In Lieu of A Post . . .

I was going to write a post about civil disobedience, but the barometer dropped like a lead weight, a storm blew over, and the dogs got into a fight and made a big mess. I guess you could say we had some very uncivil disobedience in my bedroom.

So instead, I'd like to share with you a post from The Libertarian Enterprise, about the Honduran Constitutional Crisis. The author, Russell D. Longcore says:

"If the Legislative and Judicial branches of the US government had one-tenth of the courage and moral conviction of the Honduran government, they would do what the Hondurans did.
It is an embarrassment that a small, poor nation like Honduras proves the rule of law, while the American president...supposedly a Constitutional authority and former constitutional law teacher...ignores our own constitution in a naked power grab."

The article is called Honduras Coup d'Etat: Was It Right or Wrong?

Another article in this weeks issue that I found very thought provoking was L. Niel Smith's Blast from the Past, a transcript of his speech from the Arizona LP convention, April 19, 1997. I mean, he talked about science fiction, so I knew it would be good. I'll give you sneak peek at the end, but you ought to read the whole thing.

"Ayn Rand was well known for her negative opinion of Libertarians and the Libertarian Party. Part of it was merely an understandable (if not entirely forgivable) conflict of time and place. Rand was the greatest philosopher, advocate of reason, and champion of liberty of her time. She was also a little old immigrant lady, not unlike my wife's Bohemian grandmother, who couldn't accept the logical conclusion—anarchism, as Roy Childs pointedly informed her—that her philosophy of uncompromising individualism inevitably leads to, who didn't like men to wear long hair and beards (I'm sure earrings would have blown her mind completely) and who was disgusted by certain expressions of uncompromising individualism such as homosexuality and recreational drug use.

On the other hand, Rand tried to warn us that America wasn't ready for a Libertarian Party. In essence, she said you have to change society first, and that the political payoff—provided you do things right—comes later."

The article is called You Can't Fight a Culture War If You Ain't Got Any Culture. It's a long but worthy read.