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July 06, 2008

Tabarrok on Living Under Authoritarian Regimes

From Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution:

There's nothing like visiting a foreign country like China to get an appreciation of what it's like to live under an authoritarian regime. I was reminded of this when I arrived home and found that the TSA had rifled through my baggage.

The best authority money can buy, eh?

/KDR

Posted by KevinRollins at 03:07 AM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2008

Honoring Kent Snyder

Kent Snyder family is not just coping with the tragedy of his passing, but with the over $4,000 of unpaid medical bills. Fortunately, a group of Kent's friends has organized an online effort to raise funds to pay Kent's medical expenses.

Also, the Ludwig Von Mises Institute has announced a to help educate the next generation in the cause to which Kent devoted his all to short life.

Posted by NormSingleton at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2008

Kent Snyder: Hail and Farewell


With the passing of Kent Snyder the freedom movement has lost a true champion. Most of you know Kent as the Chairman of the Ron Paul 2008 campaign, some of you may also remember him as the executive director of the Liberty Committee, while a few of you may even know he worked in Dr. Paul's 1988 Libertarian Party Presidential Campaign.

I had the fortune of knowing Kent as a friend and a brother-in-arms. Kent was the first person in Dr. Paul's inner circle to suggest that Dr. Paul run for President, without Kent there would have been no Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign and think where the freedom movement would be without the rEVOLUtion. For one thing, imagine all the young people who are joining our movement who, absent Dr. Paul's campaign, would have drifted to Obama because they associated free markets with neoconservatism.

Kent defined "grace under pressure." No matter how tough things got during the campaign, whenever I spoke to him he was friendly and calm. Kent also never failed to thank everyone for their contributions to the cause. Unlike so many in DC, Kent never judged people by status or how they could help him. Kent treated everyone the same and had a genuine interest in his fellow human beings, and was one of the most generous people I have had the privileged to know.

Thank you, for everything Kent, I know I speak for everyone who knew and loved you when I say the world seems a much darker and confusing place without you there to help light our way.

BTW- Here is Ron Paul's tribute to Kent.

Posted by NormSingleton at 09:40 PM | Comments (1)

Understanding Democracy

A story from Newsbusters suggests that the Obama campaign (or its supporters) may have used Blogspot's spam control system to flag and thus shut down several anti-Obama blogs.

Apparently, this campaign merely took advantage of Google/Blogger's flawed system of finding spam blogs. So, it looks like what we have here is an Obama dirty trick to shut down political opposition.

Newsbusters remarks, "Looks like Obmatons aren't much for that whole democracy thing, eh?"

If this is indeed what happened, the Obama crew may very well understand democracy.

In a sense, flagging spam is like voting. "Spam" is a subjective classification. Spam is unwelcome, useless, or even harmful information. Who should decide what is spam and not spam? There is much discussion of the "Wisdom of Crowds" in generating knowledge, especially through the Net. Do we allow ideas that go against the crowd?

There is a false notion that by installing voting systems that aggregate preferences of the public that we get liberal protections for speech and action. In fact, it is liberal concepts and institutional protection of these concepts that defend our "rights" against the will of the majority. Democracy, in replacing autocratic regimes, may generate liberalism. But democracy has also been a force for oppression.

Obama has lovely transpartisan rhetoric, but we should recognize that many of his policy proposals will increase the power of the state and diminish liberty. We should not be surprised that rabid supporters of statist policies will violate discourse ethics in the process of getting their way.

/KDR


Posted by KevinRollins at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

Using the Second Amendment as Intended

I have long argued that, should the D.C. Gun ban be revoked, the Democracy movement, as well as other dissident movements, take full advantage of the right to bear arms by doing so very publicly. For instance, the Capital Pride Festival was held a week prior to the decision. Next year at this time, the festival should include an armed contingent. Gay rights activists should also take up arms in their demonstrations in support of marriage. The next time the Congress disrespects the citizens of the District of Columbia - or the Court does for that matter by say overturning the ban on handguns, DC activists should hold one of their usual protest marches, but this time do so armed.

Congress and the Supreme Court may rethink their attitudes about both the rights of D.C. residents and the right to keep and bear arms if faced with such a protest. If permits are not issued for such protests, the denial should be challenged on both First and Second Amendment grounds. This also applies in states with odious policies, such as the denial of the right to marriage to gays and lesbians. It would be entertaining to see the reaction in Richmond to a contingent of armed queens demanding their rights to marriage (or even the rights to marriage equivalent contracts that have been denied by the State of Virginia).

Posted by MichaelBindner at 12:42 PM | Comments (2)

June 29, 2008

Goodbye Raymond Burke

The Vatican announced the promotion of pro-life Archbishop Raymond Burke to the Vatican Signatura (its Supreme Court). This means that he is effectively silenced in telling Catholic politicians who they should put on the American Supreme Court - just in time for the election. I knew I liked this Pope. Read more on my Christian Left blog.

Posted by MichaelBindner at 09:17 PM | Comments (6)

June 28, 2008

Taking Olbermann and Obama to Task for FISA Support

Just because Obama supports Bush's unconstitutional FISA expansion doesn't mean that it is any more legitimate or better policy. While MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has often been an opponent of the Bush Administration's war and privacy policies, his principles apparently don't extend to keeping Democrats from doing the same things.

Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.com takes Olbermann, Jonathan Alter, and other unprincipled lefties to task for endorsing Bush's power grab.

Posted by PaulGessing at 04:59 PM | Comments (3)

June 27, 2008

"...in the home."

The key passage in yesterday's landmark Second Amendment Supreme Court decision is: The Constitution does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.”

While I'd prefer the qualification be "on one's property," the point is people have the right to protect themselves and their families with potentially lethal force. Arguing the opposite seems utterly untenable, so my view is Scalia and the majority framed this issue properly.

The Supremes move glacially, with the occasional lurch and sometimes those lurches are in a virtuous direction. This is such a time. Time will tell how the Court hones this new direction in jurisprudential thinking. What CAN be prohibited, what CAN be regulated, and where CAN the State limit the carrying and use of firearms remain open questions.

-RC

Posted by RobertCapozzi at 06:03 AM | Comments (1)

June 26, 2008

Obama is Right on Leviticus

If you haven't been paying attention (and I don't blame you if you haven't), there has been an ongoing controversy between James Dobson and Barack Obama over whether the Bible endorses slavery and prohibits shellfish. While I don't support everything this short video has to say, it does quote directly from the passage in Leviticus that endorses slavery and proscribes rules for buying and selling slaves. There has been a lot of discussion elsewhere about whether or not the Bible actually endorses slavery. I think the answer is "yes."

Making public policy based on the Bible or any religious document is a dangerous business.

Posted by PaulGessing at 11:34 AM | Comments (4)

2A, Kelo and Federalism

As we all wait to hear what the Supremes have to say about the DC gun ban, I'll be especially interested in the take that our paleo states rights colleagues will say. Some believed Kelo was properly decided, based on a states rights perspective.

I didn't, and I won't.

The way I see it, the Bill of Rights is a national governing law. It carves out certain rights for all US citizens, including the right to keep and bear arms, at least on one's property. That which is not carved out in the Constitution should be left to the states or individuals. Banning all firearms -- as DC has done -- is off the reservation, as I see it.

-RC

Posted by RobertCapozzi at 06:40 AM | Comments (1)

Free-for-all (frfr-ôl) -- n. A disorderly fight, argument, or competition in which everyone present participates.

from Dictionary.com



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