:: walterindenver ::

:: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 ::

You Can Have Your Drug War
Wars have casualties, and sometimes innocent bystanders are hurt. For some exceptionally evil people the whole point of the war is to hurt innocent bystanders. From the November Coalition's newsletter, Razorwire: (please read the entire article)
Prominent organizer Charles Kiker is a retired Baptist minister and Tulia resident who helped found Friends of Justice. He told the Daily Texan, "When I read in the paper that 43 people in the little town of Tulia had been arrested for selling powder cocaine, I thought, boy, we've got a big drug problem in this little town. My wife is quite a bit smarter than I am, and she asked, 'If 43 people are selling drugs in Tulia, who are the buyers?'"

:: Walter 10:28 AM [+] ::
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Stanley Update
I was witness to Rick Stanley's sentencing last Thursday, as Denver municipal judge Robert L. Patterson gave him 180 days and a $500 fine. Rick was convicted of carrying a loaded gun at a downtown rally, in an effort to challenge Denver's anti-gun ordinances. This was a fairly severe sentence when compared to actual criminals who were given lighter fines and no confinement during that same morning's session.
The Colorado Freedom Report offers reporting and analysis.
The judge seemed, to me, to go out of his way to avoid mentioning any political purpose behind Stanley's action. He even cited Stanley's 'lack of remorse' as a factor in the harsher sentence. Well, duh.
Worse, he said he was disturbed by Stanley's view that a citizen has no responsibility not to bring a gun into the 'community.' Perhaps that was a poor choice of words on the judge's part, but I doubt it. More likely Judge Patterson really believes it's everyone's 'responsibility' to not own a gun.

:: Walter 4:54 PM [+] ::
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And, finally,
Ari Armstrong wrote an interesting piece, 'Objectivists and Libertarians.' In addition to the minor quibble concerning Diana's speech noted below, I would like to point out that one's opinion may be sophisticated, insightful, and rigid, all at the same time ;>)

:: Walter 8:39 PM [+] ::
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Feckless
is Peter Saint Andre's word to describe the Libertarian Party. He rejoins the LP debate on his blog:

To me the fight for freedom is a progressive movement, indeed a modern extension of the progressivism that brought civil rights to minorities in the USA. Some libertarians and Randians hark back to the 19th century, but I see that as deeply wrongheaded. The fight for freedom is a fight for the future and for human progress (material, scientific, political, ethical, spiritual). It is, as today's progressives claim, about peace and justice: "If you want peace, work for justice." Yet a specifically libertarian progressivism further recognizes that "If you want justice, work for freedom." It is the job of libertarians to work out what that means, to show how freedom is a truly and radically progressive cause in the 21st century. I have not seen libertarians do a good job of that, but then again I haven't quite done so either. Perhaps, to use the terminology of open-source software, this is an itch that I need to scratch....

I can't disagree with a word of that, but Peter, I'm full of feck. Let's get to work.
P.S. "If you want justice, work for freedom" would look good on your car's bumper.

:: Walter 8:24 PM [+] ::
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Diana's Speech
at the Libertarian state convention is here. Skip at your own peril.

:: Walter 7:58 PM [+] ::
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Noodles are Good Food
Diana Hsieh's responses to this blog's postings can be found here. She writes, among other things, (ya gotta read the whole thing);

Now, someone might object to this line of reasoning, as Walter in Denver so presciently did in arguing along the following lines: Neither Democrats nor Republicans really have a deep understanding of their own underlying ideology, so why should the Libertarians?

Well, of course, she's right, Libertarians should strive for deeper understanding of ideologies, libertarian and otherwise. But my point is, LP'ers can hardly be criticized for a lack of book learnin', when other political parties and movements are fairly illiterate by comparison. I suspect that Diana's peers include a bunch of people with letters behind their names. The LP, like all successful political movements, has to include a lot of folks who are a little more, ah, common.
I don't agree with her basic premise of the four pillars of capitalism. I think that reason is enough, or even religious dogmas, like Christianity, can give people a solid philosophical base for libertarianism (or capitalism). I don't see myself wavering toward statist errors, and I hope that Ms. Hsieh will be on my side when it comes down to the dirty business of politics, regardless of any philosophical disagreement we may have.

:: Walter 7:39 PM [+] ::
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Blogosphere Hierarchy
This blog rates as a 'crunchy crustacean' and as 'hard to get' according to N. Z. Bear's fun little ranking system. Cool.

:: Walter 7:27 PM [+] ::
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Golf
Samizdata's Brian Micklethwait says there may be a common denominator between golf and libertarianism. He's right.

:: Walter 7:06 AM [+] ::
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Like a Deer in the Headlights
In a space of less than 24 hours four very thoughtful people wrote responses to articles on this site. Diana Hsieh, Peter Saint-Andre, and Ari Armstrong each weighed in on my response to Ms. Hsieh's reaction to the Libertarian state convention.
Ralph Shnelvar, the Libertarian candidate for governor, wrote about my take on Colorado water rights. Each of the four have at least one thing in common; they think I'm wrong.
But I haven't had the time to give each the attention it deserves, so of course I've done nothing. Stand by.

:: Walter 11:57 AM [+] ::
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Pete Seibert, RIP
Pete did a lot of remarkable things, including founding Vail, the biggest ski area in the U.S. He was also a veteran of WWII's 10th Mountain Division, the skiing army.
Here's an excerpt from the Rocky Mountain News' obituary:
__________________________________________________
'As a platoon sergeant in the Army's famed 10th Mountain Division, Seibert was gravely wounded by mortar fire March 3, 1945, during the battle for Italy's Mount Terminale.

'His right kneecap destroyed, his left arm nearly severed at the elbow, Seibert was not considered a good bet to walk again. And doctors were sure he'd never ski.

'But after 17 months of surgeries and convalescence, and an honorable discharge at 22, Seibert returned to Colorado. With a bum right knee and a numb left hand, Seibert landed a job with the Aspen ski patrol in 1946.

'The next year, he won the Roch Cup, then one of the most cherished honors in U.S. skiing. Three years later, he qualified for the U.S. Alpine Ski Team.

' "A lot of the muscles had been blown away in his right leg," Parker recalled. "Much of his skiing was basically on his good leg, holding his right leg tight against it. The boarders these days talk about a beautiful single tack. And that's the way he skied, for years." '
_________________________________________

I had the pleasure of making Pete's acquaintance a few years ago. Gregarious and confident, even as a diminutive man in his seventies he was a remarkable presence. He flirted with women half his age, and was trying to become a low-handicap golfer. He left me a standing invitation to stay at his place in Vail, but I never had the opportunity to take him up on it. I loaned him a Callaway 5-iron demo to try out -- he never returned it. That's one of the best investments I ever made.
I have his business card around here somewhere. It says 'Pete Seibert. Vail. Founder.'

:: Walter 9:51 PM [+] ::
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Big Time
Protein Wisdom is Fox News.com's blog of the week. Congrats to Jeff.

:: Walter 8:22 AM [+] ::
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LPCO Convention Part II
I found the link to Diana Hsieh's article below via Peter Saint-Andre's Weblog. He was also at the convention, as an entertainer on the opening night. He says he was offered marijuana by a couple of people. That's news to me. I've been to many dozens of LP functions. I don't think anyone so much as offered to buy me a beer at any of them. Maybe Peter is just more of a socialite than I am. Don't give up on the LP so easily, Peter.

:: Walter 9:23 PM [+] ::
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LPCO Convention
Diana Hsieh attended the Colorado Libertarian Party convention last May. She just got around to posting her impressions of the event, and they're not pretty. She gave a speech outlining some of the philosophical underpinnings of libertarian thought. Writes she:

"Before I arrived at the convention, my basic worry was that I was presuming too little, that these philosophical issues would be old hat to most people. But after a few casual conversations and a sampling of the other lectures, I began to worry that perhaps I was presuming too much, that these philosophical issues would be foreign and undigestible to many...

Political movements take all types. Go to a gathering of Democrats and poll them on the theories of Keynes. See how many respond, "Who?"
Try a similar experiment at a Republican convention. Ask them if they've read Goldwater's 'Conscience of a Conservative.'
The libertarian movement needs philosophers and intellectuals, but it badly needs activists, people who have a positive visceral reaction to libertarian ideas, even if they don't care much about the deep thinking behind those ideas.
Count me as one who falls into sort of a middle ground. I appreciate the philosophy, but I'm more concerned about the nuts and bolts of creating a libertarian society. For example, I love reading Ayn Rand, I could care less about objectivism. I missed Diana's lecture, sadly. From a brief reading of the summary of the speech, I can't say that I agree with it. There are many ways that a person can come to a generally libertarian viewpoint, that people have the right to do as they please, as long as they don't interfere with others' right to do the same. Her viewpoint seems to be a bit more rigid. More:

"Also noteworthy was the fact that ending the war on drugs seemed to be a top priority for a great many people. Let me rephrase that: gaining the freedom to get high seemed to be a top priority for a great many people. Now, I'm all for ending the drug war. People have the right to put whatever substances they want into their bodies. And the drug war, like prohibition before it, promotes crime and fosters the worst in government. But the drug war is hardly the worst violation of rights we suffer here in the US."

I don't do illegal drugs. Legal ones however...
I can think of only one government program that does more damage to human rights than the drug war. (The income tax, of course.) I am very interested in hearing Diana's explanation for that last sentence. Perhaps gun prohibitions are a close third.

:: Walter 11:28 AM [+] ::
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How's the Weather?
Hokiepundit links to this lowly site because he saw something approximating humor I wrote in a response over on Protein Wisdom. Thanks.

:: Walter 7:45 AM [+] ::
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New and Improved Samizdata
Libertarian Samizdata celebrated a site upgrade with a flurry of posting. Take a look.

:: Walter 7:05 AM [+] ::
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ILTE of the Day
I thought that I wouldn't post anything about the court decision declaring the "under God" portion of the pledge of allegiance unconstitutional, but this is just funny.
A.R. Bosacki of Arvada, CO, says the pledge is unconstitutional because it allows for the authority of a foreign monarch. That would be God.

In its present format, it voluntarily yields the right to rule to a foreign monarch who has never stood for high elective office, has no known North American street address or Social Security number, has no parliament to create his writ nor any supreme judiciary to certify it.

What can I add to that?
(From The Rocky Mountain News, letters of July 16.)

:: Walter 7:56 PM [+] ::
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Privatize Your Life
Wendy McElroy agrees with something I've been saying for a long time. Your marriage ain't none of the state's business.
Thanks to Andrew Olmsted for the link.

:: Walter 6:52 PM [+] ::
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No Posting Today
Too busy watering the lawn. I am patriotic, after all.

:: Walter 10:39 PM [+] ::
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Color Coding
Tom Ridge's Homeland Security Whatchamacallit says we're on yellow status. Which means, if I read the chart correctly, that tomorrow is my day to water the lawn.

:: Walter 9:12 PM [+] ::
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Guns vs Other Stuff
Tapped makes a silly argument against pilots carrying guns in the cockpit.

"Sure, it's dumb. If you have to get into a firefight in the air to stop a highjacking -- that is, if terrorists already got their weapons aboard -- you're pretty much already screwed."

Sure, an onboard gunfight could be nasty, but I suspect guns would be fairly effective against, say, boxcutters.

:: Walter 9:30 PM [+] ::
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Burning Straw Men
Tom Tomorrow's latest shows he either
a) doesn't know what a free market would be, or,
b) wants to equate the Bush administration with free marketeers because it's much easier to attack a straw man, and if we ever had a free market it would be impossible for the Smart People Like Tom Tomorrow to run things as they see fit.
I'll wait for him to tell us which one of those it is.

:: Walter 8:03 PM [+] ::
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True Story
Overheard at the golf course, a conversation between two dudes, white guys in their mid twenties, while the video of the Inglewood, CA police beating plays on TV:
Dude 1: "I'll bet that kid was harrassing those cops. You know he did. If you were walking down the street with your girl he'd be harrassing you. I'm glad those cops beat the f___ out of him. He deserved it."
Dude 2, quietly: "I don't know."
Me, I'm sitting there in silence, with no idea what, if anything, I should interject into their conversation. Sure, I can think of plenty of things now. Confrontation with that much stupidity has that effect on me.

:: Walter 6:52 PM [+] ::
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Maher the ?
Bill Maher (AZ Republic article) is again mis-identified as a libertarian. He's a socialist/populist at best, and I suspect that on the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz he'd score as a left-liberal. I won't blame the reporter for this one, as Maher claimed for himself the title of 'libertarian' a few years ago. He endorsed Ralph Nader for President in 2000, - can't get much less libertarian than that. My best guess is he just likes the sound of the word, and has very little idea about what a libertarian actually is.

:: Walter 9:45 PM [+] ::
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Ripped from Today's Headlines
Q: How many America West pilots does it take to fly from Phoenix to Miami?
A: 2 and 1/5.

:: Walter 9:16 PM [+] ::
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Selig's Cheap Shot
MLB comissioner Bud Selig announced that one team will have trouble meeting Monday's payroll, and that team will be a 'suprise,' not one of those currently thought to be in financial difficulty. A newsworthy event, to be sure, and Bud uses the occasion to take a swipe:
"We met with the bankers (Tuesday). We had about 200 of them in. Nobody who has ever seen the numbers questions them. It's only the Jesse Venturas of the world who don't care and don't want to know."
Say what you will about Jesse, but he took a principled stand against a taxpayer funded stadium in the Twin Cities. Why should people pay for professional sports franchises through tax revenue? It's still corporate welfare, even if it's in a pinstriped uniform, scratching itself and chewing tobacco.

:: Walter 8:56 PM [+] ::
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You want to move here
You know you do. Read this first. Scroll down to 'Unfriendly Advice.'

:: Walter 10:28 PM [+] ::
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ILTE of the Day
Darrell Durrett of Boulder has a letter published Sunday the 7th in the Boulder Camera. He doesn't like John Caldara's idea to privatize water ownership and delivery in order to alleviate the effects of the drought. Writes he:

I would then like him to explain how initial ownership of a given drop is to be determined, how water works would have to be changed to support his vision, and how much the average user would then expect to pay for water.

Appearently Durrett has never heard of Ronald Coase, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, who explained all this years ago. I'll defer to David Friedman's explanation of the relevant application of the Coase Theorem.

"The argument underlying the Coase Theorem comes into play. If we assign the right initially to the wrong person, the right person, the one to whom it is of most value, can still buy it. So one of the considerations in the initial definition of property rights is doing it in such a way as to minimize the transaction costs associated with fixing, via private contracts, any initially inefficient definition."

Minimizing transaction costs in this case means keeping the political process well away from the water market. If the Coase Theorem sounds like Greek to you then do yourself a favor and catch up here.

I call upon the Camera to encourage Caldara to explore this issue in the intricate detail that it richly deserves....
I realize that the effort involved will require Caldara to delve intimately into the study of hydrology and will be formidable. I certainly don't expect him to produce a complete response to this challenge in anything under a year, since this is, no doubt, work equivalent to a master's degree in something (geography?). Nevertheless, I hope his formidable intellect is up to the challenge. What I don't believe is that any of us will want to live in a world of privatized water, no matter how much money we might have.

Durrett suffers from the delusion that many statists seem to share, that nothing good can happen unless some elite group do a lot of thinking, and then when they're done make a pronouncement telling us commoners how we should conduct our affairs.
I see things quite differently; there's no one out there who can predict and adaquately plan for something as complicated as water use in a place like Colorado. That's precisely why we need an efficient and flowing free market to react and account for rapidly shifting supply and demand.

:: Walter 6:19 AM [+] ::
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Tom Tomorrow Redux
Jeff G. does yesterday's post (below) one better. When this blog grows up it will be a little more like protein wisdom.

:: Walter 8:34 PM [+] ::
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Badly Drawing Boy
Just when Tom Tomorrow is about to finally make a valid point he does this. I can't decide if he's really worried about the state of the country or if he just hates conservatives, and religion by extrapolation. Modern World, Tom? Christian-bashing has been around for, like, millenia.

:: Walter 3:43 PM [+] ::
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ILTE of the day
Nanette Reimer of Idaho Springs, CO (not Denver, whew) picks up on our ethics theme explaining that the Post Office could save money if they just cancelled stamps better. How does she know this?
I typically receive one or two pieces of mail per week in which the stamps have not been canceled by the U.S. Postal Service. I remove the unused stamps and simply reattach them to other pieces of mail and use them again. I've checked; as long as you don't tape over the entire stamp, its perfectly legal. It's like the USPS having a two-for-one sale. Buy one stamp, use it twice, for free!
It's not her fault the USPS loses the revenue. See below.

:: Walter 1:45 PM [+] ::
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Warm Fuzzy Ethics
Denver weekly Westword has a horror story this week. Seems Juan and Debra Manchego have made a career of ripping off landlords, falsifying rental applications and then stopping rent checks. When the landlord moves to evict them, the Manchegos use the legal system expertly to delay the eviction and squeeze out a few months of free rent. They trash the house, and then when the landlord sues them for back rent they countersue claiming the landlord is running a slum.
These landlords, usually small time investors renting out family owned houses, lose many thousands of dollars to the scam. About thirty of them in Denver have been victims of the Manchegos over the last two decades.
Debra Manchego explains how she feels about her current landlord: "Maybe if Franz had done his job, had asked some questions, had asked for references and checked Social Security numbers, we wouldn't be there. Now he's just mad."
That's right. It's not her fault. If the landlord can't protect himself how can you blame her for ripping him off?

:: Walter 12:50 PM [+] ::
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Blog Hall of Fame Post
One of my favorite posts of all time is this at protein wisdom from a few months ago. Nazi personal ads?!?! Jeff G crushes the monobrow crowd at some racist website or other. He tells me he caught e-mail grief from them for three weeks after. At the risk of stirring them up again here goes......
Warning: rated NC-17. It is Jeff, after all.

:: Walter 10:00 AM [+] ::
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Understanding the enemy
Retired intelligence officer Ralph Peters thinks through the terrorist problem and comes up with some great insights, and a good quote.
"[F]erocity is the ultimate guarantor of peace."
The rest is also worth reading.
Link via Vodkapundit et al.

:: Walter 9:25 AM [+] ::
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Here come da judges
The three judge panel ("We're neutral observers. No, really!") looking at Denver's secret police files recommends they be thrown out. The Denver Post reports:
_________________________________
Budget considerations and a lack of computer training, the panel concluded, led to detectives entering all types of groups into the intelligence files - from criminal contingents to people with gun permits to those who had received police honorariums. And the judges acknowledged that Denver police officers probably keep most intelligence information in their heads.

David Neil, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, said he hopes the proposed regulations, if enacted, wouldn't interfere with officers' ability to do their jobs. He said intelligence files aren't admissible in court, and he doesn't know why people are so upset that the department keeps this kind of information. The department of motor vehicles and other agencies keep similar information, he said.
"I understand their concerns," he said. "But we have concerns, too, as a department. Information is a big deal in fighting crime."
______________________________
(emphasis mine)

I feel so much better now, Mr. Neil. Do I need to go over all the statistics affirming that gun permit holders are far less likely to commit crimes than the general population? I have no faith that the Denver police department is not keeping politically motivated negative information an the citizenry. And that these judges aren't sympathetic to the city.
The judges recommendation is that the files be tossed after people who are listed therein be allowed to see them. I wonder if they'll publish a list of names of those people.

:: Walter 7:07 AM [+] ::
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We Give
Oh, this is just mean. Happy 4th!

:: Walter 6:59 AM [+] ::
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Denver Secret Police Files
Hard to believe, but if you live in Colorado you've been hearing about this for months now. The Denver police have been keeping secret files on thousands of people they deem to be possible public threats because of political protests. This has nothing to do with 9-11, they just kept tabs on folks who went to public demonstrations supporting various causes dating back for several years. The push is on now to make those files public. I haven't been one to go to protests much, but I have been to a few. I'm curious to see if they've kept a file on me.

Incredibly, the City won't say if they've discontinued the practice.

:: Walter 7:51 AM [+] ::
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The links are pouring in
Fusilierpundit (WeckUpToThees!) noticed my post about Rick Stanley below and that I was an eyewitness to part of the trial. Fusilier was NOT at the Rocky Mountain Bloggers Bash, or at least did not make his (her?) presence known. Colorado must have more libertarian bloggers per capita than anywhere.

:: Walter 10:41 PM [+] ::
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Vote early and often
Those of you attending the Libertarian Party national convention this year will have the opportunity to vote for BetteRose Ryan for an at-large seat on the national board. She's intelligent, graceful, hard working, and one of my wife's and my favorite people. You couldn't do better than voting for her, I wish I could be there.
And she doesn't even pay me to say this.

:: Walter 9:50 PM [+] ::
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