Students for Liberty meet in D.C. February 14-16

Libertarian Conference Lands Pols, Conspiracy Theorists and Comics - Heard on the Hill - Warren Rojas, Roll Call:

February 10, 2014 - "The 2014 International Students for Liberty Conference is rolling into town for a weekend (Feb. 14-16) celebration of freedom, information-sharing and spirited discussion.

"The annual gathering attracts students from around the globe but typically features homegrown speakers and performers who share the same passion for living sans restrictions. House Republicans Justin Amash of Michigan and Thomas Massie of Kentucky are scheduled to address the youth-oriented gathering, as are Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone, veteran newsman John Stossel and former Hill-staffer-turned-comedian Andrew Heaton.

"Heaton, who made light of the congressional grind as bumbling Chief of Staff Elliot Clarice in the satirical Web series 'Cap South,' has been tapped to do standup on Saturday night.

“The federal government is a large, slow-moving target, much like a solitary buffalo on opioids. I’ll be whacking at that some,” he told HOH of his plans for the gathering. But Heaton noted that his material is much broader than what’s typically wrong with Capitol Hill."

Read more: http://hoh.rollcall.com/libertarian-conference-lands-pols-conspiracy-theorists-and-comics/
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February 11 is "The Day We Fight Back"

Press Release - The Day We Fight Back: "On Anniversary of Aaron Swartz's Tragic Passing, Leading Internet Groups and Online Platforms Announce Day of Activism Against NSA Surveillance
Mobilization, dubbed "The Day We Fight Back" to Honor Swartz & Celebrate Anniversary of SOPA Blackout

Contact: Blair FitzGibbon, 202-503-6141

February 10, 2014 - "A broad coalition of activist groups, companies, and online platforms will hold a worldwide day of activism in opposition to the NSA's mass spying regime on February 11th. Dubbed "The Day We Fight Back", the day of activism was announced on the eve of the anniversary of the tragic passing of activist and technologist Aaron Swartz. The protest is both in his honor and in celebration of the victory over the Stop Online Piracy Act two years ago this month, which he helped spur.

"Participants including Access, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Free Press, BoingBoing, Reddit, Mozilla, ThoughtWorks, and more to come, will join potentially millions of Internet users to pressure lawmakers to end mass surveillance -- of both Americans and the citizens of the whole world....

On the day of action, the coalition and the activists it represents make calls and drive emails to lawmakers. Owners of websites will install banners to encourage their visitors to fight back against surveillance, and employees of technology companies will demand that their organizations do the same. Internet users are being asked to develop memes and change their social media avatars to reflect their demands.

Read more: https://thedaywefightback.org/press/
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Libertarians dispute Pope's economic pontifications

Libertarians become vocal critics of Evangelii Gaudium | National Catholic Reporter - Michael Sean Winters:

January 30, 2014 - "The most interesting criticisms of Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, have come from libertarians who are closest to the economic views the pope denounced.

"In this document, Francis ... condemned 'trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world'.... He warned against laissez-faire adherents who 'reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control'.... The pope chastised 'the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.'

"'Speaking for libertarians, my objection to what the pope wrote derives from two things,' the Cato Institute's Marian Tupy said in an interview with NCR. 'First, there is the factual statement. The pope says the world is becoming worse, but that can be measured. In almost 200 pages, he never cites a single study, a single number, to support his claim. Tupy, who wrote an article encapsulating his objections in The Atlantic, cites a host of statistics to support his claim that 'capitalism, compared to other systems, does very well at bringing people out of poverty'....

"A similar critique of Evangelii Gaudium came from the pro-market Acton Institute, which is run by a Catholic priest, Fr. Robert Sirico. In a video discussing Evangelii Gaudium, Sirico posed a series of questions: 'Where are these unhampered markets?' he asked. 'Where is the market absolutely autonomous?' Sirico seems to be suggesting that the pope was creating straw men and attacking them, and expresses the hope that future exhortations will confront the economic questions Sirico poses."

Read more: http://ncronline.org/news/politics/libertarians-become-vocal-critics-exhortation
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Rand Paul seizes the "Libertarian Moment"

This Is Rand Paul's Moment - NationalJournal.com - Matt Berman:

January 29, 2014 - "The United States is having a libertarian moment. And Rand Paul is getting ready to capture it by himself.

"The Kentucky Republican delivered his own response to President Obama's State of the Union on Tuesday night via YouTube. But the rebuttal wasn't so much about what Obama said Tuesday as much as it was an opening salvo for a possible 2016 presidential campaign, the bulk of it coming as a directed argument against big government."

"'Government doesn't create jobs very well,' Paul said. 'Government is inherently bad at picking winners and losers.... It's not that government's inherently stupid, although it's a debatable point,' Paul said. 'It's that government doesn't get the same signals'....

"In his Tuesday speech, Paul slammed the 'politics of envy' and suggested that if you 'punish' the successful, their companies will flee overseas.... Paul made policy proposals of his own, including those for economic freedom zones that would be set up around the U.S. and have, among other things, a flat 5 percent income and business tax. 'I believe in an America where people are free to make their own decisions,' he said.

"It's an early 2016 campaign shot, and it's not off base, either. Government was mentioned as the most important problem in the U.S. across all party IDs in a recent Gallup Poll."

Read more: http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/this-is-rand-paul-s-moment-20140129
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Are libertarians paranoid?

Cass Sunstein on “paranoid libertarianism” - Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy, Washington Post:

February 6, 2014 - "Famed Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein’s recent op ed attacking 'paranoid libertarianism' makes some reasonable points against crude libertarian arguments. But it is also in part confusing and in part overstated.

"The piece is confusing because it is easily misinterpreted as an attack on libertarianism more generally, even though Sunstein himself draws a distinction between the two. In addition, Sunstein seems to be focusing on paranoid fear of any type of government power.... Sunstein might have done better to choose some other label for the phenomenon he seeks to criticize.

"Semantic confusion aside, each of the five 'defining characteristics' Sunstein attributes to 'paranoid libertarianism' is readily found in crude versions of most other ideologies, including left-liberalism. In addition, each of the five is actually quite defensible if put in less extreme terms.

"The first item on Sunstein’s list is 'a wildly exaggerated sense of risks — a belief that if government is engaging in certain action (such as surveillance or gun control), it will inevitably use its authority so as to jeopardize civil liberties and perhaps democracy itself.' The key word here is 'inevitably.' It is indeed absurd to think that anything government does inevitably endangers liberty or democracy. On the other hand, there are good reasons to believe that many government activities create serious risks to freedom, in part because widespread political ignorance compromises the ability of voters to effectively monitor government’s misdeeds. Libertarians are far from the only ones who worry that the combination of extensive regulation and voter ignorance can lead to a variety of harmful restrictions on liberty. Cass Sunstein himself has published an insightful book highlighting this danger (though his proposed solutions for it are very different from those offered by libertarians)."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/06/cass-sunstein-on-paranoid-libertarianism/

New York Times race-baits Rand Paul

NYT Smears Rand Paul with Claims of Racism, Religious Fanaticism - Joe Wolverton II, New American:

February 1, 2014 - "In a recent article entitled 'Rand Paul's Mixed Inheritance,' the New York Times, the oldest of the establishment’s mouthpieces, slammed Paul ... and took shots at The John Birch Society, the Tea Party, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and Lew Rockwell for good measure. (The article was posted online January 25, and a version of the article appeared the following day on page A1 of the Sunday print edition.)

"Accusing Paul of being 'steeped in a narrow, rightward strain' of libertarianism, the New York Times begins the race-baiting in the seventh paragraph.

"Paul and those like him, the article claims, 'have formulated provocative theories on race, class and American history, and routinely voice beliefs that go far beyond the antiwar, anti-big-government, pro-civil-liberties message' of the larger libertarian movement.

"Then, speaking of the Mises Institute, the Times makes sure readers realize that not only are libertarians such as Paul possessed of questionable racial biases, but they’re religious nuts, too."

Read more: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/17535-nyt-smears-rand-paul-with-claims-of-racism-religious-fanaticism
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Sarvis plans to run for Senate seat in Virginia

Sarvis plans to challenge Warner for Senate seat - Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia News - Markus E. Schmidt:

January 30, 2014 - "Robert Sarvis, the 2013 Libertarian candidate for governor, said Wednesday that he wants to run for U.S. Senate, challenging Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va.

"'I finally got the go-ahead from my wife and told the Libertarian Party folks that I am going to run,' Sarvis said in an interview.

"In 2013, Sarvis was vastly outspent by the two major-party candidates but managed to get 6.5 percent of the vote.

"Libertarians will nominate their candidate at a party convention in Richmond on Feb. 8. So far, Sarvis, a former software engineer, teacher, lawyer and new media entrepreneur from Northern Virginia, is the only Libertarian who has announced a Senate bid.

"Sarvis said he will run on a similar platform as last year, including small government, a reduction of spending, legalization of marijuana and allowing same-sex couples to marry."

Read more: http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/libertarian-sarvis-plans-u-s-senate-bid-against-warner/article_7e30e378-8913-11e3-a614-0017a43b2370.html
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