Liberty Activists
Liberty Activists
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DVDs for this Christmas!
Firefly - The Complete Series (2002)
Created by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Firefly was a rousing antidote to the old collectivist Star Trek universe. The series is set 500 years from now, shortly after a galaxy-wide civil war ends in victory for the totalitarian Alliance. DVD includes the complete series of 13 episodes (including 3 unaired episodes)
played in theaters in 2002.
"In A Future Where Freedom Is Outlawed, Outlaws Will Become Heroes."
A science fiction thriller in a classic vein, Equilibrium takes a respectable stab at a Fahrenheit 451-like cautionary fable. The story finds Earth's post-World War III humankind in a state of severe emotional repression: If no one feels anything, no one will be inspired by dark passions to to attack their neighbors. Writer-director Kurt Wimmer's monochromatic, Metropolis-influenced cityscape provides an excellent backdrop to the heavy-handed mission of John Preston (Christian Bale), a top cop who busts "sense offenders" and crushes sentimental, sensual, and artistic relics from a bygone era.
THE ADVENTURES OF JONATHAN GULLIBLE
by Ken Schoolland
Small Business Hawaii, 2001, paperback
Charming satirical stories to help children understand freedom. In the book, Jonathan Gullible, a boy old enough to sail a small boat on his own, is swept by a storm to a strange island. He has 39 adventures discovering a bizarre world where people have abandoned personal responsibility, and politicians scramble to control a crooked government whose bureaucrats tell everyone what to do. It's a world of Food Police, a Dream Machine, Master Politician, Bureau of Idea Control, Immorals Department, a Bazaar of Governments, Pavilion of Special Interests and a Democracy Gang, among other attractions. With a sly sense of humor recalling witty satires of the great Frederic Bastiat, Schoolland exposes the idiocy of protectionism, inflation, welfare, rent control, occupational licensing, taxes and other forms of government intervention.
The Voluntary City
Edited by David T. Beito & Peter Gordon & Alexander Tabarrok
Independent Institute, 2002
Challenges the orthodoxy that insists government alone can improve community life.
The rise and decline of American civic life has provoked wide-ranging responses from all quarters of society. Unfortunately, many proposals for improving our communities rely on renewed governmental efforts without a similar recognition that the inflexibility and poor accountability of governments have often worsened society's ills. The Voluntary City investigates the history of large-scale, private provision of social services, the for-profit provision of urban infrastructure and community governance, and the growing privatization of residential life in the United States to argue that most decentralized, competitive markets can contribute greatly to community renewal.
Ballad of Carl Drega
By Vin Suprynowicz
Mountain Media, 2002
Libertarian journalist Suprynowicz is one of the best chroniclers of welfare state assaults on our liberties. Here he takes on tax collectors, gun controllers, mean greens, government school officials, drug prohibition enforcers, and others who tell us what we can’t do with our lives and our property.
The Structure of Liberty
by Randy Barnett
Professor Randy Barnett of Boston University School of Law makes the case for a non-State, polycentric legal system.
AGAINST POLITICS
On Government, Anarchy, and Order
By Anthony de Jasay
Routledge, 1997
Radical scholar Jasay mounts a refreshing moral challenge to the legitimacy of the state. Jasay goes after the idea that if the state is morally dubious, at least it's a necessary evil. He explains why he believes large groups of people don't need a central enforcer. He points out that social virtues develop independently of government, and it tends to corrupt rather than improve people. He maintains that where people live without a powerful state, you find secure private property, and the need to gain the services of others secures contract compliance. Jasay writes that the state is "probably redundant as an instrument of social organization."
Freedom in Chains
The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen
by James Bovard
Bovard has followed up his 40,000-copy seller Lost Rights with this dramatic report and a major philosophical work, written with such intensity that the pages might burn your fingers.
Lost Rights
The Destruction of American Liberty
by James Bovard
(St. Martin's Press, 1994)
"There may be no more cogent critic of today's welfare state than journalist James Bovard, who has written widely on a variety of topics, including bungling in agriculture and trade. But Lost Rights is his finest work yet."
--Doug Bandow, author of Politics of Envy
from Claire Wolfe
THINK FREE TO LIVE FREE
A Political Burnout's Guide to Life, Activism and Everything
By Claire Wolfe
Breakout Products, 2001
This isn't just for political burnouts, but they’ll like and benefit from it most. Wolfe gives us a workbook with fun and helpful exercises to examine motivations, priorities, values, and measures of success. An interesting combination of self-help manual and humor: instructive, insightful, well-written, organized, and funny. Use it yourself or give it as a gift to the burnouts in your life!
Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet)
101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom
by Claire Wolfe
How would you fare in the Frog Boiling Challenge? How can you stay out of snoopy databases? What should you do when you've got an itch to write another useless letter to your congresscritter? How can you acquire firearms without ending up on a government list? Is there any way to tell if a supposed friend is really a government snitch? You'll find all that and more in Don't Shoot The Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom.
I Am Not a Number
Freeing America from the ID State
by Claire Wolfe
In one of the most compelling works on personal freedom to date, Claire Wolfe, author of 101 Things to Do Til the Revolution, describes how the abuse of the Social Security number is eroding privacy, and how to protect yourself.Investigative reporter Wolfe tells how a surprising number of peaceful people achieve something approaching total privacy and freedom, despite intrusive regulations. Without an official ID, she indicates, it’s possible to earn money, get housing, travel, a doctor and other essentials. She tells how people without official IDs deal with roadblocks and checkpoints. She has much to say about communications. Underground communities are discussed. There’s some wild stuff in here! Second Edition, revised and expanded (2003)
101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution
Ideas and resources for self-liberation, monkey wrenching and preparedness
by Claire Wolfe
We don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows--but we do need the likes of Claire Wolfe and her book of pertinent tips for a culture in turmoil.
Libertarian sci-fi and essays By L. Neil Smith
Pallas
by L. Neil Smith
This adventure features a planet with two kinds of colonists: those within the strictly regulated and paternalistic compound and the Outsiders, who have radios, guns, and lots of rights, but no government. Audacious escapades and rollicking storytelling, dynamic characters, and hardcore libertarian values. Splendid!
Forge of the Elders by L.Neil Smith. Just when the 21st century thought it was safe to throw Marxism on the ash heap of history once and for all, a worldwide economic collapse suddenly made freedom seem less desirable than security, and the Total State turned out to be the comeback kid. In the US, where the power elite had long shown heartfelt affection for collectivism and making the trains (nationalized, of course) run on time, communism had a second coming. Which meant that Earth was now the Red Planet. The few holdouts and counterrevolutionaries would be dealt with in good time. Of course, collectivization only made the worldwide depression worse. But then the People's Astronomers noticed an asteroid with unusual spectrographic properties, seemingly a treasure trove of valuable minerals that might rejuvenate the Earth's economy. So three aged NASA shuttles were pulled out of mothballs, crewed by a team of handpicked misfits whom no one would miss, and sent to the asteroid. However, someone else was there first, under an airtight canopy made by genetically engineered trees. And they weren't human, even if they were from Earth. The Elders were nautiloids, like intelligent giant squids in Volkswagen-sized shells, from a parallel universe where they were Earth's dominant species. Worst of all, they were capitalists!
Bretta Martyn by L.Neil Smith
The War Doveby L. Neil Smith Volume I of the Nathaniel Blackburn Trilogy! The Exciting Prequel to Henry Martyn and Bretta Martyn! Earth was destroyed in 2023 and only Lunar colonists survived. Nine hundred years later, in a star-spanning "nation" without conscription or taxation, The Parkinson is transporting famous entertainer Chelsie Bradford on a tour of the galaxy to raise funds for a very unpopular interstellar war
DAVE BARRY'S COMPLETE GUIDE TO GUYS
By Dave Barry
Random House, 1995
If you're a guy, or you live with one, you need this thoughtful and insightful meditation on what it means, for yourself, for your loved ones, and for humanity, to be a guy. But what is a guy? It's important not to confuse guys with men. Men use the technology necessary and appropriate for the job, guys like neat stuff. Men live by stern moral codes by which they abide even in the face disapprobation and hostility; guys have no well-defined moral code at all. Men do manly things that reinforce their manhood, guys like a really senseless challenge.
from Thomas Sowell Migrations and Cultures "Thomas Sowell is not only one of the most prolific intellectuals writing today, he remains one of the most insightful. . . . Tracing the history of six migrant groups--Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Italians, Jews, and Indians--Sowell explains the contributions each has made to the countries where they settled or sojourned, enriching those nations in the process of helping themselves. While some social scientists battle endlessly over whether racism or race itself explains differences in achievement between groups, Sowell offers a more subtle and convincing argument for the importance of skills." The Thomas Sowell triology includes Race and Culture Sowell demolishes widely-held views that cultures especially minority
cultures benefit from government intervention.
Migrations and Cultures In this dramatic book, Sowell affirms the stupendous benefits nations gain
from immigration. Despite their typically
humble origins, Sowell shows, immigrants help nations prosper.
Conquests and Cultures Why Government Doesn't Work Harry Browne, a polished speaker and writer seeking the presidency as a Libertarian, has produced a compelling case for liberty which ought to take its place alongside the great political manifestos. Browne's book is especially valuable because it provides persuasive answers to objections people raise about libertarian policies. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is the great American libertarian novel; a tale of revolution, love, and artificial intelligence that remains as sharp today as the day it first appeared. For a New Liberty Murray N. Rothbard is an intellectual giant: a world-renowned
economist, historian, political philosopher, iconoclast and raconteur who is widely recognized as one of the leading libertarian thinkers of our times. For A New Liberty is Rothbard's introduction to libertarianism, his Libertarian Manifesto. It is Rothbard at top form--a libertarian classic that for almost two decades has been hailed as the best general work on libertarianism available. Libertarianism: A Primer Cato Institute Executive Vice President Boaz offers a bold vision of liberty and effectively answers the most common objections. He provides a solid exposition of the principles which enable private sectors (civil society) everywhere to flourish. He discusses individualism, natural rights, private property, free markets, a rule of law, limited government, toleration and peace. He integrates ideas from philosophy, economics, law and history. What It Means To Be a Libertarian In this exceptionally graceful new book, Murray tells why
people would be better off if the great bulk of government programs were abolished. He has a personable manner and writes as though he were talking with you quietly over a dinner table. He makes radical ideas quite appealing. Addiction is a Choice "Herein, Dr. Schaler drives a stake into the heart of the 'disease' concept of addictions. Millions of people have stopped smoking, abusing mind-altering drugs, and drinking addictively on their own, without the intervention of counselors or doctors or programs. Dr. Schaler explains persuasively why and how this happens, despite all the genetic and hormonal predispositions." Books by Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, P.J. O'Rourke, Richard Epstein, Ludwig von Mises, Thomas Szasz, and many other writers on liberty can be found by going to our Search Page.
DAVE BARRY IS NOT TAKING THIS SITTING DOWN!
DAVE BARRY HITS BELOW THE BELTWAY
By Dave Barry
Random House, 2001
Sensing the need for a thoughtful, balanced book to explain our deeply troubling national political process, Dave Barry has not even come close. Still, though he has covered every presidential campaign since 1984 for The Miami Herald, has run for president several times, and run for cover at the rainy inauguration of George W. Bush (the man will stop at nothing for his art), Barry has nonetheless outdone himself in this book.
A World View
by Thomas Sowell
(Basic Books, 1996)
--Linda Chavez, president, Center for Equal Opportunity
by Thomas Sowell
A World View
by Thomas Sowell
(Basic Books, 1994)
A World View
by Thomas Sowell
(Basic Books, 1996)
An International History
by Thomas Sowell
(Basic Books, 1998)
by Harry Browne
by Robert Heinlein
by Murray N. Rothbard
by David Boaz
by Charles Murray
by Jeffrey A. Schaler
(Open Court, 2000)
--Joseph Gerstein, M.D., F.A.C.P., Harvard Medical School
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