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 POT-POURRI
*** EDITORIAL ***
These Are The Times That Try Men's Souls
by Vince Miller
Well, sort of. Surely it's easy to think the world is going to Hell
in a hand basket — at least judging from the barrage of discouraging news of war, terrorism and
economic madness that vomits forth from daily news reports.
But as you will see in this issue of the Freedom Network News, much of the world is a rapidly
changing place — for the better. At our world conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, we had to pinch
ourselves to believe what was happening in former slave states around the world. That's why we are
bullish on the future of liberty on this planet — and proud to be a part of this great movement.
But the short-term prospects are a bit dicey. With the distractions
of war and a brittle economy, it's been a rough year for the movement's institutions. Foundation
funding has all but dried up, and revenues are down significantly.
We are grateful to the many of you, our members, who have
donated generously through the year — but we need to
grow and increase our income if we are to keep the liberty train on track. This is increasingly
important with the added overhead of maintaining Free-Market.Net — not to mention providing gift
memberships to over 500 people in the developing world.
We know that money is tight these days and that many of you are
feeling the pinch, so we suggest that a relatively painless and affordable way to support our work is
through our monthly Pledge Program. Even small amounts add up and help us with cash flow during
dry periods. A monthly credit card charge is the easiest — or you may send a series of
post-dated checks.
Thanks. We appreciate your support.
ISIL Team Investigates Solutions To The
#@%&#* SPAM Problem
Is SPAM driving you nuts? You are not alone. The massive flow of
junk, besides being thoroughly annoying, is clogging servers across the country to the point where
they just bog down and stop. Last week a tidal wave of spam resulted in a 5-hour delay in getting our
Freedom News Daily out. Something has to be done — definitely before the government tries to
fix it and screws everything up totally.
In search of solutions, Stefan Metzeler
(Switzerland) and Glenn Cripe (USA) have prepared an early draft
of a white paper, based on their extended discussions and input from a few readers and
computer/Internet-savvy attendees at the Vilnius, Lithuania conference.
The paper focuses on the current imbalance between costs and property
rights of senders and receivers of spam, explains why searching for government remedy is misguided
(because it doesn't address the root problem) and offers guidelines for a more effective and
market-based approach to solving the problem.
It also describes a multi-level approach to a solution, analogous to
currently-accepted models for dealing with Internet security (auto theft, home burglary, and so forth).
More specifically, Internet users would ideally have a variety of ways of
interacting with one another, and would choose the combination of security, privacy, and price most
appropriate for them.
Please address comments and suggestions to Stefan and Glenn at
isil@isil.org
They are especially interested in your knowledge of, or interest in,
products and services that further the goals outlined above.
Major Cooperation Established Between
ISIL and Libertarian International
At the ISIL world conference in Lithuania this past July, the subject
of closer cooperation and possible joint projects between ISIL and the European Libertarian International
was brought up — first by Le Cercle Frédóric Bastiat president Jacques
de Guenin and then by LI president Hubert Jongen. In
subsequent discussions with Jongen and the ISIL Board members, it was decided to exchange Board
members, with ISIL's Ken Schoolland serving on the LI Board (as
well as ours) and Christian Michel of LI doing likewise.
ISIL Board member Ken Schoolland is well known to our members as the
author of the highly-acclaimed free-market fable The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible (which
has now been translated and published in 30 languages).
Libertarian International Board member Christian Michel, has always impressed us as being an exceptionally
creative and original thinker. We are optimistic that this pooling of intellectual resources will
prove very fruitful in furthering the pursuit of our mutual libertarian goals.
ISIL Rescue Mission In Serbia
In July, ISIL Serbian Rep Tomislav Krsmanovic informed us that ISIL
member Zvezdan Milivojevic in Belgrade had been committed to a
mental institution where he was being maltreated. This had happened to Tomislav in the past, and
seemed to be normal procedure for the treatment of dissidents. Besides being a libertarian, Zvezdan
had been a labor leader during the previous regime. We were of course concerned and were fortunate
that Stephen Browne, now living in Warsaw, volunteered to make a diplomatic visit to both the hospital
and government officials to protest.
ISIL funded this trip and we are happy to report that conditions for
Zvezdan have improved and that he has been released. Our thanks to Steven Browne for a job well done.
In Memoriam – Ilona Daukas
We were deeply saddened to hear that in early September ISIL Rep for
Lithuania Virgis Daukas, his wife Ilona,
and 12-year-old son Bartas became ill after eating poison
mushrooms. Sadly, Ilona, a long-time libertarian activist and English camp organizer, died from the
poison.
On the brighter side, young Bartas had only a small taste and was not
badly affected. Virgis, we are greatly relieved to report, has rallied strongly and is expected to
survive.
Our thanks to Stephen Browne who made a visit from Warsaw to Vilnius
for Ilona's funeral and purchased a wreath on behalf of ISIL.
Our heartfelt condolences to the Daukas family on the tragic loss of
Ilona.
2003 ISIL Vilnius Conference Proceedings Available
on Computer CD
If you would like to relive or experience the ISIL World conference just held in Vilnius, Lithuania, this computer CD may be just the ticket. It includes:
- mp3 sound files for most of the conference sessions
- Transcripts and PowerPoint presentations for several sessions
- A large collection of photographs.
- A Lithuania travelogue, produced by ISIL member Tom Wilbur
Price is only $15.95 US + $2.00 shipping & handling (US). For overseas airmail, shipping charges are $4.00.
Send check or money order to:
International Society for Individual Liberty
836-B Southampton Rd. #299
Benicia, CA 94510
Or you may pay by credit card (VISA, MasterCard, American Express) on the ISIL Shopping Cart.
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