On Sunday August 26th, an enthusiastic crowd of almost 10,000 attended the Ron Paul Rally as Dr. Paul took the stage and rocked the house. But first, let’s recap a couple other highlights from the weekend
Saturday
Wayne Paul – Ron Paul’s brother Wayne started out our day on Saturday by discussing his beliefs and relevant law on constitutional money. Wayne described a case in which he helped testify on behalf of the defendent who was being accused of tax evasion when utilizing US minted gold coins. From a personal discussion later with Wayne, I was able to confirm he was referencing the Kahre case in Las Vegas
Regular contributor to LewRockwell.com, Anthony Gregory then did a great job and gave the a crowd some reason to hope that the liberty movement is gaining ground.
Tom Woods – the libertarian hero gave a great speech “Ron Paul: Army of One”
My picture with Tom
Lew Rockwell – I am not alone in arguing that Lew Rockwell might have done more for the cause of liberty than anyone else living today. Lew is the founder of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute and the most popular libertarian website LewRockwell.com. An author and regular guest on various TV and radio programs, Lew is also a close personal friend to Murray Rothbard and Ron Paul (his earlier chief of staff as well).
Walter Block – Often noted as today’s “Mr. Liberterian” in the same company with the original Mr. Libertarian and intellectual gangsta Murray Rothbard. Walter’s years as an economics proferssor at Loyola New Orleans, numerous books and radio/TV appearances have made him a legend in our community. I would encourage people to read one of his first offerings written more than three decades ago but which is still in print ‘Defending the Undefendable’ .
At the prodding of his close friend Ron Paul to “do something substantial” during this weekend sessions, Walter gave one of the most courageous speeches possible by tackling the most difficult of subjects (difficult for even the ‘consistent to a fault’ libertarians). That subject of course is abortion, and Walter encouraged the crowd to consider his theory of Evictionism which he held up as a principled compromise to the concepts of self ownership and not aggressing against innocent life. I found Walter afterwards to thank him for his courage to take on the topic, but to ask questions and debate a few of his conclusions (much more on this in a future blog). Walter was gracious and engaging as we debated various points for at least a few minutes. As you can see from this picture taken afterwards, we both enjoyed the intellectual jousting and comraderie
TMOT, aka The Minister of Truth, aka Derrick Grayson was energizing as always.
Gary Johnson – came to the stage and said almost everything perfectly. Gary noted that he was a huge fan of Ron Paul, and that he would not be in the race if Ron were still an active candidate on the ballots. The crowd loudly welcomed his passion for peace and bringing our troops home. The Austrian/LRC side of the libertarian aisle have been fairly loud in trying to get him to discard his Reason/Cato influenced support for the Federal Reserve. Based upon some of his comments, that request seems like it is starting to resonate. I was however disappointed to hear him reiterate his support of the the FairTax as a way to Ron Paul’s (and our) ideal of zero taxation. The countries which have adopted consumption taxes typically share two disturbing attributes. The first, consumption taxation is typically in addition to the income tax. Second, almost none of them have seen a decrease in the consumption tax rates. As far as I can tell, the FairTax as written has no explicit or implicit plan to decrease the overall level of taxation. This might explain why so many big government advocates on both the neo-con and progressive side support the FairTax – – and why Murray Rothbard and Ron Paul hate the FairTax. But in the end, it is fair to note that Gary Johnson is vastly superior to Romney and Obama on pretty much every subject. Gary is also ten times better than the prior Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr. Gary deserves our thoughtful consideration when it comes time to vote.
Sheriff Mack gave a suprisingly great speech about Constitutional law enforcement. Specifically noting that the highest elected local law enforcement (the County Sheriff) carries ultimate jurisdiction which supercedes even federal law enforcers (FBI or other). As readers of this blog know, I’ve held out hope that there are many more like Sheriff Mack who share his desire for legal, moral enforcement of the natural law and Constitution. Too often, some act like power hungry thugs which abuse citizens with apparent impunity.
Larry Pratt and I spoke for a few minutes prior to his speech, and we both lamented at the “pre-emptive concessions of principle” often advocated by the less rigorous NRA. Larry seemed amused to find gun rights advocates which go even further than he and his Gun Owners of America. I tried, but didn’t quite get him to agree that everyone can have their own RPGs and tanks. I explained my interpretation of Rothbard’s stance on self defense weaponry stopping only at WMDs due to their inherent inability to be pinpointed to the aggressor(s) only (i.e. always violating moral law in their use by harming innocents). Any weapon used for self defense (it could be a fist, crowbar, handgun or other) has the potential risk it could harm an innocent. That risk certainly amplifies as you move up the firepower chain, but it is the act of violating innocent property itself which is illegal, not the weapon.
Sunday
Lew Rockwell received a very warm reception from the crowd as he came to the podium. He helped illustrate the many ways that Ron is a far cry from your typical politician. He is extremely well read, versed in Economics, principled, uncorruptible, and a tireless advocate for liberty and peace. These are just a few of the reasons we love Ron Paul (and Lew as well).
Walter Block came out, and to my and many others suprise he gave almost the same speech as the day prior. My surprise was not that he didn’t have two different speeches, but that the audience on Sunday was much larger, and more diverse. My fears quickly came to pass as a small minority of hecklers and boo birds continued to interrupt his speech. Walter made pleas for them to act civilly and consider his theory before passing immediate judgement. That plea was met with thunderous cheers from the majority of attendees, but the minority boo birds would continue throughout the remainder of his speech. In fairness, Walter probably should take a small portion of the blame as he did misjudge his audience. He failed to realize that a small percentage were not ready to be challenged on a very emotional subject, but rather travelled only to dine on the red meat liberty propaganda promised by the event publications. Still, even if you disagree with his theory (as I did), it was a shame that such a great man and thinker received such an akward and mixed reception.
Bill O’Reilly is a fraud and coward: Walking through the halls, I began conversations with a number of other prominent contributors within the liberty movement. As example, some of the leaders of the Libertas organization leaders were there with their “Who Owns You?” t-shirts, and I introduced myself. Shortly into a variety of topics, we noticed Bill O’Reilly lapdog and producer Jessie Watters conducting interviews. After watching him interview a couple individuals, his tactics quickly became apparent. Jessie was intentionally trying to find anyone which appeared less educated (age, clothing, mannerism). After finding another set of girls under 20 years of age, Jessie continues the questioning and requests a clarification of their views on Iran (one of O’Reilly’s points of main disagreement with Ron Paul). As the girls struggle, Jessie smiles. Later, he finds another young couple for the next interview who seemed to be fairly capable in providing clear responses. By now, a small crowd has formed, and a woman comes up apparently looking to try to get interviewed. I tell her “Don’t bother, he’s intentionally avoiding interviewing anyone which knows what they’re talking about”. She replies, “I think he’ll interview me though”. I respond, “Good luck, we’ve been watching him for a while now, and you look way too eloquent compared to what he’s been selecting.” “I’m hoping once he finds out who I am, that will change. I’m Donna Paul”, she says. Not positive who she is, I state that “I recognize the last name, but…”. She quickly clarifies “I’m Ron’s sister in law”. I smile, and say how nice it is to meet her, but add “I still don’t think you’ll get an interview”. Donna says, “I bet I can”. Casually I say, “OK, I bet you 5 fiat that you don’t!”. Donna smiles, and says “You’re on!”. To my, and the crowd’s disappointment, I won that bet. She walks back from her conversation with Jessie, opens her purse, and hands me the five (pictured below).
Ron Paul – The man of the hour finally came to the podium to a thunderous welcome. We had been through almost 5 hours of prior speakers at this point, but people were still there and hungry for more. Ron did not disappoint as he spoke for well over an hour, and covered almost every key point which he had been consistently preaching these past many months and years. Sound money, peace, free markets, individual liberty and adhering to the Constitution of the United States. His message was clear: liberty is an idea whose time has come. No longer can the two parties ignore us without consequence. As both the Republicans and Democrats decay into moral compromises and economic stagnation, it will be those of us which consistently champion true justice and individual freedom which will prevail.
Back at PaulFest
Perhaps the only bad note on this weekend was the discoordination between the PaulFestival and the Rally. For now, I’ll reserve comment as to whether that discoordination was unintentional or otherwise, but it was certainly not fair to speakers like Peter Schiff, Adam Kokesh, or the vendors who travelled long distances only to see crowd sizes cannibalized by competing times/events.
On the bright side, the smaller crowds at PaulFest after Ron’s speech gave me a chance to strike up an extended conversation with David Kirk West, and Travis Wolf and Luke Wolf. Most of our conversation centered on Walter Block’s evictionism theory. As we continued, a number of other nearby participants joined for a friendly but energetic debate. David, Travis and Luke are patriots which travelled to the show as vendors to promote their video series ‘One Man’s Terrorist’ (which I bought and highly recommend). Additionally, David made some national news for his confrontation with John Bolton during a taping of John Stossel’s show.
Their movie trailer
Or you can also view their Episode 1
Whiskey Joe’s was a blast, and an opportunity to meet the delegates, speakers, and other members of the Paul family. Tom, Lori, and Valeri Pyeatt (Lori being Ron and Carol’s daughter, Valerie their granddaughter) were a particular joy with which to speak. Lori and I pictured
In the end, it was a phenomenal weekend and chance to recharge as we all try to do whatever possible to advance the cause of liberty!
Dr. Block would have some footing if the critical distinction in the abortion issue were property rights. But an examination of his position on his own terms shows that this is not the case.
Under his proposed evictionism, a woman’s earliest abortion (read “eviction” in his terminology) is limited by her ability to find a doctor to pontificate on the viability of the “evictee.” Putting aside monetary consideration from the woman, this doctor’s sole standard would, in Dr. Block’s analysis, be life.
This standard puts us right back at the current state of the debate: At what point does life begin?
Interestingly, his formulation is the mirror image of the best compromise advanced so far, the suggestion of Carl Sagan (http://tinyurl.com/8hmgpr6). Sagan, as he must, focuses on the definition of life — specifically human life. He argues that human life begins with human brain activity, at about 6 weeks. But whereas Block forbids abortion prior to viability, Sagan forbids it after.
This inversion would progressively encourage abortion as the fetus became more like a living, breathing child, a very peculiar state of affairs. The idiosyncratic use of rentier terminology fails to sanitize what could become a cruel practice indeed.
Terry – thank you for the great comment. Your point on the Doctor brings up a good angle – – not only can it be argued they are violating their oath to “do no harm”, but what is the proper role of a third party when it comes to helping evict a supposed trespasser?
Similarly, I took a quick scan of the article link you included, and will go back. My quick take on the “when does life begin” is to take a purely scientific answer. If scientists found fertilized human eggs on Mars which never developed past 6 weeks, would the scientific committee say A) we found human life!! or B) we found potential life. For me, the full genome is there on day 1, and selecting one of the other 30+ milestone points in human development seems arbitrary and unscientific.
Thanks again, and I’ll expand more in another blog in the near future.
There are still a few North American conservatives with banris left who haven’t adhered to the Eisenhower Republican Party (until ~1978 known as the Democratic Party). You kids have to go somewhere, and the Genghis Khan Was a Freaking Appeaser Party (known until ~1964 as the GOP) just doesn’t cut it.Ron Paul, not unlike Leon Trotsky before him, talks a mean game. I sympathize. You want to contribute to something less useless than those who spawned Scalia and Roberts, to say nothing of Thomas and Alito.Still, to pick up the Ron Paul banner is to forget that nativism (known until ~Newt Gingrich as racism) is no substitute for policy, not to mention thinking straight.Shorter comment: Ron Paul is a @#$%! wacko. I’d rather have another 8 years of George W. I make stroke victims seem coherent and rational’ Bush.