Freedom Home Page of the Week Archive Summer 1999

Given the recently discovered evidence that the FBI is not as innocent as Janet Reno would like us to believe, it is a good time to review all the evidence left from Waco. Civil rights attorney David Hardy has assembled an enormous amount of information about the fatally bungled 1993 misadventures of the BATF and FBI at David Koresh's Branch Davidian church. The bare bones presentation of this site is appropriate given Hardy's no-ideological-frills approach to the messy affair. As the official Web site of the film "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" states, "Mr. Hardy deserves every bit of praise and gratitude that can be mustered", not only for presenting this information, but for personally obtaining much of the information from the various federal agencies responsible. (A reading of Hardy's attempts to retrieve one of the many videotapes of the raid proves that this was no small task.)

This site is a thorough documentation of the tragedy at Waco, and the subsequent dodges and denials by its perpetrators. Quicktime movies and RealAudio files are a nice complement to much of the evidence presented here, but are not necessary to get the full story. Do yourself a favor and set aside a half hour (at least) to browse Hardy's site. It is a well-written, dramatic story which is also, sadly, true.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle for any philosophy is in demonstrating how the philosophy applies to people's everyday lives. For Objectivism, I present to you The Daily Objectivist, a large, wide-ranging, daily review of things Randian and not-so-Randian.

My personal favorite feature, found at the top of the homepage, is the Hero of the Day, a historical or present-day person who acted (or acts) "consistently with his principles to achieve an important and worthy goal in the face of great challenges and difficulty." Naturally, not every Hero of the Day could be called an Objectivist, but each displays traits which any libertarian can admire. Past heroes include Adam Smith, T.J. Rodgers, and Jim Henson.

Beyond the homepage, the site is divided into four main sections: Connection, "your guide to meeting and interacting with Objectivists and other rational people"; Arts & Culture, featuring film reviews and, currently, a short story by Russell Madden called "The Greatest Good"; Extrospection, the in-depth philosophical section of the site; and Spirituality, a section devoted to... well, you should find out for yourself.

For a laugh, check out On The Net, a page for e-mail lists or discussion board articles that are "particularly funny, insightful, or eloquent." In particular, "How To Argue Effectively" is not be missed.

Here's the routine: I get home late in the evening and want to relax a bit in front of the television. I spend a half-hour flipping through ninety-some channels of programming that will probably either bore me to tears or send me into a seething rage. ("Warren Beatty?! Are people really taking Warren Beatty seriously?!") Eventually, I give up and pop one of Phil Donahue's interviews with Milton Friedman into the VCR.

There are intelligent, challenging shows out there. The trick is to find them. It's a trick that is well-managed by Jon Osborne, author of Miss Liberty's Film & TV World, a guide to libertarian themes in movies and TV. The centerpiece of this Web site is a weekly newsletter (also available via e-mail), featuring a new film review every week, plus a week's schedule of libertarian-themed programming, covering everything from the Sci-Fi Channel to C-SPAN.

A large section of the site is devoted to Libertarian Film Links, which will send you to sites covering film reviews and discussion, as well as sites which sell libertarian videos. ("Where can I get a video of Milton Friedman with Phil Donahue?")

Don't get stuck with the choice of Bulworth or a Patricia Ireland interview again. Find the good stuff. Ask Miss Liberty.

Have you heard about Orrin Hatch's latest proposed legislation, The Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act? If passed, this measure would make it a federal felony for Web sites to even link to sites which provide information on purchasing legal drug paraphernalia. In light of this, the Freedom Page of the Week is a site that will be in a lot of trouble if this measure passes: High Times Magazine, "The Most Notorious Magazine in the World."

Whatever your feelings about the use of certain substances, you've gotta admire the bald-faced establishment-bucking going on at this site. From several online galleries featuring photos of bongs and the evil weed itself, to information on cheating on a drug test, one wonders how they've managed to avoid being shut down this long.

There's also some good information here on knowing and exercising your Fourth Amendment rights, should you ever run afoul of nosey investigators. Naturally, the focus here is on drugs, but the rights apply to everyone and the advice here could be useful to anyone who enjoys privacy.

Click here now for a colorful reminder of the diversity allowed by a free society. If the regulators have their way, this site may not be around much longer.

You know it just drives them crazy. Here's this relatively self-regulated economy, the Internet, which has proved itself to be pretty slippery at evading the sticky fingers of the federal regulators. They keep throwing bill after bill at us, trying to tame the wild beast of voluntary online interaction, and we keep managing to duck and swerve. But, as the Internet Consumers Choice Coalition makes clear, this is no time for complacency.

The latest attempt to bring the Internet under federal control is from Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona. This bit of proposed legislation, S. 692, would ban some types of gaming on the Internet. Naturally, in order to enforce such legislation, the Internet Service Providers will have to be added to the long list of involuntary servants of the state. The bill would require ISPs to terminate the Web accounts of users caught doing certain types of gambling online, such as sports betting (horse racing, dog racing, jai-alai, and state lotteries are apparently a few of the accepted types).

The Internet Consumers Choice Coalition has been formed to stop this bill, and the designers of this Web site have demonstrated the power of the Internet for political advocacy by creating one of the most streamlined and user-friendly activist Web sites around. There's not much to do here, but what you can do is important: contact your congresscritter.

Every Monday, a new form letter is provided for automatically faxing or e-mailing to your representatives. If you don't happen to know your representatives, the site will inform you of their names, addresses, even their smarmy good looks, based on your ZIP code.

If using the Internet to get in the faces of the regulators is this easy, it's no wonder they want to tame it.

If our economy can be said to have a center, what stands there? The government? Obviously not. The government certainly plays a role in our economy, (usually "The Villain"), but it's not at the center. Big businesses don't stand there either. They probably stand at all sides but, since many businesses become less responsive, efficient, and creative as they get bigger, they can't really be the force at the center of the economy. So what is? As a visit to the Web site of the Small Business Survival Committee will make clear, the answer is "entrepreneurs."

Since 1994, SBSC has been representing the interests of small business owners by working to get the government's nose out of their business. This week, SBSC unveiled their newest project: The "No Death and Taxes" petition, (accessible and signable from the home page), concurrent with their new booklet by SBSC chief economist Raymond J. Keating, "Hostile Takeovers: The Death Tax Assault on Small Business, the Economy & Basic Fairness."

Support for SBSC within the libertarian movement would do a lot to counter the mistaken belief popular amongst our detractors that, if you're pro-business, you must be pro-Big-Business. (If "business" is good, a system of huge corporations with government favors must be better!) Of course, as SBSC understands, the free market is more complex than that.

Lots of people like to throw the word "libertarian" around, even (perhaps especially) when they are nothing of the sort. But when the "Merry Band of Litigators" of the Institute for Justice call themselves "our nation's only libertarian public interest law firm," they don't use the word lightly. They really are consistently libertarian, and a perusal of their Web site will confirm the title. Unlike some other civil liberty law firms, IJ has a specific definition of freedom and defends it consistently.

Property Rights? Check out the story of Vera Coking, whom IJ helped keep her home of over 30 years from being condemned by the state and transformed into a limousine parking lot by Donald Trump.

Freedom of Speech? IJ is helping North Dakota farmer Roy Neset defend his right to broadcast talk radio on the FM band, in an area where no other stations broadcast on that band. One AM country music station doesn't like the competition, and pressured the FCC to sue Neset for broadcasting without a license.

Economic Liberty? IJ has been at the forefront of many fights to allow ambitious inner-city entrepreneurs to open taxicab and hair-braiding businesses, much to the chagrin of the established (and protected by licensing laws) companies and services.

As more and more of our constitutionally guaranteed rights are becoming contingent on court decisions, we should be grateful for the short list of lawyers who are out there, in the trenches, fighting not for money or publicity, but for what's right. The Institute for Justice tops that list.

Most people already know that the Internet is a bastion of both free speech and competitive prices on goods ranging from books to prescription medication. But it might not have been this way had the government not let the Internet develop relatively free of regulation. Now that the Internet is a palpable force felt around the world, government officials have started salivating and nothing, neither content, low prices, nor Internet access, is safe.

The coalition of organizations and individuals called Hands Off The Internet wants to keep the Internet as useful and inexpensive as it is, by keeping the government out.

Highlights of this fine site include the News & Views page, featuring some of the best and most timely of recent news articles on the dangers of Internet regulation, and pages for contacting your elected officials and the media, via e-mail or fax.

If you're reading this, then this issue is probably important to you. Get to this site now and let the government know you want its filthy hands off!

This Freedom Home Page of the Week award is long overdue. Since 1996, Steve Martinovich's Enter Stage Right has been one of the most entertaining and informative online conservative magazines, and the new streamlined design makes it even better.

Don't let the current feature article about Pat Buchanan fool you. As the ESR FAQ will tell you, "ESR is officially conservative, but it is influenced by the Objectivist and Libertarian philosophies."

ESR's regular features are all worth bookmarking. In addition to the famous Site of the Month award, check out The Earth is Flat Award, in celebration of "the inane, insipid and asinine," and The Vinegar in Freedom Award for events and people who prove that there is hope for the world after all. Lingua Publicus highlights the best and worst quotes from the news, and a weekly poll (found on the front page) offers you the chance to submit your opinion on a topical issue. (This week: "Is military service important for someone running for the office of president/prime minister?" Currently, 60% say "Yes", 40% say "No".)

The site's title refers to the theatrical nature of modern politics. As long as this serio-comic international performance continues, I hope that Enter Stage Right will remain our Playbill.

Last week, the House Commerce Committee approved the Security and Freedom through Encryption (SAFE) Act. This Page of the Week is one of the organizations whose work contributed to its approval: Americans for Computer Privacy.

Americans for Computer Privacy is a coalition of people and organizations (including 40 trade associations and over 100 companies) who oppose federal restrictions on the use and sale of encryption technology, both here and overseas. Their friendly Web site includes a FAQ for people not familiar with the issues, and a page of encryption-related myths and realities.

The Constitutional Resources page of the ACP Web site counters one of the more invasive proposals of the current administration (forbidden under the SAFE Act): a policy of "key recovery" which would enable federal agencies to easily access confidential files and communications by putting your encryption keys in the hands of government-approved "third parties." ACP opposes this policy on Fourth Amendment grounds, and here you can read Congressional testimonies of ACP Legal Counsels Richard Epstein and Kathleen Sullivan.

I like a site that announces its purpose in no uncertain terms. The current Page of the Week boldly declares, "Welcome to Postal Watch, the official website dedicated to monitoring and challenging the unwarranted and damaging regulatory actions of the United States Postal Service."

On March 25, the Post Office issued an outrageous new set of rules regarding their closest competitors, the CMRA's (Commercial Mail Receiving Agencies, such as Mailboxes, Etc.).

Starting this week, June 24, the rules will require that the approximately two million Americans who receive their mail at one of these private companies turn over a host of personal information including a photograph and a "serial number ... traceable to the bearer." (Hmmm, I wonder what number that will end up being?) This information will then be turned over to the Post Office. Furthermore, if the mailbox renter is using the box for business purposes, the new rules requires the disclosure of this personal information to anyone, yes anyone, who asks for it.

The new CMRA regulations also require that prior to October 24, 1999 any mail that is addressed to a CMRA mailbox must say "PMB" in the address. If it doesn't, the Post Office won't deliver the mail. This will cost small businesses billions of dollars.

Challenging and overturning these new CMRA rules is the current mission of Postal Watch.

Lorne Strider is the best kind of radical libertarian: consistent and uncompromising in his beliefs, yet gentle and humorous enough to communicate those beliefs persuasively. His personal homepage, Strider Commentary, consists of short, simple, original essays on a wide range of libertarian topics, often using stories to illustrate his points. This is one of those pages to which you alert your not-yet-entirely-convinced friends.

His introductory article, In Defense of Liberty, is a perfect explanation of why libertarians don't quite fit into either a Conservative or a Liberal mold (at least not by the currently common understanding of those words.)

Other highlights include A Threatening Letter, a true story of Lorne and a summons to jury duty; Crime and Punishment: Misery in Happy Camp, another true story about a couple sent to jail for literally trying to keep a roof over their heads; and Konkin's Rebellion, an inspiring, not-yet-true story of revolution in the courtrooms.

As the home page of Gun Owners of America proudly proclaims, Ron Paul has dubbed them "the only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington." One justification for this title could be that their Web site offers absolutely everything you need to become a no-compromise gun owner yourself.

The thoroughness of this site really needs to be seen to be believed. Pages of op-eds, fact sheets, and links to source studies will provide you with all the reasons why compromise, in the case of gun rights, equals death.

When you're ready to contact the great compromisers in Congress, you can find GOA's analysis of all gun control related bills before Congress, ratings (from A+ to F-) of every member of Congress, information on how Congress voted on past gun control bills, and pre-written letters and an auto e-mailer for contacting your representatives.

To become a no-compromise gun owner, the only other thing you need is a gun. Once again, GOA doesn't disappoint. Their extensive links page offers, in addition to important political sites, many commercial gun sites.

Freedom Home Page of the Week
Directory by Topic | Recommend a Home Page

edited by Eric C. Johnson

Archived Winners