Freedom Home Page of the Week Archive Fall 1997

This week we give thanks for the many blessings of liberty that have been bestowed upon us. So to whom do we owe the freedom emerging around the world, in real space and in cyberspace? Well, the Acton Institute has come up with a pretty good list of men and women, dating from the Middle Ages, who devoted their lives to the cause of liberty. There are many names with which you will probably be familiar, and quite a few that will be as new to you as they were to us. In any event, it is an appropriate and instructive look back at liberty's past. And, of course, what is past is prologue. Happy Thanksgiving!

"You have found the throbbing, pulsing heart of the libertarian movement," claims this Web page. Published by the radical left-libertarian Agorist Institute and edited by long-time libertarian agitator Samuel Edward Konkin III, the New Libertarian calls itself the "Journal of Record of the Libertarian Movement."

While there are only a couple of issues online, there are contributions from Wendy McElroy and Victor Koman, among others. The index page also features an alternate to Tuccille's "It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand" (this month's free drawing prize). "The History of the Libertarian Movement" is Konkin's own take on the early days of the modern libertarian movement in the 60's and 70's.

The New Libertarian also features a Libertarian Calendar, replete with an Agorist Rating, i.e. "0 (totally statist), 1 (contains something redeeming), 2 (partyarch/pro-political), 3 (free-market and/or New Left and/or anti-imperialist), 4 (counter-economic/agorist/isolationist). 5 (hardest core possible).

Tremendous! Libman's World greets you with an amusing juxtaposition: classic nude oil paintings with the question, "Are these images indecent?" You know you're in for a good time.

One highlight of the site is a libertarian quote server. You'll want to click to the "Libertarian Sites" as well, which features the Libertarian Tour, an animated slide show that does a wonderful job of "touring" the basic tenets of the libertarian philosophy.

Libman's World is a delight to look at, so I encourage you to wait for all the images to download to get the full experience of the site.

We felt that on the occasion of Jeng Zemin's visit to the United States it would be appropriate to highlight the excellent site from the folks at Human Rights in China. Their pages download quickly and have lots of information about the current human rights situation in China, available both in Chinese and English. The site includes lots of HRIC press releases concerning noted political prisoners and back-issues of their publication, "China Rights Forum," including their winter issue focusing on Hong Kong. One caveat: HRIC, like many human-rights groups, also agitates on behalf of "economic, social, and cultural rights" (i.e., welfare-statism). Fortunately, most of the site's materials focus on the struggle for civil and political liberty in China, including a well-reasoned piece on the "Asian values" argument against the universality of human rights.

FYI: Since the HRIC does not mention China's Most-Favored Nation (MFN) status in the United States, we thought it would be worthwhile to include a couple of articles discussing the importance of free trade to the future of human rights in China.

Here's a zingy little e-zine you might want to sample. Journal X is essentially a half dozen twenty-something libertarian-conservatives "drinking and writing for your amusement." There are two main sections -- Politics & Culture and Fiction & Reviews -- filled every week with fresh and humorous takes on current events and pop culture.

James Craig Green's LIFEPOWER philosophy is a testament to the challenges of "a life lived freely." Defenders of freedom are often criticized (from both the left and right) as being soulless heathens whose attacks on government power are out of sync with the human need for community. "Yes, we know what you are against," they say, "but what are you for?"

Green offers us a way to answer them. What we need, writes Green, is a more balanced relationship between the individual and his environment. "Collectives need productive individuals, and individuals need the support of collectives," Green writes. "The key to maximizing this relationship is VOLUNTARY CHOICE based on MUTUAL ADVANTAGE. LIFEPOWER means that individuals prosper most when they take responsibility for their own lives, and treat others with the respect they would like to receive themselves. This is done not from the weakness of self-sacrifice, but from the strength of self interest." Fusing Eastern and Western thought, Green presents a dynamic personal philosophy that challenges conventional "communitarian" thought.

Everybody knows that pro-freedom ideas have carried the day on the Internet. J. Neil Schulman and Pulpless.Com are taking the next step by making the best libertarian science fiction and non-fiction available to Netizens at the click of a mouse button. Particularly notable is "Kings of the High Frontier" by Victor Koman, the first electronically published novel to win a major literary award (1997 Prometheus Award). Among the other favorites from Pulpless are "Volk" by Piers Anthony, and Schulman's "Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns" and "The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana."

According to its creator, AnarchoCyberSludge "attempts to cover three main topics: the weird, wild, wonderful side of politics, technology, and music." Why? "Because... in this information age, Americans are realizing that government doesn't work, but that technology, freedom, individual responsibility, and fun does." And so, AnarchoCyberSludge includes all sorts of interesting information, essays, original graphic design and links concerning libertarianism, rational egoism, Ayn Rand, encryption, digital cash, and heavy sludge-metal music. This site is verifiably cool and goes a long way toward dispelling the notion that anyone who believes in freedom must be a geek. Or perhaps I am so steeped in my own geekdom that I am incapable of distinguishing true coolness from a mere approximation of it. Whatever the case may be, from one geek to another, this page is worth checking out.

Coinciding with our Policy Spotlight this month on the future of money, we want to honor one of the most creative ideas to come along the pike in a long time. The e-gold home page touts e-gold as "transnational e-money 100% backed by gold." Many freedom fighters believe a political solution to the problem of creeping socialism is either unlikely or impossible, leaving them embittered or in despair. And there are those who, like Douglas Jackson and Barry Downey, e-gold's creators, have instead tried to find a private, creative solution to restoring individual liberty in a world overrun by government busybodies gone mad. Whether e-gold is the answer to our problems is still up for debate, but at least a fresh, pro-freedom idea is being put into practice in the real world.

Andrew J. Coulson's site is about as good as a personal home page can get. It combines the author's personal interest and work, with solid design and content. Luckily for us, this school-choice site also goes a long way towards undermining the many mythconceptions, as Coulson calls them, which clutter up the debate about education in America and around the world. Also included is a section outlining the hard evidence in the debate, and a couple of classic writings on school choice. Coulson has gathered all this material in the process of writing a book considering the alternatives to the government-school monopoly (e.g., vouchers vs. total privatization, etc.).

You probably know Penn Jillette best as the bigger, more boisterous member of the magic/comedy duo of Penn & Teller. But he is much, much more than just a magician -- he's a libertarian, skeptic and techno-freak extraordinaire. Now he's a writing an abrasive, heavily hyper-linked and very funny column at Excite. He serves up Penniphilia every two weeks. And by the way, you may also want to check out Sin City, the Penn & Teller home page.

September 7-13
Rationale: The Electronic Magazine of Reason (No longer available) Rationale is a high-quality e-zine with an Objectivist perspective. The husband and wife team of James and Ronda Carnicelli have been publishing it since the beginning of the year. With the help of a half dozen other contributors, the Carnicellis have been producing quality material every month. You'll find features and columns on topics like the UPS strike, homeschooling, cloning, emotions, and much more. There are also extensive reviews of movies, books, and art. (A great way to find entertainment that fits your values.) There are plenty of opportunities for interaction too, from comment forms at the bottom of each article to discussion forums and live chat. On top of it all, this is a well-designed Web site. The layout is logical and easy to navigate, and the graphics are terrific (see their past cover art).

Did it ever strike you as paradoxical that the government shuts down on Labor Day? Anyway, if you're lucky enough to have the day off, you'll have plenty of time to check out this week's Freedom Home Page of the Week. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, based in Michigan, has provided a nice index that we can use to celebrate the many wonderful achievements we owe to the modern labor movement. Don't miss the editorial by Robert P. Hunter, Mackinac's director of labor policy, who writes that the UPS strike is a mere speed bump on organized labor's expressway to irrelevance. Another item to check out is the exhaustive feature on the harmful role the Michigan Education Association has played in that state's deteriorating government schools.

On a side note, you'll also be interested in Cato scholar Roger Pilon's testimony before Congress explaining how the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 allows unions to violate workers' freedom of association.

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