From: wtr@mitre.org (Bill Ralston)
Subject: Re: A real bunch of environmentally friendly folks...NOT 
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 23:45:58 GMT

in article <BvrnB4.C20@news.udel.edu>les@ravel.udel.edu (Matthew Re 
Templeton) says (quoting from the Libertarian party platform)

>>Present legal  principles, particularly the  unjust and  false
>>concept of "public  property," block privatisation  of the use of  the
>>environment and hence  block resolution of controversies over resource
>>use.
> 
>Oh, now this is amusing.  I suppose ol' Andre has just got his willie in 
>his hand - he's so excited about opening up say, the Arctic Wildlife Nat'l >Refuge
>for oil drilling.  "Shit, who cares about caribou, let's sell 'em to ARCO 
>shall we?"  [text deleted...] I'm more than happy with a vaguely defined
>piece of "public property" if I see trees & animals on it rather than oil 
>rigs.

And ain't our government doing a great job protecting public property! :) 
Face reality; the government can do anything it wants to public property 
without having to answer to the public. If there is a strong enough 
economic incentive, the government sells the public's interest to the 
higest bidder.  Every law ever passed by congress has enough exclusions 
and loopholes to let somebody get in there and "rape the land".  If the 
public really wants to protect a piece of property, they should form a 
private corporation and buy it.  It's been done in this country, and it 
works, and well too, because the government can't then go screw it up (at 
least until liberals abolish all property rights in this country).  If you 
are so concerned about protecting the environment, how much have you 
contributed to some of the organizations that buy up land for 
environmental preservation purposes.  Or is that something you want 
everyone else to pay for out of their taxes?

> Frankly, the only reason we have the problems with
>the EPA/Council on Competitiveness/other obnoxious bureaucrats is because
>a)we have a government that doesn't really care about the environment, and b)
>that government was put in place by a population that doesn't really care >about the environment either.  Fine, the libertarians say.  If they don't >care, they won't bother to fix things when they're broke.  Well, *I* will, >but I can't do
>it alone.  I can't do it with 10 other people, I can't do it with a million.
>It takes a *government* that will go after people who pollute and/or >otherwise
>damage ecosystems. Maybe the people of this country really *don't* care about
>the environment.  But for the sake of my children, and your children, we damn
>well better start.  And to do that, we need a government that will *actively*
>work to help the environment, not say "well, if the people don't care, why
>bother?" 

Gee, let me get this right, the government should do what's good for the 
people whether they want it or not?  So much for "of, by, and for the 
people".  If a majority of the people in this country don't want tax 
dollars spent on environmental preservation, the government has no 
consitutional right to do so.  Actually, I don't think people don't care 
about the environment - it's just lower priority than having a job, food, 
and home.

Rather than improving things, though, the EPA and other federal 
bureaucracy is doing massive damage to our economy, making it less 
possible for folks that care about the environment to have any economic 
power to do anything about it. Throwing more government at it ain't gonna 
work.  A dollar given to the private sector does about ten times as much 
good as a dollar given to the federal government (see above).

The Libertarian party is not anti-environment - if anything it's 
anti-government.  I laugh at Bush claiming to be the environmental 
president, and must point out that it's the Democratically controlled 
congress that hasn't done anything but create loopholes for polluters.  
The folks in Washington seem to have you right where they want you - 
giving them a mandate to further expand government (in the guise of 
environmental protection).

I am always amazed when Dead-heads, a generally authority-questioning 
anarchistic group, sometimes seem to think that more government and more 
laws are the answer to the world's problems.  More government and laws are 
the root cause of many of these problems!

Sure, the Libertarian platform isn't perfect; you going to keep returning 
those Demopublicans back into office since they're doing such a good job? 
:)

---------------
Bill
wtr@mitre.org
**Marrou/Lord in '92.  (If you don't know who they are, you are not a 
fully informed voter.  Fulfill your civic responsibility and find out!! **
** Opinions are mine only, and not my employer's **