Yesterday the president of the Open Source Initiative attempted to show how the philosophy underscoring the open-source movement and libertarianism are best pals.

But can they even be enemies?

The problem with his argument, along with everyone else that attempts to make “open source” a philosophy on par with other political philosophies, is that the level of code transparency and how it is distributed really boils down to a matter of strategic management.

Organizers of the protests at the North American leaders’ summit in Montebello, Québec, say they have video that shows police disguised as masked demonstrators tried to incite violence on Monday.

The video in question.

Gambling Dispute With a Tiny Country Puts U.S. in a Bind tells the fascinating David-and-Goliath story of the WTO battle between Antigua and Barbuda, on the one hand, and the US, on the other.

Mendel has threatened US online gambling legislation, intellectual property law, and the WTO’s fragile existence, all in one fell swoop. Amazing!

(Thanks to Jason Ditz for the link)

The Rise of Private Universities:

If I see another citation of this story as proof that we need national health care, I’m going to vomit. Supposedly, this man killed his wife because he couldn’t afford her medical bills. People on discussion boards like this one are sure that it’s because we don’t have one of those magical government systems that gives everyone all the health care they need.

OK, melting ice and potential oil in the Arctic have brought out the worst in neighboring governments. (U.S. expedition mapping the Arctic) But, I have to ask, “What’s in it for me?”

I recently saw Thomas Friedman’s “Addicted to Oil” documentary on YouTube. A few nits to pick. First, of course, he unquestioningly buys into the global warming hype as one of the reasons we need to “do something.” Second, he uncritically accepts all the golly-gee claims of the alternate energy/new technology crowds. He hammers on a carbon-composite car door from some California startup without asking how it would holdup in a crash with a Volvo.

Ron Paul is in New Hampshire, and when I spoke to him yesterday, he told me: “So many of the people I meet mention the Mises Institute. Clearly the Institute is the source of this movement’s economic education.”

I just had the pleasure of preparing a chapter from Flynn’s Men of Wealth for publication here. It is on the fortune and life of Basil Zaharoff, the arms merchant who made fantastic amounts of money selling guns to all sides of the world’s war conflicts before, during, and after WWI.

In the debate surrounding net neutrality it seems as if someone is finally willing to put their money where their mouth is: Copowi.

The founder of this new ISP guarantees that “usage will be unrestricted and traffic will not be shapped, throttled, or prioritized.”