It's A New Year

Happy New Year everybody! Thanks for reading my blog, from comments in emails, FB, and other places it has become increasingly evident that a lot of people are libertarian and don't know it, and an significant number of people don't understand libertarian ideas, and some people really don't understand what bigger and bigger government does to liberty. Since reading dry political books, papers, articles and even blogs, on ideas that are new or you don't agree, is not going to happen. I've created a short list of fun books, all with action, good characters, and interesting commentary on liberty and government. Here is my New Years Recommended Fiction reading for understanding libertarian thought and the results of Too Much Government. Because some of you are like me, Frugal, (the quote some of my friends use is "cheap bastard"), these books can be acquired on the web as an eBook for free.

Little Brother - Cory Doctorow
Freehold - Michael Z. Williamson
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
Rebel Moon - VoxDay

I don't expect them to change anybody's political view, but hopefully you can enjoy a good read, and gain some understanding on libertarian thought.

Have a Happy New Year
2Bfree
a.k.a Tom Rhodes

PS: To bring in the New Year, I leave you with a few random quotes, by people with much more gravitas than I, on Liberty and Government:

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If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place(d) under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

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If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour? ~ Thomas Jefferson

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“To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.” ~ Otto von Bismark

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Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. ~ Mark Twain

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A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

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“Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government.” ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

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The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

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No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session. ~ New York Judge Gideon Tucker

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Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. ~ John Quincy Adams

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. ~ Thomas B. Macaulay

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Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators. ~ Will Rogers

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A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation. ~ John Adams

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Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide. ~ John Adams

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Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power. ~ John Adams

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Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. ~ John Adams

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While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago. ~ John Adams

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