Liberty Belle debates a socialist
News ·Saturday May 8, 2010 @ 21:50 EDT (link)
We drove out to the University of Seattle (not much street parking, so we paid the $6) to see Keli Carender debate a socialist at the NW Socialism Conference. (Keli is Liberty Belle of Tea Party fame.) Although it was hostile territory there were a few conservatives and libertarians who made up by our volume what we lacked in numbers. The debate consisted of opening and closing statements, and four questions in between, allowing responses to each, with a few audience questions at the end. It was pretty decent actually. I had heard Keli speak but not debate and I was impressed that she held to a strong defense of individual rights versus collectivism, although she didn't go as far as to condemn theft, even when it got fairly explicit (taking "the rich"'s money because they have "too much" of it, and so on). I got to chat with a few socialists at the end—straightened them up about their "oppression of the workers" by pointing out how kind it was for corporations to actually give people money for their skills when, apparently, they have no better prospects. We talked briefly with some of the other conservatives and a (libertarian) lady who had asked the last question and made a statement about how much capitalists help "society" by providing jobs, and their frequent large charitable donations—none of which is stolen goods.
We aided the capitalist machine by picking up chicken Teriyaki from the place down the road for dinner.
Books finished: A Crown of Swords.
