With news that there are LAWSUITS LAWSUITS LAWSUITS flying at the TSA now, and the volume of the issue being driven to a hysteria (seriously, I am pleasantly surprised that I get to refer folks to Drudge Report as a courtesy for his excellent coverage of the whole thing)… there’s only one thing I want to convey to Hammer of Truth readers, and anyone else who values their rights and dignity:

Report all TSA employee violations of your rights to local law enforcement. TSA employees are not above the law, they are not exempt from the law, they can be arrested for improper contact (molestation, sexual assault or otherwise). Just “following TSA orders” or procedures (AKA the Nuremberg defense)* is not an excuse that will stand up in any sane court. Send the clear message that any illegal conduct is rejected in the strongest terms, by phoning REAL police.

Penn Jillette tried this and won VIP status, because he knows his rights. Now it’s time for the rest of us to step up, fight back and watch each others backs against Big Sis’s police state, and the numerous attempts to demoralize and degrade our rights. see more…

“This is drugs.
These are your liberties.
And this is the government.
Any questions?” – Penn Jillette

H/T to ChildMo.

I’m not sure if this massive upload of Bullshit! episodes to Google Video and made free was approved by Penn Jillette or not, but considering he’s a pretty regular reader of HoT, we may know shortly if they get deleted soon. Here’s my favorite — The War on Drugs:

Full list: profanity; creationism; alien abductions; conspiracy theories; recycling; gun control; endangered species; religion; the bible; family values; the apocalypse; signs from heaven; the occult; 12-step recovery programs; exercise v. genetics; environmentalism; hypnosis; ghosts; the war on drugs; feng shui / bottled water; college; PETA; and abstinence. (via MeFi)

As a comic standup speaking truth & liberty to those in power, Doug Stanhope (candidate for the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nomination) is our guest of honor for the first in hopefully many a series of Q&A’s with Libertarian campaigns hoping to peel off the onion layers of misinformation that tend to surround our candidate hopefuls. Stanhope also passed on some scans of some recent articles on him (it seems he’s a hit in the U.K. as well, as his comedy is focused a lot on the cynicism of living within creeping totalitarianism).

My fave question and answer:

Mr. Stanhope:
Considering there are many people out there that believe 9/11 was an inside job, would you be willing to support a new independent inquiry (that is, not sponsored, payed for, and approved by the government) regardless of whether or not you personally believe them or not?
The reason I (and others) believe it is important is because 9/11 was used as a pretext for much of the legislation that has taken away our liberties to make us “safer”. If the pretext is false, the legislation should be eliminated ASAP because it was done under fraud, duress, and coercion.
Respectfully
Rick Rajter

Any legislation that takes away from your freedom should be vanquished, regardless of the pretext. Also, I would support the de-classification of documents from Roswell to the Warren Commision to 9/11, etc. If governments didn’t have a history of giving you every reason to mistrust, there would not be so many “conspiracy theories.”

LOTS AND LOTS of great answers and scans of some recent magazine interviews after the jump: see more…

With tomorrow’s addition of “Progressive” WWKK in Petosky, MI to our affiliates list, Free Talk Live now has 15 radio affiliates from coast to coast.

Free Talk Live is easily the most Pro-Liberty talk radio show in the world, and if you aren’t getting Free Talk Live from your local talk station, there are a couple of easy things you can do to help fix that:

1. Contact your local talk station(s), talk to the Programmer, and request Free Talk Live. Be sure to read the FAQ
2. Become an AMPlifier. Our AMPlifiers are directly responsible for getting WWKK and many of our other radio affiliates on the air.

These two easy steps will help spread the message of freedom and liberty faster than anything the movement has ever seen.

Thanks for listening,
FTL_Ian

P.S. Penn Jillette, when will you come on the show? :)

By now regular readers of Hammer of Truth know of Doug Stanhope’s aspirations for president in 2008 on the Libertarian ticket, but you may not know why I personally view this as a bit of an eventuality for our political party. Let me first point out an excellent article focused on one of Stanhope’s many friends — Lewis Black — which has a relevant bit on how comedy is becoming more entwined in today’s politics:

It’s no secret that more and more Americans are getting their news from comedians than from traditional news sources. Politicians and pundits are jealous that comics can make a point and get a laugh at the same time “” jealous to the point of hiring comics to make their speeches and news shows more “punchy.”

In politics, commentary and comedy “” the lines of distinction between the three blur more every day “” everyone wants to speak for the regular guy. Politicians and commentators point the finger at comedians or the more ubiquitous “Hollywood” as elitist and out-of-touch, not as close to real Americans’ opinions as those from inside Washington’s Beltway. That line of thought, if I may quote Black, makes me want to “eat my brain” or “gouge my eyes out.”

Call it the Daily Show effect, if you will. And it seems Libertarians stand to benefit the most from it (consider our biggest celebrities are Penn Jillette, Drew Carey, South Park’s Matt Stone and a smattering of other comedians).

Well, here’s your chance to talk directly with Stanhope about his campaign. He’s agreed to answer questions about his issues, why he’s running, and basically anything you can come up with. So this is the discussion thread to ask those questions. I’ll take your questions, try to consolidate them where appropriate and have him answer in a few days, so fire away in the comments.

Update: The comments section is now closed and Stanhope will be getting back to us soon enough.

Note: this article contains dead links, the url is still in the hover/alt text. Keep the web working, curate content well!

This led Friday’s radio show. And before you ask… Yes, we’re attention whores:

Penn Jillette: There’s this kid… where the hell is he? I don’t even know where he is. But there was a thing on the Today Show the other day, it’s popped up a few places. But I got it from Hammer of Truth. Do you know Hammer of Truth?

Co-host Michael Goudeau: Not very well, no.

Jillette: It’s this libertarian website that I read every day. And I love it. And they also have a little ad for the radio show on there as well. But yesterday on the Today Show, I guess… Abraham Cherrix is a 16-year-old cancer patient who has opted out of another round of chemo in favor of an alternative treatment. Now you all know we do this show Bulls*clap*it and we could be more against alternative treatments. We are very against. He’s opted out of something I would push very strongly for if he were my child, for an alternate treatment. The young man has decided he wishes to pursue a “quality life” rather than a life measured by year markers. The interview went on and the woman writing this says:

The young man has decided that he wishes to pursue a quality life rather than a life measured by year markers. As I watched the interview unfold, my admiration for this boy’s courage turned into horror. It seems that a social worker in this young man’s state decided that his parents were neglectful. His parents supported his alternative treatment, treatment that has not been proven efficacious, and were dragged into court to defend themselves as parents. The state was awarded a sort of joint custody. A custody which mandates the young man to submit to tests not of his choosing. To the government monster, it doesn’t matter if the kid feels better on his organic diet. It doesn’t matter that his parents support his decision. The talons have dug in, and this kid will submit to any testing which may give him unpleasant news “” if only to be sure that he can continue on his alternative path.

Jillette: Amazing! You know… amazing. I think this is another interesting thing for the nut point of view. Because I am totally against giving up chemotherapy, I am totally against alternative therapies, I’m totally against his jive alternative diet. I don’t believe anything about this story except … his rights. He should have his own rights and on top of that his parents should have his own rights.

Bingo, it’s not about some wacky dumb choice, it’s about the state leaving parents alone if they support their child’s decision in making that dumb wacky choice. Can you imagine if child protection services stepped in every time you let your kid play sports without a helmet and protective gear? Dont’s laugh, it’s closer than you think.

Shoutout to the PennFans forums, where you can get daily mp3 recordings of the Penn Jillette show and discuss the show and other appearances and Jillette’s rants with other fans.

Update: Several commenters are making an issue about his diet vs cancer idea being stupid, so clearly he shouldn’t be allowed to do it. Let me respond:

Please stop pointing out the trees (his alternative diet) and look at the forest (personal choice for his body).

You can have an opposing viewpoint to something so long as you don’t cram your beliefs on someone else. That’s all Penn and others are saying here.

Penn and many of us may think this kid is bonkers, and wouldn’t do this ourselves. But who the hell are we to tell this kid he can’t do this to his own body when his parents condone it? This is about someone’s personal choice to have control of their body. Nothing more, nothing less.

From the Times Herald:

More than 40 percent of Americans believe that the 9/11 Commission Report that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is a cover-up, according to a recent poll. And nearly half surveyed said the attacks should be reinvestigated.

In May, a Zogby International poll of adults found that 42 percent of adults polled believe the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission “concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence” that contradicts the official explanation of the attacks.

However, 48 percent polled believe there is no reason the 9/11 Commission would want to cover up information surrounding the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 at the World Trade Center towers, Pentagon and in Somerset County, Pa.

The Zogby poll was sponsored by a leading activist group, 911 Truth.org, which is highly skeptical of the official report published in July 2004. About one in ten respondents were “not sure” about the report’s veracity.

I’ll say it again: there needs to be an independent investigation panel with subpoena powers. I know a bunch of you are going to link to some websites extolling some conspiracy theory or another based on pseudo-science about controlled demolitions, melted steel or whatever, so have at it. But the fact remains that until there is some objective analysis of all the facts available (even those tucked away in government drawers), all the theories (the official story included) don’t hold much water in the public’s opinion.

In January, I reported that Penn Jillette was going to make some Libertarian Party commercials. In typical LP fashion, another project has been fouled up. I’ll provide the pertinent e-mail chain:

George Squyres:

David Owens has asked me to post this letter to Mike Dixon to the LNC Discussion list to respond to your question about what has happened to the Penn & Teller project. I can confirm most of what David says, except for those phone calls I was not a party to.

The main letter is somewhat lengthy, but contains a lot of necessary detail. see more…

Penn and Teller (well, actually just Penn) have a message for 9/11 conspiracy theorists: Bullshit! This video is likely to stir the coals in the continued debate over the cause of the World Trade Center collapse.

UPDATE: In order to cover both sides of this issue, Charlie Sheen just came out on the other side of this topic. The title of the top related story on Google News was “Take Off the 9/11 Tinfoil Hats.”

In America, the conspiracy ball has been rolling quite nicely, thank you. Pushed along by Hollywood celebrities like Michael Moore and Charlie Sheen, as well as a very large, very vocal segment of left wing internet blogs, the theories all seem to have a couple of things in common; that the government knew about the attacks prior to 9/11 and did nothing about them and that the “whole story” of what really happened that day is being withheld from the American people.

As the war on error against the liberal/conservative demagogues continues, I thought it would be funny to point out some interesting contrasting Google searches:

up your liberal ass
up your democrat ass

up your conservative ass
up your republican ass

And for good measure (a whopping 2 results):

up your libertarian ass

Really, this is just Saturday night fun/boredom, carry on with your usual weekend drinking and debauchery, we’ll catch ya later.

But seriously… at least Penn Jillette knows what the ellipsis is all about.

Penn Jillette had Kinky Friedman on his show last week. The interview got heated at times, especially when Kinky “non-denominational prayer in the public schools” Friedman was challenged by Penn “there is no God but Allah” Jillette.

Prompted by the show, I checked out the campaign site and saw the awesome new “Kinkytoon” featuring church and state getting gay married, and monkey legislators trying to reform the schools (“Don’t eat law!”). It’s hilarious and effective. Libertarian campaigns should learn a lesson here.

Kinky’s campaign is heating up, with poll numbers at around 20% before he’s even on the ballot. With fundraising help from supporters like Willie Nelson (when he’s not busy writing gay cowboy songs), he’s raising money faster than either of the Democrat candidates.

There’s going to come a time in American politics when we’re tired of ex-wrestlers, action heros, and writer/author/country singers and want staid guys in suits to lead us. Until then, and as long as the establishment politicians are fun-hating windbags who only stop legislating morality long enough to take a bribe or shoot their friends, Go Kinky!

There should be a law about blogging while intoxicated. I’m not sure if the law should prohibit or mandate BUIs, but this is America so there simply has to be a law…

After reading the February GQ article (Great Britain version only, it seems — props) about comedic bad boy Doug Stanhope, I’m sure he’d make an argument that one shouldn’t blog with a blood alcohol content of less than .08% — anorexic teetotaling sorority girls notwithstanding. As the article had some insight on Hunter S. Thompson’s final goodbye, I found this the appropriate time to pour a tumbler of whiskey.

In addition to the Stanhope article, another of the libertarian comedic icons was just covered at Slate (props). According to Bryan Curtis:

In our conversation, Jillette felt moved to declare that he had devised a method by which to place every artist in human history into a matrix: separating those who had genuine skill, those who had genuine passion, and those rarefied geniuses who had both.

This got me to thinking. Thinking that it’s time to refill that tumbler and mix tenses (the latter being a bad habit of mine when BUI). While at the domestic refueling station, I started thinking of another recent GQ article I’d briefly covered: Trey Parker and Matt Stone. What do the people with genuine skill, genuine passion and libertarian roots have in common? see more…

I’m listening right now and it seems the Penn Jillette show is having a slow call-in day. What better way to increase their call-ins than with Hammer of Truth readers?

(866) 313-FREE

Only valid until 3pm ET

Penn Jillette said he doesn’t know what “Common sense, shoved up your ellipsis” means. I thought I’d be nice enough to provide him an example.

Tax-loving Oklahoma Republican State Representative Lisa J. Billy clearly needs some common sense shoved up her ellipsis. She just proposed a bill designed to favor some businesses over others while depriving many of their First Amendment rights. She also wants to redefine sex and nudity along the way. From the Bill:

“State of nudity” means any bare exposure of the skin located on the body of a person below the armpits and above the knees.

Armpits and knees? I guess this rules out the beach and swimming pool, women wearing cropped tops, old men with wobbly knees wearing walking shorts and many baby pictures (especially those wearing only diapers). She wishes to apply this standard to sexually-oriented materials:

“Sexually-oriented materials” means any textual, pictorial, or three-dimensional material that depicts nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse…

This seems to cover mannequins in the lingerie department, entertainment and style magazines, and good portions of The Bible. This material would be sold at a sexually-oriented business:

“Sexually-oriented business” means any business which offers its patrons goods of which a substantial portion are sexually-oriented materials. Any business where more than ten percent (10%) of display space is used for sexually-oriented materials shall be presumed to be a sexually-oriented business;

I guess the grocery store will still be legal, even if they sell Trojans and KY Jelly. Not so sure about the magazine stand at the airport, though. Many lingerie shops are described with this definition.

She’s not trying to directly outlaw the lingerie shop or bookstore, but she does plan to outlaw their right to advertise outdoors, and to prohibit minors from visiting such premises. Since bikinis are clearly sexual in nature (just ask any straight male), swim shops that market 50% of their products to women will be affected. Book store owners will have to do a count of magazines with J-Lo and Britney Spears photos so they don’t cross that 10% threshold. Victoria’s Secret will no longer be able to display its wares, and kiddies can’t tag along with mommy when she’s shopping there.

The way I figure it, HoT just shoved a verbal ellipsis up Representative Billy’s prudish ellipsis. Props.

Penn Jillette mentioned Hammer of Truth on air at Free FM after one of our readers (and his listeners) sent him a link to Ian’s suggestion that Penn and Teller run for president. Penn responded on air that sadly, he has no presidential aspirations at this time (start at 6:15, streaming link, mp3 link):

Penn Jillette: There’s also this letter from someone saying we should run for president.

Michael Goudeau: Yeah they just sent the link in, apparently. Yeah this is ah… Penn and Teller should run for president. [chuckle]

Jillette: It’s the Hammer of Truth, which is a website… hammeroftruth.com. Common sense, shoved up your ellipsis [laughter] I dunno what that means. It’s common sense, shoved up your ellipsis. Good. So, there’s the ads by Google put up there and of course the first one is Penn and Teller because they have “Penn and Teller for President.” And a very presidential looking picture.

Goudeau: That’s a very lovely looking photo, you guys are both in tuxedos. Looks very presidential.

Jillette: Looks very very presidential.

Goudeau: And someone… you know they have comments. You can make comments and somebody said “A vice president who was silent seems like a very good idea.”

Jillette: [laughter] But you know, I’m gonna… obviously you know that’s a joke, you know… us running for president. But I’m gonna address it seriously, because I do get asked…

Goudeau: …Because you’re insane, and you think someone really cares that you should run for president. Okay, please go ahead.

Jillette: [laughter]

Goudeau: [laughing] I’m sorry, for interrupting… sir. Can I get a job? Ambassador to Costa Rica… [laughs]

Jillette: Although… I don’t think we would consider running for president…

Goudeau: I don’t think it pays as well as… anything really.

Jillette: I don’t think so. What they do ask occassionally… the New Jersey Libertarian Party asked me to run, ah… Nevada. I don’t know how much I can talk about this because… equal time or something, but Nate Santucci… Nathan Santucci who ah… you’re tempted to call him the prop guy but we call him Director of Covert Activities… He’s in charge of all the magic in the show. And quite seriously and literally, my life is in his preparation. He sets up the bullet trick we do every night, and if Nate decides to, he can just set it up wrong and Teller and I both die. [laughter] Or the one that fires first dies… no the one that fires second dies. Nate is fabulous, and Nate is a hard-core libertarian. And Nate Santucci is running for his district.

Goudeau: City council isn’t it?

Jillette: City council! I think so. He’s gonna be running…

Goudeau: We’re allowed to talk about this as long as it hasn’t actually started…

Jillette: Is that true?
[crosstalk]

Goudeau: Yes. That’s true. According to Bob’s [garbled], as long as it hasn’t begun we can talk about it.

Jillette: So the election hasn’t started, once it’s started we can’t talk… SANTUCCI is the name! [laughter] Santucci, S-A-N-T-U-C-C-I, right? Is that how he spells it? Nathan Santucci, and you’ll be seeing signs… this goes to Vegas, we know that. Now I know New York doesn’t care, but Nathan Santucci is running for city council, and he would be so good.

I’d transcribe the rest of the interview, but there’s a lot of back and forth conversation and jokes that gives me wrist hurt pain to type. However, you should totally listen to the whole thing, be sure to check out Nathan Santucci (link to Nevada’s Clark County LP officer’s page) and thank Penn Jillette for promoting liberty and libertarianism even though he isn’t planning on running for president (boo, hiss… kidding).

And thanks to Penn for the shoutout, now we don’t need to come shove anything up his ellipsis.

Update: Woops, I guess the sidekick’s name is Michael Goudeau, I suppose I should have checked the Penn Radio website a little closer before transcribing

The worst part of almost any conference is the session right after lunch. Everyone tends to stay up late drinking the night before and drag in looking a bit worse for wear in the morning. After staying awake though the morning sessions, lunch break is always a relief. However, the first session after lunch is often the worst one of all.

I’m sitting in Phoenix in the FEC Compliance Session at the Libertarian Party State Chair’s Conference. While the information presented is certainly very imortant to state parties and campaigns, it isn’t enough to keep my sleep deprived and recently fed body from falling alseep. In order to keep you up-to-date while I try to survive the post-lunchtime blahs, I thought I’d provide a few updates from the conference.

The ballroom was packed with people watching the new Aaron Russo documentary. The reviews I heard about the film were mixed, mostly very positive. Russo covered enough controversial material in the film that most people will have one or two points of contention, but the overall response seemed incredibly positive. It started by dealing with IRS abuses, covers the Federal Reserve system, various abuses of civil liberties, and ends with Real ID and RFID implants. As one would expect of him, Russo closed the movie with a strong call to action.

On the personal side, Russo is growing his hair out a bit longer. The combination of the hair and improved health has Russo looking as young as I seen him look for some time. Michael Badnarik showed for the conference, as well. He is looking well and seems energized, too. I spent most of last night juggling between their tables at the hotel bar.

Sam New and I gave the presentation on the Libertarian Leadership School presentation in the morning. From my perspective, it went well. The audience asked reasonable questions, and seemed enthused about the new project. George Phillies raised one question about federal law and educational activities which I missed, and I understand that he and Sam New will be meeting to discuss his issue.

Bill Redpath announced his intention to run for LNC Chair. According to his campaign flyer, his platform has five key components:

1. We need candidates, money, and electoral reform.
2. The LP is a political party and needs a political director in the national office.
3. Ballot access must be a core function of the national party.
4. Change the election method of the National Committee.
5. It’s too expensive to be on the NatCom.

Indiana state chair Mark Rutherford made a pretty exciting announcement. Penn and Teller have just filmed pro-LP footage, which will be put out in DVD format. David Owens described the content as being critical of both the Republicans and Democrats. The final version will probably run six to seven minutes long, with 50 especially tailored endings, one for each state. The neatest thing is the message from Penn Jillette: Get off your asses and get involved!

Sunday morning update: Michael Dixon told people at our table at the bar last night that he intends to run for re-election for LNC Chair. George Phillies and Ernest Hancock announced their intention to run for the same position, too.

GQ just interviewed Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park, and it’s great. To illustrate, here are the opening lines of the article:

You did an episode about Paris Hilton, in which she opens up a retail store called Stupid Spoiled Whore. Why pick on Paris?

Trey Parker: Okay, for me, she’s a whore. Whatever. She’s a dumb, ugly whore. But then I walked into a Guess store, and she was all over the place. I’m like, Wait a minute, they’re treating her like a glamorous model now? Does anyone notice how dangerous this could be to little girls?

On-screen she eventually competes with Mr. Slave in a “whore-off.” How do you come up with an idea like that?

TP: I think she came up with that idea, actually. We just made a cartoon out of it.

Normally, its pretty easy to either smackdown an article or provide a bit of snark to liven it up. As they left absolutely nothing to bitchslap, I’m relegated to merely reproducing a few quotes. On libertarianism:

see more…

Penn Jillette has a radio program at FreeFM, which is syndicated in NY, DC, SF, Detroit, San Diego, Chicago and Baltimore. If you don’t live in range of one of these stations, it is also podcast and they place some sound clips on the site. From Thursday’s conversation about Intelligent Design:

So the Catholic Church is saying that sure we’re down with evolution. Now this is the same Church that bought the Adam and Eve thing, right?

Penn and Teller have always entertained me, and I’ve followed them more closely since Jillette endorsed Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik.

Yo, Ian, I love Free Talk Live, but its a good thing you and Jillette don’t share the same time slot. I expect as the word gets out on this one that libertarians will not just have the number one, but the top two podcasts in the world. Here’s to some healthy competition.