The Liberty Lamp: Libertarian News & Editorials

Libertarians are everywhere, it seems, based on the media attention the movement and associated political party is getting during this mid-term election cycle! In addition to a great (though short) editorial in the latest edition of The Economist, Bruce Guthrie has received several positive mentions in the news, especially since his 10/17 debate with Mike McGavick (R) and Maria "Everyone's My Bitch" Cantwell (D) on many WA TV networks. Below is an example from the Seattle Weekly:

"The L-Word
Libertarian candidate Bruce Guthrie says what Cantwell can't.
By Philip Dawdy
Guthrie has made a public ripple.
Petrer Mumford

Bruce Guthrie, the Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate, appeared on statewide television last week and did what Maria Cantwell hasn't done this election season—firmly aligned himself with the Seattle liberals and progressives.

While Cantwell plays to the muddled, post-9/11 center and GOP candidate Mike McGavick tries to pass himself off as a reformer, Guthrie declared himself antiwar, anti–Patriot Act, pro–gay marriage, and pro-pot. Cantwell, meanwhile, says gay marriage is not an issue, and McGavick recently called for drug testing of welfare recipients. "I'd prefer drug and alcohol testing of members of Congress," Guthrie said during the candidates' televised debate Oct. 17.

In the past, most TV stations have limited debaters to the D's and R's. But KING-TV goes by a set of complicated and lengthy guidelines to measure a candidate's appeal to voters, one of which is how much money a candidate's campaign has raised. This time, it was set at $1.2 million. So Guthrie, a former Western Washington University business lecturer, turned off his instinctual hatred of debt, mortgaged his house, pooled his savings, and landed a loan from a commercial bank, which he gave to his campaign.

And there he was on TV, calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq the same day that 11 U.S. soldiers were killed there, while Cantwell and McGavick, in essence, backed the war effort.

Guthrie, a Libertarian since his college days at Cornell, calls the two major parties "big ugly parties" that leave gay voters and many lefties "stuck" with nowhere to turn.

"We're gun-toting economists on drugs," Guthrie says, laughing about the longtime Libertarian rep in his rundown Lake City office, which is located next to an empty storefront and a bar called Cadillac Jack's. Guthrie doesn't own a gun but supports gun rights. He smoked his last joint in 1985, he says, but is all for decriminalizing marijuana use..."

Remember... Don't vote for the lesser of two evils- They are still evil! Vote for principle. Vote for your favorite Libertarian candidate!

From a recent local LP mailing list:

"================================

RICHARD RIDER GUIDE -- HOW TO WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Short, concise letters are always more likely to be published than long, meandering ones. Try to keep them under 150 words -- for big papers, keep them under 100 words. The longer letters are also more likely to be edited -- it's better that you do your own editing.

Ever notice how you read letters to the editor in the paper? Most people read the shorter letters first and then perhaps later read the longer ones. Thus your shorter letter has a better chance of being read.

WHAT TO WRITE? Unlike single-issue or special-interest groups, libertarians can select from an enormous range of subjects. Replying to editorials, agree or disagree, is very effective. Every day the news offers us all too many topics on which to comment.

Be timely; try to respond within two or three days of the article's publication. Pick an issue of particular importance to you -- don't be afraid to let some passion show through. Here are some stylistic considerations:

1. State the argument you're rebutting or responding to, as briefly as possible, in the letter's introduction. Don't do a lengthy rehash; it's a waste of valuable space and boring to boot.

2. Stick to a single subject. Deal with one issue per letter.

3. Don't be shrill or abusive. Editors tend to discard letters containing personal attacks. Even though you're dying to call Jesse Jackson a preachy parasite, stifle the urge.

4. Your letter should be logically organized. First a brief recitation of the argument you are opposing, followed by a statement of your own position. Then present your evidence. Close with a short restatement of your position or a pithy comment ("Jimmy Breslin says possession of firearms should be limited to law enforcement officers. I say when only the police have guns, the police state is just around the corner.").

5. Use facts, figures and expert testimony whenever possible. This raises your letters above the "sez you, sez me" category. For instance: "Anthony Lewis calls for taxing the rich as a way to balance the budget. Is he aware of the fact that if we confiscated the entire income of the top wage earners in this country (those with income above $200,000), this would run the federal government for exactly 8 days?"

Readers respect the opinions of people with special knowledge or expertise. Use expert testimony to bolster your case ("George Will claims we need to draft to defend America. But General Edward C. Meyer, Army Chief of Staff, recently stated . . .").

6. Proofread your letter carefully for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. Newspapers will usually edit to correct these mistakes, but your piece is more likely to be published if it is "clean" to begin with. Read your letter to a friend, for objective input. One suggestion is that a letter shouldn't be mailed the same day it is written. Write, proofread and edit the piece. Then put it aside until the next day. Rereading your letter in a fresh light often helps you to spot errors in reasoning, stilted language and the like. On the other hand, don't let the letter sit too long and lose it's timeliness. With the Internet, timeliness has become more important.

7. Try to view the letter from the reader's perspective. Will the arguments make sense to someone without a special background on this issue. Did you use technical terms not familiar to the average reader?

8. Should your letter be typed? In this day and age, generally yes.

9. Direct your missives to "Letters to the Editor," or some similar sounding title.

10. Always include your name, address, day-time phone number and signature (if on paper). The papers will not publish this information, but they may use it to verify that you wrote the letter.

11. Most important -- WRITE! Do not try to do a perfect letter. Just give it a good effort and send it off. Letter writing is the one thing that any one of us can do on our own without the need to work through a group. No committees are necessary. Just do it!

Don't be discouraged if your letter isn't published. The editor may have received more responses on that issue than he feels he can handle.

================================
Richard Rider, Chair
San Diego Tax Fighters"

Mr. Rider has been published widely, and has been on many network TV news channel interviews on important local issues. He also owns and operates Economy Telcom.

Liberty Dollars have been in the news a lot lately, as anyone frequently reading this blog surely knows. Here's the latest scoop on the NORFED/US Treasury conflict...


Time To Step Up And Demonstrate Real Support For Real Money – The Liberty Dollar

Breaking News…We are hearing from our efforts to leverage Congressional Inquiry that the US Mint has received much more response from the public than anticipated following their web posted warning on September 14, 2006. It’s time to really let them know how much you value the Liberty Dollar by calling or faxing the US Mint! To make a call use (202) 354-7227, for sending a fax use (202) 756-6200. After reading this special News Alert please call or fax the US Mint and in a very positive way ask if the statements listed below are NOT true. Do not be nasty or attacking; this gets us nowhere. Always be respectful. Also, please distribute this widely to everyone on your mailing list.

On With Other News…

Over the last six weeks we have heard a lot of support for the mission, goals and cause of the Liberty Dollar and precious metal backed private currency…Reporters, Editors, Talk Show Hosts, Calls and e-mails from listeners and readers who had never before heard of the Liberty Dollar are committing to “fight the good fight” for the right to choose their method of payment for goods and services. Liberty Dollar Merchants, Associates and Regional Currency Offices, taken aback from a malicious media assault, have been gnawing on what it all means and how to move forward.

It’s time to regroup, shake off the debris of fear and exchange your Federal Reserve Notes for the Liberty Dollar. This is the support we need now. Circulating (as in bartering), Accumulating or Collecting: The three most effective ways to do good, have fun and protect your purchasing power.

If any of the following statements were illegal or a federal crime, would there not have already been arrests? Liberty Dollars are exchanged, given out, presented and accepted hundreds of times a day throughout the country…lots of opportunities to make an example out of someone.

But once you wade through the citations and legalese of the US Mint’s warning(s), it becomes very clear: THE LIBERTY DOLLAR CANNOT BE PASSED AS “CURRENT MONEY” OR GOVERNMENT MONEY. NO ONE SHOULD ACCEPT THE LIBERTY DOLLAR THINKING IT IS GOVERNMENT MONEY. This, of course, would contradict the goal of the Liberty Dollar!

1. Merchants CANNOT be prosecuted for accepting the Liberty Dollar KNOWING that it is private currency!

2. Merchants CANNOT be prosecuted for giving out the Liberty Dollar in change if the customer KNOWS it is private currency!

3. Users CANNOT be prosecuted for presenting the Liberty Dollar to a Merchant when the Merchant KNOWS it is private currency!

4. Regional Currency Offices, or anyone else, CANNOT be prosecuted for exchanging Liberty Dollars for Federal Reserve Notes when the customer KNOWS it is private currency!

5. NO ONE CAN BE PROSECUTED FOR HAVING POSSESSION OF THE LIBERTY DOLLAR!

If any of these statements were false, then having or using any of the hundreds of local or community currencies such as the Ithaca Hour, Disney Dollar, Berkshares, Barter Bucks, etc., would be a crime.

On September 14, just five weeks ago, our website, Liberty Dollar.org, received ten times its normal traffic. Online orders surged for the introductory special, supporter kits and educational materials as well as lots of small orders from new individuals wanting to know just who this Liberty Dollar outfit is.

The wave of curiosity has died down and so has the normal volume that the Liberty Dollar has experienced over the last 12-18 months. I believe the current lull is retrenchment from those stinging from the national media assault as well as caution on the part of the newly introduced that are concerned over legal repercussions. Consider the above statements regarding the legality of the Liberty Dollar. These are the conclusions of NORFED and its Counsel.

Exchange your Federal Reserve Notes for Gold and Silver Libertys and Certificates now. Circulate (barter), Accumulate and Collect…It’s the right thing to do.

Is the US Dollar tanking? Will there be a significant economic downturn? Is a War right around the corner? Is Peak Oil fact or fiction? Will extreme weather knock out your power and communications? What do you want to be holding when significant change occurs? A Federal Reserve Note Or Gold And Silver Private Currency From The Liberty Dollar?

Please visit the Liberty Dollar at: www.LibertyDollar.org or call our National Fulfillment Office at 888.421.6181 or 800.NEW.DOLLAR to reach your local Regional Currency Office.

Business school is expensive, takes a lot of time, and forces you to spend a lot of time with strange and deranged people, at least as far as I've been able to figure out from my very brief encounters with the business school at my university. That said, why go through all that if you don't have to? Josh Kaufman thought the same thing, though only after he'd been long out of the MBA program. His "Personal MBA" site is, among other things, a list of just over forty books related to business and personal development that can help you get many, if not most, of the same skills you would pay thousands more for elsewhere. There's also a forum there that you can poke around in for more fun and profit (hopefully)!

I recommend this site to everyone I meet who's interested in entrepreneurship, including my asset protection business affiliates. Small business, in my view, has always really been where it's at, and with today's declining economy, small is definately beautiful!

Privacy and civil liberties are rapidly slipping a way for a number of real and imagined reasons, but Joe Sixpack isn't doing much about it, though he's apparently concerned about it in an unclear, abstract kind of way. MSNBC has an article about this phenomenon (see title link). Below is an excerpt:

Someday a stranger will read your e-mail, rummage through your instant messages without your permission or scan the Web sites you’ve visited — maybe even find out that you read this story.

You might be spied in a lingerie store by a secret camera or traced using a computer chip in your car, your clothes or your skin.

Perhaps someone will casually glance through your credit card purchases or cell phone bills, or a political consultant might select you for special attention based on personal data purchased from a vendor.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

In fact, it’s likely some of these things have already happened to you.

Who would watch you without your permission? It might be a spouse, a girlfriend, a marketing company, a boss, a cop or a criminal. Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen — the 21st century equivalent of being caught naked.

Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it’s important to reveal yourself to friends, family and lovers in stages, at appropriate times. But few boundaries remain. The digital bread crumbs you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret.

The key question is: Does that matter?

For many Americans, the answer apparently is “no.”

When pollsters ask Americans about privacy, most say they are concerned about losing it. An MSNBC.com survey, which will be covered in detail on Tuesday, found an overwhelming pessimism about privacy, with 60 percent of respondents saying they feel their privacy is “slipping away, and that bothers me.”


How can you protect yourself? A good start is simply to search for items using the term "privacy" in any search engine. A good resource is the one and only Asset Protection Crash Course. This site provides a wealth of actionable information about privacy and asset protection dangers and solutions in a straightforward, easy to read FAQ format.

YOU ARE BEING WATCHED.

The Internal Revenue Service- everyone's arch enemy, right? Well perhaps not, but they are pretty high up there on the list of the top 100 evils in the world today, that's for sure. Regardless of what you think about it, this organization enjoys taxing the crap yout of Americans, and can do so with relative ease for two primary reasons:

1. They have large guns, and big shiny badges to go with them! Also, you have a weak 2nd Amendment these days in general.
2. The average American is ignorant to the Tax Code exeptions and rebates he may be entitled to under the law (whatever that's good for). With a code over 18,500 pages long, it makes sense that most W-2 wage earners and CPAs have no idea about a lot of the details.

While we won't touch on reason #1 at this time, there is a lot you can do to make the most out of reality #2. Knowledge is power, and if you understand the tax benefits of owning your own home-based business, you'll be able to save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in taxes. Alternatively, you could just stop paying these thugs to enslave you entirely, but if you're afraid to do this, as most Americans are, you should at least take advantage of the "acceptable" ways to ensure that you're forking over as little as you can get away with and not piss off the audit agents.

One good source for information on this topic is http://www.homebusinesstaxsavings.com, owned by Ron Mueller, author of the book the site is based on. This site is worth checking out, and even has a home business opportunity for customers right there. Unfortunately, that particular program has some serious drawbacks that you may want to consider, such as:

1. SSN or TaxID, legal name, and other potentially sensitive information is required to join.
2. The program has only two tiers, thus you cannot leverage your efforts and earn additional income by attracting and training your own downline affiliates.(Not effectively at least)
3. You have only one (potentially insecure!) payment option, the Personal Check.
4. You are only paid ONCE PER YEAR for sales done during the previous year! This is NOT very flexible, especially if you want to make a regular part or full time job of it.

On the other hand, The Keep Your Assets affiliate program that the Libertarian Action Network recommends is far superior:

1. NO SSN, other sensitive information required, especialy if you have a private banking account or a regular checking account owned by an invisible New Mexico LLC (See site for details).
2. Affiliate program is truly "multi-level", and allows you to build downlines of up to seven levels! See the "Affiliate Program" page on the site.
3. You may be paid in several different ways, including eGold/eBullion, Paypal, and eLiberty Dollars.
4. You may be paid on a regular basis. For example, if you refer a new customer this month, you would have the opportunity to get paid within a week or two of the sale.

In short, home based businesses enjoy many tax benefits that you would not get by working for someone else. The freedom you'll get is real as well, and I recommend checking out the above resources.