Recently, I began reading Garry Reed’s book, “Selected Salvos from the Loose Cannon Libertarian” and found myself enjoying every page. Garry Reed’s writing style is something bordering H.L. Mencken and Groucho Marx. His quick wit and colorful turn of a phrase gives the reader something to chuckle about while being informed. After having read volumes of economics books and tomes this little collection of his articles, between 2001 and 2002, I found quite refreshing. It was like cheating on a diet with a pizza and a beer.

A Little Bio

Mr. Reed, a self-proclaimed Professional Libertarian Opinionizer, began his career in the technical writing trades, from an electro-mechanical drafter, technical illustrator/writer to logistics support analyst and supportability engineer. In 2001 he began to re-enter the libertarian activist realm by having his first five letters-to-the-editor published in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News.

Later, after having six more articles published for Newsguy.com, Garry proceeded to write another 149 articles for his own website, Loose Cannon Libertarian, some of which went on to be published by the Star-Telegram and LP News. He has written over 1000 online feature articles between the Dallas Libertarian Examiner and Libertarian News for Examiner.com as well. A writing portfolio that would make any blogger or writer jealous.

About the Book

Garry explains in the introduction to the book that he put his best three articles first, but I have to admit that I found each subsequent piece every bit as good as the first. The third article titled, “The Future in Review” piqued the Austrian Economist in me. Here, Garry would quote an actual news story taken from a well known news source and then continue to follow up with a “Future News” item that presented a libertarian response. In economics we could call this the short term-long term effect. Something Thomas Sowell would call “thinking past stage one”. That is, how a short term plan would effect the long term. This one had me actually laughing out loud. If you can read through this article without so much as a chuckle, then your dead.

The following article titled, “The Federal Bureau of Charity” was simply brilliant. Mr. Reed explains in his colorful way how the Bush Administration’s “Faith Based Initiative” in retrospect wasn’t much more than an enhancement of Clinton’s Americorps. He goes on to explain that Republicans had initially intended to eliminate Americorps because of it’s cost. It was later simply transformed into the Republican Faith Base Initiative.

In his own words,

“So why didn’t they eliminate Americorps? Because of the politicians’ definition of Bipartisans: “If we Democrats and Republicans work together to divvy up taxpayer booty we can buy partisans.”

You can’t find much better writing than that. Garry Reed has a writing style that comes off the page, like chatting with a buddy.

Something else I found astounding was, although these articles were dated back in 2001 and 2002, the pieces on terrorism and the subsequent war on the tactic were amazingly prophetic. His article about initiating The Patriot Act and Homeland Security yielding an all out police state were like a voice shouting in the wilderness. All of which have come to pass. Other than Ron Paul’s dire warnings on the House floor, I have yet to come across a more accurate depiction of what was to come.

Conclusion

I am certainly looking forward to Garry Reed’s next collection of tasty treats put into book form. But, I would insist that the curious reader should head over to his website, Loose Cannon Libertarian. There, you will find a treasure trove of articles like these and more. Just like he advertises, both the book and website are packed full of “Fun&Freedom”.