A new website called TheFreedomRevolution.com was launched July 4 by some folks who were part of the Ron Paul campaign, and  I contributed the following article:

Can Liberty Win Against Obsession? 

There's a great scene in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series where Ford Prefect dismisses the idea of saving the galaxy from destruction by the Krikkit race. "We don't stand a whelk's chance in a supernova," he tells Slartibartfast.  His reason? The Krikkits are quite clearly obsessed.

"We're not obsessed by anything, you see," insisted Ford... "And that's the deciding factor. We can't win against obsession. They care, we don't. They win."

This is one fundamental reason which explains why radical authoritarian crusaders (imperialists, prohibitionists, etc.) so often win their political battles and defenders of liberty so often lose.  People who want to tell others how they must live are frequently obsessed, and the silent majority of people who would prefer a "live and let live" approach to governance are usually too busy living to develop any serious political sophistication. Typically, the pro-liberty position gets outworked, outspent, and outfoxed in any policy dispute; sometimes it takes the authoritarians decades to get what they want, but eventually they succeed and people and politicians are convinced to support a senselessly utopian social policy experiment like Alcohol Prohibition, or maybe a wealth-destroying, privacy-stealing income tax. Over time, all these small and large authoritarian obsessions add up to one giant transfer of authority from self-governing individuals to centralized government. Then, at some point, citizens gradually begin to notice that they feel poorer and less free.

That "some point" is where we are today. Most individuals and most families are in debt, and our own governments are in debt at every level. The federal government, which effectively serves as "lender of last resort" for the entire U.S. economy, is itself so far in debt that the numbers don't even seem to mean anything anymore. Fortunately, voters have at least a vague sense that money coming in should sort of equal money going out, and now they're trying to figure out what the heck has happened to their country. After all, politicians run as Republicans and Democrats, not as Obsessed Authoritarians! So who are these unfit-to-govern individuals, and how can you pick one out of a candidate line-up?

Positive authoritarian identification can be a serious problem, especially for casual voters. Obsessive authoritarianism comes in so many forms that it can be difficult to recognize when blended with other characteristics. We all know what obsession is, but how do we find a good definition of authoritarianism? One startlingly reliable method I learned as a college writing instructor is to ask recent high school graduates to compose a definition of the opposite concept, freedom.  Here's one answer, verbatim, that I was never able to forget:

"What is Freedom?  Freedom is trusting in your government, or superiors, and believing that they will guide you on a path of good will."

Yes, this is what many kids emerge from twelve years of school believing -- that freedom means being free to trust the government and do what its enforcers say (or else). Quite simply, many kids emerge from school believing exactly what you want your minions to believe if you are interested in becoming a successful tyrant; they think government is (a) omnipotent and (b) unquestionably legitimate in all its actions as long as citizens occasionally get to vote in a new Big Brother.

Where could young people possibly get these authoritarian ideas, notions which contradict every principle articulated in our country's founding documents?  Well, they're obviously very popular in schools, popular in the media, and ultra-popular with politicians like Rudy Giuliani, who in a 1994 speech blasphemed as follows:

"Freedom is about authority.  Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."

Wow, that one makes me cringe every time. Fortunately, not all college students are graduates of the Rudy Giuliani school of political theory. I very occasionally got to read an answer that would go something like this:

"What is Freedom?  Freedom is the ability to pursue your own happiness and make your own choices as long as you don't hurt anybody else."

It was nice, for a change, to read that left is not right and up is not down.  However, I have to point out that the young adults who wrote accurate definitions of freedom tended to have one thing in common: they were not products of government-operated schools. Somewhere along the way, they had been encouraged to develop minds of their own.

Unfortunately, because the Rudy Giuliani's of the universe are so violently obsessed, they tend to develop sophisticated networks of political machinery and begin acquiring, consolidating, and wielding power over others. Meanwhile, the Ford Prefects of the universe rush to accept the fact that the galaxy is doomed.  "That's why I want to have as many drinks and dance with as many girls as possible while there are still any left," he concludes.

Prefect's assessment turns out to be quite wrong in the book, and today's pro-liberty give-up artists are also wrong.  The path forward is clear; between drinks and dances, we need to cultivate our healthy obsessions with human liberty and start scoring some victories at the state and local levels.  The seeds have been sown!

This press release should get a few reactions, no? 

For Immediate Release

Do you support or oppose changing the law in New Hampshire to allow seriously and terminally ill patients to use and grow medical marijuana for personal use if their doctors recommend it?

If you said "yes," you are in good company.  A poll conducted in April by Mason and Dixon Polling and Research, Inc., found that 71% of New Hampshire voters are now in favor of medical marijuana reform.

Even Republicans?

New Hampshire Republican voters favor medical marijuana reform by a 56% to 32% margin (12% undecided).  87% of Democrats and 72% of independents agree, and only 21% of NH voters want to continue arresting seriously and terminally ill patients for marijuana.

Will all this public support translate into legislative success for medical marijuana in 2009?  One top Republican legislator and candidate for U.S. Congress says he thinks so.  In a June 8 appearance on the cable show "Capitol Access," State Senator Bob Clegg (R-Hudson) was asked about HB 1623, a bill reducing penalties for minor marijuana possession which passed the House this year but was swept under a rug by the Senate.  Clegg explained that he had tried to work out a compromise on the bill (which enjoyed support by a less overwhelming majority of voters, 53% to 34%, than medical marijuana reform), but that Senate Democrats had decided it was more important to protect the governor than address the issue.  "I would say that next year... that would have a good opportunity, at least for medical marijuana," he added. 

The short clip can be viewed here.

This is a semi-cheerful yet cautionary tale of woe for anybody who makes the mistake of thinking that near-empty parking lots on Dixon Avenue are a safe place to park during next year's Concord Hospital Rock 'N Race for cancer.  They aren't.  I saw at least 70 or 80 cars worth of event participants make this mistake yesterday evening, and a few of us paid a heavy price (one which in my case could have been much heavier).  Here's the story...

First the good part: the Rock 'N Race.  This was a really super event, and I'll look forward to hearing how much money it brought in for the Payson Center for Cancer Care.  I was very proud of my team from Quest Yoga Studio, which raised a total of $1,450.  My friends are all as broke as I am, so the only donation I secured was $35 from my wonderful mother, but that plus the $20 I plunked down to be part of the event and I figured I'd put $55 bucks toward making the event a success.  (I did get a t-shirt out of the deal, a Schick Quattro "Midnight" razor, and an organic chocolate bar, so I suppose I should consider the $20 money well spent.)

As we assembled in front of the state house, there were several sprinkly moments leading up to the start of the race (I was walking, not racing) and a few almost rainy moments during the first 1/8 of the course, but things cleared up as we took a right from Main St. onto Pleasant and started up the hill.  I put away my umbrella, and my fellow walkers and I got about our business... which was walking.  Along the course, I was pleasantly surprised to see probably 7 or 8 bands set up under canopies to entertain the runners and walkers.  Other folks just stood by and cheered us on, saying things like "thank you" and "keep up the good work."  That plus the sun peeking out gave most of us wet-shoed walkers the warm fuzzies, which is what you're supposed to get when you do something good for other people.

Unfortunately, the bad part: some of us got towed.

The story begins with me driving around looking for a parking space for this huge event, and a friend I ran into told me behind the Holiday Inn would be okay.  Well, I should have certainly taken her advice and parked behind the Holiday Inn, because I'm pretty sure the decent, civic-minded folks who run the Holiday Inn would never be such jerks as to call a towing company for a once-a-year event where people show to raise money for fighting cancer.  It's a short event, and the cars will be gone soon anyway, so what's the point unless you happen to be getting a kickback from the towing company?

So I messed up and parked in the lot _next_ to the Holiday Inn overflow lot.  Hell, it was about 80% empty; also, I'd just seen two other cars park there, and people wearing Rock 'N Race t-shirts hopped out of them without the slightest look of concern on their faces, so I followed suit.  When in Rome, right?  Well, people in Rome get towed, too, I'm afraid...

When I got back to the lot, every lot on Dixon Avenue was at least half-full if not 75% full.  They were slowly being emptied of cars as people left from the Rock 'N Race.  But sure enough, there were two tow trucks in the one lot I happen to have landed in, and my crappy old Sunfire was already perched atop one of them.  Fortunately, I have a lot of experience getting towed, having attended graduate school in Morgantown, WV, which is home to the shadiest towing jerk in the universe, Captain Kickback himself, Vic Solomon of Vic's Towing.  (I seriously almost took a swing at Vic once just to wipe the smirk off his face after he'd "legally" robbed me yet again, but that's another story -- Vic, unlike the guy who towed me after the race, is the kind of guy who would tow cars away from a funeral and giggle all the way to the bank.) 

The guy from John's Wrecker Service was clearly not in a good mood when I walked over, but I didn't immediately know why.  He was about to hop in the truck and drive it back to the shop, but I politely identified myself as the owner of the vehicle and asked what it would take to get the thing down.  The guy said he'd have to call the shop and ask, which he did (walked around the truck to do so), and then came back and informed me that if I had $75 cash, he could let my car down, and if not, he'd have to take it back to the shop and it would be a lot more.  I asked what a lot more was, and he said $150.  I agreed, that was a lot more, but I said that fortunately I had the $75.  Lucky for me I had just been to the bank!

Then the guy asked me to hop in the truck so he could drive to another lot where he'd have more room to let my car down.  Once I was in the car, he made it pretty clear that he felt awful to be towing cars under these circumstances, but that his company had a contract with the lot owner, and the lot owner had called them.  "I feel like I'm taking candy from orphans," he lamented.  I assured him that I wasn't an orphan, that I knew the risk when I parked next to a "No Parking" sign, and that he was just doing his job.  I had no choice but to fork over the $75, but I did have a choice in whether or not to get riled and take my frustration out on a person who was only following a bad order to avoid losing his job.

So here is my comment to John or whoever runs John's Wrecker Service: next time you are called to tow cars from a half-empty lot during a charity event, the best response is to say "dude, those cars will be gone in an hour -- it's the Rock 'N Race!"  If you absolutely have to tow cars because the lot owner insists, reduce your rates for the people you tow, and if you're not going to do that, at least donate 50% of the money you make off schmucks like me to the Concord Hospital Payson Center for Cancer Care!

Yes, I know this is supposed to be a political blog, so to appease my readers, I will politicize the conclusion.  So here goes...

Did this crap happen back in the good old days?  And does asking that question make me a conservative? ;)