The Liberty Resource Center

I promised this; so here it is. This is what I have been working on for the past four months. The explanation is below; however, I will state right now that I did not write it, instead it was written before I came onto the project. For more info, visit the project forums. If you would like to check out the website so far, click here.

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What is Liberty Resource?

At the moment, the Liberty Resource Center is just an idea. It is an idea which occurred to several people at about the same time. We were all one kind of conservative, or libertarian, or another. We were all people who were interested in the “battle of ideas”. None of us were afraid of reading a book, or two, or three.

# We all noticed that, Although there are many splendid conservative and libertarian forums, some of which keep collections of useful information;
# And while there are a number of websites which exist specifically for making available the great conservative and libertarian classics;
# And while a number of websites exist where conservative and libertarian writers post brilliant columns commenting on current events;
# And although there are hundreds of websites with information refuting liberal/Left viewpoints on the war in Iraq, Cuba, taxation, gun control, women under Islam, and a thousand other topics and issues …

There was no single place that someone who wanted to find out what conservatives or libertarians had to say about an issue or a topic, could find all the links to the hundreds of existing websites which may hold the information he or she sought.

So we decided to make one.

As we discussed it among ourselves, we realized that such a central site would also be a logical place to fill in the gaps that we might discover while cataloguing all the existing conservative and libertarian sites.

Features

If no one had written a good essay on, say, Depleted Uranium and its use by American forces, we could do so. If there was an interesting debate to be had among conservatives on the ideas of Thomas Kuhn, we could host it. If no one had critically reviewed, from an anti-Leftist stance, a popular university sociology textbook, we could do so. If the different kinds of Objectivist now existing were causing confusion to those investigating the ideas of Ayn Rand, one of us could write an essay summarizing their beliefs and explaining their differences. If a conservative, or liberal, or for that matter any, popular book lacked a comprehensive book review, we could provide it.

We also realized that we could provide a kind of “tour of the right”. We would not only list the titles and addresses and subscription terms (and URLs if available) of every conservative and libertarian periodical that we could find, but we would also provide a brief description of each one.

We would do the same for the major conservative and libertarian organizations: for those wondering what the differences are between the Project for the New American Century, and the Foundation for Democracy, we would explain them. Naturally, we would provide annotated links to all major conservative and libertarian web sites, and all of the most interesting blogs, and the same for on-line Forums.

We would provide extensively annotated reading lists of the great political classics, not only those from the Right, but the major books of the Left. Other reading lists would cover specific topics.

We would provide a Question-and-Answer section, for those who did not find their researches satisfied by what we had already provided.

These are just some of the features which we have been discussing for our site. Others exist, too many to enumerate here.

Standards

Finally: we are committed to the highest standards of argumentation and evidence. Although we will not, obviously, be able to vouch for the entire contents of every website whose URL we cite, everything we include on our site written or endorsed by us must meet approved scholarly standards. We will not lie about, or distort, the arguments of our political adversaries. We will not overlook evidence, or ignore possibly telling points made by the people to which we are politically opposed. Our project may even include some liberal Devil’s Advocates to ensure that we are not tempted to cut corners in our argumentation. (To cite the Italian Marxist theoretician Gramsci, in physical warfare you avoid your enemy’s strong points, and focus your attack on his weak points. But in intellectual warfare you must do just the opposite.)

International Scope

And, just to prove that we are not afflicted with paucity of ambition, we would have an international scope. We would aim to do this for the whole world, not just the USA or the “Anglosphere”, and not just in English.

Who We Are

Now who are the madmen who have such o’er-reaching ambitions? And why do we think that there is any realistic chance of fulfilling such expansive goals?

So far, “we” are about sixty people. Some of us are retired military and retired professors. Others are in the full vigour of their middle years, with responsible jobs. Some of us are still too young to vote (but watch out! These kids are very bright!) We tend to be top-heavy with Web-related technical talent. (Although our website will provide feedback on political questions, and not technical ones, we could, from among us, answer your questions about the best way to implement a B*Tree in C++, or the use of a particular field in a TCP/IP datagram.)

Most of us are Americans – for the moment. But we have several active collaborators from the UK, and others from Canada, Australia, and Israel. We are mainly English-speaking – and that is the language in which we are discussing the project – but we have one Iraqi among us, with Arabic language capacity, and we have high hopes for Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Farsi, and Turkish speakers within the medium-term future, as we begin including material in those languages, and others, on our site.

Join Us

But, to come anywhere near fulfilling our ambitions, we need many more contributors. The kind of people who would likely be most happy working with us are those who are committed to reasoned discussion as the method of advancing their political beliefs. Racists, Jew-baiters, Gay-haters, those who are nostalgic for the time when women knew their place, and anyone whose beliefs are derived via direct instruction from the supernatural – would not be happy in our company. We shall not hesitate to examine the different conservative and libertarian views on controversial questions – from race and IQ to gay marriage to Intelligent Design – to the Israel/Palestine dispute – but always with the method of reasoned discussion.

We have no collective view – we have many different views, all of them broadly within the conservative and libertarian camps. You might call us the democratic Right, although some would contest whether the undemocratic Right should be part of the Right at all. (This question too, we shall look at.)

If you think you might be interested in working with us, or just want to be kept informed of the progress of our labors, send an email to:

Doug.Editor@Googlemail.com
Goggalor88@gmail.com

or visit the site at
http://www.libertyresource.com
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Please, if you are at all interested, we need helpers. Whether or not you have experience building websites, or you have an essay you would like publish, or you would like to review websites or even books, we need all the help we can get.

We have weekly meetings via Skype on Sundays at 10am Pacific time. If you are interested, email me, or better, contact me via Skype (please by text message), my name is Goggalor.

If anything, please check out the website and give a review through my comment system here on my blog. This site is for every-one who rejects the idea of Collectivism, even moderates and left-leaning people who do not want to see the idea of Socialism or Communism come to be. The website stresses the importance of self-reliance, and above all, liberty. It is still in it's beta testing period, version 0.3. We do not have quite the content we hope for yet, and that is why we need you to submit it at the forum (see link at top). Everything on there is subject to change, our old motto, which used to be "Everything Conservative" will be replaced. We decided that this site is not only for conservatives, which will be automatically reject by those who do not have the same definition of that position around the world. Also, we are trying to broaden our spectrum of interest and our audience.

Sorry this was so long.

Goggalor
The Young Conservatives

Political Decay

As of today, we see our two once-great political parties starting to crumble. The Democratic Party has made a considerable leap leftwards after the re-election of President Bush. The Republican Party has become severed from their grassroots and their heritage of small government, anti-deficit spending, and their near free market values.

First, we shall talk about the Democrats however. This party has, unlike the Republican party, become closer to the grassroots, but not to the moderates, whom they seem to shun. People like Joe Lieberman who are best described as middle-leftists, are being shunned by the "Progressives" that overrun blogs like the DailyKos day in and day out. They have shunned their firm base of industrial and blue-collar workers, instead catering to the extremist ends of their party; the same people who don't see the second amendment, the same people who see privacy under the fourth and fourteenth amendment, but don't see property. The same people who look into the past and see our forefathers, not for the great good they did the world by birthing a true free nation, but the slaves they had and the indians they killed. Certainly we should not look into the past and curse people who lived in such a society that allowed for slaves, although that might be a grievance for the past we shall hold for as long as our country survives.

Any person, no matter who they are, who thinks that we need universal "free" healthcare is either oblivious, ignorant, stupid, or are purposefully trying to seem caring to their constituents. Look at Canada, look at Britain, look at those failures. People are dying in line for medical care, lines that normally take one year. Is this a success? No. These are the same people who see raising the minimum wage as a good thing to do, even though it causes inflation which reverses any benefit a worker would recieve from an increase in minimum wage. These are the same people who see only social freedom, but economic freedom be damned. These are the people who then go out and say that they protect our freedoms, our liberties, our rights. As long as those rights don't hinder their plans. The Democratic party is catering to these people; this is not a majority, this is a fringe group. And yet, because there is no major middle group, people are pretty much stuck in this now-leftist party.

The Republican Party was one of great, if not monumental, achievements; a history of anti-slavery of limited Government. And yet, in the past 15 years, we see a large growth of Neo-Conservatives and Fundamentalists who are now a majority in the Republican base. The Republican base is moving away from it's once near-libertarian values and into the values of Christianity. However, it is still the party of real Republicans, but the republicans who do make office, are taskless. They have had both houses, and yet; we still don't have less government, less regulations. Where Republicans once had Barry Goldwater, they now have idle hands. The Republican party, in my opinion, is still closer to the center than the Democratic party is, but it is eroding. It still has a chance to take up it's history once again, but I am not so sure.

It is time for the Libertarian Party to step up to the plate, with so many people who like our Capitalist heritage and enjoy our freedoms both social and economic, it is time for the party who can grant both of those freedoms and protect those rights to stand up. As of now, the Libertarian Party is a little bit too extreme to be able to garner moderate votes, however; with America's gradual shift leftwards, I think that the Libertarian party can go in, and gradually shift the country back to the ideals of our forefathers. If the Libertarians are never willing to take small steps, than we will keep sliding into Socialist control; we cannot let this happen.

It's time to be better than a two-party system, it is time for the Libertarian party to take the ropes and wean the people off of the Welfare that in many ways oppresses them and makes them reliant on Big government.

I wish I could be a little bit more eloquent, but it is a weekend, so that is that. I hope you get the picture. Please leave comments if you disagree, agree, or just plain hate my guts.

Goggalor
The Young Conservatives

Reading Hayek

During my considerable leave of absence, I was fortunate enough to come upon the idea of buying, with my dirty corporation-stained blood money, Constitution of Liberty by F.A. Hayek. Instead, because the bookstore did not have that particular book in stock, I picked up The Road to Serfdom by the same author. And, if you have not already noticed, which you probably have not; I can classify myself as Libertarian more so today than three months ago. However, I am not completely so, and therefore the title of my blog itself shall not change.

More to the point; Hayek is something that, admittedly this is going to sound cliche, has truly affected me. Now, it has not changed much; merely, it has reinforced those beliefs which I had previously held as infirm and slightly baseless. And yet, this book provided more proof of the left's aptitude towards totalitarianism and the reasonability of "liberalism" as Hayek would call it- America terms it as Classical Liberalism or Libertarianism. So, I proudly admit; my social beliefs have stayed relatively the same, but economically, I have found that the individual is truly the only way (and this is said carefully and with discretion) to some form of utopianism. Not in the sense of perfection, but in the sense that people will become, fill their own destiny out of their own free will, and no coercion should take place to undermine that.

Now, before I enter the usually leftist (I have to get in a hit somewhere right?) paradise of kooksville, in your opinion anyway; I must admit that this book does not change much, it only serves as evidence and reason and intellectual stimuli for something that already exists. No leftist will be able to take this book up and readily admit it's wisdom, that certainly is out of the realm of plausibility, which in fact this book seeks to sustain.

The Road to Serfdom is not a "fun" book to read. In fact, some areas were stale, coming off as an overly long essay, which in fact it is. It is, however, informative and in some ways frightening, especially with the emerging leftist factions and the leanings of certain Democrats to ultimately fulfill the totalitarianism promised in the book. This was written over fifty years ago, and interestingly enough, some of what Hayek warned about is now true in our American society and political structure. It was both saddening and amazing when I looked up from that book and realized how much we are being regulated and "planned" today. It is a realization that Socialism is not as far away from our economic system as I once thought it was.

I am positive that I have left something out, but if I remember I will post an update. Please put your comments and opinions, I love to hear them.

Goggalor
The Young Conservatives

The Undocumented Choice

Unless you did not pick up on what I was inferring in my Post title, this article is about Illegal Immigration/Undocumented "Workers." Now, we must all admit that this is a major problem, draining the "fair" in Welfare (if that even exists) and the Security in Social Security (If again, that actually exists). Our hospitals are overrun by these "workers" who have no medical insurance, flooding Emergency rooms and lowering the overall efficiency of everything they come in contact with, and even more so when those things are government-operated (if in fact they were efficient to begin with, but that is another topic).

Therefore, there are only about two real and valid options, all others being attempts at Political Appeasement. These options are:

1) Enforce immigration laws, such as the new bill that felonizes illegal immigrants.

OR

2) Reform, or even get rid of most social programs such as public school and welfare.

All others are just futile attempts to solve a problem, or more diabolically; just political appeasement. Which is doing things that sound as though they would work, but don't (and the politicians know this) actually work. The Dubai fiasco was an example of this, "Don't let them get any ports" even though Communist China owns about 3/4 of port companies in the US anyways.

The other options, and this word is somewhat extreme, are Amnesty or things close to it, like the McCain-Kennedy bill. Amnesty is not the answer, these people are breaking the law, UNLESS you go with option number two. McCain-Kennedy and Bush are, or should be, both classed (even though they have different ways of going about it) as Amnesty.

Unfortunately, option 2 is politically unviable, providing the best way to solve the solution. However, too many obstacles and too much opinion blocks that route. Option 1, is therefore the remaining solution, and sadly must be taken to solve this crisis.

If you have concurring or dissenting opinions, please comment.

Goggalor
The Young Conservatives

SongBird

Okay. The first Official post of the second era of Goggalor and Friends. As such, I thought it would be great to mix it up a little with some, Progging (Program Blogging)which sounds thoroughly insane, but Applicogging sounds worse.

If, in fact, there is better term, please enlighten me. Well, let's get started.

This is it: The Songbird, the new opensource Multimedia Application with usage of XUL (in other words Firefox). It combines the internet and something sort of, but completely better, like iTunes.

That pic you see in the top left corner is just glance at this program (Click for bigger pic).

But, there are better writers than I; so here is some technicalingo for you to read thanks to Boing Boing:

A team led by ex-Winamp-er Rob Lord today released a preview edition of Songbird, a desktop media player that offers an open source alternative to services like Apple's iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Instead of connecting to one locked store full of DRMmed goods, it can connect to any and all available music (and video) on the internet.

Code brains behind the project include people who helped build Winamp, Muse, Yahoo's "Y! Music Engine" media player, and developers from Mozilla Foundation. Initial release is for Windows only, with editions for other OSes to follow in the coming weeks.

Built on the same platform as Firefox, Songbird acts like a specialized web browser for music. It sees the online world through MP3-colored glasses -- it looks at an archive of public domain sound files or a music store's catalog, and displays available media for you.

That is just a summary, but I tried it out. It is great, fantastic and everything in between. However, it is still very beta; Version .1.1 is the latest.

It is what they call, "Proof of Concept." It doesn't yet do everything the developers want it to, but it is still enough for me to use more often than iTunes. However, iTunes has (as of now) better organization and things, well, completely work. This program shows a lot of promise. Check it out at Songbirdnest.com. In fact, I am using Songbird right now to write this blog entry, it is definitely an all-in-one program. Download it if you have the time to check it out.

Again: Songbirdnest.com

Goggalor
The Young Conservatives