Podcast Posted

The latest is an interview with Mark Rutherford, former Chair of the Libertarian Party of Indiana. Mark reflected on his tenure, and the many ways the party grew during that time, and since. 

I think the most insightful comments were about the Party surviving certain transitions. Small and growing organizations can become stale if one person leads for too long. Worse than that, weak organizations fail to make transitions when the time comes. 

Here's the link to the podcast archive.

Rutherford will be speaking at the LPIN's joint convention with the Kentucky Libertarians this weekend, in Clarksville IN, just north of Louisville KY. The convention has a pretty exciting list of speakers, topped by Reason Magazine contributor Radley Balko, who also runs The Agitator blog, which has long been linked on my blog, at the right. Dr. Eric Schansberg, Wayne Allyn Root, and Daniel Williams round out a list of fine speakers.

See me in Clarksville. Who knows? I may interview you for a future podcast!

New Podcast Posted

I've added a special edition of the Libertarian Party of Indiana's Weekly Podcast, to include more dialogue from Dr. Eric Schansberg. I asked him about the prudent ways Indiana should spend the stimulus money, since it seems certain that we aren't going to pull a Utah and say, "No thanks!" - plus the traps our state should avoid.

I very happy with the timeliness and the content!

I am very interested to talk soon with Ed Angleton (hopefully this week) about legislation at the Statehouse, and I have conversations with the dynamic duo of Susan & Rex Bell in the can, so there will be plenty more to listen to!

Podcast Update

There are now five installments of the Libertarian Party of Indiana's Weekly Podcast available for your stimulation, and download. The most recent, just posted minutes ago, features Dr. Eric Schansberg, discussing the bailouts and stimulus, and whether the diseases might be less threatening than the cures.

Here's the linkages:

Dr. Eric Schansberg on stimulus and bailout

Chris Ward on business property rights vis smoking laws

Tim Maguire on the role appointed Libertarians can fulfill

Todd Singer on the Libertarian outlook for the new year

Mike Kole's intro podcast. Way exciting.

LPIN podcast archive

You can subscribe from the above archive link, and new episodes will be sent to your iTunes. Give me convenience, or give me death.

Cato's Retort

Obama made the claim that:

There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan
that will help to jumpstart the economy

To this, the libertarian think tank The Cato Institute created a full-page newspaper ad that ran in several papers, including the NY Times. The ad preceded the Obama press conference by several days. The ad begins:

With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true.

Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policymakers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.

Then followed the names of 200+ economists who signed on, including Nobel Laureates. A second edition of the ad was created, because more than 100 other economists also wished to sign on.

So, I tend to think that Obama probably was speaking very specifically to libertarians when he marginalized those who would prefer no or little action as better than the deleterious 'stimulus'.

Indiana economists Cecil Bohanon and Courtenay Stone (both of Ball State) and Eric Schansberg (Indiana Southern Univ) are among the signers.

Vote Libertarian!

I am sending this appeal to any voter, but in particular, I want to urge the people who supported my 2006 campaign for Indiana Secretary of State to get out to the polls and cast votes for Libertarian Party candidates.

When I ran for that office, it wasn't just in seeking the office. It was to ensure continued automatic ballot access for all of Indiana's Libertarian party candidates. This is the day that effort was put forth for.

If you supported my campaign, with your effort, your time, your money- do yourself a favor and protect your investment. Make sure the showing is as strong as possible for our Libertarian candidates.

If you support libertarian policy, please do not be discouraged by the perceived likely results in the various races. Show up and cast your vote. When we score strongly, our ideas are taken seriously. If we don't? Well, why should anyone take us seriously?

But truly, we're running some strong races out there. Steve Keltner is running a fantastic campaign for Indiana Senate in District 30. Ed Angleton is also running strong, for Indiana House in District 100. Rex Bell scored 15% in his three-way 2006 run for Indiana House in District 54, and this time it's a two-way race. Rex could win! Dr. Eric Schansberg is running another strong campaign for US House in District 9. And on, and on.

Full list of Libertarian candidates on the ballot in Indiana.

Do it for me! Do it for yourself and your children. Just do it- vote Libertarian.

Rex Bell's Excellent Travels

Being that I just got back from a week in the Yellowstone Park area, it's hard to imagine that I could possibly have travel envy for anyone, and yet I have just a bit for my friend Rex Bell.

It seems he just did a tour of Washington with other Indiana Libertarian candidates. Rex is a candidate for Indiana House, District 54, and he journeyed with Congressional candidate Dr. Eric Schansberg (9th District), Indiana Senate candidate Steve Keltner (District 30), and former Libertarian state chair Mark Rutherford.

Among those Rex and the group met with was Dick Heller, he of Heller vs DC, the landmark 2nd Amendment case just heard by the Supreme Court. Then he met with folks from the Cato Institute, the Libertarian Party's national HQ, David Weigel of Reason Magazine, and more.

Check out Rex's full post!

I kind of knew that Rex had met with Reason, thanks to a post on Reason's 'Hit & Run' by Weigel, mentioning the possibility of Bob Barr campaigning in Indiana in tandem with Hoosier Libertarians like Rex, Keltner, and Schansberg.

Whatever envy I feel just shows that no one vacation can satisfy every facet of one's being, great though the experiences may be. Congrats, Rex!

The Battle For Jesus

It seems that politically, botht he right and the left are very keen to claim Jesus as their own. Bible verses are cited by both. Each claims its' righteousness.

Today, Michael Gerson's Washington Post column does something new: It proclaims Jesus not a libertarian.

It is true that Jesus was not a political activist; he joined no party and issued no Contract With the Roman Empire. But it is a stretch to interpret his personal challenge to the rich young ruler as a biblical foundation for libertarianism.

I'm not aware of anything in particular from my fellow libertarians that caused this statement's issue. I know that Bob Barr considers himself a Christian, but that's not the same as a crusade to claim Jesus as an exemplar for my favored political philosophy.

The Libertarian Party does claim some deeply religious individuals among its' notables. Here in Indiana, I can think of Dr. Eric Schansberg, Kenn Gividen, and Andy Horning as prime examples. Schansberg has done what Gerson is doing here, with his 2003 book, "Turn Neither Right Nor Left".

I think Schansberg's effort was far more justified than Gerson's. I mean, how many libertarian claims on Jesus have you heard lately? Compare that to the number on the right, especially. Based on Gerson's bio, I can't help but wonder if the man is simply firing a pre-emptive strike on Bob Barr on behalf of John McCain. His closing statement seems to suggest it:

For millennia, artists, thinkers and politicians have shaped their image of Jesus, often into a mirror image of themselves. But the goal of Christianity is to allow Him to shape us, not the other way around. And just as Jesus the leftist revolutionary is a distortion, so is Jesus the libertarian.

This seems like it's coming from out of nowhere. Am I missing something?