Just a few pics from Istanbul: A seminar, based on my presentation on “Peace and Freedom in the Age of Obama,” with students and recent graduates from the 3H Movement in Turkey; Istiklal (Independence) Street in central Istanbul; the Galata Tower, which was built in 1348 by Genoese who settled here.

I had some very good meetings here with local classical liberals, including my much admired friend Atilla Yayla, and will fly today to Ankara to meet with the leaders of the Association for Liberal Thinking. Then on to Sofia, Bulgaria.

(P.S. We may work together to organize a “Freedom on the Road” tour through Turkey this year, like those in Brazil and North Africa.)

From Greg Mankiw: “Economics in One Picture“

Paul Krugman of the New York Times on “An Irish Mirror” and Constantin Gurdgiev of Trinity College, Dublin on “Replying to Prof Krugman”

Hat Tip: Cyril Morong

From CNN: “Beheaded Vikings found at Olympic site”

“To find out that the young men executed were Vikings is a thrilling development…”

It occurs to me, despite the likelihood that the young men were criminal invaders, they were still human beings….

Nick Hogan is free….but we want him not only to be free from jail, but a free man, without fear of idiotic “laws” dictating whether people may smoke in his pub. And without having to pay ransom to the state for his freedom.

Bravo!!!!! I am so pleased by this. Congratulations to Mr. Hogan and to Old Holborn.

My response (“Liberty is Liberty“) to the provocative essay (“Conceptions of Freedom“) by David Schmidtz and Jason Brennan is now online.

I’m mostly through their very interesting (not in the British sense of the word, but the American sense) book A Brief History of Liberty. I disagree robustly with the thesis of the essay in Cato Unbound (which is drawn from the introduction to A Brief History of Liberty), which does not stop me from enjoying thoroughly their book.

March 10Rasmussen Report

Just 23% of voters say they prefer a more active government with more services and higher taxes over one with fewer services and lower taxes. This finding has remained fairly consistent since regular tracking on this question began in November 2006.

I managed to catch up on some sleep, but my body says I need more. (And the fact that it’s also telling me it’s kinda 12:45 am isn’t helping.)

I’ll give a talk this afternoon on “Peace and Freedom in the Age of Obama” at the Fatih University today, sponsored by the 3H (Freedom, Tolerance, Rule of Law) Movement. And I’ll continue to struggle with the spotty internet reception at the hotel.

My response to the lead essay by David Schmidtz and Jason Brennan on “Liberty: Positive and Negative” at Cato Unbound should be up some time today. Feedback invited!

The new Cato Unbound is focused on the nature of liberty. The lead essay (“The Big Myth About Liberty“) by David Schmidtz and Jason Brennan is quite provocative. My response essay will run on Friday, followed by the responses from John Christman and Philip Pettit, and then a discussion among all of us. I hope to learn from the discussion.

ISFLC Introduction Video from Students For Liberty on Vimeo.

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Third Wheel, by Prabodh.

From my presentation on Saturday at McGill University in Montréal on the history of liberty. (Sponsored by the outstanding Institute for Liberal Studies.)

I finished and submitted my review of James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia and now I’m working on my response to an essay by David Schmidtz and Jason Brennan on “Conceptions of Freedom,” which is drawn from their quite provocative new book A Brief History of Liberty and will be run this week in Cato Unbound. Then I will return to reviewing the copy-editing for my article on “Poverty and Morality” for the volume Poverty and Morality: Religious and Secular Perspectives, ed. by William A. Galston and Peter Hoffenberg (set for release September 30, 2010, by Cambridge University Press). Assuming I am not laid low by a cold (horrible sore throat now), I’m off to Istanbul, Ankara, and Sofia on Wednesday.

One of my favorite video clips…

The paper at Wabash College interviewed me to the famous Goodrich Room at the college before a very nice dinner with students and my lecture, which was sponsored by the Wabash Conservative Union. I had agreed to speak on the condition that I get a guided tour of the Goodrich Room, which was endowed and designed by Pierre F. Goodrich, the founder of the Liberty Fund.

The resulting interview is a reasonably clear statement of my beliefs (but with a few tiny errors and bits of awkward phrasing that are hard to avoid when talking into a mike!): “LIBERTY UNBOUND: AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. TOM PALMER”

(Among the errors, note my confused comment that “I don’t know if James Madison ever read Gilgamesh,” which is certainly unlikely, as the text was not rediscovered until the mid 19th century.)

After a great visit and a really wonderful seminar at McGill University organized by the Institute for Liberal Studies (and visits with some of our good friends at L’Institut économique de Montréal and with some dear friends I’d not seen in a while), I’m heading back to D.C.

I’m off in a few hours to Montreal for the Institute for Liberal Studies conference on “Politics & Society,” then back for a bit, after which I’ll fly to Istanbul and then on to Ankara for university lectures and meetings with the 3H Movement (3 H’s: Freedom, Toleration, Rule of Law), and the Association for Liberal Thinking, then to Sofia for more talks and meetings with the Institute for Market Economics.

“Bearing Arms in D.C.“

“Carry On: Does the Second Amendment Apply Outside the Home?”

UPDATE: Another fine Reason commentary on the right to keep and bear arms, this one focusing on the 14th Amendment and the McDonald case: Damon Root on “Getting the 14th Amendment Right:
The Chicago gun case and the fight for economic liberty“