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LRT UPDATE
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The E-Newsletter of the Liberty Round Table
Issue #71, April 19, 2000
Please forward URL to individuals you know who'd be interested!
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Hello Friends and Knights!

Well, here we are with the first online version of our e-newsletter, the LRT Update, published in our new online magazine, Doing Freedom! It seems appropriate, then, to talk about this new forum, DF!, first. However, there's a lot going on, so please read through this update, or click on the links below to go to the articles that interest you.

1] Doing Freedom! Gets going: All Aboard!
2] LRT Essay Contest--we're reaching more young people than ever, and you can help!
3] LRT Conclave (this year's big get-together)
4] Defending the Right to Self Defense Department
5] Digital Privacy & Security Department
6] Tyranny Watch Department, Worldwide
7] Tyranny Watch Department, USA
8] Literature and Arts Department
9] New Project Ideas
10] Tax Resistance Department

Thanks for reading and participating; it's the fact that LRT brings together people who are interested in taking ACTION that makes us able to do the many things we do!

1]Doing Freedom! Gets going: All Aboard!

There is plenty of material in this issue of Doing Freedom! explaining what we're doing and why, so I'll not rehash it all. I do want to apologize for all the delays, and reassure you that we are doing everything possible to get this project into stable, regular production. Finding reliable providers of essential services has proven extremely difficult--it still amazes me how many providers (presumably interested in making money) would fail to reply to an e-mail message that basically says, "Okay, we're interested in your services, how much will it be?"

At any rate, here it is, the first issue of Doing Freedom! It's not the full-blown interactive product we're still planning to produce on a monthly basis, but we've got some great content, and I think it shows what we're intending to do. This is why we're calling it a "preview" issue and not our "premier" issue. When we have all the systems in place we need to provide all the interactive services we have in mind regularly, then we'll announce with pride that we're truly in business. We're hoping that this preview issue will show what we have in mind, as I said, and encourage investors as well as writers and other contributors to join in the effort. We're still hiring; we need writers, cartoonists, graphic artists, reporters, researchers, story tellers--the works--in at least 10 times the number we have now, in order to get a steady supply of quality content. We've some great contributors lined up, but not enough for monthly production yet (unless Sunni and I write more of the articles, which we can only do for a limited time).

The main hangup, however, is the banking side. Govgoons around the world are stepping up their campaign to subvert tax havens and jurisdictions with strong privacy laws. It's a minefield out there, with as many fronts and sting operations as "honest" financial privacy businesses--very risky, even when you can get recommendations from people you trust. There are still viable solutions, but these work best for people who have income streams separate from their legal identities, which they can then channel through a country with financial privacy laws and withdraw, in cash, from teller machines around the world. This won't work for a public effort like Doing Freedom!, because our income stream can easily be "tagged". All it would take is one small "contribution" from a plant, and DF!'s bank location and account number would become known. Even the strongest financial privacy laws I've seen still make it possible for the local jurisdiction to subpoena bank records if they are investigating criminal activity. So, for example, all US ferals have to do is tell the IRS to cool it for a bit and have the DEA or Secret Service present some phony evidence to the local jurisdiction, and voila, all your records are laid bare. This might not help the ferals much, if all the deposits and withdrawals are in cash, but it's hard to get some advertisers to pay in cash, and the govgoons are making moves to limit "money laundering" (transactions made under cover or anonymously). The bottom line on this is that we're still working on ways to conduct business--process transactions--that are safe for our customers and contributors.

I should also say that since Doing Freedom! is a public effort, Sunni and I are exposing ourselves to a much higher level of risk than individuals who merely "drop out" of the system and try to remain unnoticed. Even if we could hide all trails connecting ourselves to this publication, which is doubtful (anyone can view it on the web, obviously including govgoons), we are still public figures, speakers, etc. For personal reasons, we will not and cannot become hermits, publishing from a hidden cave. We understand that this is dangerous for us, and are prepared to pay whatever prices we must, in order to pursue our chosen vocation. This is worth pointing out, because our situation is not the same as that of the average "dropout". With care, dropping out need not be as dangerous to people who don't pursue public lives as it will be for us, and whatever happens to us should not be seen as what's normal for people who "unsubscribe USA.gov".

Write to me if you have questions about any of this, or just want to help. My Hushmail account is still active: DonLobo@Hushmail.com, but PGP is better, and it's easier for me to access mail sent to Tiggre@free-market.net.

Thanks!

DLT & SM

2] LRT Essay Contest--we're reaching more young people than ever, and you can help!

As mentioned in my last LRT Update, we received more than twice as many essays for this year's LRT Essay Contest as we did last year. It's great to know that we are reaching more young people than ever before, and very gratifying to see the upward trend continuing (we've just about doubled every year). Our essay contest is a great project that enables LRTers to take personal action aimed at countering the anti-freedom indoctrination so many students receive at their so-called schools. However, the increased participation has made the task of judging the essays more complex and time-consuming, so we've modified the rules a bit. The new rules can be seen at:

http://home.lrt.org/lrt.ec5.rules.html

This page explains the new judging procedure (Rule #15) and contains the new dates, prize amounts, etc. Assuming we can get pledges to cover all the prizes, we'll announce the next round of the contest when we announce the winners to this year's round, on May 1, 2000. That's right around the corner, so please send me your pledge right away! Remember:

A) You won't have pay your pledge until May 1, 2001
B) You pay your pledge to an actual contest winner, so you know that 100% of your contribution went to its intended purpose
C) We have prizes as large as $750 and as small as $5, as well as opportunities to buy advertising, so people of all income levels can pitch in and help out
D) Everyone who supports the contest financially gets to be a judge, which is a lot of fun (and can be proxied, if time is lacking)

So please send me your pledge today! All you have to do is write me an e-mail and tell me how much we can count on you for. Please don't delay; do it now while it's on your mind. Send your pledge to Tiggre@free-market.net

Thanks!!!

3] LRT Conclave (this year's big get-together)

Plans for this year's big get-together are starting to come together. I say "big", because there has been quite a bit of interest in regional conclaves, so we're planning to have one somewhere in the Midwest later this year, perhaps some time in the fall (I have several volunteers in the area who will help, but no one to lead the charge yet, so please let me know if you think you can help in that way!). Anyway, we're still working on the details, but here's the rough of it:

DATES: July 1 - 9. (Festivities concentrated on the first weekend, up through the 4th)

LOCATION: South-Central Idaho, near the Jarbridge Mountains in Nevada

ACTIVITIES: Annual LRT Shooting Contest, Hot spring bathing, Boston T. Party's defensive shooting course, tactical privacy practice, 1st Annual LRT Chili Cook-Off, Jarbridge Shovel Brigade participation for those interested, and much more (TBA as we research the site & amenities).

BTP says that his course will run from $30 to $50, depending on the number of participants (the higher the number, the lower the cost for all). Discounts may be given for people who participate in more than one course; last year he offered handgun and rifle, and this year he says he'll consider a shotgun course if there's sufficient interest. If you're interested in participating, please e-mail me with which course(s) you're interested in so that we can let BTP know, and finalize his price structure.

THEME/FOCUS: Privacy!

MORE ON DATES: The dates are fixed and won't change, so you can go ahead and ask for that time off--or as much of it as you can get. Since July 4th is a Tuesday this year, we expect that most folks will get the Monday before off and will be able to come out for the first weekend and stay through the 4th or 5th. Most of the activities will be concentrated during that time. However, it seems that every year, when the party is over, a bunch of folks say that it was just getting good, so we're planning to reserve our campsite for the rest of the 7/4 week and the following weekend.

MORE ON LOCATION: For those of you planning to fly in, Boise, ID, or Salt Lake City, UT are probably the best (cheapest) destinations for you. We don't have the exact location yet, but it doesn't matter, since flying in to a smaller airport would cost a bunch more; so you can go ahead and start looking into flight reservations. If you really want to try to get closer in a plane, the closest city is Twin Falls, ID. You might be able to avoid renting a car by flying in to Twin Falls, if we can get a volunteer to provide a shuttle service (I'd do it myself, except that I'm the MC, and I find it difficult to be in two places at once). I'll make it known if that happens. The most practical thing for most people is to drive--I will forward directions when the time comes.

MORE ON ACTIVITIES: One of the main things that got folks on the LRT list excited about southern Idaho as a destination for this year's conclave is its proximity to Jarbridge, NV. For those of you who are not aware, there's been an ongoing confrontation between the townspeople of Jarbridge and the US Forest Service over a county road the ferals are trying to shut down. County residents have vowed to open the road (currently blocked with piles of sand and debris left by the ferals) by hand, and have formed the Jarbridge Shovel Brigade to do just that on July 4th, 2000. A lot of LRTers really liked the idea of participating in this protest action, and that gave us the idea of having our Conclave in the vicinity. As with any act of public civil disobedience, there's always a risk of getting arrested for participating, so our plan is to avoid Jarbridge itself, but to be near enough to enable interested folks to take part, taking only upon themselves any risks involved. For more information about Jarbridge and the Shovel Brigade, check out:

http://www.magiclink.com/web/kelamigo/jarbidge.html

ALSO: in addition to all the usual LRT conclave activities, we'll be trying something new this year, a "theme" for our get-together. But don't worry, we won't ask you to come dressed as you were when you read this announcement, or all wearing the same silly color. Our theme this year is privacy, and we'd like to conduct an experiment in discretion. No cammo gear is necessary, just an attitude of "no one gets any info they don't need to know." We will not be posting any more details than the above to the Web this year, and will only be sharing the precise location (once finalized) with people we know, or who are vouched for by people we know. We will only discuss the location details through encrypted means (perhaps we'll set up a shuttle service from SLC for those who don't or won't use PGP and would trust us to transport them in safety, blindfolds optional ;-). We'd ask all those who attend to keep the details of location to themselves as much as possible.

This is not supposed to be scary, just educational. Think about how you might go about arranging for a vacation without telling any specific details to your hairdresser, your doctor, everyone in your family, your bartender, the paperboy... You might have to develop a cover story--but would you feel awkward telling a story to family members? Could you ask them to keep quiet about your vacation because you've been invited to the grand opening of a brand new nudist resort, all expenses paid, and you've always wanted to go to one but don't want anyone to know? Could you just say that it's a private matter and you'd prefer not to talk about it, and reassure them that nothing "bad" is going on--would they believe you? Could you keep yourself from accidentally blurting out that you're going camping in Idaho when the sales clerk rings up your new tent? It's all very complicated...and this is just for a little vacation! So why bother? Because: A) the practice is important and you may learn some things that will serve you well in the future, and B) because I'm asking you, as a friend, to help us with this exercise.

We'll let folks know when we have the specific site picked, and may post some procedural info for all who are considering attending, but this is the basic deal. It should be lots of fun--from early indications, it's looking like we'll have a record attendance--maybe the best Conclave ever, so please send me your RSVPs, your "I'm going to try to come" messages, your "I'm thinking about it" notes, etc. Don't forget to specifically RSVP for BTP's class, as the number of participants will affect the cost.

I look forward to seeing you this summer!

4] Defending the Right to Self Defense Department

Here are some interesting links reported on the LRT list and elsewhere relating to the right of self-defense:

A) A Web site dedicated to replacing the destructive "gun violence" meme with the constructive "guns save lives" meme:

http://GunsSaveLives.org

B) An online petition in opposition to the NRA's gun control efforts:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/exile/petition.html

C) "Re recent discussion on phony government statistics that over 1500 kids a year were, by implication shooting themselves with guns..."

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment032700a.html

[DLT: I also heard recently that a person is something like 50,000 times more likely to die under a doctor's care than to get shot.]

D) Hunter's posting of Citizens of America's warning to LEOs. (Forwarding this URL, Hunter adds, might be a little mini-project of sorts.)

http://www.vader.com/lrtdiscuss/200003291726580060.08624C12.htm

5] Digital Privacy & Security Department

One LRTer posted some interesting links relating to security & privacy issues. I've verified the links below, but, aside from the PGP sources, I don't have any first or even second-hand info on how trustworthy all these sources are, especially the private companies, so caveat emptor!

A) A site where you can get OptOut, which will check your computer for embedded spyware and Shields Up will check how secure your system is from their website. (Their test told him his system was being used as a server while he was online, without his knowledge.)

http://grc.com/default.htm

B) A site where you can get a free firewall:

http://www.zonelabs.com/

(After installing this firewall Shields Up told him his system was completely invisible to detection.)

C) MIT's site for downloading PGP (Pretty Good Privacy):

http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html

[DLT: if you're not in the US, or would prefer the international version, you can also get it at: http://www.pgpi.com]

D) Some pages with information on how to produce a secure passphrase:

http://world.std.com/~reinhold/dicewarefaq.html http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/passphrase-faq.html

E) A site for getting the QuickSilver GUI and Mixmaster for sending email anonymously:

http://quicksilver.skuz.net/

[DLT: Sunni thinks she may have heard something about Mixmaster being compromised, but she's not sure, so be extra careful in investigating this option.]

6] Tyranny Watch Department, Worldwide

This also from the LRT list, a site dedicated to exposing organized aggression on a global level. I'm not sure how credible all their stuff is, but they cite many sources (don't write it all themselves).

http://www.emperors-clothes.com

The Emperor's New Clothes (available in a variety of European languages). "We contend that NATO, led by the U.S. and Germany, is engaged in an aggressive drive to the East. We contend that humanitarian rhetoric is used to justify military and economic attacks on weaker nations. We contend that the execution of these attacks requires a misinformed public. Therefore, by helping people see the media in a critical way, we can strengthen the opposition to unjust and dangerous foreign adventures."

7] Tyranny Watch Department, USA

A) A suggestion from MLS' Liberty Activists list: start a "Tyranny Response Team" in your state. See:

http://www.trteam.com/

From their statement of purpose:

"Tyrants everywhere, shudder in your boots. No longer can you go about your work unmolested and uncontested. No longer can you pull the fluffy comforter of public apathy around your crimes against the people. Mainstream media, prepare for having to cover up and ignore large demonstrations of public outrage against the stealing of American God given rights.

"For there's a phenomena [sic] occurring in Colorado and it's spreading to other areas of the country. It's based on the simple idea of No Tolerance for Government Tyranny. Apparently born over a few beers, it is the brainchild of a few citizens who knew that they were not the only ones fed up, and the time was ripe to mobilize and take their bodies and their voices to the front lines, wherever that might be, whenever that might be. Thus the Tyranny Response Team became a reality.

"From time of inception (a couple of months ago) to date, they have shown up at gun rights confiscation events, gun shows (to promote the idea) and town meetings. At each place they have roundly outnumbered their opponents, the people that are busily working, working, working all the time to take away your freedom. The enemies of freedom never sleep. The citizens have been sleeping far too long."

B) Here's a great writeup of the Liberty ICS idea:

http://homes.acmecity.com/rosie/cool/308/libertyics.html

C) This link is to Former US Customs officer John Carman's Web site exposing corruption in that agency (and others). John says he's had this site up for about a year and he has received death threats and harassment from boys with badges since he went public--but he feels that he had to go public, for his own protection. He still seems to think the system is just broken and can be fixed, but may soon realize that it's the system itself that incents corruption.

www.amerikanexpose.com/customs1.html

8] Literature and Arts Department

My friend Yael, a libertarian author of some repute, has published some of her fiction on line. Says she:

"My fiction, which has a strongly libertarian slant, is now getting published on the Web. There's nothing like a little weird/erotic fantasy to get people reading, and what they'd be reading about in this case is why libertarianism works better than anything else, so if you want to let people know about a libertarian fiction site, try mine. When you get to the site the link for which is below, click on the banner, then when that page comes up, click on "Yael's page," which will take you right to an index of the stuff of mine they have on that site. They keep updating it, so you might want to check in on it every so often."

http://www.greyarchive.com/

Also, Barbara Branden's Web site has moved. Her new (and updated and redesigned) Web site can be accessed at:

http://BarbaraBranden.com

9] New Project Ideas

A) Support for Victims of Censorship

Someone on the LRT list came across an article on a young journalist being censored by his school, and it occurred to him that it might make a good project to develop some way to reward a student who writes a piece like this and then takes a bunch of heat for it. It'd be relatively simple to put together an award chest (full of pledges cashable upon need) to give out, say, $100 prizes to such people. It would be more complex to establish procedures by which nominations are made and winners are selected, however. Getting the addresses to send the prizes might be challenging too, as news stories are not likely to publish such info. There may be some anti-censorship organizations that track this kind of thing... This project shouldn't take too much money to get going, but it needs someone to lead it. Interested persons should either write to me, or join the LRT discussion list, or both.

B) A liberty-oriented industry project

Another LRTer had the following idea:

"It's my intent to get a "Liberty Enterprises" think tank/licensing/manufacturing operation going with the purpose of maintaining a cheap technological edge for individuals. This plan is a response to my belief that we are currently in a vulnerable position to the various teams of trained government aggressors. Waco showed that better weapons and better surveillance beats will every time. Sam Colt made us equal once. It's time for a new generation of equalizers. L. Neil suggested some interesting cottage industry directions with the laminated steel pistol idea.

"Under current enslavement policies, we can't sell FINISHED firearms, however, research, plans, how-to instructions... These are methods available to us. I'm interested in empowerment/equalizer technologies, whether it be defensive tools, networking/communication methods... Calling all gadgetheads and lovers of free market liberty!"

[DLT: Andy Libby pulled a gadget out of his pocket and helped the Howard families escape tyranny--okay, that was fiction, but that doesn't make it a bad idea. How far would Batman have gotten without his utility belt? Anyone who wears a Leatherman knows that that is not fantasy!]

10] Tax Resistance Department

Check out:

http://www.pierrelemieux.org

for, "The latest update of _Subversive Liberty_ includes a preconfigured Word file to manufacture your own anti-tax envelope stickers. It also reminds you of the articles on tax issues that are available on the site. A new article by Pierre Lemieux, to be published in the Figaro-Économie, will also soon be available."

Well, that's it for this time--I've already got bunches of stuff piling up for the next edition, so check back here frequently!

DO FREEDOM!

DLT