Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Time flies when you’re having fun! It’s been a year since Ken Holder rode off into the sunset and your editor took over the editorship. Our publishers and editor are part-time volunteers, so things sometimes don’t move as fast as we would like.

Last week Alan Bickley noted the optimism of the 1950s. We’d have bases on the moon and Mars, Bickley was told. L. Neil thought we’d be much further along in spaces and other areas. Arthur Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and others thought similarly. Yet it hasn’t happened. Instead we have a world more out of The Matrix or the first half of The Probability Broach. Why?

H. L. Mencken thought that a puritan was someone who lay in bed at night afraid that somewhere, somehow, someone was having fun. Today the left, and much of our culture, seem to lie in bed at night afraid that somewhere, somehow, someone is doing something that they were told not to do. For their own good, of course. The world looks forward to a future Airstrip One, a future of Vladimir Putin playing Saruman to Xi Jinping’s Sauron.

Yet there are optimistic signs. Elon Musk bears comparison with D. D. Harriman. Zuby puts out a positive message on Facebook. The Libertarian Enterprise looks forward to its 30th anniversary(!). And we know how Saruman and Sauron turned out. The fat lady ain’t sung yet!

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In This Issue

L. Neil Smith on re-naming the sports teams. Remember when everyone was offended by the name “Washington Redskins”? Well, that was just a warm up for tearing down statutes and cancel culture.

Ron Paul takes on why the gun control debate ignores the real problems. Dr. Paul is a devout Christian. I don’t think you have to be a devout Christian to see his point.

Charles Curley picks a nit with Lew Rockwell.

Events

On August 16 – 19, 2023 Liberty International will host the 37th edition of the annual Liberty International World Conference in Madrid, Spain. This year’s main theme is “Prosperity and Longevity Through Liberty” and will encompass discussions on the past, present, and future challenges faced by the freedom movement and its evolution over time.

This year’s conference will reunite 200+ attendees and 10+ pro-liberty organizations from all around the world in the heart of Madrid at Ateneo de Madrid. The conference´s agenda will include keynote sessions, panel discussions, debates, film screenings and other entertaining activities. In addition, we will have two days of cultural tours around Madrid!

Your event here? Let your editor know!

Links! Have we got Links!

Last week Alan Bickley reviewed the coronation of Charles III. Here with another view, Jonathan Turley, “God Save [Free Speech]”: Britain Celebrates Coronation with Time-Honored Tradition of the Arrest of Anti-Monarchists “The group said that they were not told the reason for their arrests and that police “would figure it out” later. If the group wanted to make a statement against the monarchy, it has succeeded.”

Also from Jonathan Turley: Federal Judge Strikes Down Federal Age Limit on Gun Purchases Note that these are all district or appeals court decisions. We’ll see if the Supremes take any of them.

“The “Censorship-Industrial Complex” is just the Military-Industrial Complex reborn for the “hybrid warfare” age.” Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex: The Top 50 Organizations to Know A long article, but well detailed. A who’s who of the Censorship-Industrial Complex. ““The Top 50 List” is intended as a resource for reporters and researchers beginning their journey toward learning the scale and ambition of the “Censorship-Industrial Complex.” Written like a magazine feature, it tries to answer a few basic questions about funding, organization type, history, and especially, methodology.”

The inhumanity of the green agenda: The ‘sustainability’ regime is impoverishing the world.

‘Song of the South’ and Disney’s Unconscionable Erasure of James Baskett

Will Abortion Kill the GOP?

‘A very grim portrait’ Political scientist Erica Frantz on what Russia’s future holds after Putin

Titanic: First ever full-sized scans reveal wreck as never seen before