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Truth, Justice, and the
American Way!


Vote Libertarian!

Kelley Ross,
2006 Candidate
for United States
Congress, 28th
District
of
California


Oh No! A Libertarian!
He's against all these: This is not Liberalism! But he's in favor of all these: This is not Conservatism!
No, but these are all the Freedom
and Constitutional Government, guaranteed by the
Bill of Rights, especially the
Ninth and Tenth Amendments!
Reject the Left!Reject the Right!

Libertarians, the Founding Fathers sent us!

A thief is more moral than a congressman; when a thief steals your money, he doesn't demand you thank him.

Walter Williams

Don't know much about Libertarianism? There are many libertarian talk radio hosts in the United States, like David Brudnoy, Neal Boortz, and Zoh Hieronimus. In Los Angeles we have had Larry Elder on KABC Talkradio (AM 790, Los Angeles) weekday afternoons from 3 to 7.

Unfortunately, Larry has been drifting in a conservative direction. First, he got a bit carried away with Israel, although I tend to agree more with him than with other libertarians about a forward defense in U.S. foreign policy. Worse, however, was when he agreed with Ann Coulter that there was no "right to privacy" in the Constitution. Larry, try reading the Ninth Amendment! My view is that this makes Larry test out as a conservative rather than a libertarian. Now Larry has actually joined the Republican Party! Well, at least he is still against the drug war.

Beware:
Bill Maher, formerly of "Politically Incorrect," who has often called himself a libertarian, is all too often a standard, politically correct leftist -- though he is seen in Playboy, which not all Democrats (Gore-Lieberman), apparently, can tolerate. For a while he looked like he might have been coming around. When Harry Browne was on the August 24, 2000 show, Bill told him "You're my guy," and in answer to the question whether he would vote for him said, "Would I vote for Harry? Absolutely I would." Now, however, it turns out that Bill voted for Ralph Nader, a socialist whom no self-respecting libertarian would touch with a ten foot pole.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself.

Mark Twain

 

It is clear to me now that the
Republic no longer functions.

Queen Amidala [Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, 1999]


You Better Get Wised Up!

All you people out there, Republicans, Democrats, Perotistas, Greens, TM'ers, etc., who are so eager to give up your freedom, so that the police can protect you from doing things that are bad for you, by putting you in prison or seizing your property (just like a loving parent, no? -- though Martin Sheen seems to be happy that Charlie got arrested) -- well, I really don't think it is a good idea to let people sell themselves into slavery; but if you really want to, I don't suppose I want try and stop you.
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
-- Samuel Adams [not just beer]
But, you do not have the authority to surrender my rights, sell me into slavery, or have your armed agents attack me for peacefully disposing of my own person and property as I see fit, in voluntary relationships with others. If you do that, then you are criminals; and I have an absolute right, before God and the Constitution, to defend myself against the wrongs and injustice of your criminal assaults and the tyranny of your politicians, judges, bureaucrats, and officers (good Germans, all of them). Mind your own damn business, and leave me the hell alone! But if you want the goons and tax collectors off your back too, you can always vote for me!

Yes, I admit it, I am a recovering Democrat (like Roy Innis, at right). To my eternal shame, I first voted in 1972 for George McGovern, then in 1976 for Jimmie Carter. I was even a card carrying member of the ACLU and the Sierra Club. I sat out 1980 but then voted for Walter Mondale in 1984 and Michael Dukakis in 1988.

Never again!

Next it was Libertarians from 1992 to 2004. From now on, it will only be Libertarians!

Brother Otter (Tim Matheson):  This situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

Brother Bluto (John Belushi):  We're just the guys to do it.

National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

Contents

I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. That is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can re-establish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very distinct curtailment of our liberty.

Calvin Coolidge, State of the Union message, December 3, 1924

The heritage of the "New Deal" is:

The American people have sold their birthright of freedom for a share in the loot of the Welfare State.

But trading freedom for security, just as trading freedom for equality, results in neither.

The Welfare State also makes a Police State necessary, for we make ourselves feudal vassals of politicians and bureaucrats. That they have powers we never thought of giving them, and always get a better share of "benefits" for being "public servants," is occasionally obvious to all; but the lesson has not been learned well enough for people to stop electing Demopublicans and Republicrats, all equal advocates of the Welfare/Police State. When politicians talk about "compassion," remember that there is the iron fist in that velvet glove:  If you don't want to practice or pay for quite the "compassion" that they require, men with guns will come after you.
Motto of the Democratic Party
There's a sucker born every minute.
Motto of the Republican Party
Don't, worry, we'll do all the things
the Democrats say they'll do, just
not as much; and, by the way, we're
not going to allow you to offend God.
Motto of the Libertarian Party
I'll mind my own business, and I
expect you to mind yours.

Soon, for breaking some obscure and contradictory bureaucratic regulation or other, perhaps even for smoking cigarettes in our own homes (the California health Nazis just decided that people can't even smoke in bars anymore), they'll have the entire Nation in prison, fed and clothed (poorly) for "community service" slave labor, and it will be too late. As Thomas Jefferson said,

"They will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price."

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A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.

P.J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores, 1992, p. xix

General Information & Issues


2006 Issues

2004 Issues

2002 Issues

2000 Issues

Constitutional Issues and History

1998 Pages


1996 Pages

1994 Pages

Essays in Politics, Economics, Ethics, and Law by Kelley Ross, from The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series


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"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen.
And I say let us give them all they want."
-- William Tecumseh Sherman

Blame
Environmentalists
for 9/11!		Blame
the Drug Warriors
for 9/11!
The World Trade Center towers collapsed, killing thousands, because of "environmentalist" scare-mongering.

The World Trade Center towers were designed to withstand the impact of fully loaded 707 aircraft. Part of this design was asbestos insulation that would prevent burning aircraft fuel from melting the interior steel supports of the buildings.

After the towers had been built to the 45th floor, however, the use of asbestos insulation was discontinued because of protests from environmentalists. The asbestos was regarded as too toxic to use. One engineer then predicted that a fire above 45th floor on either of the buildings would result in their collapse. He was right.

Is asbestos really so hazardous? No. There are different mineralogical varieties of asbestos. Some varities are dangerous, and their fibers can cause nasty forms of lung cancer. Most of the asbestos mined and used in North American, on the other hand, is entirely harmless. The hysteria over asbestos in the World Trade Center, and most other places, was thus unncessary -- and dangerous. Asbestos has always been a superior fire-proofing insulation, which is why it was used in the first place. Leaving it out of the World Trade Center was perilous. Now thousands of people have died because of the falsehoods of environmentalist scare-mongering.

Will they admit their error and their guilt? Not likely. They will keep imposing costs, dangers, and tyranny and blame others. [note]

 Why did police arrest 734,498 pot-smokers, instead of tracking murderous terrorists?

American law enforcement is guilty of something close to "criminal neglect" for arresting 734,498 people for marijuana violations last year -- instead of investigating and stopping murderous terrorists, the Libertarian Party says.

"Thousands of innocent Americans may be dead because law enforcement considered it more important to raid college frat parties and arrest people for smoking marijuana than to find and stop the deadly terrorist 'sleeper' cells that were plotting the greatest mass murder in American history," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director.

"You just have to wonder: If the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, the millions of man-hours, and the billions of dollars that were spent monitoring, investigating, arresting, charging, processing, jailing, and bringing to trial non-violent marijuana users had been used, instead, for anti-terrorist activities -- could the September 11 atrocity have been prevented?"

Among the materials seized from the World Trade Center bombers of 1993 were plans for hijacking airplanes and crashing them into buildings. Nothing was done about this.

Reject the Left!Reject the Right!

Proud to Join
Team America, World Police!
America! F*** Yeah!

Tzu-lu put up for the night at the Stone Gate.
The gatekeeper said, "From whom have you come?"
Tzu-lu answered, "From Mr. K'ung."
"Is that the one who keeps pursuing a goal that he knows is hopeless?"

[Analects, 14:38 (or 14:41), after D.C. Lau & James Legge]

From "Just like back home," by Vin Suprynowicz

A survey conducted by the Marshall School of Business at USC and by the Los Angeles Times -- and reported in that newspaper Sept. 23 -- found that despite a supposed economic boom, a disturbing one-sixth of small businesses in southern California report their revenues have fallen by 10 percent or more in the past year. Fifty-two percent said they have seen no growth. Fifteen percent of the California businesses surveyed said they were considering leaving the state.

And while the respondents also named competitive pressure from major chain stores, a shortage of skilled labor, and trouble getting financing as reasons to consider such a move, the most compelling tales of woe consistently mentioned another factor: government red tape.

Southern California business owners "uniformly complained about anti-business policies coming out of Sacramento," the Times reported. But business owners in the city of Los Angeles reported local government is even worse, with its "endless fees, cumbersome permit process and astronomical business tax. Granada Hills accountant Gail Hargrove says an entrepreneur client of hers worked in Los Angeles for 11 months and got socked with $11,000 in city business taxes, compared with the $124 a year she's paying now in Glendale."

Ms. Hargrove says her first piece of professional advice to such clients is her simplest: "Move."

[September 27, 1998, THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz, "Just like back home"]

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Who to Blame for 9/11?
Note

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has said, "Even with the airplane impact and jet-fuel-ignited multi-floor fires, the building would likely not have collapsed had it not been for the [non-asbestos] fireproofing."

In all fairness, there were other factors in the quick collapse of the World Trade Center -- though Envirnomentalists rarely argue very fairly themselves. The fire insulation on many of the structural elements in the building got blown away by the explosion of the aircraft after impact. That is not going to help, whether there was asbestos in the insulation or not.

Perhaps even more important was the basic nature of the structure. Older skyscrapers contained solid laticeworks of steel beams. The exterior walls, which soon became no more than glass in many buildings, were mere curtains. They were not structural elements. At the World Trade Center, however, the structure of the building consisted of the outer shell, which was not just a curtain, and an inner trunk that contained the elevators and utilities. In between the shell and the trunk was space. It was thus possible on each floor in the building to have an unobstructed view from one side of the building to the other. This was attactive to tenants. Having visited the Empire State Building and then the World Trade Center, I found the open space inside the doors of the Trade Center both striking and perplexing. The floors for these spaces themselves, indeed, had to be held up by something, and these were very light truss structures suspended between the shell and the trunk. With fire underneath, the trusses were very vulnerable to melting. As they sagged, the floors pulled away from their supports and fell. A cascade of falling floors left the external shell unbraced, with the energy of the falling floors twisting it. So it broke. All this mass of falling steel and concrete was evidently enough to compromise the inner trunk and bring it down too.

So perhaps the real problem with the World Trade Center was its design, rather than just the Environmentalist hysteria over asbestos. Any few minutes, however, that asbestos might have given would have meant fewer dead, so the point is still there.

The hysteria over asbestos, however, is a continuing evil. The most common variety of asbestos used in the United States, 95% of all asbestos used in the United States, was "white" or chrysotile asbestos. This appears to be almost entirely harmless. Asbestos miners in Quebec, where the chrysotile comes from, show, even after lifetime exposures, no elevated levels of lung diseases. Not only that, but asbestos weathers out of many naturally occurring minerals in the United States, like serpentine, the State Rock of California. Asbestos is thus commonly found in the air and water in California, with the highest levels in the Klamath River in northern California and Oregon. On a 1999 Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA) map of California that I have, an area near San Benito Mountain, in San Benito Country in central California, is actually labeled "Natural Asbestos Hazard Area." This label is near an unimproved dirt road, where asbestos dust can be expected to be stirred up by the passage of automobiles. It is also in a remote area where few visitors are to be expected. If the map told people that serpentine is common in all the Coastal Ranges, and that asbestos can thus be found in the air and water all up and down California, panic might ensue. This asbestos hazard could not be blamed on corporations with deep pockets, but only on Mother Nature herself.

As noted, however, chrysotile asbestos is harmless. The dangerous forms of asbestos, "blue" (crocidolite) and "brown" (amosite), which do indeed cause diseases and cancers like mesothelioma and asbestosis, never constituted more than 5% of the asbestos used in the United States and had to be specially imported from Africa. This was a limited problem, with relatively few places where asbestos removal was needed or ill asbestos workers needed to be compensated. But this is not what we have gotten. Not only has all the chrysotile been uselessly and dangerously torn out of buildings (dangerously because it was installed in the first place as fireproofing, as in the original design of the World Trade Center), but the litigation band wagon rolls on years after all reasonable claims should have been settled. The principle in asbestos litigation now is that anyone exposed to any kind of asbestos who thinks they might eventually become ill because of it has a claim -- not just against miners of asbestos or manufacturers of asbestos products, but even against companies who later simply bought assets of companies that mined or manufactured asbestos products.

As it happens, the traditional common law rule of torts that actual damage must be shown was set aside on the consideration that asbestos related diseases can take many years to develop and that litigants sometimes die before damages can be recovered. This was a sensible consideration, but the application opens the door to vast abuse. People who are unlikely to ever develop asbestos related diseases can now, just by having been around chrysotile (by living in San Francisco?), sue companies that never had anything to do with asbestos and win large settlements. (Most of which goes to the lawyers anyway, by the way.) Thus, asbestos ligitation continues to expand even when the threat, and any real damages, recede into the past. This disgraceful situation is the fruit of junk science and predatory lawyers. If crusading "investigative" reporters at the national news networks really wanted to expose the truth, rather than just shill for the Democratic Party, they could easily begin with a report from the "Natural Asbestos Hazard Area" in California. At the least, they might frighten people into leaving the State -- though I think sensible people are doing that already, to get away from the Cuban form of government that the Democrats have been building.

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