May 2008 Archives

Bruce Barlett has rendered another piece about the relevancy of the LP. This time it's not about whether the LP should exist, but whether it matters. I think the time before was about how we could matter. Bruce can be confused at times.

In that most of my fellow libertarians are making their way to Denver, I'll get back with Bruce a bit and explain why we matter. He says this time;

" The fact that such well-known, former establishment figures would seek a fringe party's presidential nomination demonstrates to many libertarians that their party has come of age. It's also created fear in Republican ranks that a viable LP candidate could throw a close election to the Democrats. "

Fringe ? . . . . Twinge.

Viva la resistance !

In house only post here folks, move along non Party folk . . . .

Several years ago I used to play over thirty hardball (I'm still pictured here as a Cardinal, back row second from right). Not softball mind you, there is a difference. The team had a mixture of aging athletes, jocular types and some average guys who enjoyed the game. But every once and a while you could tell when the young idiot jock was still inhabiting an old man's body. He became irate when a teammate screwed up. He was short with the otherwise duly embarrassed second baseman or outfielder whose own aging body just failed them as they remembered how much easier it was 20 years ago.

In a hurl of defiance and rage he would justify his obnoxious behavior as being a result of being 'competitive'. Maybe I remember the fact that I didn't make the team in high school because I had refused to cut my hair on demand. Even though I started as a 14 year old the summer before on the local all-star team with most of the guys on their way to Varsity, I didn't make the junior varsity team that fateful Monday because I didn't show up like a 'Yankee' on Friday. So I bark back occasionally too when I'm feeling the injustice twinge. In this case it was dressing down the pudgy idiot scraping his glory days off the back of a few guys who just wanna play ball on the weekend.

" You're not competitive, you're emotional " I responded one time . . . He hated that, but it was true.

The recent foray of the Reform Caucus in the LP is playing up a series of ads designed to rally the 'reform' troops in Denver this weekend. I truly hope it backfires on them, because I'm tired of playing with such kids in grownup situations.

Brian Holtz you're emotional at heart. Use for good if you can, perhaps as metered passion, but not petty bickering.

Late one Friday afternoon last Fall my father and I jumped into his van to get my car down at the dealership. It was a fairly decent week as far as business goes and we were happily discussing the weekend's plans and not paying very much attention when the State Trooper SUV flew by us around the Elk's club. Of course when he wheeled around and stopped us for simply not having our seat belts on, he had our undivided attention. While my Dad may be getting too old for the fight, I snarled back at the cop that " I don't believe in the law " for the reason I wasn't wearing mine. While I usually just buckle out of habit anymore, occasionally I do get stopped for forgetting. This might be due to the exponential growth of the police state in the northern part of our sleepy little county, but I still can't forgive Papa Cuomo for this horrible law.

This upcoming week New York has once again decided to sweep its citizenry with the insidious demand that they protect themselves from the potential medical costs the state might incur if they were injured in an accident because they were not wearing a seatbelt. Last year there were over fifty nine thousand tickets during this time. If at least fifty thousand were successfully prosecuted at a hundred bucks a pop, that's a cool five million in local and state coffers. The jury's still out whether it saves any lives.

But there has never been any question that this law was one of worst rationalizations to continue the machinations of the nanny state and so many others that have followed. Is saving a single life from itself worth the cost of abandoning the principles of individual rights and self ownership ? While this is the crux of libertarian values, few recognize it as such any more. What we did to the cop that day is kind of funny.

As hardcore libertarians decry the recent controversy at LPHQ and shake their fists at this horrible and obvious capitulation to statism, one wonders how their ardent advocation of free markets and spirit can possibly have any effect in a world of real power. And while the ED who contributed to this flap is gone, the howling and the frustration is blamed on politics and the unworthy who would continue to participate in it. Yet the examination of why we continue and the nature of that fight must always be examined in context.

This past weekend I resisted the temptation to hit the Sunday morning political yap circuit in favor of some Netflix online. I came across one of my favorite flicks, The Mission. It is a story about the Jesuit Missions and the conflict between the Spanish and Portuguese colonial powers during the 1750s, near what is now Paraguay and Brazil. Starring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons, it tells the story of the conflict between eternal love on Earth and the power of the state and church on the people who would promote that love here on earth. In many ways it parallels the hideous contradiction that Libertarian politics has become. At once, it is the unique assertion that a non-violent attitude and approach will always suffer in an arena rife with hypocrisy, hate and acknowledgment that a monopoly of force is the only way to achieve the 'good'. I'm pretty sure George S. and Chris Wallace & Matthews didn't go into quite this that morning.