My letter to Time Magazine re: Maher is a NOT a Libertarian
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Dear Time Magazine Editor:Maher is not a Libertarian.
There's really no "big tent libertarianism". You have RepublicansINOs, DemocratsINOs, CatholicsINOs, but there are no LibertariansINO. There are lots and lots of people, usually on the radio, who CLAIM the Libertarian label. You can always tell the difference by how free they will let you be.
Real libertarians will always say you are free. "All men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." Ring a bell?
Libertarians will extend to you all the freedoms they want for themselves. See the only way I can be free is if you are as well. Then together we will fight any infringement of "our" freedoms. I don't want any gang (i.e., the government) stealing my money (i.e., taxes); so no one should be force to pay for any "service" that they didn't voluntarily agree to pay for. I don't want to pay for government reeducation camps (i.e., "public" schools) where your children are indoctrinated with beliefs contrary to your beliefs; so no one should have to pay for the publik skoolz. I don't want anyone telling me what drugs I can use; so you can be a drug addict or take whatever you feel you need.
Both Big L Libertarians and Little L Libertarians (distinguished by membership in the Libertarian party), despite the squabbles about specific issues, all will agree about the ZAP Zero Aggression Principle. Basically, a Libertarian is some one who will not use force to initiate social or political goals. That's not pacifism. But it's good old fashioned American MYOB!
Guns are the litmus test for Libertarians.
If you don't trust your fellow humans to be responsible enough to defend the free state, then you're not a libertarian. If you don't think that a woman or a responsible can't distinguish between the good and bad guys, then you're not a libertarian. If you think that the IRS needs automatic weapons, then your not a libertarian. If you think we need a BATF, then you're not a libertarian. If you think that we need the alphabet soup of private armies, then you're not a libertarian. If you don't think a patriot can tell the difference between the Nazi Storm Trooper and the highway patrol, then you're not a libertarian.
When only the gummamint has guns, the population is at risk for genocide. As the SF write Heinlein posited "an armed society is a polite society". When we surrender our protection to the promises of the Mommy State, Father State comes out and oppresses us.
The litmus test is especially useful because that seems to be THE single issue that exposes the Statist, Socialist, and the Benevolent Dictators who want to control everyone. With them, there's always an exception for guns. You can be free … … except for guns.
You have to give a huge percentage of your savings, earnings, and future to the State for its "protection". Ignore for the moment that the State's courts have held that there is no specific duty of the State to protect to you. But, you can't have a tool to protect yourself.
They always have to disarm the people before they can oppress them to enforce their will. Oppressed people with guns are dangerous to the oppressor. Look at what a few determined Jews with even fewer guns did in the Warsaw ghetto. Don't think that the current and future "hitlers" missed that lesson.
No, guns are an essential issue to true Libertarians because those guns are the only true check on government power. That why the dead old white guys recognized, right after our right to say what we want, the right to defend our liberties.
Your Liberty depends upon our guns.
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AND their response:
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Dear Reader:
Thank you for writing. We welcome timely, insightful reactions to material we have published, and we can assure you that your observations found an attentive audience among the editors. Should your comments be selected for the column, you will be notified in advance of publication. Again, our thanks for letting us hear from you. We hope that you will write again should you discover something of particular interest in the news or in our reporting of it.
Best wishes.
TIME Letters
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Notice the canned paternalistic pat of the head of the generic reply. "We hope", yeah right!
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