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 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 846, November 8, 2015 If you're much under sixty, it might surprise you to learn that liberalism used to be sum-uppable in the single sentence "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death Your right to say it."
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One Good Thing I finally learned something to like about Woodrow Wilson. His visage "graces" the hundred thousand dollar bill (Actually the $100,000 gold certificate). This note was used pretty much between banks of course and has not been in circulation since FDR took gold out of circulation back around 1934.) Wilson betrayed his fellow Progressives. While we detest most of what he stood for, treachery is not a virtue, and makes him despicable. He was a racist who segregated Federal civil service. He denounced imperialism, but the US intervened more times under him than under Teddy, who was an unabashed imperialist. His biggest foreign intervention was entry into World War One after getting re-elected on a promise to keep it out of it. His willingness to go along with just about anything to get the League of Nations resulted in the Treaty of Versailles which arguably set the stage for WWII and which the American Senate refused to ratify. His face, however, is on the hundred k note. A.X. Perez
Just click the red box (it's a button!) to pay the author RE: Olde Busyneſs by L. Neil Smith (this issue) Not an "Amen" per se, but... Not all believers are blinded by their belief, or unthinking. If that were true, the United States (and particularly the Bill of Rights) would not and could not exist in their traditional form, and even today's vastly tortured form would be significantly worse. (I am a Christian, albeit not the most devout of Christians, but also a scientist who believes that the Genesis story is a beautiful allegory of modern science appropriate to the understanding of nomadic shepherds of 5,000 years past. I mean, "from the dust of the earth created He them" is a perfect summary of Darwin, as long as you accept that the "days" of the Genesis story are metaphoric instead of literal. But I do not hold the belief in the literal Biblical story against any person of good will—and I do know several who believe that story, not to mention people who profess to believing the Greek or Norse creation stories.) I have a hard time with "we have to let the bad guys draw first" when they are (metaphorically) drawing weapons of mass destruction. That doesn't mean we have to rush into the fray ("...where angels fear to tread"). But it also doesn't mean presenting a declared enemy with $150 billions to buy weapons to use against us or others. (What would Win and friends have done if Win hadn't accidentally forced von Richthofen's broach to go unstable?) I think there is even a Constitutional provision about that kind of foolishness (or worse)—somewhere about the third section of Article III, if I recall correctly. Conversely, it is certainly true that even a WMD might be stopped by a good guy with a gun, and I firmly believe that 300 million good guys (and gals, and responsible children, and persons of ambiguous gender, and with no regard for skin color and other irrelevancies after the single word "good") with guns should be the first line of defense. (Also that people do have a right to know if someone brings hazardous substances onto their property, even with benign intent, due to the risk of accidental releases.) As usual, I agree with most—but not all—of what you say, and I will defend to the death your right to say the parts I disagree with as much as the parts I agree with—and absolutely trust you will grant me the same courtesy. There are far larger gulfs in this world than the one between America's Republican-party-leaning evangelicals and her Objectivist Libertarians (or even many of her Libertarian-leaning "neo-pagans"), speaking as one of many millions with a foot in each of those camps. TJ Mason
Just click the red box (it's a button!) to pay the author RE: Olde Busyneſs by L. Neil Smith (this issue) You can see all the wee ones you wish (or just groove on their music, they can wail), from 0 to infinity. You can worship whatever god you want, from none to etc. You cannot use force or the power of the state to force me to share your faith nor may you harm me or mine in its name. My God sent Jesus to free me of sin, Jefferson to free my mind, Colt to free me from bullies, and Fleming and Jenner to free me from illness. I am ashamed that there are those who sin, enslave, and sicken others in his name. A.X. Perez
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