Our message today is very simple: we will never allow barbarism, never allow Islam, to rob us of our freedom of speech.
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Things drive me crazy in the UK, what with the precipitous decline in civil liberties by almost every measure. Yet somehow we seem to avoid shockers like this (so far at least):
Oh and sorry about the dead employee but tough shit. Actually I would not be surprised if they did not even say ‘sorry’. I want to run a business in the USA even less than I want to run one here now. Gah. May 2nd, 2015 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)
 I wish you all the luck in the world Baltimore. And I truly wish you had the courage to change. If you ever do, send up a flare. Until then, there is nothing anyone can do for you. You are victims of your own choices, and no one can make choices for you but you. – John Nolte, from ‘Baltimore is a Democrat problem, not America’s problem‘ April 29th, 2015 | 33 comments - (Comments are closed)
As time goes on we learn more about the possible GOP candidates and which ones might be satisfactory to libertarians. It appears that Marco Rubio is not going to be amongst that number if this report from CATO is correct. April 22nd, 2015 | 25 comments - (Comments are closed)
You guys have the Second Amendment. Guns, you has ’em. I am told it is the ultimate bulwark against tyranny. At least in principle I agree completely that an armed population is a good thing, which is sadly not the situation here in disarmed Britain. Then why is this possible?
So a politically motivated raid by armed police in Wisconsin is conducted against a political rival, and… well… and what? As news of what happened belatedly spreads, are militia’s urgently forming in the ‘Land of the Free and Home of the Brave’ to meet this use for political armed force with opposing armed force? Is there a hash tag #NewMinuteMenMuster calling armed civilian enemies of tyranny in the USA to take up those 2nd Amendment blessed arms yet? Or at least are folks coming up with SOPs for an en-mass armed response for the next time this happens? Clearly it would be wholly justified to start putting up NO POLICE ZONE signs backed up with lethal roadside IED’s to be used against the thugs who did this, so why in the land of the Second Amendment are such things not happening? This is not a slide towards tyranny in the USA, this is tyranny. The tree of liberty is looking mighty parched right now. Damn, I thought things were bad here, where all we have to defend ourselves with is pointy sticks, bottles full of soap flakes & petrol, and creative imprecations. April 21st, 2015 | 84 comments - (Comments are closed)
The US Navy, who job it is to, well you know, kill people when directed to, it proudly celebrating Earth Day. No doubt this is a strategy to cause the ships of the Chinese Navy to collide, their captains unable to issue orders due to tears of mirth and uncontrollable fits of laughter. If anyone doubted the western world’s political class and their retainers have been utterly debased … well, here we have proof positive… I can only hope we snap out of it collectively, before it is too late and the congruent cultural decline leaves us with the future prospects of Carthage. And no, I do not accept that it is already too late, and will ignore the usual wailing suicide note comments that suggest otherwise 😉 April 21st, 2015 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
“California has met the future, and it really doesn’t work. As the mounting panic surrounding the drought suggests, the Golden State, once renowned for meeting human and geographic challenges, is losing its ability to cope with crises. As a result, the great American land of opportunity is devolving into something that resembles feudalism, a society dominated by rich and poor, with little opportunity for upward mobility for the state’s middle- and working classes.” – Joel Kotkin (hat-tip, Café Hayek). The Kotkin article seems to be getting a bit of attention around parts of the blogsphere, and rightly so. I like his writings and keep an eye on them. There is no doubt that California is in danger of being past the “tipping point” where so much bad decision-making (more and more power to unions, higher taxes, regulations, etc) are pushing the state into a bad place. I occasionally hear calls for California to be broken up, but I have no idea how realistic such a move is. Thoughts? It is of course easy to get sucked into a downward spiral of pessimism, so that every event appears to confirm the worst. Appearances can be deceptive: when I visit the West Coast it all tends to look very swish and prosperous, and it is only when you spend a bit of time there that the other, less flattering details, arise. The same arises elsewhere: I have been on a business trip to Singapore (I’m back later this year) and I could not help but wonder if there could be a similar issue over there at some point, such as when the Lee dynasty that has run that island with a market-friendly, if not particularly libertarian hand, is replaced by something else. April 20th, 2015 | 29 comments - (Comments are closed)
“America is the world’s most successful economy because it is a democracy”, sayeth Iain Martin. I am not convinced.
But it is liberty, not democracy, that brings these things. It is constitutionally separated powers and limited government, which is to say limiting the scope for democratically impelled politics, that enables people to challenge established business models. And those limits on what government can do are in precipitous decline in the USA (and elsewhere) regardless of ‘democracy’… and often because of it. A great many people are quite happy to vote for excessive government power and more ‘free stuff’ that other people will have to pay for. April 5th, 2015 | 23 comments - (Comments are closed)
Libertarians on Reddit are calling out an executive order from Obama that appears to allow the federal government to seize property from anyone who donates money to anyone that the federal government does not like. The New York Times makes it sound far more reasonable and mundane. How bad is it? April 2nd, 2015 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
The part I find hilarious is the divestment movement that’s popping up around this law. They’re basically saying that Indianans have done something they find deeply and personally offensive, so the boycotters are going to refuse to do business with them as a result. It sounds like a prima facie argument for the exact bill that they’re opposed to. – Samizdata commenter Alsadius March 30th, 2015 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
… and you cannot have freedom of association without freedom of disassociation. Therefore I am perfectly willing to see a non-state owned company decline to do business with me because of my politics, or because of my hippopotamus fetish, or because I tend to wear red trousers. Of course by ‘perfectly willing to see’ I mean ‘that a company is legally permitted to discriminate against me’… I am not suggesting I would be thrilled by it. So is there any reason anyone who cares about liberty should oppose this? Indeed would it not be better if the law just stated it was none of the state’s business who a company chooses not to do business with for any reason, absent any prior or overarching contractual obligation? March 29th, 2015 | 44 comments - (Comments are closed)
Rand Simberg points out yet more reasons why the Space Launch System is nothing but a cathedral building jobs program. I would disagree. Cathedral building at least produced something of beauty that lasted for centuries. SLS is more like a strip mine where there are no resources to be had. It keeps loads of people working digging the hole… until the public catches on to the fact that there is nothing there. March 24th, 2015 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
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