From: John Brothers <johnbr@atl.mindspring.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 08:17:22 +0800
To: Alan Horowitz <alanh@infi.net>
Subject: Re: A Libertine Question
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19960801204953.006b2b7c@pop.atl.mindspring.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 02:23 AM 8/1/96 -0400, you wrote:
>John Brothers,
>
>Which locality do you live in?  I've got all this toxic waste that I've 
>been collecting in return for receiving large sums of money, I'd like to 
>get rid of it as cheply as possible. I thought I might just burn it in a 
>good  "true" libertarian neighborhood.
>
>You don't mind, do you?

I live in the Alpharetta area of Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta.  You're
welcome to come here and burn whatever you like.  



Oh, of course, I assume that you'll be properly and safely capturing and
disposing the toxic ash.  Because, after all, if a single microgram
of those toxins were to land on my property, I would be forced to sue you, 
take all of that money, and set up a legal robot to continue to sue your
descendents for the next seven thousand generations.  

And, I guess if the investigation were to show that you were criminally
negligent in the proper disposal of those toxins, you would have to be
punished.   Speaking for myself as a darwinist libertarian, the only
fitting punishment to being criminally negligent on such a grand scale
would be to execute you, and sterilize every known trace of your genetic code 
in the gene pool - i.e. all genetic children, brothers, sisters, parents and
so forth.  You may have some illegitimate/secret offspring or siblings which
may survive, but we can't go around tracking everyone's genetic code.. It would
be an affront to privacy, and libertarianism in general.  

I'm sure that your lawyer could probably argue the case down to the point
where the only punishment would be your execution, and I guess that would
have to suffice - your family wasn't directly involved in the planning and
execution of this most heinous crime. 

But, I'm sure that you would be a properly responsible citizen, and clean
up carefully after yourself.  It might smell bad, and be a generally unpleasant
place, but as a libertarian, I don't have a right to control what you do
with your property, nor to object to bad smells - I can purchase filters
and such to avoid that.  And if it got unpleasant enough, I would just move
away, and leave you and your bad smells alone.  

Have a nice day,
 
---
John Brothers 
   Do you have a right not to be offended?