Border Cops Read Reason (Hey Kids, Comics! Edition)

Nick Gillespie | June 24, 2005

From the blog of Fantagraphics, publisher of Peter Bagge and Bob Levin's The Pirates & the Mouse: Disney's War Against the Counterculture, which we excerpted last December. The writer is Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics describing a trip he took to Canada:

Last December, Greg Zura and I traveled up to Vancouver for a day to attend meetings with our Canadian distributor, Raincoast Books. We headed back home in the early evening, after dinner, and hit the U.S. border around 8PM or so. It was an unusually quiet night with almost no traffic, and we pulled right up to the first available U.S. agent. As always, he asked us where we were coming from and what our business was in Vancouver. I told him we were publishers, visiting our distributor. He asked me, "What do you publish?" Things got weird from here:

ME: "Comic books"

AGENT: "Comic books? Ever heard of them 'underground' comic books?"

ME: "Uh, yeah."

At this point Greg and I look at each other and start to get nervous; is this a sting operation or is Ashton Kutcher about to jump out from behind the Peace Arch and yell "PUNK'D!"?

AGENT: "You ever read REASON magazine?"

At this point I just figured I met the world's least likely Peter Bagge fan, but no.

ME: "Uh, yeah, are you a Peter Bagge fan?"

AGENT: "Yeah, he's good, but you ever read about the Air Pirates?...Well, remember guys, you gotta spread the libertarian word. You gotta get out and pound the pavement. I can't do it all myself -- I'm here all day!"

Whole thing here.

Question: Is "REASON...a firmly libertarian mag in the Ayn Rand model," as Reynolds avers? And if so, could somebody please tell that to readers pissed off at our coverage of Rand's 100th b-day?

Hat tip to Elizabeth Spiers of Mediabistro.

Comments

|6.24.05 @ 11:43AM|#

Obviously no one told these guys what the lib secret handshake is - otherwise they wouldn't have had so many doubts.

|6.24.05 @ 11:47AM|#

I wonder if that's the same border guard who let my friends back in, from their trip to Cuba, with three boxes of cigars and two bottles of rum.

|6.24.05 @ 11:51AM|#

Gee, Nick, I can't imagine why an old fashioned Rand-oid would be pissed? Oh, wait, yes I can.

|6.24.05 @ 12:05PM|#

Where was this Libertarian border guard a few years ago when my friends and I got sent to International Customs Identification and had our car fully inspected for looking like a bunch of stoners? We could've used him. They wasted some of our precious underage gambling and drinking time.

|6.24.05 @ 12:23PM|#

That settles it. The next time I'm returning from Canada, I'll keep the latest issue of Reason on the dashboard.

|6.24.05 @ 12:23PM|#

Groth & Co. are your typical art school lefties. I think they may have absorbed their Rand by reading Ditko comics. Comics Journal always had something interesting to read, back when I read it regularly.

Kevin

|6.24.05 @ 12:40PM|#

It actually surprises me how many libertarians actually work for the G. Some people claim that it's because they're hypocrites.

But I suspect it's more likely they discovered their leanings after they were already on a career path in some cases, or for others it's a "better a guy/gal like me than some power-tripping statist" tactic. (Y'know, like dressing conservatively for your day job to work things from the inside out...)

|6.24.05 @ 12:46PM|#

rob-

At least we feel guilty about it! ;)

Jeff|6.24.05 @ 12:49PM|#

You're dealing with admitted "lefties" here. To them Ayn Rand, libertarianism, most forms of republicanism are one and the same.
Although I would never be so crass as to pidgeonhole and stereotype that bunch of welfare-luvin' hippies...

|6.24.05 @ 1:11PM|#

Contrarian that I am:
I was a democrat when I worked in the private sector.
I became a republican when I began contracting out to government projects.
I became a libertarian after I started working for the government.

|6.24.05 @ 1:19PM|#

That is right both me and Dr T work for the G. (we're G men?)

The evil Dr went to work for the G, already being a libertarian. I became one while working for the G. I think that one of the things that initially attracted me was that being a libertarian is even more anti-communist, than being a Republican.

Either way, it is a good thing when a libertarian goes to work for the government. It is really good when those people go to work as judges.

|6.24.05 @ 1:43PM|#

we're G men?

What up, G?!?!

:)

|6.24.05 @ 2:24PM|#

Word

|6.24.05 @ 3:02PM|#

Ok, a little truth in advertising: I work for the G as well. Although I prefer to think of it as upholding a particular oath...

I know that for me, seeing the "Bold Bureaucrats" inaction - er, I meant in action - brought me around to minarchism/classical Liberalism pretty quickly.

|6.24.05 @ 3:14PM|#

What do you do Rob?

|6.24.05 @ 4:10PM|#

I'm an Air Force officer for now. But it was during my prior Navy time (an effective counter-example!) that brought me to my political POV.

|6.24.05 @ 4:15PM|#

Some might find this ironic, but I found the enlistment oath (and later the commissioning oath) "to support and defend the Constitution, against all enemies foreign and domestic" fits my politics and worldview quite well.

I seem to recall thinking that you were probably military (at least at some point) in one thread...

|6.25.05 @ 9:51AM|#

rob,

I took my enlistment oath, and then later my commissioning oath to "support and defend the Constitution", as a Marine.

|6.26.05 @ 2:30AM|#

No wonder you make sense so often!

Conversation I had not too long ago with a Marine in Haiti, about what to do in the unlikely event we were shot at:

Me: "Every Marine's a rifleman, which is why every Airman - including this one - plans to stay out of your line of fire."

Gunny (after giving me a brief overview of how to avoid getting shot): "Sir, you pronounce it 'hooah!' We pronouce it 'oo-rah!' Either way it's bad news for the guys down-range."

Me: "Unless I get something better than this sidearm, that's only gonna be true if we're calling in air support."

Gunny (not remotely interested in issuing me an M-16): "You could always talk them to death, sir.

Me: "If you think that'll work, I'll give it my best shot."

Gunny (truly amused at the dearth of my ground combat training): "On second thought, if we come under fire, just try not to give away our position."

Me: "Roger Gunny."

Gunny: "Oo-rah!"

God Bless the Marine Corps! (Because if it weren't for what they do, the Air Force might have to do it!)

|6.26.05 @ 1:06PM|#

Rob,
Thanks for your kind words about making sense often. But I don't know that I can accept the compliment. Though, the two smartest humans I know are Marines, and both libertarians. One of them being the one who introduced me to the libertarian philosophy.

Many Marines, and many Marine officers are idiots, authoritarians, and other ill-guided types. So I can't accept the 'Marine therefore makes sense'.

But I will say that being a Marine, and being a military person specially one that deploys overseas, does enable you to look at the world from an angle not afforded to others. What you do with that view and how you interpret into your own paradigms is on you.

I see people make statements on this board and on others, that I know to be borne of not understanding some things that I know. I can't always put that into words effectively.

Also I learn a lot on this website. I am not a big reader, and not a great student, but in this interactive format I can learn a lot about politics, science, and history. I hope that I can retain what I learn here, and that I can use it somewhere.

|6.26.05 @ 1:09PM|#

Rob,
In less words;
Thanks for the compliment, and it's good to have a kindred type in the fray of ideas.

|6.27.05 @ 1:46PM|#

"Many Marines, and many Marine officers are idiots, authoritarians, and other ill-guided types. So I can't accept the 'Marine therefore makes sense'."

Yeah, that's a sad truth, and you can easily swap Marines for Sailors/Airmen and Marine officers for Air Force/Navy officers. (Tho I have to admit my experience with Naval officers has AF-types beat - they were some of the worst times in my life!)

While I've noticed that most Marines (and folks from other military branches) tend to at least be pretty practical, there's no such thing as a gov't entity staffed with guys as smart and cool as I'd like to think we are!

(I spend time on HNR to get a dose of intelligent conversation thats sadly lacking amongst the folks I work with...)

I've certainly appreciated your thoughts on the Gitmo and Abu Ghraib stuff. Have you seen the stuff Dynamist has been posting lately? Good stuff about "how a 4G enemy conducts war."

Makes me suspect he might also be "workin' for tha G!" Heh...