I am a militia member

Or at least I could be, if this report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (a government agency that researches terrorism) is to be taken seriously. If you’re an anti-abortion activist, or if you display political paraphernalia supporting a third-party candidate or a certain Republican member of Congress, if you possess subversive literature, you very [...]

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Geithner and Summers — power equations

The New Republic has a fascinating article on the dynamics between Lawrence Summers and Tim Geithner, the two principal players of Obama’s economic team. An excerpt: It’s only natural that a man who was hailed as one of his generation’s great academic minds by age 30 and who’d become Treasury secretary by 45 would have [...]

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Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education

Jim Lindgren thinks he is a great choice.

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You should be opposed to an auto bailout irrespective of your ideology

My position on the auto bailout is simple. The big three should be allowed to go bankrupt. This is true even if one ignores the moral hazard and other intrinsic costs of bailing out private firms. Bankruptcy now is, quite simply, the best course of action not just for the taxpayer and the rest of [...]

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The kneejerk reactions have begun

A PIL has been filed in India asking to get Google Earth banned. Apparently the terrorists used Google images to plot their attacks. Considering that the terrorists also used buses, trains, cellphones and a fishing boat, perhaps we should ban those as well. And while we are at it, we should make sure that there [...]

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The case for limited government

In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Ramesh Srivats explains, in a long but very readable post, why our unrealistically high expectations of what the government ought to do for us leads to a bloated maai-baap sarkar that loves to intrude into matters that are not its business, yet fails to perform its most basic [...]

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Why the Republicans must lose

There are at least two good reasons why libertarians should not be supporting McCain this election. One of those is fairly straightforward: Obama is better. I have written several posts in the past elaborating on this point. To put it briefly, Obama is no libertarian, not even close, but on some of the most important [...]

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The Austrian viewpoint

The Austrian school of economics is in a permanent “We told you so” mode these days. In this very readable post, Roderick Long gives the Austrian economist viewpoint of the current financial meltdown. After offering a detailed explanation of why it is regulation that got us into this mess (most of his points I agree [...]

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What are rights?

I don’t usually agree with the National Review, but this article is bang on the money. During the presidential debate Tuesday night, Barack Obama was asked if he thought health care was a “right.” He said he thought it was a right. Well, if you accept that premise, I think you can ask some logical [...]

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Blunting the inherent badness of governments

“India’s redemption lies in the inherent anarchy and factiousness of its people, and in the legendary inefficiency of the Indian state…” -Arundhati Roy.

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Why the bailout isn’t (that) bad for libertarianism

In this post, I’ll defend a thesis that my libertarian friends will probably disagree strongly with — that the economic panic culminating in the $700 billion bailout isn’t all that bad for capitalist and libertarian ideals in the long run. Don’t get me wrong. The bailout is a monstrosity, a tremendous allocation of power to [...]

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Bob Barr on supreme court appointments

Bob Barr, the Libertarian nominee for president, speaks out on the jurisprudence on the two major presidential contenders and argues that people who will be voting for McCain because of worries about a possible left-turn of the supreme court under an Obama administration will be making a mistake. The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. [...]

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Saharan inefficiency

“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand” -Milton Friedman.

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The strange case of Salvatore Culosi

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 [...]

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Protesting against paternalism

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 [...]

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