X-Message-Number: 22059 From: Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 16:14:24 EDT Subject: Attempt to get big name libertarians signed up yesterday, CMP --part1_f5.2e4c2513.2c276820_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello, Dear Cryoneters, This is Rudi Hoffman writing from a soggy Daytona Beach where it has been raining steadily for some six days. I just returned from a "Financial Planning Association" conference in Tampa, Florida, on the West coast of Florida. I went because the keynote speaker lineup was unusual for such a "Mainstream" group as the Certified Financial Planners. While I am a part of and even on the board of the Central Florida FPA, I acknowledge that the group as a whole tends to be very "conservative" (traditional Republican definition) and staid. Anyway, the reason I went is because this particular group of CFPs has a self described "anarcho-capitalist atheist" as president and organizer of this year's conference. He lined up the following keynote speakers: 1. Harry Browne (Libertarian Presidential candidate 92 and 96, when I voted for him.) 2. Doug Casey--Author of "Crisis Investing" and well known "gold bug" and internationalist, extreme libertarian views...shocked the heck out of even me during his speech...and the rest of the 150 or so folks mostly had their jaws dropping. Here is a guy who goes out of his way to shock people, but he still made a lot of sense. 3. Mark Skousen--well known free market advocate, newsletter writer 4. Edward L. Hutchins, Ph. D., a full time "Washington Director" of "The Objectivist Center," an Ayn Rand Free market think tank. Gave an articulate, rational, reasoned key note address entitled, "Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal." Very well received speech even by mostly mainstream and moderate crowd. So, I made occasion to speak with all of the above about cryonics. All were at least neutral, although I can't report bottom line outcomes of actual signups yet. I had previously talked with Harry Browne about this for about 30 minutes when he was campaigning in Daytona, and he was semi-positive. It is my intention to email all of these guys to follow through on our conversations and encourage them to consider the cryonics option. Any one of these "heavy hitters" of liberty would be good p.r. and a big plus to this "movement" (for lack of better word). I also want to thank several of you for your positive response to the "Cryonics Map" project. Especially John DeRivas and David Stodolsky. David has kindly volunteered to help make this happen. (Stop me if I am misreading this, David! ) He also seems to have the technical expertise to make it happen. But, the CRYONICS MAP PROJECT should be open source, multi-group, and involve all life loving folks from all cryonics orgs as well as those still considering signing up. David has written that he can (will?) host this. I truly hope it can be a resource that cryonics oriented folks can use to help find and support each other. We are still infinitesimally small as a group. Powerless politically, disconnected, and clearly "at risk" from all sorts of variables. Anything we can do to increase INDIVIDUAL as well as GROUP cooperation in our life saving endeavors, wouldn't you agree, is vital. At this stage of technology, developing a cooperative and effective NET of SURVIVAL is among the MOST important activities to pursue. Having a person who can champion your wishes in the face of unfriendly beaurocrats or family members is paramount. And there may be such a person within a few kliks from you, but you would never know this. As one of the founding father's said (allegedly? Was if Ben Franklin?) "We must surely hang together. Or we shall surely hang separately." Rudi Hoffman --part1_f5.2e4c2513.2c276820_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22059