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Lucy Steigerwald's writings from around the internets
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Sign Language, Privilege, and Authoritarian Education Dec 5, 2014

While reading neurologist Oliver Sacks’ Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf, I found myself suddenly furious and ranting about the 1880 Milan Congress on deaf education. Pardon my libertarian cliche as I found something authoritarian to rant about in a seemingly apolitical book, but there it was. The thing about this conference was it dovetailed more than a century of the deaf golden age -- 100 years of this amazing realization that the deaf could be educated, and were neither stupid, nor “dumb” as in mute. Signing was the answer to their particular difficulty in communication....

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote6 2

Politics for People Who Hate Politics ep. 12 — Guest Starring Jeff Tucker! Nov 25, 2014

Please enjoy my libertarian podcast where ranting is optional, and smashing the state is mandatory. Our enthusiastic, liberty-loving panel discussed President Obama’s immigration order and the dangers of executive power — even when it’s doing something we like. We then had a long talk about the idea of rape culture — going off of Cory Massimino’s new, controversial piece that cites it as an example of spontaneous order. There were a few tangents about popes, and what the state really consists of, and whether yelling at Meter Maids is good for liberty. We concluded with Jeff Tucker’s harsh words about fancy...

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote19 0

Firefly is Libertarian, and Serenity is Totally About Whistleblowing Aug 26, 2014

Spoilers for the 2005 film Serenity, proceed with caution Joss Whedon's painfully-beloved, endlessly-missed, didn't-even-get-a-God-damn-full-season sci-fi Western Firefly had its libertarian moments. Hell, the pilot has the main character, the funny, but wounded Captain Malcolm Reynolds, say the following piece of dialogue: "That's what government's for -- get in a man's way." Mal has a reason to feel this way. He's the the survivor of a losing war with the government known as the Alliance, whose noose around the rest of the universe grows tighter and tighter all the time. Mal simply wants to be left alone, with his eight other crewmates,...

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote45 11

Game of Thrones Gets the Nastiness of Politics and War Jun 7, 2014

All of the dirty DC dealings in Netflix’s House of Cards arguably make it the most cynical of the current crop of highly-acclaimed and talked over television shows. However, the epic Game of Thrones – in spite of its fantastical elements – paints an even more brutal picture of the vile nature of politics, and the ruinous nature of wars with even the noblest stated intentions. The HBO series, set in the magical-tinged fictional land of Westeros, is nearly finished with its fourth season. The show is often criticized for its graphic violence – though that usually has a larger purpose – and laughably gratuitous sex...

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote5 4

The DEA Might as Well Be a Spy Agency, Too May 24, 2014

America’s National Security Agency (NSA) records and archives nearly every single phone call in the Bahamas. We’re not just talking call logs. Call content of that nation of 370,000 people is being snooped on as well. That came as news to the Bahamian government when The Intercept broke the story this week. NSA reportedly used the legal access granted by the Bahamas to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as cover for its secret, somewhat less legal inroad into the Bahamas mobile phone services. America’s excuse for this vast violation of the privacy rights of an entire nation was the usual spiel about...

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote7 1

Pennsylvania Police Charge Man With Flag Desecration May 20, 2014

A Blair County, Pennsylvania, resident named Joshua Brubaker got into some trouble last week after he hung an American flag upside down and painted “AIM” on it. Brubaker, who is part American Indian, was trying to make a statement after learning that the site of the infamous 1890 Wounded Knee massacre—and a 1973 conflict between the American Indian Movement and the FBI—was going up for sale. A graffitied flag is the kind of routine artistic protest often made by 19-year-olds who have just heard of Noam Chomsky, but it really pissed off L.J. Berg, an assistant chief with the Allegheny Township police. Berg—who...

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote1 0

Can We Stop Treating Children Like Criminals? May 17, 2014

Earlier this month, news that a 9-year-old girl had been handcuffed and arrested for fighting last May in Portland, Oregon broke to much media attention and public outrage. Portland officers David McCarthy and Matthew Huspek came to the home of Latoya Harris one week after her daughter got into a fight with another girl at the Boys and Girls club they both attended. Both girls were suspended from the club for a week, and the Harris girl apologized. Everything should have been squared away, except the other girl’s mom called police after she saw her daughter’s bruised cheek. The officers interrogated the...

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote7 1

Conservatives should ditch the death penalty May 9, 2014

Over at National Review today, John Lott Jr., Mr. More Guns Less Crime himself, has breezily refuted the brewing backlash against the death penalty which was provoked by the botched Oklahoma execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29. Yesterday, Jonah Goldberg defended the practice as well. Yet it’s not just National Review suddenly in the mood to fight for the good name of capital punishment. Conservatives — with a few commendable exceptions — seem keen to do so now more than ever, perhaps because both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder chimed in on the Lockett execution; perhaps, because the backlash seems to be strong. Lott identified...

By Lucy Steigerwald Vote2 0

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