The Liberty Papers

UPDATE: Welcome, Washington Independent, The Other McCain and Michigan Blogger readers.  We’ve got more recent Tea Party goodness located here, too.

Electing dead guys

The New York Times is making the point that Missouri citizens have now elected another dead guy.  I fail to see how this local news is so important from a national perspective.  After all, it seems that we’ve just placed Karl Marx in the White House.

Electing live guys

Jason Pye brings our attention to the possible candidacy of Atlanta’s morning radio personality Eric Von Haessler, who is seriously considering a run for U.S. Senate as a Libertarian Party candidate.  I’ve heard Von Haessler described as a “shock jock,” but I recently had a drink with him, Bob Barr and a few other folks and found that he seems to be a well-spoken and responsible family man.  Still funny though, even when wearing his respectability costume.

The Culture War

Via Radley Balko at Reason, it seems that South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker recieved a signed photo of Saddam Hussein. “During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan. He was also regularly depicted in a similar manner during the TV series.”

Kooks, Part I

The other day I ranted about “Good Gun Nuts.  Bad Gun Nuts.”  I’ll make the point again that I made then:  “If you want people to discredit whatever valid political message you have, start talking about Obama’s birth certificate or WTC 7 or a grassy knoll in Dallas.  You can be assured of having your message about bailouts or stimulus packages or pork and especially the Second Amendment disregarded, too.”

I’ve been accused by commenters of not being very libertarian on this one.  I’ll try to make my point perfectly clear.  Everyone has the right to hold and promote whatever kooky view he or she desires.  However, the expression of certain views is inappropriate in many situations and can be damaging to the freedom movement.  I’ll add that it’s also within the bounds of libertarianism for people to call bat-shit crazy kookery what it is: bat-shit crazy kookery.

Kooks, Part II

In defending Glenn Beck from kook charges, Robert Stacy McCain scribed a rather long but eloquent defense which also explains everything from recent failures of the GOP to Austrian economics.

“Should law schools offer courses on state constitutional law?”

That’s the question asked by Eric Posner at The Volokh Conspiracy.  Glenn Reynolds responds:

I’m prejudiced, of course, since I teach one of those. But I’d say yes. First, it has more practice relevance than most people think, especially where business clients are involved since state constitutions often focus much more on money issues. Second, state constitutions are interesting, and studying them helps remind students that constitutions are made things, the product of human action, which the reification of the federal constitution often obscures. And today’s state constitutional issue — gay marriage, sodomy, the right to arms — is often tomorrow’s federal constitutional issue, to boot.

Where do I sign up?

There’s a rumor floating around the tubes that ACORN will be passing out disguised petitions at Tea Parties around the country.  I’ll take the “John Hancock” approach on this one.  For those afraid to use your own name on petitions, feel free to use mine.  Please be careful to spell the name correctly and use large, bold letters.  A version of the e-mail I’ve been receiving appears below the fold:

Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 2:02 PM
Subject: TEA PARTY CAUTION! DO NOT SIGN

Feel Free to Pass This On!

Passing this on. I received this from a reliable friend. This is IMPORTANT,  Be careful!  This is a slick maneuver if attempted. This appears to be another way to BS the people and make things appear different from what they really are.

I would like to encourage everyone to take the time to attend a TEA Party near you or organize one. I will be at the one in Bellevue, Wa.

Sarge

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#

The following information was forwarded to me from another webring:

TEA PARTY CAUTION! DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING – FROM ANYONE – AT ANY TEA PARTY ANYWHERE IN THE USA —- NO EXCEPTIONS!

Federally-funded ACORN operators will be at all Tea Parties to get signatures which they will give to Obama stating that the signatures are in support of his policies or to get the names of people who oppose his policies and report dissention.

NO MATTER WHAT, DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING! IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO PLAN TO ATTEND, WHO DO NOT HAVE EMAIL, GET ON THE PHONE TO WARN THEM.  TRY TO CALL OR EMAIL RADIO TALK SHOWS AND LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG.

PASS IT ON!