More Lynch footage from Reason

Reason has some exclusive footage from the aborted sentencing yesterday. Meanwhile, if you are a reader who is not entirely familiar with the timeline and details of the Charlie Lynch case, I strongly recommend this excellent Reason summary. To read my various posts on the case, click here.

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Charlie Lynch sentencing postponed again

Passing on the release by the Friends of CCL group. It is rather interesting. On Thursday April 23 in Federal Court the Sentencing of Charles C. Lynch was again postponed until Monday June 11, 2009. The court filled with supporters from across the state and across the nation. Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Reason.tv [...]

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Violence, State and Consent: A more lengthy discussion

(Followup to Domestic violence and consent) In this post, I intend to discuss and clarify some issues related to violence and consent. For the most part, I will take for granted the libertarian philosophy of non-interference in any consensual act and explore some of the ramifications of this position with regard to acts of domestic [...]

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Domestic violence and consent

Celebrity couple Rihanna and Chris Brown are back together again, three weeks after Brown hit her during an altercation that left her with visible injuries. However, the case against Brown may not be dropped, despite Rihanna’s decision to forgive her man. In a criminal case like this, the police has the power to press charges [...]

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Final exit network members arrested

This is sad. Four members of the Final Exit Network, including its president and its medical director, were arrested Wednesday and charged with assisted suicide in the death of 58-year-old John Celmer last June at his home near Atlanta. Investigators said the organization may have been involved in as many as 200 other deaths around [...]

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The tragic case of Clarence Aaron

At the age of 23, he introduced two men who wanted to do trade with each other. He has been in prison since. He will remain in prison for the rest of his life. Link 1. Link 2.

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No puffing in Aurora

Even a blogger as jaded as me comes across an instance of nanny-statism once in a while that takes his breath away. Police in Aurora and around the metro area are cracking down on unattended and running vehicles, which police call “puffers,” this week. “The easiest cars to steal are those left running unattended in [...]

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Laws which cannot be enforced

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law; for nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.” – Albert Einstein, on prohibition in the US.

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Britain wants to make it illegal to pay for sex

Britain, where prostitution is now legal, wants to turn back the clock and criminalize it again. And like the Swedish, they have taken a bizarre but politically correct position — it will now be illegal to pay for sex but legal to sell it. As Home Secretary Jacqui Smith put it: Basically, if it means [...]

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China to classify ‘internet addiction’ as clinical disorder

From this report: China could become the first country to classify internet addiction as a clinical disorder amid growing concern over compulsive Web use by millions of Chinese, state media said on Monday. The health ministry is likely to adopt a new manual on Internet addiction next year drawn up by Chinese psychologists that recognises [...]

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Milton Friedman on the war on drugs

Milton Friedman, Nobel prize winning economist  — and one of my personal idols — was among the most influential libertarian thinkers of the last century. Friedman was primarily a consequentialist, meaning he advocated libertarian policies based on the fact that they work better. Such an approach has the great advantage of political effectiveness. If you [...]

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You know that child porn laws have gone too far…

…when a 15 year old girl is arrested and charged with second and fifth degree felonies for distributing nude pictures of herself to some classmates.

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On this day in 1833…

…Captain Henry Nicholas Nicholls was hanged in London for sodomy. Executed Today is an interesting blog that describes executions that took place in the past on each day of the year. Today’s entry is about Nicholas Nicholls, who was executed in accordance with British law under which homosexuality was a capital offence until 1861.  According to the [...]

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Parallel terrors

At least thirty-seven people are dead in a series of horrific blasts in Ahmedabad, India. Iran is going to hang thirty people tomorrow. At first sight, the situations look dissimilar. The people dead in Ahmedabad are innocent victims of terror, their lives snuffed out brutally and callously by vengeful terrorists. The Iranians who will die tomorrow [...]

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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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