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Repair Your Defiant Robot

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:22:49 -0700

Does this creep other people out as much as it does me?

This Week at C4SS: Punished for the Crimes of Others

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:03:00 -0700

More on McNamara

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:19:00 -0700

I managed to avoid Vietnam, thank goodness. But for several years I was aware of the threat Robert McNamara's project posed to me and my generation. How do I feel about his death? I keep thinking that justice has eluded us. There was no chance in the world he could have suffered even to the slightest extent what was suffered by the people he helped send to the slaughter -- American and Vietnamese.

McNamara Gone

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:01:00 -0700

The establishment thinks Robert McNamara, who ran the Vietnam War for Lyndon Johnson, made amends by later directing the World Bank. Actually, he just found another way to make poor people suffer.

Right to remain silent?

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:34:02 -0700

According to iReport, a US journalist has been jailed, in the US, for remaining silent.

Dodson is being held indefinitely on $10,000 cash bail at Cheshire County Correctional Facility because he refuses to disclose his legal name to authorities per orders issued by Cheshire County District Court Judge Edward Burke on April 14 and 29 under docket number 09-CR-01825-1828.

“The first order states $10,000 cash bail and only when he reveals his name. In the latest order they have discovered his legal name, but again they say until he tells it to them, and tells them his address, he’s staying in jail. In both orders they refuse to schedule any more dates, including trial, in this matter. They will not see him for arraignment, they will not see him for preliminary hearings, and they will not see him for trial until he gives them his name and address,” said Dodson’s attorney Sharon Walker.

“The state has not even told me what they are charging me with at this point for over two weeks which Article 15 of the New Hampshire Bill of Rights clearly says that they are not to hold anyone until the charges are substantially and formally given to them,” Dodson said from a jail pay phone May 1 when he called in to WKBK-AM’s The Dan Mitchell Morning show.

Mukti!

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:27:25 -0700

Homosexuality is now legal in India. (CHT b psycho.) Looks like another victory for us screaming sexualists.

Farewell to a Master

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:16:50 -0700

Check out Jesse Walker’s thoughts on the late Robert McNamara.

I’m reminded of Brian Doherty’s review of McNamara’s memoirs in which Brian said (unfortunately the review doesn’t seem to be online so I’m relying on memory) something like “at this point I’m tempted to quote a few lines from ‘Masters of War,’ but hey, the guy has family.”

The Caucus Race

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:53:28 -0700

An LP Anarchist Caucus has just formed.

I’m not a big fan of the “five key points” – taken literally, there’s a couple of them that I actually disagree with, and taken humorously, they’re just not especially funny. But hey, I’ll join. See also Tom’s comments.

I’m still waiting for someone to take Brad up on his suggestion of a Libertarian Socialist Caucus ….

Free the Bound Periodicals!

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:42:42 -0700

Jeff Tucker on copyright renewals.

Pictures from Budapest

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:22:12 -0700

This and seven more pictures from Budapest.

[from freemanlc] Military-backed public schools on the rise despite protests - USATODAY.com

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:36:39 -0700

"The Marines are talking with at least six districts — including in suburban Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas — about opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes, said Bill McHenry, who runs the Junior ROTC program for the Marines."

[from freemanlc] Hit & Run > CAP's Wal-Mart Cash - Reason Magazine

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:55:53 -0700

Corporatist Matthew Yglesias taken to task for his repetition of "The highly ideological behavior of the business community" mythology. Wal-Mart, and other big businesses, love state intervention -- when it suits their interests. It takes willful ignorance and/or disingenuousness to repeat such mythology about "the business community" having any sort of ideological aversion to state intervention.

[from freemanlc] Hit & Run > Wal-Mart Joins the Ranks of the Health-Care Corporatists ...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:05:50 -0700

"Now you can add another corporate behemoth to the list of supporters of advocating more government involvement in health care: Wal-Mart. Today, the nation's largest retailer released a letter supporting an employer mandate."

[from freemanlc] Towards Mutual Benefit: Gabb on Carson

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:58:29 -0700

Reflections on Sean Gabb's review of Kevin Carson's latest book.

[from freemanlc] Drugging foster kids shows more neglect - South Florida - MiamiHerald.com

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:30:44 -0700

"Once again, the state proved to be deadly negligent. "

[from joelknight] historynot.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:44:42 -0700

A book about revisionism, "Why American History is Not What They Say" by Jeff Riggenbach

[from PintofStout] http://faculty.msb.edu/hasnasj/GTWebSite/MythWeb.htm

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:39:41 -0700

In this Article, I will argue that this is a false dichotomy. Specifically, I intend to establish three points: 1) there is no such thing as a government of law and not people, 2) the belief that there is serves to maintain public support for society's power structure, and 3) the establishment of a truly free society requires the abandonment of the myth of the rule of law.

[from freemanlc] Public Education's Role in Sprawl and Exclusion | Market Urbanism

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:09:56 -0700

"In summary, locally-funded public education is an engine of geographical segregation, which encourages flight from urban areas, and was a driving motivation for the popular acceptance of exclusionary zoning in newer suburbs. As a result, wealth is consistently concentrated geographically, and housing affordability is at odds with these restrictions of supply intended to exclude poorer people from draining the property tax base."

[from jeremy6d] The fiscal crisis of the state

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:08:44 -0700

"I’m reminded of James O’Connor’s The Fiscal Crisis of the State, written in 1973. State spending in a capitalist society, he said, must fulfil two functions: to raise profits, for example by maintaining aggregate demand; and to legitimate the system by ameliorating inequalities. But, he said, these forces for higher spending increased faster than people’s willingness to pay tax. The upshot was a tendency to bigger budget deficits, even in decent economic times."

[from freemanlc] Kenneth Hartman: The Trouble With Prison

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:31:34 -0700

"The trouble with prison is, indeed, prison itself. The way prison is managed and envisioned. The idea that by humiliating and brutalizing damaged people some possible good could result is simply a falsehood, a lie perpetrated by interests who benefit from failure. It has never worked. It is not working now. It will never work. No amount of money poured down society’s communal drain will buy success. No minimum number of broken bodies and tortured spirits will purchase rehabilitation. No pyre of burnt offerings, no matter how large and hot, will somehow result in better people walking out the front gate in their gray sweat suits. The problems are systemic and resilient."

[from freemanlc] P2P Foundation - Gus diZerega on The Tragedy of Classical Liberalism

Fri, 15 May 2009 09:55:54 -0700

"Consequently a great many classical liberals have allowed themselves to become allies of and apologists for the growing American oligarchy, an oligarchy that has little if anything to do with liberal principles. Today this fact is beginning to be realized, but many are still wedded to old modes of thought that blame “bad apples” in the business community for the problem, rather then the system that grew them, and will grow more of them if these “bad apples” are “picked.”

[from freemanlc] P2P Foundation - Gus diZerega: has the liberal tradition underestimated cooperation?

Thu, 14 May 2009 08:03:11 -0700

"What has seriously weakened the liberal tradition, argues Gus diRezega in his unpublished essay, The Tragedy of Classic Liberalism, is that in its focus on the invisible hand of competition, it has forgotten the collective cooperative infrastructure, that is the basis of any competition."

[from freemanlc] P2P Foundation - P2P as Emergent Order

Thu, 07 May 2009 07:47:31 -0700

Excerpts from a Gus diZerega essay on emergent order research, complete with criticism of the vulgar tendencies of many "classical liberals"

[from freemanlc] Towards Mutual Benefit: Still Pissing on Adam Smith's Legacy

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:40:03 -0700

"Yet again, we find a pressing human need for the signals given to us by a freely operating market economy, of the type, funnily enough, lauded by Adam Smith. Sadly, past experience tells us that rather than campaigning for the introduction of such a genuinely free market, the ASI will continue to push policies that favour the global corporate oligarchy, endangering us all in the process."

[from freemanlc] Stumbling and Mumbling: The "evil poor" problem

Mon, 04 May 2009 13:22:43 -0700

"All I’m saying is that the pretence that crime arises from “evil”, whilst ignoring the social conditions that contribute to it, is at best only part of the story. And at worst, it’s ignorant and reactionary, and just serves to flatter the ego of those who like to feel smugly superior to others."