France In Flames....Again.

If it's not young Muslims, Farmers, Students or Aliens from Planet 10, someone has to be rioting in France at any given time. It is, unfortunately a law of nature where the French are concerned. Of course, it doesn't mean that the rioters are wrong in what they are protesting, mind you. They aren't. This time it is the youth of France who are being hosed by too much Socialist government. The French government wishes to interfere, yet again with the free market and this is the inevitable result in France. Shoot, I wish Americans had half the spirit these guys do when it comes to protesting government interference in areas it has no business mucking around in.

The French students are protesting something that people in Indiana have to live with every day. You see, Indiana is an "at will" state where employers are concerned. Wear the wrong shirt? You're fired. Cut your hair wrong? Fired. Boss got a hangover? Fired. And you have zero recourse to the law. It tends to get government out of the equation, despite the seeming unfairness in some peoples eyes, and that's not a bad thing. Of course the French are choosing to single out a "minority", the entry level employee and these young folks aren't having any of it. Unfortunately, little good will come of it. There is no-one to show them the way they should be going...away from government rule and they'll just go back to business as usual, once they've blown off some steam. Well, that's not completely true....there are some people who would be more than willing to show them a new direction...but how do you lead a Socialist to Freedom? Ask Brad Spangler, Wally Conger and the other signatories of his letter of Solidarity from the MLL. They see the light.

Under such circumstances, state-sponsored market liberalization is a cruel joke. The legislation you protest and rebel against seeks only to increase the latitude given your overseers, while maintaining the overall restrictions on your own liberty that, if abolished, would empower you to seek your own prosperity. We believe you and we would be very good at that, mixing both cooperation and peaceful competition, if we were not slaves.

I think I'm going to have to sign on with Brad and the others on this one and wish the French well. I do hope they find a good direction to go in, but I hold out little hope for that.

Technorati Tags:

France, Movement of the Libertarian Left, Libertarian

Just Goes To Show You....

That there's really not one iota of difference between Republican and Democrats where economic freedom, (or liberty of any sorts, for that matter) are concerned. Let's take a look at Indiana's head Rat-publican. Just a couple of days ago Mitch Daniels signed two bills extending "rights" to self defence. One was a "Castle Doctrine" bill saying you don't have to run away when confronted with the initiation of force and the other was a Lifetime Concealed Carry Permit. All the while, according to attendees, mouthing platitudes about the 2nd Amendment and "it means what it says". Of course, it would never occur to him to sign an order and do away with the restrictions on our 2nd Amendment rights, which he understands so well. He, and a few other Republican legislators were pandering to us gun owners.

By signing these bills, he and his RepublicRat buddies will gain some much needed good will from a few single issue constituents. Of course this doesn't mean that the former OMB head for George Bush has changed his spots and become a "conservative" in any sense of the word. Just today Mitch "Duh Blade" Daniels signed yet another bill authorising taxes to be implemented which will, again, benefit private businesses at taxpayer expense. He already did this before, when he went out of his way to have counties surrounding Indianapolis impose food and beverage taxes to benefit the Indianapolis Colts and their Stadium. In many locales we saw a 33% increase in the taxes levied against people who eat out. My county alone imposed a 1% county-wide increase and all but one town also levied an additional 1%, since that was the bribe they were offered by the Governor. The only political party which bothered to even speak out was the Libertarian party. The Democrats were silent, as usual.

The sad thing is that most of the people in this Red State will not even blink come November and will never even think twice about pulling the lever for the people who have supported this type of governance. Instead, they will think of the crumbs that have been brushed off of the table for them by their leaders and be satisfied with that, the lever will get pulled, as usual and the continued theft of Life, Liberty and Property will continue as usual.

Government imposed venture capital funds. Stealing from taxpayers to fund private corporations...does anyone out there know what form of government we call this? It certainly isn't the type our Founders envisioned, that's for sure.

Technorati Tags:
Libertarian, Indiana, Taxes
Politics, Bush, Democrat

No Retreat

Indiana became the 3rd state to codify the right to stand ones ground when confronted. Mitch Daniels yesterday signed House Enrolled Act 1028 and reaffirmed what had already been established policy in the state for decades. For the moment the likes of Teddy the Hutt and the Runaways, The Brady Bunch and other Victim Disarmament Groups are thwarted in their attempts to make sure that you have to present your back to an assailant, rather than standing your ground as a Free Person.

Daniels also signed, (without fanfare or mention in the press) Indiana House Bill 1176 (Senate Bill 054), that provides for the issuance of lifetime Concealed Carry Permits. The costs for a permit will be $100.oo for renewals and $125 for new permits. By all reports Mr. Daniels had a good crowd of 2nd Amendment supporters there and Larry Pratt, from Gun Owners of America flew in to attend the event. The NRA was notably absent, given their lack of involvement it's not surprising.

Passage of 1176 sits firmly in the laps of an Indiana grassroots organisation, The 2nd Amendment Patriots who did enormous amounts of legwork, lobbying and networking on the bill. Kudos to them!

While I am against the issuance of any permits that "allow" me to excercise my Rights, this is a step in the right direction towards a Vermont or Alaskan-style(.pdf) Carry Law. What all too many 2nd Amendment supporters seem to forget is that any permit, by definition is a granting of permission from the State and negates your Right and makes of it a privilege. This is a powerful mindest to overcome and must the goal of all 2nd Amendment groups and gunowners. Our Rights must be taken back from State control and supervision. The folks in the 2nd Amendment Patriots have shown what can be done on a single issue, now if we could just get folks like that to sign onto supporting getting all of our Rights back and making this a truly free country.

Some suggested reading for my friends out there in the 2nd Amendment movement.


Technorati Tags:
Indiana, 2nd Amendment, Libertarian
Politics, Guns

South Park Strikes, Again!

South Park seems to be all over the place right now. Isaac Hayes quits, Scientologist nutjob Tom Cruise flexes his gets an anti-Scientology episode yanked and the world takes notice of the impending War On Scientology that is due any day now. All that aside tho, Kirsten (again!) over at Enjoy Every Sandwich just had to go and show everyone how to get a an uncannily accurate South Park version of themselves. Gotta love it!
After you design yourself and take a screen shot of it you have a picture worth a thousand words...or tearful laughter if you're my wife. Herewith presented is me. Please note, that is a Root Beer, not a beer!

Now, if they only had hair like this with a pony tail it would be dead on accurate.

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South Park, Libertarian
Scientology, Root Beer

Good Liberty Music?

Does it exist? What's your favourite inspirational Liberty lovin' music list? I got to thinking about this over the weekend, and had it kinda hammered home after seeing a post by Kirsten over at "Enjoy Every Sandwich" who was wondering if there was any good "Rightie music".
I spent a while yesterday, (a couple of hours) playing with Apple's iTunes and making a couple of playlists for my iPod. A country list, a classical list and a Liberty List of music that gets my blood going, in one way or another.

Then I got to thinking, iTunes has an iMix feature that lets you publish lists of songs on their service. So, I went looking to see if there were some Liberty, Freedom or Libertarian inspired lists there. Nope. Nothing about Liberty; nothing about Libertarian; and the only Freedom related songs were the usual Statist rah-rah numbers that were about, (as Kirsten put it) "banging the war drums". There just really wasn't anything out there was appealing to me under the "Liberty" label I think we need to change that.....so, here's my Liberty Playlist/iMix. Unfortunately, some of the music isn't available on iTunes so my poor iMix gets shorted.

Loreena McKennitt-The Highwayman
Steve Earle-Copperhead Road
Triumph-Fight The Good Fight
Sammy Hagar-I Can't Drive 55
Rush-Red Barchetta
Rush-Bravado
Rush-2112 Overture/The Temples of Syrinx/Discovery/Presentation/Oracle/The Dream/Soliloquy/Grand Finale
Roger Waters-The Tide Is Turning
Prism-Take Me To The Kaptin
Paul Kantner-The Mountain Song
Paul Kantner-The Sky Is No Limit
Aimee Allen-(I'd Start A) Revolution
Paul Kantner-Transubstantiation
Paul Kantner-Let's Go (Alternate Lyrics)

Now, all I need to do is post my poor abreviated list.

I find it kind of odd that a good bit of what I consider Liberty oriented music comes out of Canada. Maybe those Cannucks have been chafing under Socialist rule longer than we have and it shows in their music? Perhaps. Most of the American music tends to glorify government, war and "patriotism" (as certain folks on the Right side of the Socialist aisle see it) and what a sad statement that is.

Maybe we can put up a Libertarian iMix Section and flood the world with some pro-Liberty music? Or maybe we can just share some insprational tunes? Subversion by music....might just work, look what Rap's done....

(Note: Some of the Paul Kantner tunes are available here in a remastered version of PERRO)


Technorati Tags:

Libertarian], iTunes, Liberty
iPod, Apple, Music