A new report documents the trend. What I do find annoying about these surveys is how they focus on values instead of policies. For example, it should not matter to a libertarian what a person believes about religion or morality so long as they do not want the government to do anything about it. Of course experience suggests that there is in fact no such wall of separation between values and policies in political practice.

I’ve noted before that the term “human rights” and, in particular, its usage in international law, has acquired a leftist, anti-property tinge–incompatible with the Rothbardian-libertarian conception of human rights as property rights. (See my Book Review of Patrick Burke, No Harm: Ethical Principles for a Free Market (1994), Reason Papers No. 20 (Fall 1995), at n. 13 and accompanying text; Murray N.

The government now says that taxpayer bailouts of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac could reach $363 billion by 2013. Of course we are supposed to thank Harry Reid for staving off a “world wide depression” too.

Full story on the Fannie / Freddie bailouts here.

Also check out the Bailout Reader from Mises.org.

For several years now the Mises Institute has hosted Reason Papers; I helped them get the archives online and have been assisting with getting the PDFs in shape to put online and associated web-related matters. The journal was edited from 1974 to 2000 by my friend Tibor Machan (he published my first scholarly article in that journal in 1992), and since them by Aeon Skoble. It’s now being taken over by Irfan Khawaja and Carrie-Ann Biondi. Issue No. 32 has just been put online; the contents are below.

In As We Go Marching, John T. Flynn detailed the progression from liberty to fascism in Italy. In a World Magazine interview with Marvin Olasky, possible presidential candidate Rick Santorum rehearses his version of a vintage 1920′s Italy stump speech.

First, Flynn:

For imperialism flows as logically from militarism as militarism from spending.

Second, Santorum:

[Excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith (1995).
An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download.]