Don't Leave Me Alone. Steven Horwitz, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2011-04-20). One sentiment commonly expressed by libertarians is the desire to just be "left alone."  This is often meant politically: "If people would just leave each other alone, the world would be a much better place," or "I just want to be left alone to do what I want."  And in… (Linked Wednesday 2011-05-11.)

INTERESTING QUESTION. Robert Paul Wolff, The Philosopher's Stone (2011-04-18). Marinus sent me a long, very interesting email message, criticizing my dismissive attitude toward the Prisoner’s Dilemma in Part Five of my tutorial on Formal Methods in Political Philosophy. I am turning that over in my mind, and will reply in a bit. But out of curiosity, I Google’d him,… (Linked Wednesday 2011-05-11.)

Do the Nannies Get Nannies? cherylcline, der Blaustrumpf (2011-05-11). As incomprehensible as it is to shun both the Democratic and Republican parties, apparently it borders on incoherence to find fault with both pro- and anti-natalist arguments, or so it seems.  This month Cato Unbound has a pretty good feature on the politics of family size–see in particular Matthew Connelly's… (Linked Thursday 2011-05-12.)

The Opposite of a Nut-Punch. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2011-05-13). Well, not the complete opposite — the NYPD comes off looking pretty bad. Still, this is the feel-good crime story of the week. (Linked Friday 2011-05-13.)

Last Time In the City. noreply@blogger.com (Τζούλια Ρήμ?@cf;20ac;ερ Πι?@cf;201e;), Propaganda Lalaland (2011-05-07). Saturday was probably my last time at Red Emma’s in a long while. I thought I’d go down there since I’m leaving Maryland on Friday morning and may not be back again until January of next year (assuming my study abroad plans will work out). I remember the last time… (Linked Friday 2011-05-13.)

Mutual aid opportunity. Shawn P. Wilbur, Two-Gun Mutualism & the Golden Rule (2011-05-06). You’ll find a new ChipIn widget in the sidebar of the blog (or on ChipIn), to support Laughing Horse Books, one of Portland, Oregon’s few remaining independent bookstores, and a radical, collective-run bookstore/music venue/meeting space for 25 years now. All the little things that tend to snowball when a business… (Linked Saturday 2011-05-07.)

In Defense of Flogging – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education. chronicle.com (2011-05-07). “Certainly my defense of flogging is more thought experiment than policy proposal. I do not expect to see flogging reinstated any time soon. And deep down, I wouldn’t want to see it. And yet, in the course of writing what is, at its core, a quaintly retro abolish-prison book, I’ve come to see the benefits of wrapping a liberal argument in a conservative facade. If the notion of tying people to a rack and caning them on their behinds ?@c3;a0; la Singapore disturbs you, if it takes contemplating whipping to wake you up and to see prison for what it is, so be it! The passive moral high ground has gotten us nowhere.” – Peter Moskos (Linked Saturday 2011-05-07.)

Marie Curie. xkcd.com (2011-05-08). (Linked Monday 2011-05-09.)

Bin Laden reaction roundup. John, Blagnet.net (2011-05-08). I have been much more interested in the various and sundry reactions, mainly from Americans, to Osama bin Laden's killing than to the news itself. The whole situation ought to inspire quite a bit of mixed feelings from any libertarian, and even from any sensible, sympathetic human being. Notwithstanding the… (Linked Monday 2011-05-09.)

Urban Airport of the Future (1926) Matt Novak, Paleofuture Blog (2011-05-07). The fine people at Popular Mechanics recently published a book that deserves a prominent place on every retrofuturist’s bookshelf. The Wonderful Future That Never Was by Gregory Benford looks at technological predictions that appeared in the pages of Popular Mechanics from 1903 until 1969. The prediction below was an attempt to… (Linked Monday 2011-05-09.)

No Laissez Faire There. Sheldon Richman, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2011-05-06). (This article is based on remarks delivered at the meeting of the Association of Private Enterprise Education in April.) Friends of the free market tend to see the Gilded Age, roughly 1870-1890, as the closest thing in history to a laissez-faire economy. In some respects that is true — but… (Linked Monday 2011-05-09.)

When Police Interrogate Children. Wendy McElroy, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2011-03-28). On its surface, a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court may seem to be legally trivial; it's about a juvenile who stole from neighborhood houses. But J.D.B. v. North Carolina could redefine both the law's "reasonable person" standard and what it means to be in custody. The case is… (Linked Saturday 2011-04-23.)

Knowing the Real Enemy. Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society (2011-04-23). In an article in Tikkun last year, Rabbi Michael Lerner argued that "[f]rom the standpoint of the large corporate interests, nothing could be better than to de-fund government or dramatically downsize it, because then it can't constrain their economic power."  ("After the Health Care Legislation," April 5, 2010). And now… (Linked Saturday 2011-04-23.)

Georgia to Execute Troy Davis, Despite Gaping Holes In State's Case. Francis L. Holland, Gangsters in Blue (2011-04-22). Troy Davis is about to be executed — even though he may be innocent. Tell Georgia to spare Troy Davis’ life. This is an emergency announcement from Color of Change: Dear Atty,In 1991, Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a white police officer. Though there’s major evidence that Davis didn’t… (Linked Sunday 2011-04-24.)

Derek Colling – Most Dangerous Cop in America. Ademo Freeman, Gangsters in Blue (2011-04-23). Derek Colling might be the most dangerous (active) cop in the united states. In less than 5 years as a police office Colling has killed two, including one 15 year old boy, and was just caught on film beating a man for filming him – great write up and back… (Linked Sunday 2011-04-24.)

well, gene, i do refer to everyone from james madison to benito. Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2011-04-24). well, gene, i do refer to everyone from james madison to benito mussolini as a 'statist,' and to myself as an 'anti-statist.' this does not of course entail that madison and mussolini agree on everything, but it does pick out the fact that they agree on one big thing. (of course… (Linked Sunday 2011-04-24.)

Help Christie Books publish Antonio Téllez Sol?@c3;a0;'s "Facerías" Shawn P. Wilbur, Two-Gun Mutualism & the Golden Rule (2011-04-24). Passing along a note from the Kate Sharpley Library: “Christie Books is planning to publish Facerías: Urban Guerrilla Warfare (1939-1957) by Antonio Tellez Sola and translated by Paul Sharkey, but needs your help. Please check out the link and consider donating to the publication fund through the chipin link on… (Linked Sunday 2011-04-24.)

Bakunin on Proudhon and Marx. Shawn P. Wilbur, Two-Gun Mutualism & the Golden Rule (2011-04-24). James Guillaume, in the “Biographical Notice” in his French edition of Bakunin’s Works, includes part of an 1870 manuscript written by Bakunin on the subject of Proudhon and Marx:Proudhon, despite all his efforts to shake off the traditions of classical idealism, nonetheless remained all his life an incorrigible idealist, inspired,… (Linked Sunday 2011-04-24.)

Changing Incentives Creates Security Risks. schneier, Schneier on Security (2011-04-14). One of the things I am writing about in my new book is how security equilibriums change. They often change because of technology, but they sometimes change because of incentives. An interesting example of this is the recent scandal in the Washington, DC, public school system over teachers changing their… (Linked Monday 2011-04-25.)

In Other Words, Just About Everyone. Radley Balko, Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2011-04-20). CNN recently obtained a list of the "behavioral indicators" that could subject you to an enhanced security screeing by TSA. Included on the list: Passengers who display arrogance and verbally express contempt for security procedures. Because terrorists are known for drawing attention to themselves by irritating security screeners? Seems doubtful…. (Linked Monday 2011-04-25.)

STANFORD Magazine: March/April 2010 > Features > Clelia Mosher. www.stanfordalumni.org (2011-01-12). In 1973, historian Carl Degler was combing the University archives, gathering research for a book on the history of the family. Sifting through the papers of Dr. Clelia Duel Mosher, who taught in Stanford's hygiene department around the turn of the 20th century, he came across a mysteriously bound file. Degler… (Linked Wednesday 2011-01-12.)

Common Sense, or a functioning economy has no underclass. Marja Erwin (2011-01-12). 1. A government can’t solve systemic unemployment through stimulus. It can create temporary boosts which *mask* systemic unemployment; it may even have significant effects depending how easily it responds to spending and how slowly the unemployment rate approaches its normal level relative to the economic system.2. A functioning economy has… (Linked Wednesday 2011-01-12.)

Reading Chomsky. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2011-01-12). The Good (in churlish brevity) I've just finished reading Noam Chomsky's Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World (it was a Christmas gift). Unsurprisingly, nearly all of it is excellent, and I highly recommend it. Chomsky lucidly explains how u.s. foreign policy is not only imperialist now but has been… (Linked Wednesday 2011-01-12.)

The Taxpayers Won't Benefit. Sheldon Richman, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2010-12-15). Why does everyone say the taxpayers will be winners when the banks, AIG, and GM repay their TARP and other bailout money with interest? The taxpayers won't see a dime! I doubt if any money will even go toward reducing the debt. The only real winners will be the politicians… (Linked Thursday 2011-01-13.)

What "Undercover Boss" Could Be. Steven Horwitz, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2010-12-15). Recently I stumbled across the TV show Undercover Boss.  A CEO poses as a new employee at one of his firm's factories or stores in order to see how the company really runs.  In the episode I watched, the CEO of the Johnny Rocket's restaurant chain spent time working in… (Linked Thursday 2011-01-13.)

Winner of Beth A. Hoffman Prize for Economic Writing Named. Foundation for Economic Education, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2011-01-12). The first annual Beth A. Hoffman Memorial Prize for Economic Writing has been awarded to Kevin A. Carson, the Foundation for Economic Education announced. Through the generosity of a FEE donor, the prize has been established to honor the memory of Beth A. Hoffman by recognizing the best article on… (Linked Thursday 2011-01-13.)

If Martin Luther King Were Alive Today, He’d Be Just Like Me. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2011-01-13). You know all those articles that purport to say what George Orwell would believe if he were alive today, in which Orwell turns out to have had a change of heart on every significant subject where the author disagrees with him? You can do that to Martin Luther King too:… (Linked Thursday 2011-01-13.)

Food:Class:Working Class. bfp, flip flopping joy (2011-01-03). I've been wondering why food for working class people is always represented as "manly man food" that is greasy, heavy, thick food. I mean, I get the origins of working class food as thick greasy meat based food—fish and chips, for example, has enough heaviness and calories to last through… (Linked Thursday 2011-01-13.)

Szasz in One Lesson. Sheldon Richman, Free Association (2011-01-13). (First posted in 2006, and now amended. The relevance to the Tucson massacre is self-explanatory.)This is something I came up with some time ago to summarize a good deal of what Thomas Szasz, a great libertarian and hero of mine, has been saying for half a century.If neuroscientists discovered that… (Linked Thursday 2011-01-13.)

Radio Theater. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2011-01-14). Get ready to suspend your disbelief. One of the most resilient acts in theatrical history has returned to the D.C. stage: the We're Going To Defund Public Broadcasting show. Every time this play gets revived, the director alters the story slightly to reflect recent events. This time the performers are… (Linked Friday 2011-01-14.)

New Orleans: Victim of Government Neglect? William L. Anderson, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2010-08-31). Five years ago Hurricane Katrina, a massive Category 3 storm, hit the Gulf Coast region, destroying property, killing nearly 2,000 people, and leaving damage that still dots the landscape. Although the brunt of the storm hit the Mississippi coast, Katrina is best-known for the flooding of New Orleans, which happened… (Linked Saturday 2010-09-04.)

Turking! The idea and some implications. Jed, Anomalous Presumptions (2010-08-26). I recently read an edited collection of five stories, Metatropolis; the stories are set in a common world the authors developed together. This is a near future in which nation state authority has eroded and in which new social processes have grown up and have a big role in making… (Linked Saturday 2010-09-04.)

The Golden Age of Comic Books. Brian Doherty, Brian Doherty: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-08-30). Ben Schwartz's edited volume The Best American Comics Criticism is the first attempt to anthologize and build a canon of short-form history, journalism, and criticism about comics, and it does a fine job. It also self-consciously marks the beginning of a fresh era in acceptance and achievement for non-genre works… (Linked Saturday 2010-09-04.)

Measuring Blood on Hands in the Wikileaks Controversy. Brian Doherty, Brian Doherty: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-08-06). Tom Englehardt questions Joint Chief of Staff Chair Mike Mullen's accusations that Wikileaks has blood on their hands because info they leaked could lead people to kill Afghan informants or American soliders. Some excerpts on why Mullen might not be the best spokesman for that position of scrupulous moral responsibility… (Linked Saturday 2010-09-04.)

Noise Complaint Leads to Police Shooting, Killing 17-Year-Old. Radley Balko, Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-09-03). Last Sunday night, police in Morganton, North Carolina shot and killed 17-year-old Michael Sipes. The officers were responding to a noise complaint called in by a neighbor in the mobile home park where Sipes lived. His mother says there were three children in the home on the night Sipes was… (Linked Saturday 2010-09-04.)