Freedom Home Page of the Week Archive Summer 2000

Earlier this year, two Ralph Nader-headed organizations proposed the creation of ten new Web domain names including the controversial dot-sucks (.sucks) domain for disgruntled consumers, employees, etc. to vent their frustration at whatever big corporation precedes the dot-sucks. Being the supposedly liberal free-speech advocate that he and his supporters claim to be, one might think they'd be accepting, even curious, to know that a new Web site, NaderSucks.org has been created to vent frustrations against the Green Party candidate/corporate gadfly. But when Joel Grus, founder of NaderSucks.org and LP candidate for Congress, approached him with a NaderSucks.org flyer, he was "forcibly rejected by a Nader thug."

This apparent hypocrisy exposed, plus my feeling that I still owe penance for voting Nader in '96, makes NaderSucks.org this week's recipient of the coveted Freedom Page of the Week.

And HOO boy, does this site go the distance. Though NaderSucks.org doesn't contain much original content, possibly every negative thing ever said, alleged, or screamed about Nader is linked to from this site. This is your Hate-Ralph-Nader gateway page. From the extremely thorough and footnoted "Ralph Nader's Skeleton Closet" to a nice expose of "Ralph Nader's Green Party Platform" to the furied rantings of "It's all Ralph's Fault", you will find plenty of bad things to say about the would-be saint.

There. I've served my penance. I've said my mea culpas. I'll vote right this year. I promise.

Regular readers of Free-Market.Net, Miss Liberty's Film and TV World, and other libertarian Web sites know by now that prominent (and lonely in his field) libertarian journalist John Stossel has recently been attacked by the environmental left. They want him fired, (OH, they want it so badly,) for misstatements which he admittedly made regarding a study of the relative safety of non-organic and organic produce. His mistake was pointed out to him; he publicly apologized. But that's not enough for them. They want his head.

Thankfully, the response on the Web supporting Stossel has been substantial. Last I checked the ABC Web site discussion forum, most of the posts were pro-Stossel. But, he's not out of the woods yet. We're dealing with the environmental (read "wacko") left here. These are the people who see no problem with living in other people's trees for years, if it advances their political agenda. The attacks on Stossel are continuing and will continue.

SaveJohnStossel.org is here to keep up our side of the fight. In addition to sponsoring a petition to keep Stossel on the air (1,200 signatures and only a week old!), they're keeping a diligent watchful eye on the media for negative articles about Stossel so that you can write letters to the editor. (Optimists, don't fret. Positive articles are also being written and posted at the site.)

Sign the petition. Write the letters. Save John Stossel. He really is a lone voice of reason in the national media. We libertarians cannot afford to lose him.

In my frequent arguments with my anarcho-socialist friend, whom we'll call Mike, I'm often accused of thinking "inside the box", of being "too rational", with words like "rational" and "logic" usually showing up inside "scare quotes." (Our debates take place over e-mail. Arguing in person usually devolves into screaming.) Mike will point me towards various Web sites which "explain" his position, and I'll confess that I can't make heads nor tails of them. They'll usually have as much to do with puppet festivals as they will with hard theory. And, I'm usually left having to point him to sites which contain scores of "rational", "logical" articles, and very little "fun" (which I secretly think is what's really behind his brand of anarchism anyway.)

Well, no more! Now, there is Anarcho-Capitalist.com, a site which combines some deeply thoughtful (and very balanced) consideration of both sides of anarchism (coming down on the capitalist side) with a genuinely anarchic sense of fun. Anarcho-Capitalist.com is divided into several distinct pages. For the hard theory, go to Hogeye Bill's Anarchism Page where you'll find his FAQ on the subject, plus an extensive Library of Liberty containing fully webbed texts of some of the most important works of anarchism. (This is definitely one to bookmark.)

Much of the rest of Anarcho-Capitalist.com is devoted to... The Blues. Good, old fashioned, guitar blues. Musician Ben Orton keeps his home page here, and there's a good page dedicated to the genius of Blind Willie McTell. What does all this have to do with Anarcho-Capitalism? Beats me, but I don't care! It's just a relief to see that anarcho-capitalists have other interests, even artistic interests. (Being an actor myself, I'm strongly in favor of us taking the art world away from the squishy left.)

There's also a page of the photography of Mitsu Yoshikawa and a completely inexplicable page called "Lenosisi". If you can tell me what it means,...

Anarcho-Capitalist.com reminds me that it is possible to be right and also have fun. So, take off your pants and dance around, Rothbardians! Make a giant papier-mache head and parade down the street, David Friedman-ites! Just take a look at Hogeye Bill himself. He's obviously having fun. Why ain't you?

What great things can be said about Laissez Faire Books that haven't already been said? Every libertarian who has been around for awhile knows that they have "The World's Best Selection of Books on Liberty." Every libertarian should know that they gave Free-Market.Net (five years strong and getting stronger) Founder Chris Whitten his professional start in the freedom movement. The only thing left that I can think of is ...

And oh boy, is it cool. The new site is divided into three sections: The Bookstore is where you actually do the browsing and buying, much like before only easier, and with FREE SHIPPING in August to celebrate the launch of the new site. The Community is where you can read Andrea Millen Rich's monthly Publisher's Corner reviews, the Staff Picks, and when you find yourself a little tapped for cash, sate your hunger for libertarian reading at the Library of Liberty. The third and final section is "My Account."

"My Account" is the biggest change to the Laissez Faire Books site. Just like the big shot book sites, you can now set up a personalized online account which will always be there for you. And as a great incentive to set up an account today, 50 free Page Points are offered to all new accounts. Page Points are another brand new feature and they work like this: For every $1 you spend, you receive one Page Point. Each Page Point is worth one page of a book. So, if you spend $50, you get a free 50-pages-or-less book. If you spend $100, you get 100 pages or less. If you spend $986, you're just one page short of getting Rothbard's "Man, Economy, and State." (And no, smart guy, you can't just redeem points for pages. You have to get whole books.)

By now, you've probably heard of Carnivore, the FBI spy program which may be monitoring your e-mail right now. But, in case you haven't, the short story is this: The FBI has a spy program called Carnivore which may be monitoring your e-mail RIGHT NOW. The program's details are still pretty well kept secret by our unelected Big Brother but we do know that, once set up at an ISP, Carnivore can search all electronic communication on that ISP for incriminating key words and phrases.

Personally, I think one good way to foil the program would be for everyone to get in the habit of adding incriminating words and phrases to their e-mail signatures and content. I mean, they can't just go around busting all of us, can they?

Seriously though, this thing needs to be nipped in the bud and Stop Carnivore NOW! is dedicated to doing just that. This very thorough site will give you the full lowdown on what we know about Carnivore and, if you're not already convinced, why it's bad for you. And, when you're angry and ready to take action, How To Stop Carnivore will give you not one, not three, but SIX things to do right now.

Speaking of which, do you know where I can score a private arsenal of man-boy love?

This week's Page of the Week is a site dedicated solely to that noble and thankless task: getting libertarians out of the bookshelves and into the streets. Since the wild-eyed socialist left has proven that it's not quite dead yet with loud, violent protests in Seattle and Washington DC, the time may be ripe for it. CounterProtest.net's first coordinated event will be in Philadelphia on July 30, to counter Unity 2000's "anti-freedom, anti-progress" protest of the Republican National Convention.

Unfortunately, since this site is brand new and still in its infancy, much of it remains incomplete. What you'll find there is information on the upcoming protest (including details on how the libertarians will be easily distinguished from the crazies: bright orange t-shirts emblazoned with L's), and how you can help. A Resources page links to the best of young libertarian Web sites. A page called "Hack us!" is one of the incomplete pages, but I can't wait to find out what it means.

I'll be watching the news on Sunday and I hope to see a sea of bright orange overtaking the reds in Philly.

Freedom was dealt some pretty harsh blows this past week: The state of Florida has made real headway towards putting tobacco companies out of business for the crime of selling their legal product, and the Feds were cleared for the moment of any responsibility for killing religious eccentrics. It was nearly enough to make me throw my arms up in despair and cry, "I give up on the world."

Someone once said that art is man determined to stay sane. This week's Page of the Week is devoted to a piece of artwork which, this week, helped me maintain my sanity.

The Monument of the Unknown Government Employee is an existing sculpture looking for a permanent home in D.C. It was constructed by artist John Marshall and was built from materials like granite and concrete "so that the structure evokes the bombastic classicism of Work Projects Administration architecture." Its centerpiece is a large, metal coffee urn, and it is topped with a wind vane featuring a shadowy man with a briefcase and an equally ominous woman with a clipboard. From the photographs, the monument apparently enjoyed some time on display in Los Angeles City Hall but now Marshall is working on getting it to permanently join the other monuments in Washington. Not surprisingly, the campaign "so far has led to a stonewall with the House Architect." But Marshall isn't giving up. At his Web site, you can read and sign a petition to put it up, as well as read a proposed bill for Congress to consider. But the real highlights are the photos and artwork.

See the enshrined coffee urn and bureaucrats in all their glory at the Highlights and Specifications page and some very funny paintings of the monument in various locales (including on a postage stamp) at the Monument Art Gallery. A "Monument Merch" page is under construction and, assuming "Merch" stands for "Merchandise", I can't wait to get a large poster. Or maybe a t-shirt. Or both, for whenever I need a reminder that, somehow, it's still possible to laugh at the bastards.

Zinc miner, tobacco farmer, slumlord. Who is this monster who neglects his tenants, rapes the earth, and profits off of killing people with nasty addictive drugs? He's none other than wannabe President Al Gore. But we can forgive him his foibles because, after all, he is an environmentalist who deeply cares about the future of this planet and the people who live on it. Doesn't he?

The new Web site, Earth and the Unbalanced, begs to differ. This informative (and funny) site is dedicated to "debunking and discrediting Al Gore and his modern Malthusian counterparts." You might think that an entire site devoted to coverage of the politician-most-often-compared-to-a-robot would be boring, but the scrappy youngsters of E and the U have created a uniquely entertaining experience. "Eco-Al Says" is a compendium of quotes from the man himself paired with sensible responses. And a monthly contest featuring free-market environmentalist books as prizes gives a good reason to keep checking back, (if the constantly updated news reports and featured articles aren't enough.)

Earth and the Unbalanced was launched on Earth Day 2000, and has quickly grown into a professional, well-designed, and popular site. It's got all the makings of a great home page: news reports, articles, monthly contests, and writers of style and humor...

The reviews are in and Mel Gibson's new movie, The Patriot, is... not bad. Not everyone is in agreement that it's great either, but it would seem to be director Roland Emmerich's best film yet and a relieving bounce-back after last year's abysmal Godzilla. The consensus is that it's a stirring, patriotic film and an appropriate way to spend a Fourth of July.

At the official Web site of the movie, you can get the usual Hollywood marketing-type reasons why you should see the movie: Mel Gibson is sexy, Chris Cooper is our most underrated actor, Roland Emmerich knows how to direct action sequences, and the production design makes you want to stand up and sing. But, of course, the real reason to see the movie is that it pisses leftists off.

This movie was attacked from several fronts before it opened, for being loosely based on the life of a man who wasn't quite as wholesome as Mel Gibson, and for depicting children blowing away redcoats with (gasp) GUNS!! Thankfully, those attacks were promptly forgotten by a blockbuster-hungry public. Hollywood needs this kind of feedback. Going to see The Patriot may mean more than just an afternoon's entertainment. After all, as we well know, one important advantage of the market over government is that the market responds to the public's desires. And the success of The Patriot means that the public doesn't mind seeing kids use firearms in defense against tyranny. Perhaps it means that the tagline for the film, "Some things are worth fighting for", means something important to Americans. And maybe, just maybe, liberal but still capitalist-at-heart Hollywood will take notice and allow more conservative voices like Gibson's, and apparently Emmerich's, to be heard more often.

Or maybe it just means that Mel is sexy enough to carry any movie. Either way, it's worth eight bucks.

In late 1996, not long after I cast my presidential vote for Ralph Nader in hopes of smashing the evil capitalist empire, I was browsing a local bookstore when I happened upon a bright orange paperback book with the words "'Brilliant!' --Sting" emblazoned on the cover.

The preface alone caught me: "There is no need to read this entire book." There, on page vii, the author was telling me that I should "feel free to skip around, reading what you find interesting, ignoring what you don't." Fascinating, charming, funny. I bought the book, discovered the word "libertarian," and my life hasn't been the same.

A few months later, an actor friend of mine living in LA delivered a pizza to a fascinating, charming, and funny man who engaged him in a conversation and gave him a copy of his book to read as a tip. My friend called me and said, "What was that book you were telling me about? I think I just met the author. Really nice guy and he gave me a copy to read so I don't need to borrow yours."

Many of you now by know that the book's author, Peter McWilliams, died last week. There's no question that, as Chris Whitten put it, "we've lost a hero."

Though I never met him personally, I also feel that I've lost a friend. No single book was more responsible for straightening out my thinking than McWilliams' instant classic. It's a book that you give to friends. Peter McWilliams considered everybody his friend, and put the entire book up on the Web for free. If you haven't already, go read some of it now. You don't have to read the whole thing.

I graduated from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. (I also had the pleasure of living on Iowa Ave., making my address one of the easiest in the world to remember.) I can say from experience that, if the teeming-with-socialists Iowa City is any indication, Iowans are in need of some education about the nature of freedom and free markets. The Public Interest Institute, located in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, is working to fill that need. They also happen to be the most recent addition to Free-Market.Net's growing list of partner organizations!

For Iowans, PII maintains a research library with all the best libertarian publications, and distributes copies of their Iowa Civics Project to interested school teachers who would like to supplement their civics lessons with something other than government-sponsored propaganda. For non-Iowans, the most interesting thing at the PII Web site is the Limitations on Government section. Here you can find, organized both by state and by issue, the various ways in which individual states have acted (or not acted) to limit government's penchant for taxing and spending.

I don't know if Iowa City has changed much since I left, but I'm told that a recent Barnes & Noble opening in nearby Coralville was greeted with much protest and petitioning about corporate greed. Here's to hoping that the Public Interest Institute makes some headway in the Hawkeye state.

Once again, I am left to curse the gods who left me on this world without a handheld computer. If you're one of the fortunate ones, (or if you opted against waiting for it to fall from the sky and earned your Palm Pilot by working hard and saving money,) then you can be the envy of guys like me by subscribing to the Cato Institute's latest cool service: Cato Mobile.

No longer will you have to wait until you get to work (or home) to read Cato's indispensable Daily Commentary or Daily Dispatch. All you need is the free AvantGo software (available through a link at the Cato site), and you can read all the latest libertarian news and opinion on a train, in a plane, on a boat, even with a goat. Just don't be surprised when you have to shoo me away from reading over your shoulder.

By the way, if you don't have a handheld computer, now might be a good time to remind yourself why you need one. Go read the latest Daily Commentary and Daily Dispatch from your desktop. I promise you'll enjoy them, indoors or out.

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