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

The Impeachable Offenses of Barack Hussein Obama
by Terence James Mason
In 6 parts.
• READ ARTICLE

Letters to the Editor
from Jeff Colonnesi and Tyrone Johnson
• READ ARTICLE

Heels
by L. Neil Smith
During my endless time in Therapyland, following a stroke earlier this year, I happened to mention how deeply I miss wearing my cowboy boots. They were practically a trademark with me, I have had a couple of really good pairs (Lucchese), and I bitterly regret that I can no longer wear them, owing to Charcot Syndrome, a condition common to diabetics. At great expense, I even had a zipper installed in them by a maker of orthopedic shoes, a few years ago, but it didn't help a bit. Those in charge of my wellbeing were aghast. You would think that I'd pulled the pin on a hand grenade. I found myself hammered from every conceivable angle about the manifold evils of boots de cowboy: how they distort the proper angle of the foot, cause the development of all the wrong muscles, cramp the toes, cause the wrong part of your foot to hit the ground first, etc., etc., etc., etc., ad frigging nauseum.
• READ ARTICLE

Intellectual Dishonesty
by Sean Gangol
The first time I ever got politically involved with anything, I was about nineteen. Like most teenagers I hadn't really given a second thought to anything political. That was until the tragic shootings at Columbine. The bodies of those poor souls weren't even cold, before politicians, celebrities and anti-gun organizations were calling for more victim disarmament policies. While I was never overly-political, I did believe that the right to keep and bear arms was a natural right, which seemed like it was being attacked on all fronts.
• READ ARTICLE

So Far Down the Bunny Hole We Have Our Heads up our Bums
by J. Neil Schulman
Work permits? Are you kidding me? Libertarians just might be the last sane people on this planet. Anyone in modern discussion who accepts as reasonable such notions as needing papers to be "allowed" to work, or to cross from one country to another, or to be allowed within the borders of a "country," are suffering from a pathological fear of the outsider—anyone "not of us" is by definition a danger and needs to be restrained.
• READ ARTICLE

Dancers
by A.X. Perez
Twice now the dance troupe at the high school where I work has performed a somewhat jingoist routine to honor American soldiers and military service. Normally this is not something to be mentioned in TLE or to the ODD fellows, as we are not a militaristic bunch. However, there have been reports of service men not being allowed on school campus in uniform for fear of offending people, or of openly displaying their patriotism in areas with a high Latino population for fear of appearing racist. However, in Latino majority El Paso, patriotism is politically correct, and in a city whose main economic activity is the military supporting our armed forces is cool.
• READ ARTICLE

It's Too COLD To Shoot
by MamaLiberty
Some time ago, I wrote about it being "Too Hot To Shoot." Dry fire was the suggestion then, and it still works to maintain skills when it is too cold. But there are other things we can do as well.
• READ ARTICLE

Neale's Gun Rant for 11-16-2014
by Neale Osborn
By now, only the idiots, morons, and those who are reading this for the first time don't know how these start. Mama Liberty, that saint of self reliance, that paragon of self-ownership, starts these off. And today is no different. Today, she discusses ways to practice when "Baby it's COLD outside!".
• READ ARTICLE

Atlantea The Beautiful No. 303
by L. Neil Smith and Rex May
Number 303 of a weekly cartoon series.
• READ ARTICLE

www.baloocartoons.com

List of WikiLeaks mirrors:
wikileaks.info

Exposing War Crimes is NOT a crime!
Free Bradley Manning

Join TLE on Facebook

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

EDITORIAL MATTERS

The holidays are coming: order from Amazon through LNS'sTLE:

Search Amazon.com for ANY Item

Tom Knapp has just put out a book, The Big Freakin' Book of Stuff, and you can get a free .pdf download at his blog or pay some $$ for it in paper.

A truly repulsive and foolish thing happened this week. Some scientists pulled-off a 10-year mission to land a satelite on a commet. And when they went on the TV to tell about it, a bunch of marxist-P.C. lunatics created a big uproar at about the shirt the project leader wore. It had pictures of science-fictional females with ray-guns on it. Rose Eveleth, Chris Plante and Arielle Duhaime-Ross (and I'm sure many more) demonstrated once again that haters are still with us.

Fortunately the sane spoke up. For example:

If I wrote this in a parody SFF story, no editor would buy it. It is too far beyond belief.
* * *
The issue is this: The termagants, bullies, and harridan harpies who vexed this weakling to the point of tears, on the day which was his triumphant crowning achievement and should have been the happiest of his life, they are not modest Christian women objecting to a tasteless shirt, nor are they scientists worried that their profession create a dignified public appearance.
The harpies crap on the feast. That is their role. That is who they are.
They are filth, pure and simple. Don't give them any cover or concealment by making their madness sound sane.
If you thought his shirt was tasteless, then land a flying interplanetary probe on your own comet first, jerkmouth, and you can wear a godzilla-dam mothra-flocking neon TUXEDO with saint Catherine wheel epaulettes and twin buttock rockets up the tails for your news conference, if you like. Until your accomplishments in life match his, shut your odious, oleaginous, obnoxious trap.
It was his lucky shirt. Given to him by his lady. He just did something no one else in history has ever done, ever.
For now, applaud. Just applaud. Don't be petty.
-- "Scientist Lands a Probe On a Speeding Comet and Feminists Shriek About His Shirt"
by John C. Wright
Read more:

There were two especially good omments on that:

Commenter AstroSorcorer:
[Link]
* * *
The idea here is simple. They hate him (and they do hate him) not for his faults, but for his triumphs. Not for his flaws, but for his virtues. As right honorable Mr. Wright said "The harpies crap on the feast. That is their role. That is who they are.".
This is the loathing of the triumph of science and mankind and the very spirit of human adventure. They do not want us to look up at the heavens, for then how could we grovel?

And:

Comment by HMSLion:
[Link]
This is getting interesting to watch... because I think the Left is about to discover the hard way they have pushed people past the breaking point.
For decades, the Left has whined, and the Right has tamely shut up. "Not a hill we want to die on." "Don't want to be thought of as rude." But the righteous wrath has been building. It's become obvious that our opponents cannot be placated. Will never be satisfied. That this whole argument has been about control, not good manners.
And the Baby Buster Right, people in our 40s and early 50s, are ready for a fight. Are coming to consider it inevitable. And are starting to develop a thirst for the joy of righteous battle.

Fascinating, eh?

And the brilliant Sarah A. Hoyt said so much so well I will just point you to it, with a brief (very brief) quote:

I fell in love with science fiction at 11 because of that "speculate about the future so you're prepared when it gets here" aspect.
* * *
Which brings us back to ... the shameful incident this week, in which the despicable Rose Eveleth at the Atlantic bullied Dr. Matt Taylor into apologizing, in tears, for wearing a shirt with women with rayguns on it.
* * *
I want my ray guns and my spaceships.
—Sarah A. Hoyt, "No Space for Sewing Circles"
[Link]

So go buy yourself the same shirt... except they are sold out (his was actually a custom-made shirt using the same cloth). A few examples:

Go to Aloha Lang to get yourself one. I used to wear Aloha shirts all the time. I believe I will have to start again.

Oh, one of the idiotic articles is at The Verge. Try not to gag.

We are a Reader-Supported on-line eMagazine. Click the "Pay" button here and at the end of most articles to pay the author of what you just read whatever you want to pay. We all will appreciate it!

Ken Holder
Editor-in-Chief
editor@ncc-1776.org

Donate Bitcoins
Click button to donate via coinbase.com

Holsters and Sheaths from Survival Sheath Systems

Used and recommended by L. Neil Smith
Take a look at: survivalsheath.com

This site may receive compensation if a product is purchased through one of our partner or affiliate referral links. You already know that, of course, but this is part of the FTC Disclosure Policy found here. (Warning: this is a 2,359,896-byte 53-page PDF file!)
Permission is hereby granted to quote from TLE, provided that the author is fully cited, that the quotation is unaltered in any way, and that TLE is fully identified as the source (include TLE's URL plus the issue number and/or the specific URL of the article).

Permission is further granted to reprint articles from L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE, provided that the article is printed in full and is not altered in any way, that full recognition is given to the author, and that TLE is fully identified (include TLE's URL plus the issue number and/or the specific URL of the article). NOTE: articles are owned by the authors and you must have their permission for any other use.

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material contained herein is distributed for nonprofit educational purposes, and for other fair use purposes including, but not limited to, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and/or research.

http://ncc-1776.org/
L. Neil Smith's
The Libertarian Enterprise