Predatory charlatans who expect impunity from their misdeeds are engaged in wishful thinking. After all, anyone who affiliates with the Party of Lincoln should remember that their namesake didn't leave office because he lost an election.
What I wrote at the end of the 2006 election cycle remains true today: "If you want to become one of the growing number of Utah Libertarians working to reclaim our personal dignity from those who arrogate the authority to protect us from ourselves, please join us.
"We may lose many battles in the struggle for liberty, but we should never surrender."
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman, 2005-2008
Libertarian Party of Utah
As Ron said, "The message is powerful. You know, I have my shortcomings. But the message has no shortcomings. The message of liberty is what America is all about."
The message of liberty is what both Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party are all about.
We invite you to join the Party that believes what Ron Paul believes. Join the Party that welcomes you and your belief in the values of liberty.
Join the Libertarian Party. Start by joining the LPUtah. We need every Ron Paul fan to join us and nurture the seeds of liberty that Ron Paul plants every day.
* Individual Liberty
* Personal Responsibility
* Limited Government
Although the Republican Party occasionally talks about these values, they certainly don't walk the walk. Nowadays, Republicans are the Party of runaway spending and unending war — that's not Ron Paul at all.
Ron Paul is not the choice of Republican voters either: 97% of Utah Republicans rejected Ron Paul in the February 5, 2008 presidential primary.
Ron Paul is the choice of Libertarians: nearly three-fourths of Libertarians support Ron Paul.
Ron Paul's message is distinctly Libertarian, as shown in the following video recounting his appearance last year on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno":
As Ron said, "The message is powerful. You know, I have my shortcomings. But the message has no shortcomings. The message of liberty is what America is all about."
The message of liberty is what both Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party are all about.
We invite you to join the Party that believes what Ron Paul believes. Join the Party that welcomes you and your belief in the values of liberty.
Join the Libertarian Party. Start by joining the LPUtah. We need every Ron Paul fan to join us and nurture the seeds of liberty that Ron Paul plants every day.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I voted for Ron Paul in the primary, can I vote for Libertarian candidates in November?
Yes. General election ballots are non-partisan. You can vote for whomever you like.
If I registered as a Republican to support Ron Paul in the presidential primary, can I change my voter registration to Libertarian?
Yes. Ron Paul has been affiliated with both the Republican and Libertarian parties for decades, so you can be too. Although you can register as a voter with only one political party in the State of Utah, you can change your party registration to -- or register to vote as a -- Libertarian at your county clerk's office, or by downloading and submitting this form.
If I donated to the Ron Paul campaign, can I donate to Libertarian candidates?
Yes, please.
I'm already a member of the Libertarian Party. What should I do next?
Get involved. Attend one of our regular meetings. Or contact us and let us know what talents you can contribute to advancing liberty in Utah.
Can Ron Paul become the Libertarian Party candidate for President in November?
The Libertarian National Committee has expressly invited Ron Paul to become one of our candidates. If Ron chooses to do so and if he is elected at the National Convention, he would become our candidate.
If I would like to be a Libertarian candidate or volunteer my time in support of Libertarian candidates, whom do I contact?
Rob Latham, LPUtah State Chair
]]>For example, what is the source of man’s authoritarian and inhumane treatment of his fellow man?
]]>A crack on the head
Is what you get for not asking
And a crack on the head
Is what you get for asking
--The Smiths, "Barbarism Begins at Home"
--Stefan Molyneux, "Man, Family and State"
The winter holidays provide opportunities not only for celebration, but to bond and renew commitments with family members.
Sadly, ‘tis also the season when existing conflicts between parents and children can become more pronounced, often preceding acts of domestic violence.
More and more libertarians are exploring the ideological implications of traditional parenting practices on existing institutions.
For example, what is the source of man’s authoritarian and inhumane treatment of his fellow man?
It may all start with the family.
Prominent libertarian thinkers on psychology and relationships include self-esteem guru/psychotherapist Dr. Nathaniel Branden and psychiatrist/scholar Thomas S. Szasz.
Other libertarian thinking and position statements on children’s rights have been advanced by individualist feminist Wendy McElroy, economist Murray Rothbard, Dr. Mary Ruwart, and a majority of attendees to the Libertarian Party’s past national conventions.
Building upon their legacy is the Taking Children Seriously movement, and Freedomain Radio host Stefan Molyneux, who often integrates his theory of the family – influenced not only by Branden but also childhood expert Alice Miller -- into his thought-provoking and entertaining podcasts.
Indeed, on the homepage of her web site Miller offers a similar perspective on the origins of state-sponsored violence:
Complicating the picture is the statist view of children not only as the property of the state, but as a justification to forcibly extract wealth from its citizens to support its agents' interventions when a child’s natural parents or other guardians allegedly neglect the state’s asset.
As a result, statists perpetuate aggression through the creation of so-called "child protective services" bureaucracies … and a lengthening list of parents both victimized by CPS agents and organizing to restore the sanctity of their homes.
Young people caught in the middle may become more informed about their rights through organizations like The FreeChild Project and the National Youth Rights Association.
But freeing oneself from the cycle of violence requires the time and resources to engage in introspection. Consider making these things a gift from you to you.
Wishing you honesty, courage, gentleness, strength, integrity, depth, and passion this holiday season, I am
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
Troubling questions were raised by columnist Vin Suprynowicz in his essay about former New Hampshire resident Carl Drega's 1995 slaying of two law enforcement officers, a judge, and a newspaper editor.
Whether Drega was an "extremist" or had been provoked into defending himself against escalating bureaucratic harassment may depend on one's perspective.
"When is it the right time to say, 'Enough, no more. On this spot I stand, and fight, and die'?" writes Suprynowicz. "When they're stacking our luggage and loading us on the box cars? A fat lot of good it will do us, then."
Many Utahns are familiar with the story of John Singer, who resisted the State of Utah's attempts to force his children to attend its indoctrination camps, which ended in similar tragedy.
How should one who adheres to the non-aggression principle act when confronted by an abusive authority figure? And when is the appropriate time to engage in self-defense?
Be mindful that some government employees -- upon committing their latest tyrannical endeavor -- have been known to warn that they will ask obliging prosecutors to file terroristic threat charges against those who express their displeasure too stridently.
So, do without the threats, or at least those that would place a reasonable person in fear of imminent substantial bodily injury. And don't brandish a weapon either, unless you fear for your safety or that of another.
How about resisting arrest even if you think you or someone else is being treated unfairly by one or more law enforcement officers? Again, no (and so says the Utah Supreme Court). Get a lawyer, and sort it out civilly in court.
Turning the other cheek when it's appropriate and safe to do so, and moving away from the conflict, remains sound advice.
But remember that Jesus Christ is known not only as the Prince of Peace, but the Lion of Judah as well.
As I've written before, in this era of preemptive self-defense it's fair game to explore whether one should be taking the fight to those authoritarians waging an undeclared war on freedom.
After all, members of the political class claim to rule with the consent of the governed through elections. But that claim rings hollow when the elections are rigged. And without legitimate authority, little else distinguishes government agents from well-organized gangsters -- other than perhaps their uniforms, insignias, and stationary.
Which is why it's incumbent upon those who aim to preserve their liberty to acquire a firearm and become proficient in its use.
You can purchase a firearm and ammunition at any number of sporting goods or firearms dealers across Utah, such as:
New and used guns can be purchased at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show, which is held every few months in Utah.
The Utah Department of Public Safety maintains a list of certified firearms instructors (PDF file) from whom who can take lessons in handling and shooting a firearm. And the Utah Shooting Sports Council maintains a list of shooting ranges throughout Utah where you can improve and maintain your skills.
One can also help preserve the right of armed self-defense by participating in and supporting organizations such as Gun Owners of America -- but should guard against being co-opted into supporting one of the incumbent political parties responsible for the continuing erosion of your ability to protect yourself and what you value.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
Why? To insure against crises -- whether natural or man-made.
Granted, federal and state bureaucracies have been raising the cost -- and the fear-mongering -- for Americans who want to live without government assistance or interference, especially in times of crisis.
The author of the book Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control Over the Lives of Ordinary Americans, Boise State University professor of economics Charlotte Twight, offers one explanation why:
Why? To insure against crises -- whether natural or man-made.
Granted, federal and state bureaucracies have been raising the cost -- and the fear-mongering -- for Americans who want to live without government assistance or interference, especially in times of crisis.
The author of the book Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control Over the Lives of Ordinary Americans, Boise State University professor of economics Charlotte Twight, offers one explanation why:
[G]overnment officeholders, as individuals, have strong incentives to alter important political transaction costs facing the public and facing others in government in order to secure more of what they want with less resistance.
...
[G]overnment officials often take deliberate steps to increase the information costs to private citizens (and to each other) of accurately perceiving measures that change the scope of government authority.
...
[G]overnment officials often take deliberate steps to increase agreement and enforcement costs to private citizens of taking collective political action on measures that change the scope of government authority. For instance, when government officials spread the costs of a measure while concentrating its benefits, when they pursue incremental strategies for political change, when they tie controversial measures to more popular legislative proposals, when they differentially burden third political parties, and when they alter the locus of decisionmaking authority so as to shift the transaction-cost burden of changing the government's role, they increase the costs to private citizens of taking collective action to resist proposed changes in government authority.
Deliberate government actions that increase constitutional-level political transaction costs thus drive a wedge between people's preferences and the political expression of those preferences.
--"Medicare's Origin: The Economics and Politics of Dependency," Cato Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, Winter 1997 (PDF file).
Both federal and state governments in North America have been providing preparedness information and services.
To preserve both individual liberty -- and the ability to resist the temptations put forward by statist dependency pushers in times of crisis -- civil society offers many voluntary ways to prepare for adversity.
Freesteader.com offers an online discussion board with a libertarian perspective on "Preparedness Basics."
SurvivalBlog.com has been providing good preparedness advice for individuals since January 2006, and Disaster-Resource.com addresses crisis preparedness and management from an organizational perspective.
Some Utah-based businesses that market packaged food reserves and supplies for emergencies include:
Nitro-Pak Preparedness Center (Logan)
Emergency Essentials (Orem and Salt Lake)
Survival Solutions (Layton and Springville)
The American Civil Defense Association is an educational and membership organization that recently moved its headquarters to Draper, and offers an online course in disaster readiness.
And Utahn Daniel Newby shares more good advice on preparedness at The Helmsman Society's web site.
The voluntary relationships you establish while developing your preparedness routine will help strengthen the community that Americans must continually cultivate to remain free.
You don't have to overdo it; a moderate amount of preparedness can help you protect both yourself and what you value in a crisis.
You'll also be better able to say "no thanks" to those who offer you illusory "security" ... in exchange for your dignity and independence.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
Given the substantial electoral barriers incumbent political parties have erected to protect their power and privilege, libertarians are rediscovering how to promote virtue through "social change."
]]>As Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence of John Hancock et al in 1776 from King George III's Great Britain, and the Revolutionary War fought to replace British rule, it's worth exploring how liberty has been and can be achieved without resorting to the initiation of force.
Voluntaryists are members of the libertarian movement who seek to achieve a free society without resorting to electoral politics. Nonviolent resistance, perhaps most famously associated with Ghandi's ultimately successful bid to end British rule in India, involves many strategies libertarians can use to triumph over tyranny.
Given the substantial electoral barriers incumbent political parties have erected to protect their power and privilege, libertarians are rediscovering how to promote virtue through "social change."
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict has developed a computer game -- A Force More Powerful - the Game of Nonviolent Strategy -- and related educational materials to teach the techniques of nonviolent action.
Bureaucrash is one organization that employs the techniques of nonviolent action to effect social change in a libertarian direction.
Statists generally march in formation. The asymmetric advantages available to those members of civil society who advance liberty through the study and application of decentralized nonviolent action and strategies offer ample reason for optimism.
---
Several Utahns have asked me what local Libertarians are doing with respect to the presidential campaign of Ron Paul, a current member of the U.S. Congress from Texas and a former Libertarian presidential candidate.
I think Libertarian National Committee Region 6 Representative Wes Benedict has provided a helpful perspective on Rep. Paul's candidacy. I encourage liberty-minded individuals to read it, and then act as both their conscience dictates and in a way that continues the liberty movement's growth beyond the Paul campaign.
---
As of this writing, the petition drive to re-establish the ballot status of the Libertarian Party of Utah is 60 percent of the way toward the goal of 2,500 signatures. The Independence Day holiday and weekend farmers markets are great opportunities to gather signatures. Please lend a hand to complete the petition!
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
--Ryan Sager, columnist and blogger for the New York Post and RealClearPolitics.com
In the American political theory classic, Federalist 10, author James Madison proposed controls on the effects of factions:
If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote.
...
Either the existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time must be prevented, or the majority, having such coexistent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression.
Unfortunately, the bipartisan scheme of oppression most Americans live under today arose as the result of the single-member district plurality voting systems that underlie almost all elections in the United States, which has yielded two dominant political factions. Combined with the advent of "log rolling" -- a technique through which legislators poorly monitored by voters behave in ways that are costly to citizens -- the two-party system has managed to defeat the U.S. Constitution's checks and balances against "the interested combinations of the majority."
A modern example of the majoritarian erosion of constitutional barriers is the receipt of "significant income" from government programs by more than half of all Americans. In other words, the tax eaters -- both from the political left and political right -- outnumber the taxpayers.
How might those who champion the cause of liberty restore the free America envisioned by its founders; an American society as described in Federalist 51 "broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority"?
In the The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, authors Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom cite examples of decentralized organizations prevailing over institutions based on the command-and-control model.
Brafman and Beckstrom also claim that normally decentralized organizations can be attacked by centralizing them. Similarly, political observer Ryan Sager suggests that libertarians were persuaded to "fuse" or "centralize" with conservatives through promises, false or not, that reducing government is one of their central tasks.
Well, as morally uninhibited (MP3 file) as most elected Democrats have proven to be, when it comes to reducing government the tenure of George W. Bush has shown that most elected Republicans are worse.
In Utah, most registered voters are not affiliated with either branch of the bipartisan political cartel. Libertarians and independents can deny political power, legitimacy, and relevance to the Party of Lincoln and the Party of Jackson by voting for candidates nominated by other parties, or not voting at all.
And liberty lovers in Utah, and elsewhere, can help decentralize political power -- from the federal level down to local school districts -- by advocating more competitive and representative electoral systems that break up the two-party duopoly into a multi-party, democratic, constitutional republic.
Modern electoral systems can more fairly and fully reflect the diversity of Utah residents, as compared to the distorted, fun-house mirror effect seen in the current membership of the State of Utah's Legislature.
Decentralizing democracy would not, in and of itself, deny all power to the members of the self-dealing, political class.
But to paraphrase America's founders, along with economist Tyler Cowen, the main purpose of democracy is not to produce so-called "public goods," but to "prevent very bad ideas and very bad leaders."
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
And because election-rigging Republicans and Democrats continue to cheat all Americans out of more competitive and representative means to choose lawmakers, randomly-selected jurors are among the few individuals who can stop the enforcement of an unjust law.
The Fully Informed Jury Association is one organization working to raise awareness of a juror's powers.
But what if a juror is unaware of his or her power to evaluate the law?
As the handiwork of the 2007 General Session of the State of Utah's Legislature comes online, Utahns have until April 29th to find the exits, or prepare for the next assault upon civil society by the political class.
One tool used by the members of civil society to protect against institutionalized aggression is the jury, an assembly of citizens selected randomly to resolve disputes.
Is it time for juries to make a comeback in the defense of individual liberty?
Random acts of liberty
The classic film "12 Angry Men" dramatizes how one juror can save the citizen accused from being wrongfully convicted.
And because election-rigging Republicans and Democrats continue to cheat all Americans out of more competitive and representative means to choose lawmakers, randomly-selected jurors are among the few individuals who can stop the enforcement of an unjust law.
The Fully Informed Jury Association is one organization working to raise awareness of a juror's powers.
But what if a juror is unaware of his or her power to evaluate the law?
Statists who favor increasing limits on civil society's ability to question authority have worked diligently to create juries staffed by blinded obedients.
For example, in Utah in 2004 Reichsmarschall Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Doug Wright -- KSL Newsradio's "Sultan of Sanctimony" -- encouraged the Utah affiliate of the Party of Lincoln to amend its platform concerning the jury like so:
JURY
The jury is a fundamental institution of liberty, because it is the only anchor yet imagined by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. The jury has the right and the authority to acquit if jurors feel justice will be served, or the law itself is unjust in a particular case. Instructions to the jury should reflect this fact.
Their effort succeeded, and marked a significant shift away from a policy promoting limited government, and the sponsorship of fully-informed jury legislation by one Republican Utah legislator in 1996.
In response, the Libertarian Party of Utah adapted the language stricken by local Lincolnites, and added the following plank to its party platform:
Some Libertarian candidates even carried the message of jury powers during the 2006 campaign season.
Now that you're empowered with the knowledge of what a juror can do, what say you to your fellow women and men, potential future members of a jury?
---
It's that time of year ... again.
As you begin to prepare your Utah income tax return for 2006, please remember to write an "L" in section 3 of Form TC-40 (PDF file). This does not change your refund or the amount of tax due. The Libertarian Party of Utah receives two dollars for every "L" entered, and these contributions are a major source of our funding.
---
Call for petitions!
The weather is warming up. If you're gathering signatures, please turn in your petitions by April 26, 2007 so we can evaluate the progress of our petition drive.
You can download the PDF of the petition (click here), print it out, collect signatures from registered voters, and then return the petition forms to the offices listed below, or mail them to the organizing committee's post office box.
Libertarian Organizing Committee
P.O. Box 526025
Salt Lake City, Utah 84152-6025
W. Andrew McCullough, Esq.
6885 South State Street, Suite 200
Midvale, Utah 84047
(801) 565-0894
Rob Latham, Esq.
Cramer & Cramer, L.L.C.
845 South Main Street, Suite 23
Bountiful, Utah 84010
(801) 299-9999
Aric Cramer, Esq.
Cramer & Cramer, L.L.C.
90 East 100 South, Suite 201
St. George, Utah 84770
(435) 627-1565
We'll also have petitions for registered Utah voters to sign at the office locations listed above.
In the Files section of the LPUtahPetition Yahoo! group, you will also find the PDF file of the petition the Libertarian Organizing Committee is using for its reorganization.
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LPUtahPetition/
For more information about the petitioning process, see Utah Code Annotated 20A-8-103.
Per the new policy of the State Elections Office, it will not accept petitions from us until the Libertarian Organizing Committee believes it has sufficient signatures.
Based on an anticipated invalidation rate of 20%, we have set a goal of collecting 2,500 signatures to meet the 2,000 signature threshold set by state law.
Please do not fill in the "Total," "Page," or "F.O. Signature" blanks at the bottom of the petition.
Bragging rights, and perhaps more, to the person who collects the most signatures. Thank you for your help to continue the campaign for liberty in Utah.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
What are some of the myths perpetuated by the political class that empowered Lincoln, empowers Miller, and will empower future crony capitalists until they are widely debunked by a free people?
]]>As the Party of Lincoln's Utah affiliates gather this month to pay tribute to their murdered -- and murderous -- namesake, local corporate statists will genuflect before one of their own who employed political means to enrich himself, Larry H. Miller.
Propagandists reinforce illusions that keep the powerful in power with monuments, holidays, official proclamations, and the "party line."
What are some of the myths perpetuated by the political class that empowered Lincoln, empowers Miller, and will empower future crony capitalists until they are widely debunked by a free people?
Chief among these myths is the Republican Party's alleged support for free enterprise.
As Lincoln revisionist historian Thomas DiLorenzo writes:
The myths don't end with the one about Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation either, which -- because it didn't apply to any states under Union control at the time -- didn't free a single slave.
Professor DiLorenzo has further summarized the legacy of the U.S. president called the "American Stalin" and "King Lincoln" thusly:
Given their abandonment of small government policies it makes all too much sense why Red State Fascists are not ashamed of their namesake, but continue to exalt Lincoln, who rightly deserves credit as the father of Big Government in America.
The libertarian movement rejects aggression, opposes slavery in all its forms, and embraces a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.
But Lincoln's assassination serves as a reminder that political practitioners operating in a seeming culture of impunity can realize their comeuppance outside of campaigns, courts, and committees.
You know this guy ... has made millions off of corporate welfare.
Speaking of economic collectivism, in his recent book, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney carries on Gabriel Kolko's work in The Triumph of Conservatism. Both authors are among many who have closely examined how big business and big government collude to cheat the consumer, the entrepreneur, and the taxpayer.
Which brings me to Larry H. Miller.
Despite his reputation as a bully, Miller can't be all bad. His businesses sell many products and services that consumers want. And he gives millions to charitable organizations, although some gifts may be self-serving. For example, will Miller's latest public-private/government-business partnership help groom his own militia?
But just because he buys enough advertising from Utah's mainstream print and electronic media to discourage critical analysis of his business dealings by its news reporters, doesn't mean the rest of us must stop asking questions or close our eyes:
Indeed, many who have taken stock of his legacy have organized a boycott of Miller's businesses.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a national organization with local affiliates that -- through its generations of support for crony capitalism -- has stood for a perverted notion of individual opportunity and free enterprise.
The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce's lavish feting of Miller on February 7, 2007 will be a good opportunity to reflect on the institutions and myths that separate those attending the festivities from those of us who won't.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Organizing Committee
"Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods."
--H.L. Mencken, Minority Report: H.L. Mencken's Notebooks
The Utah Legislature's 45-day general session runs from January 15th to February 28th.
Special interests -- which contributed 95.7 percent of all campaign donations made to incoming state legislators -- will be lobbying for a healthy return on their investments in the form of the kind of privileges that can be conferred only by the State of Utah.
The late Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman observed that the true level of taxation is the amount of government spending.
Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. has proposed a record $10.7 billion state budget.
The State of Utah is also reporting a record tax surplus -- defined as its annual tax collections in excess of annual budgets -- in excess of $1 billion.
Don't let promises from state legislators to cut taxes by a few hundred million dollars distract you from the billions of dollars in legalized plunder annually removed from Utah's market economy by the State of Utah.
The forced redistribution of that amount of wealth from Utah's civil society to the State of Utah's political class is obscene.
---
Blinded by the BCS
Several local commentators and editorial writers have complained about the unfairness of the Bowl Championship Series for college football teams.
From Salt Lake Tribune columnist Gordon Monson:
It's as though the BCS blows the legs off non-BCS leagues by way of its uneven stipulations and rewards, and, then, when non-BCS teams lose to BCS teams, they are blamed for bleeding rather than being able to dance at the same tempo.
--Gordon Monson, "Boise's victory a wake-up call for BCS," Salt Lake Tribune, January 3, 2007
And from Deseret Morning News columnist Doug Robinson:
In America, we tend to go to great lengths to be fair.
...
In America, nothing galls us more than the exclusion of people or groups of people because of something not related to ability.
That's why college football and the Bowl Championship Series drives us insane. It's wrongheaded, nonsensical and un-American.
--Doug Robinson, "Elitist BCS is an insult to good teams," Deseret Morning News, January 9, 2007
Although Robinson cites several unfortunate examples of special interest-spawned government coercion in support of his thesis, the sentiment of fair competition is not only one I share, but why I have been promoting a level playing field in the political arena for several years.
Fellas, devoting one-tenth of your BCS scrutiny to the rules governing the processes used by election-rigging Republicans and Democrats to maintain their hold on political power would be most appreciated.
P.S.: Check out our effort to "Mock the Vote" for the 2007 Salt Lake City mayoral race to demonstrate how more and more American cities are improving how those who hold elected office are selected, and our second annual "Fair Representation Challenge" to Utah's Colleges and Universities.
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The Sutherland Institute's State worship
In case you missed its "Natural Family Resolution," the Sutherland Institute's first salvo (PDF file) -- which apparently no one wants to claim authorship of -- in its "Defining Conservatism Series" reminds readers why its "freedom through obedience" brand of conservatism is not libertarianism.
In a statement that many members of the faith community would find a blasphemous marriage of the worldly and the divine, the Sutherland Institute's essay approvingly quotes Russell Kirk's decree that "the conservative finds that the state is ordained of God."
Rejecting the consensus view among those participating in a recent panel discussion hosted by the conservative and libertarian Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies that government is incompetent as a cultural authority (MP3 file), the Sutherland Institute claims that members of the political class comprise an omnipotent State and promote order as they aggress against those they deem unvirtuous.
Despite libertarianism's long pedigree in the conservative movement, I agree that confusing and conflating the terms "conservative" and "libertarian" clouds understanding, which is why I try to distinguish one from the other.
If, however, you're looking for the brands of conservatism that are compatible with libertarianism, I recommend checking out the magazine The American Conservative.
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The Gadsden Flag symbolizes the American tradition of being left alone to pursue happiness. Unfortunately, the machinations and predations of organizations such as the Utah Legislature and the Sutherland Institute remind us that there are those who refuse to leave peaceful and honest people alone.
For those seeking a political voice among those who believe that "cultural scold" is neither the proper, nor achievable, nor moral role of government, welcome to the Libertarian Party.
Please join us by signing and sending in our petition so our candidates may continue to champion the spontaneous order that arises from recognizing and respecting the inherent dignity and sovereignty of every individual.
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As you begin to prepare your Utah income tax return for 2006, please remember to write an "L" in section 3 of Form TC-40 (PDF file). This does not change your refund or the amount of tax due. The Libertarian Party of Utah receives two dollars for every "L" entered, and these contributions are a major source of our funding.
Even if you are sympathetic to some of our like-minded friends in the Personal Choice Party, every dollar intentionally or mistakenly directed to the election campaign fund of that party is kept by the State of Utah -- the very entity working to take away your personal choices.
Therefore, if you genuinely want to support individual liberty for Utahns, please direct your contribution to the election campaign fund on your Utah Individual Income Tax Return to the Libertarian Party of Utah.
With sincere appreciation, I am
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Organizing Committee
"Nothing restrains a central government like sound money."
-- Thomas DiLorenzo
News Item: U.S Mint bans melting pennies, nickels
The motivation for the melting and export ban of U.S. pennies and nickels is the reality that the market value for the coins' metal exceeds the faith-based denomination value stamped into them by the federal government. "In God We Trust," indeed.
Why is the federal government in the money business?
Many may remember American history lessons mentioning William Jennings Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" speech in 1896.
But famous does not mean economically correct, and Bryan (who also led efforts to ban the teaching of evolution and served as the prosecutor in the Scopes "Monkey" trial) advocated policies -- the forcible redistribution of wealth through the income tax and inflating U.S. currency -- that have been devastating to the individual liberties of generations of Americans.
And just because the federal government granted itself the power to coin money, among other self-authorizations, doesn't mean that the federal government ought to coin money, or produce any medium for exchanging goods and services.
As economist Murray Rothbard noted in his essay "What Has Government Done to Our Money?" (audio here) private mints have demonstrated their ability to guarantee the fineness and weight of both bullion and coins they issue.
By exempting itself with legal tender laws from the common law rule against imitating something with superior value that would apply to any normal counterfeiter, the federal government has a free hand to inflate the money supply. (Of course, leave it to the federal government to imitate something with inferior value through pennies and nickels.)
And by inflating the money supply, or by devaluing coins, the federal government robs most Americans of their wealth.
To take one example of inflationary effects, real estate in America is not so much going up in value as U.S. currency is going down in value.
Hence, the desire of some entrepreneurs to convert pennies and nickels to higher-valued uses.
Land and metal have real value. Because U.S. currency is not backed by any tangible thing with real value, it must rely instead on coercion and fraud (for example, the "full faith and credit of the United States") to be useful.
Mises Institute president Lew Rockwell recently summed up why a government would inflate its currency (audio here):
The power to inflate is absolutely crucial to the agenda of everyone who believes in using the government to manage the economy and society. As [Ludwig von] Mises says, they need the power to inflate in order to finance their policy of reckless spending, lavish subsidies, and bribing voters. They also need it for financing their wars, bailouts, and space shuttle trips, and for building their ever-larger palaces to keep comfortable the millions of bureaucrats they employ to make our lives miserable.
Moreover, the political class benefits from the creation of fiat currencies and monetary expansion because of temporary increases in employment and temporary decreases in interest rates. Financing "good times" on a hidden credit card leaves voters more inclined to re-elect incumbents.
Those good feelings could sour if the integrity of U.S. monetary policy is called into question by more and more people, both in America and abroad, and creditors begin calling on their debtors to pay up.
David Walker, Comptroller of the U.S. government's General Accountability Office has been on a "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour" around the country to speak to anyone who will listen about how precarious the federal government's financial position has become because of entitlement spending.
But in an economy built on debt, with the U.S. government the biggest debtor of all, don't expect the federal government and its beneficiaries to correct the problem anytime soon.
The late Libertarian film producer Aaron Russo has made some concepts related to monetary policy more accessible through his documentary America: Freedom to Fascism.
As I've read one reviewer write, it's an important if imperfect film. (For example, Stalin never said that thing about counting the votes, but Russo's movie attributes the quote to him.) At a minimum, America: Freedom to Fascism helps the viewer gain a better understanding of the nature of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy. (The movie also covers other policies, which I'll leave the reader to explore elsewhere.)
You can watch the one-hour and fifty-minute movie online by clicking on the "Play" button below.
You can also familiarize yourself with some of these terms and their implications:
By educating ourselves and acting in ways that reflect our knowledge, friends of liberty can greatly restrict the power of the State if we stop playing the fool to the federal government's alternatives to gold.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Organizing Committee
but he never forgets to bring me a nice present;
Should I say something?
Signed, America.
--Tony Hoagland, "Hard Rain"
Unless you count yourself among those who own stock in or are employed by the companies that federal, state, and local governments pay to fight the War on Drugs, -- in places such as Afghanistan -- you're a loser in that war.
"The war on drugs is really a war on people -- on anyone who uses or grows or makes or sells a forbidden drug."
--Ethan A. Nadelman, Drug Policy Alliance
What has the rest of America lost, aside from the tens of billions spent at all levels of government to fight the Drug War?
This is just a partial list of the rights that we Americans have lost as a result of the War on Drugs, because there are many more.
It's a fact of life that highly-functioning citizens use illegal drugs without becoming abusers or addicts.
[T]he black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking that has long dominated discussions of illegal drug use should give way to a wiser, subtler approach with deep roots in Western culture. That approach, exemplified by the tradition of moderate drinking, rejects the idea that there is something
inherently wrong with using chemicals to alter one's mood or mind. Instead it emphasizes the context in which drug use occurs: how, why, when, and where intoxicants are consumed. These factors determine how likely drug use is to cause harm, the crucial consideration in making moral judgments about it.
--Jacob Sullum, Saying Yes
But as the aforementioned list of what we collaterally damaged Americans have lost shows, you don't need to be a drug user to oppose the Drug War.
There are many organizations in addition to the Libertarian Party that champion your cognitive liberty and personal dignity. Here's a good list of some of those organizations.
Despite significant setbacks to our individual liberties caused by the War on Drugs (PDF file), I believe the tide is turning.
For example, more and more judges are speaking out against the drug war.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition has produced a 12-minute video featuring commentary by law enforcement officers explaining why the drug war has failed and who support alternative approaches to treating drug abuse and addiction. You can view the video by clicking on the image below.
Pass it on.
In the meantime, state and local Libertarian candidates across Utah who favor drug
policy reform need your support and your vote between now and Election Day on November 7th.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
]]>The eight-minute video has now been posted to YouTube. It deserves your thoughtful consideration this election season.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
]]>Those who defend the ability of the political class to peek into the most private affairs of ordinary Americans routinely invoke the mantra, "I have nothing to hide."
Of the few problems with this standard, one is that the political class regularly enlarges the list of outlawed conduct beyond common law injuries to persons or property. Armed with such a list, nosy neighbors can lead to busybody law enforcement and petty prosecutions.
More importantly, by what authority does the political class claim the right to intrude into your life to investigate wrongdoing? And who watches the watchers?
Quoting Privacilla.org, privacy is important for at least two reasons. First, "privacy helps individuals maintain their autonomy and individuality" and "define themselves by exercising power over information about themselves and a free country does not ask people to answer for the choices they make about what information is shared and what is held close" (emphasis added).
Second, privacy carries with it many benefits, such as "safety and peace of mind."
Article I, Section 14 of the Utah Constitution provides that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized."
And before a judge may issue a warrant to law enforcement officers to search or confiscate you or your property, the person requesting permission to search or confiscate must present evidence of alleged illegal conduct to that judge.
(NOTE: Warranted and warrantless searches and seizures are a complex area of the law. My limited discussion here is not intended to be legal advice. Consult an attorney for advice on the application of the law to your particular situation.)
Utahns rejected the State of Utah's participation in the MATRIX database program. But a substitute -- called the Utah Criminal Justice Information System (UCJIS) -- has already replaced MATRIX. And according to the State of Utah's Bureau of Criminal Identification, in 2004 three-to-four complaints each week of UCJIS database misuse (PDF file) were received.
The financial motivations of database profiteers notwithstanding, the abuse of government databases ranges from attempts to silence political opponents to stalking women.
In his book Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood, author Jim Harper concludes that "[i]dentification should be a risk-reducing strategy in a social system, not a rivet used for pegging humans onto governmental or economic machinery." Harper also proposes a "competitive, responsive identification and credentialing industry" as an alternative to government-issued IDs.
How do liberty lovers protect our privacy and work to be left alone by an increasingly intrusive political class that won't leave us alone?
Get informed.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse are two organizations at the forefront of the privacy debate, and are also excellent information resources.
Two books I found amateurish, politically-incorrect, out-of-date, and almost worthless as "how to" guides -- but valuable in terms of teaching broader life lessons about privacy -- are How to Be Invisible, by J.J. Luna, and Hide Your Assets and Disappear, by Edmund J. Pankau.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is another helpful public interest organization championing civil liberties in the information age, and it offers an extensive list of online privacy tools.
See you later ... or not. ;-)
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
]]>--Utah Code section 53A-13-109
"We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control."
--Pink Floyd, "Another Brick In The Wall"
As a libertarian, there's much to like about some of the content contained in the State of Utah's "Civic and Character Education" law.
But as a libertarian, even if I were to entertain the belief that gun-run schools were competent to inculcate values such as "respect for and an understanding of the Declaration of Independence," I refuse to impose values I approve of upon others.
Ultimately, that why I support organizations like the Alliance for the Separation of School & State, and efforts to get government out of the education business.
But there are practical reasons to work for educational independence.
The recently reaired ABC News program "Stupid in America: How Lack of Choice Cheats Our Kids Out of a Good Education" reminds us that public government schools continue to fail the children they purport to educate.
Among the more damnable nonsense this election season is the campaign by a government teacher union urging Utahns to "invest in public schools."
Despite the State of Utah's constitution's claim that "public elementary and secondary shall be free" of cost to the education consumer, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Taxpayers, including both those taxpayers who don't consume government-provided educational services and those who do, are forced to fund government schools.
To reframe taxation as "investment" misleads individuals into thinking that they have some type of ownership interest in government schools. We don't.
And if you want to check whether you have an ownership interest in government schools (or any government-owned asset, for that matter), try selling your ownership interest to someone else. Or see how much influence you have, as an "owner," in determining the curriculum of a government school. Or, as part of your due diligence, explore how much freedom a government school affords its "investors" to tour its facilities and evaluate its services.
If you want to make a genuine investment in education, one you can sell if its value decreases or buy more of if its value increases, consider looking at the many publicly-traded companies that offer education and training services.
The government needs three things to thrive and grow:
1. Obedient citizens who will not upset the status quo.
2. Money, which requires citizens who believe the government deserves their money and will utilize it in better ways than they themselves will, or at the very least, citizens who are afraid not to hand their money over.
3. Power: citizens who will willingly subdue fellow citizens who refuse to submit; citizens who will fight wars; citizens who will turn on one another when ordered or asked to do so but will not turn on the government. Without force, the government is powerless. Unless people are willing to act unquestioningly on behalf of the government to enforce its edicts, the government has no power.
--Alliance for the Separation of School & State, The Case for Separation
Today's government schools are fostering this "culture of obedience."
And if you're not concerned about the role of government schools in the ongoing threat to your liberty, you should be.
To advance the cause of liberty, libertarians encourage freedom-lovers to pull their children out of the government schools, and join with others to wrest control of educational services from the political class and return educational responsibilities to civil society.
Yours in liberty,
Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah
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