As my tenure as chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah draws to a close, I pass along the following observations:

• While institutionalized aggression continues to metastasize in this heart of red-state darkness, more and more Americans are embracing the libertarian program of peace and prosperity.
• A former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Representative are among those who will likely seek the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination over the Memorial Day weekend in Denver, Colorado. The 2008 Libertarian National Convention will probably be the most widely-viewed event in the party of free agency's history to date.
• With more than four out of five Americans of the opinion that the country is on the "wrong track" -- and they are correct -- never before have so many people been ready to consider the electoral options outside of the irretrievably corrupt, two-party duopoly.

Ron Paul is a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party. Ron Paul was the Libertarian candidate for President in 1988. Why? Because Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party share the same values:

* 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.

Unruly boys
Who will not grow up
Must be taken in hand
Unruly girls
Who will not settle down
They must be taken in hand

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"

When we talk about the state, we are really talking about authority, which is nothing more or less than the power that one person has over another. When children are young, each family operates as a kind of "mini state."

--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?

"Unless the government changes course, sooner or later we may take notice of the loss of our freedom, realize that we may have been pushed too far – and, finally, it may dawn upon us, individually or collectively, that today may be, if necessary, a good day to die for our rights and our liberty."
--Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D., "The Ballad of Carl Drega - a Review"

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?

"20. Cultivate some Mormon friends."
--Claire Wolfe, 101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution

Most Utahns are familiar with the wise practice of setting aside a basic supply of food and water, and some money.

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:

"Human freedom is today threatened by regimented statism."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower, October 12, 1948

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."

"So long as libertarians withhold their consent from conservative politicians, those politicians can't win."

--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"?

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
--H.L. Mencken

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?

"Lincoln was a master politician, which means that he was a consummate conniver, manipulator, and liar."
--Murray Rothbard, "Just War"

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?

Utah's political class convenes to divide up the loot

"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.