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Becky Coit provides pictures and a first hand account of the NAIS Protest in Richmond on Tuesday Oct 24, 2006. Her story and photos can be found at: http://richmondliberty.org/events/photos/20061024naisprotest/
A big thanks to everyone who turned out.
Related Links:
http://www.richmondliberty.org/mt/2006/10/press_release_downtown_richmon.php
Thousands of Richmonders wanted on outstanding arrest warrants could go free if city officials follow through on an amnesty program. ... Richmond police have 7,397 outstanding warrants on file, for 6,116 people, some of whom have more than one warrant.Full story at: http://tinyurl.com/ycj6se
Citing improvements to the law, the American Civil Liberties Union today withdrew a three-year-old lawsuit over Section 215 of the Patriot Act, but said it is prepared to defend individuals who receive demands for information under the provision.
What this really means is that only the Libertarian Party is now working to get rid of the PATRIOT-ACT.
Full story at:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/patriot/27211prs20061027.html
This past weekend (Oct 21-22) saw the C&E gun show come to town.
The local Libertarian Party had a table at the event thanks to Jim
Lark. Thousands of people were exposed to the LP at the show.
Interesting to note, the Republicans also had a table at the event.
It was staffed for about 3 hours the entire weekend. In sharp
contrast the LP table was fully staffed both days. The Democrats, in
spite of running a supposedly "pro-gun" candidate for US Senate did
not even have a table.
Finally a big thanks to everyone who worked the table:
Russell Booker
David Lively
George Marchneko
Kate Marshall
Matt Martin
Shaun Whelden
The next C&E gun show is Dec 2-3. See
http://www.cegunshows.com/richmond.htm for details.
The National Taxpayers Union Surveys are out.
It doesn't look like taxpayers have much of a choice in the Richmond area.
In the 3rd District, Rep Bobby Scott (D) is the only candidate and he did not answer any of the questions.
In the 7th Congressional District only Brad Blanton (I) answered the questions. However he does not support an amendment to the US Constitution to require a 2/3 vote to increase revenues nor does he support most of the other proposals to control spending and lower taxes. At least Mr. Blanton answered the questions. The other two candidates, Rep. Eric Cantor (R) and James Nachman (D) must not want you to know where they stand or are two afraid to admit their positions.
In the Senate race, Gail Paker (IG) and Jim Webb (D) also do not want you to know where they stand as they did not answer any of the questions. Sen. George Allen (R) did answer most of the questions and appears to support a number of measures to get the budget under control. Hopefully voters will demand to know where Webb and Parker stand.
All of the NTU survey results can be found at:
http://www.ntu.org/main/components/cansurvey2006
[Editor's Note: This really underscores why we need to have Libertarians run and get on the ballot. It's not too late for next year's elections (Board of Supervisors and the entire General Assembly). If you are interested in running contact your local Libertarian Party.]
[Thanks to Jon Walker for sending in this story]
From http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2006/10/19/chatham/opinion/opinion01.txt
I am a local farmer; my wife teaches elementary school; our three children are well-adjusted, “A” students.
We go to church, work hard, and pay our bills and taxes.
We are law-abiding, responsible members of society; we have never had reason to fear the law.
On Saturday morning, Sept. 23, 2006, many police vehicles appeared in our driveway. Men in black with flak jackets ran to and around our house.
My wife was at home alone. I drove up and asked, “What's going on?”
Men ran at me, dropped into shooting position, double-handed semi-automatic pistols pointed at me, and made me put my hands against my truck.
I was held at gunpoint, searched, taunted, and led into the house. I had no idea what this was about. I was scared beyond description.
....
[Editor's note: There is a Cato White Paper which talks about these deadly paramilitary raids. It can be found at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476 ]
Thanks to David Lively for sending this in:
The Editor of truthdig.com says "Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/
by Robert Russo
Two years from now the nation will have changed again, the situation in Iraq may be different, the political stakes will be different. Will we see a Libertarian front-runner? If the debates and other media are still not open to us, which candidate will claim the vote of liberals? (or conservatives who want to see things changed back to pre-Bush) Everyone wants change, so much that the news agencies are already going hoopla over even the suggestion of who the liberal contenders will be. It will be interesting to look back on this premature mayhem and see if anything became of it.
This week CNN begins its 5-part series "Broken Government" exploring how much of the system is broken "beyond repair" (currently 94% of those polled agree our government is broken).* What president has ever investigated this himself? We libertarians have known this for years because we hold the solutions to what is irreparable (get rid of it).
Last week former Gov. Mark Warner declared he will not run, and now Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois makes headlines for merely considering the possibility on NBC’s "Meet the Press".** Obama owes his brief presence on the national scene to a single speech he made as keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention two years ago, which earned him rave reviews and instant popularity because (in my opinion) he is young, Black and a powerful speaker. For I was watching this speech and it was one of the worst I have ever heard, the reason being that it was a textbook political pacifier, easy to write and guaranteed to please, without a single original statement we have not heard before.
He is greatly admired and I am not saying he isn’t a dynamic and qualified representative or even a liberal (probably more so than most), there is simply nothing he has said that I have heard which suggests he is a liberal. He spoke at length about his family and origins, a qualifier for the approval of conservatives going back thousands of years. He did speak briefly about helping workers arise from low wages, helping people pay for college and fighting racism, all issues that were around when his grandfather and likely great-grandfather were his age. It is true that he was promoting John Kerry and not himself, but he is a maintainer, a custodian like most on the political scene. As he said, "we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation".
This statement sounds like things are going pretty well. I don’t care what a candidate’s family background is, unless I want people to judge me by mine. I don’t want one fighting the same issues my grandparents did, each generation is supposed to have its own advent. The difference between Martin Luther King and speakers today is that he was a revolutionary. If there is no suggestion of change then there is no promise of hope. So Obama brings nothing new to the political arena except himself, and by definition that is not a liberal or neo-conservative.
One could say that an African candidate is naturally a liberal, but race should not be entered in with one's political evaluation. Hillary Clinton appeals to pre-Bush conservatives but it remains to be seen where the nation will stand on having a female president, or becoming president by being the wife of a president. Mark Warner is a liberal businessman, but none of these are the true liberal we want in a president (or conservative depending on your point of view). The nation calls out for a Libertarian without knowing it.
*http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/broken.government/index.html
**http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/22/obama.presidency/index.html
***http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19751-2004Jul27.html
Question of the Week: Do you believe we as libertarians must only vote for members of our own party, or is there something to be gained by engaging in the two-party system and backing a Rep or Dem who has some agreeable qualities? Please send your opinions to henrico@richmondliberty.org.
If you have topics of interest to Libertarians please let us know. We welcome your input.
Details at http://www.bvbl.net/?p=367
Fortunately this didn't happen in the Richmond area and no Libertarian signs were harmed. However it is important that we all remember that there are people out there who believe you should only have the right to express your views if you agree with them. Libertarians of course support everyone's right to free speech (even for Democrats and Republicans). I hope everyone will join me in condemning the actions of the vandals. Their actions do not help the cause.
Also RichmondLiberty does not support either candidate in the 50th HoD and does not support the so-called Marriage Amendment.
Congratulations to Matt Siegel for getting a Letter to the Editor published in Style Weekly.
http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=13192
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Libertarians join “Granny Warriors” to Protest against Federal Animal Surveillance Law
Richmond, VA October 19, 2006 - Grassroots activist group Granny Warriors will be holding a protest downtown on Tuesday against the National Animal ID System (“NAIDS”), the controversial set of livestock regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Libertarians from the area will also join in the protest. The event will be held Tuesday, October 24th from 9AM to 4PM at 11th and Broad Street in downtown Richmond, VA.
If enacted, NAIS could require all owners of “livestock” to embed an ID microchip within the bodies of their animals. The requirement would apply to small family farmers, and even to individual owners of animals some would consider pets. Under this regulation, someone who owns an individual horse or chicken could have the same expensive and confusing legal obligations as large farms and ranches.
This year the Granny Warriors have set their sights on NAIS, touring now through nine southern states to protest the USDA proposal. Based out of East Texas, Granny Warriors is an organization of elderly women touring the country in a decked-out RV to campaign for the rights of animal owners. They travel to public venues throughout the country, where they raise awareness about the gradual erosion of animal owners’ rights. The Granny Warriors consider themselves necessary to counter radical activist groups such as PETA who would ban all human possession of pets or livestock. Their activities are fueled--quite literally--by the small donations they receive for gas money to drive around the county. Having now come to Richmond, the Granny Warriors are receiving support from local affiliates of the Libertarian Party.
“This is big-government nannyism at its worse,” says Matt Martin, Vice-Chair of the Henrico County Libertarian Party. “We have people in Washington dictating the behavior of animal owners in the heartland. We have an unelected agency, with virtually no input from individual animal owners, burdening citizens and small farms with crippling legal obligations. Hasn't Washington done enough to destroy small farms?”
Right now the program is voluntary, but according to the USDA website, the agency may institute mandatory requirements as early as 2008. The USDA claims NAIS will be helpful in tracking animal disease, yet even the agency admits it would take 48 hours after an outbreak has already been reported to track down possibly infected animals, and ignores more effective methods of post-processing meat and poultry inspection. Many small farmers and individual animal owners consider NAIS overkill, or as Vermont farmer Walter Jeffries put it, “like driving thumb tacks with a 100 lb sledge hammer.”
“Even more disturbing is the Orwellian aspect of NAIS,” says Martin. “How long before the federal government decides to put these microchips in humans?”
The Libertarian Party is organized in all 50 states and has run a candidate in every presidential election since it was formed in 1972. Locally the Libertarian Party of Henrico formed in 2002 and has a strong voice on the local political scene. Libertarians advocate returning government to its proper and limited role of protecting individual rights and ceasing other activities inconsistent with that goal.
The event is open to the general public.
References:
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml
http://nonais.org/
http://www.richmondliberty.org/mt/2006/10/protest_national_animal_id_pro.php
http://www.grannywarriors.com
The Patrick Henry Supper Club will meet Tuesday, Nov 7, 2006 (yes this is election day) at 6:00pm for dinner, 7:00pm for the main event.
This month's speaker is Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute and Assistant Editor of The Independent Review. He will speak about "US Foreign Policy in the 21st Century"
Dr. Eland is a graduate of Iowa State University and received an M.B.A. in applied economics and Ph.D. in national security policy from George Washington University. He has been Director of Defense Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, Evaluator-in-Charge (national security and intelligence) for the U.S. General Accounting Office, and Investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He has testified on the military and financial aspects of NATO expansion before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and CIA oversight before the House Government Reform Committee.
Dr. Eland is the author of The Efficacy of Economic Sanctions as a Foreign Policy Tool, a contributor to numerous volumes, and the author of forty-five in-depth studies on national security issues. His articles have appeared in Arms Control Today, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Emory Law Journal, The Independent Review, Issues in Science and Technology (National Academy of Sciences), Mediterranean Quarterly, Middle East and International Review, Middle East Policy, Nexus, and Northwestern Journal of International Affairs.
Dr. Eland’s popular writings have appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Insight, San Diego Union-Tribune, Washington Post, Miami Herald, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newsday, Sacramento Bee, Orange County Register, Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Times and Defense News. He has appeared on ABC’s “World News Tonight,’ NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” PBS, Fox News Channel, CNBC, CNN, CNN “Crossfire,” CNN-fn, C-SPAN, MSNBC, CBC, Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, BBC, and other local, national, and international TV and radio programs.
As usual the PHSC meets at:
Eastern Buffet
7586 W. Broad St.
Richmond, VA 23294
(in Merchants Walk Shopping Center)
6:00pm Dinner 7:00pm main event.
Meetings are open to the public, please purchase a meal at the hosting restaurant.
by Robert Russo
In my piece on urban sprawl I mentioned how real estate developers entice Northerners to move to our climate leading one to ask "is Richmond part of Northern Virginia?".* If the effects of this unmonitored political and cultural transplantation are true, what does one wonder about the influx of our foreign friends into this city, without bias, many of whom can’t tell us themselves or even understand such urban considerations? This week I will relate some glimpses into non-English Richmond I received during the brief time I worked as a translator.
Immigration is one of the most harrowing issues we have faced this year as a nation, for we are all immigrants ourselves but are presented with overcrowded gates, illegal residents and a thinning cultural identity. We associate these issues with Florida and California but it is in our area as well. It is a conundrum that goes beyond party lines, so I will not attempt to dissertate all its facets or propose one policy but that we should bring people’s issues to their own attention, as we must, in language they understand.
The nations of Europe are polarized on this debate, where religious freedoms are being denied Jews and Muslims to preserve a way of life.** We used to live in a world with one group advancing in political power but not culture and the other advancing in culture but not political power; now we have a world in which the superpowers are invading poor countries politico-economically while those countries are invading the superpowers culturally with their numbers.
Employers of large labor forces in Richmond such as landscapers, supply centers and janitorial services often have an Arabic, Spanish and French translator on hand and this is how I came to know my Egyptian friend. Five Egyptians were hired for his shift and he has a brother and cousin who are both convenience store managers and employers of non-English speakers, so I can only guess at the number of recent immigrants from his country in this city. He and his friends are all Christian, not Muslim, which made me wonder if there is religious persecution in his homeland. Workers born and raised in Virginia are often suspicious of these ethnic groups, wondering what it is they talk about, thinking perhaps they all live in one room and are pooling their resources here intending to return to their country and live off the proceeds.
I first picked up my friend while hitchhiking and taught him to drive, even though he had a $30,000 car gifted to him with his son’s name on the license plate. I took his son to the first dentist he had ever seen in his life, to find out he had eight cavities and a fungal infection from being hand-fed at the dinner table, and yet the father has a cell phone which I have never owned. One day I had to stop one of his buddies from towing his car home with rope (and not very good rope). To this day I am not able to ask my friend what he really thinks about life, why he is here or if he has any aspirations besides cleaning bathrooms to support his family. I watch him with his new car and cell phone oblivious to traffic lights and stop signs as people swerve to avoid him. He has no comprehension of the community in which he wants to be a citizen, its history, those who govern him, the voting process, or political matters.
One day during a meeting one of his compatriots stood up and explained, in good English, that thousands of their countrymen in Egypt want to come to America but have difficultly taking English classes because our language, and culture, are unpopular there. So we have a completely self-serving enterprise in which other cultures dislike ours but want to reap the rewards of capitalism and escape their native situations. What makes immigration a strange non-party issue is the fact that it is the lowest class (some not citizens at all) that are fighting it, so the protestations of helpless foreigners we are used to seeing on CNN are now in our own democracy.
My superior during this time said something to me that was the most startling of all. Being from DC he complained of how there is "nothing" of interest in Richmond, no reputable colleges, no major sports teams, no nightclubs. With one of our most difficult problems being the overgrowth of Richmond, what will result from these new voices coming to the table? They came here to secure their own prospects, they certainly do not care about our culture. In our quest to bring representation to these new Americans and know what they care about on a national scale, will we find they are not interested in the Constitution at all?
Having seen some of the bank tellers, tax preparers, physicians, teachers and employers that have to deal with my Egyptian friend I wonder how they have had to prepare for many exactly like him. If the police respond to a domestic disturbance and people can’t understand them then explanation must not be required for any cop to make an arrest. If a local representative can't communicate with his next door neighbor then no obligation exists to represent people. Knowing how government works and what decisions are being made is not required for my friend’s survival in this city, which raises the question, will the day come when no citizen is expected to know more than him?
*http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/26/AR2006032601175.html?nav=rss_realestate
**http://www.japnaamsingh.com/2004/11/religious-headwear-ban.html
Question of the Week: What personal experience have you had with recent immigrants and did it give you insight into the social scenario? Please send your opinions to henrico@richmondliberty.org.
If you have topics of interest to Libertarians please let us know. We welcome your input.
Aaron Russo has made the America: Freedom to Fascism movie available on the internet.
http://www.poodlecrap.com/Hateliars/HL_Video1.asp?Part=0
[Thanks to Bill Walker for sending in this item]
The next Henrico county LP meeting will be Wednesday, October 18th at the Dumbarton Library (6800 Staples Mill Rd) from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. LPHC Members are welcome to observe the meeting.
by Robert Russo
Many voters automatically discount our party at election time because the issue that interests them is banking, social security or trade which they believe we cannot maintain, either because we are founded on other issues or are too ideological in general to provide solutions for a complex system. One article entitled "No Such Thing As a Free-Market Economist" reads "It seems pretty clear that explicit ideological predispositions like those embodied in the term free-market economics have no place in the social sciences.".*
Such general statements are unbecoming, like saying Orthodox Christians cannot make good economists because they believe money is evil. One's ideology does not determine their skill. What mainstream planners fail to see (in finance, the sciences, education and defense) is that every field is a political arena of competing doctrines, and theirs has simply been monopolized by a single competitor so much that there is no longer a difference, so all other methods out there "cease to be". A scientist in a developing country may hold no degree, or may refuse to abide by the code of others in his profession, but still make a discovery that rewrites textbooks. No one political faction has the power to prevent this from happening. This knowledge is what free-market economists bring to the table.
It is not just government that is elitist, it is our culture that is elitist. Anyone can be elected to office but they will still only appoint the mainstream business advisors they know about. It is these appointed men, this "club", that is a far greater threat than government because they govern the sciences, the workplace, what we are taught. A fierce debate raged over the prospect of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, because the preferred methods of extraction are environmentally harmful, and yet industrialists yielded no middle ground (it is not efficiency that prevents people from backing alternative technologies but priority, even if you have to draw oil ten times slower with one tenth of the environmental impact).**
An unspoken rule of government spending is that quality materials and labor must be bought at top dollar. A state park in Virginia with a condemned building on its grounds must leave it standing until it can afford a grant for a top-notch reconstruction, even though there is a full staff of groundsmen capable of bulldozing it. One can imagine the spending cuts that would be accomplished by appointing minds such as the NASA designer who builds a spacecraft by getting the same quality materials and performance at a quarter of the usual cost. A panel assembled by a free-market economist would be a true cross-section of American industry with every approach represented down to the genius who works out of his basement.
"…whatever the subconscious influence of ideology, economists—and academics more generally—have a professional responsibility to actively steer clear of their own ideological biases, insofar as they interfere with the truth-seeking enterprise of science."* Attitudes like this are blind to the incredible extent their own ideology governs them. Capitalism itself is an ideology. There is no truth-seeking enterprise in economics because it is based entirely on speculation (money has value because people agree it has value). It is dependent on a small vein of experts with far more eloquent dissertations than this one simply because they have spent their lives studying this game. A free-market economist doesn’t play games. He brings the wisdom of reality into the equation.
Economy is a growing pit of dependency that burdens the consumer from spending as he chooses (much like the workplace steals his time so that he cannot spend his life as he chooses), requiring greater brilliance from each generation to make it work. A free-market system encourages honest bartering and a life of personal choice and responsibility, therefore it is freedom from economy that Libertarian leadership provides. It’s easy for members of the dominant method to assume everyone is a subscriber and differences represent oversight, when in fact people have different values. The current administration holds maintenance as its highest priority whereas an anarchist sees destruction as the key to success in a stagnant system. So we are not like the Green Party where people assume we put our economic interests on the back burner, we have a very clear vision of economy. Like the oil companies this is not a threat to what is needed, but to what the leading faction wants, the prospect that their field will take a different turn for the first time in their lives. For information on free-market economics go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market.
*http://the-idea-shop.com/article/42/no-such-thing-as-a-free-market-economist
**http://www.savearcticrefuge.org/
Question of the Week: Many libertarians support privatization of business, but many Americans believe private corporations themselves are as corrupt as government agencies. Is there a middle ground? Please send your opinions to henrico@richmondliberty.org.
If you have topics of interest to Libertarians please let us know. We welcome your input.
[Thanks to Bill Walker for sending in this item]
The Granny Warriors (http://www.grannywarriors.com) will stage their next freedom protest on Tuesday, Oct. 24th between 9am and 4pm in Richmond, Virginia, on the corner of E. Broad Street (1100) and Governor street. This is right across from the USDA office that signed off on the pre-dawn raid of the Henshaw hunting club, which slaughtered their entire stock of wild Russian boars without due process. [More info on the raid can be found at: http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2006/10/05/COVER-boarSlaughter-F.doc.aspx and http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061004/SPORTS/610040308/1006 ]
The Granny Warriors are particularly concerned about the USDA’s National Animal Identification System
[Editor's Note: It should be noted that the Granny Warriors take some not so Libertarian positions on some other issues. However this protest is strictly about NAIS and the raid on the Henshaws. This is one issue where we can work together and a large Libertarian turnout would be appreciated.]
From Gun Owners of America
-- Great opportunity for GOA to show politicos facts, not emotions
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
After three fatal school shootings in a week, President Bush has told
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Education Secretary Margaret
Spellings to come up with solutions to addressing the problem in our
nation's schools. Specifically, the meetings -- which begin this
week -- will host educators and law-enforcement officials from around
the country.
They are charged with reviewing security procedures around our
nation's schools to help prevent campus-based violence.
GOA has a great opportunity to show the President and others how to
stop gun violence on school grounds. Of course, it's inevitable that
the gun issue is going to come up. The media is already clamoring
for that.
"There is a link in these killings," opined The Charlotte Observer.
"A gun was used." So, we need more gun control, the paper's editors
say.
The Charlotte Observer is not alone. And that's why it is important
that the gun owning community present evidence showing how we can
make our schools safer. As GOA pointed out last week:
1. No amount of gun control would have stopped Charles Carl Roberts
from acquiring guns to commit his atrocity. Roberts had a clean
record and would have passed any and every background check.
2. The so-called "gun free school zones" have to go. Such
disarmament zones never stop bad guys from taking guns into a
restricted area. In fact, statistics show that the jurisdictions
that ban guns tend to be the same areas with the highest murder or
crime rates (Washington, D.C., England, etc.).
3. The only school shootings that have been stopped prematurely were
ended because law-abiding citizens had guns -- such as in Pearl
Mississippi (1997) and at the Appalachian School of Law (2002), where
faculty and responsible adults were able to bring their own defensive
firearms to bear. This is an idea that Americans support, as 85% of
the American public find it appropriate for a principal or teacher to
use "a gun at school to defend the lives of students" in stopping a
school massacre (Research 2000 Poll).
To this end, Wisconsin state representative, Frank Lasee, will be
introducing legislation to allow teachers or principals to defend
students with guns. GOA has already appeared on MSNBC and other
media outlets to plug Lasee's bill.
This summit is a great opportunity to invite groups like GOA to
present the facts above and give concrete solutions for how to combat
school violence in our nation's schools.
ACTION: Because the subject of gun control is destined to arise at
the summit this week, please urge President Bush and Education
Secretary Margaret Spellings to invite gun groups like GOA and the
NRA to present the real facts regarding gun ownership in this
country. They need to see that arming teachers and principals is a
solution that works and is supported by 85% of the American public.
You can visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send Bush and Spellings a
pre-written e-mail message. You can also reach them at:
PRESIDENT BUSH
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
E-Mail: president@whitehouse.gov
SECRETARY SPELLINGS
Phone: 202-401-3000
FAX: 202-401-0596
E-Mail: margaret.spellings@ed.gov
The next C&E Gunshow is Oct 21-22. As usual the LP will have an Info table. We need volunteers to work the table.
Show Hours:
Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sun. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Standard shifts are 9:00-1:00 and 1:00-5:00 on Saturday
10:00-1:30 and 1:30-5:00 on Sunday
Partial shifts are ok too.
The gunshow is held at the Showplace on Mechanicsville Turnpike. in Richmond, VA.
Directions: I-64 to Exit 192...go East on 360 (Mechanicsville Turnpike) ...go 3/4 mile and The Showplace is on the left.
The address is 3000 Mechanicsville Turnpike.
Parking is free. Anyone who works a whole shift gets into the show for free!
To volunteer contact Leonard Harris at gunshow@richmondliberty.org
by Robert Russo
Every year some loose circle of academicians bands together with an unsuccessful motion to express their continuing outrage that their doctrine is not universally accepted, as their upbringing in the public school system dictates them to. Removing summer break is a recurring theme, but this bill presented by Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. crosses a new line with logic that is hard to believe. He wants to amend the Constitution to make public schooling a child's "right", by way of a student bill of rights that gives citizenship to young people (right to privacy, freedom of thought and expression), erasing parental authority.*
Surely every Libertarian who hears of this is doing a double-take. Most advocate the civil liberties of parents since they are the victims of government intrusion into the home, and necessary to the practice of homeschooling and the lifestyle of personal responsibility. Some of us advocate the liberties of the child and have called for child citizenship for years to free them from family dictatorship, but not as a ploy to push one institution's political agenda! I personally have never seen a more noble cause presented for a more obscene purpose. Where is this representative coming from that he understands the concept of absolute equality, but equates the dictatorial classroom with that freedom?
HSLDA.org is a good website for viewing cases of infringement on personal freedom and the fight against it. Homeschooling is a prime example of a family's private business, and a time-honored target for those who believe these families have stolen the public commodity of education. In many such cases social workers overstep their bounds as self-appointed "parental investigators", by interrogating homeschooled students to ask if they would rather attend public school.** In one case a building inspector hired to appraise a property appointed himself "family inspector" instead, and reported the parents.*** All of these articles end with the overzealous social worker giving up to try again elsewhere, leaving the reader to wonder what his unpublicized life must be like.
These infringements occur in the Richmond area but are hard to document. While driving one day I saw a banner ad on the back of a GRTC bus asking if I had seen young people who should be in school, part of Mayor Wilder’s crusade against truancy started last year. "Targeted" areas of the city are now patrolled in sweeps to round up these unaccounted for students and put them in disciplinary programs, fining their parents and even sending them to prison. This initiative is ironically called TRAPP (Truancy Reduction and Prevention Program) and makes the most unbelievable statement in the actual proposal that was voted on. "Truancy is often the first sign of trouble in a youth’s life. Research has shown that students who become truant stand a greater chance of eventually dropping out of school and placing themselves at significant disadvantages to becoming productive citizens. ...Students who become truant set themselves up for a lifetime of struggle."****
What exactly is a "productive citizen"? Is anyone who opposes the school system condemning themselves to a "lifetime of struggle"? Such dogmatic wording has no place in a city document. The concept of truancy is that we have one approved form of education in this country and that it is a crime for anyone to stray from it. These are all symptoms of the war between Academia and Alternative education, in which archaic 20th Century notions of education meet modern advances and diversity. This year school districts in Alabama threatened to file truancy against every student enrolled in church schools within two counties.*****
It is the responsibility of those appointed by the state to detect neglect and abuse, not to define those terms themselves by passing judgment. That is not their call. Anyone who cares about child welfare must also abhor the wrongful accusation of good families, and any social worker who does so should face automatic penalties.
It is not homeschooling itself that exempts young people from skipping class. Even if they are not enrolled at all, a single institution with one way of doing things is not compulsary, no more than it is omnipotent. Dropping out is not a crime. Having no political affiliation does not mean someone lacks the rights of a citizen. If young people cannot move about as they please because it breeds criminal behavior, then we live in a broken environment that is not safe for anyone. Did the people who planned this society not go to school themselves?
Emotions rise and fall in the education war to no end. Educators across the state will discuss this hotly but no bill will pass, because in our desire to be contented we have been reduced to obsession over issues instead of action. With the advent of home-privitized education there is no such thing as truancy. Respecting a student's right to attend the institution of their choice, even if it is a public school, is a part of this higher parental calling. This trust is broken when strangers enter the home to pursuade students toward an institution they themselves do not teach for and cannot guarantee. Teaching a generation that the classroom equals citizenship is a ploy to take those rights away from them. Information on this bill can be found at http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200609251.asp. For the full text of Mayor Wilder's anti-truancy program go to http://leg2.state.va.us/dls/h&sdocs.nsf/By+Year/HD482005/$file/HD48.pdf.
*http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200609251.asp
**http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/tx/200608310.asp
***http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/tx/200608090.asp
****http://leg2.state.va.us/dls/h&sdocs.nsf/By+Year/HD482005/$file/HD48.pdf
*****http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/al/200609070.asp
Question of the Week: As a libertarian how do you feel about rights within the home? Do you relate to parents and their right to raise a family without government bureaucracy, or children who have inalienable rights without parental bureaucracy? Do these two beliefs conflict? Please send your opinions to henrico@richmondliberty.org.
If you have topics of interest to Libertarians please let us know. We welcome your input.
in the closing hours of the US Congressional session on Friday, September 29, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (H.R.4411.RH) was attached to the Safe Port Act of 2006 H.R.4954.EAS.
Full Story at: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/02/1817259
[By Jon Walker]
I ran into another person today that thinks marijuana is illegal because the government claims it's harmful. At one time I would have simply argued that it is no more harmful that alcohol and run through the usual litany of reasons it should be decriminalized. This time, I decided to take a different approach.
“They have to make it illegal”, I said, “because it threatens their existence.” This rather far-fetched statement had the desired effect of causing the other person to explain myself. I first started out with basic facts.
Marijuana is less addictive than beer. Marijuana is safer (I've never heard of anyone who went out to a party and smoked themselves to death). So why is it illegal?
Then I asked them to think why the government would not want people to smoke marijuana. After a moment I asked if they knew what it takes to create usable tobacco. Basically tobacco requires a specific climate and then it needs to cure for several months. Then I went to alcohol and of course that requires some form of fermentation and possibly distillation. These processes require days, weeks or months of preparation after harvesting the plants used in the process. Some forms of alcohol are quite frankly more trouble than they are worth unless done in large quantities with expensive equipment. Hobbyists may take the time to produce tobacco or alcohol but it is “inconveniently out of reach” for most people. I then pointed that marijuana can be grown on a window sill with adequate sunlight. Once picked, it is easily dried and you can begin using it hours after harvest. With such a simple growth/harvest/processing chain, a single person easily could grow enough product to keep themselves along with their neighbors, friends and relatives supplied.
“So why does this threaten the government”, I prodded.
The answer of course is the same as most “why does the government do this” questions. If a you do not rely upon a company or controlled distribution chain for a product, the government can't produce a choke point that allows them to tax the product and create revenue. Further, I asked, what would happen if people began using easily grown and hard to control marijuana in favor of alcohol or tobacco? Obviously many would at least consider the easily grown and produced vice over the taxed and regulated ones thus threatening the government's supply of taxes.
Tax revenue control is one of the leading causes of most of the sins visited on the citizens by a government.
Sadly, this very line of reasoning can be used in many places because it is easily demonstrated that government does not “care” about the health and safety of its citizens unless it threatens the tax revenue stream or the positions of elected officials. For examples, you can cite automobiles, alcohol, tobacco, trans-fatty acids and I suspect at least 20 other examples as proof. Government is not about protecting anything but revenue and power. The more we can drive that home in a real manner to people, the more likely we are to make people aware of the dangers of uncontrolled government.