All of a half dozen people turned out to see The Company Men the other night at the local theater. The film has been hammered by critics and hasn’t yet grossed $4 million. However, the film, with a production budget of $15 million, and plenty of star power with Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones, has a story that is much better than the critics appreciate.
Whenever I’m feeling blue about domestic politics – there is plenty about which to despair – something great happens that reminds me of the long-term case for optimism, which is all about the astonishing expansion of the division of labor globally and in ways that weren’t even possible just a few years ago.
From the 18th century to our own time, the liberal tradition has stood firmly against war, based both on principle and on the reality of how and why wars begin, and also the wicked damage they do to society. The excuses for wars mask the underlying reason for them.
To follow on my recent post Why Do We Hate Modern Classical Music? I am writing a follow up to clarify some of the points that came up in the comments section. The first is to clarify that I mean “modern classical” in a stylistic sense, not necessarily limited to when the music was composed. I could have, and will in this post use the word modernist to refer to this style.
Today is the 85th anniversary of the birth of Murray Newton Rothbard, one of the greatest economists of the Austrian school, philosophers of liberty, and individual anarchists who defined libertarianism and provided the theoretical framework for a free-market anarchism that is known as anarcho-capitalism
While big-box bookseller Border has filed BK and announced it’s closing 200 of its superstores in the US, more nonbook retailers are selling books. Stores peddling apparel, food and most anything are starting to offer books. Grocery stores and Wal-Mart have been selling books for a while and now “Coldwater Creek, Lowe’s, Bass Pro Shops and even Cracker Barrel are adding new books,” the New York Times reports.
