describes Earth as "paradise." It is a paradise in which there is no such thing as money, and people don't get paid for doing things. In the same episode we see Sisko's father's restaurant, but the workings of his business remain mysterious. The problem is that without the price system and money serving as a unit of account it is impossible to rationally allocate resources and capital goods in particular to their most valued uses. The difficulty lies in the fact that the price system is an emergent property of the market, arising as a result of entrepreneurial competition for capital, though, of course, there is nothing magical to it: we can clearly identify the source from which that property emerges, viz., the recognition by the individual members of society of the benefits of social cooperation and division of labor, and can even trace its evolution from a tiny two or three-person market to one in which social cooperation has become worldwide. As Joseph Salerno writes:
FULL STORY

A SF story I wish someone would write
by C. Florence
Here is a science fiction short story that I wish somebody would write: Anne meets Ayn—Libertarian Vampires Eat Politicians and Colonize Mars. Except it needs a deliberately opaque and unhelpful title, and cover art that doesn't give the plot away.
FULL STORY

The Brontosaurus in the Broom Closet
by L. Neil Smith
Dear Newt—It says here somewhere (I can't find it, now that I need it) that you believe the Republicans can take the House back in 2010, and that you're thinking of resurrecting the famous GOP "Contract with America" which you assert was pivotal in the Congressional "revolution" of 1994.
FULL STORY

"Personal Declaration of Independence" or the Covenant of Unanimous Consent?
by Dennis Lee Wilson
In last week's Libertarian Enterprise, C. Jeffery Small, at the end of his article titled "Mandatory National Service", urged readers to embrace a "Personal Declaration of Independence" which, judging by its title, is well intended[1], but actually contains a mixture of Galt's Oath and a mistaken understanding of the U.S. Constitution.
FULL STORY

What Would A Truly Free Nation Look Like?
by Russell D. Longcore
One day soon, the United States Federal government is likely to collapse. The cause will probably be that the rest of the nations of the world will reject the dollar as the world's reserve currency, and adopt another currency, or a basket of currencies, as their new reserve. This currency move is not just a rumor, but is already happening on a small scale. Once the nations of the world have cast aside the dollar, its value will freefall against all other world currencies.
FULL STORY

The Goddess of Vengeance and Murder
by Bob Wallace
I pay more attention to myths than anything else. I don't pay attention to 99% of the Ph.D.s from Harvard and Yale and Princeton, all of which will someday disappear, the sooner the better. Those are the kinds of the "Best and Brightest" who got us into Vietnam and now Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the most perceptive of old myths is the Greek one of Hubris followed by Nemesis. The full sequence is Koros to Hubris to Ate to Nemesis.
FULL STORY

Next Nobel Laureate: Jack Kevorkian?
by David F. Nolan
By awarding its once-coveted Peace Prize to Barack Obama, the Nobel Prize committee has revealed its own intellectual bankruptcy. Supposedly, this award is intended to recognize people who have contributed significantly to world peace, either for one spectacular achievement or a lifetime of continuing contributions to that cause. Obama does not qualify by either measure; he is a Chicago pol who got lucky, and today occupies the White House mostly because of revulsion at his immediate predecessor.
FULL STORY

Christmas in Cuneiform
by L. Neil Smith
This afternoon I got a message from an individual who frequently sends me interesting, thought-provoking material. In this one, he was making a complaint one often hears from conservatives whenever their notion that this is a "Christian country" is challenged, usually by liberals.
FULL STORY

Atlantea The Beautiful
by L. Neil Smith and Rex May
Number 46 of a weekly cartoon series.
FULL STORY


Agenda 21: The United Nations Programme of Action
UN Agenda 21
Planning for Your future, serf!


The Venus Belt cover
The Venus Belt

by L. Neil Smith
Phoenix Pick Edition
Paperback, 166 Pages
Click cover pic to buy from Amazon.com






The Crystal Empire
by L. Neil Smith
Phoenix Pick Edition
COMING SOON!


Tom Paine Maru
Tom Paine Maru

(Click to buy at Amazon.com)
Reprinted by PhoenixPick.com (An Imprint of Arc Manor)
Hope cover
Hope

(Click to buy at Amazon.com)
Reprinted by PhoenixPick.com (An Imprint of Arc Manor)


The Last Sonuvabitch of Klepton
The Last
Sonuvabitch
of Klepton
Archive


Roswell Texas Cover
Roswell, Texas

by L. Neil Smith and Rex F. May
Illustrated by Scott Bieser
Colored by Jen Zach
Published by Bighead Press, 2008

Amazon.com
TPB:TGN
The Probability Broach:
The Graphic Novel

by L. Neil Smith
Illustrated by Scott Bieser
Published by Bighead Press, 2004

Amazon.com


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