What do you all think of this?
If the freedom that lives in the Libertarian imagination has an earthly home, it is the American West. If it has a temple, it’s Nevada.
In Nevada, where the liberty lobby is strong, McCain got trounced in the primary voting, coming in third behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. When the state GOP tried to crown McCain at its Reno convention in April, so many Paul supporters showed up that party leaders literally fled the hall, turned off the lights and postponed the convention to make sure the anemic pro-McCain camp wasn’t swamped by liberty’s marauders. It was like a John Ford western set inside a hotel ballroom.
The whole article is pretty good. It’s about the new libertarian movement. Check it out.
Sometimes we forget what a genius Ludwig von Mises was.
Who am I kidding, no we don’t. Given recent discussion on universal health care, additional governmental bureaucracies for charity, foreign affairs, and energy, and the idea that governmental solutions to governmental problems, I thought it fitting to include a few quotes from your man and mine, Ludwig von.
The planner is a potential dictator who wants to deprive all other people of the power to plan and act according to their own plans. He aims at one thing only: the exclusive absolute preeminence of his own plan.
At the bottom of all this fanatical advocacy of planning and socialism there is often nothing else than the intimate consciousness of ones own inferiority and inefficiency.
All this passionate praise of the supereminence of government action is but a poor disguise for the individual interventionists self-deification. The great god State is a great god only because it is expected to do exclusively what the individual advocate of interventionism wants to see achieved.
The writings of the socialists are full of such utopian fancies. Whether they call themselves Marxian or non-Marxian socialists, technocrats, or simply planners [hell, even Republicans and Democracts], they are all eager to show how foolishly things are arranged in reality and how happily men could live if they were to invest the reformers with dictatorial powers. [Brackets by Barry]
If a man says socialism, or planning, he always has in view his own brand of socialism, his own plan. Thus planning does not in fact mean preparedness to cooperate peacefully. It means conflict.
The social engineer is the reformer who is prepared to liquidate all those who do not fit into his plan for the arrangement of human affairs.
He’s just filled with these beautiful insights. To learn more about him (as well as find more of these quotes) go to the Ludwig von Mises Institute at mises.org. It is also a useful site for anyone interested in Austrian Economics, anarcho-capitalism, Libertarian studies, and all sorts of goodness. They have free online books, lecture series, debates, articles, and essays. Which just goes to prove that capitalists [even the most die hard] don’t necessarily have to be greedy, hoarding, or selfish.
P.S. Be sure to check out the stuff by Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, Herman Hans-Hoppe, Joseph T. Salerno, and many others.
After spinelessly backing out of his promise to NEVER allow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 to pass, I thought I would find out what other pieces of legislation Obama has been actively pursuing:
- S.CON.RES.5 : A concurrent resolution honoring the life of Percy Lavon Julian, a pioneer in the field of organic chemistry and the first and only African-American chemist to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
- S.CON.RES.25 : A concurrent resolution condemning the recent violent actions of the Government of Zimbabwe against peaceful opposition party activists and members of civil society.
- S.CON.RES.44 : A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress that a commemorative postage stamp should be issued honoring Rosa Louise McCauley Parks.
- S.CON.RES.46 : A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month.
- S.RES.133 : A resolution celebrating the life of Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson.
- S.RES.268 : A resolution designating July 12, 2007, as “National Summer Learning Day”.
- S.RES.383 : A resolution honoring and recognizing the achievements of Carl Stokes, the first African-American mayor of a major American city, in the 40th year since his election as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.
- S.RES.600 : A resolution commemorating the 44th anniversary of the deaths of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, while working in the name of American democracy to register voters and secure civil rights during the summer of 1964, which has become known as “Freedom Summer”.
Yeah, this is one hard-charging leader that never backs down to controversy. A real candidate of “change”… Just don’t get a paper cut handling all those Rosa Parks postage stamps… Pathetic.
…unless you choose to live in a box with no communication.
The senate voted today, and it’s been determined: companies can spy on you and give your personal information to the government, and that’s cool.
The FISA bill, H.R. 6304 passed today 69-28. This bill allows companies who give/sell your information to the government immunity from being sued.
Other notes:
- Comcast is having a party with this one: they’re charging authorities a $1,000 installation fee, and $750 a month to spy on people.
- Many Democrats received money from telecom companies (Verizon, which has said that it doesn’t provide information to the government; AT&T; and Sprint) to switch there votes. Check out this nifty list.
- I’m high-fiving myself for having Eurpean company T-Mobile as my cell carrier. Woot.
(Updated Live via Intrade)
Sorry McCain, but Republicans can’t stomach how you:
- Voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, drastically expanding the budget and power of the Department of Education.
- Support a “bi-partisan” plan to curb man-made Global Warming by forcing private industry to submit to carbon emission controls.
- Voted for NAFTA: You don’t need a treaty to have free trade.
- Voted for a nationalized health care database to forcefully determine what kind of shots/medications citizens have taken.
- Want to invade Iran and embolden/motivate more terrorists.
- Claim to find a “bi-partisan” plan to ‘fix’ social security with no real solutions.
- Support federal funding towards stem-cell research, thus proving your distrust in the free market.
- Are unclear on tax initiatives such as the “Fair Tax”
- Voted for the REAL ID, drastically expanding the power and control of the federal government.
Although the thought of having a Democratically controlled congress and president may be terrifying, what would be even more terrifying if Republicans embolden people like John Mccain to proliferate, dilute, and destroy the values of the Republican party and leadership through our votes to “unify”. True conservatives must send a strong message to this new breed of ‘Republican’ that their values of larger government, larger federal education, larger budget to social security, national ID cards, and unconstitutional wars are not the principles of the Republican party. Through our votes, let them know that true Republicans will not “settle” for Republicrats and in turn allow him to become destroyed in the general election. What if he received only 20% of the vote? What a transformation that would be for the party!
I hope everyone is using today to remember what our founding fathers went through to create the freedoms and liberties we enjoy in the amazing country we live in. And of course, we get to see some fun firework shows too!
Have a great day!
4Jul08
UNR Town Hall Meeting: “[The State of Nevada] has substantially enhanced our budget” -President GlickPosted By: John Russell
On July 2, 2008, hundreds of concerned citizens, students, internet participants, and band kids gathered on the 4th floor of the Joe Crowley to attend the Town Hall Meeting with President Glick to discuss the effects that the state proposed budget ‘cuts’ would have on the UNR campus.
I have included the entire opening speech given by President Glick at the bottom of this post, but I shall only describe the parts that pertain to the topic I have been speaking about as of late.
When I decided to go to this meeting, I had absolutely no intentions of posting a question to Mr. Glick. However, these intentions flew out the window about as quickly as they decided to put this table up on the projector:
This “UNR General Fund Budget Reductions” table had pretty much contradicted everything I discovered and compiled from the Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis Department. This table claims that the fiscal year between 2007-2008 suffered an $8.4M reduction in funding: about a 4.5% decrease in funds. According to tables and graphs that I put together and shared with everyone, they ironically state that the university had about a 4.5% increase in funds. Understandably confused, I quickly gathered my numbers and posed him this question:
“[The State of Nevada] has substantially enhanced our budget”
-President Glick – July 2, 2008
-President Glick – July 2, 2008
His response makes sense: Although the University of Nevada, Reno has in fact received more revenue from the state then ever before, the money they appropriate can only be used for certain line items that the state mandates. Although understandable, it is extremely deceiving to call the situation a “budget cut”.
However, I was still quite confused as to how they reached the (4.5%) figure, especially considering Mr. Glick confirmed my numbers. I really wanted to speak with him afterwards, but when the band kids started posing 10 minute “questions”, I knew I had to cut out to retain my sanity.
As I was leaving the town hall meeting, a man by the name of Bruce Shively approached me. He is the Assistant Vice President for Planning, Budget & Analysis of the university, and he is the 
man who put together all the numbers I have been ranting as of late. I asked him the same question that I was left with, and in a nutshell he told me that the 4.5% cut is based upon the projected funds that the school expected to receive from the state. There are no true revenue cuts, just cuts based upon the speculation. WOW! I followed up by asking him if he thought the graph he designed for the town hall meeting was deceiving, considering how no such disclaimer or even a hint of such an explanation has ever been given. He quickly retorted that it was not confusing to him, and he abruptly ended the conversation.
The purpose of these posts is not “bash the school” or “discredit the man”; instead, I encourage everyone to do their own research, challenge the status quo, and keep your mind free from the tyranny of disinformation. To bash our State, State Legislature, and our Governor simply because one was too lazy to challenge the argument and instead jump on the presumptive and often times inventive and litigious numbers is wrong; because any person who accepts and acts upon only one side of information without properly and fairly considering both sides have only themselves to be frustrated at.
Opening Statement from President Glick
Note: The small gaps in video are no more than 5 seconds in length. Enjoy.
As I was walking back to the student parking garage, I witnessed how real government bureaucrats wash their cars… wastefully and inefficiently. Enjoy 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HfeFvMBwx4&hl=en&fs=1]
On Saturday the 28th of June, the people of Nevada took back their party. Of course I’m referring to the continuation of the Nevada Republican Convention. I had the honor of attending and serving on a few committees, and I have to say that I was impressed with the entire event.
I feel that Mike Weber did a great job as the parliamentarian, and the Terhunes and the volunteers did a great job. Hell, maybe we should always run the convention, it seems to turn out better!
The convention afforded time for several candidates to speak during the voting. I thought they all did well. Andrew Brownson, in particular, impressed me. His speech was really quite eloquent; it was the kind of speech that made you proud to be a conservative. Chris Dyer talked about wrestling, which gets the thumbs up from me. His speech was enjoyable, because it was so down to earth and real. Lisamarie Johnson, protest organizer extraordinaire, used her skills to inspire the crowd as well. I had the pleasure of chatting with her later in the evening, and she’s pretty cool.
At the convention, I was excited to see more of James Smack in action. For those of you who also live in Nevada Congressional District 2, he’s one of the candidates in the primary. He also handled the CD 2 delegate elections in the absence of the last chairman of the CD 2 elections: Brian Krolicki (who did a fabulous job on the April 26th convention, IMO).
I guess the big question for yesterday’s convention was “OMG, what if there is no quorum?” Apparently the original credentials report (which establishes how many people are there, and therefore how many people are needed for the quorum) was not adopted properly and therefore illegal. Without having a credentials report, we were forced to adopt a new one using the credentials information collected on that day.
Now the convention has to be defended and proven legal to the Republican National Committee in order for the delegates to be seated.
Hopefully our convention will prevail, because it was not about Ron Paul or John McCain; it was about giving the power back to the people of Nevada. This convention happened because people refuse to be stepped on by the party leadership. If we were to stop fighting the leadership on this, it would set a precedent that they can just forget about the people and do whatever they want.
Personally, I feel sorry for the people who did not go because they thought it was a candidate game. Unfortunately, those people will continue to be silent, because the Nevada GOP will not give them their convention. The Nevada GOP has no intention of following through with the convention that all state Republican delegates deserve. These people will never be heard, and they will never get the proper use out of their $50.
