I have just read an article here (with thanks to Glenn Reynolds) which reports some really good news: FURTHER UPDATE: The New York State law has now gone national. A House bill declares that foreign libel judgments are unenforceable in the United States. And Arlen Specter, Joe Lieberman and Chuck Schumer want to go further still: Indeed, the ACLU, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the PEN American Center, the Families of…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

I have heard a bit of backchannel news from the network infrastructure guys in North America. It appears that the text of the Bailout giveaway went up and the government server got hit by the Slashdot effect. It became unreachable due to the huge volume of traffic caused by people attempting to get their hands on the Reid-Pelosi financial free for all bill. From what I have heard, this is not just pork… it is…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

The launch live webcast link is here.. 2322. This could be an interesting evening. As you know, the third launch failed at staging. It was quickly determined that the cause of this was a 'burp' from the Merlin engine after shutdown. There is some fuel and oxidizer left in the system when the engine shuts down, and in a regen engine there will be a bit more because the oxidizer is warmed and the nozzle…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Meanwhile, China legalises short selling: China's action contrasts with regulators in the U.S., Europe and Australia that have banned short selling in the past week to shore up financial shares battered by the global credit squeeze. China's government is betting the changes will boost trading without spurring further declines after state share buybacks helped the CSI 300 Index rebound from a two-year low. That is partly it. But mostly what China's government seems to me…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

I’ve been fairly critical of Ron Paul’s political instincts, especially his recent decision to endorse Chuck Baldwin for President, but when it comes to the impending Paulson-Bernake bailout, he’s one of the few voices in Congress talking about what’s really at stake.
Here’s video from the Joint Economic Committee hearing late last week:

And here he is […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

The SpaceX test flight 4 of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle is scheduled for Sunday. That means around midnight in my part of the world and earlier in the USA. I will be here as usual, giving a blow by blow live-blogging of the event. My gut feel says they make it this time. But that and a shiny new pound coin will get you a small cup of coffee at the local coffee shop….

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

I am troubled at the spread of a certain meme. It is hostile to liberty, yet seems to be fairly popular with those who in other respects defend freedom of speech and abhor State interference in personal relations. In the comments to this Samizdata post, a regular commenter here, “Mandrill”, expressed this particular meme unambiguously: “It should be illegal for any adult, parent or not, to indoctrinate any child in any religion, period. If they…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

We’ve already seen one debate between McCain and Obama. And frankly, although I was drinking beer at the time, I was far too even-keeled to be able to take this nonsense. We’ve got two more of these, and we need something to make it a bit more interesting.
So I propose a Presidential Debate […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

My favourite commentary on all the financial mayhem of the last few days and hours is this, from Scrappleface: "To sustain this shining city on a hill," Mr. Bush said, "we need to rescue the ignorant, irresponsible folks - from Wall Street to Capitol Hill to Main Street - who got us to where we are today. We must guarantee that no American suffers the soft bigotry of being forced to live with the consequences…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Bob Barr will be at Reason's office in DC tonight at 20:00 Eastern Time. You can watch here for a link that will allow you to join the event. If you are in DC, you might want to plan on dropping in for the live event. The time at the Barr website says 9pm EST for the Counter-Debate now, which is 2100….

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom