While most of us learn from the words of those who we admire, it is also possible to learn from those we detest. Here is a collection of quotes from some of the vilest despots in human history. From these quotes, perhaps we can gain some insights from their thought processes. You may also […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
At a time when eight out of ten Republican presidential wannabes don’t mind condoning torture on national television, this should come as no surprise:
The American Civil Liberties Union announced yesterday that it will sue a Boeing subsidiary, alleging that the company helped the Central Intelligence Agency with “the forced disappearance, torture, and inhumane treatment” of three men the government suspected of terrorist involvement.
“This is the first time we are accusing a blue-chip American company of profiting from torture,” said ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner, who spoke about the case, filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif., at a news conference in New York.
Since at least 2001, Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., of San Jose, “has provided direct and substantial services to the United States for its so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ program, enabling the clandestine and forcible transportation of suspects to secret overseas detention facilities where they are placed beyond the reach of the law and subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment,” the suit alleges.
And folks wonder why so many people around the world dislike Americans.
From US Libertarian Party
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Pelosi explained that Democrats should be the party of ethics, that appearances count, that dealing forcefully with Jefferson’s scandal would help everyone else in the room. “You didn’t elect me emperor or queen,” she said. “You elected me leader.”
The Democrats overwhelmingly voted Jefferson off the committee. And in November, Americans voted Democrats into the majority, citing corruption as one of the issues that soured them on the GOP.
Today, after becoming the first Democratic speaker in 12 years and the first female speaker in the history of the House, Pelosi will offer a comprehensive package of ethics reforms, a down payment on her pledge to run “the most ethical Congress ever.”
The class of 41 freshman House Democrats has selected a registered lobbyist to form its political action committee, in what ethics watchdogs and Republicans are calling a contradiction of their promise to end a “culture of corruption” in Washington.
The custodian of the Democratic Freshmen PAC is William C. Oldaker, 65, whose most-recent lobbying clients include the oil industry, the tobacco lobby, pharmaceutical industries and American Indian gambling interests. Mr. Oldaker also has been removed from several Democratic PACs over conflict-of-interest concerns. […]
Nonetheless, some campaign-finance watchdogs say the connection shows the new Democratic majority is not pursuing ethics reform as forcefully as promised on the campaign trail.
“Isn’t the point to avoid even the appearance of impropriety?” said Naomi Seligman Steiner of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, when asked about Mr. Oldaker’s involvement in the PAC. “We’re not any more comfortable with it this year than we were last year.”
From US Libertarian Party
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Taxing unhealthy food will not make us all thin.
As we know, people respond to incentives, so as the incentives change, certain careers become more attractive.
The proposed carbon labelling scheme: why bother, don’t we already have a measurement of all inputs?
Unless, of course, you wish to maximise your carbon consumption.
Another European Union bright idea: tidal power in the Baltic (nb, average tidal movement in the Baltic is 0cm)
A very good question. Why hasn’t Sir John Bourne gone yet?
And finally, Molesworth is now online.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
The Governor of New Hampshire has signed a bill granting civil unions to gay and lesbian couples into law:
Gay couples in New Hampshire will able to join in civil unions starting next year under a bill Gov. John Lynch signed into law Thursday.
“We in New Hampshire have had a long and proud tradition taking the […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
In Georgia, a holier than thou Christian by the name of Laura Malloy has tried, and failed, for the 5th time to remove Harry Potter from Gwinnett County government school library shelves. Malloy says the books cause children to embrace witchcraft:
A judge gave Laura Mallory 64 minutes Tuesday to argue why the Harry Potter books […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
A man had been drinking all night in a bar. He stood up to leave but fell flat on his face. Unable to stand, he crawled outside for a breath of fresh air. After 15 minutes lying on the pavement, he crawled home.
On reaching his front door, he tried to drag himself to his feet, but instead collapsed into the hallway. He crawled up the stairs and climbed into bed, where he immediately passed out. The next day his wife woke him, clearly furious, “You’ve been drinking again,” she screamed.
“How did you know?” he replied.
“Because the pub just called. You left your wheelchair there again.”
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
The suggestion is that food which is air-transported should not qualify for the ‘organic’ label. The principle is that organic food is supposed to be good for the planet, but air transport is deemed to be bad for it, regardless of whether the food was grown according to ‘organic’ rules. The debate is largely symbolic, in that air transport is not one of the major contributors to greenhouse gases. It is described as one of the ‘fastest growing’ sources to conceal how small it is. Even doubled or trebled it will be tiny compared with other sources. It makes an easy totemic target, however.
Looking over the newspaper lists of countries from which we buy such food, the fact which stands out is that they are nearly all poor countries; the Telegraph list featured Zambia, Egypt, and Thailand, for example. I don’t suppose poor countries are going to become wealthier if we don’t buy their goods. One principle conflicts with the other, just as the desire of some to buy ‘Fair Trade’ goods conflicts with their desire not to buy goods with high ‘food miles.’
Since the principles on one side seem largely symbolic and totemic, while those on the other seem to offer real opportunities for poorer people to improve their lot, I think I might come down on the side of buying their goods.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
There was an excellent article in yesterday’s Times by Chris Dillow, asking why we put up with “terrible, inept government”. According to him, it’s because most people just don’t understand why government failures happen.
Some say that these are isolated failures in an otherwise acceptable record, others that they are evidence of a general incompetence that has a simple solution – to put different backsides on Cabinet chairs.This is absolutely right – contrary to what British politicians (of all parties) now say, it is structures that really matter. ‘Managerialism’ – the idea that you can really improve public services simply by running them better – is just nonsense.Almost everyone is wrong. There’s a third possible reaction… centralised hierarchy is a terrible way of getting things done. Policy failures aren’t due to having the wrong personnel in charge. Nor are they exceptions to the rule of general competence. They are the inevitable result of bad organisational structure.
Dilllow brings in four lines of thinking to establish his point. One comes from Hayek – knowledge is inherently dispersed, so decentralization is necessary to maximize our effective use of knowledge. The second is about cognitive biases – politicians can be systematically irrational, so giving them complete control of something tends to be a bad idea. The third line is ‘transaction-cost economics’ – in large organizations (like governments) the cost of doing something internally far outstrips the cost of doing it in the marketplace. The fourth strand comes from recent management literature, which argues that hierarchy “stifles originality and creates an organisation with egomaniacs at the top and slovenly, dehumanised automatons at the bottom.”
Now, is it just me or does that last one sound a bit like modern Britain?
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
At the ASI, we’re very keen to see market systems replacing state provided services. So we welcome the news that a couple from Yorkshire have set up their own waste collection firm in response to their Council’s decision to cut services.
Under the pretext of environmentalism, many recent decisions by local councils to switch from a rubbish collection a week to a fortnightly system have provoked outrage by many people who feel that this is an unnecessary cost cutting measure with the potential to raise serious health problems.
All of this leaves a gap into which the private sector is already moving.
The new firm, known as Bin-and-Gone, will charge a fee of £90 per year and will collect waste during the off weeks. Seventy-five customers have already signed up. Kate Whyatt, who runs the firm with her husband Chris, said: “Every week, we are left with several bin bags of rubbish which has necessitated a trip to the tip… We don’t intend to make a lot of money out of it. We just want to solve an environment problem that we’ve had ourselves.”
In response, Sean Little, the Head of Waste Management at Richmondshire District Council told the BBC. “People living in the district pay council tax to have their waste and recycling dealt with; there really is no need to be paying any extra.”
Clearly, for a lot of people, there is a need to pay extra. Many of the councils that introduced alternative weekly collection were punished at the last round of local elections. More will be in two years time. Voters saw a fall off in service with no corresponding tax cut and wondered, rightly, why this should be.
The market will always find a way to deliver better services than governments (who get to charge tax-payers handsomely for the privilege). The question is, on something as straightforward as waste collection, why should it have to?
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
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