Despite the occasional cloudbursts, PrideFest 2008 was a rousing success. The Manhattan Libertarian Party was out in force, giving away 1,000 free condoms as part of our Operation Politically Homeless.
Libertarian condoms. Front: Manhattan Libertarian Party logo; back: “Protect your rights. Protect yourself. Vote Libertarian.”
More pictures from PrideFest after the jump.
Eliot Spitzer caught with his pants down! I love it!! Expect the man who shall forever after be known as Client 9 to resign shortly.
That he was a patron of a prostitution ring with a name like The Emperors Club VIP makes it even more fitting. These guys really do think of themselves as emperors and the rest of us as serfs, above the laws they use to oppress the masses.
As attorney general, Spitzer prosecuted at least two prosecution rings — callously ruining dozens of lives over the quintessential victimless crime. Now he reaps what he sowed.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Be sure to come to the Manhattan Libertarian Party meeting tonight — the champagne is sure to be flowing!
We’re a bit late for fashion week, but the Manhattan Libertarian thong, the Manhattan Libertarian maternity shirt, the Manhattan Libertarian trucker hat, and much more similarly branded apparel and trinkets are now available at our Cafe Press shop.
Order now. Don’t make me post a picture of me modeling the thong.
My daughter Alana and I are featured in an article in today’s Daily News about the New York State Education Department’s stupid decision to deny special ed services to homeschoolers. While we homeschool my daughter, she receives physical therapy, occuational therapy and play therapy weekly to help with ADHD and gross motor skills development. Until now, the Board of Education had paid for these services, just as they do for public school students and even elite private school students. Now it looks like they are going to revoke those services, just for homeschooled kids.
Some libertarians may question whether I’m being hypocritical by receiving services from the state while opposing the welfare state and government schools. I might be making that same argument if I were in someone else’s shoes. However, the way I see it, I’m still paying way more in taxes than I’ll ever get back in services. Until they let me stop paying taxes, I’m not going to feel too bad about taking some of it back. Also, our daughter’s therapists our private contractors we choose, not part of the government education bureaucracy. And of course, if I have to choose between being the purest libertarian of them all and helping my daugher, the latter wins by a mile.
Now if I were taking matching funds for a political campaign, then I’d be a baaaad libertarian… 
Dane Carlson at Business Opportunities Weblog is running down his Favorite Business Books of 2007. He’s up to his third pick, and it’s none other than The Walton Street Tycoons by yours truly!
I am honored, and honestly a bit surprised. I never really thought of The Walton Street Tycoons as a business book before (I always categorize it as young adult fiction), but it really is. As Dane notes in his review, my novel is “a juvenile, libertarian romp about a twelve-year old boy who single-handily revives the economy of a struggling upstate New York community by breaking every labor law, food service regulation and IRS dictation on the books.”
What, you still haven’t read one of the best business books of 2007 (not to mention “simply the best libertarian novel to come along in a quarter of a century or so,” according to L. Neil Smith)? What are you waiting for? And remember, The Walton Street Tycoons makes a terrific Christmas Hannukah holiday gift.
Curtis Sliwa says he’s going to run for Public Advocate in 2009 on a platform of abolishing the position.
Sounds very familiar…
Matt Lysiak, a frequent contributor to Serf City, wrote an article for amNew York about some new cellphone app that sends you targeted ads based on where your phone GPS says you are. Matt plays the Big Brother card, but quotes me in the last paragraph as saying it’s no invasion of privacy, since users voluntarily install and run the application.
Sorry this blog has been so quiet lately. My employer had the audacity to block access to this site, and I always did most of my posting during the day. The nerve of some people, expecting me to focus on my work when I’m at work!
Anyway, tonight I’m going to catch up on some things I’ve been meaning to post for awhile. While I’ve been slacking with this blog, I’m pleased that the Manhattan Libertarian Party has some new blood to pick up the slack. In fact, several of the new kids showed up for our last street fair booth of the summer, and some of them posted their thoughts on their own blogs.
For “Laur-XYZ,” the Operation Politically Homeless Booth was a rewarding experience:
antonio and i spent sunday volunteering at the lexington ave street fair in the city with the manhattan libertarian party giving people the worlds smallest political quiz and handing out ron paul literature. it felt really great to be a part of something. ive spent too many weekends on the couch the last couple years. pre-new years resolution: im going to start getting more involved with the outside world.
On the other hand, her friend Antonio (a.k.a. “Blog of Bile”) thought the experience was “a good amount of fun” but “not well organized”. That’s us in a nutshell.
New York City’s long wait is over. The latest paper edition of Serf City has arrived from the printer. And if I do say so myself, it’s a great issue. Some of the highlights include Joseph Dobrian on the recent gay pride parade, Matthew Lysiak on the Atlantic Yards eminent domain scheme, Bob Armstrong on the pseudo-science behind the war on CO2, and yours truly on our municipal employees’ abuse of official parking placards. And much, much more.
You can read a pdf of the latest issue here, or you can find the paper version in our sleek black newsracks wherever finer free tabloids are given away throughout the city. We’ll also have a stack on hand at the Operation Politically Homeless booth at the Bleecker Street street fair tomorrow.
The New York Post raises an excellent point with respect to Mayor Mike’s controversial congestion pricing traffic plan. Before we start charging ordinary motorists $8 for the privilege of driving into midtown, we could probably go a long way toward relieving traffic congestion by simply revoking some of the 47,000 special parking permits that allow government bureaucrats to park pretty much wherever the hell they want with impunity. As the Post notes:
The parking placards clearly make driving to work attractive: While 14 percent of private-sector workers come in by car, 27 percent of government staffers do, a 2006 study found. That translates to 20,000 extra drivers a day.
In other words, thanks in large part to parking passes from Mayor Mike - and his bureaucratic friends in Albany and Washington - Gotham must put up with 20,000 more cars on its streets.
The Post goes on to note that “some of these drivers have legitimate reasons for using cars - and getting to park free. Some 8,500 city placards went to the NYPD this year, and about 15,000 to the disabled.” I don’t know why the cops, of all people, should get a pass. Yes, on-duty officers responding to an actual crime in progess probably shouldn’t have to find a meter, but why should they get special privileges just for commuting to work by car? Let the police get a taste of the arbitrary parking rules they enforce on the rest of us and the draconian penalties (typically $115 for a violation below 96th Street) that go along with them, and maybe they’d be a tad more sympathetic before whipping out the ticket book when someone stops momentarily in a no-standing zone to pick up dry-cleaning.
The Post also points out that many of the privileged bureaucrats don’t even adhere to the few simple rules they are theoretically expected to observe. It’s never legal to park next to a hydrant, for example, regardless of any parking placard, but you’ll see Sheldon Silver vote against a tax hike before you ever see one cop ticket another.
Much of the credit for the recent attention on parking-permit abuse goes to UncivilServants.org, a nifty website that helps citizens track illegally parked bureaucrats. Matthew Roth, the editor of Uncivil Servants, will be the guest speaker at the next Manhattan Libertarian Party meeting one week from tonight, on Monday, June 11th.
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