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Fairfield County WeeklyFreedom Sickness: Too few of us have a modern-day case of drapetomaniaSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Wed, 11/12/2008 - 00:02.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (11/13/08) Link (The version in the Fairfield County Weekly was unfortunately heavily edited for space considerations. Here is the full version.) Do you suffer from drapetomania? Samuel Cartwright, an antebellum Louisiana doctor, coined the term just a decade before the Emancipation Proclamation to describe “a disease of the mind” that causes a slave to run away. Conn Con Con! How we can cut ties with the federal government by voting for a constitutional conventionSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 20:22.Originally Published In: Once a generation, Connecticut residents have the opportunity to recreate history. This year, we can become the first state to opt out of all burdensome federal regulations by convening a historic constitutional convention. Article XIII of the Connecticut Constitution spells it out: Once every 20 years, voters are presented with an option to reconvene. When we go to our voting booths this November, in addition to the usual election choices, we will also be asked: Free the Third: To really have an impact, freedom-lovers need to coalesce behind a third party candidateSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 23:21.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (10/2/08) Link After Ron Paul suggested last month that people "send a message" by voting for any of the third party presidential candidates, I criticized the idea, pointing out that voting for the lesser of six evils is no better than voting for the lesser of two and that "send[ing] a message" is both ineffective and insulting to voters ("Wrong Paul," Fairfield County Weekly, Sept. 18). Bird on a WireSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 09/23/2008 - 18:59.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (9/25/08) Link Last week, our politicians and bureaucrats banned short selling, bailed out an insurance company, allowed two securities firms to magically transform into banks, and announced plans to buy unlimited troubled assets from still solvent financial firms. By letting loads of bad assets be dumped or written off, the government argues, our financial system might collapse! The safety and security of our entire monetary system will fail! Wrong Paul: How about not voting for anyone?Submitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 21:16.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (9/18/08) Link When I ran two years ago to represent you, dear reader, and the rest of Connecticut's Fourth District in the House of Representatives, you were kind enough to approach me after each of the seven debates I had with my opponents, Republican Chris Shays and Democrat Diane Farrell. You were a lifelong Democrat. Or you were a hardcore Republican. Or a swing-voter. Or this was the first political event you had ever gone to. The Jihad at Home: If you think about it, religious violence is all around us—and it always backfiresSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 01:19.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (9/11/08) Link Why does the War on Drugs increase drug use? Why does the War on Poverty increase poverty? What's in a Name? Every political faction has a proper ism—except those who want simple freedomSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 20:26.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (8/14/08) Link What are your ism's? Since you are reading this, statistics suggest you probably subscribe to some degree to liberalism, environmentalism, activism, socialism, and maybe even atheism. That's the traditional readership of papers such as this: relatively young, relatively urban, relatively progressive. These audiences also read mainstream publications, but finds a chasm there that can only be filled by the local flavor, salty language and militant viewpoints of an alternative weekly. Bail Me Out: Foreclosing on Freddie and Fannie—and freedomSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 23:49.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (7/24/08) Link Has the U.S. government found a psychological loophole in bailouts? They know that voters would object if their tax money went directly to bankrupt institutions. We Americans don't want to reward failure, and we especially don't like it when we are forced to do so. But what if not a single taxpayer penny is actually spent on the bailout? What if the bailout seemed free? Nut-Magnum: The U.S. Supreme Court just ensured our right to bear arms. Connecticut settled the issue 190 years ago.Submitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 21:36.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (7/3/08) Link In deciding that the Second Amendment means what it says, the Supreme Court relied on Connecticut's post-Revolutionary libertarian gun history. Bet you didn't know we were one of three states (the others being Mississippi and Alabama) that adopted what the Supreme Court called "even more individualistic phrasing" of Second Amendment analogues as state law. Connecticut Covets KeloSubmitted by Phil Maymin on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 22:14.Originally Published In: Fairfield County Weekly (6/12/08) Link Three years ago, the State broke that most troublesome and libertarian commandment against coveting the possessions of others
What does it mean to covet? Of the Ten Commandments carved on the two tablets that Moses brought down 3,320 years ago this past Monday, the one concerning coveting is the hardest to understand. Can we deeply desire nothing at all?  |