Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

From the beginning of my activism in the libertarian movement, some 56 years ago, I have expected to hear about some medical breaktrough which would, in effect, render human beings immortal. “You won’t get sick, you won’t get old, and you won’t die.” in the words of the science fiction movie Cocoon. I even went so far as to predict that, someday, everybody could expect to perish violently, as in a car or spaceship crash or something after a thousand years of living, since that would be the only way left for people to die.

But while I was busily calculating and predicting, immortality was apparently already beginning to happen. Without bothering to ask my permission, people were not only living longer, their youth—the active, productive period of their lives—was being extended and to demonstrate that, I offer a glimpse of one little Petri dish, the news channel I watch every day and kind of keep going as musical wallpaper, the FOX network.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I like very much to look at women, and that a principal interest to me, as a novelist and a student of human character is the contrast one often encounters between a person’s appearance and his or her personality. (My daughter, also a novelist, thinks I am preoccupied with triviality in this regard. You are free to agree with her if that is your inclination.) I just believe that what a person is inside eventually works it way to the outside, where they can’t hide it and you can see it.

Apparently there are exceptions. One of the earliest subjects of these casual studies of mine was former FOX news personality and attorney Megyn Kelly, a spectacular blonde lovely enough to pose for cheesecake photos who wound up at one of the sleazy old-fashioned networks because she apparently couldn’t stand the mixture of conservatism and libertarianism at FOX. Her career in media has circled the drain ever since, but the relevant point is that I was shocked to discover that this beautiful, accomplished, and lively (if slightly evil—or at least goofy) creature is currently 47 years old.

Shannon Bream, another lawyer and a record-breaking beauty contest winner (Bream won the title of Miss Virginia in 1990; she also participated in the Miss America 1991 pageant and was one of ten finalists, is 47 as well, although I would never have guessed it from her (I hesitate to use the word “perky”) manner and youthful voice. She won the Miss Florida USA pageant while in law school in1995 and placed fourth in the 1995 Miss USA pageant. She may be the reason some detractor once labled FOX “the Barbie Network”.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a resplendent, long-legged brunette and another lawyer (a Los Angeles prodsecutor), is 48 years old, the former “First Lady” of San Francisco (her ex is the probable next Governor of California after Lightbulb Head is through) and one of the most dedicated and consistent conservatives I’ve ever listened to. She frequently corrects her panel mates on “The Five” on matters of basic principle.

Harris Faulkner. 53, is not a lawyer, but well-educated and long experienced in media. She has extremely exotic good looks and a uniwque, authoritative voice. She asks good questions and seems to know the issues.

Arthel Neville is just plain cute, and seems to wear a different hair-do every day. Also brought up in media, she is currently 55, which I find difficult to believe.

At the opposite end of the scale, Dana Perrino, is “only” 45. She did the same thing for George W. Bush that Sara Huckabee Sanders now does for Donald Trump. She is more Republican than conservative, but a pleasure to look at and listen to nevertheless. In fact, the collection of eye- and brain-candy on FOX just gets too nifty to bear sometimes. Whoever thought of combining the two was an evil genius. In doing so, a kind of revolution has been sparked. FOX is dominated by beautiful, smart women (Kevin Costner’s phrase in Bull Durham “long legs and brains” comes to mind) in their 40s and 50s. History will note these years as a sociological watershed and the beginning of humam immortality.

(My cynical wife says it’s just good makeup.)

And if you happen to prefer them young and libertarian, there is Kathrine “Cat” Timf, 29 and looking for a political or philosophical argument. She’s every bit as principled, in her own way (I never heard anyone mention Ludwig von Mises on TV before), as Kimberly Guilfoyle. I suppose the winsome, bespectacled Cat could be considered a Barbie, but as far as I’m concerned, the rest of the ladies make FOX “The MILF Network”.