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F
M N e w s : NO MORE GENOCIDE
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Free-Market.Net's Freedom Network Member Newsletter
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http://www.free-market.net/
| http://www.hazlitt.org/
In this update:
o No more genocide -- $500 in pro-self-defense prizes
o Five free-marketeers won historical flags from ATL
o Tax rebellion, nix the FBI, censorship, and Hope
o Who do you love?
NO MORE GENOCIDE: THE FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE
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This month's FMN contest spreads the word about self-defense
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http://www.free-market.net/
Though I wasn't born there, I come from Wyoming. It's where my heart
lives, out where the wind flows over the prairies,
shreds itself on the mountains, and burns the squinting eyes of the
ranchers.
So maybe it won't come as a surprise if I say that I own a gun.
That makes me a "gun nut" in some people's eyes, though there
are many, many things I think about and care about more. The gun is a
tool, a piece of metal I bought to defend myself and my family from
mountain lions, bears, and human predators.
In Wyoming, there are still bars with rows of pegs for hanging your
gun belt when you go in. Nobody looked at us funny when I strapped on my
Dan Wesson .44 magnum revolver and took my family
out for a walk. People there take the right to self-defense for granted --
as natural as the rights to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
But, if I had brought that piece of metal with me here to Chicago, I would
be a criminal. That's because there are people who fear real criminals so
much that they believe disarming me and leaving my family to dial 911,
should an ax murderer break in to our home, is an acceptable price to pay
to *try* to reduce crime.
These people ignore it when states that start issuing concealed carry gun
permits see decreasing crime rates.
They ignore that countries that have severely reduced private ownership of
firearms, like Australia and Great Britain, have seen crime -- crime with
firearms -- increase.
And they don't want to hear about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or
that my rights are being violated (when I've
committed no crime).
However, there's another, absolutely compelling reason why no one,
regardless of ideology, should embrace victim disarmament: it precedes
genocide.
Did you know that massive victim disarmament preceded the W.W.II
holocaust? Did you know that the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968 reads, line
by line, a great deal like the Nazi Weapons Law of 1938?
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership does.
In spite of their name, JPFO is open to people of all religions -- even to
people of no religion at all. Personally, JPFO's "no more
genocide" message works for me because I am descended from central
American indians who were overwhelmed, their culture destroyed.
Their primitive tools for self-defense left them effectively defenseless
against the conquistadors who massacred and enslaved them.
If you look back far enough, almost everyone is descended from one group
or another that got wiped out when they couldn't defend themselves
effectively.
To the chorus of voices that cries, "Never again!" about the
horror of the Nazi death camps, JPFO asks, "How are you going to stop
it?" JPFO reminds us that most Jews in Germany relied on the state to
protect them, just advocates of victim disarmament would have us do now.
We all know where the road paved with good intentions leads, and it is
vain, foolish, and dangerous to ignore the overwhelming evidence of
history: sooner or later, defenseless people always
get wiped out.
Opposing this -- even if you don't own a gun, even if you don't like guns
-- is an issue well worth getting involved in.
That's why I'm so delighted that JPFO is sponsoring this month's FMN
contest with five prizes worth $1000 each. Five winners will each get a
package, including signed copies of "Hope" and "The
Mitzvah," by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith. They will also get
T-shirts, and a packet of pro-self-defense activist materials.
So please check out this month's contest and drop your name in the
"virtual hat" to enter the free drawing:
http://www.free-market.net/
And be sure to stop by JPFO for a look at a group engaged in real defense
of civil rights -- all of them, including the right
to self-defense:
http://www.jpfo.org/
JULY CONTEST WINNERS
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Five free-marketeers won historical flags from ATL
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http://www.free-market.net/features/conte
st/past.html
There were five lucky winners of last month's FMN free drawing. They got
their choice of a historical American flag, courtesy of Americans for
Technology Leadership. The winners were:
o Eric Caron, a regional manager for the National Association of
Manufacturers. Eric lives in Arlington Heights, Illinois. His
choice of prize was a Ferdinand and Isabella (Columbus) flag.
o Anonymous, who chose a First Navy Jack, which has a snake over 13
bars and the legend: Don't Tread On Me.
o Roger Tucker, of Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia, who is a
58-year-old attending college full time, with one semester to go for his
degree. Roger chose the famous yellow Gadsden "Don't Tread On
Me" flag with the coiled rattlesnake.
o Dan Walker, an attorney from Tallahassee, Florida, who says he
narrowly escaped raking in millions of dollars last winter, by virtue of
not being a Republican or Democrat during the great
dimpled chad feeding frenzy among lawyers in that state. Dan chose
a First Navy Jack.
o James Blachly, a student at the University of Arkansas in
Fayetteville, Arkansas, who chose a Gadsden flag.
To find out more about what Americans for Technology Leadership is doing
to keep government out of the marketplace, check ATL out at:
http://techleadership.org/
NEW FREEDOM NETWORK HIGHLIGHTS
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Tax rebellion, nix the FBI, internet censorship, and more ...
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http://www.free-market.net/network/
FMN Spotlights:
Tax Revolt: when taxpayers attack
http://www.free-market.net/spotlight/ta
xrevolt/
It looks like a nationwide tax rebellion may be
brewing.
Internet Censorship: when censors get censored
http://www.free-market.net/spotlight/ce
nsorship2/
That politicians want to muzzle independent
voices on the net is no shocker. Their meager success *is*
surprising.
FMN Spotlights are quick introductions and overviews of current issues or
controversies. For the complete index of Spotlights:
http://www.free-market.net/spotlight/
Freedom Action of the Week:
http://www.free-market.net/features/ac
tion/
Third Week of August, 2001
In Search of Freedom
Something easy and fun to do: install a search
tool on your web page that specializes in finding freedom-related stuff.
http://www.free-market.net/search/sear
chbox.html
Second Week of August, 2001
Lock and Load for Concealed Carry
In the midst of an egregious case of the state
trampling on an individual who exercised his right to keep and bear arms,
the usual armchair support actions were offered, as well as an opportunity
to really do something: travel to the scene of the
crime and join other protesters.
First Week of August, 2001
All the News That's Fit to Print
Instead of yet another appeal to write a letter
to the editor, try sending in some of the excellent commentary output of
the many pro-freedom organizations that have op-ed programs.
For previous Actions of the Week, see:
http://free-market.net/features/list-archi
ves/activism/maillist.html
Freedom Book of the Month:
"Hope"
by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
"How would you feel if you no longer feared
your government?" is the question on the cover of "Hope",
the second novel by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith. It's a provocative
question, one every individual should contemplate ...
http://www.free-market.net/features/bo
okofthemonth/hope.html
For previous Books of the Month, see:
http://www.free-market.net/features/b
ookofthemonth/
Freedom Page of the Week:
http://www.free-market.net/features/p
ageoftheweek/
LibertyHaven.com
When you desperately need to be reminded that
thinking people still exist, Liberty Haven is your port. As soon as you
arrive, you'll be treated to instant gratification in the form of
LibertyHaven's Quote of the Day, a small taste of sanity which will make
you crave MORE.
LivingWageResearch.org
"Among my favorite 50's horror films are
those Roger Corman classics, Attack of the Living Wage, Son of the Living
Wage and The Curse of the Living Wage. I can hear you saying, 'What are
you talking about? Not even Roger Corman would expect us to believe
something so silly. A Living Wage?? Feh!' And you're right."
You can find more of Eric Johnson's witty reviews by scrolling down at: http://www.free-market.net/features/pag
eoftheweek/
FMN PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
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When it comes to outfits promoting freedom, who do you love?
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http://www.free-market.net/partners/
In the previous several issues of FMNews I've written about some of the
powerful information tools we place at your service:
personalUpdates, customUpdates, Freedom News Daily, and our database and
search engines.
But where does all the great STUFF that goes into these things come from?
Where does our team of editors get all the news, events, experts, studies,
op-eds, FAQs, scholarships, jobs, and so on for you to check out?
Answer: FMN's partner organizations are the primary source.
These are great organizations, parts of what we call The Freedom Network,
each focusing on advancing different and
important aspects of the freedom movement.
Have you noticed the "Partners" pick-list on the FMN home page?
Those aren't just sponsors that we list, like advertisers,
for your information or to fulfill our contracts with them. The list --
currently about 130, and growing -- is right there
on our main page because these groups are doing terrific work, and with so
many of them, quite a few are likely to be focusing on areas that interest
*you*.
Even before I started working for FMN, I used to use the partner list on
the FMN home page as my own rolodex of important organizations. I have a
memory like an iron trap (sometimes rusty)
and I couldn't always remember the URLs I'd liked, but didn't use
frequently enough to want to bookmark. And I didn't have to:
I could just go to FMN and chances were that I'd find the organization I
was looking for.
So, I encourage you to make use of this valuable shortcut on our home
page. I also would like to ask for your help in expanding it and making it
more useful:
o If you know of a good pro-freedom organization we don't currently
list as a partner, please let us know. For a complete list of current
partners, please see:
http://www.free-market.net/partners/
.
o If you have contact information for potential partner
organizations, that would be very helpful.
o If you are a donor, employee, member, advisor, director, or
otherwise in a position with a potential partner organization to put a
good word in for FMN, it would be great if you could
introduce us.
o If you are super keen on a great organization that just doesn't
have the budget to sign up for the FMN partnership
program (there's a $250 fee), you could provide a "scholarship"
for them for their first year -- this would give us a chance
to show them how much we can help them.
Please send suggestions to: Tom Knapp, Director of Partner Services, at:
mailto:tlknapp@free-market.net
About that fee: yes, we do charge our partner organizations for all the
work we do promoting them far and wide, but it's pretty nominal. We *need*
their output for our input -- for all those services I
mentioned above. So we pay our ravening horde of fire-breathing editors.
They start with their partner sites, mining for useful info, and move on
to cover their assigned beats. We usually spend
more keeping up with a given partner than we collect in the fee, but it's
worth doing anyway, because it's all part of our mission: building The
Freedom Network.
So please, help us make the most of the internet for the freedom movement.
Put us in touch with organizations you know are doing good pro-freedom
work.
Thanks!
For liberty,
Louis
P.S. Wendy McElroy, editor of our ifeminists.com channel is scheduled to
be on the "The Edge with Paula Zahn," this coming Monday night
at 10:00 p.m., eastern time, on the Fox News Channel.
Wendy will be promoting libertarian views and *individualist* feminism.
Check it out!
____________________________
Louis James
President
The Henry Hazlitt Foundation
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FMNews is sent twice a month to 14,000 subscribers. Free-Market.Net
is operated by The Henry Hazlitt Foundation,
a 501(c)3 non-profit. http://free-market.net/
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