Given that I’m neither very religious nor gay, I do not take an emotional stand for or against gay marriage. As an extreme libertarian, I don’t think marriage of any kind should be sanctioned or certified by the State, nor should any privileges accrue to encourage one social choice over another. As an anarcho-capitalist (the most extreme kind of libertarian), I don’t even recognize the legitimacy of the State much less wish the State to recognize the legitimacy of my marriage.
Nevertheless, I have been trying to get at what exactly is fueling the pro-Chick-fil-A demonstrations. I got a tweet during the last show saying it was homophobia plain and simple, but I don’t buy that. If Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy had said Chick-fil-A will no longer serve or hire gays, I doubt he would have experienced an upwelling of support. On the contrary, it is my experience that the vast majority of Americans are appalled at discrimination and would not have wanted to be associated with a purely bigoted policy. A minority might have supported him, but not for long–I suspect the company would have been out of business with a policy like that, legal or illegal.
Was Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day a wild success because people wanted to show their support for the First Amendment like many claim? I don’t think so. It’s true that Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, and Tom Menino, the Mayor of Boston, want to control Cathy’s speech by using the force of the State to punish him economically, but I did not get the sense that the crowds in Atlanta were focused on these northern mayors.
Are Chick-fil-A appreciators coming out in droves to show their disapproval of gay marriage in particular and homosexuality in general? I’m sad to conclude there is an element of that in all of this, but it’s not the driving force.
I believe that the overwhelming driving force behind the record-breaking success of Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day is
Libertarianism / Anarcho-Capitalism
I Couldn't Find My American Flag, but I Did Find This One! Video Preview of This Week's Show…
This week was the Fourth of July and I made a scary discovery: I don’t own an American flag! But I did find another flag while I was looking for Old Glory….Also, I came upon a very serious list of Top Ten Global Risks for the next year – holy cow there is some scary … Read more
Must See Stefan Molyneux Video: The Story of Your Enslavement
I always enjoy listening to Stefan Molyneux, fellow voluntarist, and when my sister Booie sent me this video I wasn’t surprised that I enjoyed it tremendously. I find this kind of thing particularly exhilarating if you have already begun to notice the underlying truths being revealed, but this video also serves as a great introduction … Read more
Rand Paul Called Me! I Think I Freaked Him Out.
Rand Paul called me a couple of years back, but I don’t think he was ready for what I had to say! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naw-rJspoeE]
Podcasts
Here’s a list of podcasts by topic; here’s a list of the Monica Perez Show on WSB by date; and if you want to sign up for the podcast feed, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.
Join Me This Saturday, May 26, at Liberty Jam at Matilda's in Alpharetta!
Liberty Jam is a fundraiser for Ron PaulStock which will kick off Ron Paul’s delegates as they head to Tampa in August. It’s $25 for admittance and lots of great bands will be there. It’s this Saturday, May 26, from 12-6pm at Matilda’s in Alpharetta and I’ll be speaking at 12:40pm and hanging out afterwards. … Read more
If One More Person Says "JP Morgan Is Too-Big-To-Manage" I'll Scream!
Does social power mismanage banking-practice in this-or-that special instance–then let the State, which never has shown itself able to keep its own finances from sinking promptly into the slough of misfeasance, wastefulness and corruption, intervene to “supervise” or “regulate” the whole body of banking-practice, or even take it over entire.-Albert Jay Nock, 1935
Nothing irritates me more than a government-created problem that prompts cries for more government action. A great example of this is the horrible crises, fiscal and monetary, caused in Europe by socialism and central banking, respectively. George Soros and so many others respond to the European Debt Crisis with cries for greater political union and more central government control in Europe. Historical examples of government growth in the wake of government injustice include the response to bans on unionization with laws unfairly favoring unions, or the response to government-mandated segregation with laws that infringe on private property rights under the false guise of pursuing racial justice. (Want racial justice? End the Drug War.)
The latest example of this maddening phenomenon is, generally speaking, the constant demand for more regulation of the financial sector, and specifically, calls for more regulation of trading in the wake of JP Morgan’s recent losses. The fact is, like coal mining, oil drilling and nuclear power, the financial sector is one of the most highly regulated industries in the history of humanity, yet calamities that bring us to the brink of physical, financial and planetary destruction seem to be occurring in these fields at an accelerating pace.
I Met a Chinese Dissident Once–I Think He Still Didn't Get It!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbg5RCj6e8]
Hans-Hermann Hoppe Explains It All!
My favorite Austrian economist (actually, he‘s German!) is Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Here he is giving a lecture in Brazil (the intro is in Portuguese but his lecture is in English) about private law society. If you enjoy this, you should consider listening to his lectures on CD–they are a joy for the anarcho-capitalist and the anarcho-curious … Read more
Book Review: Drug Crazy by Mike Gray
Drug Crazy, by Mike Gray, is a page turner on the origins and impact of the Drug War in America. I have long been against the Drug War as a matter of principle: there is no justification for the group to force an individual to do or not to do a particular thing if the … Read more