Introducing Georgia Liberty and Myself

Greetings. My name is Benjamin Faulkner and the site you are visiting is the weblog Georgia Liberty. I have set up this site with the intention of it being a news and opinion resource concerning events impacting or having the potential to impact the lives, liberty, and property of Georgia residents. During the period of history just proceeding the American Revolution, much of the debate was carried on by dedicated and resourceful pamphleteers. It was a time when practically anyone with access to a printing press could present his opinions candidly to his neighbors; it was a time before "journalism" had become an academic discipline, before rules of the art and craft existed. To some extent, the advent of blogging is a return to precisely that set of conditions, the primary difference being the advancement of the technologies of communication. Here, we can sidestep the old and fading media, and here, we have the prospect of being the cutting edge of the new media. In terms of shaping ideas and opinions and stimulating discussion, the bloggers of today are in some ways analogous to the pamphleteers of the Pre-Revolutionary War era.

I definitely like this comparison, and since I don't especially care for the word "blogger" for a number of reasons, I will introduce myself as an electronic pamphleteer. As for my background, I have spent many years both on my own time and academically studying issues relative to Constitutional Government and Personal Liberty, and on that basis, I feel that I am competent to write on these matters. I will admit up front that for reasons cheifly related to finances, I had to put on hold last the completion of the political science degree I was seeking. But the times in which we find ourselves living do not warrant using the lack of a degree as an excuse for failing to communicate (and clearly so) information relevant to our present circumstances. Simply because I have yet have an academic panel decide that I am one of them does not and should not detract from the learning I do have, or the analyses of events that I present. If, dear reader, you think that it does or should, that is your concern. Mine is to write, and to attempt to use this as a forum for promoting the advancement of Liberty in the State of Georgia.

I intend at some point to give a discussion of our State and County Governments from a libertarian perspective, a discussion on what libertarianism is, a introduction to the Austrian School of Economic Thought, and a look a the Federal Reserve System. Other subjects will come up, and I will attempt to follow the news as best I can and give opinion and guidance to the extent possible.

I consider myself a libertarian, and I make no apologies for that. This is a consistent political philosophy of freedom and limited government, and as these are the ideas I will contend for herein, you could say that this little journal will have a libertarian bias. I will be as fair as I can be when presenting opposing views, but as you will see, I will favor positions and persons advancing what in my opinion is the cause of liberty.

So, welcome, and may we all live to see the advancement and perpetuation of our rights and liberties in our lifetimes.