Students For Liberty

New Website

2009-08-16T21:06:00.002-04:00

In case you haven't noticed the dearth of posts on this blog, we have transitioned our blogging activities to the main SFL site at www.StudentsForLiberty.org. Please check the main SFL site for information on SFL's work and other issues related to student movement for liberty. Also check out our new site at www.PoliticalConferences.org to see about our upcoming Regional Conferences and the 2010 International Conference.

www.StudentsForLiberty.org

www.PoliticalConferences.org

C4L Northeast Regional Conference!

2009-07-25T13:04:00.001-04:00

Check it out!

And sign up!

Liberty events are scarce in the month of August -- but I'm excited for September because of this conference!

Pennsylvania will proudly welcome and host Ron Paul and the Campaign for Liberty this fall at the Campaign for Liberty's Regional Conference. The official word from national is this will be the only conference on the east coast this year. You've been patient, you've worked extremely hard, and now is your chance to see that work pay off in the form of direct contact with C4L national, grade A grassroots political training, as well as speeches from some of the most prominent leaders in the freedom movement.

Get ready for an awesome time! Purchase your ticket today!

July 4th/5th Events in Philadelphia -- IMPORTANT!

2009-06-26T18:47:00.002-04:00

July 4th is going to be huge this year in the liberty movement. Here is the tentative schedule:

9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Philadelphia Independence Day at Independence Mall. Volunteers needed to set up and staff Campaign for Liberty table. Come join the picnic and freedom celebration at Independence Mall: Live music, speakers, family fun!! The table will stay set up from 10:00 AM to 5:00PM.

10:30 am - 12:00 pm, Campaign for Liberty Participation in the Welcome America Parade. C4L patriotic float, with C4L members marching behind distributing the message of freedom (Constitutions, etc..) to thousands of parade watchers.

3:30 to 5PM, Speakers begin.

*Larken Rose (www.larkenrose.com)
*Stefan Molyneux (www.freedomainradio.com)
*Walter Reddy (www.committeesofsafety.org)
*Michael Badnarik (www.constitutionpreservation.org)

All events listed are not necessarily endorsed by Campaign for Liberty. The PA Campaign for Liberty will have a table set up at Independence Mall, so come down and sign H.R. 1207 / S. 604 petitions, pick up literature, ask questions, or sign up to become a Campaign for Liberty.

If you want to volunteer for this event please send an email to PhillyC4L@gmail.com.

&

We are honored to be joined by Stefan Molyneux (philosopher/voluntaryist/anarchist) of Onatario, Canada and Michael Badnarik (2004 Libertarian presidential candidate) of Austin, Texas for a debate of anarchy vs minarchy on Independence weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The event will take place on July 5th, 1PM-6PM at Bossone Engineering Building, Michell Auditorium, at Drexel University, hosted by Student Liberty Front.

This will be the clash of the individual freedom titans!

Stefan Molyneux is author of several books and host of the most popular philosophy show on the internet at http://freedomainradio.com.

Michael Badnarik is a nationally renowned constitution scholar and 2004 Libertarian presidential candidate; his website is http://constitutionpreservation.org.

Wary of a 'debate' on the 5th, in favor of more entertaining activities? This will be quite far from boring! You will find our guests to be highly entertaining and enlightening. You will not want to miss this event!

The event can be found on Facebook.

Please look into these two events! They are both great ideas to learn and spread knowledge on the ideas of liberty!

Campus Freedom Network Conference 2009

2009-06-26T18:44:00.001-04:00

This past week, from June 18th to June 20th, I attended FIRE's 2nd annual Campus Freedom Network conference along with about 50 other students from around the country.

From the Fire:

Thursday, attendees and speakers will gather for a reception at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m. Following dinner, Brooklyn College professor KC Johnson, co-author of Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, will give the opening address.

Friday morning, attendees will hear from FIRE Co-founder, Chairman of FIRE's Board of Directors, and noted civil liberties attorney Harvey Silverglate. Harvey's remarks are entitled "If FIRE Didn't Exist, Why We Would Have to Invent It." Following his speech, Harvey will moderate a panel on "The Philosophical and Practical Underpinnings of Academic Liberty." Panelists include David French, Daphne Patai, and Derek Shaffer.

David French is currently director of the Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom. He is the previous president of FIRE, a former lecturer at Cornell Law School, author of FIRE's Guide to Religious Liberty on Campus, and co-author with Harvey Silverglate and Greg Lukianoff of FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus. French led the successful litigation against Temple University's speech code in DeJohn v. Temple University in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Daphne Patai is a member of FIRE's Board of Directors. She has been an insightful commentator on education for many years and has authored and edited twelve books, most recently What Price Utopia: Essays on Ideological Policing, Feminism, and Academic Affairs.

Derek Shaffer is a graduate of and professor at Stanford Law School and Executive Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center. Professor Shaffer sat on the panel at last year's CFN conference.

On Friday afternoon, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff will give a talk on "Unlearning Liberty." Samantha Harris, FIRE's Director of Speech Code Research, will lecture on the presence of speech codes on college campuses and students will attend a speech codes workshop with a FIRE staffer.

Friday evening, students will gather for a reception and dinner followed by a lecture by Wendy Kaminer, author of eight books, most recently Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU. She has been published in numerous publications including Free Inquiry, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The American Prospect, Dissent, The Nation, and Newsweek. A longtime champion of free speech, Kaminer serves on FIRE's Board of Advisors.

Friday morning, students will attend two panels on student activism. The first is "Using New Media in the Fight for Liberty." CFN Program Officer Brandon Stewart, Claremont McKenna student Charles Johnson, and independent filmmaker Andrew Marcus will discuss the uses of new media. Brandon will discuss the implementation of new media strategies at FIRE. Charles will explain how he used blogging to expose censorship in the Claremont consortium.

Andrew has extensive experience producing independent films about issues of political and social importance. He produced Political Correctness vs. Freedom of Thought-The Keith John Sampson Story about FIRE's case at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where student Keith John Sampson was found guilty of racial harassment for reading an anti-Klan book. Andrew also co-produced FIRE on Campus: An Introduction to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and FIRE in Action: Valdosta State University with Evan Coyne Maloney, maker of Indoctrinate U. Andrew will discuss the use of video in the struggle for liberty on campus.

The last session of the conference will feature students with intimate knowledge of the fight for liberty on campus. Alex Kindell of Northern Kentucky University led a student protest against new university regulations to forbid chalking and indoor demonstrations. Her work led to more speech-friendly chalking and protest policies, including the elimination of campus "free speech zones."

Alyssa Koser bravely spoke out against the University of Delaware Residence Life Program and helped defend the distribution rights of an independent student newspaper at the university. Her courageous actions helped to bring light to the University of Delaware's coercive ResLife program and vindicate the rights of her fellow students.

Chris Lee, formerly a student at Washington State University, was censored by the university administration when it paid for students to attend and disrupt a showing of Chris's play "Passion of the Musical," a satire of Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ." FIRE wrote to the administration twice and publicized this unusual and egregious incident of repression, eventually leading to a victory for free speech and a promise that the university would punish students who disrupted any more of Chris's plays.

I learned quite a lot about free speech on campuses from the conference, along with gaining many contacts to work with in the future.

If you are interested in joining CFN, click here.

litz@drexel.edu / www.ladyinliberty.com / 267-750-8407 for more information on Philadelphia events!

Foundations of Freedom Fellows Interviewed by Motorhome Diaries

2009-06-14T23:40:00.002-04:00

Jason Talley from Fr33 Agents and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation recently sat down to interview two of Students For Liberty's 2009-2010 Foundations of Freedom Fellows as part of the incredible Motorhome Diaries roadtrip/project/movement. Check out what Daniel Cuervo and Dorian Electra have to say about liberty and the fellowship. While we did not know about Dorian's awesome bass guitar skills beforehand, I think it's safe to say that they only increase her potential in the movement.

FIRE Student Video Contest Winner

2009-06-09T15:25:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Robert Nyerges, Dan Ray, Evan Mitchell, and Aaron Karp, a group of students from Ohio University who just won FIRE's first "Freedom on Campus" student video contest. They have won the grand prize of $5,000 and an invitation to the Campus Freedom Network's summer conference. Check out their video along with the videos of the two runners-up and the honorable mention below:

Runner-Up: "Day of Protest"

Runner-Up: "Autonomy"

Honorable Mention: "Campus Freedom"

Will the Real Valedictorian Please Stand Up?

2009-06-08T23:06:00.002-04:00

I just got this link in a Freedom and the First Amendment News digest, and I think it's hilarious. The story is about a high school valedictorian who was forced to give a different speech at graduation, and the real speech is hilarious. It's frank, sincere, and entertaining, but it's "offensive", which of course trumps everything else. Ergo, the student was not allowed to deliver the speech.

I say, good for her for writing her thoughts to her classmates.

Is it August yet?

2009-06-07T18:07:00.003-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came out Friday to celebrate the new Executive Board and leadership at Students For Liberty this year! We're very excited to have all of the new members on board, and for those of you who know them, it's obvious why. For those of you who don't, let me just say that the amount of dedication and passion our team has for pursuing liberty in academia is extraordinary and inspiring. I can't wait to get back on campus this August and roll out these new handbooks, conferences, and other resources for all students. In the mean time, you can access the current resources at www.studentsforliberty.org in the relevant categories. Liberty doesn't have boundaries, and neither will SFL's efforts. So if you're dedicated to liberty or just looking it up in the dictionary, SFL is thrilled to work with you and/or your student group.

It's a big academy, but someone's got to free it. Join us.

SFL Leadership Retreat: Day 2 & 3

2009-06-03T22:33:00.005-04:00

Things have been intense for the Leadership Retreat and so I didn't have time to post about it yesterday. So here's what we've been doing.

Yesterday, we were over at the Institute for Humane Studies, where we started out by hosting a gathering of representatives from a variety of pro-liberty organizations interested in working with students such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Young Americans for Liberty.

We then got to spend some one on one time with our favorite engineering professor, Dr. James W. Lark, III, a member of SFL's Board of Advisors and very experienced leader of liberty on college campuses. We started getting into more of the nuances regarding how SFL's leadership will be structured in the 2009-2010 school year, what we are trying to accomplish, and how we will evaluate our success.

Today, we visited the Charles G. Koch Foundation, a great organization where I spent the past year as a Koch Associate. We not only got to learn about Market Based Management (R), but we also started delving into outreach strategies and planning the upcoming SFL Regional Conferences and other major programs. Taking a break from so much work, we headed off to watch the Washington Nationals play against the San Francisco Giants where Randy Johnson was supposed to be playing for his 300th career win. Unfortunately, the weather ruined our plans and after eating plenty of peanuts in the rain, we decided to call it a night.

Well, time to get ready to visit Reason tomorrow and finish up some proposals to work on.

Day 1 of the Leadership Retreat Done

2009-06-01T23:23:00.006-04:00

The first day of Students For Liberty's Leadership Retreat has come to a close. Starting on a high note at the Cato Institute, we spent the day focusing on what Students For Liberty stands for as an organization and how to run a successful nonprofit that will last into the future. Here are some pictures

Just look at this great group of people:

Once we started getting into the history and vision of Students For Liberty, Will Freeland (Midwest Director) jumped in to press the importance of Students For Liberty in advancing a free society:

Jared Fuller (Southern Director) makes a point about effective education through activism while Carlo Cordasco (European Director) intently listens:

It's not just work, though. Here's a pic of everyone laughing and having a good time:

Lastly, since I was not in the original picture, here is one of yours truly:

It's been a long day and so time to get some sleep. More updates coming tomorrow.

SFL Leadership Retreat Begins!

2009-06-01T08:09:00.003-04:00

Last night, all the members of the 2009-2010 Students For Liberty Executive Board arrived in DC for the Leadership Retreat: a week-long, intensive session for SFL's leaders to orient themselves with the organization, discuss how to best promote liberty on campus, strategize for the upcoming school year, and begin preparing so we can hit the ground running.

Today, the Leadership Retreat will be at the Cato Institute. We'll be going over the basics of the history of SFL, the organization's vision, our niche in the larger pro-liberty movement, and related topics.

This promises to be a great week that will strengthen SFL's ability to support students and help prepare the next generation of liberty leaders. We'll be updating the blog with information and pictures from the Retreat.

By the way, if you're in the DC area this week, stop by the SFL Exec Board Social on Friday night at Capitol City Brewing Co. by Metro Center. You do not have to be 21 to get in, and it's going to be a great chance to get to know all of SFL's new leaders.

FIRE's Campus Freedom Network Summer Conference 2009!

2009-05-28T13:16:00.005-04:00

Students for Liberty!

There is an opportunity this summer to join in on the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) Campus Freedom Network Summer Conference !

Click here for details and to apply!

If accepted:

The conference takes place in the Doubletree Hotel, Philadelphia, PA.

It will begin on Thursday, June 18^th with a 5:00 p.m. check-in and will end after lunch on Saturday, June 20^th. FIRE is covering hotel rooms for the nights of Thursday, June 18^th, and Friday, June 19^th. You will be assigned a roommate and each room will be fitted with two queen beds.

The travel cost may be covered by FIRE's $300 travel voucher.

Good luck!

Spring Liberty in Philadelphia!

2009-05-28T13:06:00.001-04:00

Hello, fellow liberty lovers!

I apologize for not being able to update "the Liberty Bell," but there has been so much going on in Philadelphia that I hardly have any free time left! And I also apologize for a very long entry!

On April 15th, some Student Liberty Front members and myself went out to Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) to see an event hosted by the Rutgers Libertarians.
They were hosting Republican candidate for governor, Steve Lonegan. Lonegan has been called a Reganite by many and promises to lower New Jersey's high taxes. He is socially very conservative, however, and it seemed like many of those who are liberty-minded were a bit discouraged by his stance on gay marriage.

On April 25th, I took part in the END THE FED rally in Philadelphia with the Student Liberty Front and some other fellow freedom fighters. Afterwards, the Philadelphia Forum for Freedom Conference took place at Temple University. Quite the action packed day!

We met at City Hall at 10:00AM and were rallying there until about 11:22AM. At that point, we all marched down Market Street, and turned onto 6th Street that led us to the Federal Reserve.
We protested for a bit, signed some petitions, and eventually moved inside of the National Constitution Center. Speakers included:

Rep. Sam Rohrer
Mr. Michael Badnarik
Mr. Rob Gray
Ms. Lynn Landes
Mr. Walter Reddy
Mr. Tom Lingenfelter
Mr. Larken Rose

At 2, however, the Student Liberty Front members left to make it to the Philadelphia Forum for Freedom conference. There, we got to learn a bit more about the past events of the P.F.F., what’s to come, discussed the P.F.F. Constitution, embarked in philosophical conversation, played some Trivial Pursuit and socialized.

By May, I had already attended two spring ralleys (Tax Day and END THE FED), but they weren't over yet.

On May 2nd, I attended the NORML march on South Street, beginning at 4:20 (original) on South and Broad Streets, marching down South Street almost all the way to the Delaware. This was the fifth year in a row that this march has taken place, and at least some progress on ending the Drug War in America has taken place on May 13th,

The Equality Forum march and protest was on May 3rd, a rainy day like that of the Tea Party. The march was well organized and even had the Freedom Band of Philadelphia playing! We marched up to Independence Hall from around 5th and Market, rallied for a bit, and listened to many speakers. The main topics of discussion were “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” hate crimes, gay marriage and equality in the work place.

On May 12th, Student Liberty Front hosted Radley Balko at Drexel University. Balko is a former policy analyst with the Cato Institute, and now a senior editor for Reason magazine. He also is a biweekly columnist with FoxNews.com. He spoke on the drug war and police militarization in America.

Just this Monday, on Memorial Day, I attended a cookout at Warwick County Park with Pennsylvania's Campaign for Liberty in celebration of Liberty Rider's Michael Maresco. He is currently in the process of biking across the country, coast to coast, all for the cause of liberty. It was a great opportunity to meet him and congratulate him on his noble cause.

And tonight nearly concludes our Spring events at Drexel, and Student Liberty Front is hosting Rep. Sam Rohrer and Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo in The Destruction of American Federalism: A Silent Threat to American Liberty." Look forward to updates on the event, we're looking forward to a great turnout!

litz@drexel.edu / www.ladyinliberty.com / 267-750-8407 for more information on Philadelphia events!

Victory for Pro-Liberty Student Groups in Florida

2009-05-27T08:44:00.002-04:00

I was very pleasantly surprised to read this morning that a federal court recently struck down a Florida campaign law requiring nonpartisan groups to register as elections groups on the grounds that it unconstitutionally limits free speech. The law required any group that merely discussed candidates (without endorsements or opposition):

Register with the government within 24 hours;
Appoint a campaign treasurer or custodian of the books;
Designate a depository;
Make regular reports of expenditures; and
Disclose contributors.

One of the plaintiffs in the case was none other than the University of Florida College Libertarians, a Students For Liberty Affiliate. The suit was brought by one of Students For Liberty's friends, the Institute for Justice. All too often, pro-liberty groups are discriminated against by being denied equal access to resources and held to higher standards than their more well-accepted peer organizations. I believe that this opinion holds wide ranging implications for free speech and pro-liberty student groups around the country.

You can read the full opinion here.

When I ran the Penn Libertarian Association, a non-partisan student organization at the University of Pennsylvania, we were constantly discriminated against by the Student Activities Council. Even though we had no affiliation with the Libertarian Party, did not endorse or oppose either candidates or legislation, but merely advanced the libertarian philosophy on campus, we were denied university funding and often grouped under the same classification as the College Republicans and the College Democrats. This was partly due to a simple misunderstanding of the difference between the small "l" libertarian philosophy and the big "L" Libertarian Party. However, there seemed to be more than that. The Penn ACLU received an annual budget from the Student Activities Council because they were not political, and no matter how many times we tried to explain that we were not a partisan organization, the Council refused to believe us. We were forced to seek assistance from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education who sent a letter to the university criticizing the system, and which has led to significant reform in the university's funding practices. While we won this battle, I know that many other pro-liberty groups are still fighting for equality.

I believe that student groups should invoke this ruling when defending their rights to university funds and access to other resources that have historically been denied to pro-liberty student groups because of their minority status on campus. Next time your organization faces excessive requirements or discrimination from the university because it discusses politics, not only should you contact FIRE, but you should invoke this ruling and challenge those who are denying you equal rights. While the ruling applies to the state, the general principle it supports is that student groups who do not make endorsements and do not lobby should not be treated like partisan organizations and held to the same standards. The rulings says that holding them to the same standard with requirements and restrictions unconstitutionally limits free speech. It is powerful ammunition in the fight for free speech and individual rights on campus. We should all thank the Institute for Justice and the University of Florida College Libertarians for bringing this case forward.

SFL Exec Board Social

2009-05-26T15:26:00.004-04:00

The entire 2009-2010 Students For Liberty Executive Board will be in Washington D.C. for a Leadership Retreat next week (June 1-5). This is going to be a grueling week of orientations, discussions, workshops, strategizing sessions, meetings, and more work than we want to think about right now. So, we're going to throw a little shindig at the end of the week to celebrate finishing the retreat and give everyone in the DC movement for liberty an opportunity to meet the leaders of the student movement for liberty. Come on out and join us to make connections and get to know the people who are advancing the cause of liberty on campuses around the world!

Facebook Event

SFL Leadership:

Katya Akudovich, International Director
Carlo Cordasco, European Director
Sam Eckman, Director
Alexander Falkenstein, West Coast Director
William Freeland, Midwest Director
Jared Fuller, Southern Director
Sloane Frost, Director
Masood Manoochehri, Northeast Director
Alexander McCobin, Executive Director
Irena Schneider, Mid-Atlantic Director

What: SFL Exec Board Social
When: Friday, June 5th from 6-whenever
Where: Capitol City Brewery off the Metro Center stop
Why: Meet the 2009-2010 SFL Exec Board and network with those students who are leading the fight for liberty on campus today!
Note: You do not need to be 21 to get into the restaurant.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

2009-05-17T19:19:00.003-04:00

We get a lot of interesting hairstyles in the DC public schools, but no one has ever been kicked out of school for it like this Texan. Apparently shaving a logo into one's head is grounds for disciplinary action? Whatever happened to freedom of expression in such a non-harmful scenario? We sure are starting young teaching students to conform.

And of course, a huge congratulations to the Journal authors! Your submissions were all wonderful, and I'm very pleased to see the recognition go to such deserving students.

Journal of Liberty and Society Published

2009-05-15T13:12:00.005-04:00

I am proud to announce that the first edition of the Journal of Liberty and Society has just been released! The journal features 7 of the best undergraduate papers on the topic of liberty out there. The purpose of this journal is to encourage academic work surrounding the topic of liberty and its role in society for undergraduates everywhere.

Journal of Liberty and Society

Special congratulations also goes out to the winners of the Prometheus Institute Prizes! The 2009 Top Papers in the Journal of Liberty and Society will each receive $350. The honorable mention will receive $100, and all three winners are invited to join the Prometheus Institute staff for the Fall semester.

- TOP PAPERS -

Those Capitalist Demons! Anti-Market Bias in Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Heidi C. Lange, Hillsdale College
For its creative application of popular culture themes to political ideals, Heidi Lange’s paper on the literal demonization of capitalism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer receives top honors.

Unlikely Parallels: Libertarianism and Identity Politics
Francis Boyle, Temple University
For its powerful synthesis of seemingly disparate political ideologies, Francis Boyle’s article on the similarities between libertarianism and identity politics receives top honors.

- HONORABLE MENTION -

Mill and Hayek: Liberty, Morality, and Socialism
Andrew Knauer, University of Southern California, Santa Barbara
For its recognition of the importance of evolutionary concepts to freedom, Andrew Knauer’s paper on the different interpretations of socialism by Mill and Hayek receives our honorable mention.

Liberty from London: We’re all civil-libertarians now

2009-05-06T17:44:00.002-04:00

There are times when one is forced to wonder what it is that makes the average man in the street tick, what it is which motivates him, has the power to impel him to act.

The past month in Britain has been no different. If the newspapers were to be believed we’re all privacy hawks now, outraged at the encroachment upon our right to go about our business unmolested and unsurveilled.

And you might very well say, ‘Excellent’, the people have seen what 12 years of socialism in Britain has wrought. They’re standing athwart history and yelling ‘STOP’ to the State. ‘This far, and no further, and frankly, back up a bit’. Only, they aren’t. The issue which has motivated Britons isn’t the erosion of our civil liberties. It isn’t the neutering of the Mother of all Parliaments. It’s Google StreetView.

Within hours of its launch, indignant citizens were contacting the press, writing letters to editors, emailing their Members of Parliament, plotting legal challenges, forcing the removal of images and generally spluttering with foam-flecked indignation at the audacity of Google to publish some hazy images of their street, and just about identifiable people.

Surely, your holiday snaps – posted to MySpace, Facebook, Flickr et al, are really no more a threat to liberty than StreetView is. And so I’m at a loss to understand what it is that has enraged Britons about it. We have a government which is building ever more databases, at ever greater expense to the taxpayer. They even want to store our phone calls, emails and Facebook messages. Yet this government has a history of failing to abide by any notion of data security – having lost, at some point, just about every record it’s kept. These centralised databases are open to countless state employees who can, at the click of a button, pry into your most personal data. Thanks to our complicity in the European Union federalist agenda this data is soon to be shared with over 500 agencies and bodies across the continent.

If that wasn’t heinous enough, Britain is home to a quarter of the world’s CCTV cameras, 32 of which are within 200 yards of George Orwell’s home. Our government is pushing ahead relentlessly with personal identification cards, claiming they will make us more secure and guard against terrorism, whilst we know they can’t. That same government has allowed councils to invoke anti-terrorism legislation to spy on our trash can habits.

(“Those who would sacrifice a little liberty in return for a little security deserve neither liberty nor security.”)

And yet for all this, Britons are most outraged by a private sector company posting a synthesis of photos and maps. The crushing irony – which once again proves why government should be as small as possible and why the private sector trumps the public sector every time – is that Google has listened to Britons and removed offending images. The British government has ‘listened’ to the British people and utterly disregarded what it’s heard, because unlike Google it’s virtually unaccountable.

If this episode has taught us anything it’s that the British people have more than sufficient capacity to rise up and hold power to account. In opposing StreetView they’ve done everything that we activists ever ask of them – they’ve made some noise, in every medium conceivable. Yet their motivation seems obscure. If we could just channel their moral indignation into attacks on the real threats to liberty we might yet have freedom in our time.

Edward Hallam is co-editor of TheYoungConservative.

Great Comic

2009-05-06T13:00:00.002-04:00

Just saw this comic and thought it deserved recognition:

2009-2010 Foundations of Freedom Fellows

2009-05-04T09:52:00.007-04:00

Students For Liberty's Foundations of Freedom Fellowship is a year-long academic fellowship that provides talented high school students with the opportunity to academically engage the ideas behind liberty and prepare for their college ambitions. Each Fellow is assigned an advisor who specializes in their subject of study (e.g. a college professor or public policy expert). By completing a year-long reading list of scholarly work on liberty, writing a senior thesis about liberty, and accessing Students For Liberty members for college application support, Fellows receive unparalleled opportunities to study the foundations of liberty and prepare for their academic future. The 2008-2009 Foundations of Freedom Fellow, Alex Koren, is currently finishing his senior thesis on the philosophical origins of liberty in the United States, why the philosophy of liberty began to decline in predominance over the course of the United States' history, and how it can be revived.

The 2009-2010 Foundations of Freedom Fellows have been selected. Congratulations to Daniel Cuervo, Dorian Gomberg, and Jacob Arluck! While we only intended to accept two Fellows for the 2009-2010 year, we were so impressed by these three students that we decided to expand the pgoram. You can read about next year's fellows on Students For Liberty's website here. In preparation for the Fellowship, Students For Liberty has partnered with the Foundation for Economic Education to have all Fellows receive an automatic acceptance to Freedom 101, a free summer seminar for high school students on freedom.

Freedom What?

2009-05-03T12:48:00.004-04:00

When you see $3.5 trillion dollar budgets and elected representatives reneging on campaign promises, it often feels like we as young people are powerless. The first step to fighting back, though, is knowing what the current rules are and where we stand. With the recent FCC ruling on free speech I figured I'd share this link from the First Amendment Center on student speech rights.

(Of course, should you find yourself frustrated after you're done reading, go ahead and wish Alexander a happy birthday with an SFL donation.)

My Birthday Wish: Support Liberty!

2009-04-29T17:21:00.003-04:00

So my birthday is coming up in a couple of days. This Friday, May 1st, I'll be turning 23, which is sort of a depressing number, but as good of an excuse to call upon everyone to support Students For Liberty. After all, what's a better present than "A Free Academy, A Free Society"? I've set up a Facebook Birthday Cause that you can donate on to show everyone your support:

Donate to Students For Liberty

I didn't expect people to spend money for my birthday, but you all know me: I eat, sleep, and breathe liberty. And you know how much I care about Students For Liberty. Students For Liberty takes so much priority in my life actually that I'm spending the night before my birthday at a fundraising dinner in New Jersey to help build Students For Liberty! So if my birthday gives you the excuse to donate to Students For Liberty and invest in a free future, then I'll take it!

If you have thought about giving to Students For Liberty before, but were unsure, this is your excuse. All I'm asking is that you give $10... a pizza for you, but the shipment of 5 pro-liberty books to a campus group or registration to a pro-liberty conference for someone who may be the next Milton Friedman, Ed Crane, or Ayn Rand.

Donate to Students For Liberty

Ron Paul on Campus!

2009-04-28T00:27:00.003-04:00

Young Americans for Liberty at Wake Forest University successfully planned and hosted Dr. Ron Paul at their campus on, ironically enough, April 20th 2009. Without a shadow of doubt, the event was a tremendous success with over 1,300 in attendance and news media coverage galore.

Check out the YAL behind the scenes coverage of the event below if you want to learn a little more on how to host an event of this magnitude; it's not easy work, but with a little forward planning, it can be done with a huge impact!

If you want to watch the entire event online, you can do so here.

Nevertheless, this event embodies what students can do in the liberty movement. The Wake chapter of YAL was only officially chartered a couple months back and in this short time Wake YAL was able to host the biggest event at their campus this year. Sitting around and talking amongst ourselves is never enough; let's keep on pushing forward in getting out the message of liberty to anyone and everyone. We owe it to our philosophy to outreach and we really can't blame anyone for not being libertarian if they've never looked into it! So, if nothing else, I hope this event will further motivate you to become further engaged on your campus to spread the philosophy of liberty.

The Onion: Treasury Issues Emergency Recall

2009-04-22T16:15:00.000-04:00

Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All US Dollars

Are Republicans Going Back to Goldwater?

2009-04-21T17:38:00.004-04:00

Nate Silver at political blog FiveThirtyEight.com had an interesting post about the recent tack toward libertarianism coming from the Republican Party. As most analysts making the claim have asserted, this is rooted in the recent tea parties (note that despite the bad spelling, Silver is a respected commentator):

We can argue about the significance of the tea paries [sic] and we can argue about whether they represent the way forward for Republicans. But they are just one manifesation [sic] of what seems like an increasing drift toward libertariansim [sic] within the party.

Following a failed experiment in nation-building abroad, massive growth of government under a "compassionate" conservative Administration, and now accrual of an ever-expanding debt, the government has become the target of much of the blame of Republicans. Silver cites an interesting Gallup poll tracking "the biggest threat" to America by those who identify by each party:

Most interesting is that Republicans identify government as the greatest threat even compared to another perennial object of conservative criticism: Big Labor. Considering the recent salience of the Employee Free Choice Act, I would expect this to be much higher as a relative proportion.

Nevertheless, I'm skeptical of Silver's conclusion that this represents a shift toward libertarianism. Rather, the increase in relative importance of economic issues (combined with a Democratic administration) has simply magnified the fiscal conservatism of self-identified Republicans as compared to social conservatism; moreover, many tea party attendees were not self-identified Republicans, and so we would be wise not to conflate the views of such activists with a prevailing, or even prominent, voice among such partisans. Republicans have always considered "big government" the greatest threat to America (even if their actions sometimes said otherwise), and the Republican softening on issues such as gay marriage is likely a continuation of a steady trend rather than a sudden and seismic structural ideological change (though if anyone has data on this, please send it my way!). I would welcome a more libertarian Republican Party, but whether we are (or will be) getting one is far from certain.

Another Second Amendment Victory!

2009-04-20T16:37:00.002-04:00

From the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today:

"We are therefore persuaded that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment and applies it against the states and local governments."

Check out the full opinion here.

While it's kind of depressing that I have to be excited about what should be a straight-forward interpretation of the Constitution, I am nonetheless elated.

Obama's Cosmetic Cuts

2009-04-20T13:55:00.003-04:00

In a recent press release, the White House has announced that "As part of his commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending and reform government, he will challenge his Cabinet to cut a collective 100 million dollars in the next 90 days."

The proposed $100 million, if you compare it to the $3,500 billion federal budget this year, is only a miniscule 0.00002% cut.

If the median US household, making approximately $50,000 a year, were to make the same budget cut, it would be about $1.40--or less than the typical Starbucks coffee cup. So, if you've resisted the urge to go to Starbucks once this year, congratulations--you've shown more fiscal scrutiny than this cut.

SFL Goes on Warped Tour

2009-04-20T10:23:00.005-04:00

That's right! Thanks to some great connections and awesome organizations, SFL will have a booth at every stop of Warped Tour this summer! We're going to be traveling the country to spread the message of liberty to concert-goers all over.

Even better, we're calling upon members of SFL to help man the booth and advance the cause of freedom! If you want free tickets to Warped Tour, we've got them for you! All we need is for you to advertise SFL, talk to people about liberty, and make our presence known at the stop. There are over 45 stops this summer, which you can find here. Check out the bands that will be perfoming this year here.

If you want to be a SFL volunteer at one or more Warped Tour stops this summer, shoot me an email at amccobin@studentsforliberty.org with the dates/locations you want to help out at. We will be giving free tickets to students in SFL Affiliated Organizations first, so if your group has not affiliated yet, fill out the form ASAP! We expect spots to fill up quickly, so be sure to contact us and affiliate before others get on board.

"First, Do No Harm" Video Contest!

2009-04-18T20:51:00.002-04:00

President Obama has made clear that he has plans for a massive overhaul of health care, a goal to which he devoted over $600 billion of funding in the FY2010 budget. Despite Administration attempts to frame the proposed reforms as improvements on the current system, the net result is greater government involvement in the health sector. The Galen Institute, "a non-profit research organization devoted exclusively to health policy," is looking for your help in stopping it.

The "First, Do No Harm" video contest challenges entrants to submit a brief film highlighting some of the myths of misperceptions that abound in the current health care debate. First prize is $3,000! Entries are due by May 15, so get to work. Lights, camera, action!

New Cato Deferred Law Firm Associate Program

2009-04-17T15:53:00.000-04:00

Use Your Deferment to Work for Liberty!

Many law firms are asking their incoming first-year associates to defer their start dates (from a few months to a full year) and are offering stipends to these deferred associates to work at public interest organizations.

The Cato Institute invites third-year law students and others facing firm deferrals to apply to work at our Center for Constitutional Studies. This is an opportunity to assist projects ranging from Supreme Court amicus briefs to policy papers to the Cato Supreme Court Review. Interested students and graduates should email a cover letter, resume, transcript, and writing sample, along with any specific details of their deferment (timing, stipend availability, etc.), to Jonathan Blanks at jblanks@cato.org.

Please feel free to pass the above information to your friends and colleagues. For information on Cato's programs for non-graduating students, contact Joey Coon at jcoon@cato.org.

Philadelphia Tax Day Tea Party.

2009-04-17T08:42:00.006-04:00

What a cold, rainy and windy day in Philadelphia! Despite the weather, over 300 people showed up in LOVE Park to protest excessive government spending at the April 15th Tax Day Tea Party, from noon to 2PM. I arrived with a few members of the Student Liberty Front, armed with signs, flags and liberty oriented propaganda.

The crowd consisted of Republicans and Libertarians, as well as some outraged Democrats, upset with recent government spending and the spike in national debt that has accompanied it.

The Philadelphia tea party was lead by Diana and Don Reimer of Landale, PA. There were numerous speakers who took time out of their day to deliver intense speeches to really rile up the crowd. Of the most memorable, a speech given by 16 year old Jesse Civello, who aspires to be a future senator.

The tea parties were promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group. The parties were led by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas.

I was a little angry at the fact that Barack Obama began a speech at noon on reforming the tax code -- the same time that the Philadelphia tea party began -- stealing the news spotlight. Even so, Fox News was there covering the story. But then, there's this:

We still have so much work to do, I realized, after leaving the rally, freezing cold and sopping. With biased news networks, the average, brainwashed citizen thinking of us as a mockery, and even to those who think we don't mean business . . . We've got to keep going!

I am so proud of everyone who bore the terrible weather to stand up for their rights as citizens of the United States of America -- nothing more, nothing less!

In the Academy after Tax Day

2009-04-16T13:10:00.003-04:00

It was raining in Washington, DC all day yesterday – and presumably, Mother Nature gave the Capital exactly what it deserved on April 15. Needless to say, lovers of liberty marched right through the murky weather without a second thought in defense of the America they saw quickly slipping from their hands. But of course, Americans have been marching steadily through the murky storms of Bush and now Obama – A little rain on the lawn of the White House was a piece of cake. And luckily for us, we had tea to go along with it during this grand (but certainly not old) party.

It was a party of people – I was almost shamefully shocked by the fact that this world is not, after all, made of bureaucrats, stealthy smiling Rahm Emanuels stuffing poor justifications into journalists’ eager pads, and the raging tales of new canine playmates at the President’s house. Surprise, surprise. There are individuals in this world who live their lives and love their families and absolutely hate fairy tales, especially because their own living room carpets are now school reading rugs and the man on top of the hill down PA Avenue is reading us deceptions. Unfortunately, most of the country hasn’t outgrown this kind of authority, and I think yesterday we saw two things: the beauty of individual checks on government (“STOP! STOP!” we cried at the White House. My bones shook from adrenaline) and the lurking danger of this executive branch. What did we get out of this beautifully democratic, murky, rainy, proud, scared, and excited protest?

We got a president who came out to the people with a joke about Bo the dog (why, why do I even know its name?) who ate his economics speech. Well, at least he recognized that there wasn’t a morsel of economic justification for his actions – I only wish I could get off as easily when I make mistakes in school. But once the ironically un-funny joke dissipated, he smiled his comfortable smile and told us that of course, we are tired of dealing with taxes. In fact, he has decided that there must be an overhaul of the system to ameliorate our cries. He would (drum roll….) hire his economic recovery team to make the tax form less complicated by next year! And as if that wasn’t comforting enough, he went on to praise himself on the largest tax cuts in American history – of course, the small business owners would now begin prospering, the students see the light of day, and the parents buy themselves that little extra something – all because the president had given us back the money we have earned. It sounds like a fairy tale on our TV, and America falls deeper in love with the man who’s got it all under control. He gave us the impression that our cries from the front lawn and the tea parties all over the country were now addressed. Wipe your hands, pack your signs, and go home. Everything is fixed.

But did he ever move the curtain in his office and see the flashes of signs outside? He broke America’s heart, really. But like a child in denial of a tragic death, he continued to hide and joke and talk about the stimulus, the tax cuts, the brilliant little business owners and real people out there struggling. “STOP!” we screamed on April 15. Because the brilliant little business owners and real people out there struggling were on the lawn trying to defend the scraps of their dignity – their wallets, their decisions about their future, their children. They were not crying because they needed help filling out a tax form (but surely, the president probably found it easier to assume we were angry simply because we’re a little stupid). They were crying because behind these grandiose tax cuts are seeds of greater collapse. What will happen when the trillions of dollars of spending drag our dollar down? What will happen to the brilliant little business owner when fiat currency loses its worth and the products on his shelf collect dust? What will happen when we the people lose our own self-worth in the midst of a smiling hero?

I am a student. I am always taught to be open-minded, to question my surroundings. I can’t help but notice an overpowering sense of helpless stagnation on campus. What if our authority figures tell us the wrong things? Where do we go when we’re easily tricked and manipulated into believing something grand will happen? What happens when an entire generation is swallowed by one man’s promise?

Yesterday was rainy and beautiful and I had never before felt the assurance and peace of these people. I had never felt more patriotic, not even when I took an oath at 13 to defend this nation when I became a citizen. And here I was defending it in every sense of the word. But it was ephemeral brilliance. What’s left? More cozy promises and avoidance tactics. I think our struggle over ideas – especially in my generation, especially on campus – is only just beginning. Our party is over now, and we need to work again. “Stop, stop, stop,” we’d like to say. And so, how do we get the adrenaline going in our universities?

UNC Students Silence Opposition

2009-04-15T20:24:00.002-04:00

Supporters of liberty are accustomed to having their freedoms abridged by professors and administrators, whether it be in the form of biased course offerings and curricula, speech codes, or a variety of other, more subtly suppressive measures. But when it's students who seek to impose ideological homogeneity, the affront cuts that much deeper.

Students at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill did just that when Tom Tancredo, a former Congressman who ran for president on an anti-immigration platform, was invited to speak at the university on the issue of the eligibility of illegal immigrants for in-state tuition benefits. As the local news outlet reports:

Protesters interrupted his speech, stretching out a banner in front of him that read, "No one is illegal." Tancredo grabbed the banner and confronted one of the people holding it.
Then there was the sound of glass shattering. A window was broken by more opponents outside. As the situation escalated, Tancredo left.

While there is certainly much to find distasteful about Mr. Tancredo's views, it provides no justification for hindering his freedom to express them. Indeed, this story illuminates the importance of libertarian and conservative students engaged in campus activism being civil and respectful in debate, and engaging opposition on an intellectual, rather than an emotional, plane. As Voltaire so eloquently put it, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Atlas Highlight

2009-04-15T13:55:00.003-04:00

One of SFL's friends, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, has just launched a new series called "Ask Atlas" to answer pro-liberty organization's questions on how to effectively manage their organizations and promote liberty. I was thrilled to see that their first episode was on "Student Groups" and highlighted two of SFL's publications as examples for organizations around the world to utilize in supporting students:

Ask Atlas: Episode 1- Student Groups from Atlas Network on Vimeo.

YAF's Tax Day Tea Party Protest

2009-04-14T13:35:00.007-04:00

The Young America's Foundation is looking for students on campuses across the country to help in their Tax Day (TOMORROW!) Tea Party protests, fighting against the massive government spending we've seen over these past months. In addition to seeking signatures to a petition, YAF is sponsoring a video contest, first prize for which is a scholarship to their 2009 National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, DC. Videos are due by April 18, and can be viewed here.

Patri Friedman at Temple University!

2009-04-10T08:17:00.005-04:00

On Thursday, April 9th, Patri Friedman of the Seasteading Institute and grandson of Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist, spoke at Temple University.

The event was hosted by the Temple Libertarians, but many members showed up from the Philadelphia Forum for Freedom.

Friedman presented a power point presentation, addressing seasteading, creating private dwellings on the ocean, creating a new frontier for new civilization and government.

The point of seasteading is to easily create a country hosting an experimental form of government, without the needs of voting, war or revolution. With seasteading, individuals do not need the sympathies of their entire country, and they their actions are relatively harmless. Also, countries created by seasteading are completely "shufflable," meaning if you do not like your location due to bad relations with another country or you're just looking for change, you are free to move around, unlike on dry land. It is even possible to move your house from one country to another using seasteading.

There are many kinds of of seasteads, including:

Coaststeads: Located along the cost to provide services for a much lower cost, especially medical.
Single Family Seasteads: Best for use of vacationing until finding a full-time job that is possible while seasteading.
Cohousing Seasteads: Condominium seasteading.
Ephermerisles: A "free to party" seastead, best to be used for an experience similar to Burning Man.

Friedman concluded by giving his views of Libertarianism, claiming that the odds are against its success in America and the only way to obtain freedom is to create a new country. He advocated the Free State Project, however, claiming that they will hopefully obtain most freedoms desired.

"Freedom and Its Enemies" Event at Drexel University

2009-04-08T12:04:00.008-04:00

Greetings!

My name is Stacy Litz and I am going to be blogging for Students for Liberty involving the liberty movement in Philadelphia. I am a sophomore political science major at Drexel University and I am an active member of the Student Liberty Front. My resume can be found on my personal blog.

On Tuesday, April 7th, Drexel University's Student Liberty Front and the Philadelphia Forum for Freedom held the event "Freedom and Its Enemies," featuring two guest speakers -- Cato Institute's executive vice president David Boaz and 20/20's co-anchor John Stossel.

The event had a great turn out, with over 200 students from colleges in the area, along with members of the Philadelphia Libertarian Party, the Commonwealth Foundation, and other freedom related meet up groups in the area. Tables lined the walls with representative organizations from the pro-liberty movement where students could learn more about opportunities to promote liberty: Students For Liberty, Cato on Campus, the Commonwealth Foundation, and Bureaucrash,.

In the introduction, Aaron Moyer, member of both S.L.F. and P.F.F., explained the definition of freedom compared to that of other countries, past leaders, and even the current United States president, Barack Obama.

David Boaz spoke first, giving a power point presentation depicting much of the news in the media to show the current lack of freedom in our country, especially targeting the current economic crisis and the recently passed stimulus bill using graphs to illustrate the increase in Federal Reserve spending. Boaz spoke very thoroughly and even those who were not part of the freedom movement were able to grasp his hard hitting facts, quotes and statistics.

John Stossel began with his classic "give me a break" act -- listing one "common sense" statement after another to explain why too much government is detrimental to our country. Bringing in a power point, he showed the audience a beach house the he built near the water, which that we (as taxpayers) ended up paying for when the whole house got destroyed – all due to his purchase of inexpensive, “government funded” flood insurance. Closing, he played a clip from his latest 20/20 special, “Bailouts and Bull,” illustrating that you can “make it” in America beginning with nothing.

The speeches were followed by Q & A, including questions that involved the decline of newspapers, healthcare, poverty, and history. David Boaz held a book signing for his newest book, The Politics of Freedom.

As a student from Drexel, I can give my biased opinion that it was a terrific event. Seeing every member of the Philadelphia Forum for Freedom attend (Drexel Student Liberty Front, Penn Libertarian Association, and the Temple Libertarians) was an uplifting experience. While the speeches focused on the threats to liberty today, it's hard to leave an event like this one without thinking that the future of liberty is a bright one.

The Capitalist Cure: Physician, Deregulate Thyself

2009-04-08T00:34:00.009-04:00

By: Adina Cappell
I’m a medical student in Southern California, and am honored to write my first post for the SFL blog. Through my series, "The Capitalist Cure," I hope to address the intersection between liberty and health care, regarding issues such as medical marijuana, physician-assisted suicide, and the fight against socialized medicine. Today, I’d like to discuss government licensure of health professionals.

The Nevada State Senate is currently considering a bill that would “tighten” standards for a doctor to practice medicine. New Mexico is now the first state to require official licensure of medical sonographers, due to a new law signed by Governor Bill Richardson. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Dental Association is vigorously fighting against a bill that would allow “Oral Health Practitioners” to perform cleanings and fill cavities, without dentist oversight. Even as health care becomes increasingly expensive, patient advocacy groups, professional organizations, and government bureaucrats push for less freedom to perform medical procedures. It sounds reasonable to protect people from unqualified, or even dangerous health care providers. But, overall, do all of these restrictions and regulations help patients?

Milton Friedman didn’t think so. In his 1962 book, Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman wrote, “I am myself persuaded that licensure has reduced both the quantity and quality of medical practice; that is has reduced the opportunities available to people who would like to be physicians, forcing them to pursue occupations they regard as less attractive; that it has forced the public to pay more for less satisfactory medical service, and that it has retarded technological development both in medicine itself and in the organization of medical practice.”

Many medical protectionists lobby against Wal-Mart clinics, where kids can get vaccinations from nurse practitioners, at a fraction of the cost of a visit to the doctor's office. While physicians are certainly most qualified to perform particular health-related tasks, such expertise provides little comfort to uninsured Americans who are ineligible for Medicare, and who would benefit most from visiting a health care provider who is “somewhat less qualified.” Additionally, the medical tasks that nurse practitioners perform are often relatively routine and basic; It is most efficient for physicians to direct their time and expertise to the most complex cases and procedures, rather than to health-related needs that others could address competently. Indeed, in the absence of medical licensing, there would still be many ways for a layperson to ensure that a health practitioner is skilled and knowledgeable, whether by heeding the recommendations of private licensing institutions, poring over respected consumer review agencies, or finding out by simple word of mouth.

We’ve all heard of the pre-med sabotage stories- some real, some apocryphal. Tearing out pages from the library’s organic chemistry book. Messing up the roommate’s drosophila experiment. Students take desperate and immoral measures to ensure admission into one of the precious few spots available in U.S. medical schools. But why must things be this way? Why can’t any old ambitious and dedicated creature become a successful pre-med? Like many situations involving the heavy hand of government, the artificial cap on medical students leads to the yearly disappointment of almost 60% of applicants to allopathic schools, as well as the corrosive pre-medical cultural norm. The tragic thing is, however, that none of the barricades that we place before aspiring physicians does anything to help the many Americans who half-heartedly consume their vitamins, hoping to stave off a potentially unaffordable visit to the hospital.

Adina Cappell blogs at http://healspiel.blogspot.com

Harvard Student Takes on House Finance Committee Chairman

2009-04-07T20:38:00.004-04:00

Above is an excerpt from the Q&A following a speech given by Barney Frank at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, in which a persistent student presses the Massachusetts Democrat and House Financial Services Committee Chairman on the amount of responsibility he takes for the current financial situation. It gets a bit ugly at times, but the fact that this made it onto the news (and subsequently onto some major internet outlets) speaks to the credibility the public lends to college students with something bold and intelligent to say.

Fox News Takes On "Textbook Trash"

2009-04-02T18:32:00.004-04:00

The presence of a left-leaning academia is fairly accepted both from those inside and outside the university setting; the importance and relevance of this, of course, being a different issue. And while there is a fair degree of criticism leveled at professors who take their politics a bit too far (even if protected as citizens under the First Amendment), the fact that these same people are the ones writing the textbooks is rarely extrapolated to suspicion of the textbook industry.

Fox News Network has undertaken a series exploring bias in school textbooks, with a segment airing yesterday focusing on treatment of the War on Terror. I'm skeptical of allegations of bias in general -- for example, Cindy Sheehan does symbolize a very important aspect of the war debate, regardless of your view of her -- and when the charges include biases of omission, such as the failure to cover this or that war hero, the argument becomes even more tenuous.

In this specific case, I'll let you be the judge. Regardless of your conclusions on this specific issue, the segment certainly sheds light on an issue that has avoided scrutiny for far too long.

Lenin statue's rear end is blown up...

2009-04-01T17:14:00.002-04:00

An anonymous bomber blew a hole in the rear end of the infamous statue of Lenin in St. Petersburg this morning, the BBC reports. Rumors state that it may have just been hot air, however.

[HT: Reason]

IBD cartoon by Michael Ramirez

2009-03-30T15:15:00.001-04:00

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-03-29T11:30:00.004-04:00

Historical failure of gun/weapon control:

There was a general prohibition on carrying weapons within the established borders of ancient Rome. Although the Ides of March has passed, it is ironic to think on how Julius Caesar, then, was stabbed to death by the Roman senate. I guess the Roman senators had a "do as I say, and not as I do" mentality towards knife control.

Maybe if Caesar had fired a few rounds from his pistol in self defense, he could have scared off his assailants...

George Will You Marry Me?

2009-03-29T11:29:00.003-04:00

Ok that's incredibly cheesy, I know, but it's not nearly as nauseating as our recent spending habits. Most conversations now involve the economy, the "bailout", and how our taxes are being spent. When governments that have already nationalized industries (i.e., Germany) are telling us to watch how much we're spending, you know something's amok. Cue George Will, a masterful writer (in my humble opinion) and author of this piece from RCP today.

Commentators say Bastiat won a lot of success in his satirizing French policy, and this Goodness and Niceness Act of Will's seems like something the candlestickmakers would write. Sometimes it helps to take a step back and see how some actions are just ridiculous under a different name that hasn't been desensitized...like a $770 billion check.

Dear A.I.G., I Quit!

2009-03-26T15:44:00.002-04:00

If you've turned on a TV or read a newspaper in the past 2 weeks, you've heard about the AIG corporate bonus/government mob scandal. I put that slash in there because the reason this is such a big deal in my mind is not because businesspeople in finance received bonuses, but because of the federal government's response to the AIG paying its employees what was in there contracts (shocking indeed!). A lot of this comes down to what was specifically in the contract in my mind. If the contract said that people would get a sizable check at the end of the year so long as they were not fired, then they are owed that by contract. It's not even a bonus at that point because they're not being rewarded for performance, but rather, it's just a larger paycheck they get one week than they did another according to the terms of employment. For politicians to think that they can undo these contracts at their whim and merely within days of when the bonuses are to be paid because they don't like this specific group is an abuse of power and one of the greatest antitheses of rule of law that I can imagine. This should be no shock to anyone, though, because once the government starts to gain control over corporations and eliminate private industry, the tyranny will surely come out with little wait.

Yesterday, the New York Times published a letter from one AIG executive who resigned in disgust with AIG's handling of the situation. It's a doozy and if you haven't read it yet, I highly encourage you to check it out. Here are some fun excerpts:

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.
It’s now apparent that you [one of the leaders at AIG] either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

2009-03-26T11:11:00.002-04:00

Daniel Hannan, a British MP, recently criticized Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a meeting of the EU for his handling of his nation's affairs going into the crisis--i.e., taking the path of big-government, protectionism, and high debt. Hannan is succinct and devastating in his criticism, which could just as easily be applied to the political leadership in the United States:

Time-Sensitive Call to Support Liberty and Free Trade

2009-03-25T17:17:00.002-04:00

In last night's E-Leadership webinar, the question was raised, "What activities can you give group members to make them feel important and doing meaningful work?" While the typical answers are to flier the campus or host social events, I'm writing to both request a favor and give you another activity for your group to perform that can get many members actively involved.

The Atlas Economic Research Foundation (and Tom Palmer in particular, who you probably already know) is spearheading a Free Trade Petition that they plan to unveil at the upcoming G20 Summit on April 1st. With the current economic crisis and efforts by many governments to enact protectionist regulations. This "is a part of a much broader campaign that will be mobilized around the world to alert the public to the dangers of attempts to block trade and to revive positive efforts toward increasing freedom of trade." Atlas has called upon our help for this petition. While there have already been hundreds of signatories to the petition including many notable public figures, your role as a student leader has the potential to launch this this petition dramatically.

First, please forward this petition to your list-serve and encourage members to sign it. The petition only takes a philosophical opposition to government intervention in the free economic transitions between individuals of different countries, a position that should be readily acceptable.

Second, and more importantly, I am writing to ask that you organize members of your group to get economics professors at your school to sign the petition. Here is what this would involve: Have members of your group print out a copy of the petition and the web link to sign it online (http://atlasnetwork.org/tradepetition/, or http://tinyurl.com/c5vb21). Find a list of your school's economics professors and any other professor who you think would be sympathetic to these ideas, and divy it up amongst members. Send your members to meet with the professors in person during office hours or whenever they're available and ask the professors to sign the petition online (note, they need to do so online for it to register) before April 1st so the petition has as many signatories as possible. If you send your group's members in teams of 2, it's a bonding experience, while at the same time letting professors know about your group's existence and promoting a worthwhile cause that has the potential to advance liberty around the world.

If you have any questions about this, please let me know. I would also appreciate it if you can let me know if you can do this or not. Even asking just a handful of econ professors who you think would be open to the petition would be helpful. I strongly encourage you to take part in this opportunity as students around the world will be joining in on this effort.

SFL Receives International Criticism

2009-03-25T16:16:00.003-04:00

SFL has received its first taste of international criticism! A UK blog called HACKWATCH, written by Stuart MacLennan, made a post today criticizing several UK groups for being friendly with SFL. The post is available here.

Note that once you get past the inaccuracies of the post where it says that SFL is affiliated with the Libertarian Party (we are a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization) and that we hosted Rush Limbaugh and so are right-wing (I think they confused us for the hosts of CPAC, which brought Rush Limbaugh in to speak), all the post really says about SFL is that:

Indeed, Conservative Future boast on their blog about how enjoyable the company of SFL were...

I don't think it's such a bad thing that an international organization visiting the U.S. found SFL to be enjoyable company. In fact, I'm very happy to hear that the people we met from them liked meeting with us (I assume the post that Stuart is responding to is from here on Conservative Future's site). So it may not be a criticism of us so much as a misunderstanding of what SFL stands for and who we are, but it's international recognition nonetheless!

This post raises an interesting point of discussion, though. Stuart calls SFL "right-wing". Personally, I very much dislike the term "right-wing" as I disagree with many positions of the political right (e.g. social conservatism, interventionist foreign policy, etc.) and think that a philosophy of liberty does not fit comfortably in the bipolar political spectrum. While I think many who read this blog would agree with that assessment, and so asking what people think of that would probably not produce much, I'll bring up an important topic that I've had many conversations about, but have not raised online yet: what is the relationship of liberty advocates to the left and the right? If we do not want to be associated with the big government policies of the right, how do we make that difference known?

Note: I'm now in touch with Stuart via Facebook. He's a nice guy and hopefully we'll get a good-natured debate going out of this.

Disaster Socialism

2009-03-25T13:33:00.002-04:00

In the "never waste a crisis" category: Geithner to Seek Unprecedented Powers

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will push for unprecedented new regulatory powers on Tuesday to seize financial institutions whose failure would pose serious risks to the U.S. financial system, according to two senior administration officials...

Introducing Liberty from London

2009-03-23T19:53:00.006-04:00

I'm honoured and delighted to be the first international author to grace the Students for Liberty blog. By way of brief introduction, I have several fingers in the pro-Liberty pie, running the Cities of London & Westminster young conservative group, and co-editing the blog TheYoungConservative. In addition, I'm Campaigns Director for Conservative Future, the youth wing of the British Conservative Party, and I was also privileged to attend the 2nd International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington DC last month.

My aim with this weekly column is to give you a flavour of the fight for liberty here in the UK. Britons lack a written document such as the US Constitution, and so our liberty is frequently at the whim and caprice of governments, a fact I seek to highlight in this inaugural post where I call for a global First Amendment. In the UN, EU, etc, we have bodies that could implement such an initiative, if there was but the will.

Yours in Liberty,

Edward Hallam

Sometimes it seems almost as if Liberty is being actively conspired against, the whole world round. These past few weeks have highlighted yet again that even in the allegedly liberal democracies of the West free speech is under unceasing assault.

Last month the democratically elected Dutch politician Geert Wilders was banned from entering the United Kingdom, where he was to address a small meeting in the House of Lords and screen his 15 minute film “Fitna”, by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on the grounds that his presence “would threaten community security and therefore public security'”. You can draw your own inferences as to what she means by that.

As a Briton and European citizen it’s frankly embarrassing that, if I wished to, I couldn’t hear from a legitimate European politician on my native soil; but I could if I were in America, where he has recently been on a speaking tour (which seems to have passed off without civil unrest.)

Then, just last week, the Canadians seemingly returned the favour in kind, by refusing to permit controversial British MP George Galloway, of the fringe Leftist ‘Respect’ party, into their country, where he was to address a public forum entitled ‘Resisting the War from Gaza to Kandahar’. Galloway is an ardent critic of the War on Terror and Israel; apparently the Canadians deemed his views on their presence in Afghanistan incompatible with his presence on their soil.

I’ve no time for Galloway, or his views, and so it pains me to agree with him, when, commenting on the ban, he said:

“This decision … is a very sad day for the Canada we have known and loved – a bastion of the freedoms that supporters of the occupation of Afghanistan claim to be defending.”

I wouldn’t adopt his language of ‘occupation’, but I do adopt his sentiment. Free speech is indivisible, even in the current geo-political climate. That someone may be offended by what you have to say is an irrelevant consideration; indeed, if the only permissible speech and opinions were those that no one disagreed with, then they wouldn’t be worth expressing at all.

At an event in London recently veteran Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe made that point that in post-World War II Britain one could legitimately advocate Fascism, even after all the blood and treasure so recently expended defeating that evil. Likewise, during the Cold War one was free to do the same for Communism, the 20th Century’s other great evil.

But the assaults on free speech do not simply begin and end with outright censure. It’s the unequal application of censure which leaves one increasingly exasperated, too.

Consider the case a little over a week ago in which a coterie of Muslims protested against British troops who were parading through the town of Luton, England, having just returned from service in Iraq. They shouted, and waved placards, which branded our troops “butchers”, “killers” and “extremists”. Such behaviour is abhorrent, and deeply offensive to tens of thousands, if not millions, of Britons, but should be tolerated as an expression of free speech – which it was.

By contradistinction, student Paul Saville was recently arrested and charged with causing criminal damage “under the value of £5,000” for the offence of writing, in chalk no less, on a pavement (or sidewalk, if you prefer) the phrase: “Liberty. The right to question it. The right to ask: ‘Are we free?’”, in protest at what he perceives to be the “loss of civil liberties” in Britain. It’s as if authority has no concept of irony. He is currently awaiting trial.

There must be one rule for all, and that rule should be unqualified, unfettered free speech; which is plainly distinct from incitement to, or trying to solicit, violence.

Now, more than ever – indeed, today is the anniversary of Patrick Henry’s great oration “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – we need a global First Amendment.

Want to Blog Here?

2009-03-23T14:27:00.003-04:00

SFL is going to open up the list of authors for the blog to new students with a passion for liberty and the ability to communicate issues of interest to students dedicated to liberty succinctly. So, if you would like to become a regular blogger on this site, shoot me an email at amccobin@studentsforliberty.org with a short description of why you want to write on the blog, the types of posts you would like to write as your niche, and two sample blog posts.

SFL on NPR

2009-03-23T11:52:00.004-04:00

I was interviewed for a WAMU segment on whether all young people support Obama a few days ago and it aired this morning. Check it out here: http://wamu.org/news/09/03/23.php#25649. It's under: "Young Conservatives Hope to Rebrand Republican Party" (the name was not my choice, and the pro-liberty angle comes out pretty strong in my short segment).

Iranian Blogger Dies in Jail

2009-03-20T09:33:00.003-04:00

Omid Mir Sayafi, a 25 year old Iranian man, has been imprisoned since April 2008 for criticizing the Ayatollah on his personal blog. He died in jail yesterday under suspicious circumstances:

[An official] said another prisoner in Evin, a Dr Hessam Firouzi, "had warned officials in the jail of the state the young blogger was in.

"Dr Firouzi called me from the jail to say Omid had a slowed heartbeat and he had taken him to the infirmary, but that doctors there did not take this seriously and said he was faking it," Dadkhah said.

He added Firouzi reported that Sayafi had also been very depressed.

Prison officials "said that he committed suicide."

The Philosophy of Liberty

2009-03-18T16:07:00.001-04:00

(H/T: Christopher David Pille)

US Bonds No Longer Risk-Free

2009-03-18T12:54:00.004-04:00

Marketwatch reports that credit-default swaps for US debt currently have risen "nearly seven times higher than a year ago and 60% higher than the end of last year."

In layman's terms, this means that the risk that the federal government won't be able to pay back its bonds has dramatically increased. Basically, faith that the US government will repay its debts has taken a severe hit, certainly due to the massive deficit spending incurred in the year so far.

What are the long-term impacts? Econ majors, feel free to comment on my reasoning, but not only will we now have trillions in more debt to pay, the federal government will also have to pay a higher interest rate to get people to buy the bonds. Last year, the US paid 8% of its entire 2008 budget merely on paying off interest. Perhaps this number will rise in the years to come as debt piles on and on.

Bailout Mascot

2009-03-16T13:34:00.004-04:00

Not sure of the original source for this, but thanks go out to Austin at the LP from whose facebook profile I pilfered this image!

Obama Flip-Flops on Taxing Health Benefits

2009-03-16T10:30:00.006-04:00

If you recall back to the presidential debates, you'll remember that Obama criticized McCain's health insurance plan--which was to end the tax-exempt status of employer-provided health insurance benefits. McCain's reasoning was that ending the special status for employer-provided benefits would help transition health insurance towards a more efficient, individually purchased system, much like car insurance and the like. Obama called it "one of the biggest middle class tax-hikes in history," etc.

Rather surprisingly, Obama has totally changed his mind about taxing health benefits. The New York Times reports:

In television advertisements last fall, Mr. Obama criticized his Republican rival for the presidency, Senator John McCain of Arizona, for proposing to tax all employer-provided health benefits. The benefits have long been tax-free, regardless of how generous they are or how much an employee earns. The advertisements did not point out that Mr. McCain, in exchange, wanted to give all families a tax credit to subsidize the purchase of coverage.
At the time, even some Obama supporters said privately that he might come to regret his position if he won the election; in effect, they said, he was potentially giving up an important option to help finance his ambitious health care agenda to reduce medical costs and to expand coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans. Now that Mr. Obama has begun the health debate, several advisers say that while he will not propose changing the tax-free status of employee health benefits, neither will he oppose it if Congress does so.

Death and Taxes...as jobs?

2009-03-16T00:14:00.003-04:00

As a lot of us are looking for jobs or grad school for next year, it's difficult to face the reality of a shrinking job market. However, intelligent and resourceful students know that there are some industries that will always remain. I saw this clever little article today, and as the title indicates, many students are looking for career in the funeral business. Whether you're 22 or 55, online classes will evidently always be available for those interested in this particular field.

Too Many Grades Chasing Too Few Students?

2009-03-15T11:14:00.006-04:00

GradeInflation.com is documenting the upward trend of average GPAs in American universities, seeking to prove that it is a case of increasingly lax standards of achievement rather than continuously improving performance.

Michael Gordon, a professor of management at Rutgers University, observes:

Faculty members have not fulfilled the responsibilities associated with their proclaimed right to be the final judges of student performance. In shirking that duty, they have also neglected their broader obligations to society: Teachers weaken rather than bolster the commonweal when they fail to award meaningful grades. Grading laxness at all levels of American education has contributed directly or indirectly to a variety of problems, including declining scores on the SAT, decreases in the ability of American undergraduate and graduate students to understand prose, and poor training in mathematics and science, which puts American students behind their peers in many European and Asian countries.

(HT: Mark Perry's blog)

To be fair, grade inflation is not always the teachers' fault. It might also be a conscious objective of the school itself (in that case, public high schools).

In the spirit of March Madness, here is GradeInflation.com's grade graph of college basketball divisions.

Reason.tv Viewing Party TONIGHT!

2009-03-13T16:09:00.004-04:00

DC Reasonoids will be meeting tonight at Reason Headquarters (1747 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC) for a viewing of John Stossel's latest 20/20 special, "Bailouts, Big Spending, and Bull," featuring Reason.tv contributor Drew Carey (yes, the one from The Price is Right)!

The event starts at 8pm, with a pre-show conversation at 8:30pm. More details available here. RSVP requested. The event will be streamed from Reason's website for those unable to attend.

Institute for Liberty Takes on Maddow

2009-03-13T10:17:00.006-04:00

The Institute for Liberty's Andrew Langer takes on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow over the Employee Free Choice Act. The video does a lot to clarify some of the confusion over the controversial bill. Enjoy!

Audit the Fed T-Shirt Contest!

2009-03-12T16:54:00.004-04:00

Campaign for Liberty is sponsoring an "Audit the Fed" t-shirt contest, seeking out the best idea for a t-shirt supporting Ron Paul's recently-introduced legislation. Note that a full graphic or anything of that sort is not necessary, just your good ideas! Submit your thoughts to Allison Gibbs at allison@campaignforliberty.com. Deadline is Tuesday, March 17, and I am told there are "incentives offered!"

Thai Government Cracking Down on Speech

2009-03-12T12:18:00.003-04:00

Thai authorities have jailed blogger Suwicha Thakhor for violating the lese-majeste law that ordains that the monarch "shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated." In a great statement of libertarian principles, the jailed Thakhor said:

We have to be able to think freely...they cannot stop ideas by sending people to jail.

The academic community has come to the side of those pushing for greater civil liberties in the Southeast Asian state. As the Bloomberg article notes:

More than 50 international scholars, including some from Harvard, Yale and Columbia universities, wrote to [Prime Minister] Abhisit this month saying “recent legal actions” under the lese-majeste law “led to the deterioration of basic civil liberties.” They urged the dropping of all cases and said enforcement of the law had led to “heightened criticism of the monarchy and Thailand itself, both inside and outside the country."

Nationalized Citibank Commercial

2009-03-11T15:50:00.004-04:00

In case you haven't seen it, here's a new "commercial" from the nationalized Citibank. Note: Not safe for work.

The New F***ing Citibank - watch more funny videos

In other news, Citigroup has recorded a profit for the first two months of 2009. Maybe we should nationalize some more industries...

Greatest Threats to Liberty

2009-03-11T15:41:00.003-04:00

Reason.TV has just posted the footage of Radley Balko and Michael Moynihan when they spoke at the International Students For Liberty Conference on the "Greatest Threats to Liberty Today" panel.

Radley Balko speaks out against the war on drugs:

Michael Moynihan discusses threats to free speech:

Bush v. Obama

2009-03-11T09:14:00.003-04:00

Jim Cramer, of CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, has recently found himself caught in a food fight with the White House. After criticizing Obama's stimulus package as untargeted and the President's doom-saying counterproductive, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs demeaned the reach of Cramer's show, to which Cramer posted a lengthy rejoinder defending his claim that Obama has introduced policies that will effect the "greatest wealth destruction by a President." The onslaught of criticism from liberal figures in the public sphere led to this insightful comparison from Mr. Cramer on how the Bush and Obama Administrations handle criticism:

The Bush administration, I believed, simply chose to ignore my warnings, perhaps because of a brutal combination of ideology, fecklessness and complacency. Publicly, it was easy to ignore a carping Democrat, even as most of my insight came from apolitical people who ran many of the major trading desks and were simply worried about the sure-to-come tsunami spawned by subprime mortgages...

[...]

President Obama's team, unlike Bush's team, demonstrates a thinness of skin that shocks me. When I somewhat obviously and empirically judged that the populist Obama administration is exacerbating the crisis with its budget and policies, as evidenced by the incredible decline in the averages since his inauguration, I was met immediately with condescension and ridicule rather than constructive debate or even just benign dismissal...

A fairly accurate, albeit solipsistic, assessment, in my opinion.

Bureaucrash Offers Revolution In A Box

2009-03-10T13:45:00.004-04:00

Bureaucrash is offering a "Revolution in a Box" to the first 1,000 people to complete a short survey on the Bureaucrash Social website. The kit, which includes literature and assorted liberty swag, could make for a great table display at your organization's events and help initiate people into the movement for freedom. Although entry requires that you be a member of Bureaucrash Social, this is the least of many reasons to sign up!

Gillespie's Keynote Speech

2009-03-10T11:18:00.004-04:00

For those of you who were unable to make the Second Annual International Students For Liberty Conference, and those of you who did make it, but want to hear some of the speeches again, we are going to be posting speeches and panels that were filmed throughout the upcoming weeks. The first video we are able to post is Nick Gillespie's Keynote Speech on "Why You're Living in the Libertarian Moment: and what you can do to keep and expand your freedom". Thanks to Reason.TV that filmed the speech at the Cato Institute and posted it here.

Some Morning Inspiration

2009-03-10T09:14:00.002-04:00

Here's a good libertarian pep talk to start off your day. My favorite part: Howard Roark doesn't even take his oath on a Bible. He's like the Chuck Norris of self-interest!

Stem of the Problem

2009-03-09T23:06:00.003-04:00

On August 9, 2001, President Bush cut off federal funds to any new embryonic stem cell research. Many people were furious that the government was stopping research and argued that this combination of a religious disdain for human embryonic stem cell research with politics had no place in America. Science, it was argued, should be above these mundane concerns. About a month after that I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (my pancreas kills its own insulin-producing cells), and I joined the ranks of those up in arms against this prohibition.

Six years later, I wrote a letter to the editor of USA Today arguing that the government has no place in medical research at all. If we simply encouraged private research to get the job done or allowed universities greater flexibility in their research, a myriad of projects would be pursued sans political influence. People still tell me when I espouse this opinion that I'm sacrificing my health for my politics, but I believe that my politics will make me healthier. I don't trust the government to regulate my behavior, I don't trust it to dictate my education, and I don't trust it to cover my media, so why should I trust it to research a cure for my worst disease?

The reason this is all germane is that today President Obama repealed Bush's act and let the fund gates flow. This is ostensibly to separate politics from science, but what it really does is couch government intervention as a pursuit of public health. Once again, an executive has decided to allocate funds in a way independent of congressional approval, let alone individual choice. Once again, our president has decided which research he thinks deserves money. My response is simply to ask why. Why is this more pressing or more correct than you letting me spend my own money, sir? Give taxpayers back their money to pay for research, education, health care, the market, or a car. Let us decide where our money goes, and that is the only way to isolate science from politics.

Successes for Liberty in the Mother Country

2009-03-09T15:43:00.003-04:00

Congratulations go out to our liberty-loving compatriots across the pond! As TheYoungConservative reports, activists at the University College of London have helped to overturn a ban on military recruitment on campus. Writes Edward Hallam, alumnus of the 2nd Annual International Students For Liberty Conference:

But most of all it’s a triumph for freedom in the Academy. Students are adults, they deserve to be treated as such. It isn’t for Unions to censor free speech, expression and opportunities on campus, just because they personally happen not to agree with them. Students have the absolute right to have the military on campus, and be involved with groups such as the OTC if they wish, just as the have the right to see and hear from anyone else. Freedom is indivisible, it doesn’t require permission or sanction, and it shall not be proscribed by Unions.

This victory at UCL has emboldened activists at other universities in the UK, as well. Late last week students at Kingston University moved to overturn a similar prohibition on their campus. Best of luck to our British allies in their fight for a free academy!

Proof That God Loves Us...And Wants Us To Be Capitalists

2009-03-09T10:41:00.004-04:00

Reason.tv has a great new video up chronicling the development of the beer industry over the years since Prohibition, highlighting how that industry has acted as a microcosm of the broader economy. Especially since the 1980s, when microbrews came onto the scene en masse, consumer choice has increased exponentially. No more tough barstool choices between Coors, Miller, and Bud; instead, there are now literally thousands of brews for the discerning tongue to choose from, with more entering the marketplace every year. Assuming, that is, that we all don't go the way of Oregon.

In a brief aside, Don Boudreaux published an incredibly interesting article a while back on how the introduction of the income tax made Prohibition a real possibility. Boudreaux is an economist at George Mason University and co-author of the blog Cafe Hayek.

Shock Doctrine becomes Barack Doctrine

2009-03-09T10:34:00.006-04:00

In Naomi Klein's book, "The Shock Doctrine," she claims that the Milton Friedman philosophy of free markets and limited government is always applied by right-wing leaders to radically shrink the state in times of crisis and desperation (as if). Ariana Huffington called it "brilliant," "powerful and prophetic."

As we have covered before, yet another Obama Administration official has come forward to say that we should use the current crisis to advance further state control of the economy. Hillary Clinton, while addressing the EU on Friday, stated that we should "never waste a good crisis," while implementing a "New Green Deal."

Perhaps a more realistic view would be Robert Higg's "Ratchet Effect" theory, which states that for every crisis, the government ratchets up its own power, only to recede slightly before the next opportunity to seize power.

Students For Liberty Conference Covered by Michigan Daily

2009-03-06T16:46:00.003-05:00

Patrick Zabawa, who attended the 2nd Annual International Students For Liberty Conference, published his thoughts on the conference in the University of Michigan newspaper The Michigan Daily. With particularly glowing reviews going to Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine, who delivered the Saturday night keynote address, Zabawa left the Conference with a great deal of optimism for the future of liberty:

Yes, government is gaining more control of our lives at an alarming rate, but there are many factors working against that control. And as anti-government student groups rise and innovations continue to develop, government will have many forces to reckon with in its quest to limit our freedoms.

Thanks go out to Patrick for his great article!

Time Will Change the Blame Game Playing Field

2009-03-06T09:54:00.005-05:00

The folks over at FiveThirtyEight.com, a great site that combines revealing political polls with valuable insight, have constructed an interesting projection of where Americans will place blame for the economic situation (political blame, that is -- don't get too excited, bankers).

Starting from an NBC/WSJ poll showing that only 8% of Americans blame Obama for the increasingly-perilous economic situation, they project that over 50% of voters will consider the current president responsible for it in September 2010. Importantly, this is only two short months prior to the mid-term elections, when Republicans will be fighting to claw back from their past two humiliating defeats and Democrats will be hoping to increase their majorities, especially in the Senate, where they will likely be just one vote away from a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority.

But this might mean less than we think:

Perhaps not coincidentally, 18 months is also about the point at which a majority of voters expect the recession to have ended. By comparison, of the several dozen economists polled in the Wall Street Journal's monthly forecasting survey, 65 percent expect the recession to have ended by the third quarter of 2009, and 100 percent anticipate its conclusion by the end of 2010.

If the economists are right, it's good news for Obama. But could such a strong correlation between Obama-blaming and expectations about the recession's end mean that, if people push back their expectations of when they expect the recession to end (say, to 24 months?), their tolerance for Obama-style policies will persist longer, as well? It looks like we have a good bit of time before we find out.

Concealed Carry Advocate Interrogated for Supporting Concealed Carry

2009-03-05T09:06:00.005-05:00

When Central Connecticut State University communications Professor Paula Anderson assigned her class to give an oral presentation on a "relevant issue in the media" last October, John Wahlberg and two other students decided to discuss the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy, asserting the possibility that it could have been avoided had students and professors been permitted to carry firearms on campus.

That evening, police called Wahlberg into the station and interrogated him on the whereabouts of the firearms he had registered in his name. Professor Anderson, concerned about the nature of Wahlberg's speech, had reported him to the police.

As the article continues:

Robert Shibley, vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), said Anderson's actions appeared to be out of line.

“If all he did was discuss reasons for allowing guns on campus, it seems a bit much to call the police and grill him about it,” Shibley said. “If you go after students for just discussing an idea, that goes against everything a university is supposed to stand for.”

This, of course, isn't the first incident of Administrative attempts to suppress 2nd Amendment rights leading to a suppression of 1st Amendment rights as well:

In 2007, Shibley noted, a student at Hamline University in Minnesota was suspended after writing a letter to an administrator arguing that carrying concealed weapons on campus may help prevent tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech. The student was allowed to return only after undergoing a psychological evaluation, he said.

Shibley also cited an incident at Colorado College last year in which campus administrators denounced a flyer as "threatening and demeaning content" because it mentioned guns. He said the students who produced the flyer were found guilty of violating the school’s violence policy, which was added to their school records.

For information on your state's concealed carry laws, visit Students for Concealed Carry's website, which also includes resources for campus leaders to promote 2nd Amendment rights at college. To report a violation of free speech at your university, visit FIRE's website.

News from Nepal

2009-03-04T16:08:00.002-05:00

Krishna Neupane, a student from Nepal, just emailed this to me:

Maoists are proposing a new constitution and in the fundamental rights they propose to ban organizations or political organizations that support imperialist (for them Capitalists and also free marketers), if this constitution is passed in Nepal, I think the country is plunging into severe crisis of freedom.

Providing more information on the issue he explained:

I read it in the draft constitution proposed by Maoist, Its available in http://baburambhattarai.com/ - a website maintained by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai current finance minister and second in rank of Maoist Party. Its clause 3 (c) under article 10- Right to Freedom.

The constitution is not yet available in English, as soon as I get it I will circulate it. However, the media that has not delved into the details of the constitution and has reported that this constitution proposes for a liberal set of fundamental rights.

Job Markets Tightening for College Graduates

2009-03-04T10:56:00.003-05:00

This shouldn't be news for readers of this blog, but with the economy contracting and unemployment on the rise, the job market is becoming increasingly-perilous for college graduates. According to an article published today in Time:

The companies surveyed in [the National Association for Colleges and Employers'] spring update are planning to hire 22% fewer grads from the Class of 2009 than they hired from the Class of 2008, a big letdown from the group's projections in October that hiring would hold steady. Some 44% of companies in the survey conducted last month said they plan to hire fewer new grads, and another 22% said they do not plan to hire at all this spring, more than double last year's figure.

Discouraging though this may be, the current recession provides a great opportunity to consider a career in the liberty movement. There are several great resources for liberty-minded individuals looking for a job, most notably the America's Future Foundation's Career Center and the LibertyGuide Job Bank. Both provide advice and tips for getting on a career track for liberty, as well as job postings from various organizations in the movement. Also, keep an eye out for an upcoming How-To Book from Students For Liberty on finding jobs or internships in the libertarian/conservative arena.

And to indulge in some brief shameless self-promotion, I'd also recommend you check out Students For Liberty's Jobs/Internship page, and consider applying for the position of Program Manager with SFL!

Students for Liberty on Television!

2009-03-03T10:55:00.005-05:00

As I posted last week, Students for Liberty participated in CPAC this past weekend, sharing a table with the Libertarian Party and finding a great number of libertarian student groups galvanized in their mission to promote liberty in the wake of the 2008 presidential campaign, in which both main parties offered candidates and platforms very discomfiting to proponents of freedom.

As the picture above shows, we had the opportunity to meet Ron Paul following a speech to a packed auditorium on Day 2 of the conference (Friday). As always, his speech was replete with common-sense economic wisdom and an unbendable adherence to the Constitution all too seldomly seen among politicians these days.

Only a few moments before Dr. Paul took the stage, Students for Liberty Executive Director Alexander McCobin participated in a panel entitled "Two-Minute Activist: Conservative Victories Across the Nation," in which he represented Students for Liberty and its mission to several hundred attendees at the conference.

Both Alexander McCobin and Dr. Paul can be seen on CSPAN's video coverage of CPAC here. The student panel begins at 1:34:50 (Alexander speaks first), and Ron Paul takes the stage at 3:11:15.

SFL Conference Covered by Oregon Catalyst

2009-03-02T09:54:00.002-05:00

Kurt Weber of the State Policy Network had some good things to say about the 2nd Annual International Students for Liberty Conference, at which he spoke on the Social Change Panel. As he writes in the blog Oregon Catalyst:

Last weekend, 200 of these college revolutionaries gathered in Washington, D.C. to talk first principles, solutions, how to effect social change and the Constitution. They did not speak of partisan politics. I spoke as a panelist there and, a life-long activist myself, was so impressed by their professionalism, energy, optimism and politeness that upon returning home I sent them a contribution. Oregon students interested in turning the tide should contact them to organize local chapters.

If you'd like to support Students for Liberty as well, you can do so here.

Grade-A Entitlement

2009-03-01T23:51:00.002-05:00

One of the most disillusioning aspects of my AmeriCorps/City Year service is the entitled attitude of my students. They expect to always have good grades, extra paper/pencils/chances, and candy even when they've done nothing to earn it. The expression "I didn't do nothing" may be the most frequent outburst heard.

This article argues that an entitled attitude amongst college-age students is pervasive and increasingly drastic. I know I've often wished that my hard work would earn an "A", but I would never argue that to a professor. I know that sometimes I think my essays were way better at 3am than the professor reading it at a reasonable hour later. I also know, however, that attending class is no substitute for hard work and extra studying. In education, entitlement is disastrous because it distracts students from learning the actual material. In life, it distracts individuals from actually maximizing productivity.

At the base of our fight for liberty is changing the attitude of Americans to understand that we must fight for individual responsibility along with individual privileges, and people who just expect the establishment to give them what they want because they want it will also not understand why responsibility is a good thing - a necessary thing.

I hope the next time we plead for better marks we think about whether we've earned them...at least, I hope I do.

International Conference Pictures

2009-03-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

Atlas Shrugs

2009-02-27T23:13:00.004-05:00

According to the Economist, sales of Atlas Shrugged have soared as of late. In fact, on January 13th, it actually beat out sales of Obama's "Audacity of Hope" on Amazon.com's book ranking. Interestingly enough, according to the Economist's charts, it seems that sales of the book in the last two years spiked whenever there was large economic turbulence or intervention, such as the bank bailouts. Are we on the path to "the strike?"

SFL at CPAC

2009-02-27T08:16:00.003-05:00

Many SFLers that I have talked to have plans to attend CPAC this weekend in Washington, DC, and so I am proud to announce that SFL will have a small but meaningful presence at the conference this year. Our booth is in the middle of the Exhibit Hall (look for the SFL banner), and we are giving away free SFL t-shirts to any students willing to wear them around throughout the day. Come stop by, say hello, and help us recruit more individuals to the fight for liberty.

Also, SFL Executive Director Alexander McCobin will be speaking Friday afternoon on the Grassroots Successes Panel at 2pm in the Regency Ballroom. He will be giving a 2 minute speech on SFL's success, so the more pro-liberty individuals there to cheer him on, the better. If we can get a nice chorus of "A Free Academy, A Free Society" afterwards, that would also be pretty sweet.

So if you're at CPAC, stop on by and show your support for liberty!

SFL Conference Covered by Atlas

2009-02-26T10:50:00.003-05:00

The Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a friend of Students for Liberty, has a great post on their blog about the 2nd Annual International Students for Liberty Conference, held last weekend at George Washington University in Washington, DC:

Atlas’s Joseph Humire, who helped SFL organize part of the event, enjoyed meeting many of the international students and fielding questions that they had about the free market movement in their countries. After the conference, Joseph said, “Not only was it great to meet many of the international participants, it was also surprising to see how many American students viewed the free market movement as one that is truly international and transcends borders and boundaries. With our vast network, Atlas can play a great role in helping connect international and US students with free market movements around the world.” Atlas looks forward to participating in future Students For Liberty events and helping to facilitate connections between students and free market think tanks.

Atlas focuses on the promotion of economic liberty abroad, and is a great resource for foreign students or those interested in the economic climate internationally.

Harvard's Board of Overseers

2009-02-25T23:53:00.004-05:00

As Anne Neal discussed at the ISFLC panel "Changing the Academy", university leadership needs to change and be held accountable in order for students to see more of their rights secured. (The very fact that a university has "board of overseers" makes me think of Childhood's End.) Apparently Harvard is having new elections for its board that pits student freedom against old ways, and The Boston Globe picked up on it with this article.

FIRE has always advocated for individual rights in the academy, and I am willing to bet that every reader of this blog values those freedoms. However, when university and college administrations squash things like freedom of the press or restrict speech to measly zones, we are all in trouble. Institutions of higher education should allow us as students to grow intellectually, so here's to hoping that this election spurs the debate for freedom in academia.

Taxation is Voluntary?

2009-02-25T11:42:00.001-05:00

So the blog has been inactive the past few days because the SFL Exec Board has been trying to rest up after a long, but fun weekend. We'll be posting pictures and summaries of the 2009 International Students For Liberty Conference soon, but in the meantime, I just had to post this video a friend sent me. Do you think that this interview could be used to justify not paying your taxes?

Tip of the Day: Contact the Media

2009-02-24T12:19:00.003-05:00

As previous tips have mentioned, the campus newspaper provides a great mechanism for getting your organization's message to the student population. But don't forget that there are other media outlets serving your campus and community, notably local newspapers, television news networks, and public access stations. Invite these news outlets to your events, and try to build relationships with their staff to help get your message out.

The first step is to craft a press release for your event. This should include the event, speakers, sponsors (the more you have, the more likely you will be to get the press interested!), location, and time, as well as contact information for your organization. Send this out to local media at least a week ahead of time; fax numbers and email addresses will be available on the appropriate websites.

Next, craft a media packet with information on the issue being discussed at your event. Don't get polemical -- include hard facts and statistics, and make sure to cite sources. Make sure to reiterate the information in your press release, as well, including biographies of speakers, the mission statement of your organization, and your contact information. This will make it easier for a reporter to cover your event, and thus increase the likelihood of getting space on the page or in the evening news.

Remember that colleges serve as a source of pride and identity for a community: local inhabitants want to know what students are doing! So don't be shy; contact your media, build relationships with reporters, and spread your message!

Panel 4: Liberty and Politics

2009-02-21T19:01:00.003-05:00

Jeff Frazee led off this panel with a call for unaffiliated lovers of liberty to get involved in politics, emphasizing that failing to be a part of the process leaves the system in the hands of those who are enemies to our ideals.

Dr. Jim Lark, professor at the University of Virginia and a member of the Libertarian Party National Committee, argued that although the goal is a freer society no matter the party that accomplishes it, the Libertarian Party allows one "to feel good about yourself in the morning."

Aaron Biterman, a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, began by saying that there are Republicans that are also socially liberal and non-interventionists, and the Republican Party offers lots of potential for pro-liberty individuals.

Brooks Nelson, National Chairman of the Democratic Freedom Caucus finished the introductory speeches by arguing that the Democratic Party is premised on the principles of liberty and is an optimum forum.

Panel 3: How to Change the Academy

2009-02-21T15:58:00.000-05:00

Greg Lukianoff started off by mentioning that he recently received the Playboy Freedom of Expression award, but alas, no bunnies attended the ceremony. FIRE seeks to check abuses within the academy by challenging limits to free speech and free thought.

Anne Neal opened her talk by arguing that the only way to change the academy is through outside organizations like SFL, FIRE, and ACTA. The system is too ingrained. We need to have people from the outside challenge the things they don't like.

Jasmin Guenette spoke on IHS's program in developing academics dedicated to liberty. Their strategy is to build up the number of serious academics who support liberty to change academia. They also want to forge partnerships with others who support liberty and benefit academia.

Professor Daniel Klein first began studying why free market economics is not dominant. For the past 10 years, he has been studying culture and the way society works. What he has learned is that the prospect looks bleak in academia. But it is an important effort.

Panel 2: Foundations of Liberty

2009-02-21T15:51:00.002-05:00

Dr. Korok Ray from Georgetown began the panel by talking about the importance of economics in the defense of liberty.

Dr. C. Bradley Thompson from Clemson went on to agree that economics supports the cause of liberty, but the stronger argument for liberty comes from the moral foundations. Without the moral defense of capitalism, it cannot succeed.

Dr. Tom Palmer from Atlas argued that there can be multiple arguments for liberty, and we should embrace the diversity of justifications. Liberty is such a powerful philosophy because it can be defended in so many ways.

Dr. John Hasnas spoke last and gave what he calls the common sense justification of liberty: we live by these principles in our daily lives.

Panel 1: How to Change Society

2009-02-21T15:44:00.002-05:00

Scott Barton from IHS spoke on the Hayekian theory of social change, beginning with ideas, going to the second hand dealers of ideas, and then policy changes. For IHS, we must begin with academia and then we can change society.

Dr. Jo Kwong from Atlas talked about the importance of building an international community that supports liberty.

Scott Bullock from IJ spoke on the importance of using the law and courts to change society. He also gave a very well delivered argument for humanizing the message of liberty. IJ seeks to put a face on human rights violations.

Kurt Weber from SPN talked about the value of working at the local level, and how great it is to see so many young people get involved in the cause of liberty.

SFL's Student Awards

2009-02-21T09:17:00.004-05:00

Last night, SFL held its first annual SFL Student Awards Ceremony. Students do incredible things around the world. They start organizations, they organize movements, and they lead social change. It is important to highlight the work students are doing both to give credit where it is due and to let others know just how amazing student work can be, to provide inspiration for other students, and show the world that the future generation of leaders are ready to take up the cause of liberty.

Event of the Year: Ivy League Alliance for Liberty Constitutional Convention
Running an event takes tremendous amounts of work with little recognition. Planning takes an incredible amount of time and something always goes wrong. Holding a highly successful event is an accomplishment that every organizer should be proud of.

The Ivy League Alliance for Liberty first began as a discussion during the Philadelphia Students For Liberty Conference. Several participants recognized a need to connect their organizations together to promote collaboration and interaction. Rather than letting this become idle chatter, several students decided to make the alliance a reality. On January 31st, 2009, the Ivy League Alliance for Liberty Constitutional Convention was held at Columbia University. The convention's participating organizations and organizers deserve tremendous credit for putting together this event.

Student Group of the Year: University of Michigan College Libertarians
The Group of the Year award goes to a group that has shown an outstanding commitment to promoting the ideas of liberty and illustrated successes in developing as an organization. The best organization is not the one with the most members or the one that has held the most events, although this group has both. It is about having a strong membership of dedicated students and events that make an impact on the campus at large. The best groups seek to broaden their reach both on campus and beyond to other organizations. Ultimately, this award goes to the organization that we consider to be a model, an example of what a group should be that others can look toward for inspiration.

The University of Michigan College Libertarians have one of the largest and most impressive membership bases. Their students have interned at state and national think tanks, attended prestigious seminars, and even run for Mayor of Ann Arbor. Their events are some of the most unique and well attended ranging from bringing Jon Stossel to speak to holding a Gun Giveaway in support of the Second Amendment. Last, they were instrumental in holding what was perhaps the most successful SFL Regional Conference, the Midwest Students For Freedom Conference.

Student of the Year: Aaron Moyer (Drexel University)
This award goes to a student that has shown true passion for the cause of liberty and represents the drive that students possess to change the world. While there are many students doing incredible things, we want to recognize one student that has made a difference on campus and we believe will make a difference in the future.

This year's recipient has been a true leader in his community. On campus, he founded and served as the first president of the Drexel Student Liberty Front. He then helped organize the Philadelphia FOrum for Freedom, a coalition of pro-liberty student groups in the area, and stepped down from his position in the Student Liberty Front to lead the PFF. A testament to his sucess as a leader is how greatly the Drexel group has flourished thanks to his successful transfer of leadership. Now, he has begun his own nonprofit organization, the Freeman's Union, to provide grassroots education on liberty. We are proud to award the 2009 SFL Student of the Year award to Aaron Moyer from Drexel University.

International Students For Liberty Conference Begins Today!

2009-02-20T09:24:00.003-05:00

Today is the first day of the 2nd Annual International Students For Liberty Conference. Just a reminder to attendees that registration will run from 3-5pm in the Marvin Center on George Washington University's campus. After registration a meet and greet will run from 5-6pm before dinner begins at 6pm. The Executive Director of Students For Liberty, Alexander McCobin, will give a welcome speech and conference logistics will be reviewed by other Executive Board members. Afterwards, Students For Liberty will hand out awards recognizing excellence in support of liberty. We will finish the night the Institute for Humane Studies social at the Melrose Hotel. I'm thrilled for the conference to begin; it should be an outstanding weekend!

Over the weekend the Students For Liberty Executive Board will be posting frequent updates on this blog and our Twitter account. Stay tuned for regular updates on what is happening at the International Students For Liberty Conference!

Audacity You Can Believe In!

2009-02-17T12:57:00.003-05:00

Isaac Morehouse of Students for a Free Economy in Michigan pointed out the incoherence of President Obama's cap on executive pay at firm's receiving federal assistance in a recent post on SFE's blog. According to Business Week, one-third of public university presidents make more than $500,000 per year, the cap that has been placed on private firm's executive pay. Morehouse rightly asks:

I wonder if the Commander in Chief will also demand caps on their salaries since they receive research grants and federally subsidized student loans?

My suspicion is that the answer is "No."

At Least They Waited Until After the Super Bowl...

2009-02-16T17:17:00.006-05:00

Oregon is currently considering increasing the tax on beer by 1,900%, with the intention that the tax revenue could help pay for drug and alcohol treatment programs offered by the state. Although the bill's sponsor voices a willingness to compromise, I can't help but be reminded of the federal tobacco tax increase just a few weeks ago to help fund the S-CHIP program.

A Sad Day in Venezuela

2009-02-16T12:24:00.004-05:00

Late last night, I received an email from my friend in Venezuela, Andreina Pinedo, a student at Universidad Metropalitana, and one of the organizers of the International Observers program that I participated in during November, which brought over 20 young people from half a dozen countries to Venezuela to monitor the elections. Her message is a sad, but one that must be shared:

Today, Feb 15th, our nation's democratic values were once again put to the test, and honestly I do not know whether or not they have survived. For those of you that don't know the story update, a new referendum was held today, one which proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow all electoral positions to be reelected indefinitely, including of course, the presidential post [prior to this amendment, individuals were limited to two terms in the presidential office, and Hugo Chavez was in his second term]. Since it was proposed in December, Venezuelan's were confused, for Chavez seemed to have rushed the elections on Feb 15th, even though it was just close enough for the date to be approved by the national assembly; eventually, and not surprisingly, the assembly approved his proposal and on January 14th set the date for the referendum on Feb 15th. From that point on, students crowded the streets, some days more so than other days, since most of us were in exams during January, but definitely as enthusiastic as usual. Our strategies differed, but the mission was the same: call people to vote! The weird part is that there was a group of more-active-than-ever students, and more-apathetic-than-ever other ones, I must admit that I include myself in the latter. It makes sense when you realize this has been the third election in less than 1.5 years. The point is actually that the fight was ours, and every person made themselves useful in every way they thought was best, and I truly belief our effort was gigantic, amazing, and worth it.

Today, voting started slow... very slow... for two reasons: the process was very very quick so there were almost no lines, and the closing time was changed to 6pm so people didn't make an effort to wake up early and vote. A huge amount of students invaded the streets in cars with megaphones and vans with microphones calling for people to go out and vote, for either option, but VOTE! All other electoral actions, situation rooms, call centers, exit polls, and denounce centers worked great as well.

After a long day, the 1st official bulletin was released. We lost, 54 points for YES to the amendment... 46 points NO. The defeat is hard, and regretfully, it is real. We feel this means that the existing threat to our democracy and to our political future, has become a reality. In an evidently disproportionate campaign, where the YES spent millions on amazing posters and publicity, where the newly elected, pro government, mayor of one of Caracas's divisions was head of the campaign, keeping up with lack of resources and strength was difficult. In the end, today has made us realize and remember that this struggle is far from over, that Chavez's popularity is not so fragile, that we live in a nation who's citizens have not realized the importance of good governance as opposed to the fanaticism of a leader... and that we CANNOT stop. The percentage of people that abstained was 32% a few points less than during the Dec 2007 referendum. However when you take a look at the numbers, it was pro-gorvernment voters who voted and diminished our lead.

This email represents a way of reminding you all of how much we appreciate all the work you did in Nov with us. I never stop thinking about how important your job here was and how much it meant for us. I hope that you are still interested in our country's situation, and continue to spread our word.

This year still has another election waiting for us: legislative posts within each state (I completely translated that and have no idea if it makes any sense to you), which will be held in August. We will be there again and do our best to gain more spaces in Venezuelan politics. But 2012 already scares me, especially after listening to the president's "acceptance" speech, in which he obviously proclaimed his candidacy for yet another presidential period. Fireworks are still heard in Caracas.

Thank all of you who have sent us, in one way or another, messages of hope and patience for today. We are all sad and impressed, mostly confused by what comes next. But we are still here to receive your good thoughts and to inform you of our actions. Your support is truly appreciated!

What I am taking from Andreina's story is not that the students lost this time, but that this is the first loss they have had to experience. Ever since the Venezuelan students took to the streets in protest of the closing of the largest private television station in the country, RCTV, they have not suffered a defeat until this one. They were the first group to take on and defeat Chavez in not one, but two elections. And the only way that Chavez was able to win was by holding an election less than 3 months after a national election that he had already lost. When I was in Venezuela, there was much to be concerned about. There are threats to the cause of democracy and human rights, yes. But there is much hope for the country as well. There are people doing inspirational things in Venezuela and leading a cause with a passion not seen in many other places. This battle was lost, but the long war is not over. I believe in the cause of liberty that the students are undertaking in Venezuela. And I believe that they will continue to make a difference, making Venezuela a freer place.

Stupid Laws, DC Style

2009-02-13T20:37:00.004-05:00

In spirit of the upcoming Students For Liberty conference in Washington DC, here are some practices that attendees should be aware of that are illegal in the District:

- Painting lemons all over your car to let people know you were taken advantage of by a specific dealer.
- Posting a notice in public which calls another person a 'coward' for refusing to accept a challenge to duel.
- Being a small boy and throwing a stone anywhere in the District of Columbia.
- Catching fish while on horseback.
- Delivering more than one bottle of alcohol by mail per month.

Last but not least, fellow liberty-lovers:
- Engaging in any sexual position other than missionary is illegal.

Two Tips for Today: Create a Logo and Use it

2009-02-13T20:01:00.006-05:00

Since I missed my post yesterday because I was at KAP, I'm going to give two tips today. First, create a logo. Having a logo makes your organization more real and more easily recognizable. The logo should somehow represent liberty and connect it with your university. This way, you show school pride and people understand what your group is about. Here are some sample logos:

Penn Libertarian Association: Atlas holding up the Penn Shield is a reference to Ayn Rand, one of the organization's intellectual heroes

Drexel Student Liberty Front: A porcupine represents libertarianism as an animal that does not fight others, but is able to protect itself when attacked.

Temple Libertarians: The statue of liberty as an owl combines the common image of the statue of liberty, which stands for libertarianism, and the school's mascot, the owl

The second tip is that once you have a logo, you need to use it. All too often, groups come up with logos and let them fall by the wayside, just being a drain on time and energy. Logos have the potential to be incredibly valuable, though, as they brand your organization and make your message more well known. Put the logo on all letterhead for the organization. Add the logo to emails. Include the logo on surveymonkey's you create. Get people to love the logo.

Broken Windows Fallacy, Mate

2009-02-13T12:58:00.006-05:00

In reaction to the recent Australian brushfires, which destroyed over 1,000 homes and taken over 200 lives, an Australian newspaper printed this economic analysis:

As an aside, the bushfires may help the nation fend off recession: Goldman Sachs JBWere economist Tim Toohey says rebuilding will generate an economic stimulus equal to 0.25-0.4 per cent of GDP over the next 18 months.

"As tragic as the events of the past two days have been, the rebuilding phase will provide a catalyst for economic growth in coming months, even if the personal and environmental cost takes years to recover," he says.

If this isn't a clear-cut example of Bastiat's broken windows fallacy, I don't know what is! His logic is, that since houses need to be rebuilt, the new demand for wood/concrete/construction labor will benefit the economy.

What he, rather surprislingly, ignores is the destruction of wealth that the fire caused in the first place--that the economy lost 1,000 homes and 200+ people who had trained skills, which the economy needs to replace to make up for what was lost. The "growth" that this economist predicts is only goes to making up for what was destroyed in the fire. Without the fire, the wood/labor/capital that was used to make up what was lost could have been used for other, more productive things.