So this judge in Tennessee got in big trouble last year for offering inmates in his county a 30 day reduction in their jail sentence if they volunteered for a sterilization procedure:

“When Judge Sam Benningfield of White County, Tenn., offered to shave off jail time for inmates who volunteered for sterilization, a chorus of attorneys, advocates and public officials reacted with horror.”

Horror? Why?

“Benningfield said his goal was to break a ‘vicious cycle’ of repeat drug offenders with children. But many argued that the proposal, outlined in a May order, was nothing short of eugenics.”

Psssh. What’s so horrible about eugenics?

Having more physically and mentally healthy people?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not supporting forced sterilization of anyone, which would be an intolerable violation of their life and liberty, but this program was completely voluntary.

No one was being threatened with 30 additional days in confinement if they didn’t comply.

They were already sentenced to those 30 days for a crime they had committed. These inmates were being offered 30 days off their sentence and a free contraceptive procedure if they wanted it. They were free to say no and serve out the sentence they were already sentenced to serve out regardless.

This judge just gave inmates more options.

“Civil rights lawyers brought legal actions and a local prosecutor told his staff to avoid the judge’s program at all costs.

Now, after the wave of backlash and amid multiple lawsuits, state judicial regulators have formally reprimanded Benningfield for promising 30-day sentence reductions to inmates who agreed to receive vasectomies or birth control implants.”

Everybody was worried that offering a 30 day reduction in their sentence would be unduly coercing them, but it’s not coercion.

It’s offering an additional incentive to get a free health care procedure that most people have to pay good money for and that Sandra Fluke wishes she could have gotten as a student at Georgetown University Law School.

Democrats mobilized to ThreatCon1 over Sandra Fluke’s right to get a private university to cover her contraceptive costs, then a judge in Tennessee offers it to prison inmates for free plus reducing their sentences and everybody loses their minds.

This guy should have been like the Bernie Sanders style socialism movement’s hero or something.

Maybe some of those inmates actually don’t want to have any kids in the future, and would have been happy to have their sentence reduced plus free permanent contraption.

Any of them who do want to have kids were free to decline and serve out their sentence, not as a punishment for declining the sterilization procedure, but because they were already sentenced to serve those days in confinement anyway.

That doesn’t look like coercion to me.

There is a clear distinction between coercive, tyrannical eugenics that violates people’s liberty, and a libertarian eugenics that would actually decrease the amount of coercion and tyranny in our society while also promoting a more healthy population.

An example of the latter kind would be making voluntary sterilization a requirement to receive welfare benefits.

My argument is simple:

Read the rest at The Humble Libertarian.

by the Left Coast Rebel

Wes Messamore at the Humble Libertarian has the details:

Yes I am giving away free silver and trillions of dollars (in Zimbabwe currency)! If you’ll note on the sidebar to the right, The Humble Libertarian is edging its way toward 400 subscribers, but I’d rather not just go past 400 subscribers: I want to blow past 400 subscribers!

What else is he giving away, you ask?

Third Place – Peter Schiff’s New Book

Yes, that’s correct! One lucky winner will get a free copy of Peter Schiff’s new book (courtesy of the book’s publisher, Wiley), How An Economy Grows and Why It Crashes.

Second Place – 1,000 TRILLION DOLLARS!

…in Zimbabwe money. If you enter, you could win trillions of dollars in Zimbabwe currency. This set of ten crisp, uncirculated, one hundred trillion dollar Zimbabwe notes makes a great conversation piece, is an authentic example of failed central banking policies, and serves as a chilling reminder that America needs sound money!

GRAND PRIZE – .999 Fine Silver, 1 oz. End the FED COIN

This gorgeous and clever 1 oz. silver coin says “End the FED” on one side and features a minted graph of the dollar’s decline on the other side. Do not pass up this opportunity to win a free ounce of fine silver in the form of an awesome libertarian coin from the End the FED Coin Project!

Wes is a good friend and a young man that is going somewhere fast in the limited government movement. Support him and the contest here.

PS – Wes also created the graphics and html that you see here at Left Coast Rebel so keep him in mind if you need the same.

by the Left Coast Rebel

This week was huge for the Left Coast Rebel. Thanks to Cliff over at Another Black Conservative and some very timely article/topic placement, LCR had unique visitors in the thousands,(I smashed previous records),…..a hefty feat for my humble site. Also, I collaboratively corresponded with a big-shot Fox producer in NYC, (although it was a dead-end), I was carried in the Atlanta Journal and along with Cliff, was a major feature at the top of the aggregate news site Memeorandum. We both practically broke the Letterman thing along with Palin’s book cover and the Olympic ego-Obamanation smackdown. Blogging and pushing content for more eyeballs is tough work. I couldn’t have done it without my friend, thanks, Cliff!

Today I will point you to stuff that caught my eye during the week but I couldn’t get to. Starting off, recently KOOK over at KOOK’s Manifesto did a four-post series at his site based on American exceptionalism, it was done quite well and although I haven’t mentioned them, I wanted to draw your attention to this series this weekend. Read them all and join the site……




Stacy McCain over at The Other McCain pulled off his trip to Kentucky, on foot and by car to investigate the murder of the Census worker in the state. Needless to say, Stacie’s gallant effort brought him to a myriad of details, interesting characters and breaking tibbits about the story. Frankly, the entire series was the best blogging that I have seen; part investigative journalism, part on the road blogging and part traditional reporting. Stay posted for his upcoming American Spectator stuff – Props to the boys…….


UPDATE : Stacy just sent me a note for an update to the KY Census killing. Memeorandum thread here, Stacie’s new piece here.



James at Reaganite brought to the front this week several great posts. First he points readers to the first and foremost self-serving-ness of the Obamanation. The fact that Wall Street execs are surprised by the radicalness of BO. Boo. Recall the incessant cries of the leftwing, citing Volcker, Geithner et. al as showcasing the moderation of the Obamanation? Well according to James, they reluctantly admit that they are rarely consulted. Now that is news…..or should it be? Drop by to see the other top-shelf stuff he put up this week.


Feast your eyes on all of the new goodies this week courtesy of Wes over at The Humble Libertarian. The big news for me being that Wes’s 100-list of libertarian sites got picked up by Cato and dropped him 2 thousand uniques in one day. He has some great analysis of the red-lighting of the Empire State Building and the Olympics fiasco among other stuff.

New friend of the Left Coast Rebel and recent addition to the ‘roll here is Weasel Zippers. Having not visited his site, Mr. Weasel kept popping up next to me on Memeorandum so I decided to check him out. Great content, I thought. Snarky. Colorful. Spot-on analysis. Rated ‘R’, mind you. Check out his piece today as well on the New York Times ‘scrubbing’ of the Olympics disaster. You won’t believe what you are reading….

Tune in tomorrow for a ‘best of new small blogs’ post, have a great weekend…….

by the Left Coast Rebel






So last night I had a nice little treat in my LCR inbox. Turns out it was Wes Messamore with the blog The Humble Libertarian. Wes was returning an email correspondence that I had with him fairly recently in regards to possibly putting up a guest post here at LCR.

As it turns out, Wes’s email to me was fairly involved, covered several topics and also had some interesting insight and constructive feedback. In fact it was so involved that I opted to phone him with the number he provided, (no I cannot give it out, as per his request). We talked for an hour, coming away from the conversation with him I felt invigorated. “What an incredible young man”, I thought, “More of a thinker and orator than I with a dozen less years….there is hope for America and liberty with young citizen-thinkers like Wes”.



As a team Wes and I will be evolving the Left Coast Rebel. In fact you may have already noticed a slightly leaner site. We plan on doing more; changing the look and feel of the site eventually and taking it to the next level. As always, feel free to offer your instructive input and opinion as well.

But enough of me, back to the intent of this post. As many of you know, I am a true conservative in my heart of hearts. I am a Reagan-kid. I believe in the Constitution. I believe in the sanctity of the individual, free markets and free minds. I believe in the freedom to choose and the freedom to succeed and fail. I believe in Libertarian ideals. To me, libertarian ideals are conservative ideals.

As a dutiful reader of my site, you may note that all freedom-loving Americans are my friends. GOPers, Independents, Conservatives, Left-Libertarians, Ron Paulistas, Palin fans…..the list goes on.

But tonight I draw your attention to the young man above, a voice with a vision of youth, (he’s only 22), a refreshing outlook for the cause of liberty, a humble approach towards those that value freedom over security. A Truly Humble Libertarian.

Visit his site, he’s actually celebrating his 1st blogger-birthday on October 2. Take part in his contest of celebration. When you enter, you have a chance to win 3 separate prizes –

1. An autographed copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence by none other than Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul.
2. A 1 year NRA membership which includes all kinds of goodies.
3. A copy of “The Revolution : A Manifesto” by Ron Paul.

In closing, give Wes a shout out, visit his site daily, blow up his web-counter. Pass this post along and help me grow his voice and his site. And thanks for reading the Left Coast Rebel too.