On June 5, 2013, just yesterday, I blogged this:

It mentioned Tory MP Michelle Rempel from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

I received a very interested response to it from Terry Lys, also from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Here is what she said:

Hi Walter,

I live in Calgary and fortunately have never heard of Miss Rempel as she must be from some other constituency in the city and my contempt for politicians of all stripes is rather, quite generous. I am a proud LRC reader for many years and the person in Alberta who took out the one and only personalized license plate, as seen on my Twitter handle @Thwidder, which proudly bears the letters “RONPAUL”. More to the point, are you suggesting/recommending Dr Paul run again in 2016 as a Republican?

Best regards,
Terry Lys

Here was my response (I apologize for the length of this response, but this is the form letter I send out to lots of people; some of you may have already experienced this. If not, it might be of interest to a wider audience, such as this one):

Dear Terry:

Thanks for your response to this blog of mine:

Block, Walter E. 2013. “Ron Paul and RuPaul.” June 5.

As far as I’m concerned, Ron should run for President of the US in 2016 in any way he wants. As a Republican, as a Libertarian, even as a Martian for all I care.

Of all the present candidates for the presidency, I would support Rand Paul. But only in a lukewarm manner. I would not write dozens of articles supporting Rand’s candidacy as I did for Ron. I would not publish a book to this end as I did for Ron (Block, Walter E. 2012. Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty. New York: Ishi Press. I would not heavily support Rand financially as I did Ron. I probably would not donate any money at all to Rand’s candidacy. I would not start up an entire new group for Rand as I did for Ron (Jews for Ron Paul). I rate Ron as a 97% on my libertarian-meter; Rand gets, maybe, a 70%. Rand is easily the most libertarian member of our congress, but he is, unfortunately, no Ron Paul.

Terry, I’d like to blog this correspondence. May I have your permission to use your name, or should I make you anonymous?

Perhaps you might like to financially support the Mises Institute, which likely made it possible for us to be in touch with each other? If so, I recommend Kristy Holmes [email protected] to you, who can guide you if you wish to make a contribution.

For the impoverished, and students: If you could give as much as $5 per year to the Mises Institute, they would appreciate it. They need not only money for their operations, (of course your $5 wouldn’t help them too much for this purpose) but also a large number of small contributors (your $5 would be a GREAT help to them in this regard), because large numbers of (small) contributors impress big contributors.

Some of these books of mine might be of interest to you:

Block, Walter E. 2012. Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty. New York: Ishi Press. More here and here.

Barnett, William II and Walter E. Block. 2012. Essays in Austrian Economics. New York: Ishi Press.

Block, Walter E. 2010. The Case for Discrimination. Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; available for free here.

Four Arrows and Walter E. Block. 2010. Differing Worldviews: Two Scholars Argue Cooperatively about Justice Education; Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Block, Walter E. 2010. Building Blocks for Liberty, Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; available for free here; Kindle.

Block, Walter E. 2009. The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors; Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; available for free here: More here.

Block, Walter E., ed. 2010. I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians; Auburn, AL: Mises Institute; available for free here.

Block, Walter E. 2008. Labor Economics from a Free Market Perspective: Employing the Unemployable. London, UK: World Scientific Publishing.

Block, Walter E. 2008 [1976]. Defending the Undefendable. Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; available for free here:

Block, Walter E. 1986. The U.S. Bishops and Their Critics: An Economic and Ethical Perspective, Vancouver: The Fraser Institute.

Block, Walter E. 1983. Focus on Economics and the Canadian Bishops, Vancouver: The Fraser Institute.

Please disregard the form letter format of this message. I don’t know how else to get out this information.

If you are an adult, please sent this to young people on whose behalf you want to promote free enterprise: Are you a student? What school? What major? What year? I ask because I am an economics professor at Loyola University New Orleans, and I am looking for students to come study with me. Loyola must be one of the very few universities in the entire world where all the professors in the economics department are heavily oriented towards Austrian (free market) economics and libertarianism. An incomparable advantage of our program is that we ensure students are taught ALL schools of economic thought (including Keynesianism and neo-classical economics) and political philosophy (including socialism and communism). Unlike many other economics departments, however, we critique the various schools of thought and through this process provide students with all sides of these issues. We are constantly on the lookout for bright students who would benefit from studying with professors who appreciate economic freedom, free markets, private property rights and laissez faire capitalism. If you are a high school or college student, please get in touch with me so that I can urge you to consider applying or transferring to Loyola New Orleans. If you are past school age but know any young person who would be interested our program, please pass this note on to them. Why attend Loyola, and not a more prestigious place like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Stanford? Places like that don’t pay much attention to undergraduate students; we do. Second, if you want to go on for advanced study, get a Ph.D., prestige matters for your graduate school, not so much for your undergraduate education. Third, if you want to learn the case in favor of Austrian economics, free enterprise, laissez faire capitalism, you won’t learn it in any of those schools; you will, at Loyola.

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans
6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 5, Miller Hall 318
New Orleans, LA 70118
tel: (504) 864-7934
fax: (504) 864-7970
[email protected]

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