The Tarrant County Libertarian Party goes to the Fort Worth Gay Pride Parade AND WINS !!

Howdy. 

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party has long advocated something that I call the Spivey Doctrine.  My friend, and predecessor as county chair, John Spivey, believes that we should go after some of society's sub-groups called "The Four G's".  They would be the Gold, Grass, Guns, and Gays.  (Federal Reserve enemies, marijuana legalizers, 2nd Amendment devotees and Gays/Lesbians.)

I prefer "The 5 B's" - Stay away from my bed, beer, bourbon, babies, bullets and bongs.  But that's quibbling. 

About two months ago, we decided to participate in the Fort Worth Gay Pride parade, to help improve our relationship with that fourth G.  We've been in the Dallas equivalent for years, and thought it time to bring it home.  (Hit this link and this link for some of our better experiences.) 

We worked really hard on this thing, within the constraints of a relatively small budget, of course. 

And we won.  We won Best Not-For-Profit entry.

 Lockheed-Martin, the military contractor, won for Best Business/For-Profit entry.  They had a float with little jets that looked like they were hand made by Obama's Drone-Makers. 

It was an amazing day for us.  We pushed the envelope just a bit by having Dez Lehman, a Dallas Libertarian and cabaret singer/performer, entertain from the top of our float.  That guy worked that crowd like you cannot imagine.  Dez owned that parade. 

In case you're wondering, I'm the guy on the left.  I don't look good in feathers. 

 

Here's Dez with long-time Libertarian and Gary Johnson Texas campaign manager, Elizabeth Miller.  

Here's what we did with the front of Richard Forscythe's pickup.  Two brides and two marriage equality signs. 

Ken Stanford, flying the colors. 

That's one big fat honking Marriage Equality sign. 

 

And we're off.  You really don't get the flavor of this thing without hearing all the attendees screaming "LIBERTARIANS!  HELL YEAH!!!" and "THE LIBERTARIAN ARE HERE!  HOLY F**K!!" 

Plus Dez singing like the world was gonna end.  We had the only genuine music system in the parade.  That always helps.  That's Mike and Shayna Coyne walking beside the float. 

We had kids, politicians, moms, you name it.  All on the float, and dancing. 

 

More than one obsessive-compulsive person commented that our letters weren't "straight".  I just told them that it was a gay parade. 

That's the lovely Teresa Rushing, Tarrant LP Exec Committee Member-at-large. 

You cannot imagine the sheer, undiluted joy that this contraption brought to the crowd in downtown Cowtown.  I wish I could do this again today. 

 

Here's what the Democrat Party had to offer.  Gays and Lesbians, I think someone is taking your loyalty for granted....

 

Here are the Stonewall Democrats. 

Here's John Spivey with Dez.  Both of 'em looking good, don't you think?

We're definitely doing this again next year, and we'll have the float led and followed by our candidates with campaign signs. 

 

Lord have mercy, this was a fun day. 

 

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party Flyer

My friend Shaun McAlister, of DFW/NORML fame, has a day job doing media work.

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party wanted a brochure, something we could hand out at events, debates, schools and such.  We gave Shaun a few bullet-points, some logos, and some Facebook pages where he could look for pics. 
Lord have mercy, look what the boy came up with!!  I'm proud of this thing. 

If you ever need some freelance media work done - print, video, or internet - Shaun is THE man.  End of story. 

Mike Coyne and I shamelessly ripped off the subject headings from the National and State LP sites.  The individual bullet-points are standard Mike Coyne rants and Whited Sepulchre blog entries. 

Can you imagine what a Republican or Democrat flyer of this type would read like?  Democrats having to justify a horrific economy, multiple wars, drones, invasions of privacy, failure-factory schools and enough black men in prison to fill up 20 Super Bowls?  Republicans trying to justify the military-industrial B.S., the War On Drugs, subsidies, tax exemptions for buddies, and a desire to take over your bed, bong, babies and bourbon? 

I love, love, love me some Libertarian party. 

Why Marijuana Users Tend To Be Economic Libertarians

I just spent a pleasant weekend at the DFW/NORML Regional Conference in downtown Fort Worth. 
Video will shortly follow, I'm sure, since Director Shaun McAlister rarely even eats breakfast without rolling tape. 

After my rant (in which I also had the honor of introducing the Libertarian Party's Vice-Presidential candidate Judge Jim Gray to the crowd), we spent a lot of time at our booth handing out LP literature, and encouraging a large crowd of marijuana consumers to take the Nolan Quiz. 

Here are Tarrant County LP Executive Committee members Jeff Lippincott and Michael Coyne with Judge Gray at our propaganda table. 

The stereotype would be for most of the marijuana consumers to be Left/Liberal.  Wrong!  That turns out to be a false impression leftover from growing up in the 1960's and 1970's.  As Jeff put it to me, "That test is gold." 

If you've never taken the Nolan Quiz before, go here.  It's just ten questions, and gives you a snapshot of your political leanings on a chart that looks like this:

Perhaps 80% of the attendees tested out as Libertarian.  Amazing.  (Yeah, the test is ever so slightly biased.  We wouldn't hand it out otherwise.) 
But it amazed me that the crowd of old tokers and Generation X activists tested out as LARGE FREAKIN' "L" LIBERTARIAN on economic issues.   

Here's a theory....

For the most part, marijuana users believe in the "I own me/You own you" concept.  They don't care how many of The Sheeple and The Shepherds get together and vote and make motions and condemn their consumption of a plant.  If marijuana is around, and they're in the mood, they're going to spark up. 

They believe that they own their own bodies. 

Once someone has internalized that core belief, it's not much of a jump to realize that you should also own the fruits of your own labor.  Working for someone else - like the taxman, at gunpoint, for the five months out of the year shouldn't be part of the bargain.  Or, "I own my labor/You own your labor".  You have no right to my body, or to a percentage of my labor and effort.  Yeah, we'll help each other, but we don't need to use force to make it happen.  As I heard someone at the conference say "Contract?  Social Contract?  I didn't sign no stinkin' contract !!"

It's even less of a leap for marijuana users to adapt the Libertarian Party's position on Foreign Policy issues.  Just as marijuana consumption is none of Bush or Barack's business, the oil reserves owned by Muslim countries are none of Bush or Barack's business.  "I own me.  You own the oil.  Give me enough oil to light my bong, and I'll let you have a hit, and we'll both be happier.  Free trade.  Herb's The Word." 

Or something like that. 

It was a great weekend.  I've had several requests for my charts and graphs showing debt level, spending levels, etc.  Will post them all later. 

And seeing this up on the screen at the marijuana legalization conference was a fine, fine moment. 

If you ask me to perform your wedding.

....then this is what you're going to get.  Here's 45 seconds.  Yes, I am ordained through the Universal Life Church!! 



Go here to read the back-story on this bit of Libertarian Party greatness!!  I didn't have video when I wrote the first post.
 

When Libertarians officiate at a wedding

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party Vice-Chair, Michael Coyne, recently asked me to officiate at his wedding. 
If this is your first visit to this site, I'm the Chair of the Tarrant County (Fort Worth) Libertarian Party.

(Yeah, I'm ordained.  I can also lead the singing at revivals, navigate duck hunts, train Labrador Retrievers, broker freight, do Tarot readings, and do about three card tricks.) 
Michael is a lapsed Catholic.  His lovely bride, Shayna, was raised Jew(-ish), meaning "not really".  They wanted a 100% secular ceremony.  An Anglican priest friend of Mike's had agreed to tie this particular wedding knot, but backed out, perhaps because of the secular nature of the ceremony that Mike and Shayna wanted. 

So I borrowed some ministerial vestments from my friend Dan Freemyer, the guy who feeds the homeless and helps the poor at Broadway Baptist Church. 

When you ask the Tarrant County Libertarian Chair to take on a ministerial/rabbinical/priestly role at your wedding, this is what you're gonna get: 

We are gathered here today to celebrate one of life’s greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of love, and to hear the words which shall unite Michael and Shayna in marriage.

A few days ago, Michael and Shayna filled out a marriage “license”, issued by the state of Texas. In the eyes of the state, they are already married, and now have the right to sue each other.

That piece of bureaucratic paperwork has absolutely nothing to do with the sacred event that you will witness and participate in today.   The state of Texas is not ensuring the legitimacy and worth of this union. You are. Michael and Shayna have invited you, their families, friends and co-workers to join with them in their vows to remain faithful, loving and committed to each other.

The wedding party already knew what I was going to say in this Welcome/Greeting, and had signed off on it.  The families, friends, and co-workers liked it and laughed in the right places. 

Mike and Shayna are now married - just as married as if Billy Graham, Pope Benedict, Rabbi Ralph Mecklenburger, a ship's captain, a Justice Of The Peace, or a Supreme Court Justice had officiated at the wedding. 
Texas has given them a contract that says they can sue each other. 
Their friends, families, co-workers (and The Tarrant County Libertarian Party) watched these two wonderful people enter into a contract to love each other, care for each other, and provide for each other for the rest of their lives.  I think that's the one that matters.   

Email me if you want to get married.  I work cheap.  @Whited79

The d'Anconia Copper T-Shirt

I know what I'm getting my friend Mike Coyne for Christmas this year !!  (Inside joke)

Go here for the text of the famous d'Anconia money speech from "Atlas Shrugged". 
Go here to purchase the shirt. 
For devotees of Big Government who have difficulty reading, here's a recording. 



"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

An honest question about the effectiveness of pepper-spray

Buzzfeed has published what they call The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011.  There are some great photos in there. 
Three of them caught my attention.....

A protester gets sprayed in the face with pepper spray at an Occupy Portland protest. (Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)

A University of California Davis police officer pepper-sprays students during their sit-in at an "Occupy UCD" demonstration in Davis, California. (Jasna Hodzic)

84-year-old Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed during a peaceful march in Seattle, Washington. She would have been thrown to the ground and trampled, but luckily a fellow protester and Iraq vet was there to save her. (Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com)

I've got one question.... Our government is pepper-spraying protesters who are rallying for more and more government power and control.  I repeat....Our government is pepper-spraying protesters who are rallying for more and more government power and control.
Have the protesters changed their minds already, or do they need to be pepper-sprayed some more? 

Hit this link to see the other pics.  There are some great ones in the Buzzfeed collection.
A fresh coat of Whitening to my friend Mike Coyne for opening my eyes to this phenomenon.   

TRIP. Tonight. Rahr Brewery. 6:30.

I'm playing guitar and singing with Mike Coyne and Big Daddy John Spivey at the Rahr Brewery in Fort Worth tonight at 6:30. 
It's a fund-raiser for TRIP, the Trinity River Improvement Partnership.  You also get to see a documentary called Up A Creek, detailing the history of the Trinity River and the dangers of the current Trinity River development plan.  TRIP was set up as an alternative to the billion-dollar Trinity River Vision boondoggle set up by and for JD and his mama, Kay Granger.  I'm sure that I'll be posting more about this group as I learn more about it.  Hell, the Granger outfit has already doubled the size of the original budget.  (It's now up to something like 900 million.) 

I'm going to be doing some Buffet tunes, some Jerry Jeff Walker, and a few originals.  Spivey will be singing an original composition called "Mama Tried".  (Guess who that one is about !!) 

Here's the lyrics to one of the songs I'll be doing.  There was an old guy named James Cook who worked on my father's farm, and about three times a year he'd tell me about a little dog that helped his family get through the Great Depression.  I wrote this in honor of Mr. Cook, and his dog, and to get in a slam at Franklin Roosevelt. 
It's called "The Dog That Knew". 

"Back in the Great Depression, I made fifty cents a day,
Just digging ditches, picking cotton, or whatever else would pay.
Had a house full of kids, and couldn't keep 'em fed,
Every night we'd go to sleep, afraid we'd wake up dead. 

Well, one day here's this little dog like I have not seen since,
As if God had crossed a beagle with some kind of barbed wire fence,
And that little dog did something that I've never seen before,
He went and caught a rabbit, and then laid it at my door. 

Well, Daisy took that rabbit and she threw it in a pot,
Then we sat down at the table, thanked the Lord for what we got,
We thanked the Lord for sunshine and them children in the yard,
And we thanked God for little dogs that knew that times were hard.

Had that dog for seven years and Lord, he fed us well. 
That dog could bring a rabbit back straight from the gates of hell,
You see those rabbits ran like lightning up and down that river bank,
Sometimes they ran through gulleys that could scare a Sherman tank. 

And Mr. Roosevelt he said "It's only fear itself",
Well I bet Mr. Roosevelt had groceries on his shelf. 
They said it was a brand New Deal, that's all that some folks had. 
We had us a little dog that knew that times were bad. 

Well, Daisy took that rabbit and she threw it in a pot,

Then we sat down at the table, thanked the Lord for what we got,
We thanked the Lord for sunshine and them children in the yard,
And we thanked God for little dogs that knew that times were hard.

It's been forty years, I guess, since I first heard it said,
About that old man's dog and how it kept his family fed -
You see, my back yard's full of dachshunds, those useless weiner dogs;
Never caught a rabbit, and Lord they eat like hogs. 

Sometimes I'll take 'em huntin', and Lordy what a sight,
There's a man whose little dogs are scared that rabbits bite.
So if y'all see me looking like I don't eat enough,
It's because my little dogs don't know that times are tough. 

So y'all bring me a rabbit, and I'll throw it in a pot,
I'll sit down at the table, and thank the Lord for what I've got.
I'll thank the Lord for sunshine and those dachshunds in the yard,
But I'll wish I had some little dogs that knew that times are hard. 

Hope to see some of you tonight !!!

Kathie Glass for Texas Governor, Billy Miner's Saloon, Thursday July 29, 2010

W here to begin, where to begin....
Last night I went to Billy Miner's for a Kathie Glass for Texas Governor campaign rally. 

There are a lot of good reasons to support Kathie Glass, but let me get to the no-brainers first. 

The Democrat in this race, Bill White, was Secretary Of Energy for Bill Clinton/Al Gore.  According to several reliable sources, White actively campaigned for The Goracle Of Music City prior to The Goracle's decision to leave politics and enter the environmental salvation racket. 

The Republican in this race, incumbent governor Rick Perry, was Gore's Texas campaign manager in 1988.  Perry eventually left the Democrat party and had a falling-out with The Goracle over climate change. 
Well, at least Governor Perry owns a thermometer.  And compared to Bill White, his hair is stunning.   
But he has defiled himself. 

Kathie Glass, the Libertarian, is the only candidate for Texas governor who has never campaigned for Al Gore. 
'Nuff said. 

A few other reasons:
First and foremost in Glass's 5 Point Plan is a promise to use nullification and interposition to get around ObamaCare and Cap'n'Tax.  What does this mean in plain English?  Texas is a sovereign state.  We have rights.  There is nothing in the constitution that says the federal government can force you to purchase a product from a private company when the purchase has nothing to do with a government activity (i.e. - driving on the government's roads). 
"Therefore, we the Texas Legislature and Governor declare ObamaCare to be freakin' nullified between the Red River and the Gulf Of Mexico."  Next issue, please....

Also included in the 5 Point Plan - stronger protections against Eminent Domain Abuse.  It doesn't matter how well Tony Romo is throwing the football, Kathie Glass isn't going to let the government steal anyone else's house so Jerry Jones can build Tony a new playpen. 

And then there was this guy....
It's safe to call him a "single-issue voter". 
This dude, Larry Kilgore, showed up at Ms. Glass's rally, wound up tighter than a 3-day clock. 
Intense. 
Outraged. 
Long before the QandA session began, I could feel his intensity level overpowering everything else in his corner of the room. 
Hell, I was just there to support our gubernatorial candidate, hang out with Spivey and Coyne, and maybe eat a cheeseburger. 
Larry Kilgore showed up ready to draw a line in the sand, splatter the blood of the traitors across Billy Miner's barroom floor, and secede from The Union. 
Here's a video of Mr. Kilgore in action.  You gotta watch it.  If you get past the first 15 seconds, I promise you, you'll watch all of it. 



Mr. Intensity stood during the Qand A, and asked Kathie something like HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SECESSION ?????  
Glass tried to respond that secession from The Union was an extreme position, and that....

Mr. Intensity was immediately outraged, and went into a well-rehearsed rant about why Texas should LEAVE THE UNITED STATES and stood to leave.  Several other people tried to throw their 2 cents in.  Even with a microphone, Kathie had trouble making herself heard. 

After Spivey restored order, Glass and Kilgore argued back and forth for a few seconds.  Kilgore didn't like the way the argument was going, and once again turned around to walk out. 

Kathie Glass, like the transplanted Georgia Peach she is, calmly and politely said "Don't you walk out on me, sir.  Please don't make me talk about you behind your back !"

But he was gone.  Gone elsewhere to pursue the dream of an independent Lone Star State. 
Glass went on to explain that we have a great system, and a great constitution.  We just need to elect politicians who understand it and respect it. 

Freakin' brilliant.  Don't make me talk about you behind your back.  Some of us think she may have hired the guy to show up.  This was a great night.  Time well spent. 

If I had to pick someone to go head-to-head with The Teleprompter Jesus, it would be Kathie Glass.

Clunker Economics

My friend Mike Coyne sent me this gem. I don't think the numbers are 100% accurate, but the analogy is close enough to make a great point.

* A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
* A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.
* So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
* They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.
* That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
* More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.
* So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
* We spent $8.57 for every dollar saved.
* How good a deal was that ???
**They'll probably do a great job with health care though!! **