Genua had once controlled the river mouth and taxed its traffic in a way that couldn’t be called piracy because it was done by the city government.
– Local-body politics explained (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)
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February 11th, 2004 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
 February 8th, 2004 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
State funding of abortions is, however, a completely different matter. The pro-choicers say it’s a matter of choice. Let it stay that way, then, without forcing people who oppose infanticide to fund it. January 30th, 2004 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
There are two possible political morals to this. One is, don’t have schools. Children in large groups behave like troops of baboons. The other is, if you are going to have schools, have discipline. January 15th, 2004 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
December 26th, 2003 | 40 comments - (Comments are closed)
Many of people who loathe Rupert Murdoch and who hate the fact he has been able to buy up the TV rights to so many sporting events, are the same people who have supported the regulation of British media companies which has ensured Murdoch never has to face any effective competition. December 5th, 2003 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
The dumbest idea is to suppose that an inanimate object can turn a noncriminal into a criminal. To believe that guns cause crime is as stupid as believing that hammers and saws cause houses. It is the grossest kind of mindless superstition to suppose that some magical qualities of an inanimate object can overpower the human will. November 13th, 2003 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
Over the years it has become apparent to me that to discount the position of others on the basis of their number is democratically sound but morally wrong. It’s this feeling that has brought me, and others like me, to samizdata and to a consideration of libertarianism. October 31st, 2003 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
Ruth Lea, the head of policy at Britain’s Institute of Directors (IoD), has been fired. What a pity. Lea put forward views that truly took account of the needs of business, even though the government did not like them. On an unrelated point, I wonder if George Cox, the IoD’s Director General, is now in line for a knighthood? October 29th, 2003 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Woe to those who enact evil statutes, and to those who constantly record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their rights, in order that widows may be their spoil, and that they may plunder the orphans. October 25th, 2003 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods. October 15th, 2003 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
Poverty is a miracle, created by governments October 3rd, 2003 | 16 comments - (Comments are closed)
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