Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program
– Milton Friedman
Video via Richard Nikoley
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March 18th, 2012 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
This is good, because it shows how reasonable most people consider their government’s existence and demands to be – and because it shows how misled those people are. (I have put this under the Humour category, but I find it rather depressing. Those who can be emotionally detached about these things may laugh, though.)
March 9th, 2012 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
The current U K problem seems to be that despite the growing conflicts there of principles with interests, there is no “grass roots” movement nor electorate concerns that no election party is strong enough to represent principles. – Redoubtable commenter RRS March 8th, 2012 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
I found myself entranced last week by a collection of art at The Gershwin Hotel in New York. Entitled Welcome to the Panopticon, the exhibition of paintings focuses on the capture of our daily lives, and reflects on the impact of surveillance. The artist, Wayne Toepp, writes of the work on his own website:
Click thumbnail to view larger version It is refreshing to see modern art that is not simply an exercise in provoking for the sake of it, or trying to elevate offense to an art of its own, but displaying a surreal sort of beauty while leading the viewer to think and feel about something that matters. See more in Wayne Toepp’s portfolio. February 20th, 2012 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
Who forms criminal associations? You see them formed by bankers, politicians, judges, and maybe, sometimes… by thugs. – Beppe Grillo, Italian blogger and comedian February 19th, 2012 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
What is the difference between a landed family’s trust fund and a dole recipient’s benefits? I’ll tell you: One of them is an income derived from a piece of territorial property, assigned by accident of birth, originally acquired by forcefully expropriating the previous owners but now generally regarded as legitimate and which is only paid by people who choose to occupy the estate in question instead of living somewhere else… …and the other one is a landed family’s trust fund. – Typographically challenged commenter ‘fjfjfj’ February 14th, 2012 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years – Lysander Spooner February 5th, 2012 | 27 comments - (Comments are closed)
Hartnett wants the citizenry to stop giving cash to their cleaners, gardeners, and to small tradesmen and other potential tax cheats and economic criminals so that they can no longer avoid paying taxes. Hartnett’s vision of Britain is a society of snoops and denunciators. “Households have a duty to ensure that other people do not evade paying their share of tax. The people who are worried about it should use our whistle-blowing line to tell us. We are getting better and better at finding people who receive cash.” Nice touch. A tinge of the former GDR’s Stasi culture for the British way of life? January 30th, 2012 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
This is one of the more ridiculous incidents of security theatre that I have read. I know it is preaching to the converted to post such a link to Samizdata, and the increasingly farcical nature of the United States government surprises no one who reads here, but the post deserves to be spread far and wide. Reading Mike Masnick’s account of how the knuckleheads providing “security” at the US Capitol conduct themselves, one can better visualize the inherent idiocy of the entire operation. January 28th, 2012 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
[W]hile SOPA/PIPA may be stalled for now, a big part of the reason is that tech companies got into the lobbying game, too…That’s right, slowly but surely, Congress is sucking the tech industry into their world, making us play by their rules. We have to pay them off, literally with cash, or we get slaughtered. …Well, we’re now playing by big government rules. Congress can set up a fight pit with Hollywood in one corner and Silicon Valley in the other. Who cares what happens. The money will just roll right in. This is how criminal organizations run protection rackets. Congress is doing just that, only it’s completely legal. January 28th, 2012 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
He wastes no time in twisting the knife of truth in this thrillingly irreverent talk. No, he probably will not ever be invited back. O’Leary’s conference bio should have foreshadowed to organizers that they would not be getting the traditional, polite, boring PowerPoint presentation. January 15th, 2012 | 34 comments - (Comments are closed)
This video makes for hilarious – if frustrating – viewing. Leading Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum ludicrously posits that left-wingers in America are massive advocates for too much freedom…and cites this as a problem. Richard Nikoley sums up the vile Santorum thusly:
If Santorum and his ilk keep forcing me to agree with left-wingers – in this case, that Santorum is pure evil – it is going to be a very, very long election year. January 7th, 2012 | 30 comments - (Comments are closed)
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