Voice For Liberty

Tag: Liberty

  • Road to prosperity for Kansas to be examined in Wichita

    At this Friday’s meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club, Dave Trabert, President of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, will take a look at the future of government, especially in Kansas.

    I received the following preview from the speaker:

    Itā€™s about being a critical crossroads, with one choice being a smoothly paved road and the other is a bumpy, rutted road. One looks very easy to navigate, but thereā€™s a large price to pay along the way and the destination is Serfdom. The road to Prosperity might be more difficult to travel, but the destination is worth the effort.

    I also try to make the case that we donā€™t have to be held hostage by “either/or” situations (higher taxes to sustain good services or sacrifice the services); rather, we simply need to find ways to make government more efficient so we can have good services and lower taxes.

    Dave Trabert is President of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy. Trabert developed his interest in the public policy arena during his 18-year career managing television stations. Most recently he served as general manager of WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio, an area beset with chronic employment issues resulting from a high tax burden, low education attainment and a lack of regionalism. Trabert initiated community discussions, published an extensive white paper on the issue and led a research-driven education campaign focusing on possible solutions for removing job growth barriers. He graduated cum laude from West Liberty State College with a degree in Business Administration and previously managed KAKE-TV in Wichita. Trabert researches and writes on fiscal policy issues.

    All are welcome to attend Pachyderm meetings. Lunch is $10, or you may attend the meeting only for $3.

    At Pachyderm meetings, thereā€™s usually plenty of time for the speaker to take questions from the audience. The meeting starts at noon, although those wishing to order lunch are encouraged to arrive by 11:45. The location is Whiskey Creek Steakhouse at 233 N. Mosley in Old Town. You can view a map of this location by clicking on Google map of 233 N. Mosley.

  • AFP “Defending the American Dream” summit announced

    Americans For Prosperity has announced its third annual national summit. It’s on Friday and Saturday, October 2 and 3, in Arlington, Virginia. On Friday there’s a rally and news conference at Capitol Hill.

    I attended the event last year and had a great time. I renewed past acquaintances and met new free-market activists from across the country. The speakers are great. I also served as a panel member, too.

    It’s a libertarian-friendly event with speakers like John Stossel featured in the past. I plan to attend this year, too. Get more information and register at DefendingTheDream.org.
    2

  • Fireworks in Wichita

    Fireworks in Wichita 2009

    Here’s a slide show of some photographs I took of neighborhood fireworks on Independence Day. It’s a challenge to take photographs of fireworks, at least for me, and a good dose of luck is needed to get just the right shot.

    For the slide show, click here.

  • The right to health care

    Is there a right to health care in America?

    If you believe in liberty, the answer is no.

    Back in the days of the Clinton administration and the attempt at health care nationalization, Leonard Peikoff delivered a lecture titled Health Care Is Not A Right. It’s well worth reading.

    Speaking of the Declaration of Independence, the beliefs on which America was founded, Peikoff wrote:

    The term “rights,” note, is a moral (not just a political) term; it tells us that a certain course of behavior is right, sanctioned, proper, a prerogative to be respected by others, not interfered with — and that anyone who violates a man’s rights is: wrong, morally wrong, unsanctioned, evil.

    Now our only rights, the American viewpoint continues, are the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. That’s all. According to the Founding Fathers, we are not born with a right to a trip to Disneyland, or a meal at Mcdonald’s, or a kidney dialysis (nor with the 18th-century equivalent of these things). We have certain specific rights — and only these.

    Why only these? Observe that all legitimate rights have one thing in common: they are rights to action, not to rewards from other people. The American rights impose no obligations on other people, merely the negative obligation to leave you alone. The system guarantees you the chance to work for what you want — not to be given it without effort by somebody else.

    Sometimes we see the term “positive rights,” meaning that they can be granted only if provided through positive action taken by someone else. That’s the way it is with health care: If you are to have a right to health care, it usually means that I’m going to have to pay for it.

    What are properly known as rights are absolute. They are not given to you by someone else; they belong to you because you are human.

    As a practical matter, the right to health care is fuzzy and fleeting. Yesterday there was a small gathering of citizens expressing their concern over the direction of health care. There was a smaller group across the street with a different opinion. I had a conversation with one lady, part of which went like this:

    She said “Nobody asks to get a disease. It’s not by their choice.”

    I asked her to notice my obvious condition of being overweight and the risk it carries for me to develop various health concerns. Is this not a choice I make, to be in this condition?

    “Well, okay, some of that. You could argue that to a certain extent.”

    I then mentioned that people voluntarily engage in risky behavior such as rock climbing. They expect government to rescue them when they fall and to mend their broken bones.

    “Maybe they should be required to buy extra insurance,” she said.

    So already the idea of a right to health care is starting to be qualified in several ways.

    Would we accept such qualifications and conditions on our fundamental rights? I’m afraid to say that many people would — if they could get free health care, for example.

  • Wichita July 4 tea party coverage

    There’s some coverage of the Wichita, Kansas tea party on television. Click on Wichita tea party coverage on KSN TV to view coverage from KSN Television.

    Susan Estes, Western Kansas Field Director for AFP-Kansas does a great job explaining the spirit behind the tea parties.

    Jason Kravarik, the reporter for KSN Television, as part of the story consulted a Wichita State University professor who expressed doubt about the ability of the tea party movement to generate broad appeal. That’s a problem that those who advocate for freedom face. Many people have a stake in the government continuing to dish out goodies. Those who simply want to be left alone to pursue their lives and happiness in freedom are a distinct minority.

    By the way, KSN reporter Kravarik is benefiting from government in a way that you and I probably can’t. He lives in a downtown condominium building that is seeking to extend Wichita’s facade improvement program in ways it hasn’t been applied. In order for Kravarik’s building to benefit — and he did sign the petition that pleads for this special treatment — the city will have to waive two standards that buildings have previously had to meet in order to qualify for special assessment financing. See In Wichita, special assessment financing gone wild for details.

  • Ballotpedia and Judgepedia move to new home

    From the Lucy Burns Institute.

    The Lucy Burns Institute is delighted to announce that effective July 1, 2009, it became the official sponsor of Ballotpedia and Judgepedia.

    Since the Sam Adams Alliance was established in 2006, it has organized, nurtured and spun-off several important projects, including Common Sense with Paul Jacob, American Majority, and Texas Watchdog.

    For the entire press release, click on Lucy Burns Institute is the new sponsor of Ballotpedia and Judgepedia.

  • In Wichita, Declaration of Independence to be read

    Here’s a message sent to me by Mike Shaw. This seems like it will be an interesting event. For more information, contact Mike Shaw at mshaw21@cox.net.

    Too many times we have heard the upcoming National Holiday referred to as “firecracker day.” I wonder, have we really been dumbed down to the point we no longer know why we celebrate on that day?

    As such, a team of good voices will be reading the Declaration of Independence aloud this upcoming 4th of July. We will be at the south steps of the old Sedgwick County Courthouse at 9:00 a.m., across the street east of the new courthouse. The building is located in the north east corner of the intersection of Main and Central. It is a Saturday, so we hope we will have a good turnout, and the county asks that we stay off the grass. Beware, it is a scary document when you realize these men were risking their lives, fortunes, and reputations in signing this document and declaring our country free of England. A copy of the original document will be on display. Iā€™m hoping we can make this a yearly event.

    Click to get a Google map to the event site.

  • John Stossel: The Reason.tv interview

    From Reason.tv.

    John Stossel is the best-known libertarian in the news media.

    As the co-anchor of the long-running and immensely popular ABC News program 20/20, auteur of a continuing series of specials on topics ranging from corporate welfare to educational waste to laws criminalizing consensual adult behavior, and author of best-selling books such as Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, Stossel brings a consistent message of liberty to millions of viewers on a weekly basis.

    After watching part 1, watch part 2.

  • Americans love government. Why?

    In his article Americans Love Government, Walter E. Williams wonders why we rely on something that we have so little faith in:

    According to latest Rasmussen Reports, 30 percent of Americans believe congressmen are corrupt. Last year, Congress’ approval rating fell to 9 percent, its lowest in history. If the average American were asked his opinion of congressmen, among the more polite terms you’ll hear are thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks. But what do the same people say when our nation faces a major problem? “Government ought to do something!” When people call for government to do something, it is as if they’ve been befallen by amnesia and forgotten just who is running government. It’s the very people whom they have labeled as thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks.

    So why do people rely on government so much? Here’s what Williams says:

    I don’t think that stupidity, ignorance or insanity explains the love that many Americans hold for government; it’s far more sinister and perhaps hopeless. I’ll give a few examples to make my case. Many Americans want money they don’t personally own to be used for what they see as good causes such as handouts to farmers, poor people, college students, senior citizens and businesses. If they privately took someone’s earnings to give to a farmer, college student or senior citizen, they would be hunted down as thieves and carted off to jail. However, they get Congress to do the identical thing, through its taxing power, and they are seen as compassionate and caring. In other words, people love government because government, while having neither moral nor constitutional authority, has the legal and physical might to take the property of one American and give it to another. (Emphasis added.)

    What does this lead to? Williams paints a grim picture, but if you’ve read Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (or see the cartoon version), you know very well the danger that we face. Here’s how Williams explains the danger:

    The path we’re embarked upon, in the name of good, is a familiar one. The unspeakable horrors of Nazism, Stalinism and Maoism did not begin in the ’30s and ’40s with the men usually associated with those names. Those horrors were simply the end result of a long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the name of “social justice.” In Germany, it led to the Enabling Act of 1933: Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation and, after all, who could be against a remedy to relieve distress? Decent but misguided Germans, who would have cringed at the thought of what Nazi Germany would become, succumbed to Hitler’s charisma.

    Today’s Americans, enticed, perhaps enchanted, by charismatic speeches, are ceding so much power to Washington, and like yesteryear’s Germans are building the Trojan Horse for a future tyrant.