Volume 13, Number 2 | January 24, 2008
The Liberator Online
Contents
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, UNBELIEVABLE NEWS
PERSUASION POWER POINT
#242
ASK DR. RUWART
PRODUCT REVIEW
Dear friends, Two stories in this issue's "Good News, Bad News, Unbelievable News" section remind me that libertarianism is not just some abstract idea or parlor debate. Liberty is a matter of life and death. One story reports on the annual Heritage Foundation / Wall Street Journal rankings of countries, based on how much economic freedom they have. The rankings and accompanying material make it crystal-clear that the more economic freedom a country has, the healthier and more prosperous its people are. The flipside: a lack of economic liberty brings death, disease, stunted growth, and poverty. Economic liberty -- free markets, private property, the right to exchange goods and keep the fruits of your labor -- is more than just an abstract cause. It is an issue of life or death. As John Stossel notes, "Free markets have rescued more people from poverty than government ever has." Similarly, we report on a new study by the Justice Policy Institute, a prison reform think tank. The study shows how the War on Drugs is disproportionately directed against black Americans. And of course that's just one of the many evils of the Drug War. By some estimates the War on Drugs causes roughly half the murders in America (drug-seller shoot-outs that sometimes kill innocent bystanders). The Drug War causes a huge percentage of our violent crime and property crime (as addicts steal to pay inflated black market prices for drugs). And it is a major factor in the spreading of AIDS and other diseases and misery. Here again we see that personal liberty -- the right to live in any peaceful way you wish, as long as you respect the right of others to do the same -- is not just an abstract philosophical notion. It is a matter of life and death for each of us, regardless of our lifestyle. When libertarians work to advance the cause of personal and economic freedom, we are working to save lives and make our world a better, healthier, happier place. Your work for liberty is vitally important to the people of the world. The Advocates is dedicated to helping you make your efforts as successful and effective as possible. Thank you! * * * Welcome to 203 new Liberator Online subscribers this issue. Thanks for joining our subscription "family" of over 70,000 liberty-loving readers in more than 100 countries! To learn more about the Advocates and our work for
liberty: To learn more about libertarianism: -- Sharon Harris, President | Email: sharon@TheAdvocates.org PS: Don't forget to check out our Product Review
special. This issue: Order See details at the end of this issue, or visit: Your purchase supports the great work of the Advocates. Thank you! Your order helps support the vital work of the Advocates. Thank you! ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
What's Happening With The Advocates * Heartland Libertarian Conference: Sharon Harris will be the dinner speaker, and joins a great list of speakers at this Kansas City, Missouri event, including former U.S. Congressman Bob Barr; Libertarian Party Executive Director Shane Cory; and 2004 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. Also featured: a debate between 2008 Libertarian Presidential candidates. Co-sponsored by the Kansas Libertarian Party, the Missouri Libertarian Party, and the Cass County Libertarian Party. April 4-5, 2008. http://www.lpmo.org/heartland2008/ * Freedom Cruise: Announcing the
Eleventh Annual "Freedom Cruise" -- a glorious 12 day cruise through
the Mediterranean, focused on Italy and the Greek islands: Venice;
Dubrovnic; Corfu; Argostoli; Santorini; Catania; Naples; Rome; Florence;
and Barcelona! September 29 - October 11, 2008. The event is organized
by Ken Bisson of Freedom Cruises. Great food, an amazing itinerary, and
fine company! (This isn't an Advocates event, but Ken is on our Board of
Directors, and libertarians who have been on past cruises rave about
them.) For more details, visit: * QUIZ ON FACEBOOK: The Advocates
has brought the World's Smallest Political FACEBOOK USERS: See how you can
use our new Quiz Facebook app to spread the NOT FAMILIAR WITH FACEBOOK? Lear
more about it, why you might ******
by James W. Harris Kurt Loder is famous to millions around
the world as a rock music critic, film reviewer,
He's also a libertarian, as he makes very clear in an interview in the current issue of the libertarian magazine Reason. Loder's most visible gig has been at MTV. He joined MTV in 1988 as anchor of their music/news program, The Week in Rock. That show became MTV News, where Loder remains a top reporter and interviewer. Loder writes and hosts MTV News specials as well as doing interviews and reports. He reviews movies at MTV.com in "Kurt Loder on Film" -- where, recently, he trashed Michael Moore's documentary Sicko in a scathing, widely-publicized review. A sample: "As a proud socialist, the director appears to feel that there are few problems in life that can't be solved by government regulation (that would be the same government that's already given us the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Motor Vehicles)." Loder is a former senior editor of Rolling Stone magazine, and he remains a contributing editor. He's an astute, knowledgeable rock critic, and some of his best Rolling Stone work is collected in his book Bat Chain Puller (named after an LP by the eccentric rock genius Captain Beefheart). He's also co-author of singer Tina Turner's autobiography I, Tina, which became a New York Times best-seller and was the basis for the hit movie "What's Love Got to Do With It?" As if that's not enough, Loder finds time to write for magazines including Esquire, Details, New York and Time. He's appeared in over a dozen major films (most of the time playing himself). And he's a member of the nominating committee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In their interview, Reason describes Loder as "unabashedly libertarian in his politics and optimistic in his cultural outlook." "One day, I was working for a newspaper in New Jersey and this flyer came across my desk from the local Libertarian Party," Loder told Reason. "At the top, it said, Free Love and Free Markets. And I thought, That's some pretty interesting territory. And that's pretty much where I am. "I think people should be free to do what they want to do. I think it's very simple." Loder also ripped into the nanny state: "I understand people not liking smoke. But there should be places where, if the owner doesn't mind you smoking in his bar or restaurant, you should be able to do that. What's wrong with that?" And he had harsh words for the emerging post-9/11 surveillance state: "I understand the fear of terrorism, but people don't seem to fully understand what would happen if this surveillance regime passed into the hands of less benign people. You have to look ahead to that, and no one does. There are 4 million surveillance cameras in Great Britain. We're heading in that direction." Noting his optimism in the face of such civil liberties threats, Reason asked Loder why he was so upbeat about the future. "You have to be optimistic about the human endeavor, I think. There are always creative people. I think the only thing we have to worry about is people who would oppress us, which would be the government. Only the government can censor us. Only the government can take from us. I've never really believed in government. I don't think you can. I believe in people, and the good they'll do." (Sources: Reason magazine, February 2008. * * * Proof: Economic Liberty Brings Abundance What makes a country wealthy? What is the best way for impoverished people and countries to escape poverty? The evidence is now overwhelming. The answer is economic liberty: free markets, entrepreneurialism, free trade, limited government. The latest proof comes from The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, who have released the 2008 edition of their Index of Economic Freedom. Now fourteen years old, this annual survey ranks over 150 countries on how they score on these ten key factors of economic freedom: * Business Freedom According to the survey: "Taken together, these ten freedoms offer an empirical depiction of a country's degree of economic freedom." The survey clearly demonstrates that "economies with higher levels of economic freedom enjoy higher living standards." Indeed, the Index reports that the freest 20% of the world's economies have *twice* the per capita income of those in the second quintile -- and five times that of the least-free 20%. The freest economies also have lower rates of unemployment and lower inflation. Further, the report shows that the less free an economy is, the more the people suffer from poverty, inflation, and unemployment. Libertarians should realize from this
that our work for economic liberty is not just some abstraction. When
people are denied economic freedom, they are stunted, they suffer and
they die. When they have it, they grow, prosper and live longer. The
work of libertarianism is the work of saving lives and saving the world.
1 Hong Kong-------------90.25 (#1 for the
14th year in a row) And the ten least free: 148 Venezuela-----------45.0 The report notes that global economic freedom, overall, did not expand in the past year. But it didn't shrink, either. And the Index offers this exciting hope for the near future: "[T]he fourth quintile alone contains half of the world's population. This is due to the presence of China and India together. This fact suggests that when China and India further open their economies to globalization so that internal economic freedoms are strengthened, the rise in global prosperity will be spectacular." (Source: Heritage Foundation: * * * New Study: The Drug War Is Racist Black and white Americans use and sell illegal drugs at very similar rates, according to federal studies. Incredibly, however, black Americans are *ten times* more likely than whites to be imprisoned for drug offenses. A shocking new report has found that 97
percent of America's large-population counties imprison blacks at a
higher rate than whites for drug offenses. The worst disparity was in Forsyth County, N.C., which includes the Winston-Salem metro area, where blacks were 164 times more likely than whites to be imprisoned for drug offenses. The report notes that, of the 175,000 persons admitted to prison nationwide for drug offenses in 2002, more than half were black -- despite the fact that blacks make up less than 13 percent of the U.S. population. The report is entitled "The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties." It was conducted by the Justice Policy Institute, a think tank that supports policies to reduce the number of people sent to prison. Black youth are also selectively prosecuted by Drug Warriors. Says the report: "According to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, African American adolescents have slightly lower illicit drug use than their white counterparts -- whether for illicit drug use generally or for use of a wide variety of specific drugs, including crack cocaine... However, in 2003, African Americans youth were arrested for drug abuse violations at nearly twice the rate of whites." Similar disparities have long been
evident in federal and state enforcement of the drug laws. This new
study now proves that the racist effect is equally noticeable at the
local level. But the Colorado Springs Gazette, a newspaper with a libertarian editorial board, hit the nail on the head: "The solution to this de facto racism, of course, is simple: Stop imprisoning people for trading in drugs or using them. "Recreational drug use isn't good, and black leaders, as well as white leaders, should do everything possible to eradicate it from their communities. But the government's war on drugs has done little, if anything, to curtail drug use among blacks or any other Americans. A reduction in drug use involves the work of counselors, parents, teachers, preachers, doctors and friends. It takes a culture, not armed state agents charged with feeding a growth industry of incarceration." (Sources: Justice Policy Institute study:
* * * "Amidst all the claptrap about 'change' among both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, perhaps we should remind ourselves what the candidates (except Ron Paul) mean by the term 'change.' What they mean is simply a change in the identities or party affiliations of those who wield the levers of the omnipotent government they support. "As I often tell people (mostly to the chagrin of conservatives because they don't like to hear it), philosophically there ain't a dime's worth of difference between a conservative and a liberal. They both believe in such things as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public (i.e., government) schooling, trade restrictions, economic regulations, immigration controls, subsidies, drug laws, government-business partnerships, welfare, income taxation, paper money, the Federal Reserve System, foreign aid, a standing army, foreign intervention, and foreign wars." -- Jacob Hornberger, President, Future of Freedom Foundation (Source: "The 'Change' Claptrap" * * * * THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO MONEY TO GIVE:
Some politicians are proposing to stimulate the U.S. economy by doling
out "tax rebate" checks to the public. But wait a minute, says the Wall
Street Journal: "[T]he $250 or $500 one-time rebate check they may now
receive has to come from somewhere. The feds will pay for it either by
taxing or borrowing from someone else, and those people will have that
much less to spend or invest themselves. We are thus supposed to believe
it is 'stimulating' to take money from one pocket and hand it to
another." * HATING FREE MARKETS: "Why are so many people so hostile to free markets? Markets provide miracles that we take for granted. Clean, well-lighted supermarkets sell 30,000 products. Starvation has largely vanished from countries where private property and economic freedom are permitted. Free markets have rescued more people from poverty than government ever has. "And yet, when innovators propose
extending this benign power, people shriek in fear." -- libertarian
journalist John Stossel. * * * * * * * *
Why Isn't the Libertarian Movement Bigger and More Successful? by Michael Cloud Reading diet books won't make you thin. Reading exercise books won't make you fit. Reading libertarian books won't make you free. If you want small government and freedom, you must act. Not just once. Regularly, repeatedly, relentlessly. In 1995, I gave speeches at a number of Libertarian Party state conventions. After one of these speeches, a man in his thirties asked me, "Why aren't there more women here?" "How many women did you bring?" I asked. "None," he said. "How many women did you invite?" I asked. "None," he said. "How many women did you tell about this Libertarian convention?" I asked. "None." "So, what's your answer to your question? Why aren't more women here?" "Because I didn't tell them, I didn't invite them, I didn't bring them..." he answered. Why isn't the libertarian movement bigger? How many people have you shared libertarian ideas with in the last seven days? How many people have you forwarded libertarian essays and articles to in the last seven days? How many times have you shared libertarian ideas, essays, and articles with each of them? How many people have you invited to sign up for a free subscription to The Liberator Online? How many people have you invited to support the vital work of the Advocates for Self-Government? What have you done to bring more people
into the libertarian movement in the last seven days? What will you do
to make the libertarian movement bigger in the Why isn't the libertarian movement more successful? In the last seven days, what have you done to make it more successful? Have you used Advocates tools -- like OPH and the Quiz -- to effectively reach new people and bring them into the liberty movement? Have you donated to Advocates -- so they can reach and teach more people? Why not do it now? https://www.fbs.net/advocates/donations.cfm Have you done volunteer work for a
libertarian political campaign? Have you Have you done volunteer work for the END
the Income Tax Ballot Initiative in Massachusetts? Have you donated to
this Initiative -- so they can recruit, educate, and activate more
taxpayers and voters? So they can END an income Reading diet books won't make you thin. Reading exercise books won't make you fit. Reading libertarian books won't make you free. If you want a bigger and more successful libertarian movement, you must act. Not just once. Regularly, repeatedly, relentlessly. What are *you* going to do? * * * * * * * * In 2000, Michael was honored with the Thomas Paine Award as the Most
Persuasive Libertarian Communicator in America.
BUILDING THE CASE FOR LIBERTY
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Dr. Mary Ruwart is a leading expert in libertarian communication. In this column she offers short answers to real questions about libertarianism. To submit questions to Dr. Ruwart, see end of column. * * * QUESTION: Should we have a government-mandated background check to keep convicted felons or people with psychiatric conditions from being able to buy guns? MY SHORT ANSWER: Today, most criminals purchase their guns on the black market, so background checks rarely catch such people. A felon who purchases a handgun legally risks being identified by the gun dealer later. If doing away with background checks tempts a would-be criminal to buy a legal firearm, it might actually give law-enforcement an advantage. Individuals with serious psychiatric conditions that could lead to violence are likely to be either institutionalized or supervised by a caregiver in a libertarian society. Thus, they'd have a difficult time going out on their own and buying a firearm. Some people argue that even if background checks prevented one violent person from obtaining a gun, they would be worthwhile. The opposite is true! Checking out every gun purchaser is a very expensive and resource-intensive process. If money and resources for background checks were used instead to take violent criminals off the street, we'd have much less crime. Wasting our resources on background checks actually makes us less safe. The wasteful nature of such regulations is part of the reason they don't work. We spend our money checking out people who are mostly innocent instead of focusing all of our resources on the few who aren't! LEARN MORE: More information on
background checks, from Gun Owners of America: * * * * * * * * Due to volume, Dr. Ruwart can't personally acknowledge all emails. But we'll run the best questions and answers in upcoming issues. Dr. Ruwart's previous Liberator Online answers are archived in searchable form at: http://www.TheAdvocates.org/ruwart/categories_list.php Dr. Ruwart's outstanding books "Healing Our World" and "Short Answers
to the Tough Questions" are available from the Advocates:
http://www.TheAdvocates.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv
Add the Eye-Catching Animated Quiz Graphic to Your Web Site by Sharon Harris, Advocates President
Put our eye-catching animated Quiz graphic at you Web site, blog, or online journal -- and it will work for liberty, 24 hours a day! It's easy and it only takes seconds. Just
visit this page: ... and right-click on the animated Quiz GIF to download it. Then place the Quiz GIF at your Web site. That's all there is to it! Your visitors can then click on it and take the Quiz -- and also, if they wish, learn about the ideas of liberty from the great resources we've assembled. Use the amazing power of the world's most popular libertarian outreach tool to help spread the ideas of liberty. Whether you have a several visitors a day or several thousand, the cumulative effect of thousands of links to the Quiz brings the libertarian message to vast numbers of people around the world. Over 13,000 sites already link to the Quiz -- ranging from small sites to huge ones. They are all making a difference. Make *your* Web site part of this exciting outreach! See more One-Minute Liberty Tips! •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
Home
| Library |
Publications |
Programs | Celebrities
| Quiz
| Store
| Site Map |
About us |
Search |
Contact Us |
|
Contents copyrighted © The Advocates for Self-Government,, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization. Donations tax-deductible in U.S. All rights reserved. |
best-selling
author, and MTV news reporter and journalist. 
Do
you sincerely want to convince others to become libertarians?