This website let’s you test to see if your site is blocked by China’s internet firewall.
According to the results, The Liberty Papers is blocked.
While it’s unfortunate that the Chinese people are denied access to some truly great writing, it’s clear we’ve offended the right people. Good work guys !

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

In my recent post about Michael Charles Smith, I received a response from a reader by the name of Carl Deen regarding my support for the war against terror Islamofascism (Not the war on terror. Terrorism is the method the Islamofascist uses to accomplish his political-religious goals). I think his challenge is worth a post […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Don Surber explains why he thinks John McCain’s candidacy is doomed:
McCain-Feingold.
The fundamental difference between McCain 2000 and McCain 2008 is that he put his name on a law that forbids people from speaking out against their congressman within 60 days of an election.
(…)
That is a show-stopper. Ever step in fresh dog-doo? The smell sticks to […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

When moving to DC a few months back, I took the opportunity to get rid of a lot of junk I’d been accumulating over the years. Old magazines went in the trash and some clothing which no longer fit went to charity.

Perhaps it’s time we apply this logic to our government, too. Today’s AJC shows us just how we can accomplish such a constitutional house cleaning.

For example, the First Amendment - which guarantees the rights to freedom of religion, speech, the press, peaceful assembly and to petition for redess of grievances - is so often misunderstood by government, the courts and the people that we’d probably all be better off if it were simply repealed. Few people really understand anymore why it might be necessary to “assemble” anyway, and who worries in this day and age about something as arcane as a “redress of grievances”?

Then take the Second Amendment - that pesky sentence constantly getting in the way of efforts by big city mayors in New York, Washington, San Francisco and elsewhere to disarm the populace. Insofar as many government officials view the clause as applicable simply to a “militia” - which they in turn believe we no longer need because, after all, we have the military and the police nowadays to “protect” us - wouldn’t it greatly simplify their jobs to just repeal the amendment?

Once we’ve finished this task, we can focus on the really important things in life. As the author suggests, “Now back to Britney Spears and Anna Nicole Smith.”

From US Libertarian Party

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

There is much discussion in the local media here in Washington D.C. about this tragic story:
Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday.
A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.
If his mother had been insured.
If his family had not lost its Medicaid.
If Medicaid dentists weren’t so hard to find.
If his mother hadn’t been focused […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

At Catallarchy: yes, us liberal types are just as concerned about the concentration of power in corporations as we are anywhere else.

Biased BBC reports on an FoIA request: just how many air miles is the BBC responsible for? And how many carbon offsets? You’ll be surprised at both numbers.

Samizdata explains why the Americans play rounders rather than cricket these days.

Agoraphilia continues to go where few economists fear to tread: the economics of Swingers’ Parties.

Not a blog post, but an excellent paper from Tom Palmer on myths about markets (.pdf).

Craig Newmark on the joys and wondrousness of having the City Council owning sporting assets.

And finally: Nick, why the photo there? and children’s books that somehow never quite took off.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

I have my concerns about a few of his positions, but he is far and away better than any other Republican or Democrat currently under discussion. Most candidates will force us to hold our noses simply to keep from retching if we vote for them, Ron Paul’s odorous positions are like mild B.O. in comparison.

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Son: “Where are the Himalayas?”
Father: “Go ask your mother. She’s probably put them away somewhere.”

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

It’s official. Privatization does not kill people. Incompetence kills people. The same fault that caused the Potters Bar crash five years ago – and led to the UK’s rain infrastructure being taken back into (effectively) public ownership – has caused another death in Cumbria. In a shockingly similar scenario, investigators of last weekend’s crash discovered that one of three stretcher bars on a set of points was not in position, two were fractured, and bolts were missing. The crash itself may have fractured one bar – but the other, and the missing bolts, presently look like faulty maintenance.

Missing bolts and a loose bar were critical features of the Potters Bar tragedy, causing the press and politicians to heap contempt on Railtrack, the private company in charge of the infrastructure after privatization. It will be interesting to see whether the new provider, Network Rail – more of a quango than a company, with institutional ‘members’ rather than shareholders – gets the same treatment. It has, after all, spent £7bn of taxpayers’ and rail travellers’ money on upgrading the very line where the latest accident occurred, so it cannot claim that funds were short. But no doubt some people will be demanding that taxpayers shell out even greater sums on the rail network.

We kill thousands of people on the roads each year, so rail travel is amazingly safe by comparison. But train crashes are spectacular and provide bigger news stories, generating more public concern. Rationally, we should be spending more on road safety rather than still more on rail.

The hero of the latest crash is said to be the train driver, but really it is Virgin Rail’s new Pendolino train. That is the one which tilts in order to go round corners faster. In Cumbria it was doing 95mph. Previous crashes, even at low speed, have left us with a mass of twisted metal, and many casualties. But Virgin Rail’s train is packed with safety features, and survived intact as it was designed to do, no doubt saving many lives. And of course, it is privatization that allowed new operators like Virgin to run services and introduce their own higher-tech rolling stock. So that bit of privatization has undoubtedly been a life saver.

Accidents happen, whoever is in charge. Time for a little humility all round. The important thing is to align the incentives so we get fast, efficient, cost-effective and safe rail transport. The pre-privatization structure certainly did not. The privatized regime had big problems too. And I am not sure that the present arrangement is up to the job either.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

There are worrying sign of some state run health systems, struggling to cope with spiralling costs, are adopting an increase paternalistic or even authoritarian style towards their citizens. The motive to focussing on disease prevention, instead of mere cure, for a growing number of chronic diseases like diabetes is of course noble. But since collective healthcare systems undermine the essential personal responsibility that is needed for people to take control of their own health, these systems have to enforce it artificially with legislation and directives.

A couple of revealing examples emerged last week in Canada. First the national Diabetes Association tried to prod all Canadians to improve their health by taking a quiz under the slightly threatening name ‘get serious’. The website offers a risk assessment for diabetes and gives the user an estimate of their current cardiovascular or heart age.

More authoritarian, though, is the new diabetes screening programme in Edmonton. It goes further than any other in North America, making diabetes a reportable disease – an old fashioned tool of epidemic control, not even used for AIDS.

Under the program, whenever someone in the city visits a doctor, hospital or walk-in clinic, their blood-sugar information is re corded in a central database. Edmonton’s Capital Health Region plans to use the information to identify and treat anyone with diabetes or at risk for the disease…Registered patients would be contacted every three months by their family doctor to ensure that they are in good health. Those without family doctors would receive the same treatment from public health services.

Since the main justification for introducing this kind of medical police is the obesity problem, a new publication by the Institute of Economic Affairs may offer a suitable response. It is called Diet Nation: Exposing the Obesity Crusade. The authors are right when arguing that we cannot overcome the obesity problem through legislation or with heavy-handed and coercive policy instruments. Contrary to the mainstream media’s main worries about costs, they point to the danger of the well meaning nanny state:

The greatest cost will consist in the sacrifice of so many of our hard-won economic and political liberties on the altar of a misguided and unwinnable crusade.

I could not agree more and would simply add: the best way to keep both, better health and individual liberties, is to go for a consumer driven and market based health care system that puts the patient in the driving seat.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom