FEMA Should Be Shut Down
Far from having assisted in the crisis, writes Christopher Westley, FEMA actively made it worse by urging rescue departments not to assist. How much better off would the Gulf Coast be if FEMA had never existed? Much!
Mises quotes from the NYU seminar
Ludwig von Mises was born on September 29th, 1881. One hundred years later, The Libertarian Review put out a Mises Centennial Celebration issue, which included tributes from those who had known him personally.
Police Seizing All Guns
Let’s see here. The police were helping in the post-flood looting, and now the police are grabbing guns from homeowners who are trying to protect themselves. Says the NYT: “no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns, or other firearms of any kind.”
Reality Check: Anarcho-capitalism in the NYT
Not quite. Well, not at all. Today’s featured article on Wikipedia however offers a fairly concise and in-depth look into this iconoclastic philosophy affectionately called anarcho-capitalism. In addition to reading it, be sure to peruse and clean-up the biographies on Mises and Rothbard as well.
Via Silas Barta.
A Sanctuary for Freedom
Defending freedom in good times is essential for the future of civilization. But doing so in times of crisis and calamity is even more important.
Fema Dollars for all
At first, this seemed like an internet hoax: FEMA is giving out debit cards for all Katrina victims, $2000. But it is real indeed. Here is the Fema press release, and a news story. LibertyGuys offers a solid critique.
Real Bills Raises its Ugly Head, Again and Again
“I know no time which is lost more thoroughly than that devoted to arguing on matters of fact with a disputant who has no facts, but only very strong convictions.” So said, James E. Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, London 1901. In line with the above definition of futility, I shall not spend time re-refuting all the false lines of argument and logical errors in the latest blast from the Feketians, but there are one or two points worth making, nonetheless.
IP vs. Antitrust
In the September 2005 issue of Corporate Legal Times, the article “High Court Set To Tackle IP Tying In Antitrust Cases” discusses the upcoming Supreme Court case Illinois Tool Works v. Independent Ink, in which the Court will decide whether there should be a presumption of “market power” in antitrust “tying cases” in the case of a patented product.
Forget the 1970s
With all the talk of price controls on gas, it is useful to consider their ill-effects by way of example, not from the 1970s but from present-day Iraq. Seems like regime change is needed.
Tired of fighting for liberty on Earth? Look elsewhere!
In an announcement that anti-statists everywhere have been waiting for, a private firm, 4Frontiers, has announced plans to colonize and mine the planet Mars.
From the Wired article:
