Bob Barr Defects

Well, the Libertarian Party has announced that Bob Barr is now a former Republican and a new member and officer of the Libertarian Party.

(Washington, D.C.) On Tuesday evening, former Congressman Bob Barr, a Life Member of the Libertarian Party, was offered the position of Regional 4 Representative of the Libertarian National Committee.

I can't say that I find this a pleasant happening from my particular point of view. While I admire Mr. Barr's stance on the 2nd Amendment, privacy issues and a few other things he has some major baggage that is blatantly unlibertarian. Since the article states that he is a card carrying, life member I will assume that he has read the Non-Aggression Principle and understands it. Then again there are a great many Neo-Libertarians who have signed it and have no clue as to what it means, so court's out on this one.

Mr. Barr also has not, to the best of my knowledge or anyone else's repudiated his stance on the Drug War. This is the clincher for me. Unless he can stand up and say he is 100% against the War on Drugs and People then he definitely cannot be counted as anything other than a paper libertarian who was courted by the Reformista in a misguided attempt to garner votes in the 2008 election. While many can accept some folks who are 80% libertarian there are, and must be cut off points and the War on Drugs should always be a major one.

Barr is exactly what they have been preaching for as their dream candidate. A defector who has been lured away in order to garner votes but who is not really a libertarian in any true sense of the word. Here's my prediction. The Reformista are going to attempt to run him as the LP candidate in 2008, pushing aside real libertarians with a history in favour of someone they consider more electable. This would pretty much be the final nail in the LP's political coffin and would serve to drive even more people from the Party.

The LP and Bob Barr have a great many questions to answer and they'd best get to answering them quickly. Given the recent events in Portland this is something the LP can ill afford to let slide.

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Libertarian, Bob Barr, Politics

A Venerable Tradition Lives On

While perusing my favourite Gulf Coast newspaper, I was surprised to see that the powers that be in my home state had been busy carrying out raids on local liquor entrepreneurs. In this day and age when it is commonplace to see stories about police raids on growers and users of marijuana and other drugs, it was reassuring to my freedom loving soul to see that the venerable tradition of back woods distilling is still going strong. And it pained me to see that the purveyors of this product are still being persecuted, all in the name of taxation.

I remember hearing about moonshining operations on the Gulf Coast when I was a boy. Unfortunately, I was much too young to support these at the time and I live much to far away to lend my support now, (if I still imbibed), but it warms my heart to know that the very thing that got my great grandfather a stretch in Parchman Prison is still a going concern.

That government Revenuers still go out of their way to destroy stills and imprison these people says a great deal about the state of affairs in this country. 212 years after the crushed Whiskey Rebellion, the government still wants its money and is willing to imprison people and destroy their property to get it. Forget flags with snakes and canon on them, we should be flying a flag with a whiskey still on it in memory and honour of those brave souls who stood against the first tyrant and traitor to the Revolution, George.

Here's hoping that the 'shiners of the Coast keep on making their Jourdan River Dew and avoid the revenuers!

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Libertarian, Moon Shine, Mississippi, Gulf Coast