Yes, I'm in love with a woodstove. At least I'm getting over my obsession with the solar storage batteries.
I suppose it's natural to fall in love with those things we rely on to make our lives comfortable and pleasant and allow us to make the most of our lives. Which explains why we care so much for husbands and friends, too, I suppose.
Oh, my. I certainly did not intend for this to be a sappy post when starting out. No, really; I didn't. ¶ 2:01 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
If a totally free society will exist in, say, the year 2020, we have no way of knowing today how property will be protected, how the nation will be defended, how drivers will be charged for using roads, or how any of the thousands of other technical issues will be handled.
If someday there is a profit to be made from providing neighborhood protection or national defense, hundreds of ideas will come gushing forth — as some of the best minds in the world see an opportunity to get rich and to be intellectually challenged by devising the best possible systems.
It is presumptuous of us to think we can somehow foresee all these ideas and know now how these matters will be handled. All we can do is to cite potential ways to take care of them — to reassure people that matters can be handled without resorting to the coercion, inefficiency, and monopoly of political methods. ¶ 9:22 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
your LP friends and drive them nuts! :)
Fellow LPers,
I spoke last week with Jim Lark about the possibility of the LP having
a booth at CPAC - a large and prestigious annual gathering of
conservative students that takes place in DC at the beginning of
March. Several Libertarian students here in NC are planning to go.
The price of this invaluable exposure for the LP and the Libertarian
brand of real conservatism that young conservatives want but are not
getting from the Republicans is *only* $1,500. However, Jim Lark was
disinclined to have an LP booth there. He commented "At this time, I
have not pursued the purchase of a table at CPAC, because I suspect
the investment of resources will not bring a suitable return this
year."
I think this is an opportunity we should not miss, and I think most
Libertarians would agree!
To show that LP activists will support this sort of outreach, I would
like to have $1,500 pledged by February 10th. If we cannot get a booth
at that time, there is no loss - you can transfer your pledge to
another effort or release it entirely. You need not pay your pledge
until enough other folks have pledged to make the $1,500.
To track pledges, we will be using Pledgebank:
http://www.pledgebank.com/lpCPACbooth
I asked for commitments of $25 per person, but if you wish to pledge
more, just note that in your comment, or sign up under several names
:) (Please only make pledges you can afford and will honor!). If the
LNC, in light of this effort, decides to support the conference, then
it will take fewer people. At $25, we need *58 commitments* - please
make yours one of them.
I know you all have a lot of requests for support - but I believe this
is an important opportunity that should not be wasted. If you agree,
please visit and pledge:
http://www.pledgebank.com/lpCPACbooth
Thanks, my comrades!
--
Susan Hogarth
http://www.colliething.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070202/ap_on_he_me/cervical_cancer
"AUSTIN, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov.
Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to
require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually
transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer."
There are issues with this vaccine (as with all vaccines, but
especially with this one), but the big issue here is the idea that
people can be forced to be vaccinated. But wait! there's precedent:
"Perry ... has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from
the one that protects children against polio."
Well, yes; it really is. But see how one 'success story' can be used
by the state to impose more and more crap on people, at the behest of
Big Pharma who's pocketing craploads of cash to churn out this
patent-protected junk that people will be *forced* to buy?
And if forcing people to take the polio vaccine had been a disaster?
Well, maybe it was:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPV_AIDS_hypothesis
Fascinating stuff. Pardon me while I indulge in a moment of self-revelation.
It's amazing how even though I began to REALLY understand that forcing
people to do things 'for their own good' was wrong almost a decade ago
(I've had a retarded development, I'm afraid; I'm envious of those who
seem to be 'born libertarian'), there are still so many of the actual
individual attitudes of my early decades I still carry around as
baggage. Despite thinking (*knowing*) that forced vaccination was
wrong, I still thought "Well, but at least some good came of it,"
which is *true*, but I haven't in most cases stopped to consider what
*bad* may have come of it as well besides the actual imposition of
force (notice I said 'forced vaccination' - I'm not at all a
bio-Luddite).
Lots of Libertarians, I think, are in this boat. Sure, the draft is
evil - but WW2 saved the world!? Or did it? Sure, Lincoln was a
tyrant, but without him, the slaves would not have been free? Really?
Sure, the FDA is a bunch of totalitarian busybodies, but at least
people were saved from Thalidomide? But really? And what about the
people who could have been HELPed by Thalidomide in all those decades?
I remember laughing at anti-fluoridation folks, but even there I
realize now there's a good chance that mass fluoridation is doing more
harm than good.
I feel like in many areas now I'm filling in the gaps - the pieces
where even after I changed my broad understanding of freedom I
accepted the stupid rationalizations and prejudices of the people who
forced these things on folks. I even realized last weekend that Jane
Fonda might not be such a bad person. Long after I had accepted that
much (if not all) of what she said about Vietnam was true, I'd kept
thinking of her as some sort of foaming-at-the-mouth anti-American.
Wrong! I still disagree with her on many things, I'm sure, but not
that she didn't care passionately, do her homework and some real
thinking about the situation (which is more than most people could
say), and get totally blacklisted as thanks for her concern.
OK, moment of self-revelation over.
The relevance to NC? Here:
"Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country
mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its
lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in
Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators
around the country."
Watch for it here!!!
--
Susan
