Welch & Gillespie Talking in Portland Today, 7.30pm PT, at Powell's City of Books
Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch will be at the celebrated Portland, Oregon bookstorePowell's City of Books on Burnside on Monday, August 1 to talk about and sign copies of their new book, The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What Wrong's With America.
The event starts at 7.30pm PT and more details are online here.
The Washington Post's George Will (kind of) callsDeclaration the beach read of summer 2011:
August is upon us, beaches beckon and Michele Bachmann has set the self-improvement bar high. She recently told The Wall Street Journal, "When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises." The congresswoman may be the first person ever to dribble sun lotion on the section of Ludwig von Mises's "Human Action" wherein the Austrian economist (1881-1973) discussed "the formal and aprioristic character of praxeology."
Autodidacts less exacting than Bachmann should spill sand on the pages of "The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America" by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. These incurably upbeat journalists with Reason magazine believe that not even government, try as it will, can prevent onrushing social improvement.
For more reviews, media appearances, and book tour information, go to Declaration2011.com.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
You should send future-President Bachmann a copy of the book.
Your hard-on for her isn't just embarrassing, it's made you delusional. Have fun with that.
Wait, who has the erection here?
Michele must have prayed for Episi...and it worked!
You should stop projecting, dude.
Guy with hard-on attacks commentator, calls him delusional, then says he's projecting. Classic.
It's remarkable how successfully the Republicans have adopted the Democratic strategy of sexualizing their candidates.
What's even more remarkable is how many of those candidates fit into the category of "clueless Midwestern housewife" and "suspiciously well-dressed guy with spray tan."
Damn that "clueless Midwestern housewife" eating her bon bons and reading trashy Austrian economics texts.
Bachmann is just another lawyer turned politician, full of lies and empty promises, seeking power for power's sake, who is shamelessly pandering to the tea party movement, while being just as slimy and full of shit as any other lawyer turned politician.
Give me a doctor or something to vote for.
Fuck lawyers.
Michele has been pitching that SoCon Constitutional-minarchy stuff since she first ran for the state legislature. Long before there was ever a "Tea Party".
SoCons are still statists. Statists light perhaps in that they give lip service to economic liberty, but they're still statists.
They wish to impose their morals through legislation.
Legislated morality and Constitutional-minarchy are contradictory.
You need a big intrusive government to force people to conduct their private lives in a manner that meets your approval.
That and she's still a lawyer.
That SoCon signed a pledge vowing to fight the core individual contract of society. You can't be minarchist and opposed to contracts without serious cognitive dissonance in your head.
Perhaps she should crack open that book she brought to the beach.
This contract?
Yeah that one. And I have a bone to pick with RP about it too. Not only should the Federal government butt out, but so should the fifty state governments! (A concept that a huge swath of libertarians are unable to grasp).
But at least Ron didn't sign a pledge vowing to end no-fault divorce.
she also believes jesus will come back and take her away to paradise...
It's not remarkable at all. If you're fucking dumb enough to like a politician because you find them attractive, well, you're a fucking moron, and such strategies will work on you.
Lady: Are you going to take care of the crime problem here?
Dennis: Absolutely, I say we put them on buses and ship them over to Iraq...make them fight the terrorists.
Lady: You're very handsome.
Failed, frustrated writer acts out his aggressions online, anonymously. Classic!
Wow, you're fucking stupid. Failed writer? Are you delusional or just a moron? Please, more of this.
Why are you so obsessed with Bachmann's looks? From the referenced/linked WSJ-piece in the above post:
When I ask who she reads on the subject, she responds that she admires the late Milton Friedman as well as Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. "I'm also an Art Laffer fiend?we're very close," she adds. "And [Ludwig] von Mises. I love von Mises," getting excited and rattling off some of his classics like "Human Action" and "Bureaucracy." "When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises."
Insufficient focus on constitutional limits to federal power is a Bachmann pet peeve.
"For one, I believe my policies prior to '08 would have been much different from [President Bush's]. I wouldn't have spent so much money," she says, pointing in particular at the Department of Education and the Medicare prescription drug bill.
"I was opposed to the U.S. involvement in Libya from the very start," she says. "President Obama has never made a compelling national security case on Libya."
Even more striking, she says the 1973 War Powers Resolution, requiring congressional approval for military action after 60 days, is "the law of the land" and must be obeyed. That's a notable difference from every recent president of either party, including Ronald Reagan.
She got started in politics after seeing the failures in public schooling. "The kids were coloring posters in 11th grade algebra class,"
Her big challenge is whether the country is ready to support deep spending cuts. On this issue, she carries a sharper blade than everyone except Ron Paul.
"Everything else is expendable to bring spending down," and she'd ax "whole departments" including the Department of Education.
The congresswoman isn't my first choice for President but I'd rather see her the GOP nominee than Romney, Perry etc.
It is very amusing to see how she drives leftards and left-leaning "libertarians" nuts.
It's very amusing to see how she drives morons like you nuts, but with your nuts. But you just keep projecting, dude, I'm sure that's working out for you.
I can troll you everytime just by mentioning her name. You're obsessed.
Did her prayers spoil your boy-crush on Glenn Greenwald?
Yes, you've trolled me. Again, enjoy your fantasies, and make sure you masturbate furiously to Bachmann. Don't chafe anything, though,
That's bullshit that she would've taken a different path than GWBush -- she consistently fawned over him and his policies.
Oh yeah!
Pimpin da book, yeah!
Pimp dat book!
Pimp it!
Oh!
Yeah!
Pimp it, pimp it, pimp it!
I still am confused as to why Portland but not Seattle.
Epi: I'm sorry. I can't live knowing they're visiting Portland. Who is Portland?
Reason: They're somebody.
Epi: What about us?
Reason: You're nobody.
Epi: Why them? Why not us?
Reason: They're good, you're not.
Epi: We're better than Portland.
Reason: You're worse. Much, much worse.
I used to be really cute.
Seattle is better than Portland, everyone knows that!
Portland Maine?
Actually, I really like Portland, Maine. Nice little city.
Seattle has nothing on the order of Powell's Books. Not even close.
A book signing at Powell's is like playing the Superbowl or preaching at Saint Peter's.
but in seattle they could throw fish at that one shitty business book place.
How dare Welch and Gillespie turn Portland into their own personal sales pitch.
Bill Moyers book placed right next to Henry Kissinger book. Fight!
"These incurably upbeat journalists with Reason magazine believe that not even government, try as it will, can prevent onrushing social improvement."
This is typical of the Reason kind of libertarians who somehow believe freedom is on the cusp of breaking out all over. The "lifestyle libertarians" targeted for this book skew young and techie. They generally believe humanity is getting more free because of technology- e.g. "I can talk to a dissident in China on my Ipad!"
Crap, i missed it (I was barely in the same hemisphere). How did it go?