Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

(Yes, it’s dated. Same old story)

Celebrity Folly

As I have said before, I usually don’t care what celebrities say or do. Personally, I don’t think it should even be considered newsworthy. Yet, I couldn’t help but find it hilarious that these celebrities who find themselves trapped in their own houses because of the Corona virus have to make themselves the center of attention by butchering a classic John Lennon song. Then you have late-night talk show hosts who have decided to comply with the Stay-at-Home orders issued by their local officials by filming in their own homes. I have never really been a fan of late-night talk shows, but after seeing certain hosts in action such as Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel (after he got on a political high horse) I find myself missing Jay Leno. That was on the days when they weren’t filming in their own homes. Lately, I have found these talk show hosts and celebrity filmmakers downright pathetic, since these people with their millions of dollars can’t create a product better than YouTubers who are out of work and living in their parents’ basements.

My Hometown Embarrassment

It personally saddens me to report that San Antonio, the city where I lived during the first ten years of my life, has passed a resolution condemning speech such as Wuhan Virus, Chinese Virus or Kung-Fu Virus. The City Council decided to pass this resolution against this so-called hate speech which they claim is encouraging people to commit violent acts against Asians. Putting aside the fact that there is no actual evidence of widespread attacks against Asians because of certain speech, it seems completely ridiculous to think that banning a few words is going to stop anybody with a deep-seated hatred from harming another human being. The upside is that this resolution only condemns people who use these words, it doesn’t actually call for any kind of criminal charges to be filed against them. Though it is still embarrassing to see one of my hometowns pass something so absurd. Of course, this is the same city that has banned Chick-Fil-a from their airports and forces all residents to recycle, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at this brand of stupidity. The next time I go to San Antonio to visit relatives, I don’t know if I will be able to resist the temptation of yelling Wuhan Virus to the top of my lungs.

Trust: A Trait that is Earned

A few months back I remember reading an article from Breitbart where Dr. Fauci complained about how fewer people are taking the experts seriously. What Fauci doesn’t seem to understand is that trust is like respect, which is something that one has to earn. In a way Fauci sort of reminds me of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, a brilliant physicist who always seemed completely clueless when it comes to human interaction. This seems to be the case with Fauci, only I don’t find him nearly as amusing as Sheldon Cooper, since he has been given so much power over this nation’s healthcare. Fauci is a man chalk full of contradictions when it comes to his stance on masks, social distancing, lockdowns and even the severity of the COVID virus. Yet, instead of acknowledging these contradictions, he acts as if he is holding the same consistent views that he had over a year ago. Sadly, it’s not just Fauci that has this same problem. Organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC have had contradicted themselves on numerous occasions.

The CDC has given us contradictions about how easily the virus spreads on physical surfaces or whether asymptomatic carriers can spread the virus or not. They have also told us that masks were ineffective, before telling us that they were absolutely crucial. Recently, the CDC said that if you remain in direct contact with some infected with the virus for more than fifteen minutes, then you will likely end up infected, regardless of whether you wear a mask. On top of that the CDC also reported that 85% of Corona virus patients that they have studied, said that they wear masks either all the time or very often. That didn’t stop the head of the CDC contradict the data of his own organization by telling Congress that masks will actually be more effective than any vaccine. As for the WHO, considering how this organization has done everything to parrot the lies told by the Chinese authorities about the virus, it is amazing that anyone could possibly think that they have any ounce of credibility to their name. What Fauci and the medical authorities don’t seem to understand is that their positions don’t entitle them to the public’s trust. Trust is like respect. You have to earn it, which is extremely difficult when you change your story every week. Update: As I said before, this article is a little dated. Since then, Fauci admitted that the real origins of the COVID virus may have come from the Wuhan lab and that he was responsible for spending 600,000 of our tax dollars on research that occurred in that same lab. So much for earning the public’s trust.

My Point Proven

When I published the article The Reason Behind the Riots last year, I warned all libertarians to stay clear of the “Defund the Police” movement that came in the wake of the George Floyd fiasco. I wrote that the radicals pushing this movement are the same people who hate the idea of citizens taking up arms for self-defense. My point has been proven in three different instances. The first instance occurred in St. Louis, when a married couple brandished a handgun and AR-15 when a leftist mob invaded their community. The media responded by falsely portraying the mob as peaceful protestors that had their lives threatened by overzealous homeowners. Never mind that these “peaceful protestors” broke into a gated community and threatened the lives of several residents before the couple felt the need to defend themselves. The facts didn’t seem to matter to the media or the DA who sent the police to illegally confiscate their firearms, before bringing trumped up charges against them.

In Wisconsin, Kyle Rittenhouse, a seventeen-year-old militia member who took up arms to protect the property of business owners from violent looters, is now being prosecuted for killing two people in self-defense. Never mind that the video of the incident clearly shows that Rittenhouse was forced to defend himself from a violent mob. It’s interesting how the same authorities who want to throw the book at Rittenhouse are the ones who sat back while their cities burned. Their inactions are what prompted the citizen militias to patrol their streets in the first place.

Even more tragic was the recent case of a Nebraska bar owner, Jake Gardener who was driven to suicide, not too long after killing a rioter (I refuse to call him a protestor). Despite prosecutors determining early on that Gardener was defending his property and his seventy-year-old father from a violent mob, the bar owner would later face death threats and harassment from radical leftists, which drove him to suicide. There was Senator, Megan Hunter, who gloated about this man’s suicide and even slandered his name by calling him a white supremacist. Any libertarian wanting to join the Defund the Police movement, take a good look at the people orchestrating it. These are the people who could care less about meaningful police reform. They could care even less about individual freedom. They just want power and what better way to get it, than creating chaos. Just remember that the next time you even consider supporting this movement.