ThankYouAyn

Thanks!

Phil, you've got about 80 words here. It's good, but I think it could stand to be a little longer.

I think it may be more effective if you 1) mention how fast INDIVIDUALS would lose their remaining

freedoms, once they lose freedom of expression through speech and press, and point out that the same

would happen to corporations; 2) point out how it is not in the self interest of consumers and

workers to hobble American corporations by removing their ability to protect themselves. Hobbling

the corporations will lead to loss of jobs, collapsing pension plans, higher prices, etc. Appeal

to principles--connected to self-interest.

Find out the editors length limit. For my local newspaper it is 300 words.

Norman

After reading Stanley Fish's New York Times column on the Supreme Court decision on the First Amendment and campaign finance law, I just sent them this three paragraph letter to the editor ==>

"The "consequentialist" argument - that laws restricting the speech or contributions of large organizations provides for better democracy - is a fraud. Recently, we have seen the enormous power of citizens' groups, not just giant corporations or unions, to be heard. This is an incredibly rich country. Independent voices can easily raise money. They helped elect Obama; they now have made the Tea Party movement influential.

"Moreover, freeing corporations and unions to participate may sometimes allow them to argue against some of the more extreme or erratic populist forms of public anger. The more political ads, the better. The idea that you have to muzzle some organizations so that other groups can afford to buy ads or be heard is not only not "libertarian", it is not true - or even "consequentialist".

"Why are laws controlling campaigns popular in Congress? Because silencing some effective groups who might unseat legislators is, like gerrymandering, nothing more than incumbency protection."

-- Do you think this is an effective letter?

Does it make the most crucial philosophical points? Should it be longer to provide more detail or support?

Does it have a good chance of being published?

Today, Feb 1, 2010, the Arizona news website azcentral.com posted

an article "More States Fight Mandatory Health Insurance". It is

worth reading, and currently (probably not for long) the article can be

found at http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/02/01/20100201health-states0201.html?source=nletter-news

URL.

My reply to the article in the Comments section was as follows:

Take a look at who are the big money opponents of the various

state initiatives to preserve freedom of choice in healthcare.

The state-licensed insurance companies are spending millions to

kill the efforts to write freedom of choice language into the

state constitutions. Check out Arizonans for Heath Care Freedom

at the www,azhealthcarefreedom.com website. Read the articles in

their news archive. In 2008 the AZ initiative on this failed by 0.4%.

I understand that this time around the insurance companies are spending

ten million dollars to kill this in Arizona. But this time around they'll need to

spend 100 million to kill it, if we all get involved in preserving freedom of choice.

Hello, friends of objectivist philosophies,

Many of this forum's posts look quite interesting, so I've

signed up.

Various philosophical issues are important to me, and I'd

also like to invent or discover effective ways to make some

pro-freedom institutional changes before I bite the dust.

I started with Fountainhead around 1967. Attended some

of the NBI courses around 1968, just before the Split.

Helped Libertarian Party efforts in NJ in the early 70s,

co-published a small-circulation libertarian journal for a short time,

and, in Austin, Texas, during the 1980 political campaign season,

helped get the Libertarian Party's candidates on the state's ballot.

I married my wife (born the year of the Dragon) in 1975; that's the

inspiration for my screen name in this forum. We currently live near

Phoenix, AZ. We are aware of, and appreciate, Mike Renzulli's efforts

in the Phoenix area.

--Norman Andrews, aka DragonsMate.