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As a high school student in 1984, the height of my political outrage came in the form of the seatbelt law enacted by then Governor Cuomo. Of course we had a smoking area and could keep our guns in the car during hunting season. I recall an intelligent conversation with our principal after school one day about the concept of loco parentis, a replacement parent in law and subsequently during our schooling. There were still a lot of ex-hippies teaching crazy and complicated curriculums, but even then there were cracks in this mighty foundation of public schools created in the United States over the previous 100 years. With stories like the one coming out Pennsylvania about students being under virtual surveillance by local schools, I wish it were 1984 again. My kids might still have a chance.

I realize the erosion and illusion of the noble institution of public education has accelerated in its decline with more alternative information available on these great tubes. I applaud efforts by great libertarians like Jim Ostrowski to confront these issues forthright and without apology. Once taken, power is a hard thing to give up. In many ways the power of education is one of religion. Spreading the word and cause of freedom in a dynamic, robust free market economy is not where the dogmatic practices of rote memorization are preached and practiced.

The recent special election in NY's 23rd Congressional District while seemingly a success of Doug Hoffman as a Conservative Party candidate, it simply wasn't the case. In NY a special election of this sort requires the county chairs to pick a candidate. Most likely the Dede Scozzafava appointment had the more disgruntled conservative faction in the NY GOP, scrambling for what they considered a better choice. It was effectively a primary after the disaster that was a certain diminutive Schenectady resident, in the 20th District special election last spring. By pumping national money into Republican enrolled Hoffman's Conservative campaign, they outflanked the weaker intra-Republican party opponent with another ballot line. Reader's might note that my own campaign in the 20th was not received well by Conservatives who bumped me off with a hand picked judge in Poughkeepsie in full cooperation with the Republicans, no doubt.

That being said, I am urging Libertarians in New York not to select a convenience candidate next year for governor. While our lot may very well be a Sisyphus like plodding towards a damned eternity of electoral nothingness (I prefer to keep this mantle to myself), we should not sell our souls to a luke warm promise of success in a statist universe. If our little cabal actually became that ballot qualified party it might only a matter of months before it is sucked into the Borg that is New York State politics. It's not to say that protections on a bylaw and legal level wouldn't hold up to a constant deluge of attempts to colonize a newly qualified party, but would the party simply become an appendage to the bigger apparatus which tends to reward it participants with pork and privilege. Is that not our opposite purpose ?

I'm wondering whether author and historian Thomas Woods is in fact too far into the woods despite being one of those city kids. He pens a curious piece today on LRC defending St. Paul and true Lew against another cadre of egghead liberty folk. In typical theory of the leisure class mode, Woods assumes that all mention of certain people directly correlates with the mindful followers of the aforementioned. He takes umbrage with a statement about the state of the movement with regards to a right/left drift made by professor Tyler Cowen at a recent CATO gig.

I know Tom gets out a lot to speak at certain events and does a lot of Break The Matrix interviews. He's commented on C-SPAN about his like for media attention and the subsequent lack thereof. He's not DiLorenzo jawing with Brian Lamb about Lincoln yet, but he's still a young man and those things may come. Like most intellectuals, they think they are the indispensable core of whatever school or faction of thinking that has suddenly powered the movement de jure. The cackling minions of Paul Krugman are still toasting themselves.

Joe six pack libertarian doesn't see the world the same way as Woods. Gadsen flags, guns and legal weed all appeal to folk who don't particularly want to see brothers and sisters in foreign lands. They had that done to them since WWII. Even Vietnam era thinking supplies a notion amongst old school believers that such a war would have been won if but permission was granted to 'win it'. So yeah, another undeclared action abroad for the purposes of good might win the emotions of the day when the stakes are for the whole enchilada (ie the Presidency). Ron Paul suddenly fit the bill of someone valiant enough to stand against the Rudy's of the world. As an attendee of the 25th Mises Institute affair, I can attest to the fact that the old men of the grand old institute turned in for sleep that night at the Grand Hyatt in NYC. Hardly the stuff of the Green Mountain boys in their quest for freedom.

As the world learns more about the Tiger Woods incident this last weekend, they all wanna know more. Sure enough the causeways that are human avenues of communication, intrigue and idolatry will fill that vacuum. I've golfed about two times and never understood the sport as more than an amusement for incredibly dull people. But I like baseball and they pay those guys a lot too.

My question is not whether things like infidelity, smashed windows, scratched faces and potential DUI charges are filed. Not whether his endorsements at risk, his swing effected or the squeaky clean image gone. Rather, I wonder whether he will take off the skirt on go all Agassi while he's still top of the heap. That is, just admit that golf is something his dad made him do and now that he's liberated from the burden of expectations, do as some great personalities in history and forge a blazing new path beyond the previous shell of existence that they were before.

Suppose he just kept the window smashed for a few weeks. Started getting brazenly drunk sputtering whatever came to his mind even while the paparazzi still followed him. Pissing on the Nike endorsements and backing Joachim Phoenix's new career as a rapper. All the while still showing up to major events and kicking everyone's ass anyway. That would be a truly GREEEAAAT Tiger.

Jim Ostrowski has a new book out.

It's always a pleasure to come out of a blogging coma and to do so with a recommendation to get and read Jim's latest. This one is about education. Besides the military, no entity is considered a more vital public good than education. To call for a mass exodus of the system is a bold declaration, can Ostrowski pull it off ? I'll be getting mine post haste and will see you on the other side of a review of it. I couldn't finish that last one I started . . .

A response to Roger Ebert's recent article about health care.

The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy NY was packed for the 'sneaky' public premier of The Yes Men Fix the World. RPI associate professor, Igor Vamos (aka Mike Bonanno) let the first public US audience preview his new movie to a warm reception on Tuesday night.

Read the rest at the Examiner.

For each issue question that Eric complains about, I issue this blanket retort now instead of repeating it for each issue: if you think you can state the issue in 35 characters or less, and in a way that is useful for LP outreach, and do so in a way that is more fair or insightful than the way I did it, then let's see your 35 characters. And if instead you think there's no way to use 10 or 20 short questions to get a rough idea of which standard political label applies to someone, then your complaints are better directed to The Advocates, not to me.

Fair enough. It only occurred to me later that Holtz was the creator of the current test that I criticized. And I guess my ultimate point is that injecting 20 questions from any ideology might create an unfair or misdirected result. I've never been a big fan of this test. Keep giving the test all you want wherever you want.

My Google alerts let's me know when my name pops up somewhere and apparently my critique of Brian Holtz's version of the World's smallest political quiz has him a bit miffed.

You can't leave comments on Brian's website, but I'm sure he'll find this and is welcome to leave his here.

This is the follow from the last, from Strock again . . .

Where's this going ? I'm on numerous lists of activists and get a flood of stuff that doesn't necessarily strike me as necessary or pertinent. I got the first one about a week ago and didn't think much about it, typical local smug columnist stuff. But the second piece sort of struck home because he mentions the LP. In an upcoming piece that I'll put up at the Examiner, I'll push back a bit on Mr. Strock.

Second letter after the jump . . . .