tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post115612919605921091..comments2024-03-08T07:09:46.527-07:00Comments on Pro Libertate: Will Grigg's Birch Blog -- The Lost EpisodesWilliam N. Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368220509514750246noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-31411381453629180642014-02-07T22:39:27.498-07:002014-02-07T22:39:27.498-07:00Will,
Seeing as how this post is almost 6 years o...Will,<br /><br />Seeing as how this post is almost 6 years old now, I'm not sure if you'll actually get to read this, but just in case, it's at least worth the little bit of time & effort it will take to type it. First let me say that I really enjoy your writing. Of all the writers that I've become familiar with through the LRC daily email, I look forward to your articles most of all. Your wit & unflinching clarity are refreshing. However, this is the first time that I became aware of your history with JBS, & how it ended. Not that it would be of any consequence to you either way, but I just wanted to let you know that the latent undertone of bigotry as well as what I perceived as a severe misplacing of priorities are exactly what kept me from joining the JBS, even as I was being rather aggressively "recruited," I guess you could say. I wasn't so candid with the chapter leader who kept calling me at the time; I told him that as a philosophical anarchist, I couldn't, in good conscience, become a member of an organization that deals exclusively in the realm of politics. At any rate, I just wanted to say that after reading about your experience with them, I'm glad I never succumbed to the "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" doctrine & joined them on the grounds that even the "limited government" they claim to champion would be better than what we suffer under now. <br />Honestly; it's bad enough that we who genuinely stand on the side of individual liberty have not only the political class, the statist media establishment, & the armies of indoctrinated leftist organizations out there to grapple with; when even those who would ostensibly be our allies in the movement, wind up being hypocrites, or worse, turn out to be motivated by ignorant collectivist impulses of bigotry & xenophobia, it's enough to make the battle seem unwinnable. Having them as "friends" of the movement does nothing but reinforce the misperceptions of the avowed enemies of libertarianism.<br />And believe me, this is coming from someone who is keenly sensitive to misguided accusations of bigotry; I don't take the issue lightly. Being a proud & vocal libertarian & supporter of the Mises Institute in online forums, I'd be a rich man if I had a dollar for every time someone tossed out innuendo or insinuations of racism against me - let alone come right out & accused me. Anyhow, I've babbled enough, especially given that I'm likely babbling to no one. I wish you the best, & I look forward to reading the Pro Libertate blog for years to come.<br />God Bless,<br />SteveBachyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08263074610925059050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-61732511433259323422008-04-14T22:49:00.000-06:002008-04-14T22:49:00.000-06:00Dear Tony --Thanks so much for your very kind comm...Dear Tony --<BR/><BR/>Thanks so much for your very kind comments, and your prayers on behalf of my family. <BR/><BR/>To address first the most important questions you raise:<BR/><BR/>ANY genuine JBS leadership would be an improvement over the present configuration. Under the Thompson/McManus regime, organization has had NO measurable effect regarding the preservation/ recovery of freedom precisely when the JBS was most desperately needed. <BR/><BR/>In large measure this is because its current management (the word "leadership" doesn't apply) studiously avoided engaging in the most important issues -- those dealing with the Bush Regime's wholesale evisceration of the Bill of Rights. <BR/><BR/>This isn't a "conservative approach"; it's <I>collaboration.</I><BR/><BR/><BR/>The upper management of JBS is composed of individuals I know from personal experience to be craven, petty liars. They lied about me pretty consistently after I was fired until I made it clear I wouldn't put up with any more. <BR/><BR/>The most repellent of that bunch is Alan Scholl, who not only made getting rid of me something of a personal jihad but has consummately mismanaged the action agenda of the JBS.<BR/><BR/>Alan was once a generous friend. He is now someone able to chew his food owing entirely to the blessing of distance. God has not yet made of me a Christian of such patient self-restraint that I would neglect an opportunity to give Alan some tangible reasons for regret, should such an occasion arise (and if you happen to read this, Alan, consider that both an invitation and a promise). <BR/><BR/>As Joseph Sobran wrote regarding his remarkably similar treatment by William F. Buckley: "[I]f you betray a man, you have no right to complain that he isn't as nice to you as he used to be. That's the special nature of betrayal: it cancels everything in a friendship." <BR/><BR/>With focused malice and utter dishonesty, Alan connived to get me fired, leaving me with five small children, an invalid wife, and a resume (featuring the acronym of death, J-B-S) that left me all but unemployable in my chosen field. <BR/><BR/>After doing this he IMMEDIATELY began to lie about me in an effort to undermine my professional reputation. <BR/><BR/>I'm finishing my taxes tonight, and it's clear to me that, absent some Providence-inspired generosity from some incredibly wonderful people, and the fact that I had saved most of what I earned over the past two years or so of working for the JBS, we would have been entirely destitute by now.<BR/><BR/>You can't provide for a family of seven on earnings considerably south of $20K/year, which is what I was able to earn last year as a home-based freelance writer. And owing to Korrin's condition -- which made me her primary caregiver, and a functional single parent for most of last year -- I couldn't seek employment outside the home. <BR/> <BR/><BR/>I have implied that Alan's priorities in focusing on the immigration campaign may be rooted in racist motives. This reflects, among other things, comments he made to the effect that as a Californian he has special insight regarding the Mexican menace -- those waves of people who are supposedly "wrecking our economy and culture."<BR/><BR/>Really? <BR/><BR/>It's people who come here to work without government permission who are wrecking our economy -- not the hyper-profligate Bush administration and Congress, and the relentlessly inflating Fed?<BR/><BR/>It's Mexicans (most of whom are Christian, more specifically Catholic) who are wrecking an already degenerate culture? Actually, the opposite is the case: Young Mexicans actually tend to be more socially conservative than denizens of our post-post-MTV "culture," and their mores degenerate once they come here. <BR/><BR/>Alan knows better regarding the economy, and the fact that he's a homeschooling parent who doesn't own a TV and worships in an insular independent Baptist congregation testifies eloquently as to what he thinks of our culture. So the complaint above seems to boil down to, "I don't like the fact that our country is host to so many brown people who speak Spanish, or speak English with a Latino accent." <BR/><BR/>It was clear at the time I wrote the piece above that Appleton selected the immigration issue as its monomaniacal focus largely for opportunistic reasons. So at a time when Bush and Company were tearing up the foundation stones of the Anglo-Saxon concept of individual rights going back to the Year of Our Lord 1215, the operational program of the JBS was to focus obsessively on the Brown Peril. <BR/><BR/>And in doing so the JBS ended up recruiting some of the most notorious bigots in Arizona, among whom were the Kuiper Belt object-sized Nazi <I>merde</I>-bag J.T. Ready and his buddy in the legislature, Russell Pearce. <BR/><BR/>Tony, for several years prior to my firing in October 2006, I had become aggravated by the way the JBS's priorities seemed to follow a "kiss up/kick down" approach: We were achingly careful to avoid taking on the powerful, but bold as Hector in smiting insignificant people whom we saw as competition (people like Dave Van Kliest and other 9/11 "Truth Movement" activists). <BR/><BR/>When it came to the immigration issue, it seemed to me that this was a world-historic case of ducking a real fight and then going home and beating up your poodle: Give Bush and his gang a pass, and focus your fury on poor, pathetic manual laborers from Mexico (just LOOK at the photos chosen to illustrate the immigrant "menace" in TNA, and tell me what message they convey).<BR/><BR/>All of this was made possible because of the myopia and insuperable timidity of the people running the JBS. For the reasons described above, I think Alan's skewed priorities may reflect other invidious motivations. <BR/><BR/><BR/>Because he lived in California he styles himself an expert on the cultural damage done by Mexicans. Well, as an American of Mexican ancestry, I am something of an expert on recognizing, and dealing with, people who think that Mexicans are slightly substandard human beings, and Alan displays at least some of the symptoms. <BR/><BR/>Forgive me for going on at such length and in such a bitter tone. This is still an acutely unpleasant subject for me, and besides, tomorrow's Tax Day and I'm still trying to find my files. <BR/><BR/>"The cross comes before the crown -- and tomorrow is a Monday morning!"<BR/><BR/>Thanks again, and God bless.William N. Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14368220509514750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-6902624388060792332008-04-14T21:48:00.000-06:002008-04-14T21:48:00.000-06:00Will,Me: I am 40, male, divorced (civil), Dad, Cat...Will,<BR/>Me: I am 40, male, divorced (civil), Dad, Catholic, 25 year JBS member. I respect you very much; you regularly demonstrate high integrity. <BR/><BR/>Question: Do you propose that Robert Welch's solution is wrong? Or, do you propose that it (the structure, organization etc.) is correct, but requires reformation in leadership? <BR/><BR/>I fail to see how one person's (alleged) racist tendency, and an overly conservative approach in the attack against the Illuminati/Establishment during the past 5 - 10 years could establish that the JBS is not still the most effective weapon the Insiders.<BR/><BR/>May God bless your efforts, and your family.<BR/><BR/>In His Name,<BR/>Tony SchmitzTony Schmitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07191914216962861950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-15045639445265336602007-01-21T22:48:00.000-07:002007-01-21T22:48:00.000-07:00Will I disagree with your belief that Pres. Bush w...Will I disagree with your belief that Pres. Bush wanted to preserve the control of the House for the Republicans. I felt since the time he was elected that his job was to wreck the Republican Majority in both houses. I believed it would be because of a major recession but obviously I was wrong about HOW the Republican majority would be destroyed.USPatriot36https://www.blogger.com/profile/16408523652879139487noreply@blogger.com