Libertarian Link Roundup
Some interesting reading I’ve come across while sitting on a chair in the sky…
War
- Lew Rockwell’s manifesto of peace.
- Aeon Skoble’s thoughtful contributions to the subject of libertarianism and war.
- Glenn Greenwald on the endless war on terror.
- Has the Left made peace with the warfare state?
- John Whitehead on the war on terror and the surveillance state.
Economics
- Jeffrey Tucker on the dangerous “witchcraft” of central banking.
- Hunter Lewis on the essence of Keynesianism.
- Walter Williams notes that taxes destroy transactions and thus jobs.
- Richard Ebeling: The Federal Reserve’s “Exit Strategy” is just more monetary manipulation
Philosophy
- George Smith defends the non-aggression principle: “Libertarianism is a political theory that deals with the concept of justice. It does not deal per se with establishing what is and is not “morally permissible.” That is the realm of ethics, or moral theory, which is a much broader discipline than political theory.”
- Tom Woods on progressive confusion of “society.”
- David Friedman on democracy, partisanship, rational ignorance, and why he believes things.
IRS Scandal
- Jonah Goldberg admits that the president probably didn’t ask the IRS to target political opponents - but they were an agency after his own heart.
- Tim Lynch and George Will offer some “empirical evidence” on IRS political manipulation.
- Doug Ross compiles a timeline on the IRS scandal and concludes: “1. Steve Miller lied to Congress, 2. Lois Lerner lied to Congress, 3. Barack Obama lied to the American people”
- Audit reveals disturbing new information on IRS abuse scandal.
- The IRS has a long history of political abuse.
- Obama apologetics in full force: New Republic blames the Tea Party for the IRS Scandal, NY Times claims that IRS targeting of Tea Party only proves Republicans are desperate, Nancy Pelosi thinks people are making a big deal about this because “our president is such a great president.”
Miscellaneous
- Mike Riggs shares the Drug Policy Aliiance’s “An Exit Strategy for the failed War on Drugs”, noting 75 ways in which to make the Drug War less awful (of course, there solution is much more simple: end prohibition of all peaceful activity. Period.).
- Shikha Dalmia on the Myth of the Scientific Liberal: “The core trait of a scientific mind is that when its commitments clash with evidence, evidence rules. On that count, what grade do liberals deserve? Fail, given their reaction to the latest evidence on universal health care, global warming, and universal preschool.”
- “[C]ollege students run up big bills to pay for educations unlikely to deliver payoffs to match the money invested. Delinquency rates on such loans are soaring. It’s no surprise that delinquency rates on those student loans are soaring. So, what’s the federal government’s response [included in Obama’s budget next year]? [I]t plans to expand a program that encourages students to take on debt with promises that taxpayers will assume the burden.”
- Americans who favor gun control incorrectly believe gun crime has increased.
- The case for legalizing horse meat.
- How zoning kills affordable housing.
- Read this if you still think teachers’ unions and educrats care about kids.
- Missouri Legislature Nullifies All Federal Gun Control Measures by a Veto-Proof Majority
- John Stossel notes: “Forty-three million Americans moved from one state to another between 1995 and 2010 — about one-seventh of Americans. … [They] have moved away from high-taxed, heavily regulated states to lower-taxed, less-regulated states. Most don’t think of it as a political decision. They just go where opportunities are, and that usually means where there’s less government.”
- How big business depends on big government.
“The missile hits, and after the smoke clears there's a crater there and you can see body parts from the people. [A] guy that was running from the rear to front, his left leg had been taken off above the knee, and I watched him bleed out. These guys had no hostile intent. In Montana, everyone has a gun. These guys could have been local people that had to protect themselves. I think we jumped the gun.”
—Former drone operator Brandon Bryant, on his first drone strike.
Bryant quit the drone program after realizing its disregard for life and how numb strikes made him feel, saying he “couldn’t do it anymore.”
Harper government withheld documents in indigenous human-rights case
theglobeandmail.comThe Harper government withheld tens of thousands of documents that it was obligated to disclose as part of a human-rights case in which it is accused of discriminating against indigenous children. Now, it is using its failure to hand over the files to try to get the proceedings put on hold.
The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in 2007 saying it is wrong for the federal government to pay 22 per cent less for child welfare on reserves than the provinces pay for non-aboriginal welfare services.
Despite many attempts by the government to have the case dismissed, the hearings before the tribunal finally began in February of this year.
But, next Tuesday, Justice Department lawyers will ask for an adjournment of many months while they gather more than 50,000 documents that were required to have already been handed over to the Caring Society’s lawyers under the human-rights commission rules.
Hey so when the federal government got caught illegally hiding 50,000 documents which it was required to turn over for what could potentially be a very large and expensive human rights case, they responded by insisting that they needed the whole proceeding adjourned for months while they collected all those documents.
That’s it. That’s exactly what happened. That’s just how things are now.
4,127 people have been killed by guns since Newtown.
And that number is growing rapidly. Just yesterday afternoon, the number was 4,099.
“The other point...which we're not hearing frequently or loudly enough...is a real scandal: 'the social welfare tax exemption is being used by existing 501(c)(4) organizations, including some very large ones, to promote partisan political interests—the very activity Congress has explicitly prohibited for a century.' In other words, Karl Rove and Crossroads. This is a serious issue, one deserving of investigation. But Republicans could be biting off more than they can chew if it causes a bright light to be shone on how politically partisan organizations, like Rove's, are exploiting the law.”
—Joan McCarter at Daily KosActing IRS Commissioner Steven Miller has resigned per President Obama's request
guardian.co.ukPresident Obama announced minutes ago that, in response to the revelation that the IRS discriminately targeted conservative-leaning groups for scrutiny, he’s asked for and accepted the resignation of Miller, the acting IRS Commissioner. The commissioner at the time of the targeting was Donald Shulman; Miller didn’t assume the post of acting commissioner until November of last year, after the probe ended. However, he did have knowledge in May that the probe had taken place.
“At Bloomberg, reporters could sit at their desks and use a keyboard function to see the last time an official of the Federal Reserve logged on. And the Justice Department obtained the records of The Associated Press from phone companies with no advance notice, giving it no chance to challenge the action. The absence of friction has led to a culture of transgression. Clearly, if it can be known, it will be known.”
—David Carr, Snooping and the news media: it’s a two way streetAllowing Non-citizens to Vote
I came across this story the other day about New York City considering allowing green card and visa holders to vote in municipal elections. The story also noted several cities in Maryland and Massachusetts allow non-citizens to vote. Apparently this was the case many states until the 1930’s. Intrigued, I decided to read up on the issue a little more, and this paper by Jamin Raskin caught my attention. According to Raskin’s research, alien suffrage was common in the early United States and was part of the Northwest Ordinance, which was reenacted in 1789 by the First Congress. The Annals of Congress for this time show no debate on the issue in either the Senate or the House. Just some interesting history I learned this week that I thought I’d pass along.
CNN Blows Huge Hole In GOP Efforts To Prosecute Benghazi Scandal
forbes.comCNN’s Jake Tapper has managed to get his hands on the critical White House email suggested as the proof that the White House was more interested in removing references to possible terrorist attacks in the now infamous Benghazi talking points then they were in telling the truth to the American public.
The actual email, written in the days following the Benghazi attack, reveals something else entirely. We now know that whoever leaked the contents of the email to various media outlets last week seriously misquoted the document, choosing to paraphrase the content in a way that made it appear that the White House was focused on protecting the State Department’s back and covering up information.
And the plot thickens…
What Happened to "Reasonable," "Common-Sense" Limits on the Bill of Rights?
Reporters for the AP are outraged that the government has spied on them. This despite the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder says the ostensible reason for the spying, a leak of sensitive information,
was one of the “top two or three” leaks he has ever seen, claiming it put the American people at risk.
“That is not hyperbole. It put the American people at risk,” Holder said, emphasizing his earlier comments.
And as we all know from the post-Newtown debate over gun control, anything the government does in the name of saving lives deserves an unrebuttable presumption of legitimacy, right?
Especially if the measure in question is characterized as a “reasonable” and “common sense.” Besides, aren’t reporters, like gun owners, simply a “special interest” backed by powerful corporate interests? If so, then surely anything they say about government efforts to constrain their activity deserves a presumption of mendacity.
What’s more, don’t we have plenty of evidence that media reports about subject after subject after subject after subject are not to be trusted?
Those in the media might argue that isolated cases of journalism malpractice do not justify infringing on the First Amendment rights of countless reporters who are honest and truthful. But then, this is the same logic that gun owners use when they say the actions of spree killers such as Adam Lanza should not justify infringing the Second Amendment rights of countless gun owners who obey the law… .
HEY SO BRITISH COLUMBIA
THERE IS AN ELECTION TODAY
YOU NEED TO GET OUT AND VOTE
YOU CAN REGISTER ON THE SPOT IF YOU BRING ID
