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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 333, August 21, 2005 "...far greater threat than Al Qaeda..."
Send Letters to editor@ncc-1776.org
The Probability Broach Wins Special Prometheus Award Here's the press release, a trifle belated. www.bigheadpress.com/prometheus.htm L. Neil Smith
Dear Mr. Ed/Editor/Ken, and Keith, Re.: "Nehemiah Shudder", by Keith R. Wood http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2005/tle332-20050814-04.html Well, I dunno. I can't quite figure out—in the simplistic sense, what the above referenced article has to do with exercising personal liberty. Liberty is supposed to be plainly simple. That's it, not a thing more. Complicating matters with intricate constructs is tantamount to making liberty subject to someone else's whims, by dint of limitations imposed to please someone else. Your article, Keith, makes excuses for things to happen, merely that you agree with something—at everyone else's expense. As Bill Shatner says, "I can't get behind any of that." EJ Totty
Dear Jay, Hi. Your essay at: http://ncc-1776.org/tle2005/tle332-20050814-01.html about translating some key liberty ideas into Spanish is a good one. I've cc'd and bcc'd some folks I think may be able to help, or interested in your line of thought. For the most part, I've found that AltaVista's Babelfish is not exceptionally good at providing idiomatic text in any language, even when it is provided very simple ideas. Having said that, I would agree that something is often better than nothing. My friend Dr. Rigoberto Stewart has been working on making his province, Limon, in Costa Rica, a more free place for many years. He wrote a detailed book on the subject, Limon REAL which was translated into English with the able assistance of my good friend Spencer MacCallum. Spencer is now living full time in Mexico where he has been hard at work editing the book of our mutual friend, the late Michael van Notten on the law of the Somalis. Another guy living and working down in Latin America is my friend Sandy Sandfort, who has been in Panama working on developing a space port there for some time. He is beginning to see some success. Other friends are in Bolivia and Belize with equally solid commitments to individual liberty in our life times. One of the groups you should probably get acquainted with is the International Society for Individual Liberty. You can find their web site at www.isil.org The group was founded in 1982 by Vince Miller. At the suggestion of Michael van Notten, it has been run as an entrepreneurship ever since—which cuts way back on the bureaucracy, the internal politics, and the committee garbage. Vince and his associates have created a lot of good liberty ammunition in the form of pamphlets. These are all available in Spanish. Ken Schoolland wrote a book on how the liberty philosophy works, and why government is not only superfluous but a hindrance to freedom called The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible which I happen to think is a pretty good book. It has been translated into some 23 languages, including Spanish. Ken's basic ideas on liberty formed the basis for a "philosophy of liberty" animation that the late Kerry Pearson aka Lux Lucre developed. I believe that is now available from the ISIL web site in English and Spanish. Someone else who might be of considerable assistance is Don Lobo Tiggre, whose e-mail contact I do not have. Lobo has a Spanish family background and speaks Spanish fluently, or at least that's how it sounds to me. He was behind the Henry Hazlitt Foundation's Free-market.net project, which was picked up by ISIL when the Hazlitt Foundation went under. Regards, Jim Davidson
Dear Mr. Ed/Editor/Ken, and Wendy, Re.: "Parental Rights vs. Public Schools", by Wendy McElroy http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2005/tle332-20050814-06.html It pains me to say this, but the truth of the matter is that Mr. David Parker of Lexington, Mass., got the screw job he deserves. Anyone, and I mean anyone who places their charges in any so-called "public school," deserves everything that happens to come their way. You might title this rant with the word "expect." Parents who put their children in "public schools" should not expect anything except "bad news." And, until this bad dream is shoved off the cliff of "government failures," then this scenario will be repeated endlessly. And, quite honestly, Wendy, I wish you'd concentrate more on other things we have no control over, instead of upon men an women who willfully place themselves—and their children, in the way of government steam rollers, just to "see what happens." Parker could have prevented all of his aggravation by simply placing his child into a private institution, or just home schooled him. It absolutely amazes me that someone with his education would place his child in such a piss poor place as a "public school." What really, really ticks me off, is that some people actually go out of their way to make their lives miserable, when all they needed to do was avoid the situation all together. And then they have the temerity to complain about it to the rest of us. This isn't the same as the guy who was arrested for not showing ID, while standing behind his pickup truck, when some idiot pig/bear/cop decided to pull the tyrant stunt. We already know that "public schools" aren't. And, someone with a "PHD" who isn't informed isn't a PHD, unless he's a special case. Parker "expected" with one hand, and the state shit in the other. He got what he deserved. The bottom line is this: When enough citizens decide to ignore government programs, then those programs will go away. EJ Totty
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