Features from the freedom front

April 7, 6:33 PMDallas Libertarian ExaminerGarry Reed

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From time to time an effort will be made to inform one and all of the doings and goings-on of persons persuaded by the libertarian lifestyle.

This isn't meant to be a venue for fast-paced breaking news, just a sporadic special report from inside the self-designated free speech zone.

Folks beyond the fold might be interested in finding out that libertarianism embraces much more than mere politics, which is why its adherents refer to “big L” and “little L” libertarians. Those who belong to the political party are “big L” Libertarians with a capital L that rhymes with “swell” that works quite well for The Libertarian Party. Those who aren’t politically disposed but still put forth the philosophy are uncapitalized “little L” libertarians.

Many are both.

This assortment of short reports all happen to have elements, major or minor, of politics. Future narratives may not.
 

 
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Sooner State Gatecrashers?

Oklahoma politicians don’t like outsiders participating in Oklahoma petition drives. They passed a law outlawing outsiders. But in 2005, libertarian activist Paul Jacobs and two others (Rick Carpenter of Oklahomans in Action and Susan Johnson of National Voter Outreach) solicited signatures for a Taxpayers Bill of Rights anyway and ended up getting themselves pitched into the pokey, even though the U.S. Constitution, rumored to be “The highest law of the land" says, rather explicitly, that they can.

The explicitness is stated right there in the very First Amendment, that pesky passage that so acutely annoys the authoritarian minded in our midst.

The relevant bits read as follows: "Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Now a court, composed either of “strict constructionists” or “living documentists,” the latter unable to find any way to twist the meaning of words that have such obviously clear untwistable meaning, has ruled that Oklahoma politicians just can’t do that. The “Oklahoma 3” most certainly can too petition in Oklahoma, so there.

It never has been clear exactly how Jacobs et al were deemed outsiders. They aren’t Oklahomans but they are Americans. Oklahomans are also Americans. Ergo, ipso facto, WTF, they all qualify as “the people” in that inconvenient First Amendment thingie.

That leaves Okiecrats as the only obvious outsiders, being as authoritarians are everywhere, outside the world of freedom.

Come the revolution they will be “left behind.”

Erstwhile Indiana Insider on the Outs

The Libertarian Party of Indiana proudly announced in February that Indianapolis GOP councilman Ed Coleman spit out the Kool-Aid, took the red pill, came over from the Dark Side, and joined the Party of Principle.

The erstwhile elephant told the Indy Star he was criticized by fellow Republicans when he opposed the "secretive and expensive affairs of the Capital Improvement Board."
"The two old parties,” concluded Coleman, “want obedient followers, not leaders."

Even though his former friends still control the council 15 Reps to 13 Dems you knew there had to be some recrimination from the Petty Power Partisans. In an act of true bipartisanship, the two old parties colluded to kick Coleman off of all committees.

Sort of the political version of picking up their toys and going home.

Coleman allowed as how he was disappointed in their “lack of imagination.”

Picking on Paul

Texas Congressman Ron Paul is the political paladin of rightwing small government capitalist Republicans as well as the rightwing wing of the Libertarian Party who oppose coercion (especially the government kinds) but still want to keep just enough coercion around to collect taxes for the purpose of maintaining a downsized but robust government-run military, police, and legal system.

Paul, according to Slate, was also the butt of a Borat ruse.

Comic Sacha Baron Cohen, who played an English-mangling pseudo-ingénue Eastern European documentary movie-maker in the big screen hit Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has reportedly picked on Congressman Paul for his forthcoming and shorter-named follow-up film, Bruno.

Word has it that Cohen sets up an unsuspecting Paul by arranging an “interview” in a hotel room and then tries to seduce him in another room by dropping his drawers. Paul is said to have stormed out of the room muttering “queer” or “weird” depending on who’s telling, or spinning, the story.

Cohen, according to critics, only picks on conservatives, which makes him a liberal leaning lackey, lusting for love from the cult of the left.

Libertarians are above such narrow childishness, belittling equally the cults of both left and right.