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 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 623, June 12, 2011 "The State is Crumbling"
Send Letters to editor@ncc-1776.org
Blond Joke Blond cop stops a blond driver and asks for identification. The blond driver looks all around in her purse and can't find her license. "I must have left it at home, officer." "Well, do you have any kind of identification on you?" asks the cop. The blond takes out a pocket mirror and says,"I do have this picture of me." "Let me see it," says the cop. She holds up the mirror and looks in it. Then she says, "Sorry. If I had known you were a police officer, I wouldn't have stopped you." E.J. Totty
The State is Crumbling
There is something disturbing when even the Huffington Post prints an article that implies gun control is a failure. Of course it is part of an article describing the failure of government due to corruption, overtaxation, the misuse of public funds to bail out banks and other big businesses. She goes on to list other cities facing the problems of wildings and criminal gangs running wild through the streets, at least implying that the same things are going on in the cities for the same reason. She is documenting the collapse of the state created by the DemReps. She argues for election reforms to reduce the influence of Big Money. I don't know about this, as I've heard that a challenger has to spend three dollars for every one spent by an incumbent, It might be difficult to get Congress and state legislators to vote to give their opponents more money than they spend on themselves. Perhaps it would be better to reduce the power of the state and its ability to tax so that it is too impotent to do any harm no matter how corrupt it is. That would be too easy, of course. A.X. Perez
Getting morning hugs from the lions: E.J. Totty
I read Mr. Bonneau's piece "We Do Have A Right To Health Care" in the May 22, 2011 edition of TLE, and its been two weeks now with no letters. Mr. Bonneau, if I understood you properly, you see rights a form of social construct, not some unalienable property of humanity. I agree with this view, but it makes it easy to misunderstand the concept of "rights", which I believe you've done here. Contrary to your argument, a hypothetical right to health care would not necessarily require someone else to pay for it. The right to free speech does not mean others must bear the costs for bringing your views to an audience. The right to keep and bear arms doesn't mean others are compelled to buy you weapons or ammunition. I see no reason why the parallel would not apply to health care. But a right to health care would necessarily mean that doctors could be compelled to treat you. He's already put in 20 straight hours? He doesn't agree with your views on abortion, or your lifestyle choices? He's a bigot? There's something else he'd rather do at the moment? Tough. Your right to have your sniffles treated trumps his right to freedom of association. Under a right to health care, one could legitimately use force to compel the doctor into involuntary servitude. To argue otherwise requires establishment of some arbitrary rankings of rights, which rights trump which other rights. Which means at least the the lesser is, by definition, not a right. There's a right to offer to engage in consensual acts with a doctor, and to consummate them if he agrees. There is not a right to health care. As Mr. Bonneau would put it, "[o]nly idiots would argue against it (hint, hint)!" Stephan Jerde
New Novel by Libertarian Author Richard Blake The Libertarian Alliance is pleased to commend Richard Blake's new novel Sword of Damascus, which was published by Hodder & Stoughton on the 9th June 2011. Richard Blake is England's foremost libertarian novelist. His earlier novels have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Slovak and Complex Chinese. This is his fourth in a series of critically-acclaimed and internationally best-selling historical thrillers. Set in 687 AD, Sword of Damascus takes place against the life or death struggle of the Byzantine Empire against the first and greatest expansion of Islam. Expelled, after nearly a thousand years, from Syria, Egypt and increasingly from North Africa, the formerly dominant power of the Mediterranean world has been pushed further and further back—even to the very walls of its capital, Constantinople. All that has saved it from utter defeat is the invention of Greek Fire, a mysterious liquid—or is it a gas?—that has turned back the Islamic advance and restored Byzantine control of the seas. Yes, without this "miracle weapon," Constantinople would have fallen in the 7th century, rather than the 15th, and the new barbarian kingdoms of Europe would have gone down one by one before the unstoppable cry of Allah al akbar! But for Greek Fire, Edward Gibbon's famous surmise would have become the truth:
But what importance has all this to old Aelric, who writes his memoirs and waits patiently for death in the remote wastes of northern England? Little does he expect a double siege of his monastery, a kidnapping, a near-fatal chase through the Mediterranean, and a confrontation at the end of this that will settle the future of mankind. Will age have robbed Aelric of his charm, his intelligence, his resourcefulness, or of his talent for cold and homicidal duplicity?  Comments on Richard Blake's Earlier Novels 'Vivid characters, devious plotting and buckets of gore are enhanced
by his unfamiliar choice of period. Nasty, fun and educational.'
'He knows how to deliver a fast-paced story and his grasp of the
period is impressively detailed'
'A rollicking and raunchy read . . . Anyone who enjoys their history
with large dollops of action, sex, intrigue and, above all, fun will
absolutely love this novel.'
'Fascinating to read, very well written, an intriguing plot and I
enjoyed it very much.'
Contact Details Eleni Fostiropoulos
Richard Blake
Postal Address: Suite 35, 2 Lansdowne Row, London W1J 6HL, England www.libertarian.co.uk
Libertarian Project Here is my project to change the mentality of the country, using mass media and pop culture. Tell as many people as possible, if you like it. Participation is free and easy. John Ringer
Addicted to Pepper Spray Pepper spray and tasers are supposed to be less lethal defensive weapons. In the state of Texas (and several other states) they are legal for civilians to carry without any kind of license. Sooner or later the LOLIP's, little old lady in pants, will probably correct this situation and people will have to go back to shooting their attackers dead. Until then people will have a couple of valuable self defense tools. This of course applies to civilians. Police also seek less lethal weapons. However, these are not intended for self defense, or even to subdue persons resisting arrest. Too often they are used to bolster the misuse of authority, at least that seems to be the case in many viral videos and even news broadcasts. By misuse of authority I mean either applying force earlier in a confrontation than was considered appropriate in times past, or in other cases simply throwing around their weight even if the person they are confronting is not breaking any law. It is one thing to pepper spray a suspect who is pointing a pistol to your head (cop beat brutality suit on that one, got story from a second hand source) another to wedgy a reporter into compliance before he had time to react to the officer's command (this may be the strangest example of abuse I've ever seen on the news) . I can even understand how a cop might want to get a couple in when busting a child rapist caught in the act, but tasering an already subdued suspect essentially for not shutting up? As long as enforcing the bosses' rule is at least as, if not more, important than helping people protect their lives, liberty, and property police will be abusive. They have to be, part of communicating "Don't fuck with us," to anyone who challenges them or the boss. And as long as there are bosses protecting their power will be the cops' main job. It's time to dump the bosses, maybe? A.X. Perez
Here's an interesting look at things: "The Distributed Party Of 'We' Is Already In Control" Ken Holder
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