George Carlin, R.I.P.

Saying goodbye to the man who made us all laugh by making us feel stupid for what we believed

By: Matt Fay

I once wondered to myself if twenty years from now I’d be watching a ninety year old George Carlin – senile and in a wheelchair – in yet another HBO comedy special.  That question was answered late Sunday night when the seventy-one year old comedian died of heart failure.  Throughout the week there have been a plethora of tributes to the man who gave us the Seven Dirty Words, hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Life after snorting cocaine for a week straight, and also played “Mr. Conductor” on Thomas the Tank Engine.  And while most of these will be more eloquent than mine, I do think it’s important that a website dedicated to liberty have at least some small ode to a man who personified the 1^st Amendment.

Carlin understood that, sometimes, being free entailed pissing people off – often unintentionally, though never in his case.  He went out of his way to make all of us feel a little stupid about the things we believed in.  His gripes ran the gamut from those who believe in God and religion to parents who dared to name their children Todd, Tucker or Kyle.

“Ten times out of ten Nicky, Vinny, and Eddie beat the [crap] out of Kyle, Todd, and Tucker.”          -  From his 2001 HBO comedy special

Heroes of Freedom, Truth, and Reason

And what they inspired in me

By Isaac M. Morehouse

I will spare you long commentary, or my novice opinion of any of these great minds. Instead, I will list the thinkers who have had the greatest influence on my own life, and in a sentence or two what they inspired in me, followed by a quote or two from each. I highly recommend reading any of their material (or in the case of Socrates and Jesus, the material written about them by their followers). They are listed in chronological order:

Socrates – Humbly question everything.

“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”

Jesus Christ – Forfeit everything in pursuit of truth.

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you…”

St. Augustine – Reason is the God-given tool by which to discover truth. It is within our individual power to become free.

“If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe.”

“He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.”

St. Thomas Aquinas – The universe is ordered and purposeful, and by reason we can discover its principles and progress as a human race.

“Reason in man is rather like God in the world”

John Locke – Rights are not conferred upon man by other men, but are natural and inherent to all individuals.

“Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.”

What President Bush Can Learn From John Adams

The President should take a page out of John Adams playbook

By: Matt Fay

A few weeks ago, HBO wrapped up its 7-part miniseries John Adams. The adaptation of David McCullough’s book of the same name kept with a long list of HBO series, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies in its authenticity and the realism of its characters and plot. While the sets were superb – offering the viewer an opportunity to transport themselves to the 18^th century, the shear brilliance of it was its cast and, ultimately, the characters they portrayed. Whether it was Tom Wilkinson as old Ben Franklin, David Morse as a quiet yet forceful General George Washington, Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson, Laura Linney’s Abigail Adams, or Paul Giamatti in the title role of John Adams, you could truly look past the actor and see the characters that gave birth to our nation.

What truly amazed me as I watched were how much the lessons our Founding Fathers learned, which they tried to teach to future generations, and the struggles they went through still resonate today. Being a Ron Paul supporter I have often heard the representative from Texas’ 14^th district invoke the “wisdom of the Founders.” And while I have always had the utmost respect for the men and women who risked their lives to bring about the United States, I would often wonder if their experiences and lessons would translate to the world we now live in. After watching John Adams I no longer have any doubt, and I am now a firm believer that the legacy they left for us, and the lessons they taught us, are more important now than ever before.

Don’t Just Get Real, Change Real

Making liberty popular means being practical – but not losing sight of the ideal

By Isaac M. Morehouse

Marty Beckerman recently wrote an article called “Get Real” arguing that libertarians need to stop being dogmatic and start becoming relevant.  I agree.  But that wasn’t all he said.

Beckerman conflates two distinct questions concerning “anarcho-capitalists, minarchists and other dogmatists” that deserve separate treatment.  First, are their ideas harmful?  Second, what is to be done about those ideas?

Beckerman wrote that libertarians’ more radical ideas are not only unpopular, but that they are bad ideas.  Some might find this a persuasive conclusion.  But the article doesn’t provide any proof for his conclusion.  He doesn’t offer any arguments against these “radical ideas” except putting up characterizations of them and knocking them down with humor.  Another name for that is a “straw man”.

By:  Matt Fay

Warning - If you have never seen HBO's The Wire, stop right now, go to your local video store and rent or buy the first four seasons on DVD, take the rest of the week off work, watch every episode, find a TV with ONDEMAND, watch all of this final season's episodes.  If this is not reasonable to do, then read on.

"There ain't no back in the day. Ain't no nostalgia. Just the street and the game"

-Cheese, The Wire

This past Sunday marked the final episode of one of the finest television programs to ever grace the small screen.  The Wire was more than just a television show, entertaining as it was.  It was a warning, a “wake-up call,” a demonstration of a self-evident and self-replicating cycle of violence in the streets and corruption in politics.  It was an indictment of a system that can be seen in every part of American politics and culture.  Set in Baltimore, The Wire, could just as easily been showcasing New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; or Washington, D.C.  But Baltimore provided a unique window into urban life in America through the eyes of street cops, detectives, “bosses,” dockworkers, drug kingpins, “corner boys,” “hoppers,” “soldiers,” junkies, teachers, school administrators, students, and journalists.  Every story, unique in and of itself, was connected to one another.  Each character had a connection to the rest of the story, even in a peripheral way.

Imagine a world in which the United States has finally won the War on Drugs. After years of massive government spending and violent enforcement tactics, at last the nation is a place where we can safely raise our children. Our families are stronger, our communities safer, and our population better off. Right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. Victory in the War on Drugs will create a hellish state in America. Disagree? Let’s look at the facts. In a recent study, 46.1% of adults ages 26 and older admitted to using some sort of illicit drug at some point in their lives. In other words, almost half of adult Americans are current or former drug users and would be tossed in the slammer. I don’t think this is what Nancy Reagan had in mind.