"Unless the government changes course, sooner or later we may take notice of the loss of our freedom, realize that we may have been pushed too far – and, finally, it may dawn upon us, individually or collectively, that today may be, if necessary, a good day to die for our rights and our liberty."
--Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D., "The Ballad of Carl Drega - a Review"

Troubling questions were raised by columnist Vin Suprynowicz in his essay about former New Hampshire resident Carl Drega's 1995 slaying of two law enforcement officers, a judge, and a newspaper editor.

Whether Drega was an "extremist" or had been provoked into defending himself against escalating bureaucratic harassment may depend on one's perspective.

"When is it the right time to say, 'Enough, no more. On this spot I stand, and fight, and die'?" writes Suprynowicz. "When they're stacking our luggage and loading us on the box cars? A fat lot of good it will do us, then."

Many Utahns are familiar with the story of John Singer, who resisted the State of Utah's attempts to force his children to attend its indoctrination camps, which ended in similar tragedy.

How should one who adheres to the non-aggression principle act when confronted by an abusive authority figure? And when is the appropriate time to engage in self-defense?

The approaching anniversary of Liberty for Utahns! inspires me to explain why I came up with the title for this blog that I did.

Doing so requires an exploration of some differences between both libertarianism and statism, and liberty and democracy.

If you glance at the upper-right section of the LPUtah's homepage, you will see a diamond-shaped graphic that contrasts not only left-liberals and right-conservatives, but libertarians and authoritarian-statists.

The position of these labels describes the degree of economic and personal freedom favored or disfavored by those who hold these political philosophies.

One of the myths repeated by the political class is that electing Libertarians to office would lead to a parade of horribles.

But as the experience of San Miguel County (CO) Sheriff Bill Masters and Mendocino County (CA) District Attorney Norman Vroman shows, life is good for citizens who elect Libertarians to protect their communities.

The county seat of San Miguel County is Telluride, Colorado. Home of the famous bluegrass festival, Telluride received a second place ranking in the "50 Best Places to Live" list in the 2002 issue of Men's Journal.