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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
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The USA Supreme Court defended freedom of speech this year when it ruled in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church on First Amendment grounds. The effects are rippling across the Atlantic. Today, JP Floru, a UK commentator at the Adam Smith Institute, used the Westboro Baptist Church case as an example of how a free society can safely tolerate extreme views. The example bolstered his argument against UK plans to have professors report students for their views. Inverventionists want to use America's military might to spread freedom across the globe, but this approach rarely works. The best way to spread freedom is to be a shining beacon on the hill. If we just make America as free as possible, people in other nations will learn from our good example.
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In reaction to Judge Belvin Perry's illegal order, NJLP member Julian Heicklen has traveled to Florida to perform Fully Informed Jury pampleting and juror education. Judge Perry's order bars anyone from pampleting or demonstrating outside the Orange and Osceola County Courthouse.
Despite the order, Julian was unmolested.
Julian is a true freedom fighter. He has been arrested multiple times demonstrating against injustice. We are proud to have him as a member.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
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On Tuesday I attended a presentation by Americans for Prosperity at the West Bergen Tea Party meeting. The speaker discussed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which New Jersey joined in 2007. This program is a cap and trade system for limiting carbon dioxide emissions. It requires owners of coal, oil, and natural gas power plants to buy emission permits for every ton of carbon dioxide that they release into the air. The State of New Jersey collected $65 million through RGGI in 2009. Rather than use these funds on carbon sequestering programs, Governor Christie put them into the general state coffers. RGGI raises energy prices to fund our government's fiscal irresponsibility. It is time for New Jersey to withdraw from RGGI.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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Atlas Shrugged Coproducer, Harman Karslow with NJLP Chair Jay Edgar and his daughter at the NYC Premiere |
This past week I got a phone call from screenplay writer, Brian O'Toole, inviting me to the New York City Premiere of Atlas Shrugged, Part 1. On Thursday, my daughter and I traveled into the city to view the movie.
Originally published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged is about the struggle of the productive class against a society that uses politics to limit the success of the productive for the benefit of those who are less capable. Communist laws such as the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill" force capable businessmen, engineers, scientists, and industrialists to withdraw from the system. The parasitic classes no longer have productive elements on which to feed. The "strike" forces society to fall apart.
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Yesterday, Judge Andrew Napolitano discussed Julian Heicklen's FIJA demonstrations, arrests, and harassment on yesterday's Freedom Watch Show. See the Freedom Watch website for watch the Judge's comments. The good Judge also includes comments on the First Amendment issues like campaign speech laws and the suit against the Westboro Baptist church of racism as it pertains to freedom of speech.
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The Institute for Humane Studies produced a two-minute video featuring Harvard Professor Jeffrey A. Miron.
The video, "What it means to be a libertarian" does an excellent job explaining the difference between libertarians, conservatives, and liberals.
Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in economics at Harvard University. He blogs at http://jeffreymiron.com and is the author of Libertarianism, From A to Z.
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Donald Trump was recently interviewed by Rush Limbaugh. During the interview Trump demanded isolationist foreign economic policies like huge tariffs. Professor Donald Boudreaux responded via an open letter on Cafe Hayek:
Mr. Rush Limbaugh
EIB Network
New York, NYDear Mr. Limbaugh:
During your radio interview yesterday of Donald Trump, you missed several opportunities to ask probing questions – questions that would have exposed the sheer ignorance that underlies The Donald’s economic pronouncements. For example:
- “Donald, you say that America ‘doesn’t make things any more.’ Are you unaware that, in 2009 (the latest year for which we have data), the value of U.S. manufacturing output was nearly 30 percent higher than that of China, the world’s second-ranking country in terms of manufactured output?”
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New Jersey resident Chris Busche is being drugged against his will at the Essex County Hospital Center. This forced drugging is in violation of the advanced medical directive that Mr. Busche created before going to the hospital. Mr. Busche designated Al Galves to be his advocate, but his doctor and social worker refuse to communicate with Mr. Galves. Public pressure on behalf of Mr. Busche would be greatly appreciated. Please contact the Essex County Administrator, Mary Wilson Harley, to complain about the way the hospital is mistreating Mr. Busche. Contact information is on the Mind Freedom website.
Update, March 23, 2011: I just spoke with Al Galves. The hospital is cooperating with him now. Thank you to all who advocated for Chris Busche.
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- Written by: Joseph Dunsay
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Democratic politician Rev Al Sharpton joined left-wing groups in opposing a billboard in New York City. The group that sponsored the billboard took it down in response to their pressure. Sharpton said, "We have a right to our personal views, but we don't have the right to offend people." Sharpton's comment shows his contempt for freedom of the press. The very purpose of freedom of the press and freedom of speech is to allow offensive content. Content that does not offend anyone does not need legal protections. Offended people have every right to protest content that they don't like, but when a politician declares that we have no right to offend, it has a chilling effect on our civil liberties.
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An article covering one of our convention speakers, Brian Aitken, has been published on The Daily Caller.
Some men find religion in prison. Brian Aitken found liberty.
Convicted last year in New Jersey of illegally transporting firearms, Aitken spent four months in state prisons before Republican Gov. Chris Christie commuted his seven-year sentence to “time served” and let him go free. Now that he’s out, Aitken, once an aspiring entrepreneur, is a professional libertarian activist.
Read the full article here.
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Libertarians are often portrayed as Republicans who want to legalize pot. This is a gross simplification. We also want to legalize prostitution. We understand that a person has the right to do what he wants with his body and to manage his own economic transactions. Legalized prostitution is a natural ramification of these rights. Currently, Nevada is the sole beacon of liberty when it comes to prostitution. Each Nevada county can decide on prostitution's legal status within that county. It is legal in 10 Nevada counties and illegal in the other 7 counties. On Tuesday, Democrat Senator Harry Reid said that Nevada should ban prostitution to stimulate its economy, proving that the Left's fetish for centralized economic planning extends all the way to our bedrooms. Reid's suggestion is an assault on our liberties, and the available data suggests that his premise is wrong.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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After hearing so much on the protests in Wisconsin, I have taken a look at the text of the law. The proposed law ends the ability of most public workers to collectively bargain. While I recognize that public sector unions have become way too powerful, this is not a law I could support.
Every individual should have the right to associate with whatever group they decide and to choose to allow others to negotiate for them. This law coercively strips away the rights of individuals.
The bigger problems with public sector unions is existing state coercion. As a Voluntarist, I find that more coercion is not the answer, rather less coercion is needed. Instead states should:
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- Written by: Wes Benedict
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2011
Contact: Wes Benedict, Executive Director
E-mail:
Phone: 202-333-0008 ext. 222
Libertarians at CPAC present Republican Wall of Shame
WASHINGTON - At their booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Libertarian Party is displaying a "Republican Wall of Shame." (View low-res JPG or high-res PDF.)
These are the prominent Republicans featured on the Wall of Shame:
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The NJLP has several methods of party communication. Of course there is this website that has articles of interest to NJ state residents and a calendar of our upcoming events. We have our official Facebook page and our twitter feed.
Members receive our newsletter. Consider joining as a member, this also gives you a vote at our general meetings.
We run a number of email lists (to discourage spambot email harvesting @ and been replaced with ' at ')
- activists at njlp.org - this is a bylaws defined email list that is by invitation only. Preference is for members who we know. If interested just ask.
- member-talk at njlp.org - this is a (mostly) unmoderated email list for NJLP members. You must opt-in to this list if you want to join.
- announce at njlp.org - this is also a bylaws defined email list, however it really isn't used very often anymore.
- members at njlp.org - this is an email list where all members get subscribed to. It is intended for announcements and infrequent updates for our members. It is highly moderated, only posts from the chair or posts that have been discussed by the board are typically approved.
- press at njlp.org - this is a private listing used for sending press releases to. It is highly moderated, only posts from the chair are typically approved.
- prospects at njlp.org - this is an email list where all prospects get subscribed to. It is intended for announcements and infrequent updates. It is highly moderated, only posts from the chair or posts that have been discussed by the board are typically approved.
- northlpannounce at njlp.org - this is a highly moderated announce only list. All members and prospects in the Northern Region get added to this list. Only emails from the Northern NJ Libertarian's Chair are typically approved.
- northnjtalk at njlp.org - this is a discussion list for those in the Northern NJ region. You must opt in to this list. It is not moderated.
- southnjannounce at njlp.org - this is a highly moderated announce only list. All members and prospects in the Southern Region get added to this list. Only emails from the Southern NJ Libertarian's Chair are typically approved.
- southnjtalk at njlp.org - this is a discussion list for those in the Southern NJ region. You must opt in to this list. It is not moderated.
- centralannounce at njlp.org - this is a highly moderated announce only list. All members and prospects in the Central Region get added to this list. Only emails from the Central NJ Libertarian's Chair are typically approved.
- centralnjtalk at njlp.org - this is a discussion list for those in the Central NJ region. You must opt in to this list. It is not moderated.
- board-monitor at njlp.org - this is a receive only list if you wish to monitor communications among the State Board. A daily digest is sent out.
- platform-monitor at njlp.org - this is a receive only list if you wish to monitor communications among the Platform Committee. A daily digest is sent out.. when there is activity.
- bylaws-monitor at njlp.org - this is a receive only list if you wish to monitor communications among the Bylaws Committee. A daily digest is sent out.. when there is activity.
- chat.njlp.org - this is a members chat application. with various topics disbursed in several rooms.
We also have a few ad-hoc lists. These include candidates at njlp.org, bylaws at njlp.org, and platform at njlp.org. These are used for candidates and committees to communicate.
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We are extremely pleased to announce the details for this year's Convention. We are holding the Convention at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ.
The Convention will be held on March 12th from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Party's Business Meeting will be held on morning of March 12th and will be open to all. Registration will be required for the afternoon events, which include a luncheon and speakers. Our full convention package includes lunch on Saturday and afternoon speakers with coffee and refreshments available all day.
Speakers include NJ gun law victim Brian Aitken; producer John Papola; Frank Fiamingo, President of the NJ Second Amendment Society; and award wining author F. Paul Wilson.
Read more about our speakers and register on our convention page...
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On January 6th, Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker introduced assembly bill A3657 that would require all bicycles to be registered with the DMV and display a license plate. If the owner is less than 15 years old the bill permits the parents to register the bicycle instead. Applicants would be required to divulge the year, make, color, weight, serial number, date of purchase, name and address of owner (or the parent if the owner is under 15), and the amount of sales tax paid on the bike.
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The name of Newark International Airport was changed to Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In true Orwellian fashion this change was accompanied with authoritarian changes. The managers closed off sections that used to be large open indoor spaces. Passenger screenings became more invasive. Everyone was told to keep their eyes out and report any “suspicious activity”. A new federal department took over security at the airport. This year, the TSA took a large step towards authoritarianism by forcing passengers to choose between X rated X-ray screening or groping by security agents.
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NJLP life member and former NJLP chairman Michael Pierone of White Township (Warren County) was appointed, as a Libertarian, to the Board of Education of the Warren County Vocational School District. His term began January 1, 2011 and expires on December 31, 2014. Following is a media article on Mike's appointment:
Freeholders to consider appointing open government advocate to Warren County Technical School Board
Wednesday, December 22, 2010By BILL WICHERTThe Express-TimesWHITE TWP. | More than two years after suing Warren County over an open records request, township resident Michael Pierone is being tapped by county officials to join the newly revamped Warren County Technical School Board.
County freeholders are scheduled to vote at 7 tonight Pierone's appointment to the school board. Over the last two months, the school board has shrunk from seven to five members, and four previous representatives have left the board.
After working on the outside as an open government advocate, the 54-year-old Pierone said he was looking for an inside look at how government operates
"I'm interested in representing the taxpayer," Pierone said Tuesday. "I want to have a better understanding of how everything works and what they're doing."
A former chair of New Jersey's Libertarian Party -- he ran for Congress more than 20 years ago -- Pierone runs a company called Micro Design Systems, which provides web design, web hosting and information technology services.
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In the Huffington Post, Christine Walsh of the Institute for Justice tells the story of home owners in Mount Laurel who have been harassed and threatened by their town council. 200 homes have been torn down, leaving the Gardens neighborhood in rubble. Bulldozers are parked in front of those who have refused to leave as a stark reminder of the threat to these homes. The town intends to give the remaining homes to Keating Urban Developers, a Philadelphia company.This story was covered by Free Talk Live on Monday.