2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #221 "ISideWith.Com: WHERE DO YOU STAND?"

               Here is a poll that I strongly suggest you take.  Go to www.isidewith.com, answer its questions and see where you stand on a wide ranging number of political issues.  It won’t take long, it’s fun and I think you will find the results to be interesting (although it should have included more free market questions).  Of course, most of life is more complicated than “yes or no” questions, but this test is fairly sophisticated, and allows for gradations of responses.  So I truly think that it has merit.  (The poll is private, but you can share the results with others if you wish.  It’s completely up to you.) 

                After the isidewith program digested my answers, it told me that am a slightly left of center Libertarian, and that I agree with Governor Gary Johnson about 85 percent of the time.  (That’s pretty good, because I don’t even agree with myself 85 percent of the time. . . .)  But none of this surprised me because, as I have frequently written in this column, I support Milton Friedman’s concept of a national stipend for people who make less than a certain amount of money (and then doing away with all other welfare, except for those with truly special needs).  But try it yourself, and I anticipate that you will surprise yourself about how Libertarian you are!  As such, you may very well join me in believing that the Libertarian Party is the only real mainstream political party in our country today.  Socially we support a “Live and Let Live” policy, and financially we support responsibility at all levels of society, including individual, group, corporate and governmental.  This makes us the only political party that would actually confront our nation’s deficits – which are the biggest threat both to our nation’s security and to our children’s financial future.  (So take the poll and see where you fit.  I’ll bet you a hamburger that you are much more Libertarian than you thought!)

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Quote for the week, told to me directly by a retired stewardess from Southwest Airlines: “On occasion our plane would hit hard on its landing.  So when I saw the chins of the passengers in the first few rows touch down to their chests, I would get on the microphone and say: ‘Yes that was a hard landing.  But I want you to know that it wasn’t the crew’s fault, and it wasn’t the plane’s fault; it was the asphalt.’”

               Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  

              You can also hear past shows as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #171 “A MORE REPRESENTATIVE CONGRESS”

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     Okay, here is a suggestion as to how we could have a more representative United States Congress.  By way of background, when the House of Representatives first came into being in 1789 there were only 65 members.  That number steadily increased until 1911, when Congress passed the “Apportionment Act,” which capped the number of Representatives at the same 435 that we have today.  Since the population of the United States was about 92 million in 1911, that meant that each Congressman then represented about 211,000 people.  What if we were to amend the Appropriations Act to provide that we have the same proportion today as we had then?  Simple mathematics tells us that, since we now have a population of about 325 million people, this would increase the number of the members of Congress to about 1,540.  So that is impractical, right?  Well, actually, in today’s world it is not.  What if all members had just a home office with a small staff and never went to Washington DC at all?  Modern technology would allow all members to caucus, meet publically as well as privately, be informed, carry out their duties – and vote (electronically). 

     All of this would work to the benefit of We the People!  Why?  Many reasons.  Since there would be many more members who were more geographically dispersed, it would be much more difficult for lobbyists to influence them.  And the members of Congress could better maintain and be influenced by local contacts because they would always be at home.  Of course, more members would cost us taxpayers more salary, but it would also result in great savings in travel costs, not to mention paying for only one office instead of two and vastly reducing the numbers of staff personnel.  In fact, given that situation, maybe we could/should go back to the numbers used when Congress first began in 1789 where, with a population of about 3.9 million, each Representative represented only about 60,000 people.  In today’s world that would result in about 5,400 Representatives.  In both of these situations We the People’s voices would be stronger and the special interest lobbying would be more substantially curtailed – all to the enhancement of Liberty!  At the very least, it is something to think about.

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  Judge Jim Gray (Ret.) 

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

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Quote of the Week: When Henry Kissinger was meeting with Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972 as a part of Nixon going to China, Kissinger mentioned that all revolutions have a long-term cost, which the Premier disputed.  So when Kissinger asked “Well, what about the French Revolution?” Zhou Enlai responded by saying: “It’s too early to tell.” 

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!