Libertarianism

Red Book Hoax

This entry was posted in bush administration Journalism Libertarianism Privacy on by

A couple weeks ago in regard to the story about a college student being visited by the FBI because he had checked out a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book Kip noted:

FULL DISCLOSURE: There are some who are insisting that this story is a hoax. But if it is then that means that an MSM reporter, or two university professors, are risking their jobs on a lark. Sounds unlikely to me. The reporter, Aaron Nicodemus, has publicly insisted that the story is genuine.

Well it turns out they were right:

The reporter writes about how the student’s story eventually started to unravel under intense questioning (only after the initial story was written), and how the tale “came at a perfect storm in the news cycle” due to the recent New York Times story about government surveillance. It doesn’t mention the paper’s failure to speak with the student prior to publishing the piece, nor does it offer up any kind of admission or apology.

Here is the retraction article which was published on 12/24. It is 4 days later and until I ran across the article in Regret the Error linked above I still thought the original story was true. I wonder how many will continue to cite this as an example of bushian governmental badness (which it would be if true). For instance this entry was posted on Thursday, December 29th, 2005 at 3:29 am UTC.

Disengaging From the Drug War

This entry was posted in Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Economics Law Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Earlier this month the King Count Bar Assocation (WA) held a drug policy conference titled Exit Strategy for the War on Drugs: Toward A New Legal Framework. In a followup opinion piece Seattle Times editorial columnist Bruce Ramsey wrote that although the conference attendees seemed to agree that the prohibition should end they had some problems with the next step:

Prohibition had failed. Drug laws had not stopped Americans from getting drugs; it simply made them get drugs from criminals. But if not from criminals, then from whom? On marijuana, they could not agree.

Some of the attendees wanted to make sure that the same government that has demonstrated such dramatic failure in the war on drugs was rewarded by having a monopoly on the distribution of marijuana:

The idea of any corporate control is troubling to me,” said Deborah Small, a New York activist who proposed to give marijuana distribution to the government.

Might a government monoply reap monopolistic windfall profits? Well, sure:

Much of the crowd was tolerant of intoxication but not of profit. They would replace police and jailers with doctors and social workers. The Dutch scene, with private-branded marijuana in private-sector cafes, was too commercial for them. Too fun. They would give marijuana oversight to the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
Merrit Long, chairman of that august monopoly, told the conference the state’s profit was $200 million on $600 million of sales.

Heck, even Microsoft doesn’t make that kind of margin. Unless they propose to continue the prohibition on growing marijuana, which doesn’t quite seem like an end of the drug war, then folks will just plant those seeds of BC bud in their gardens and bypass the government monopoly.
Initially the best way to keep corporations out of the business is this: only allow individuals or partnerships to produce, distribute and sell the goods. Over a longer period corporations can be kept out by eliminating the laws that facilitate the existience of the modern corporate structure.
Ramsey closes with this:

But I, too, fall into the trap of looking for a system that would align the rules with what Americans actually do. Americans don’t want that. Drug prohibition reflects our ideal of a sober America, and it is politically impossible to abandon that.
Yet life continues. We legislate nationally and ignore locally. We have our own version of Holland, really, except that ours is harsher than theirs, and does not attract tourists.

Excuse me but whose idea of a sober America? All those folks with their 6-packs and liquor cabinets? Bruce, you’ll have a better chance of convincing us that we have an ideal of sober America when no congress critter drinks, when liquor sales have dropped to nil. Nope, drug prohibition reflects a misuse of government power and the disproportionate power of those who make their livings off the drug war.
Let’s retire all the drug terrorists warriors now!
NB: Well known blogger Mark Kleiman was a participant at the conference.

mcain may be breaking

This entry was posted in Iraq Law Libertarianism Philosphy Psychology War on Terrorism on by

It looks like mcain may be reaching an unacceptable compromise with bush regarding exemption language in his amemdment barring inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners:

Instead, he has offered to include some language, modeled after military standards, under which soldiers can provide a defense if a “reasonable” person could have concluded that he or she was following a lawful order about how to treat prisoners.

Hopefully this is not the case. pace got it right a few days ago:

“It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it,” the general said.
Rumsfeld interjected: “I don’t think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it’s to report it.”
But Pace meant what he said. “If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it,” he said, firmly.

This damn well better apply to every human being no matter who they work for.
Following orders is never an excuse for for inhumane behavior. Though it might be possible to consider a slightly less excruciating punishment for a perpetrator following orders than that given to one acting on their own or to the one who gave the orders.
Via Talkleft.

More Competence in government

This entry was posted in Anarchism bush Constitution Democracy Federal Government Government Libertarianism Religion on by

Here is what USAID does:

USAID works in agriculture, democracy & governance, economic growth, the environment, education, health, global partnerships, and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries to provide a better future for all.

Here’s the qualifications of the new USAID director deputy assistant administrator:

More significant to the administration, perhaps, is the fact that Bonicelli is dean of academic affairs at tiny Patrick Henry College in rural Virginia. The fundamentalist institution’s motto is “For Christ and Liberty.” It requires that all of its 300 students sign a 10-part “statement of faith” declaring, among other things, that they believe “Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, is God come in the flesh;” that “Jesus Christ literally rose bodily from the dead”; and that hell is a place where “all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.”
Faculty members, too, must sign a pledge stating they share a generally literalist belief in the Bible. Revealingly, only biology and theology teachers are required to hold a literal view specifically of the Bible’s six-day creation story. Bonicelli has stated, “I think the most important thing is our academic excellence, [and the fact that we] combine it with a serious statement about our faith and values … I believe in six literal days, but I remain open to someone persuading me otherwise.”

This is certainly consistent with this view of bush and is a perfectly good reason to toss out both bushies and government as we know it. It is simply too risky to have so powerful an institution susceptible to occupancy by bushies or, for that matter, the other 535 534(click through).
Via Columbia Libertarians.
Update: Kip noted in a comment that bonicelli was not appointed director. I fixed that. Kip also points out that bonicelli has a more extensive resume than implied above. You can read more here but I’m still not impressed.

More Medicine

This entry was posted in Culture Economics Libertarianism Living on by

I know some religious folks who will bristle at Scalzi’s sensible views on family management and relationships but they live in dark places and if they are very lucky their sons will not look to be dating Athena:

And as for passing along the “the husband is the head of household” meme to my daughter, well. Here we pause for a long and hearty laugh. I’ve already given Athena permission to kneecap the first jackass who tries to pass that one off to her. And you don’t want to know what Krissy’s given her permission to do.

Chuckle! Read it all.