Posted in libertarianism, tagged accident, collateral damage, death, gambling, government, law enforcement, moral police, paternalism, victimless crimes on July 3, 2008 | No Comments »
The wages of sin is death. What constitutes sinful behavior is going to be decided by us, the government. We will do everything in our power to ensure that your children grow up in a moral environment.
Sometimes shit will happen in the process. Culosi– poor guy – his fate was an unfortunate one. But you know what, some collateral damage is unavoidable in matters like [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, politics, tagged freedom, ron paul, internet, government, nanny-state, laws, paternalism, protest, regulation, internet gambling, gambling, poker, barney frank, bill on June 23, 2008 | No Comments »
If you, like me, think it is outrageous that the US government tells you that you may not indulge in internet gambling, you can call, fax or email House Financial Services Committee and let your views be known. For more details, click here.
If you decide to act, please do so by Tuesday. That’s when the house [...]
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Posted in uncategorized musings, tagged law, freedom, liberty, government, laws, power, protest, libertarian, thought, disobedience, rebel, outrage, anger, civil disobedience on June 21, 2008 | No Comments »
If you are a rebel and the law comes in the way of your natural course of action, you would probably feel justified in violating it. But what if those in power decide they are going to stop you from doing something that you hadn’t planned on doing anyway? What do you do if there is [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, tagged annulment, consent, france, freedom of contract, government, individual freedom, islam, laws, liberty, marriage, nanny-state, privacy, virginity on June 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
France is perhaps the worst place in Western Europe for individual liberty — recall the recent conviction of Brigette Bardot for hate-speech — however, their courts do get things right once in a while. In a marriage annulment case, much in the news lately, the French judge did rule in favour of privacy and freedom. Here’s an excerpt from [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, politics, tagged freedom of speech, civil liberties, election 2008, government, mccain, privacy, security, wiretapping, terrorism, war, executive power, fourth amendment, telecom on June 4, 2008 | No Comments »
I have always feared that if elected, John McCain would be an even more authoritarian chief executive than George W. Bush. Particularly worrying is his disregard for privacy and free speech, especially when it conflicts (in his world-view) with national security.
The latest statement issued by McCain’s campaign proves that these fears are justified. Here’s an excerpt:
N]either the Administration nor the telecoms need [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, people, politics, tagged authoritarian, clinton, government, liberty, mccain, nanny-state, obama, paternalism, patriotism, radley balko, reason on May 28, 2008 | No Comments »
After landing in Columbus, the [Hillary Clinton] campaign entourage headed by motorcade to Zanesville, a town of about twenty-five thousand, sixty miles away, for what was billed as an economic “summit.” When one speaker offered encomiums to Clinton rather than economic prescriptions, she gently reprimanded her, saying, “We’re going to put a moratorium on compliments.” [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, sci, tech and gizmos, tagged addict, addiction, craving, drug war, drugs, food, government, health, junk food, neuroscience, obesity, regulation, war on drugs on May 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In that the addictions produced by both are similar.
I can see the health police salivating at the prospect of using this as a reason to regulate or ban junk food (though to me, it looks like yet another argument for drug legalization).
However, as the author of the linked article says:
Because if we really do crave junk food the way [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, personal, uncategorized musings, tagged beliefs, change, coercion, coming of age, faith, force, freedom of speech, government, growing up, ideology, liberty, life, maturity, personal, rationality, reason, religion, science, scientific spirit on April 28, 2008 | No Comments »
Apropos of nothing…I remembered myself from ten years back.
When I hated all mongerers of superstition; when I simply could not fathom why the government did not declare the practice of astrology, quackery, faith-healing and all related unscientific mumbo-jumbo illegal; when I would have liked all religious extremists and preachers of hate put behind bars; when the ultimate [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, tagged cass sunstein, choice, freedom, government, influence, libertarian, libertarian paternalism, liberty, paternalism, public policy, schemes, volokh on April 14, 2008 | No Comments »
A guest-blog at Volokh by Cass Sunstein on libertarian paternalism. Hopefully we will see more writings on the subject.
Unlike some hardcore libertarians, I am sympathetic to the idea of libertarian paternalism, particularly the “one-click” variety that Cass mentions. In any case, as even libertarian opponents of the idea will agree, libertarian paternalism is certainly a huge improvement over [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, tagged crime, drug, drug clock, drugs, government, policy, spending, United States, violence, war on drugs on March 10, 2008 | No Comments »
As dumb wars go, this is the dumbest of them all. It involves more money than is spent on food programs, science or technology. It arrests about two million people (that’s almost 1 percent of the population) every year, most of them small users. It is responsible for about a quarter of the current inmate population in the United [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, news and links, tagged civil liberties, freedom, government, laws, liberty, mississippi law, nanny-state, obese, obesity, regulations, restaurants on February 7, 2008 | No Comments »
Everyone has a small part of himself that wishes to control the lives of others but only the government has the power to do it legally.
A large Mississippi lawmaker proposed a bill that would ban restaurants from serving obese customers. Thankfully no one, including the lawmaker, expects the bill to pass.
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