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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Street who wrote (3930)	7/27/2000 1:23:38 PM
From: Jim S	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13060

<VBG> If we spread it around enough, maybe we can get it on the NYT Bestseller list ... Only thing that will boost sales more is if we can get CNN to condemn the book. "Unintended Consequences," indeed! jim

To: The Street who wrote (3930)	7/27/2000 2:25:14 PM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13060

L.A. Efficiency Chosen As Site Of 2000 Libertarian Convention LOS ANGELES--Libertarian Party officials announced Monday that their 2000 National Convention will be held August 18–20 in an efficiency apartment just off La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. Full revealing story: theonion.com

To: The Street who wrote (3930)	7/27/2000 8:47:42 PM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13060

Copy of a letter I sent to a professor several weeks ago about his website: What attracted me to your site was the page on your former interracial marriage since I am currently with a new black girlfriend and we will be getting married later this year. Anyway, the real reason for my writing is that America is not a free country (but gives it a lot of lip service), and has almost totally lost its perspective on rights and liberties of and for the individual. In many cases, America was created to protect inalienable rights, but whole peoples were denied those rights or treated as "second-class" citizens. Blacks were, and to a degree still are, as are Indians/Native Americans; homosexuals were, and certainly still are. If we truly seek to have a free country where the individual is left to make their own decisions and must bear the responsibilities of those decisions, then all things which are in the domain of a private life and individual liberty should be kept out of the government's domain: that list is extensive and would include the inherent right of an individual to choose his/her own lifemate, the right to have more than one marriage partner, the right to any type of drug (cocaine, marijuana, etc. were legal in this country until the early in the 20th Century when the growing legions of Prohibitionists -- primarily from christian churches) attacked them, as well as alcohol, and the U.S. Federal Government illegally passed laws against them), the complete abolition of the IRS (replacing it with something like what CATS - "Citizens for an Alternative Tax System" <http://www.cats.org> propose), rescinding all "laws" against gambling, prostitution, etc., and all victimless crimes. America was originally conceived as the one country on Earth where individual rights were held supreme -- above need, above even a government. This dream has never been realized and is farther away from us than it was 50 or 100 years ago. Your arguments for same-sex marriages are all correct when taken into the perspective that the individual's rights are supreme and are only tempered to the extent that an individual cannot violate the rights of another individual or property rights. Your argument falls apart, however, when it comes to attacking cigarettes. In a free society, a free individual has a right to smoke. There are responsibilities attached to that right, of course. But nevertheless that right must exist. Your arguments against cigarettes are more emotional than rational, and also fly in the face of a truly free society. As for cigarettes killing people, many things kill people: there are more non-smokers in all of Earth's graveyards than smokers; hydrogenated vegetable oils (introduced into the food chain to the American consumer in 1908) contribute to more deaths than cigarettes ever have. Some people who smoke die at 40, others live into their nineties (like one of my great aunts who started smoking at 12 and lived in good health until age 93). Much is based on genetics, stress and mental attitude, and to a greater and greater extent, diet. If you want a real crusade, forget cigarettes. Concentrate on all the deadly poisons that are being added to our foods with government complicity and approval. Scientific evidence shows that those are creating more disease, misery and premature death than cigarettes ever have. In closing, I would commend you on your site overall. I would only ask that you "check your premises" when you philosophically argue the case for one right (same sex marriages), but then switch philosophical "hats" and diametrically oppose cigarettes using irrational 1990s political correctness, lack of a futurist view, emotional arguments and disregard for the basic roots of liberty and individual freedoms.