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Volume 20, Issue 8                              February 27, 2015
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"The Advocates has made invaluable contributions to the freedom cause. For over twenty years, the Advocates has worked tirelessly to help libertarians better communicate the ideas of liberty. I continue to be impressed by the Advocates' work." 

— Ron Paul

WELCOME to the Liberator Online!

In This Issue

PRESIDENT'S CORNER
*
The Greatest Libertarian Accomplishment in History?

ACTIVIST AMMUNITION
Why Did Our Ancestors Approve the Constitution?

THEY SAID IT: Libertarians helped win legal pot in Alaska, says AP.... Journalists tell how gov't spies hacked virtually every cell phone in the entire freakin' world.... FCC commissioner blasts Net Neutrality (aka gov't control of the Internet).... Study shows Uber saves lives, reduces drunk driving.... Fools control American foreign policy, says Cato's Doug Bandow.... What has America gotten in return for trillions of dollars, thousands of dead American soldiers, and tens of thousands of dead foreign civilians? Not much, says journalist.... Rand Paul's constituents ask an excellent question.... John Kerry swiftboats Israeli prime minister.... Look out: it's never a good thing when a president talks about new laws to "protect our kids," warns tech journalist....

PERSUASION POWER POINT #383 by Michael Cloud
Memory Fades, Dissolves, Decays, and Leaks Away

LIBERTY MINUTE
Word Choices: Re-Labeling the Minimum Wage

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH THE ADVOCATES
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President's Corner

by Sharon Harris







The Greatest Libertarian Accomplishment in History?

Dear friends, 

What is the most important libertarian accomplishment in history? 

Not long ago David Boaz of the Cato Institute was asked that question. 

His response? "The abolition of slavery."

"The greatest libertarian crusade in history was the effort to abolish chattel slavery, culminating in the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement and the heroic Underground Railroad," Boaz wrote recently at Huffington Post. "It's no accident that abolitionism emerged out of the ferment of the Industrial Revolution and the American Revolution.

"How could Americans proclaim that 'all men are created equal … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,' without noticing that they themselves were holding other men and women in bondage? They could not, of course. The ideas of the American Revolution — individualism, natural rights and free markets — led logically to agitation for the extension of civil and political rights to those who had been excluded from liberty, as they were from power — notably slaves, serfs and women. ...

"In the United States, the abolitionist movement was naturally led by libertarians. Leading abolitionists called slavery 'man stealing,' in that it sought to deny self-ownership and steal a man's very self. Their arguments paralleled those of John Locke and the libertarian agitators known as the Levellers. William Lloyd Garrison wrote that his goal was not just the abolition of slavery but 'the emancipation of our whole race from the dominion of man, from the thraldom of self, from the government of brute force.'"

That's a great answer, just the kind you might expect from the editor of The Libertarian Reader, an essential and delightful anthology of libertarian thought throughout history — 68 choice selections from the Bible and Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard, including selections from abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglas, Lysander Spooner, Angelina Grimke, Sarah Grimke and William Ellery Channing. 

Boaz is also the author of a new book, The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom, which has just been released. It's an updated version of his classic book Libertarianism: A Primer, one of the best examinations of libertarianism available, which gathered worldwide praise. I highly recommend it. 

I also highly recommend the rest of Boaz's article, "Black History Is American History." Next year, when Black History Month comes around, I expect it will be high on my list of suggested resources for libertarians to read and share.

In Liberty,
 
Sharon
 
NEXT ISSUE: "Ask Dr. Ruwart"... and more!
 
* * *
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Learn more about the Advocates and our work for liberty.

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Activist Ammunition

by James W. Harris






Why Did Our Ancestors Approve the Constitution?

Here's a provocative thought experiment from Jacob G. Hornberger, president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. In a recent article "Why Did Our Ancestors Approve the Constitution?" Hornberger poses this question: 

"Suppose our American ancestors in 1787 had been told that the proposed Constitution, which they were being asked to approve, was going to bring into existence a federal government that would have the following powers:

* The power to tax people's incomes in any amount government officials deemed appropriate.
* The power to regulate people's economic activities.
* The power to incarcerate and fine people for ingesting harmful substances.
* The power to round people up and incarcerate them indefinitely without trial by jury and due process of law.
* The power to torture people.
* The power to assassinate people.
* The power to invade foreign countries and wage wars of aggression against them.
* The power to establish military bases in foreign countries.
* The power to take money from people and give it to others.
* The power to secretly spy on people and monitor their activities.
* The power to incarcerate and fine people for spending money in other countries.
* The power to make paper money the official money of the United States.
* The power to control and regulate gun ownership.

"Imagine, also, that the American people were told that the Constitution was going to bring into existence a vast, permanent military establishment as well as a secretive governmental agency (i.e., the CIA) with the omnipotent powers to kidnap people, conduct medical experiments on them without their consent, torture people, and assassinate people.

"Imagine, also, that they were told that a vast welfare state was going to be brought into existence, with the federal government charged with the task of taking care of people with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, foreign aid to dictators, and the like.

"One thing is beyond dispute: If our American ancestors had believed that the Constitution was going to bring into existence that type of federal government — the type of federal government we have today — they never would have approved it."

There's much more provocative reading in the rest of "Why Did Our Ancestors Approve the Constitution?

* * * 

Activist Ammunition is written by Liberator Online editor James W. Harris. His articles have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, and he has been a Finalist for the Mencken Awards, given by the Free Press Association for "Outstanding Journalism in Support of Liberty." 
THEY SAID IT...

LIBERTARIANS HELP WIN LEGAL POT IN ALASKA: "Smoking, growing and possessing marijuana becomes legal in America's wildest state Tuesday, thanks to a voter initiative aimed at clearing away 40 years of conflicting laws and court rulings. Making Alaska the third state to legalize recreational marijuana was the goal of a coalition including libertarians, rugged individualists and small-government Republicans who prize the privacy rights enshrined in the state's constitution." — journalist Molly Dischner, Associated Press, "Alaska Becomes 3rd State With Legal Marijuana," Feb. 23, 2015.
 
HOW GOV'T SPIES HACKED VIRTUALLY EVERY CELL PHONE IN THE WORLD: "With the help of the NSA, British intelligence broke into the world's leading manufacturer of SIM cards and stole millions of keys that encrypt cell phone communications, including what you say. ... U.S. and British spies hacked into Gemalto, which makes SIM cards for AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and hundreds of other wireless networks. With Gemalto's encryption keys in hand, the intelligence agencies gained 'the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world's cellular communications, including both voice and data' without having to get a single warrant or tell a telephone company." — the Daily Beast website, summarizing "The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle" by Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley (based on files from Edward Snowden), The Intercept, Feb. 19, 2014. 

GOV'T AT WORK: "[Net Neutrality] is a solution that won't work to a problem that doesn't exist." — Ajit Pai, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

UBER REDUCES DRUNK DRIVING, SAVES LIVES: "In May 2014, Uber set out to answer a simple but important question: what, if any, effect did the availability of safe, reliable rides on the Uber ridesharing platform have on drunk driving in Seattle, where prior to Uber's arrival in 2013, approximately 7.6 people per day — or 2,750 per year — were arrested for driving under the influence. Using publicly available data and a simple econometric model, we discovered Uber's entry into the Emerald City was associated with a 10% decrease in DUI arrests. The results were robust and statistically significant, providing meaningful evidence of the power Uber's network of safe, reliable rides has on drunk driving in major metropolitan cities. ... And the pattern is the same in cities across America. ... [W]e believe there is a direct relationship between the presence of uberX in a city and the amount of drunk driving crashes involving younger populations." — Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) from their new study, "More Options. Shifting Mindsets. Driving Better Choices." 

FOOLS: "American foreign policy is controlled by fools. What else can one conclude from the bipartisan demand that the U.S. intervene everywhere all the time, irrespective of consequence? ... Not only has virtually every bombing, invasion, occupation, and other interference made problems worse. Almost every new intervention is an attempt to redress problems created by previous U.S. actions. And every new military step is likely, indeed, almost guaranteed, to create even bigger problems." — Doug Bandow, Cato Institute, "Washington's Foolish Foreign Policy: American People Must Say No to More Wars," Forbes.com, Feb. 21, 2015. 

WAR, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR: "So just what did several thousand dead Americans, and at least tens of thousands of civilian casualties, plus a couple of trillion dollars get us? ... Are we living in a safer world with a more peaceful and prosperous Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya? Isn't there, as some experts have posited, a possible casual link between the way we prosecuted the war on terror so far, and the proliferation of violence so much of the world is still living with today? ... We are on a 'wars of the future' conveyor belt where we will keep spending mindlessly, without pausing to see what the trillions we have already spent have actually bought us and the planet." — Robert Hennelly, "What did thousands of dead Americans get us? Before granting war powers, let's see where the last two got us," Slate.com, Feb 22, 2015. 

EXCELLENT QUESTION: "Remember there was this [federal government] shutdown about a year ago, and in Washington everyone was clamoring, everyone was worried. I went home to Kentucky and you know what they said: 'Why in the hell did you open it back up?'" — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) speaking in Montgomery, Alabama, Feb. 20, 2015, quoted by Breitbart.com.

KERRY SWIFTBOATS NETANYAHU: "The prime minister was profoundly forward-leaning and outspoken about the importance of invading Iraq under George W. Bush. We all know what happened with that decision." — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Feb. 25, 2015, attacking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the grounds that Netanyahu's support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq shows his judgment on Iran can't be trusted. Yes, this is the same John Kerry who himself voted for the war in Iraq in 2002 and touted that support while running for president in 2004.

RULE OF THUMB: "Here's a good rule of thumb: Any time a president says new tech laws are to protect 'our kids,' you know something bad is on the way." — tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin on anti-privacy laws being considered by the Obama administration, "President Obama's tech-centered State of the Union," Boing Boing, Jan. 20, 2015. 
 
*  *  *
"They Said It..." is compiled by Liberator Online editor James W. Harris.

Persuasion Power Point #383

by Michael Cloud






Memory Fades, Dissolves, Decays, and Leaks Away

Maybe you've carefully read everything Ayn Rand ever published.

Or you've studied the complete works of Murray Rothbard. 

Or the complete Harry Browne or Henry Hazlitt or Ludwig von Mises or Milton Friedman.

So you feel ready to discuss or debate something your favorite author covered.

Perhaps you were prepared… while you were reading the works. Or right after you finished reading them.

But how long has it been since you read the material? Three months? Three years? Five years? Ten or more?

Because memory fades, dissolves, decays, and leaks away. 

And unless you've re-read the books… or reviewed the crucial parts... chances are that you remember only a small fraction of what your favorite writer explained. And you may misremember a number of the author's key points.

This is why we need to re-read, review, and even write out — in our own words — the evidence and arguments the author made.

Want to make sure that you remember the insights, analyses, and explanations of your favorite writer?
 
Yellow highlight, bracket, and underline the key sections of each book as you read it.

Makes notes and write questions in the margins of each key section.

Inside the front page of each book, write the date you finished reading it. (After several years, you may think you read a book in 2015 — and discover from your date that you read it in 2011.)

Often, just a sixty-minute review of your underlined and bracketed sections, your notes and your comments will yield you a motherlode of refreshed, renewed knowledge.

And you will become far better at explaining and winning others to liberty.
 
*  *  *
In 2000, Michael was honored with the Thomas Paine Award as the Most Persuasive Libertarian Communicator in America.
 

One-Minute Liberty Tip 

by Sharon Harris




Word Choices: Re-Labeling the Minimum Wage

Political words and labels are vitally important, and I'm always looking for new, more effective political wording. As I've noted in past columns, the name of a political proposal can often play a major role in whether it is accepted or rejected by the public and by your listeners. 

The rebranding of the estate tax as the Death Tax is one of the most successful such examples. Similarly, the branding of government control of the Internet as "Net Neutrality" led to widespread support for this unfortunate idea. 

That's why I was pleased with some new labels and ways of discussing the minimum wage from economist Mark Perry, who writes the excellent blog Carpe Diem

The minimum wage is one of the most pernicious economic ideas. It harms the very people it claims to help: the poor, the disadvantaged, the unskilled, the young. It tears out the bottom rung of the ladder to success. It has destroyed, by some estimates, millions of viable jobs in the U.S., including whole categories of jobs that, because of the minimum wage, were suddenly no longer viable. 

Perry writes: "Words matter, and the terms 'raising the minimum wage' or 'passing a living wage' are easy to embrace because they sound so positive and well-meaning; but only because those terms only emphasize the potential, positive effects for some workers, while largely ignoring the potential, and very real, negative effects on small businesses, retailers and employers who bear the burden of the government mandate, and the inevitable adverse effects on workers who lose their jobs (or have their hours and benefits cut), or are unable to find a job at the 'living wage.' ...

"Here's a thought experiment: Ask people: a) if they would support a '$15,500 annual tax' on small businesses, retailers, restaurants and employers for each full-time, entry-level worker employed, and alternatively b) if they would support a $15 per hour 'living wage.' 

"I'm pretty sure that at least some people who say they support a $15 per hour living wage would be slightly less enthusiastic about imposing a $15,500 per year 'employer tax' on small businesses, retailers and restaurants, even though those two proposals are roughly equivalent. ...

"Let's be very clear — going from the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to a new $15 per hour minimum/living wage is equivalent to a $15,500 annual 'tax' (closer to $16,800 with additional payroll taxes) on employers for each full-time, minimum wage employee. ...

"So I say to minimum wage advocates: would replacing the term 'increase the minimum/living wage to $15 per hour' with the equivalent term 'raise the cost to businesses who employ or hire entry level workers by $15,500 per year ($16,800 with payroll taxes) for every full-time, entry-level employee' curb your enthusiasm at all about government-mandated wage increases?"

There are some great ideas here. When discussing the minimum wage, try some of Perry's suggestions:

* Instead of using the phrase "an increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 (or $15) per hour" express your concern about "imposing a $2.85 (or $7.75) per hour, per employee, tax on employers who employ or hire unskilled workers. Won't that discourage employers from hiring the very people who most need these jobs? Why should we punish employers who are offering entry-level jobs to low-skilled unemployed workers?" 

* Instead of using the term "minimum wage," try calling it "the $15,500 annual tax on small businesses, retailers, restaurants and employers for each full-time, entry-level worker they employ."

* Instead of "minimum wage," try calling it "the $2.85 (or whatever sum applies) per hour, per employee, tax on employers who employ or hire unskilled workers."

* Instead of "minimum wage," try calling it "the government-mandated wage floor for unskilled, jobless workers."

* Instead of "minimum wage," try calling it " the government-mandated wage floor that guarantees reduced employment opportunities for America's teenagers and low-skilled workers, especially minorities."

Now that you've got the idea, try working these phrases into your own wordings and style. You may find it easier to open minds to the true nature of the minimum wage law.

*  *  *
Sharon Harris is president of the Advocates for Self-Government. 

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