Shameless Self-promotion Sunday #57
Here's a pretty old post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 15 years ago, in 2009, on the World Wide Web.
It’s Sunday. A day of love, a day of rage, a day of Shamelessness.
You may have noticed that posting has dropped of considerably lately. That’s because I left Las Vegas earlier this week to begin my traditional summer job teaching Logic for the Center for Talented Youth; it’s especially because, unlike in years past, I am now teaching a class of my own rather than working as a TA for another instructor. The new position comes with a lot of new responsibilities, and since this is the first time I’ve done it, it comes with a lot of new work in preparing lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, and the like all for the first time. I had hoped to work out a posting routine where I could keep up with the blog in some small but interesting way over the course of the next six weeks, even with minimal time to spend on it — but I’m finding, as I should have expected, that I can’t always count on having even that minimal time. I have some reasonable hopes that, as the session progresses things will calm down, and I will not drop completely off the face of the Internet between now and the end of the session; but if I do, rest assured it’s for a good cause (the cause of Logic; what greater cause is there?), and that, all else failing, I will definitely see you all again come August.
And as for you — what have you been up to this week? Write anything? Leave a link and a short description for your post in the comments. Or fire away about anything else you might want to talk about.
Follow
I enjoyed the lively conversation at C4SS, at Roderick’s blog, and on my blog regarding the merits of “socialism” as a reasonable descriptor of a left-wing market anarchist goal. The discussion helps to highlight the fact that the LL project arouses enthusiasm—both positive and negative; that (like any serious intellectual endeavor) it needs ongoing refinement; that its own proponents prefer different emphases and interpretations; and that the task of marketing it effectively, both to other libs and to other lefties, continues unabated.
I was stuck by an apparent tension between Stephan Kinsella’s defense of closed borders and Roderick Long’s discussion of easements with regard to homesteading. I decided to riff on it a little, seeing Dr. Long’s example, if accepted, as problematic for Kinsella’s view. The opposite concern (that one commenter raised) is that easement-based concepts can be used to justify the state. I’m not convinced of that objection (since just about anything could be used to justify the state if you strip it out of a coherent framework) but I hope you find the post interesting and please share your comments.
I’m more than slightly angry at this.
It seems that Quasibill misrepresents Aster’s views.
And, in an aside, he pokes fun at my birth defect, among other things. I can never bear children; that may be funny to him, but it’s not funny to me.
This is the 21st century, don’t we have in vitro and cloning and all that jazz now?
via Francois Tremblay’s ‘Check your Premises’:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just when you thought the Victorian Era was in the past, an old Victorian standby comes back to haunt us: debtors’ prisons. “Edwina Nowlin, a poor Michigan resident, was ordered to reimburse a juvenile detention center $104 a month for holding her 16-year-old son,” the New York Times wrote in an editorial.
“When she explained to the court that she could not afford to pay, Ms. Nowlin was sent to prison. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which helped get her out last week after she spent 28 days behind bars, says it is seeing more people being sent to jail because they cannot make various court-ordered payments. That is both barbaric and unconstitutional.”
…
“Like many people in these desperate economic times, Ms. Nowlin was laid off from work, lost her home and is destitute,” said Michael Steinberg, legal director of the Michigan ACLU. “Jailing her because of her poverty is not only unconstitutional, it’s unconscionable and a shameful waste of resources. It is not a crime to be poor in this country, and the government must stop resurrecting debtor’s prisons from the dustbin of history.”
Michigan isn’t the only place where you can be imprisoned for the crime of involuntary poverty. The same Catch-22 ensnares poor defendants daily in courtrooms across the country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lights of liberal civilisation continue to go out.
“It seems that Quasibill misrepresents Aster’s views.
“And, in an aside, he pokes fun at my birth defect, among other things. I can never bear children; that may be funny to him, but it’s not funny to me.”
Quasibill seems to do neither of these things. I’m guessing that by the latter charge you are referring to this sentence,
“I am responsible for raising two children (which, as an aside, it is fairly clear that those engaged in slandering and condone such have never been so responsible).”
Of course I’ll be called out as a racist or homophobe or something for saying so, but I seriously doubt he’s referring to your birth defect here.
I’m doing a Secession Week series of blog posts to celebrate Independence Day. Original content, links, all kinds of stuff. Different theme every day.
Charles, that’s a really cool endeavor. All the best.
This week I’ve been wrestling over the health care debate. The administration’s plan is, I think, an interesting mutualist solution. The “public option” is not something that will receive any subsidies from the taxpayer. It just serves as competition to the health care companies which practically monopolize the market.
But I’m not convinced that the administration ought not go one step further down the mutualist road. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/satyagraha/2009/06/why-not-nonprofit-health-insur.php?ref=reccafe
Wow, I disappear for a week or so and not much new posting ( :
I was at Porcfest tabling with Soviet Onion, Noor Mehta, Chris Acheson, Ryan Maddox, Darin Knode, and Darrin Worden. We had a crapload of endless printed material ~ thanks for your contribution, Charles. If you want some literature, then you should contact one us. I don’t recall exactly how all the remaining stuff was divided up. Nonetheless, one of us might be able to mail you some literature for local use.
I was interviewed by a reporter for the Associated Press. I also got on Free Talk Live with Darrin Worden to talk about the Alliance. My point about the lack of strong normative opposition to racism within the Libertarian movement was driven home via quoting Rothbard on racial separatism as being more in tune with human nature ~ footnote in Chris Sciabarra’s Total Freedom.
Ryan Maddox’s interview with the Motorhome Diaries people is up here: http://motorhomediaries.com/ryanmaddox/
Worden gave one too. I can’t find a video for it yet. Hear Worden and I starting at: 47:11
One more quick update: the agorist presentation was taped by the Motorhomes Diaries people ~ all 3 dudes involved have ALL shirts now too. I am going to email that to Charles for posting or something ~ once I figure out if it’ll be converted into a format for the web or not. I will also send Charles the group ALLiance pic for any blog post he wants to do on here.
I have a few new posts up at my blog, there’s some stuff in there that I think at least some of you might find kind of fundamentally interesting or at least thought provoking.
This one, which humanizes and specifies the nature of “aggression”, in particular I am happy with: http://tranarchist.blogspot.com/2009/06/it-comes-down-to-this.html
Anna,
Thanks for the update! Hun. You and I still need to meet sometime ( :
BTW, I forgot to point people to the right radio show. You have to click on the Saturday Porcfest show and then go to 47:11 to hear us.
Google Free Talk Live
The Greek government is threatening Indymedia:
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090707132310149
The Greek government is now openly collaborating with its Nazi paramilitaries in attacking anarchists:
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090711185338582