Freedom Home Page of the Week Archive Winter 1997

Despite a noticeable shift toward statist economic positions in the last few years, the ACLU remains a primary source of information and action on speech and privacy issues. Their site has current information the cases whose outcomes will have a potentially severe effect on our freedom, essays on civil liberties, etc.

IOS is David Kelley and company's answer to the more closed objectivism of Leonard Peikoff's Ayn Rand Institute. The Institute for Objectivist Studies supports the treatment of objectivism as an "open system," capable of growth beyond the parameters set by Rand during her lifetime.

There are resource pages, and resource pages. Mark Bernkopf's Central Banking Resource Center is definitely in the big leagues. If you're looking for current news, history, or analysis of central banks, their methods, or the economies they dominate, you'll find it here.

Any site that opens with an Ayn Rand quote and includes an extensive collection of gun links can't be all bad. Independence Hall has compilations of gun, government, and political links. In some cases, the site seems to brush up against the hard right (the links to Gordon Kahl information and Spotlight, for example), but is a valuable resource nonetheless. An additional kudo: the site is not graphics heavy. It loads quickly and lets you get at its content. Thanks to LeAnn Goettle for pointing this one out.

Libertarianism: A Primer, by David Boaz, may be the introduction to libertarian philosophy that we've been waiting for: a Libertarianism in One Lesson for the nineties. The sample chapters available at the Web site offer glimpses of what appears to be a comprehensive and readable, yet concise, introduction to the philosophy of freedom.

Four of the biggest mainstream e-zines (Salon, Electric Minds, Feed, and The Site) are collaborating on something called the The BrainWave Project. The idea behind the project is to explore major issues concerning culture and technology. Their first issue? "The reigning ideology of the Web," of course. You won't find any real insightful analysis of libertarianism here, but some of the articles and essays aren't bad. What's most exciting about this is the attention itself. As a friend of ours commented on hearing about it, "they no longer feel that just ignoring us will suffice, they've gotta attack."

Editor and publisher Alfred Adask dubs his magazine "A Critical Examination of the American Legal System." If there's a murky line dividing "legitimate" government from "patriot law," The Anti-Shyster stands astride it. Interesting, worthwhile, and loaded with links for those who care to explore the nature, history, rulings, and errors of law.

Stop by this site for previews, reviews, posters and other goodies. Then return on January 10 for the world premiere of what looks to be an innovative union of cinema, the Web, libertarianism and cyberpunk. In the not-so-distant future, a culture of haves (the elderly recipients of government largesse) and have-nots (the unfortunate young who are expected to enslave themselves to national service to pay for it all) has developed, setting the stage for conflict of epic proportions. Sound familiar? Sound likely? Sound like a hell of a movie? Check it out!

A litmus test for world economic sanity: When the name of Ludwig von Mises is revered and that of John Maynard Keynes forgotten, we'll be getting somewhere. "The Institute... defends private property, free markets, hard money, and less government."

The Libertarian Enterprise is a biweekly e-magazine published by L. Neil Smith and edited by Vin Suprynowicz and Ying Boardman. If you recognize those names, you know that we're talking about pure and passionately delivered libertarianism here. Each issue is a veritable cornucopia of incisive and pertinent commentary, presented with professional flair. Other leading lights of modern libertarian philosophy also appear regularly, and The Libertarian Enterprise is well on its way to becoming the preeminent publication of its kind. Merry Christmas!

Atlas isn't political, it's practical. Features include a "Virtual Fonebook" with the e-mail addresses of prominent libertarians (David Friedman's there, but his dad isn't -- I checked), the "WorldWide Wonk" page of links to essays and papers on matters economic -- all from a free market perspective, of course -- and the "Nuts and Bolts" guide for public policy institutes.

Objectivism Resource Guide has made one of Ayn Rand's most-overlooked works -- the novella Anthem -- available on the Web. Anthem is the haunting and beautiful story which inspired the mid-70's rock album "2112" by Rush. If you've never read Rand, this is the piece to start with (and the price is right, of course). If you've never read Anthem now's the time to do it. And if you've read it, you know you'll want to again. (Registration required, only available to residents of the United States.)

December 2-8, 1996
Thomas Jefferson on Politics and Government (No longer available)

It took a convention to draft the U.S. Constitution, but only one man to write the Declaration of Independence -- Thomas Jefferson. And the extent to which his writing was tampered with was the extent to which the document was demeaned. Thomas Jefferson on Politics and Government is a compilation of the words of the libertarian President of the United States.

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