Egypt

I’d prefer not to say too much about Egypt, mainly because I know little. However, I will say that the events illustrate why foreign aid isn’t the best means for gaining an ally. Especially when the aid provides canisters of tear gas for the aid recipient to fire at its citizens. The best way to …

Thursday Links

Some conservative groups plan to boycott CPAC over a gay conservative group’s co-sponsorship Rand Paul unveils $500 billion in cuts Katherine Mangu-Ward on education reform and the State of the Union address Peter Boettke on behavioral public choice and institutional political economy A look at the Institute for Justice Edward L. Glaeser on morality in …

“Free market” ≠ “pro-business”

Art Carden has a fantastic blog on Forbes from last September that I missed until today discussing the false equivalence of “free market” with “pro-business.”  The entire article is worth reading, but the essence is in Carden’s quotation from The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley: I hold no brief for large corporations, whose inefficiencies, complacencies, …

What is Conservatism? edited by Frank S. Meyer

I finished What is Conservatism?, a collection of 13 essays edited by Frank S. Meyer, a volume demonstrating the fusion (and fission) of the conservative/libertarian alliance in the early 1960s.  Excluding essays by Stanley Parry and Stefan T. Possony, time is well-spent pouring through the book and analyzing its arguments.  Some quotes: Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism-Frank …

Libertopia and Ralph Nader videos

A couple videos today. The first is a clip from Libertopia, ” a documentary that examines the people of the Free State Project– ordinary citizens attempting to reclaim a voice against big government which they believe shares neither their priorities nor their interests.  Primarily libertarian leaning, and often considered radicals in their home towns, these people …

Counter-counter response about Arizona

Jesse Pyle wrote a counter-response to my response of his letter Thursday.  While I would prefer not to write a counter-counter response in The Post, as the utility would be small and it’d annoy rather than spark interest, I feel I should make a few passing comments.  His letter lacked additional substance while highlighting a …

Did “extreme rhetoric” cause the Arizona shooting?

This is a letter I wrote to the Post (the newspaper at Ohio University) in response to a letter today:   As I began to read Jesse Pyle’s letter to the editor yesterday concerning the recent Arizona shooting, I had hope.  Unfortunately, they were crushed within seconds. Mr. Pyle asserts that the question of blame …