[467] in libertarians
Re: IRF Info/Beg Letter.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vernon Imrich)
Wed Dec 7 01:10:33 1994
To: safe@MIT.EDU
Cc: libertarians@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 1994 01:08:49 EST
From: Vernon Imrich <vimrich@MIT.EDU>
|> > As for their rightwinginess, should I dismiss the ACLU
|> > for their left-leanings?
|>
|> Don't knee-jerk. I addressed this quite explicitly in my
|> message. The difference between the ACLU and the IRF is that the ACLU,
|> accounted a "left" organization, has a strong record of defending
|> absolute enemies, *literally* Nazis and Klans, and taking on bitter
|> cases. The IRF, accounted a "right" organization, has a record of
|> defending NOTHING opposed to that, as apparently has only taken on easy
|> cases. The complaint against the ACLU is that it's being political and
|> straying from being even-handed. The IRF boasts about being political
|> not being even-handed. There is no moral equivalence.
I think it's still wait and see time. The IRF has only been around
for a year, and has admitedly taken only egregious campus cases. It
should be noted that defense of something like Adam's Deep Throat
showing could not really be called right wing. It would be interesting
to see or concoct a test case for them in their current campus portfolio.
Thing is, I don't know of any left rags or columnists getting
harassed by anyone. The Thistle sure seems to be able to print about
anything sexual it feels like with impunity.
Also, the thing they sent me has a questionaire for where they should
branch out too.
However, I have heard about the Horowitz guy. The only other person
on the board that I'd heard of was the editor of _Liberty_ magazine,
probably the most rabid/irreverant of the libertarian journals, but not
what I would call right wing. It will be interesting to see where the IRF
ends up heading.
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| Vernon Imrich | market failure, n. The inabilty of the |
| MIT OE, Rm 5-329b | market to recover from a blow by |
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