Letter in Liberty, February 2005, p. 5

Road to Perdition

Kenneth L. Strain writes in opposition to gay marriage (December 2004), apparently threatening to cancel his subscription. He suggests that Liberty is on the road to perdition and bankruptcy, as he claims happened to the magazine The Week when it published a picture of two men in a car with a "Just Married" sign on it. Actually, The Week is still in business and is published by Felix Dennis, publisher of Maxim, Stuff, Fortean Times, and other magazines--it appears that he has a growing publishing empire, built upon the success of Maxim.

I've been a subscriber to Liberty since the first issue, and I miss those early days when the subscriber survey showed more than 90% of the subscribers were atheists. It's my perception that the religious-right subscribers have increased, and it seems rare that an issue comes out without a cranky letter from someone like Strain, whose brand of liberty doesn't appear very libertarian.

Jim Lippard
Phoenix, Ariz.

[Correction to the above: The 1988 Liberty poll did show a majority (74%) of subscribers to be atheists, but it was not "over 90%." In the 1998 followup poll, it was still a majority (62%), but a smaller one. -jjl, note added 2005-01-07. See the poll results here. -jjl]