An outrageous smoking ban in the “Live Free or Die” state:

Citing faulty “science ” about the deadliness of secondhand smoke, New Hampshire lawmakers inexplicably smothered an exemption for cigar bars from the state’s smoking ban. Gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Joseph Kenney quipped, “New Hampshire government would eliminate small business in the northern part of the state.”

Yes you read that right… even cigar bars are covered by New Hampshire’s smoking ban.

Despite being all over their website, I hear that Ron Paul might not be speaking at FreedomFest in Las Vegas this July.  (The Revolution March is that weekend.)

I spoke with someone from FreedomFest today who said that while there is a scheduling conflict they are trying to rearrange the schedule to get him there.

I attended last year (and plan on being there this year) and even if Ron Paul can’t make it, it is still worth attending.

I figured that the day that the FED lowered the interest rate again, further destroying the dollar and making everythig we buy more expensive, would be a good time to remind everyone how exactly the ponzi scheme that is our economy works.

On the very day that Ron Paul’s new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, debuts at #1 on Amazon, two new stories popped up that hearken back to a very old topic, race. 

First, my buddy Dave Wiegal over at Reason uses Ron’s endorsement of Lew Rockwell and the Mises Institute as proof that Ron Paul is still keeping company with bigots (Here). Never mind that he starts with the assumption that Lew Rockwell wrote some of the less enlightened diatribes that appeared in Dr. Paul’s newsletters back in the early nineties, offering no proof of that claim, and then uses it to smear Dr. Paul by association.  While very specious and weak, it is indicative of a deeper problem.

As is the story out of California that Holly Clearman, Ron Paul’s State Coordinator, has signed on to run the campaign of one William Johnson, an attorney and advocate for the Pace Amendment which would ban everyone darker than, well, William Johnson, from living or owning property in the United States. To quote:

”No person shall be a citizen of the United States unless he is a non-Hispanic white of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood, provided that Hispanic whites, defined as anyone with an Hispanic ancestor, may be citizens if, in addition to meeting the aforesaid ascertainable trace and percentage tests, they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe. Only citizens shall have the right and privilege to reside permanently in the United States.”

But don’t worry Firsts Nations. You’ll be allowed to stay and enjoy life the way black South Africans did in the Eighties.

“American Indians, Aleuts, and Hawaiians, although not real citizens, will not face relocation, but will be maintained in “tribal reservations” analogous to the arrangement in South Africa.”

So what it is about the message of liberty as articulated by Ron Paul that finds common cause among so many of the ignorant and hateful?

I am not asking rhetorically as a set-up so that I can then dispense my sagely wisdom.  I’m really baffled by it.  I can understand the strain of southern political sentiment that identifies states rights and race. But my 20 plus years of study of the philosophy of liberty puts me firmly in the natural rights camp that empowers individuals and de-emphasis race.

I fear that if we don’t have a revolution of ideas within our movement, we face allowing this cancer to grow and undermine our efforts.

I welcome your comments.

I was fortunate to get my hands on an early version Dr. Paul’s “The Revolution: A Manifesto” almost two months ago. The book is a magnificent, concise, compelling… a approachable yet radical call for peace and freedom.

The book is officially released today and is currently number one on Amazon.com.

The most hopeful thing about Paul’s run for the Whit House is the support from young Americans that Dr. Paul received. So it should be no surprise that this is the perfect book for young Americans fresh out of high school or college.

Buy 5 copies, two for you and three to give away.

David Weigel examines all the contenders and pretenders for the Libertarian Party’s nomination.

(For a bit of history on how one wins the LP nomination, I recommend the late R.W. Bradford’s classic account of the 2004 convention that resulted in dark horse Michael Badnarik’s nomination.)

My inaugural post on the Ron Paul Blog was delayed by a few days because after 8 months in the trenches of the presidential campaign, I needed to relax and recharge my batteries. That meant a visit to Costa Rica. 

I find the “Rich Coast,” as Columbus coined it, to be an interesting study in comparative culture.  Costa Rica has no military, banned by the 1949 constitution, which was written after an attempted military coup. Costa Ricans are not known to suffer foolishness gladly.

The country also has virtually no zoning laws, yet somehow American fast food joints, houses, offices, schools, and “sodas,” the little family-owned lunch counters that spring from the foyers and front yards of hundreds of homes throughout the country, manage to coexist peacefully and create far more colorful and convenient neighborhoods than the zoned to death mega-suburbs and ex-urbs that litter the American landscape.

As for personal behavior, the law expects you to make good choices and take responsibility for bad ones. 

It is a cultural worldview that does not assume that dictating behavior can create optimal outcomes.  I often observe that the most palpable difference between the US and CR is that in the States, many of the choices of previous generations are lost to us, replaced by edicts. Personal responsibility for decision-making replaced by blind adherence to the decisions made by others on your behalf.

Tico’s, as they call themselves, see it differently. They see the primary function of government to defend liberty, not to regulate behavior. Costa Ricans call their way of seeing things, “Pura Vida,” pure life.  When you are there, the difference between freedom and managed freedom becomes obvious.

And so I submit, for your consideration, a benchmark for when I will know that our revolution has succeeded. 

When I can share a bottle of wine with a date in a public park, when I can build a business, or a home, or a swimming pool on my land without asking permission, when I can have a bonfire on the beach without police involvement. I short, when I can make reasonable choices affecting only my own happiness without bumping up against the state, whatever form it takes.

The following is word for word from one of the DEA’s website many propaganda websites:

A word about prohibition: lots of you hear the argument that alcohol prohibition failed—so why are drugs still illegal? Prohibition did work. Alcohol consumption was reduced by almost 60% and incidents of liver cirrhosis and deaths from this disease dropped dramatically (Scientific American, 1996, by David Musto). Today, alcohol consumption is over three times greater than during the Prohibition years. Alcohol use is legal, except for kids under 21, and it causes major problems, especially in drunk driving accidents.

It’s up to you to get the facts. To know the difference between fact and fiction. To think twice.

It’d almost be funny if the government wasn’t spending billions of dollars to lock up millions of people using this flawed reasoning.