Anarcho-capitalist runs for LPC in Grande Prairie

Libertarian candidate joins race | Daily Herald Tribune - Tom Bateman:

August 30, 2015 = "Twenty-two-year-old Dylan Thompson will appear on the Grande Prairie-Mackenzie ballot representing the Libertarian Party of Canada....

"Thompson was convinced to run while watching videos of Libertarian leader Tim Moen talk about the effect Ron Paul had on American politics.

"'He didn't get into power, into the helm of America, but what he did is converted a lot of people into libertarians,' said Thompson. 'I discovered they have the same view as me and I'm like, "I'm onboard, I've got to help you guys with this mission".'

"Included in the Libertarian Party of Canada's platform is a phasing out of government's control of the money supply, reducing federal income taxes to a maximum rate of 15%, reducing or eliminating organizations like the CRTC, CATSA and the Canadian Dairy Commission, repealing the Canada Health Act, making 'responsible gun possession' legal, legalizing sex work and decriminalizing the consumption and possession of drugs.

"'If I could ask people to read Henry Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson, I think that will probably give people a taste of where we're coming from more than anything else,' he added.

"Thompson is also a self-described 'anarcho-capitalist'.

"'It's basically, the private sector would handle things like the police, military and the court system. That's not the party position, which is more of a minarchist one - which is those three things are the absolute minimum that government has to survive,' he said....

"Thompson said the people he's spoken with in Grande Prairie, long known as a conservative stronghold, find his proposals interesting.

"'It's about making that cultural change and getting people to understand,' he said of his goals for the campaign."

Read more: http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/2015/08/30/libertarian-candidate-joins-race
'via Blog this'

Have an anarchist Christmas

An Anarchist Christmas » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names - Grant Mincey:

December 25, 2014 - "As we reflect on this year of violence, imagine alternatives and act for social change perhaps we may revisit an age-old political ideology as liberating, co-operative and peaceful as it is misunderstood. The rich political tradition to which I refer is anarchism....

"Anarchic practitioners advocate highly ordered societies rooted in the principles of free association, mutual aid and cooperative labor.... This libertarian idea is deeply ingrained in the human spirit....

"Liberty is not a doctrine, but rather a praxis innate to human thought and action — the underlying principle being that one should always challenge authority and dismantle unjustifiable concentrations of power. The result is a more libertarian relationship between people and their institutions. Anarchism is thus a human phenomenon.

"When feminist movements organize for women’s agency over their own bodies and life without fear of violence we see anarchism.

"We see anarchism in Mexico as the population seeks liberation from violent drug cartels, complacent government and oppressive state policies.

"We see anarchism in prisons as inmates band together in these dehumanizing institutions to demand living conditions free of violence and sexual battery.

"We see anarchism in war-torn regions of the world where individuals risk their lives to save innocent victims of the drone strikes and barrel bombs of oppressive regimes.

"We see anarchism in towns and neighborhoods challenging the monopoly of violence held by the police.

"We see anarchism in movements that seek the protection of wilderness areas and native lands from the clutches of extractive industries and the iron fist of capital.

"We find anarchism in the new technology and falling communications costs that allow all of us to craft markets and labor together free of regulatory restriction.

"We see anarchism in our everyday social interactions — telling our family and friends we love them and being kind to strangers.

"These are but a few examples. Anarchism is everywhere."

Read more: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/25/an-anarchist-christmas/
'via Blog this'

Remembering libertarian gay activist Roy Childs

Steve Mariotti: As DOMA Collapses, I Remember Libertarian Gay Activist Roy Childs - Huffington Post:

July 2, 2013 - "[T]he Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act ... brought back memories of one of the warmest people I've ever known, the great libertarian essayist, critic and gay activist Roy A. Childs, Jr. (1948-1992).

"Roy edited the Libertarian Review from 1977 until it folded in 1981. Next, he joined the Cato institute as a research fellow, eventually becoming a policy analyst. He was best-known, though, for his brilliant essays for Laissez Faire Books -- the largest seller of libertarian-related books. But I will always remember Roy as the man who dared challenge Ayn Rand on not only Objectivism, but also on her die-hard homophobia. As someone who had met Rand and knew how fearsome she could be, I admired his nerve!

"I was so impressed with Roy's essay, 'An Open Letter to Ayn Rand,' published in the Society for Individual Liberty's Individualist newsletter in 1969, that I wrote him a letter congratulating him on having the courage to stand up to her. I will never forget this sentence from Roy's essay: 'Let us walk forward into the sunlight, Miss Rand. You belong with us.'"

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mariotti/as-doma-collapses-i-remem_b_3537107.html
'via Blog this'
________________________________________________________________
See also: Childs's argument for anarchism, by George J. Dance

Anarchism articles hit 1,000 reads

One of my 2009 articles on the libertarian anarchism / minarchism dispute, "Childs's argument for anarchism," gained its 1,000th read in February, ending the month with 1,018. I had hoped to announce that both of my 2009 articles on the subject had passed that milestone; alas, the other, "'Government or Anarchy?' revisited", ended February with just 999 reads. (It's since passed 1,000.)

Other articles of mine that crossed the 1,000 threshhold last month were "Injustice at Nolan Chart!", a 2008 spoof based on Alperovitz & Daly's book Unjust Deserts (1,009); and "ACLU sues Transportation Security Administration over Ron Paul staffer's detention" (1,003), about the 2009 airport detention of Steve Bierfeldt.

Last but certainly not least was February's own "Ron Paul money bomb raises over $400,000," which gained more than 1,000 readers in just 24 hours, and finished the month with 1,207.

A Tale of Two Articles

The main venue for my political writing online is web mag Nolan Chart. I've published between 100 and 200 articles over the 3 years I've been there. Some were hits, some were  flops.

I love it when a NC article of mine that originally flopped suddenly gets new life. The classic examples were my June, 2008 article "Government and Anarchy", and "Health Care vs. Pizza" from that July, both of which received less than 100 reads when first published, but both of which went on to break 1,000 reads the following year. For that I have to thank (1) the anarcho-libertarians who criticized the first article, but also linked to it; and (2) Barack Obama, who turned health care into a major issue in the U.S. last year. 

This summer may be seeing two new examples. The first was an article I wrote in October, 2008, "Barr and Nader agree to debate." That one is completely dated, except for one thing: as an update I included a link to the debate, the entire hour of which the Barr campaign had archived on You Tube. The Barr 2008 campaign has taken down its web site long ago; however (I discovered in June) it has left its videos up on YouTube, including the debate video. Accordingly, I rechristened the above article "Barr / Nader / Baldwin debate 2008",  rewrote its abstract to describe it as a portal to the debate, and moved it to the "Libertarian History" section of the chart. The result? The article went from 77 reads in the first five months of this year (15/month) to 123 over the next three (almost 3 times as many). 

Even more dramatic has been the change in my article "Smokin'" (another June, 2008 article, which was actually a 2000 review of the Fraser Institute book, Passive Smoke). That one has gone from 81 reads in the first seven months of 2010 (12/month), to 64 in August alone; more than 5 times as many. What accounts for that? 

In August I became a Wikipedia editor -- one of millions, so that is not a big deal. It has, though allowed me to clean up minor errors in articles when I'm reading Wiki, which I do frequently. One should not edit articles on oneself (or anything else one is personally involved in), so I have not edited the text of the Wiki article on me. However, since that article was flagged for being completely uncited, I've been adding footnotes to some of the claims. One was that I oppose "restrictions on public smoking" (which is close enough; what I oppose is government restrictions on smoking on private property), and I added "Smokin'" as a cite for that. 

I also added "Government and Anarchy" as a cite to the claim that I oppose anarchism, which has also given that article a boost: it has 140 reads for August, the most it's ever received in a month – not bad for a 3-year-old article at all. 

Unfortunately neither change can be seen by accessing the widget on the right side of this page; that leads to an older, cached version of the Wiki article. To see the changes, one has to go to the "George Dance (politician)" page on Wikipedia. 

Whether those two articles will continue their surges, and end up passing the 1,000-reads barrier, is unknown at this time, but I'm optimistic.