WAR FOR OIL?:

In all honesty, the coming conflict with Iraq is at least partially about oil. Denying this fact only makes the case for war seem weak. However, as John Huddock points out, this does not mean that the oil impetus is about making Bush and Cheney's buddies rich. In fact, the introduction of free market principles to the part of the oil market currently controlled by Iraq would tend to decrease the price of oil (by cutting into OPEC's turf). In any case, the real reason that war with Iraq has anything to do with oil is the same reason it has anything to do with the War on Terror -- WMD brandished by a loose-cannon in the Middle East. Whether those weapons are allowed to get into the hands of al Quaida, Hamas or other terrorist organizations, or they are trained upon all of Iraq's neighbors (and thus the vast majority of the oil production in the world), the result is the same; a general and pervasive destruction of our way of life. That simply cannot be allowed. Whither the way of the Western democracies, wither the way of the entire planet.

DAILY QUOTE:

Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.
- Winston Churchill

WHO'S THE SMARTEST KID ON THE BLOCK?:

"Who cares" is Stuart Buck's answer. I can't keep count of how many times I hear "Bush is such an idiot! How can he be running our country?" The same things used to be said about Reagan. In fact, isn't this the whole premise of the Left Wing? That liberals are smarter than conservatives, and since they know so much more about what's better for the average slob they liberals should run everything. Buck states the problem clearly:

In fact, "smart" people are all too often prone to fall for the belief that they alone know how to run the world, and that government should be massively centralized, so that "smart" people like themselves can make decisions properly. One sees this in the intellectuals (e.g., Heidegger) who sympathized with the Nazis, and much more so in the predilection that many Western intellectuals had for Communism and socialism. Judging from the 20th century, it seems that "smart" people are more, rather than less, likely to support the evils of totalitarianism.

[link via Mindles H. Dreck]

DAILY QUOTE:

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
- George Washington

IN MEMORIUM - WESLEY LIEBELER:

I've just learned this morning that my Antitrust professor, Wesley Liebeler was killed in a plane crash in New Hampshire last week. I did not have a very good grasp of law and economics until I met him. And while my understanding of the subject is still rudimentary, I can honestly say that few teachers have had the impact on me that he had. He will be sorely missed.

Although he is best known from his work on the Warren Commission, he was also highly influential in U.S. antitrust policy. His most recent contribution was in his analysis of the Microsoft case, some of which is reflected here.

BILLY AND THE BRITS:

David Carr at Libertarian Samizdata did us all a favor and summarized Clinton's recent speech at the Labour Party Annual Conference in Blackpool:


"Mah friends, I am so pleased to be here with you today because we all share a common vision; one of peace, one of hope, one of children. Children, children, children, children. That's what we're about: children. And that's what the Third Way is all about; it's about you, me, us all joining together to strive for a better world for children. Children anywhere, children everywhere. Not like those knuckle-dragging right-wing loons who don't care about children. In fact, they eat children. We must not be like them. But we must also help them. We must help them to find a better way; the Third Way. So stay focussed and strong because I know that if we all work together and believe in ourselves we can make socialism work. Oh yeah, and Saddam is a real bad guy and he has to go. Thankyou. I love you lots."

Yeah. That's good stuff.

IBERIAN MADNESS:

This new addition to the Freecon Links Bar has some pretty interesting posts on it. I especially like this one:

Oct. 1, 2002: The FC Barcelona basketball team has a player from somewhere like Lithuania whose surname is Fucka. No, as far as we know, his first name is not "Mutha".

Unfortunately, you have to scroll through everything since they don't have permlinks. On the bright side, you tend to come across little tidbits as above.

WHY LET FACTS SPOIL A GOOD PARTY:

In case you've ever wondered how the U.N. operates, Collin May offers this concise M.O.:

Look for a possible problem of global import, play with the figures in order to prove the problem’s existence, blame free market forces for the problem to ensure they can’t be part of the solution, and then assert the need for an unelected centralized global bureaucracy to impose a binding solution on national governments. Then, when the new agency gets going, the process simply reinforces itself, guaranteeing the organization’s continued existence and expansion.

The "problem of global import" in this case is Global Warming, which the U.N. Environment Programme has embraced as it's raison d'etre. Collin lays out the facts that the UNEP is desperately trying to ignore in order to relentessly push its own agenda, thereby justifying its existence.

WAR AMONG DEMOCRACIES:

Pejman Yousefzadeh takes issue with the Objectivist view of foreign policy that one of the benefits of the spread of democracy is a decrese in the frequency of wars. I think Pejman presents a good case, but I'm not sure he carries the day. One the primary reasons wider spread democracy (of the republican form, as opposed to majority-rule) results in fewer wars is that there is a greater alignment of interests and a greater ability to voice diverse solutions to conflicts. War may eventually win out as the the best of all possible solutions, but with less frequency than where there are dictatorships and totalitarian regimes that are mainly focused on the retention of power, the issue that usually leads to war in the first place.

UNIONISM:

The lockout of the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union members on the west coast is all over the attempt to upgrade the ports' technology:

At issue is the addition of new technology at West Coast ports, which union officials say would eliminate jobs. Union members earn $80,000 to $150,000 a year, sometimes for doing the outdated jobs of entering shipping data by hand.

This is one of the reasons that I hate unions so much -- and I mean the actual unions, not the workers. This sort of nonsense costs everybody.

Analysts at the University of California at Berkeley estimate the cost of the shutdown at $1 billion a day and say the cumulative effects -- everything from an accompanying slowdown in factory work and rail transportation to losses for retail businesses and workers -- could balloon to more than $19 billion in 10 days, according to the maritime association.

This is to say nothing of the costs of paying someone $80,000 - $150,000 to do menial tasks that could be better handled by computers, etc.

In the end, this is yet another way that FDR is screwing America long after his death.

DAILY QUOTE:

You get two today, both with an eye toward the Left Coast.

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."
- Sam Ewig

"Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's jobs with yesterday's tools."
- Marshall McLuhan

COLLECTIVISM BY ANY OTHER NAME:

Innocents Abroad's John Coumarianos outlines and analyzes what John Fonte calls "Transnational Progressivism." Captain Den Beste commented (at great length) on Fonte's theory not too long ago.

BABS BASHING:

As if she hasn't been hounded enough, what with the "frightening" Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft. Matt Drudge had to go picking out Barbara Streisand's little mistakes about Shakespeare. I guess that because "a friendly eye could never see such faults." (Jul Caesar, Act iv, Sc.3). [link via Juan Gato]

BLIND JUSTICE:

According to this post by Peter Cuthbertson of Conservative Commentary, blind Australians have finally broken through the discrimintion barrier. It is now illegal to prevent them from becoming airline pilots.

DAILY QUOTE:

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
- H. L. Mencken

CHILD PORN LAW:

Recently, a Wired article about the rigidity of child porn laws (i.e. imprisonment for simple, inadvertant possession) raised some eyebrows and some ruckus. Then C.D. Harris IV at Ipse Dixit did a rigorous analysis of the Wired claims and discovered that the article was somewhat lacking:

I thought that the article seemed a bit overblown, so I did what the author apparently thought was un-necessary: I read the actual statute (18 USC 2252A). It took less than one minute to find it and determine that I was right. Every variation (possession, distribution, and conspiracy) of 18 USC 2252A has the word "knowingly" in it. In short, possession of child pr0n (sic) is not a strict liability crime.

While I'm happy to hear that strict liability isn't an issue here, this doesn't allay my fears about the abuse of this law. In reality, it is highly unlikely that any single person will find their computer raided under the auspices of this law unless they were already suspected and being investigated for child pornography. Even if you are unfortunate enough to have a stray picture or two of such a despicable nature, you are not likely be targeted in order to "get the bigger fish" since you aren't going to be of much use in any investigation. In other words, unless you are gathering/distributing/creating child porn (and if you are, I have no sympathy for anything that happens to you), law enforcement authorities aren't going to have a whole lot of incentive (much less probable cause) to investigate you re 18 USC 2252A. However, if the police/FBI/et al. have some reason to be nosing around in your belongings, this law may be used as leverage to get what they really want.

Private investigators could use this tack as well. For example, if your wife wants to divorce you but first she wants to get an accurate accounting of all the family assets so she has someone "look through" your personal computer. Either way, the law isn't being used to crack down on child porn, but instead as a tool to further pry open the doors to our private world. Although this latter case is a matter between private individuals, it is a microcosm for how laws are often used by private actors to manipulate and bully others. Even if violation of 18 USC 2252A isn't strict liablility crime, it still represents yet another way in which the State can infringe upon an individual's world using the slimmest of pretenses. The Wired article may have been lacking in jounalistic merit, and certainly in accuracy, but the perceived threat to liberty is real and should be taken seriously.

DAILY QUOTE:

While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.

- Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ("Lenin"), State and Revolution, 1919

POTENT QUOTABLES:

Cato the Youngest offers a well-chosen series of Tolkien quotes relating to the regrettable necessity of war. Cato (Riyadh Delenda Est) adds some inciteful comments as well.