Posted on 12/27/2003 11:42:04 AM PST by Conservative til I die
NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 ----------------------------------------- For release: February 18, 1997 ----------------------------------------- For additional information: George Getz, Deputy Director of Communications Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222 -----------------------------------------
Clint Eastwood announces: I'm a "libertarian"
WASHINGTON, DC -- Watch out liberals and conservatives -- Dirty Harry is a libertarian.
That's what movie star Clint Eastwood announced this month in Playboy magazine.
In an interview in the March issue, the Oscar-winning actor and director candidly affiliated himself with the growing libertarian movement when he was asked: "How would you characterize yourself poli- tically?"
The laconic Eastwood answered, "Libertarian" -- and then went on to explain the philosophy in simple terms: "Everyone leaves everyone else alone."
He also took a swipe at the Republicans and Democrats, noting that neither of those political parties "seems to have the ability to embrace that sort of thing."
"Talk about making my day," said the Libertarian Party's National Director, Perry Willis. "Having Clint Eastwood declare him- self a libertarian is better than a fistful of dollars. We hope his announcement will have a sudden impact on the public's awareness of the libertarian philosophy -- and the Libertarian Party, too."
However, voters shouldn't expect to see "Dirty Harry For President" bumperstickers appearing soon; Eastwood flatly rejected a career in politics. "Being a politician is about the last thing I'd want to do," he said. "It's a lot of work and a lot of frustra- tion."
But if the star of the new movie "Absolute Power" ever changes his mind, Willis says he'd love to sit down and talk to him.
"If Mr. Eastwood ever decides to join the Libertarian Party or seek public office on our ticket, we'd be happy to discuss with him how that could advance the cause of liberty in America," he said. "Until that time, however, we're delighted that he's on our side philosophi- cally."
The 66-year-old Eastwood has been an increasingly outspoken critic of government abuse in recent months -- echoing the Libertarian Party's criticisms of the federal government's role in the bloodbath at Waco, Texas, and the shooting of Randy Weaver's family at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
In an essay he wrote for the January 12, 1997 issue of Parade Magazine, Eastwood noted: "Abuse of power isn't limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if we're not vigilant."
For example, he wrote: "At Waco, was there really an urgency to get those people out of the compound at that particular time? Was the press going to make it look heroic for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms? At Ruby Ridge, there was one guy in a cabin at the top of the mountain. Was it necessary for federal agents to go up there and shoot a 14-year-old in the back and shoot a woman with a child in her arms? What kind of mentality does that?"
And Eastwood displayed a keen cynicism about the lure of political power. "Those in power get jaded, deluded, and seduced by power itself," he wrote. "The hunger for absolute power and, more to the point, the abuse of power, are part of human nature."
Eastwood joins a growing number of individuals in the entertainment industry who have identified themselves as libertarians. Included on that list are TV star John Laroquette, humorist Dave Barry, author P.J. O'Rourke, movie actor Russell Means, magician Jillette Penn, author Camille Paglia, TV reporter John Stossell, and comedian Dennis Miller.
Since 1954, Eastwood has appeared in dozens of movies and become one of the leading box office draws in the world. His films include "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), "Dirty Harry" (1971),"Any Which Way You Can" (1980), "In the Line of Fire" (1993), and "The Bridges of Madison County" (1995). His 1992 Wester"n Unforgiven" earned him Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. His one foray into politics was as mayor of Carmel, California, from 1986-1988.
Lucky dog! I've camped around AZ and the south-west extensively. I love the North Rim - esp. Point Sublime. Check out the Gila Widerness in NM some time - that's a beautiful, rugged area - like B.C. but with no real winter.
What kind, indeed! It is high time that we came again to respect the right of American eccentricity. The idea of murdering people, who are keeping to themselves, because the wacked out "liberal" totalitarians hate them, ought to be repugnant to anyone who understands what America is all about.
And to suggest that there is any conflict between traditional Jeffersonians--who were Libertarians--and modern Conservative values, is to display ignorance of what Jeffersonian Libertarianism is all about. Jefferson justified the Louisiana Purchase--a controversial idea--on the basis of keeping Mexicans and other Spanish speaking peoples off of the fronteir. Does that sound like he would have tolerated the present open immigration? His penal code in Virginia, explained in the only book he ever wrote, provided very severe penalties for homosexual acts. Does that sound like he would have tolerated "same sex marriages?" Could any person who understands what the term marriage means?
With the Bush Administration running roughshod over the values of the American tradition, the only rational alternative is to encourage new political endeavors that might, in time, offer a viable alternative.
And, please, don't anyone suggest that a Libertarian President would encourage wider drug use. It would be inconceivable that anyone advocating strict construction of the Constitution, could ever support anything like the Medicare Drug Bill, which is going to subsidize the application of mind and mood altering drugs to millions of elderly Americans. Is the moral principle, involved, radically different if you can find a doctor to prescribe the drugs, rather than presecribe them for yourself? I thought that the real questions were impaired capacity & addiction--not whether the Medical profession get a cut of the proceeds. (I am not anti-Doctor, not at all. But anyone who imagines that there are not many Doctors out there who will medicate a patient's attitude, rather than listen to endless complaints that simply reflect one's unhappiness with getting old, is a dreamer.)
William Flax
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?"--Thomas Jefferson
This is because L/libertarians view the War on Drugs as one of the biggest threats to freedom and liberty in this country. L/libertarians may betray the party, but they are very consistant with being loyal to limited government and freedom and liberty, whereas the Republicans have not. Which do you think is better?
Hobbes is maligned by many, not because he is untruthful, but because in terms of Biblical principal he is accurate much more than the sectarian dogma coming from the churches. The idea of a Sovereign not having the 'divine right of kings' but - - a divine right of a Godly king to rule by consent of a Godly people = The Leviathan.
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Give me some reference, any, that demonstrates that you have read even a few chapters of that work.
phantastical images...
Read Of Demonology and Other Relics of the Religion of the Gentiles.
Hell, Read Aristotle's Poetics or Rhetoric. Or, read Kierkegaard's Sickness Unto Death. Many of the same ideas concerning idols, conceits and phantasms are found there. Like Kierkegaard's despair and phantasien, Hobbes speaks of 'motions of the brain and their 'phantastical inhabitants' OR fantasy. Like Kierkegaard, he sees human representations of their own fancies as idolatries, gods of their own making, like morality. Human morals are nothing more than a pantheon of pagan gods. Socrates, in Plato's Euthyphro, asked a similar question...
Anyway, to hell with that. Consider the etymology of the word "fan." We know one definition is a 'sports fan' (another form of modern idolatry). We know another to be one that is mechanical and moves the air...
Consider the etymology of 'fanatic.'
Consider Beelzebub is prince of phantasms or Satan is prince of the powers and spirits in the air(according to the Bible).
Think about the words fan, fanatic, fantasy - - then consider the Aristotle's idea of pthonos from Rhetoric... I understand the Left and where they get their power.
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