L. Neil Smith's
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 276, June 20, 2004

"Hi Dad!"


[Letters to the editor are welcome on any and all subjects. To ensure their acceptance, please try to keep them under 500 words. Sign your letter in the text body with your name and e-mail address as you wish them to appear.]


Letter from Kathryn A. Graham

Letter from Frank Ney

Letter from Susan Wells (maybe)

Letter from Caleb Paul

Another Letter from Caleb Paul

Letter from Trevor M. Southerland

Letter from Michael Kielsky


Michael has approved the unofficial endorsement site I did for him—I wanted to be sure I did not missay him in any way before I announced it, but he's happy with it. Feel free to spread the word. I'll be doing some promotion on it over the next few weeks, too. The more links we can get back to his own site, the better.

http://www.votefreedom2004.org/

Kathryn A. Graham
kate@kathrynagraham.com


I move that the Amsterdam, NY Police Department and Chief Thomas V N Brownell (http://www.usacops.com/ny/p12010/) be named this month's Jack-Booted Thugs Of The Month by acclamation. I further move that the Department receive a special citation in the name of Pavlik Morozov for actions above and beyond the call of state servitude.

[link]

The recent arrest of a local woman on felony welfare fraud charges would not normally have attracted much attention. But in what advocates for the poor believe is unprecedented, the woman's 17-year- old daughter was charged with conspiracy for not turning in her mother.

Amsterdam police arrested 36-year-old Gloria Lugo on June 4 for failing to tell county officials that she had taken a part-time $6-an-hour restaurant job. As a result, she received an overpayment of $2,700 in public assistance.

But the police also charged her daughter, Jacqueline Lopez, with misdemeanor conspiracy because "she had knowledge that her mother did not report her income."

Attorneys and advocates who represent low-income families said they had never heard of police lodging a conspiracy count against the child of a parent charged with welfare fraud.

Frank Ney
[email protected]
United Airlines Must Die!
Abuses by the BATF

[Frank is the "Travel Gestapo Editor" for NetPlanetNews.com (and, by extension, TLE!)—Mr. Ed]


Enter your vote today! A new poll has been created for the Badnarik2004-discuss group:

Now that Michael is the LP's presidential nominee, what issues should he focus on in his campaign?


  • Taxes (including payroll and income)
  • The occupation of Iraq
  • Health care
  • Immigration
  • Education
  • Censorship
  • Gay marriage
  • Conscription
  • The War on Terrorism
  • The War on Drugs
  • The War on Poverty
  • Gun control
  • The environment
  • Global warming
  • Energy
  • Social Security
  • Oil and natural gas
  • Trade
  • Economic regulations
  • Occupational licensure

To vote, please visit the following web page:

[link]

Thanks!

Susan Wells
Swftl@aol.com

[That letter may have just been forwarded by Susan, so write it or forward it, thanks either way!—Mr. Ed]


Regarding the latest article by Kaptain Kanada aka Manuel Miles, I wouldn't be holding up the Catholic Church or its leaders up as paragons of courage given their historic involvement in some of the blackest events of history, their tacit approval of and co-operation with the state, or even just turning a blind eye to its actions. How silent the Catholic Church was before and during WW2 for instance.

Furthermore, that the Catholic Church (amongst many forms of organised religion) in this day and age has such a backward approach to family planning and women's rights, which in turn leads to the indirect (or direct) impoverishment and oppression of people all over the world, how can this be considered courageous?

What would have been truly courageous and effective of Mother Theresa, instead of buying herself a stairway to Heaven, would have been lobbying both the Vatican and the Indian government and its hardline Hindu elements for a more progressive approach to population control. Indeed, what would have been even more courageous would have been if she'd openly stood up against both institutions and talked about, and provided access to, the sexual education and contraception that the poor of India so desperately need to pull themselves out of their current woes.

Now that would have been courageous.
Caleb Paul
shorbe@rocketmail.com


I thought Lady Liberty's thoughts on the movie The Day After Tomorrow were interesting, but I'm not so sure about the conclusion.

Firstly, as an aside, having seen this movie recently, a friend and I had a long debate about what was presented in the movie. Personally, I don't think the human side of things was realistic either. Given the attitude of a lot of the third world towards the first world now, how likely would they be to just welcome them with open arms if the worm turned so to speak? I think there would be beaucoup bad shit as they say. Wars would be plentiful and nasty on the edges of the disaster zones. Furthermore, given the current indifferent attitude of humanity to the worldwide refugee population, would anyone in a place far enough away from the action (like Australia or Argentina) actually care? Given Australia's recent history with a small number of refugees (locking them up in the desert), I think it's fair to say there would be "Fortress Australia" or such.

That aside though, the conclusion that the misinformation in this movie could have a detrimental effect is wrong I believe. Firstly, I think rather than actually being a propoganda campaign for environmentalists and the so-called left wing, how likely are people to believe the scenario presented in that movie? Maybe most people are that far gone. I don't know. I'd think they'd just dismiss it outright either because they thought it was a gross exaggeration or because they didn't want to believe it.

More than that though, I don't think whether the movie is right or wrong in its science has any relevance. Call me a cynic (and I agree that modern education has dumbed people down to an incredible degree), but I think the vast majority of people wouldn't actually think about the message of the movie at all. "Message? Huh?" would perhaps be an indicative response. I think the only two thoughts going through the minds of most people would be along the lines of, "Cool special effects!" and "Me hungry. Popcorn want."

If they did actually muster the intellectual capability and energy to think about it, would they care? I think our civilisation is so far gone that so long as they're placated with all the banal TV, new shiny stuff and salty, fatty foods they can consume, the vast majority of people couldn't care less what is happening at any level by anyone, and that's exactly where the government and media really want us.

Caleb Paul
shorbe@rocketmail.com


Please forward this to any other Libertarian lists you subscribe to.

I'm writing to inform you of the National Libertarian Party Youth Caucus which was created at the 2004 Convention of the Libertarian Party in Atlanta, GA just a few short weeks ago. The purpose of this organization is to help promote the Libertarian Party and the message of Liberty, especially to those people in educational facilities ... be it high school, university or any other form of an educational institution. We hope that our efforts will be to influence the future leaders of America into a Libertarian perspective. One of our main goals is to assure that the National Party and the Badnarik Campaign have a fully updated list of contacts at college campuses across America. Many times, a new college group tries to reinvent the wheel when they create a new Libertarian group on their campus ... we hope to bring some internal memory to Campus Libertarian groups to prevent this problem in the future. There is a Yahoo! Groups list of which you can join by sending an e-mail to:

[email protected]

Thank you.

In Liberty,
Trevor M. Southerland
[email protected]
Chairman, National Libertarian Party Youth Caucus
Chairman, the Hamilton County Libertarian Party (TN)
www.hclp.org
President, the Campus LP of the Univ. of Chattanooga
http://oneweb.utc.edu/~liberty
2004 Libertarian Party Platform Committee Member
Badnarik for President, Tennessee Coordinator
www.badnarik.org
Editor, The Voice of Freedom (LPTN) www.lptn.net
Contributing Editor, Liberty for All www.libertyforall.net
Contributing Editor, Enigma www.enigmaonline.com


Due to the strong showing by Michael Badnarik, the online poll at:

[link]

has been forced to include a color legend column for Badnarik, next to Kerry & Bush. Nice.

Still running strong, Badnarik is leading in electoral college vote totals, though trailing a bit behind Kerry in popular vote totals. Bush is a very distant third.

If you have not yet, cast your vote!

Michael Kielsky
Michael@KIELSKY.COM
Libertarian Candidate for U.S. Congress
Arizona Congressional District 5
http://elect.kielsky.com


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