|
|
The Denver Post (see “Qwest seeks grant for Net“) reports, in classic Statist language, that
Qwest is seeking $350 million in federal stimulus grants to extend high-speed Internet service to more than 500,000 homes, businesses and schools in rural communities across its 14-state local phone service territory.
What this really means in English is that
Qwest, a private enterprise, is seeking $350 million of your money so that it can profit from an untapped market it does not wish to pay to enter.
Once again, in the name of “helping the poor,” a huge company wants corporate welfare so it can profit. This is not capitalism. It is corporatism. It is immoral. Yet it has become so entrenched in our society, we accept the description of “federal grant” as if it were something other than a blatant redistribution of money from taxpayers to a private corporation.
Fight corporatism and corporate welfare.
There is a problem with the over prescripion of medical marijuana in Colorado. Fortunately, the solution to the problem already exists.
The pro-big government statists in both major parties, however, can not let the “crisis” go to waste. The boom of medical marijuana providers in Colorado gives the statists another opportunity to create another layer of government bureaucracy and government control over individuals and the doctor/patient relationship.
For instance, Christian Thurstone, a “board-certified child/adoscent and addictions psychiatrist” laments the abuses of our state’s medical marijuana process ( see “Medical Marijuana and Teenagers, Smoke and Mirrors,”) in today’s Denver Post.
He complains that
In the last three months, I have seen more than a dozen young people — all between the ages of 18 and 25 and with histories of substance abuse — who received from other doctors what are essentially permission slips to smoke pot.
That presents a problem. It must be addressed.
However, Dr. Thurstone loses some credibility when he declares “Now, almost every day, a kid asks me, ‘Doc, how can marijuana be bad? It’s a medicine.’”
The good doctor is exasperated that he has to answer this question, as if the kid has a good point he can not refute.
That is an absurd conclusion. The kid does not have a good point. The doctor should tell the kid that valium, vicodin and oxycontin are medicine, too, and the kid should not be doing those things either, unless he has a medical need for them.
Of course, to answer in such a way is place marijuana on the same legitimate medicinal grounds as these prescription drugs. Dr. Thurstone does not wish to do this, and his bias is apparent.
(Of course, valium, vicodin and oxycontin are all more addictive and dangerous than marijuana, but let’s not confuse the issue with clarity).
Dr. Thurstone has a higher opinion of his ability to determine if patients need medical marijuana than his fellow MDs. He disagrees with many of them.
He probably has a point. But let’s not pretend that this is a new situation. Unethical MDs have wrongfully prescribed all kinds of medicine ever since the first prescription pad was printed.
Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson’s doctors immediately come to mind.
The problem is not medical marijuana. The problem is its inappropriate prescription by licensed medical professionals. There already exists a way to deal with incompetent and/or unethical doctors.
Anyone, even other doctors like Thurstone, can file a complaint with the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners if one believes a medical doctor is acting in an unethical manner. The checklist of potential complaints includes “overprescribing of medications.” It seems like Dr. Thurstone is in dire search of a solution that already exists, and it’s as obvious as a bong at a baptism.
It appears that the good doc’s real problem is that medical marijuana exists at all.
If one believes that a medical doctor is overprescribing a medicine, any medicine, report him to the board that already exists. There is no need to lobby the legislature for more government intrusion into citizens’ lives.
Physician, heal thyself. And leave the legislature out of it.
So, “Cell phone laws have no impact on accidents.”
But they give the police another reason to pull you over, look in your car and ask what you are doing.
Chalk up another win for the statists and another loss for the libertarians.
Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $10 billion to research vaccines and bring them to the world’s poorest countries.
This is clearly immoral. They “earned” this $10 billion in obscene profits by the exploitation of the labor of others.
The government should have taxed the Gates family, and Microsoft Corporation, at a higher rate thereby making sure the people benefit, and not the bourgeois elitists that think they can atone for their exploitation of others by throwing table crumbs to the poor of the world.
Only the state has the moral authority to decide whom and to what causes the natural resources of the world belong! Profiteers like the Gates have stolen the labor of the working man and it must be returned!
The right wing media, like the Associated Press, are all owned by the corporate-military-industrial complex, and these media puppets hold up those that exploit the labor of the working class as heroes!
This is nonsense! The world can only reach its potential via control by the people! Corporations, evil banksters and all of their profit-monger brethen hold us back! They use us up and spit us out!
We, the working people, should have that $10 billion for our own use! Gates and his wife did not WORK for that obscene profit! They stole it!
The United States should nationalize Microsoft and return the power to the people! We should not be beholden to our profit-seeking corporate masters! We, the collective, should decide where that $10 billion goes!
Let equality reign!
–special guest post by Krasniya Koi
“It’s NOT Left vs Right,
It’s the State vs You!”
This is my new favorite bumper sticker. It sums up all that is wrong with the political dialogue in this country.
All too often, even libertarians* fall into this trap. I routinely mock statists, and I do not care where the statists fall on the traditional “left/right” or “Republican/Democrat” line. Recently, I mocked statists Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow for their reactions to the election of statist Scott Brown as the new senator from Massachusetts.
Immediately, I was accused of being “pro-Republican” because I mocked two leftists. That criticism is a complete non-sequitur and is total tripe.
Worse than that, however, it shows how entrenched the “left vs. right” falsehood really is. Those that believe in the “left vs. right” myth honestly think that if someone mocks the “left” then they must be on the “right.”
It is our job as libertarians to destroy this myth.
To that end, I no longer use the words “left” and “right.” Using the words perpetuates the myth and gives the lie credence. I use the words “statist” and “libertarian.” (Of course, the Nolan Chart graphically demonstrates the distinction.)
We, as believers in freedom and liberty, understand that both the “left” and “right” are statist. Therefore there is no need to distinguish the two. They are statist. We are libertarian.
Statists believe in the initiation of force to achieve political ends. Libertarians do not.
Statists believe in the power of the government over the individual. Libertarians believe in the power of the individual over the state.
Statists are wrong. Libertarians are correct.
I ask you all to join me in this mission. Refuse to acknowledge any important difference between the “left” and the “right.” There is none.
Do not even use the words “left” and “right.” Reject the lie.
Embrace the truth. Embrace liberty. Fight the expansion of statism, no matter what purported “direction” it comes from.
And let freedom ring.
*To my Republican friends on the PPC, in this article, the term “libertarian” could very well be read as a reference to the philosophy. I add this footnote in an attempt to head off the otherwise anticipated criticism of being “partisan.” Of course, there is no place for partisanship on the PPC.
As state chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado, I have a message in our monthly newsletter. To subscribe, go to this section of our LPColorado.org website. Here is this month’s contribution:
====
I was at a Nuggets game with two liberal friends recently. One of them said, “being a libertarian is really trendy right now.”
She commented on how people are fed up with the two party duopoly and are looking for an alternative.
Our challenge, as registered Libertarians, is to make sure the trend grows and becomes permanent.
I believe the best way to grow the movement is to find common ground with our statist friends, and explain why we agree on a given issue. From there, apply that agreement to other areas. For instance, with a leftist, we can agree that the government should not tell people what they can do in the privacy of their own home with other consenting adults. The common ground is that the government has no business dictating our private lives.
Then expand that concept. If they agree that our personal lives should be left alone by the state, ask them if anything is more personal than our health. If so, shouldn’t the state stay out of that, too?
They will likely sputter and say, “Well, that’s different.” Ask them, “Why is it different?” They’ll likely say something like, “socialized medicine is for the public good.” You might mention that the facts and history don’t back up that assertion, but for the sake of argument, you’ll accept their premise.
Remind that that social conservatives think homosexual behavior and medical marijuana are bad for society and banning them is “for the public good.” The reason they are both wrong, the left and the right, is that they see the use of government force to compel certain behavior as legitimate. It is not.
Don’t expect them to have a “Eureka!” moment and immediately see the light. But the idea has been planted and the concept of freedom will simmer in the back of their heads.
For instance, my liberal friend was commenting on the arbitrary and silly liquor laws we have in Colorado. I made the offhand comment that if some have their way on health care, the same people that made those silly and arbitrary liquor laws will be deciding what kind of doctor you can see and if you should get certain medicine.
She didn’t immediately renounce all statism and join the LP, but I could see the light go on in her head. She understood.
And understanding is the start.
Let freedom ring.
Hey everyone,
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt heard about the close House vote on HR3200, a.k.a. the health care gun to our heads. Aside from just bankrupting us and providing worse health care with ever increasing premiums and taxes, the absolute worst thing about this “reform” is that it creates another underclass that will be dependent on government. After all, if the government did not “give” us health care, who would??
I can guarantee that several decades down the road, our nation will have forgotten that at some point in time, health care was provided by doctors in a relatively free market. That dependency, my friends, is what is so sad about this takeover.
The good news is that the House bill looks to be “dead on arrival” in the Senate. Pundits are predicting a rough road ahead for Obama Care.
However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be proactive and contact our Senators Udall and Bennet and let them know how we feel about this government takeover.
Senator Mark Udall:
Washington, D.C. Office:
317 Hart Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-0605
Phone: (202) 224-5941
Fax: (202) 224-6471
Senator Michael Bennet:
Washington, D.C. Office
702 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5852
Fax: (202) 228-5036
That’s all for now,
Justin Longo
Legislative Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
“Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism.” -Mises
==============================================
Please forward this e-mail to friends and family who are concerned about defending our freedoms!
Urge others to sign up to receive these free alerts at:
http://lpcolorado.org/lpcolibertyalerts.aspx
You can read past “LPCO Liberty Alerts” at:
http://lpcolorado.org/lpcolibalertarchive.aspx
Sign-up to receive free e-mails from the National Libertarian Party at:
https://www.lp.org/signup
Support the Libertarian Party of Colorado by joining the 1776 Club:
http://lpcolorado.org/donate.aspx
My contact information:
Justin Longo
Legislative Director, LPCO
Phone: (703) 994-7104
LegislativeDirector@LPColorado.org
Change email address / Leave mailing list
Powered by YourMailingListProvider
|
Help Liberty on the Rocks (Denver) Grow. Donate Today!
Get Happy Hour Reminders!
|
