It turns out that Garet Garrett wrote one last novel called Harangue, published in 1926. It tells the story of a socialist workers movement and its control of a North Dakota town (see the Wikipedia entry on the Non-Partisan League). I nearly got in a car crash on the way to work because I couldn’t stop reading it.
For years now, Leonard Liggio and I had been looking for a “left,” for an antiwar movement, with which we could ally ourselves.
How fashionable it is to love nature.
Down with industry, development, internal-combustion engines, clear cutting, strip malls, and private ownership. Capitalists do nothing but ravage the beauty of mother earth. The hand of man only strangles and kills.
If you agree with the above, you will love the fires that have driven half a million people from their homes in California, and destroyed 1,200 houses. President Bush is dumping your money in the form of aid on these suffering souls, and the flames rage on. FULL ARTICLE
The Lockean (and Rothbardian) theory of initial acquisition of property involves the necessity of mixing one’s labor with an object in the external environment. Once labor has been applied to a thing, it can legitimately become one’s private property. The immediate question that arises is, how much labor is necessary in order to make a thing one’s own? Suppose I pick up a stone thinking of throwing it an my foe; is the stone thereby mine? But isn’t the stone unchanged? With what have I mixed my labor?
How fashionable it is to love nature.
Down with industry, development, internal-combustion engines, clear cutting, strip malls, and private ownership. Capitalists do nothing but ravage the beauty of mother earth. The hand of man only strangles and kills.
If you agree with the above, you will love the fires that have driven half a million people from their homes in California, and destroyed 1,200 houses. President Bush is dumping your money in the form of aid on these suffering souls, and the flames rage on.
In a a blog post, Pete Boettke presents some interesting and innocuous ruminations about paradigm shifts and progress in science and, then, suddenly, after a few paragraphs, makes a startling categorical claim: “Amateur economists, individuals without advanced degrees, or those not teaching in research universities, who spend their time writing in blogs or in journals not listed by SSCI cannot pull off the desired paradigm shift.
[This article is excerpted from chapter 13 of The Betrayal of the American Right, now available in the bookstore.]
Our town council, who loves taxes like my cat loves cream is talking about a sales tax increase: a frequent subject of their deliberations. Only a miniscule addition they say. Pennies. Who’ll miss a 5 penny penalty on a 5 dollar purchase. We should line up to give our political servants this minor increase. Infinitestimal, a painless gift to the city. Insignificant, I think? If that’s so what can they do with the proceeds: paint new stripes on the courthouse parking lot? Then it occurs to me. It aint the money - it’s the principle.
Four years after the conflagration of 2003, we in southern California once again are enjoying the sight of pink skies not caused by the sun, the aroma of burning chaparral, and the sting of smoke getting in our eyes. One can only wonder: what is the role of government in this?
