Honoring the Las Vegas Strip

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:02:54 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JUNE 23, 2000
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
We're honored. But keep the money, please

In a ceremony in the nation's capital last Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation named six new "All-American Highways," raising the total of roads so designated to 15.

One of those new designations went to the Las Vegas Strip, from Sahara Avenue to Russell Road.

The "All-American Highway" designation is considered more prestigious than a lesser listing as a National Scenic Byway, of which four more were designated last week, bringing the total in the lesser category to 57.

Though a few roads have been honored due to their historical significance - the Selma-to-Montgomery March Byway in Alabama commemorates the nation's civil rights movement, for instance - most (like the San Juan Skyway through the Colorado Rockies, or the Hell's Canyon Byway in Oregon) are selected for their majestic views of natural scenery.

The Las Vegas Strip stands alone as a stretch of road granted "All-American" status for its spectacular man-made vistas of neon, electric light, tourist attractions, and hypnotically hyperactive electronic signs.

The Strip is indeed a unique American cultural landmark and artifact. Whether one loves and admires it as a visceral symbol of the free market and the profit motive given free reign - or simply stares in awe with some more conflicted mix of emotions - few can deny it has become a de facto "must see" and wonder of the modern world.

As ever with a federal program, however, the Congress couldn't just leave it at that. No, the designation also means the Strip is now authorized to compete with about 260 other projects for $25 million in federal grant money, which could be used to put up signs or banners that note our All-American Road status, to make improvements along stretches of the boulevard, or to "market the Strip," according to Kristine Bunnel, Clark County trails coordinator, who accepted the honor on behalf of the county at last week's Washington ceremony.

"This is really going to help us in marketing Las Vegas," added Rob Powers of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Let's hope Mr. Powers refers to the "All-American" designation - of which the city and county are right to be proud, and which should certainly be proclaimed as loudly as possible - rather than the millions.

Because, in an era when the general response to any offer of loot from Washington is to race to the front of the line - asking no questions about where the money comes from; what part of Article I Section 8 authorizes its allocation by Congress; or even whether the cash is remotely needed - Las Vegans have a clear opportunity here to set a better example than critics of our city's supposed "greed and avarice" would expect.

Honestly, now: wouldn't grabbing a million in federal cash to hang more banners or place a few potted palms along the Las Vegas Strip be the equivalent of accepting a federal dole for Frigidaires in Fairbanks; subsidizing salmon in Seattle; planting more maples in Montpelier; authorizing emergency shipments of gumbo to Bayou Goula?

The honor is very nice. We just don't need the money.

People from all over America already fly, drive, and hitch rides to get to Las Vegas to bring us millions of dollars every day. And they do so voluntarily, get it? We have found a better way. We don't need federal agents threatening to send anyone to jail to get us enough money to fix the potholes on Las Vegas Boulevard - assuming we'd be foolish enough to ever let a pothole develop in the first place, when it would probably be just as easy to fill it with silver dollars, put up a sign that says "See the pothole filled with silver dollars," and sell tourists $29 cameras to take pictures of it.

Please, Ms. Bunnel: Surprise us. Do the right thing. Write in and ask them to send the money for the signs and brochures to struggling Seligman, Ariz., or beautiful Buzzard's Roost, Virginia ...

Someplace that needs it.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $24.95 postpaid by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair