Dr. James Lark offers to Speak

Returning members may remember Dr. Lark’s outstanding Liberty Lecture last year on a variety of subjects. He has offered to do it again this year on Sept. 21, as well as providing communications to other prominent libertarians! I am checking with Dr. Barnes and Mr. Morton to see if this is alright, but doubt there will be any problems. He will offer a list of topic to choose from, which I’ll post here soon.

Here’s to another fun and free year at MLWGS Students for Liberty!

Cole P.

May 25 Meeting Summary

A lot occurred during our meeting today. By a 4 to 2 margin, The Castle was selected to be our Movie Night 2 film (which will be aired next Thursday after school). We also finally took the book photo, and had a riveting debate on the Iraq War. A vote was conducted and meetings will still be conducted on Wednesdays in the future.

Cole Pearce

Photos from April 21

Hello Everyone,

Here are the photos from our April 21 meeting! (Note to all: all posts prior to this date were from Maryam, I just couldn’t figure out how not to change them)

REMINDER: Elections

Just another reminder about our elections on Wednesday. Remember,
President, Treasurer and Secretary.

You can give a brief speech if you want before hand, it won’t be
mandatory though if you don’t want to.

I encourage all of you to run! Bring in your ideas for the club!

MP

Meeting and Elections!

Hey Everyone,

Hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing break! We’ll be resuming our weekly Wednesday meetings, but the other thing I wanted to note was that our official elections are the third week in January. We have three positions as you may remember: President, Treasurer and Secretary. I encourage all of you to run for office (except for seniors who will be graduating). It will be an informal affair but I look forward to the greater organization we’ll have after this. See you all Wednesday

MP

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Remember, remember the fifth of November!

The Gun Powder Treason and Plot!

I know of no reason

Why the Gun Powder Treason

Should ever be forgot!

Hope you all had a great Guy Fawkes day. To those of you who joined us for our moVie Night celebration via “V for Vendetta”, I hope you enjoyed the film and didn’t think it was too long. I love the following quote which was actually from Goethe’s Faust: Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici. “By the power of truth I, while living, have conquered the universe”

In case you didn’t know, the Gun Powder Treason was an attempt in 1605 to blow up Parliament, thereby assassinating King James I and most of the aristocracy. It was headed by the namesake Guy Fawkes, and their aim was to secure religious freedom to practice as Catholics from an oppressive Protestant government. No, we’re not advocating blowing up anything. But we are in support of individuals acting on their own behalf to secure their rights, not idly expecting politicians to do it for us.

V: “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

I’m almost positive there is a James Madison quote that is very similar. I’ll have to look for it.

MP

Questions for Bastiat’s “Selected Essays on Political Economy”

If you’ve been keeping track with the blog, you probably noticed things have been a bit sluggish in getting posted. Hopefully we won’t have another down time like that.

Nevertheless, you’ll remember last week we were graciously provided with our first set of books by Students for Liberty (the national organization).

www.studentsforliberty.org

As I understand it, they work with the Cato Institute, a Libertarian ThinkTank in D.C., and provide books free of charge to student liberty groups everywhere. Hopefully we’ll be able to thank them in some meaningful way in the future.

So, the book we’re reading now is Frederic Bastiat’s “Selected Essays on Political Economy.” Bastiat was French economist, who wrote before and after the revolution in France, a time during which France was undergoing huge upheavals in its political-economic structures. He led the free-trade movement, and founded Le Libre Echange, a weekly newspaper promoting free trade ideals.

For tomorrow, you should have read Chapter 1, “What is seen and what is not seen.” I’ll post a couple questions below. Don’t feel compelled to write out answers to them, but be prepared to come with answers tomorrow and be able to defend them. I’ll gradually start creating pages with resources on each of the individuals we read and summary guides of the chapters.

So, here are some questions for you to consider:

- What does Bastiat mean by ‘What is seen and what is not seen?”

- Why should one be valued over the other, if at all.

- Should the state subsidize the arts?

- What parallels do you see between the examples Bastiat provides, and economic issues we have today? What would he say about the current health care ‘crisis’?

- “Moral: To use force is not to produce, but to destroy.” (pg. 30) Is this always true? When is it acceptable?

It rings interestingly similar to a John Marshall quote, “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” (McCulloch v. Maryland) Was Marshall a free-market thinker and I never knew it?

See you all tomorrow,

MP

 

Mock Election Results

Thanks to all those who came in to vote Monday at lunch! We had a bit of technical difficulty with the Quia surveys, but now we know what to expect and how to remedy it in the future.

And so, the results:

102 students voted, so this was about 14% of the student body.

For Governor: Republican Bob McDonnell won with 53%, while Democrat Creigh Deeds took 45%.

For Lieutenant Governor: Republican Bill Bolling won with 50% while Democrat Jody Wagner came in at 49%.

And finally, for Attorney General: Ken Cuccinelli won with 56% while Steve Shannon took 43%.

Thanks again for voting, we’ll find out later tonight the results of the real governor’s race.

Hope you enjoyed your day off.

Peace,
MP

Inaugural Lecture a Success

Thank you to all who joined us Wednesday afternoon to hear Dr. James Lark give a lecture on the foundational principles of the philosophy of liberty in government. Dr. Lark shaped his speech around three major principles:

1) Individuals command self ownership

2) What is rightfully produced through your labor belongs to you

3) That land can be rightfully parcelled and owned by individuals

The question I had for Dr. Lark which time did not permit us to get to was whether the government can rightfully possess property, like having federal buildings on land owned by the government. What justification would there be? I can’t imagine how a government could not own property to place courts and jails on and what not. I’ll bring it up at our next meeting and hear what you all think.

MP

Liberty Lecture Series: Dr. James Lark

MLWGS Students for Liberty is pleased to announce we will be hosting the first of our lecture series on Wednesday, October 21 at 3:30 PM in the forum. Our guest speaker will be Professor James Lark.

Dr. Lark currently teaches at the University of Virginia, and served as national chairman of the Libertarian Party from 2000 to 2002. The subject of the lecture will be “The Philosophy of Liberty: What it is, its foundations, and what we can do.” The lecture is free and open to all interested Maggie Walker students and faculty. We look forward to seeing you there.

I’ll be out of town until Saturday evening, but check back afterwards for any more details.

MP