Voice For Liberty

Category: Liberty

  • Americans love government. Why?

    In his article Americans Love Government, Walter E. Williams wonders why we rely on something that we have so little faith in:

    According to latest Rasmussen Reports, 30 percent of Americans believe congressmen are corrupt. Last year, Congress’ approval rating fell to 9 percent, its lowest in history. If the average American were asked his opinion of congressmen, among the more polite terms you’ll hear are thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks. But what do the same people say when our nation faces a major problem? “Government ought to do something!” When people call for government to do something, it is as if they’ve been befallen by amnesia and forgotten just who is running government. It’s the very people whom they have labeled as thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks.

    So why do people rely on government so much? Here’s what Williams says:

    I don’t think that stupidity, ignorance or insanity explains the love that many Americans hold for government; it’s far more sinister and perhaps hopeless. I’ll give a few examples to make my case. Many Americans want money they don’t personally own to be used for what they see as good causes such as handouts to farmers, poor people, college students, senior citizens and businesses. If they privately took someone’s earnings to give to a farmer, college student or senior citizen, they would be hunted down as thieves and carted off to jail. However, they get Congress to do the identical thing, through its taxing power, and they are seen as compassionate and caring. In other words, people love government because government, while having neither moral nor constitutional authority, has the legal and physical might to take the property of one American and give it to another. (Emphasis added.)

    What does this lead to? Williams paints a grim picture, but if you’ve read Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (or see the cartoon version), you know very well the danger that we face. Here’s how Williams explains the danger:

    The path we’re embarked upon, in the name of good, is a familiar one. The unspeakable horrors of Nazism, Stalinism and Maoism did not begin in the ’30s and ’40s with the men usually associated with those names. Those horrors were simply the end result of a long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the name of “social justice.” In Germany, it led to the Enabling Act of 1933: Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation and, after all, who could be against a remedy to relieve distress? Decent but misguided Germans, who would have cringed at the thought of what Nazi Germany would become, succumbed to Hitler’s charisma.

    Today’s Americans, enticed, perhaps enchanted, by charismatic speeches, are ceding so much power to Washington, and like yesteryear’s Germans are building the Trojan Horse for a future tyrant.

  • Sammies Awards celebrate, award liberty

    Tonight in Northbrook, Illinois, about 300 people gathered to attend an awards ceremony presented by the Sam Adams Alliance.

    The Sam Adams Alliance inspires, trains, and links allies to advance economic and individual liberty through a strategic combination of new media tools and traditional communications.

    The Sam Adams Alliance is a “to-do tank” that educates, informs, and empowers citizens about important political issues through a set of new media tools (i.e. Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia) that allow ordinary people to fight big government.

    So far awards in three categories have been given.

    “Best Microblogger of the Year” award went to Melissa Clouthier of The Woodlands, Texas. Just since November, she has used Twitter to advance the causes of liberty.

    Ruth Bendl of Portland, Oregon received the “Voter Watchdog Award.” Her work included digging up records of dead voters in Oregon. According to Bendl, Oregon has sloppy voter registration rules. This is a matter of homeland security, she said. Our adversaries know our weaknesses. It’s not just about stealing elections, it could be a case of stealing our country. She urged citizens to clean up the voter roles nationwide.

    Three men won “Wikiteer Awards” for their work on wiki sites that the Sam Adams Alliance sponsors. These sites — Ballotpedia for ballot access issues, Judgepedia for information about judges, and Sunshine Review for government transparency — are important contributions to creating an informed citizenry.

  • AIG hysteria tramples liberty

    From Dave Trabert, president of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.

    The Founding Fathers, who took such deliberate care to preserve personal liberty in our Constitution, would be ashamed by the hysteria and pandering that have consumed Washington, D.C., over bonuses paid to employees of American International Group.

    There is no justification for rewarding people for failure, but the conduct of elected officials calling for legislative retribution is far more egregious.

    Members of both parties are tripping over one another in a rush to endorse legislation that would tax bonuses paid to employees of companies receiving bailout money at rates as high as 90 percent.

    Not that Congress should be giving away taxpayer money for handouts to failed companies, but it easily could have prevented this mess by putting some restrictions on the money.

    Taxpayers are justifiably angered by the lack of fiduciary responsibility, and Congress is predictably responding with diversionary tactics.

    House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, hit the nail on the head, saying, “This bill is nothing more than an attempt for everyone to cover their butt.”

    As unseemly as that is, it pales in comparison with the assault on the Constitution and our personal freedom. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, called the legislation “an ex post facto bill as well as a bill of attainder, which is unconstitutional, so they’re using the tax code to punish people.”

    “Ex post facto” is a legal term referring to an attempt to go back in time and apply new circumstances to something that already has occurred. A bill of attainder is a legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment. Both are prohibited by the Constitution.

    Some members of Congress may be acting like children, but this isn’t a game in which the rules can be changed to alter the outcome. It is of paramount importance that Congress act responsibly to preserve the principles of liberty and freedom. Today the issue is bonuses paid to AIG employees, but there are endless opportunities to use the tax code punitively.

    For example, House and Senate leaders are pursuing the elimination of secret balloting in order to make it easier for unions to form. Imagine if they decided to encourage the behavior they wanted by imposing special taxes on nonunion workers.

    Using the tax code to punish people who raise the ire of Congress is wrong under any circumstance.

    If Congress really wants to show leadership in going after those responsible for this latest abuse of taxpayer money, it should pass the hat at the next joint session.

    In the meanwhile, we must send a very strong message to Washington:

    Knock off the grandstanding, start acting like the leaders you promised to be, and keep your hands off our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and liberties.

  • Purpose

    I received this fine article from Al Terwelp of Overbrook, Kansas, and he agreed to let me publish it here.

    Our nation is in crisis. It has become very difficult to see the right direction out of our predicament. We are overwhelmed with opinions, viewpoints, and expressions of good intention regarding solutions. I caution placing hopes and beliefs in these. We need to refrain from placing confidence in people and government as well. Opinions are based on our own selfish interests, bias and judgments, are weak, aimless and lead to confusion. Viewpoints often become more harmful to truth than lies. I believe we begin by choosing the message not its sponsor, then use understanding and courage to draw out a purpose that will reveal who we are, what we should be and where we need to go.

    Purpose has, but is not restricted to, requirements, considerations, and reasons for which something will be done. Purpose is conviction combined with an unshakable belief that it is not only undoubted but has evidence and logic proving its truth. Truths that become the thought, motivation and destination of the truth seeker.

    The purpose we need references the entire antecedent knowledge and experience of the human race with the understanding of causality, deductive reasoning, human action, subjective motivation and the guidance of divine inspiration. True purpose is a means and ends simultaneously (ex. economic freedom). It is found in its choosing, action, conduct and display of will. Purpose exists in the values and the rankings placed by the people. Resolution pursues principle and does not find success in compromise, favoritism, and conspiring alternative motives. It expects accountability and responsibility with the intent that all risk is real. However, the purpose we need would be most identifiable by how it works and travels in the same, constant, never-ending direction.

    The pursuit I speak of is the redemption of the vision and ideology that was given us as an example by our country’s founding fathers with an objective to create maximum freedom for Americans in all applications. Our motivation needs to be one that guarantees choice, leverage, ownership, partnership, and opportunity for each person. This cause propagates the interests of people, not the expansion of and excessive dependence on government. It is a philosophy of individualism over egalitarianism and collective creeds (it does not choose to make all people equal or the same). Lastly, this ambition seeks the protection of the sacredness of personal property and the expansion of the essential human qualities — natural rights and self-determination.

    The perception is that we the people are weak because so many remain apathetic and distracted and that government and their elitist cohorts are strong. However, this would be misleading, for through government’s many failures we witness truth of its weakness. With purposeful action and faith in the truth of liberty, we are fearless, we are strong, we have a point of compass. Purpose fortifies us in a spirit of resilience, satisfies our uneasiness and advances our resolve to struggle all the harder. The question we need to ask ourselves in our current struggle is not — will these economic times move us into a second great depression and for how long? It is — will we be a republic with free-will, free-markets, capitalism, privacy and human rights on the other side? So let us go about liberty’s work, for freedom acts. Let us not hope and wait for freedom’s redemption, let us pursue its purpose and plan for it.

    Al Terwelp is an advocate of liberty and Austrian economics. He is a farm owner, arborist and an art director in advertising (yes, odd combination). He is a member of the Campaign for Liberty, member of North East Libertarian Party (LNEK) and new Spokesman of the Kansas Libertarian Party. He lives near Overbrook, KS with his wife and son.

  • Annoyed by Anti-Annoyance Law

    Here’s Paul Jacob‘s commentary for today.

    I’m annoyed by a new law passed in the Michigan town of Brighton City.

    According to the ordinance, police may fine anyone who is too annoying in public. Up to $500. The ordinance states: “It shall be unlawful for a person to engage in a course of conduct or repeatedly commit acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person and that serve no legitimate purpose.”

    Obviously, many different things annoy many different people, most having little to do with the possible or actual commission of a crime.

    If you and I are annoyed, think about how annoyed the folks are who actually live there. One resident, Charles Griffin, told ABC News that the new law is “the most ridiculous thing in the world.”

    Area resident Chetly Zarko has written to the council asking them to repeal the law, arguing that it is “unconstitutionally vague … and impedes on free expression rights under the First Amendment.”

    Council members say critics are blowing things out of proportion. They say people aren’t going to be ticketed for talking too loud or making complaints to public officials, but for things like persistent harassment of an ex-girlfriend or the like.

    But words mean what they say, don’t they? They don’t mean what they would have meant if only you had said what you meant.

    In the spirit of being careful with words, let me revise my opening statement: I am more than merely annoyed.

    This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

    The link to the commentary is Annoyed by Anti-Annoyance Law . Links to Chetly Zarko’s coverage are Brighton City Council Annihilates First Amendment and Brighton City Council in Full Spin After our FOIA – Livingston Argus and Radio Cover Us.

  • Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publishes editorial in Paul Jacob’s defense

    From FreePaulJacob.com

    A super editorial appeared in yesterday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, defending Paul (and, more generally, the First Amendment) and calling AG Drew Edmondson a “zealot” and “a bully with considerable power, a high state office, and more ambition than respect for the rights of others.”

    The Sunday lead editorial read in part:

    This indictment has been hanging over the heads of Paul Jacob and those helping him garner signatures for a year. If convicted, they would have faced 10 years in prison for the heinous crime of taking part in American politics. Now they’ve been freed at last, or certainly should be in a free country. This indictment should be quashed; it should never have been filed in the first place. As the Tenth Circuit now has indicated.

    But no right is safe unless citizens are willing to exercise and defend it. For there will always be Drew Edmondsons around to challenge rights they don’t care for, and not even the Constitution of the United States, for all its virtues, is selfenforcing. Only citizens willing to fight for their rights, and courts able to enforce its letter and spirit, can keep the Constitution alive.

    The bad news is that General Edmondson may pursue his prosecution/ persecution of Paul Jacob even after this appellate ruling. His official spokesman says Oklahoma’s attorney general will appeal the Tenth Circuit’s decision. But at least now he’ll have the First Amendment to contend with. Paul Jacob, who once again has stood up for the rights of all Americans, deserves congratulations. Also, thanks and respect.

    Read the entire editorial here.

  • Still Oklahoma’s most wanted

    A Wall Street Journal editorial explains the recent development in the case of Paul Jacob and two others in Oklahoma. This case is of interest for a few reasons.

    First, I know and like Paul Jacob. He’s been at the forefront of the fight for term limits. The Oklahoma case stems from his advocacy of initiative and referendum, something we don’t have in Kansas.

    Second, this case illustrates how government officials, in this case the attorney general of Oklahoma, can misuse their office and power for political gain. We in Kansas can only hope that our good neighbors to our south see through Drew Edmondson’s actions and refuse to elect him to any office.

    Paul Jacob is president of Citizens in Charge. His commentary is found at Common Sense with Paul Jacob and Townhall.

    The Journal editorial is Still Oklahoma’s Most Wanted.

  • Toward a Free America

    As our country works its way through a period of turmoil, we must remember that there is another way than what those on the left and right propose. That way, the way of liberty, is the subject of For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, by Murray N. Rothbard. (The book is available to read online in pdf format here.)

    From the book’s description at the Ludwig von Mises Institute: “In For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Rothbard proposes a once-and-for-all escape from the two major political parties, the ideologies they embrace, and their central plans for using state power against people. Libertarianism is Rothbard’s radical alternative that says state power is unworkable and immoral and ought to be curbed and finally overthrown. To make his case, Rothbard deploys his entire system of thought: natural law, natural rights, Austrian economics, American history, the theory of the state, and more.”

    Here’s the final passage from this outstanding book:

    Toward a Free America

    The libertarian creed, finally, offers the fulfillment of the best of the American past along with the promise of a far better future. Even more than conservatives, who are often attached to the monarchical traditions of a happily obsolete European past, libertarians are squarely in the great classical liberal tradition that built the United States and bestowed on us the American heritage of individual liberty, a peaceful foreign policy, minimal government, and a free-market economy. Libertarians are the only genuine current heirs of Jefferson, Paine, Jackson, and the abolitionists.

    And yet, while we are more truly traditional and more rootedly American than the conservatives, we are in some ways more radical than the radicals. Not in the sense that we have either the desire or the hope of remoulding human nature by the path of politics; but in the sense that only we provide the really sharp and genuine break with the encroaching statism of the twentieth century. The Old Left wants only more of what we are suffering from now; the New Left, in the last analysis, proposes only still more aggravated statism or compulsory egalitarianism and uniformity. Libertarianism is the logical culmination of the now forgotten “Old Right” (of the 1930s and ‘40s) opposition to the New Deal, war, centralization, and State intervention. Only we wish to break with all aspects of the liberal State: with its welfare and its warfare, its monopoly privileges and its egalitarianism, its repression of victimless crimes whether personal or economic. Only we offer technology without technocracy, growth without pollution, liberty without chaos, law without tyranny, the defense of property rights in one’s person and in one’s material possessions.

    Strands and remnants of libertarian doctrines are, indeed, all around us, in large parts of our glorious past and in values and ideas in the confused present. But only libertarianism takes these strands and remnants and integrates them into a mighty, logical, and consistent system. The enormous success of Karl Marx and Marxism has been due not to the validity of his ideas — all of which, indeed, are fallacious — but to the fact that he dared to weave socialist theory into a mighty system. Liberty cannot succeed without an equivalent and contrasting systematic theory; and until the last few years, despite our great heritage of economic and political thought and practice, we have not had a fully integrated and consistent theory of liberty. We now have that systematic theory; we come, fully armed with our knowledge, prepared to bring our message and to capture the imagination of all groups and strands in the population. All other theories and systems have clearly failed: socialism is in retreat everywhere, and notably in Eastern Europe; liberalism has bogged us down in a host of insoluble problems; conservatism has nothing to offer but sterile defense of the status quo. Liberty has never been fully tried in the modern world; libertarians now propose to fulfill the American dream and the world dream of liberty and prosperity for all mankind.

  • What Part of Involuntary Servitude Don’t You Understand?

    Community service: involuntary servitude dressed in polite language. Change … Obama Announces Creation Of His Marxist Youth Corps. See also Emanuel Discusses Compulsory Civilian Youth Force.