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Cost of the War in Iraq
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Benjamin M. Anderson Challenges the The Philosophy of the Pseudoprogressives
14 hours ago
Posted by Weekend
Like Thucydides, Mises wrote, Anderson unfortunately did not live to see his book published. After his premature death, much lamented by all his friends and admirers, the D. Van Nostrand Company published it, with a preface by Henry Hazlitt, under the title Economics and The Public Welfare: Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 . It contains more than this title indicates. FULL ARTICLE
Copyright and the Intellectuals
16 hours ago
Posted by Kinsella
While IP may not stimulate true innovation and creativity, Hayek suggests that copyright might stimulate something more pernicious: the intellectual class. In "The Intellectuals and Socialism," he writes:
In the sense in which we are using the term, the intellectuals are in fact a fairly new phenomenon of history. Though nobody will regret that education has ceased to be a privilege of the propertied classes, the fact that the propertied classes are no longer the best educated and the fact that the large number of people who owe their position solely to the their general education do not possess that experience of the working of the economic system which the administration of property gives, are important for understanding the role of the intellectual. Professor Schumpeter, who has devoted an illuminating chapter of his Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy to some aspects of our problem, has not unfairly stressed that it is the absence of direct responsibility for practical affairs and the consequent absence of first hand knowledge of them which distinguishes the typical intellectual from other people who also wield the power of the spoken and written word. It would lead too far, however, to examine here further the development of this class and the curious claim which has recently been advanced by one of its theorists that it was the only one whose views were not decidedly influenced by its own economic interests. One of the important points that would have to be examined in such a discussion would be how far the growth of this class has been artificially stimulated by the law of copyright.
Yet another strike against copyright! (Thanks to BK Marcus)
Ideas Are Easy... Execution Is Difficult
16 hours ago
Posted by Kinsella
Excellent post by Mike Masnick on Techdirt:
It's an ongoing theme around here, but ideas are everywhere. The real trick to making something great often has extremely little to do with the idea, and much more to do with the execution. That's where the real innovation occurs -- in taking an idea and trying to figure out how to make it useful. It's that process that's important, much more than the original idea. As nearly anyone who has brought a product from conception to market will tell you, what eventually succeeds in the market is almost always radically different than the original "idea." That's part of the reason why patents are so often harmful to innovation. The patent is for that core idea, which is rarely the key in making something successful. But by limiting who can innovate off of the idea (or just by making it much more expensive) you're limiting that process of innovation. ... [A]s the founder of [failed company] Cambrian House admitted in explaining the company's changing plans, it wasn't difficult to get people to come up with all sorts of interesting and exciting ideas -- but where the company failed was in getting anyone to actually execute on any of those ideas. Ideas are a starting point -- but it's high time that we stopped worshipping the idea, and started recognizing how much more important execution is in driving innovation.
Jeff Tucker makes a similar point in his article Is Intellectual Property the Key to Success?:
This is pretty neat
18 hours ago
Posted by Tucker
The conference that starts tomorrow has been sold out for several days now
J.B. Say in print
18 hours ago
Posted by Tucker
Here are two exciting additions to the store: A Treatise in Political Economy and Letters to Mr. Malthus, both by J.B. Say.
The United States Government Should Not Aid Myanmar
23 hours ago
Posted by Vance
Though any American is certainly welcome to contribute to the relief effort in Myanmar, no one should be forced to do so via his taxes or otherwise. It is a myth that there would not be sufficient aid to Myanmar without the government being involved in some way. Although I don't often agree with President Bush, he was certainly correct when he recently remarked that "the American people are generous people and they're a compassionate people." FULL ARTICLE
Payday Lending, RIP
16 May 2008 at 12:40am
Posted by Fedako
Ohio has effectively shut the door on payday lending. The state legislature -- a bunch of nanny do-gooders -- recognized the seen: the closing of 1,600 payday stores and the loss of some 6,000 jobs. But these same folks missed the unseen: the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars invested in these businesses; with investment losses to be suffered by many unknown Ohioans.
Of course, these losses are bound to ripple through Ohio's rust belt economy, creating unpredictable effects.
These types of state interventions in the market reduce future investment in capital. An investor has to consider the consumer, the market, and the state. Of those three, the state has become the most volatile, the greatest unkown.
Payday lending is gone in Ohio. Current and future Investors in the state will have to wonder if the whims of the legislature have finally trumped property rights in the Buckeye State, with the state willing and able to alter ownership and control of property with the stroke of a pen.
Is Ohio any different from the troubled countries to our south? I am no longer certain that it isn't.
More on the FairTax
15 May 2008 at 9:18pm
Posted by Vance
Now online is my article from the May 12 issue of The New American, "Is Making Taxes 'Fair' the Answer?" This comprehensive article on the problems with the FairTax is not based on a Boortz book, although I think I mentioned him once or twice.
Graduation Cake
15 May 2008 at 1:01pm
Posted by Tucker
A student who just earned his M.A. sent us a picture of his graduation cake:
Come to Finland, because we need new blood to tax
15 May 2008 at 12:49pm
Posted by Swanson
If this video doesn't motivate you to jump on the next raft to Finland, I don't know what will.
The worst part is not that the narrator admits the country is yet another dying experiment of socialism, but that the director convinced the participants to smile and be happy about "getting by" with the little income they're allowed to take home.
One wonders why there is brain drain from that part of the world and why many immigrants arrive wanting free hand-outs.
See also: Denmark: Potemkin Village
Serving under Mises in WWI
15 May 2008 at 10:21am
Posted by Tucker
Guido Hulsmann received the following:
I must congratulate you on the fine writings and historical revelations in your book on Mises-Last Knight of Liberalism.
My grandfather had fought under his command in the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI. The losing side has relatively few historical texts written in English. So yours is very eloquent and provides a basis for me to retrace not only the battles but the circumstances under which my grand father fought those battles.
My grand father as was the tradition made trips to Florida during the 50's to reunite with what was left of the regiment. He spoke occasionally of his New York U friend but it did not dawn on me the significance of this association until much later when I studied economics.
I drifted into a pursuit of economics quite innocently and often marveled how a peasant such as my father could have such a grasp of economic issues lacking any formal training. Hence I know much better now and understand the link of economic thought and the deep influence Mises had on the psyche of my family.
It is a fabulous book you have written on the most influential economist in my thoughts and thinking. I thank you for such a fine work and will put alongside my other books written by Mises.
There Is Still No Such Thing As a Fair Tax
15 May 2008 at 9:43am
Posted by Vance
Although I believe that taxation is theft, I would gladly support any tax reform plan as long as it substantially lowered tax rates or the total amount of taxes collected. I am not a critic of the FairTax because it doesn't do enough; I am a critic of the FairTax because it cannot be considered an incremental step toward lower tax rates or lower overall taxes. It is not even a step in the right direction. The FairTax is a cure worse than our diseased income tax system. FULL ARTICLE
Louis Michael Spadaro, RIP
14 May 2008 at 6:55pm
Posted by Mises.org
Press release here:
Louis Michael Spadaro, Ph.D., the founding dean of the Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration, died on May 3 at his home in Syracuse, N.Y. He was 94.
Spadaro, a New York City native, joined the Fordham faculty in 1939, and as professor and dean he founded the Graduate School of Business Administration at Lincoln Center.
"Dr. Spadaro pioneered the first years of the Graduate School of Business Administration, and his legacy lives on in the achievements of our students, the success of our faculty and the growth of our programs and global reach," said GBA Dean Howard P. Tuckman, Ph.D.
Spadaro was an alumnus of City College of New York and New York University, where he earned his doctorate in economics and became part of the Austrian School of Economics, a movement that included notable free-market libertarian theorists such as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Hans Sennholz and Murray Rothbard.
Spadaro edited New Directions in Austrian Economics.
Writing from another planet
14 May 2008 at 11:14am
Posted by Tucker
Sometimes articles are so exasperating there is no sense in even attempting a response, but usually these don't appear in the Wall Street Journal. Selection from Thomas Frank:
What has overtaken America's working people is not a natural disaster like "globalization," and not even some kind of societal atavism in which countries regress mysteriously to their 19th-century selves. This is a man-made catastrophe, a result that proceeded directly from the deliberate beatdown of organized labor and the wrecking of the liberal state.
It is, in other words, a political disaster, with tax cuts, trade agreements, deregulatory measures, and enforcement decisions all finely crafted to benefit one part of society and leave the rest behind. Few of the voters who gave Ronald Reagan his landslide victories, it is fair to say, intended for this to be the outcome. They wanted their country to stand tall again, certainly; they wanted the scary regulators off their backs, maybe; but I can recall no conservative who trumpeted those long-ago elections - or any of the succeeding contests, for that matter - as a referendum on plutocracy.
So let us have one now. Instead of pleasant talk about "change" and feats of beer drinking at the corner tavern, let us hear our candidates address this greatest issue of them all: What kind of country are we to be? A land of equality? Or a bankers' utopia - where the law of the land has achieved mystical oneness with the higher law of classical economics, and devil take the bottom 80%.
So far as I can tell, the calamity discussed here owes entirely to the one statistic he thinks proves his case: the real hourly wages in the US for most workers has risen only 1% since 1979, where as the richest 20% of the country made more than the rest of the country combined. But perhaps we should consider how much less wages would have risen had the rich not permitted to become so, or maybe this is due not to the merciful loss of union's grip on the economy but rather to such forces as inflation. And as for the supposed dismantling of the interventionist state and the "tax cuts" and de-regulation, well, I guess people are just happy to make up the reality that they want to see.
It's true that the government policy is configured to help the rich and powerful of course but it is hard to see how putting government even more in charge of our economic lives is going to fix that. .
Economic Causes of War
14 May 2008 at 10:25am
Posted by Mises.org
There are no economic causes, said Ludwig von Mises in this 1944 lecture, for armed aggression within a world of free trade and free enterprise. In such a world, no individual citizen can possibly derive any advantage from the conquest of a province or a colony. But in a world of totalitarian states, many citizens may come to believe in an improvement of their material well-being from the annexation of a territory rich in resources. The wars of the 20th century have been, to be sure, economic wars. But they have not been caused by capitalism, as the socialists would have us believe. They are wars caused by governments aiming at complete political and economic omnipotence, and have been supported by the misguided masses of these countries. FULL ARTICLE
Experts Blame Obesity for Global Problems
16 May 2008 at 12:00am
"Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say," The BBC reports. "The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine calculated the obese consume 18% more calories than average. They are also responsible for using more fuel, which has an environmental impact and drives up food prices as transport and agriculture both use oil."
In "Is the Obesity Epidemic Exaggerated? Yes," Cato adjunct scholar Patrick Basham and science columnist John Luik write: "Some in the public health community believe that deliberate exaggeration or, indeed, misrepresentation of the risks of diseases or certain behaviors or our capacity to prevent or treat them on a population-wide basis is justified, if not demanded, in the interests of health. Since many of the exaggerations come from people who understand the scientific uncertainties around overweight and obesity, it seems that these individuals have adopted such an approach to the obesity epidemic. The unwelcome implications of this for science policy and for evidence based medicine dwarf those of any obesity epidemic, real or imagined."
BRIC Nations Consider Alliance
15 May 2008 at 12:00am
"First came the booming economies," reports Bloomberg. "Then came the rush of investors. Now the so-called BRIC nations -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- are talking about forming a political alliance. The four largest emerging economies are sending their foreign ministers to Yekaterinburg, Russia, to meet on May 16 for the first time outside the venue of the United Nations. On the agenda are such non-economic issues as weapons proliferation, counter-terrorism, energy and climate change."
In "Cracks in the Foundation: NATO's New Troubles," Cato research fellow Stanley Kober writes:
"Alliances lead to counteralliances... [A]s NATO has expanded, Russia's relations with China, in particular, have grown apace, leading initially to the formation of the Shanghai Five and then to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. ... In short, the world is in danger of dividing just as Europe divided a century ago -- a process that should have been foreseen by those who naively thought other countries would not respond to NATO expansion by taking their own corresponding measures."
Menthol Cigarettes Exempt from Regulation
14 May 2008 at 12:00am
"Public health experts say exempting menthol from a ban on flavored cigarettes shows the power the tobacco industry has over the U.S. Congress," reports United Press International. "Lawmakers are considering a bill giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight of the tobacco industry."
In "Bootleggers, Baptists, and Tobacco Regulation," in the summer 2007 edition of Regulation Magazine, Joseph A. Rotondi writes: "FDA chairman Andrew von Eschenbach opposes this legislation. Altria, the largest U.S. cigarette producer with 51 percent of the market, supports it. This seeming paradox grows from and is explained by tobacco roads paved with 'bootlegger-Baptist' coalitions.
"The current bill in Congress has support from Baptists such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Heart Association, former FDA chairman Kessler, and 77 percent of American voters. Even the Southern Baptist Convention's president wants the legislation. In contrast, current FDA chairman von Eschenbach seems to have learned from the mistakes of FCC, FTC, and FDA chairmen past. FDA regulation will likely be dominated by the most politically connected tobacco companies, which will be able to increase or at least maintain market share as regulation does what it usually does when bootleggers and Baptists connect: cut competition."
Chavez Nationalizes Steel Company
13 May 2008 at 12:00am
"President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela signed a law to formally assume state control of the Venezuelan unit of Ternium, a steel maker based in Luxembourg, and installed a government minister as the company's president," reports The New York Times. "The mining and basic industries minister, Rodolfo Sanz, will begin running the company immediately, Mr. Chávez said in comments broadcast by state television. Venezuela's government is still in talks with Ternium over how much the company will receive in compensation for the steelmaker, called Siderurgica del Orinoco."
In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Venezuela: Plus ça Change, Plus C'est la Même Chose," Marian Tupy, policy analyst with Cato's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, writes:
"Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, many defenders of socialism have argued that dictators, including Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot, were aberrations; they took Marx's ideas in the wrong direction. They claim that nationalization of the means of production (call it communism, socialism, or Marxism) and democracy can be compatible. In The Road to Serfdom, Hayek showed that it cannot. Some 50 years later, Hayek's argument holds. Every socialist regime tends toward authoritarianism of some sort."
The recipient of the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty is Yon Goicoechea, the leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela that successfully prevented President Hugo Chávez's regime from seizing broad dictatorial powers in December 2007. The award ceremony will be held this Thursday, May 15 in New York.
Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere Reaches Record High
12 May 2008 at 12:00am
"The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to new figures that renew fears that climate change could begin to slide out of control," reports The Guardian. "Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years."
In "Doing Little Is Doing Right, or You'll Wreck Economy," Cato senior fellow Patrick J. Michaels writes:
"If we want to significantly slow warming, emissions [of greenhouse gasses] have to be cut by more than 60 percent. Pending legislation in the Senate, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, drops them 66 percent by 2050. The only problem is that no one knows how to do this. The fact is that we simply don't have -- and can't realistically imagine -- the suite of technologies that would bring about such a sweeping change, nationally or globally."
North Korea Hands Files to U.S.
9 May 2008 at 12:00am
"North Korea has turned over to the United States 18,000 pages of documents related to its plutonium program dating from 1990, in an effort to resolve remaining differences in a pending agreement meant to begin the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Bush administration officials said Thursday," The New York Times reports. "The documents contain information about North Korea's three major campaigns to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons, in 1990, 2003 and 2005, a senior official said."
In "Fool Me Once... North Korea Does It Again," Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato's vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, writes: "U.S. officials must stop letting hope triumph over experience when it comes to dealing with North Korea on the nuclear issue. ... Relying on deterrence supplemented by a regional missile defense program may be the most feasible option. Another possibility is to induce China to remove the current ruling elite in its troublesome client state and replace it with a more pliable regime, in exchange for a U.S. promise to end its military presence on the peninsula.
"There may be other policy options as well. The crucial point is that U.S. leaders need to be considering alternative strategies now, rather than investing all hope in a diplomatic solution that looks increasingly shaky."
Violence in Zimbabwe Makes Run-Off Election Difficult
8 May 2008 at 12:00am
"Zimbabwe is too violent to hold a presidential run-off, the head of a South African observer mission says," reports BBC News. "'We have seen it, there are people in hospital who said they have been tortured,' said Kingsley Mamabolo. The head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has reportedly said the run-off could be delayed by up to a year. No date has been set for the second round between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, which should be 21 days after the official results."
In "South Africa Plays Ball with Dictators," Marian L. Tupy, policy analyst at Cato's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and James Kirchick, assistant editor at the New Republic, write:
"Friends of Zimbabwe have long hoped for a peaceful transfer of power in that country. But in spite of losing the March 29 elections to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the regime of Robert Mugabe is clinging to power. Once again, the world's democracies look to Zimbabwe's southern neighbor to stem the growing violence against the Zimbabwean people unleashed by the ruling regime. South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, however, maintains that there is 'no crisis' in Zimbabwe. He has even ordered his U.N. representative to block debate about the situation in the Security Council, which South Africa currently chairs. South Africa has not only tolerated Mugabe, it has been complicit in keeping him in office. Indeed, far from facilitating peaceful change in Zimbabwe, South Africa's government has been complicit in violating the human rights and the democratically expressed will of Zimbabweans--which is why opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has called on Mbeki to relinquish his role as the Southern African Development Community's designated mediator of the Zimbabwean crisis."
Medvedev Sworn In As President
7 May 2008 at 12:00am
"Dmitri Medvedev was inaugurated as post-Soviet Russia's third president Wednesday in a lavish Kremlin ceremony designed to emphasize the near czarlike authority of the office he now holds," The Christian Science Monitor reports. "But Mr. Medvedev, a youthful apparatchik who favors Deep Purple and seeks Internet-savvy underlings for his administration, will face a daunting list of issues as he begins to wield that power."
On BBC's "HardTalk with Stephen Sakur," Cato senior fellow and former adviser to Vladimir Putin Andrei Illarionov said: "Putinism" would be characterized as "some level of nationalism, some level of aggressiveness, first of all directed against people inside the country, and to some extent, outside the country as well."
When asked if Putinism might end with Putin's departure from the Kremlin, Illarionov responded: "I don't think so, because we are talking about the policy and philosophy of aggression against Russian people, against Russia's neighbors, against other countries in the world. It does not and should not be attributed to one particular person. This is the philosophy and ideology of a group of people, of the Corporation, of the organizations that exist in the country for a long period of time, almost for a century."
Announcement: RRND/FND hiatus
19 hours ago
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
Brief update/recap: RRND will not publish on Thursday, May 22nd, Friday, May 23rd, or Tuesday, May 27th. We’re taking a vacation around the Memorial Day holiday weekend. There may be some light web posting, but no daily editions.
Some of us will be attending the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Denver, CO during this time period [...]
Iraq: Falluja bomber kills four; five dead in Baghdad
19 hours ago
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“A suicide car bomb killed four policemen and wounded nine other people in Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said. Police beat up a Reuters cameraman and a photographer when they tried to film the aftermath of the bombing. … A roadside bomb exploded at a bus station in central Baghdad, killing [...]
CA: High court ends marriage apartheid
19 hours ago
Posted by Steve Trinward
“California joins Massachusetts as the second state to legalize gay marriage following a decision Thursday by the state’s highest court. Ruling 4 to3, the court found marriage to be a ‘fundamental constitutional right,’ and to deny that right to same-sex couples would require a compelling government interest. The Republican-dominated court said the state had failed [...]
US Senate passes corporate welfare ?farm? bill
19 hours ago
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“The Senate joined the House on Thursday and passed a $289 billion farm bill that President George Bush has repeatedly threatened to veto. The bill was approved by more than a majority vote and will likely override any such move by the President. Senators voted 81-15 to pass the legislation that the White House says [...]
Obama blasts Bush for ?appeasement? attack
20 hours ago
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“Barack Obama accused President George W. Bush of ‘a false political attack’ yesterday after Bush warned in Israel against appeasing terrorists — early salvos in a general election campaign that’s already blazing. The White House denied that Bush’s remark was aimed at Obama. … As the workday began in the United States, Bush gave a [...]
Zimbabwe: Court lifts ban on Tsvangirai
20 hours ago
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“A Zimbabwe High Court judge on Friday ordered police not to block a rally scheduled for Sunday by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to welcome back party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Job Sibanda, lawyer for the MDC told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Bulawayo High Court Justice Maphios Cheda had given the go-ahead for the [...]
New record as oil passes $127
21 hours ago
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“Oil prices have hit a record high above $127 a barrel on speculation that China will need to import more fuel, stretching global supplies. With more energy needed to rebuild areas devastated by the earthquake earlier this week, US light sweet crude jumped to $127.43 a barrel. Prices were also supported by Goldman Sachs forecasting [...]
NY: Paterson signs ?anti-noose? bill
21 hours ago
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“Gov. Paterson Thursday signed into law a bill making it a felony to display a noose to threaten or harass someone. The legislation was passed in the wake of a noose that was hung on the door of a Columbia University professor last year and several copy-cat incidents that followed in the metropolitan region. The [...]
McCain: Troops (some, at least) out of Iraq ? by 2013
15 May 2008 at 10:17pm
Posted by Steve Trinward
“Republican John McCain, in a speech forecasting what the country would look like after his first term in office, said today that he expects the war in Iraq to be won and most troops to be home by January 2013. The prediction marks a major departure for McCain, who railed against rival Mitt Romney shortly [...]
Sweet sorghum could be biofuel hit
15 May 2008 at 10:15pm
Posted by Steve Trinward
“Sweet sorghum is grown in the U.S. for cooking and livestock feed. But the tall plant also could help at the gas pump. A sugary sap inside the plant’s stalk, which grows as tall as 12 feet, can be turned into a potent biofuel, and experts and companies are studying its potential with hopes that [...]
TN: Lawmakers to divert conservation money for budget
15 May 2008 at 10:13pm
Posted by Steve Trinward
“Most of a $30 million fund for land and soil conservation programs in Tennessee appears likely to fall victim to the state’s budget crunch. Lawmakers confirmed Thursday that they plan to use about $12 million from the fund to help make up for a rejected plan to end a tax exemption for family-owned businesses. Gov. [...]
CA: MO woman indicted in MySpace cyber-bullying case
15 May 2008 at 10:11pm
Posted by Steve Trinward
“A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted a Missouri woman Thursday for her alleged role in a MySpace hoax on a teen neighbor who committed suicide after being spurned by the ‘boy’ in the fake profile. Lori Drew, of Dardenne Prairie near St. Louis, was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts [...]
High-concept cleaner in tatters
15 May 2008 at 10:07pm
Posted by Steve Trinward
“When Staples founder Tom Stemberg launched Zoots in 1998, during the height of the dot-com craze, it was supposed to be at the cutting edge of all things dry cleaning: 24/7 service and a website where customers could check the status of orders and schedule home deliveries. A decade later, Zoots has collapsed, closing nine [...]
UK: WW II Vet ?tagged? for not reporting accident
15 May 2008 at 9:30pm
Posted by Mary Lou Seymour
“73-year-old army veteran will miss a remembrance march after becoming one of Britain’s oldest men to be electronically tagged. Peter Ogden, from Bristol, said he was ‘appalled’ when he was given the three-month order for not reporting a road accident. Mr Ogden was due to join fellow members of the Grenadier Guards Association in London [...]
Ethiopia: Wedding day fireworks land groom in jail
15 May 2008 at 9:24pm
Posted by Mary Lou Seymour
“Bridegroom Kedir Mohamed wanted his wedding day to go with a bang and decided to celebrate by letting off firecrackers after the ceremony. However, it turned into damp squib when he was arrested for disturbing the peace in Bechena in northern Ethiopia on Sunday, the weekly Reporter newspaper said. The reception was cancelled and the [...]
Italian tolerance goes up in smoke as Gypsy camp is burnt to ground
15 May 2008 at 9:17pm
Posted by Mary Lou Seymour
“In cruel and unusual concert, Italy’s new government, its police and paramilitary carabinieri, and even its gangsters, have turned their joint might against the nation’s enemy number one: the Gypsies. Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI and a small number of left-wingers raised lonely voices in central Naples against the national hardening of hearts towards Europe’s perennial [...]
Iraq: Seven die in Sadr City clashes
15 May 2008 at 8:32am
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“Clashes between Shi’ite militiamen and security forces in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum killed seven people and wounded 19 overnight, Iraqi police and hospitals said on Thursday. The dead were all men and the wounded included three women and three children, they said. The U.S. military, which has been engaged in nearly two months of urban [...]
Afghanistan: Suicide bomber kills 15
15 May 2008 at 7:59am
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“A suicide bomber wearing a burqa killed 15 people and wounded 22 when he blew himself up Thursday in a crowded market in western Afghanistan, a provincial official said. Three policemen, including a district police chief, and 12 civilians were among the dead.” (05/15/08)
Corporate ag welfare bill passes House, heads for Senate
15 May 2008 at 7:57am
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“Rising food costs and the upcoming election have fueled bipartisan support for a politically popular $290 billion farm bill full of extra money for food stamps and farm subsidies, despite strong opposition from President Bush. The Senate is expected to approve the five-year bill and send it to Bush on Thursday, one day after the [...]
Israel: Rocket hits mall, wounds 16
15 May 2008 at 7:56am
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp
“Palestinian [sic] rocket fire from the Gaza Strip struck a crowded shopping mall Wednesday in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, destroying a children’s clinic and wounding 16 people, including an infant rescued from the rubble. The attack occurred as President Bush was meeting with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem to discuss threats faced by the Jewish [...]
"MeetUp" with other LP volunteers
8 May 2008 at 2:58pm
A message from Austin Petersen, LP volunteer coordinator:
In keeping with solidarity:
Hello everyone, Austin Petersen is at your service! I?m hard at work building strong new coalitions across the country for our cause.
Ballot access is coming slowly but surely. I am scouring the internet for volunteers, placing ads, sending emails to Libertarian and Ron Paul meetups in specific states, making promotional videos, and doing the best I can to get people out there petitioning for ballot access. I have been directly emailing college students who are registered as libertarians on Myspace, and have deployed several volunteers using that method. Most of the volunteers I get come in from my direct emails, and randomly from surfing our website. Some have suggested I branch out into Facebook and am looking into that as well.
I recently scheduled an event for next Thursday evening here in D.C. Everyone is welcome. Join the meetup if you haven't already at: http://libertarian.meetup.com/364/
I am still very low on volunteers for South Dakota, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Anyone who is fired up and ready to defend their principles to the last man, should contact me to throw their hats in the ring, and collect signatures in your state. Or for those who filed their income tax, consider donating your stimulus check we borrowed from China to our ballot access efforts.
Join me: http://www.lp.org/action/volunteer.shtml
In Liberty,
Austin Petersen
Selected LP Daily Polls from April
7 May 2008 at 11:56am
The following are selected Daily Poll results from last month. A general synopsis of the results are that of those that responded: only 17 percent consider Obama to be a political outsider; most would prefer to face Hillary in the general election; nearly a majority believe McCain's military experience does not give him more credibility as a candidate; the issue Libertarians care about the most in 2008 is fiscal policy; half support the death penalty; the "Fair Tax" is the preferred system of tax reform, though only marginally so; Libertarians want most a communicator for a presidential candidate; and gas prices have impacted the driving habits of a majority of people.
If you have any poll suggestions for May, please email them to Andrew.davis@lp.org as you come up with them, and they may be used.
4/1/08
Do you consider Barack Obama to be "outside" the political establishment? (198 votes)
Yes - 34 (17%)
No - 150 (75%)
Maybe - 2 (6%)
Don't Know/No Response - 2 (1%)
4/2/08
What Democratic presidential candidate would be best for the LP to face in 2008? (98 votes)
Barack Obama - 33 (33%)
Hillary Clinton - 65 (66%)
4/09/08
Should the Iraqis be forced to spend oil surplus revenue on rebuilding their own country? (123 votes)
Yes - 90 (73%)
No - 27 (21%)
Maybe - 4 (3%)
Don't Know/No Response - 2 (1%)
4/10/08
Do you believe John McCain's military experience gives him more credibility as a presidential candidate? (164 votes)
Yes - 62 (37%)
No - 81 (49%)
Maybe - 21 (12%)
Don't Know/No Response - 0 (0%)
4/11/08
Out of these three political issues, what do you consider to be the most important in the 2008 elections? (329 votes)
Fiscal policy - 153 (46%)
War in Iraq - 64 (19%)
Civil liberties - 112 (34%)
4/14/08
Do you support the death penalty? (194 votes)
Yes - 97 (50%)
No - 86 (44%)
Maybe - 10 (5%)
Don't Know/No Response - 1 (0%)
4/15/08
What type of tax reform would you prefer? (125 votes)
Flat income tax - 25 (20%)
Consumed-income tax - 7 (5%)
National retail sales tax - 29 (23%)
"Fair Tax" - 36 (28%)
Other - 28 (22%)
4/17/08
Do you believe the government has a legitimate role to play in stopping climate change? (135 votes)
Yes - 27 (20%)
No - 93 (68%)
Maybe - 11 (8%)
Don't Know/No Response - 4 (2%)
4/24/08
What type of LP presidential candidate do you want? (409 votes)
A "purist" - 30 (7%)
A long established Libertarian activist - 22 (5%)
Someone who can communicate our basic message to voters outside our party - 357 (87%)
4/28/08
Has the price of gas impacted your driving habits? (95 votes)
Yes - 58 (61%)
No - 33 (34%)
Maybe - 1 (1%)
Don't Know/No Response - 3 (3%)
4/29/08
Do you support strengthening the GI Bill to help it cover today's tuition rates? (139 votes)
Yes - 72 (51%)
No - 50 (35%)
Maybe - 7 (5%)
Don't Know/No Response - 10 (7%)
LP Candidate FEC Filings
6 May 2008 at 1:52pm
LP Presidential Candidate FEC and Liberty Decides '08 Filings
Wayne Allyn Root
LD '08: $15,764.00
Individual: $29,988.00
Candidate: $4,421.90
Daniel Imperato
LD '08: $10,474.00
Individual: $0.00
Candidate: $0.00
Michael Jingozian
LD '08: $8,490.00
Individual: $13,090.79
Candidate: $0.00
Mike Gravel*^
LD '08: $895.00
Individual: $447,378.97
Candidate: $0.00
Steve Kubby**
LD '08: $1,280.00
Total: $2,951.22 [A typo on the candidate's filing incorrectly stated Election Cycle-to-Date contributions. The correct number is $16,219.77.]
Alden Link
LD '08: $885.00
Individual: $259.00
Candidate: $4,225.00
George Phillies
LD '08: n/a
Individual: $16,727.75
Candidate: $81,527.01
Mary Ruwart***
LD '08: $1,060.00
Individual: n/a
Candidate: n/a
Christine Smith**
LD '08: $2,460.00
Total: $16,244.00
Bob Barr (still in Presidential exploratory phase):
Total Reported by Candidate Web site: $53,163.64
Most Individual Contributions Raised: Root
Most Personal Money Contributed: Phillies
*Numbers reflect previous campaign for President in different political party
**No electronic report available. Only total available is net contributions that do not separate individual contributions and candidate contributions
***No FEC report available
^Candidate had failed to file April Quarterly Report when data was compiled
(LD '08 totals current as of May 5, 2008. FEC Filing data taken from Election Cycle-To-Date totals from candidates' April Quarterly filing. This information can be viewed at www.FEC.gov.)
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AYN RAND ATLAS SHRUGGED FIRST EDITION 1ST PRINTING 57
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AYN RAND ATLAS SHRUGGED FIRST EDITION 1ST PRINTING 57
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Ayn Rand / Night of January 16th: 1968 1ST PRINT PLAY
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AYN RAND-ATLAS SHRUGGED-TRUE 1st/1 PRINT-BEAUTIFUL-NR**
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THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS BY AYN RAND-1964
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Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1996)-50th Anniversary Ed. PB
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Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand Audio Branden Objectivism Anne
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The Virtue Selfishness Ayn Rand 1st Anthem Objectivism!
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