12 Oct 2006
Roads to Serfdom

Several folks have asked how I, as a "small l" libertarian, could be opposed to and appalled by the current move towards truly global "free trade". After all, aren't all libertarians advocates of the free market? Isn't that the same thing? And didn't David Ricardo and the theory of comparative advantage put to rest once and for all the arguments of the protectionists?

For those who still believe that things are that simple in reality, I offer a link to this essay. Read the whole thing. Perhaps then you'll understand that the market isn't nearly as free as it is made to appear, and that many things are not as they seem.

The American Corporate State and the economic system that dominates the world may be a capitalist system in fact, but it is not now and has only rarely been anything resembling a free market.

Once upon a time there was a man named Adam, who lived with his wife and children in the kingdom of Kleptopia. Adam ran a little shop that made and sold widgets. Of course, you need whatsits to make widgets, but Kleptopia's whatsit supply was sparse. But with some doing, and at no small expense, Adam had a secure supply of whatsits, as did the other widget shops in the town where Adam lived and worked. Adam had workers who assembled the widgets, and Adam paid them the a little more than what the other shops paid their workers. With more contented workers, Adam produced the best widgets in town, and made a decent living.

(link) [The Partial Observer]

via Mutualist Blog

20:46 /Politics | 8 comments | permanent link

Apple's NY Fifth Avenue store is an 'insult to Islam'

"Why?", you ask. Because it's square. Like the Ka'ba.

By the gods, I hope these people don't take a drive through our local industrial park!

According to a report on The Middle East Media Research Institute, Apple's NY Fifth Avenue store has been slammed by "an Islamic website" as a "new insult to Islam".

(link) [The Register]

20:25 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Read Between the Lines

Independent bookstores are almost a thing of the past here: as far as I know there aren't any independent, general distribution booksellers left in Indianapolis.

But I'm lucky, being nearly halfway between Indy and Lafayette. For in West Lafayette there still exists a real independent bookseller, Von's Book Shop, and I frequent it regularly. Von's sells more than books - it's a craft store, bead emporium and music retailer, all rolled into one. I've purchased raw amber and pewter Thor's Hammers there - they even have a selection of geodes and assorted rocks!

And the bookstore itself: well, it's huge, taking up nearly half a city block. I've never searched for a book on Amazon (except technical books) that Von's didn't have. On the shelf. No shipping. In fact, I made a trip to Von's once fully prepared to backorder the book I wanted, as it was a fairly rare treatise on Old Norse, only to find it instantly available - they even had two copies!

Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

Video games and MySpace distractions aside, losing yourself in a good book remains one of life's great pleasures. But if you treasure life on a human scale, how you choose to buy your book is almost as important as the book you buy. Commentary by Tony Long.

(link) [Wired News: Top Stories]

20:20 /Home | 2 comments | permanent link

Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban VM Use

Well, this pretty much puts the cap on it for me: once XP is obsoleted and my current Windoze machine dies the death it's destined for, we'll be a 100% Unix/Linux/Mac operation.

TechWeb has posted an article regarding Vista's new license and how it allows you to only move it to another device once. How will this work for people who build their PCs? I have no intention of purchasing a new license every time I swap out motherboards. 'The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once. ... Elsewhere in the license, Microsoft forbids users from installing Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system," the legal language reads. Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, however, can be installed within a VM.'

(link) [Slashdot]

19:40 /Technology | 2 comments | permanent link

Troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants

Man, this could be a huge recruiting tool ...

Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.

(link) [CNN.com]

19:34 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Blogging 'un-Christian'

Well, this particluar blog is certainly "un-Christian", by design, in fact, though I'm not sure about blogging in general ...

Blathering on blogs is un-Christian, an Evangelical church has warned.

(link) [Te Register]

12:14 /Asatru | 1 comment | permanent link

Lead paint, cigarettes: Are trans fats next?

Ah, the irony! Trans fats were originally substituted in foods as a replacement for "bad" saturated fats. Now it seems that the cure really is worse than the disease...

What this really reminds me of is Woody Allen's classic movie Sleeper, where his Rip Van Winkle like character, who's a vegan non-smoker for his health, discovers everybody's smoking and eating steaks 200 years into the future: for their health!

New York City's Health Department wants to ban trans fats from the menus of the city's restaurants.

(link) [Christian Science Monitor]

12:07 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link