• Groves of Luxury and Idleness? Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-05-28). As is so often the case with right-wing critics of academia – even, or perhaps especially, those who are academics themselves (and so, perhaps, often brimming with resentment against their mostly left-wing colleagues?) – retiring sociology professor David Rubinstein, in his recent piece in The Weekly Standard, offers what I… (Linked Saturday 2011-05-28.)

• Imagine No Taxation. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-05-26). The following letter appeared in today's Opelika-Auburn News: To the Editor: Charlotte Ward asks us to imagine a world without taxes. ("Don't like taxes? Imagine a world without these services," Tuesday.) Okay, let's try. What would it be like? True, the government wouldn't be able to provide its services any… (Linked Saturday 2011-05-28.)

• The Atrocity of Hope, Part 15: Toward a New Radicalism. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-05-23). Chris Hedges on corporate liberalism: The pillars of the liberal establishment – the press, the church, culture, the university, labor and the Democratic Party – all honor an unwritten quid pro quo with corporations and the power elite, as well as our masters of war, on whom they depend for… (Linked Saturday 2011-05-28.)

• The Manifesto of the Sixteen (1916) Shawn P. Wilbur, Two-Gun Mutualism & the Golden Rule (2011-05-25). [Here is a translation of the controversial “Manifesto of the Sixteen,” the document issued by Peter Kropotkin, Jean Grave and others, advocating support for the Allies and opposition to Germany in World War I. I had promised this to members of the Anarchist Task Force on Wikipedia quite awhile back,… (Linked Saturday 2011-05-28.)

• *"Whoever does not affirm at some time the. Masha, Cyganeria (2011-05-23). “Whoever does not affirm at some time the definite..terribleness of life, never takes possession of the unutterable powers of our existence; he merely walks at the edge; and when the decision is made eventually, he will have been neither one of the living nor one of the dead.”~RilkeI know many… (Linked Sunday 2011-05-29.)

• The slow boil. admin, This Modern World (2011-05-26). (Linked Sunday 2011-05-29.)

• Food Nullification: The Sequel. Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2011-05-29). The War on the Informal Sector (Cont’d). (Linked Sunday 2011-05-29.)

• Revisionist History Day, 2011. Sheldon Richman, Free Association (2011-05-29). Today is Revisionist History Day, what others call Memorial Day. Americans are supposed to remember the country’s war dead while being thankful that they protected our freedom and served our country. However, reading revisionist history (see a sampling below) or alternative news sites (start with Antiwar.com and don’t forget to… (Linked Sunday 2011-05-29.)

• alternatively, why would i add you after only meeting you once? what sort of dark magic is this. Dinosaur Comics (2011-05-27). archive – contact – sexy exciting merchandise – cute – search – about!!!@@e2;2020;90; previousMay 27th, 2011nextMay 27th, 2011: This weekend I’m getting my first tattoo. Which tattoo? I’ll give you a hint: it’s one of the tattoos mentioned here. :0– Ryan (Linked Sunday 2011-05-29.)

• Columbia SWAT team kills dog during drug raid — again. Dr. Q, Gangsters in Blue (2011-05-28). One of the most widely watched police brutality videos from last year showed members of the Columbia Police Department's SWAT team breaking into a man's home in the middle of the night, shooting his two dogs, terrorizing him and his family, and finally arresting him for a tiny amount of… (Linked Sunday 2011-05-29.)

• D. McCarthy Stalks LibertyOnTour.com – Again. Ademo Freeman, Gangsters in Blue (2011-05-27). Originally posted at LibertyOnTour.com On our last day in Greenfield Beau and I headed to the local gas station to pick up a few things. On our way there we witnessed Daniel McCarthy, a member of the Greenfield police, make an illegal U-turn and park near our location. As we… (Linked Monday 2011-05-30.)

• Society for Destructive Anachronism. Dorothy, Cat and Girl (2011-05-17). (Linked Friday 2011-05-20.)

• You Wanna Bet? Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-05-16). Betting is the replacement for dueling. It's not a perfect replacement, of course. (Nothing is a perfect replacement for anything else.) It only applies in certain cases. But what it has in common with dueling is the challenge either to back up one's opinion or retract it. In that sense,… (Linked Tuesday 2011-05-17.)

• Comment on Viking Cinema, Part Tveir by Roderick. Roderick, Comments for Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-05-16). Spoilage ensues: Asgard and Jotunheim have been at (uneasy) peace for a thousand years. Then some frost giants slip into Asgard to steal a Frostee MacGuffin, but after whacking a couple of guards they are killed by Odin's automated defenses. Thor wants to go to Jotunheim to smash all the… (Linked Tuesday 2011-05-17.)

• 28 Years Later; or Hey Hey Goodbye. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-05-17). Explaining why this is such a good thing would take a post far longer than I have time for right now. (Linked Tuesday 2011-05-17.)

From the Wall Street Journal (16 May 2011).

Gingrich Blasts House GOP’s Medicare Plan

White House hopeful Newt Gingrich called the House Republican plan for Medicare^[1] right-wing social engineering, injecting a discordant GOP voice into the party’s efforts to reshape both entitlements and the broader budget debate.

In the same interview Sunday, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Mr. Gingrich backed a requirement that all Americans buy health insurance….

— Laura Eckler, Gingrich Blasts House GOP’s Medicare Plan in the Wall Street Journal, 16 May 2011

Just a reminder: There’s No Right Way to Manage a Subsidy. And no right way to manage a captive market, either.

1. ^[1][Phasing out Medicare over the next 10 years in favor of a government subsidy for retirees to buy special government-regulated corporate health insurance plans for old people. –R.G.]↩

• Anti-Americanism As an Anti-Concept. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-05-13). Just as some questions (e.g., "Have you stopped bleating at your wife?") carry false presuppositions and so can't rationally be answered either yes or no, so some terms build false presuppositions into their meanings, making it impossible to use the term (at least in its ordinary sense) without signing on… (Linked Sunday 2011-05-15.)

• Jury awards $82,000 after woman is arrested when asking police for a business card. Aimee Green, The Oregonian, Portland News (2011-04-14). Jurors say if police aren’t in an urgent or dangerous situation, they should always hand over a business card when asked. (Linked Monday 2011-05-16.)

• Intellectual Property is Murder. Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society (2011-05-11). Among the terms of a so-called "free trade agreement" between the European Union and India is a requirement for "data exclusivity" which will eviscerate India's generic drug industry. "Data exclusivity" means that clinical trials conducted before marketing by the company that originally produced the drug cannot be applied to meet… (Linked Monday 2011-05-16.)