EDITORIAL MATTERS:

Welcome to the 327th issue of TLE! This time we have another big issue. We begin with a "Count Pointer-Count" with Chris Claypoole and Thomas L. Knapp on the National Libertarian Party's "Iraq Exit Strategy". Chris and Tom will have concluding comments next issue. These two articles are followed by Ken Van Cleave's own strategy for "uniting" the two main factions of that same Party. And this is then followed by six more articles. Such a deal for your dime, eh?

I've decided to not mention Tom Paine Maru until it's ready for sale. Oops, I mentioned it. "And so it goes."

However, I will mention donations. Yes, friends, if you enjoy reading TLE, if you find TLE useful, or just for the heck of it, why not donate a bit of cash money to help keep the operation going? Here's how:

http://www.ncc-1776.org/donate.html

Ken Holder
editor@ncc-1776.org
Editor

ARTICLES

Letters to the Editor
from Neil Alexander
• FULL STORY

LP Platform Ignored in LP's Iraq Exit Strategy
by Chris Claypoole
There seem to be some contradictions between the Iraq Exit Strategy (IES) of the Libertarian Party (LP) and the National Platform of the Libertarian Party, adopted in May 2004. The IES has over a page of endnotes (not bad for a six-page document), but none of the research seems to have touched on their own stated principles.
• FULL STORY

LP Platform Implemented in LP's Exit Strategy
by Thomas L. Knapp
Within the confines of a small, ideologically oriented group, it's a given that any major proposal—be it internal and organizational or external and political—will produce a backlash. Thus it is no surprise that several critiques of the Libertarian Party's "Exit Strategy for Iraq" have emerged within days of that proposal's public debut.
• FULL STORY

The Janus Gambit
A Strategy for Libertarian Emergence
by Kent B. Van Cleave
Janus was the Roman god of beginnings, of gateways and portals (scholars disagree on the other things in his portfolio), and may have been the first of the Roman gods. He is normally portrayed with two faces, front and back—useful for seeing both what lies ahead and what has passed. We can learn much from such mythological figures—not because they are real and communicate verities to the worthy, but because they represent some universal attributes of human nature and social transactions. That's the way myths work.
• FULL STORY

Closing the Door on Political Correctness
by Jim Lesczynski
In the downtown Manhattan neighborhood where I live, an intruder beat a woman and tried to rape her in the laundry room of her co-op building last week. Fortunately, another woman came along, and her screams scared the attacker away. The co-op is just across the street from mine, and my wife and daughters often visit friends in that building, making the attack too close to home for all of us.
• FULL STORY

Hothouse Orchids versus Desert Cacti
by Ali Hassan Massoud
Psychologists and salespeople call it the "chameleon effect". People are thought to be more trustworthy and likeable if they imitate the body language of the person they're speaking with. A new experimental study has now shown that software programs can use this technique successfully as well.
• FULL STORY

Relegation Nation: An Idea for Reforming the Courts
by Jonathan David Morris
Conservatives and liberals alike are looking at Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement as a chance to mold the Supreme Court in their image. But if you ask me, both sides are missing the real opportunity here. This is more than a chance to change the court's ideological make-up. It's a chance to restructure the court completely. I'm talking about a total overhaul here. The way I see it, the court would be better if it ran like European soccer. But before I get to that, let me explain why.
• FULL STORY

The Silver Linings in Socialist Leanings
by Lady Liberty
On June 23, the US Supreme Court released its decision on a Connecticut property rights case. Much to the dismay of millions, the court ruled 5-4 that cities can seize homes or businesses via eminent domain and give the land to other private developers. Within the official ruling, those justices on the one side of the decision claimed that the "public use" required by the Fifth Amendment could conceivably be met when cities seek to increase their tax base, adding "the necessity and wisdom of using eminent domain to promote economic development are certainly matters of legitimate public debate." The dissenting opinions were stronger, including Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's contention that, "Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party," and referring to those whose property is taken as "victims."
• FULL STORY

Successfully Failed
Or
Historical Precedence
by Ulrich Biele
This morning, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder dared to conquer new historical terrain by publicly admitting his incompetence and staging a vote of no confidence against himself. A politician who until yesterday fought like a lion in order to get a parcel of seventy new laws into the books which he wanted to be passed before he himself had to pass, today stages a vote he deliberately intends to lose in order to have his disability to govern officially confirmed. Weird.
• FULL STORY

Domestic Violence Victims Need Self-Defense
by Wendy McElroy
On June 27^th, in Castle Rock v. Gonzales, the Supreme Court found that Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police protection from a private individual even in the presence of a restraining order. By a vote of 7-to-2, Gonzales has no right to sue her local police department for failing to protect her from her estranged and, ultimately, lethal husband.
• FULL STORY

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