I’m a believer in freedom because of Harry Browne. Well, perhaps it was just convenience and timing, but I became a lover of liberty in the mid 90’s as a college student. Harry Browne was the Libertarian Party nominee for President in 1996 and 2000. He was a tall glass of freedom-loving ice water in the hot and dry politics-as-usual desert. He quenched my libertarian soul.
While everyone else is celebrating the “4th of July” I’m celebrating Independence Day. On this Independence Day I’m celebrating by remembering the man that spoke with my voice before I knew what my voice was. Browne wrote an article on July 4th, 2003 (3 years before he died) called, “Uncelebrating the 4th of July“.
The article sums up perfectly how I feel about Independence Day right now. As was so often the case, Harry Browne was years ahead of his time.
I remember around that same year (2003) I was one of those libertarians that supported the Iraq war. I was a libertarian-in-progress or maybe some today would have called me a “Wayne Allyn Root” libertarian. I wrote an email to Harry Browne giving him my opinion about the war and asking him what he thought of my reasoning. He didn’t think much of it.
It’s Friday and that means it’s time for another installment of “Quick Hits”.
Helen Thomas and Chip Reid berated White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs the other day for pre-selecting questions for Obama’s “town hall” and “controlling” the press. It appears that the honeymoon (I call it the “Obamagasm”) is coming to an end. Gibbs seems to be out of his league as Obama’s Press Secretary. I’ll be surprised if he makes it through Obama’s first and hopefully only term.
There is one particular forbidden health care question for Obama. I would love to hear his answer to the following question:
“Mr. President, you are considered a Constitutional scholar. Could you educate the American people a bit and tell them what section, article, or amendment permits the federal government to provide health care?”
Sure, he would dodge the question, but it is one dodge that I long to hear.
On Monday, Ron Paul’s son Rand Paul held another money bomb campaign fund raiser. The goal was to break $100k. The goal was met. This is huge news and a great sign that the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party is not going anywhere. Rand Paul raised over $100,000 in about a month without an official fund raiser. Senator Rand Paul has a nice ring to it.
There was high drama last Friday afternoon on the House floor during the debate on the narrowly passed Cap and Trade bill. The Republicans kept pointing out that the legislation will lose more jobs and put a higher tax burden on the American people.
Yesterday Ron Paul appeared again on “Freedom Watch” with Judge Andrew Napolitano. The Judge delivered another stellar opening monologue that was extremely critical of the hate crime legislation making its way through Congress.
Following the monologue Ron Paul was brought in to discuss the topic further. I enjoy these types of discussions because they steadfastly refute all of the completely inane and idiotic charges that Ron Paul is a “racist”. Anyone who refuses to allow emotional “arguments” cloud their reasoned judgment should understand that Ron Paul is completely opposed to any kind of racism or collectivism.
Unfortunately, most people don’t do their homework. They drool through life digesting all the news they can about the latest Michael Jackson-type death of the day. Ignorance is not bliss, ignorance is willful neglect. It should be our responsibility to know that our country of birth is fundamentally moving away from the principles of its founding. With that responsibility should come individual action.
I find it humorous that they call themselves “progressives”, as if advocating a return to the principles found in the Constitution makes one a “regressive”. No, it appears to me that so called “progressives” want to return to a time before the American Revolution, a time of empire and tyranny. If we want to have “progress” in this country it should mean restoring the rule of law found in our Constitution not continuing the practice of ignoring it.
Check out the latest episode of Freedom Watch below. Other than Ron Paul, the Judge welcomed Mary Ruwart, John McManus, David Bruckner, and Jim Babka to the show.
As I write this right now, Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (who also is a cosponsor of HR1207) has been talking on the House Floor for about 50 minutes. He is stepping through (almost page by page) the 300+ page addition to the Cap and Trade (Climate Bill) that was added around 3am this morning.
He’s actually making many great points about the horrible details in the bill.
What he is doing right now is giving great ammunition for supporting the “Read the Bills” Act in the near future.
“Is there anything that we aren’t regulating in this bill?”, Boehner yells.
At about 20 minutes in, Henry Waxman interrupted and asked how long Boehner would be permitted to speak. The chairwoman stated that it is customary to hear the leadership speak, forcing Waxman to sit down and allow Boehner to continue (to great cheers from the GOP side of the House).
We live in interesting times folks.
Please continue to contact the Reps who are on the fence regarding the bill. For a list see this page from the NTU.
It’s Friday again. Here is this week’s installment of “quick hits”.
It has been quite a busy week. The news outlets have had a lot to talk about. At least 4 people died this week, one of them politically, the other 3, physically.
Ed McMahon died earlier this week. There are three things I think of when I hear his name, other than being Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the “Tonight Show”.
The first is the impression of Ed McMahon on the “Carsenio Hall Show“, an SNL skit with Dana Carvey playing Carsenio and the late great Phil Hartman playing McMahon. Next, I recall McMahon hosting the talent show “Star Search“, an 80’s version of “American Idol” with several other talent categories. Finally, and perhaps most of all I remember McMahon as being the guy in the “American Family Sweepstakes” commercials (see one here). RIP Ed.
The next “death” of the week was purely political. I’m talking, of course, about Mark Sanford. There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said. I realize many people liked Sanford and thought he may be the guy in 2012, but I was never completely sold on the guy for some reason. Now, we all have a reason.
Here at Liberty Maven we’ve mentioned Mark Sanford a number of times as one of the “Ron Paul Republicans” who might step into Ron Paul’s role in the future. But now Sanford has gotten himself into a fine mess by getting caught red-handed in an extramarital affair and then lying about it. So in one fell swoop his political ambitions have been completely nullified due to the fact that he’s now toast in the court of public opinion.
But should we really care about his personal dilly-dallying?
Personally, I’m sickened by the media’s fascination with the personal lives of politicians and celebrities. Mainstream media outlets have become tabloids, plain and simple. And let’s not overlook the hypocrisy that the liberal media said the indiscretions of President Clinton were none of our business and no big deal. Even more disgusting is that the majority of celebrities and politicians play the politically-correct role and go along with the fallacy that it’s any of our business and readily agree to fully air their dirty laundry in front of TV cameras.
Having said that, I’m personally disappointed in the latest revelations. The man cheated on his wife and then lied about it. This country needs a lot more honesty, and Sanford didn’t have the balls to be honest with his own wife. And even more disturbing are the revelations that at least one of his trips to Argentina was taxpayer-funded. More and more, Sanford is turning out to be just a typical sleazy politician.
Despite the fact that his political views have not changed overnight, Sanford will clearly not be the man to be the next “Ron Paul”. Right now he’s more like Fred Sanford, and broken man with little future prospects.
ABC News held a nationally televised townhall-style meeting from the White House last night focused on helping Obama get his version of socialized medicine more support. Dubbed “Prescription For America”, the event was unsurprisingly void of substance. For the free market lovers among us the prescription was precisely what you’d expect: more pain!
Here’s what I see, along with many others, as the essence of the problem with Obamacare. The plan is quite sinister and misleading. It allows Obama to push the notion that “you will get to keep your current plan if you like it” while covering his ass when it proves untrue.
He’s pushing the notion that the “government option”, also called the “public option”, will somehow compete fairly with existing private companies. This is absurd on its face. It’s like allowing the team you are competing against to referee the game.
If Obama starts jawing strongly against the Iranian government what happens next? Does his God-complex become reality and the Iranian government crumble underneath every syllable? I doubt it.
There’s every reason to believe that forcefully condemning Iran today will lead to more direct intervention tomorrow. Obama, thus far, has played it properly. If he starts drawing lines in the sand we are in trouble. Or perhaps that is what his opponents would like?
Imagine this… Obama succumbs to political pressure and speaks strongly against Iran to the point of threats. When Iran fails to cease their savagery he has two choices:
Draw another line in the sand further back which would only give his opponents more ammo to hit him with the weak President charge.
Follow through on the condemnation and intervene more strongly, possibly with troops or other aid, embroiling us in yet another “entangling alliance” that could be expensive, both in blood and money.
This is one of those situations that illustrates why Presidents enter office with their natural-colored hair and leave office with a full head of gray.
I must confess. This Ron Paul supporter suffered from a temporary bout of neo-conservatism after viewing that completely horrifying video of the young woman lying in the street bleeding to death in Iran over the weekend. I will not link to it because I don’t want to infect anyone else. My long lost compassionate conservatism gene made a return as I was filled with hatred and sadness. I thought, “Something must be done!. America needs to intervene!” A few hours and a reality check later I found myself back on firm Founding Father-style non-interventionist footing once again.
Some claim taking a non-interventionist approach on the Iran election aftermath is the height of hypocrisy from someone who claims to believe in liberty. Ron Paul is being criticized for his lone “Nay” vote on condemning the Iranian government’s heinous actions on it’s own people. On the surface it appears Obama is taking a similar non-interventionist approach for now, although there are some arguing the opposite may be true. Hopefully, Obama stands his ground (this time) against the interventionist opposition.
Those clamoring for intervention need to answer a few questions, but there is one question that trumps them all.
It’s Friday and that means another installment of “Quick Hits”…
I read a quite sobering article by Chris Hedges earlier this week entitled, “The American Empire Is Bankrupt”. After reading the headline I said to myself, “well, duh!” But the first paragraph of the article shocked me out of my “duh-ness”. It reads:
This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That’s over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.
Hedges directs the ultimate economic horror movie, something I’ve tried to prepare my family for after watching Chris Martenson’s excellent “Crash Course” last year. I find myself asking the same question over and over again. Are the doomsayers like Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Jim Rogers, Chris Martenson, Chris Hedges, and Gerald Celente right?
If they are, I know I’m at least partially prepared now and am trying to become more prepared every day. That is, of course, without going completely into the commando-survivalist realm. If I did that, I’d likely have to survive a divorce before I’d get to use any of my newly acquired skills.
A big deal was made this week over Obama murdering an innocent fly with his bare hands during a CNBC interview. As if all of the human Obamatons frozen in O-face since our long national Obamagasm began on January 20th wasn’t enough. He is now the lizard king. He fellates humans with his sharp tongue and strikes down insects with his bare hands. Is there anything this Superhuman-in-Chief cannot do? Removing his teleprompter seems to be his only kryptonite…. or is it?
Liberty Maven
Here at Liberty Maven we’ve 
Follow LM on Twitter