Category: War
.Two very different ones: J.K. Rowling tells of the founding of Ilvermorny, the North American wizarding school. There’s a video, too. The Age of Disintegration. There’s a bit to disagree with. The author doesn’t get the difference between real free markets and crony capitalism within a statist system. But it’s as good an analysis of the Middle East mess — and its western roots — as any.
Leave a CommentThomas Paine wrote those words after the shooting had already begun at Lexington and Concord, after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a fact that always surprises me. We tend to think that by that time, the game was on, lines were irrevocably crossed, and everybody who was going to take a side and get involved was already committed. But not quite so.
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We of course haven’t even had our Lexington moment yet and frankly I pray we never do. Even in the best cases (and the American Revolution was certainly one of those), shooting wars ultimately play into the hands of the most wily statists. Who shoots first, shoots straightest, has the biggest weaponry, or has “God on their side” doesn’t always determine how free people are once the smoke has cleared.
14 Comments“Why Linkedin will make you hate Microsoft.” Wait. What? You don’t already hate Microsoft? But seriously, if they really do what this NYT article says they’re planning, we’re talking whole new levels. Wow. Beer can, mama bear, and don’t-forget-the-dog save a woman during a long ordeal. But note what she really wishes she hadn’t left at home. Have you ever sensed that Snopes.com, the great All-Powerful Fact-Checker of the Intertubz, sometimes needs fact-checking itself — particularly on political issues? Turns our you’re quite right. Look who’s providing those political “facts”. Makes me sad. Snopes has been a valuable resource and…
24 CommentsJim Bovard writes in Reason on the high price of security theater. Then he went on C-Span to talk about it, too. Which takes us to Richard Rahn’s “Kill the regulatory parasite.” Oh, Katie, Katie, Katie. You went the full Rather. You should never go the full Rather. And at least he didn’t make phony-baloney excuses. A recent study says that the threshhold-based blood tests used by states to determine whether legal pot users are impaired or not aren’t based in sound science. This wild-and-crazy pro-pot-user claim comes from those mad radicals at … the American Automobile Association. AAA. John…
14 CommentsI’ve had a lot of time to think this week and one question runs through my mind: Why is freedom so closely and (for many) irretrievably associated with fighting? Sure, we do periodically have to defend freedom against tyrants. And defend it more frequently against incremental encroachments and (if I may coin a term) the political encockroaches who so encroach. But given that the main thing we do with freedom is enjoy it, given that it is, in most of our lives, as lovely and easy a thing as pure air, why the sticky association with strife, battle, bloodshed, anguish,…
14 CommentsThey don’t have a government right now and they’re unhappy about it. (H/T MJR) No matter how outlandish the halftime shows get they’ve been worse. A lot worse. The pick-up truck era of warfare. This guy does a number on telemarketers. Oh yes, definitely be on the lookout for scary anti-government types. As if the cone of shame weren’t bad enough already. (H/T GL)
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