I'll Be Playing Mini-Golf That Day

For a Libertarian, failing once is not enough.

 By the way, I found the pic here, a story about the latest failed attempted at corporate sock-puppeting.    That may or may not be ironic.

Libertarian Civil War!

When Libertarians fight, we all win.  Frankly, I can't see much difference if the Koch brothers own or merely control The Cato Institute; its credibility remains zero either way.

And as to WHY the brothers have decided to move now, well, I've heard several rumours.  One is that an audit of the Institute's computers revealed a stash of pictures where the head of Ayn Rand had been photo-shopped onto the bodies of various naked celebs.  Especially Ronald Reagan.  Another is that the Koch's were unhappy with Cato's support of the Libertarian Island Concept.  That's where Libertarians would buy a private island and govern it according to the principles of their political philosophy--ie. no laws, no restrictions on the ownership of fire-arms.  So: an island full of heavily armed nerds and no police or women anywhere in sight.  D'you remember that scene in Apocalypse Now where the army brings in Playboy Bunnys to entertain the troops and they dance around to CCR and the lads all go apeshit at the sight of undulating female flesh?

The same thing will happen on Libertarian Island first time Ann Coulter flies in to give a lecture. Naturally the Koch brothers want no part of that.

Calling All Libertarians: Explain Randy Hillier To Me

So, if Libertarians co-ordinate their interests with other  Libertarians, are they therefore commies? 

There's an interesting philosophical issue here re how Nominalists (here = Libertarians) can possibly justify the introduction of general concepts.  But fuck it I'm off to the pub in a few minutes.

PS.  I freely admit Mr. Bell's original plaint is not particularly coherent, and Randy might be flailing about in search of a vote. 

Source

From The GaltList

GaltsList Classifieds is a place for like-minded individuals to exchange goods and services on the terms they choose. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the phenomenon of “Going Galt.” GaltsList recognizes that each individual may understand this differently and we encourage you to use this service based on your own interpretation.

What GaltsList provides that other services do not is the upfront answer to the question: Can we make a non-standard deal? GaltsList encourages creative self-sufficiency. What this means to you is up to you.

Placing a classified ad is currently free of charge. That might change.

So, what are they selling on The GaltList? Well, so far, some desert land outside of Yuma, for a trailer, and another FSBO in the same place. (Some Libertarian must have gone bust in Yuma; my folks ditched their modular in late '07 and its been downhill ever since in that town).

And there's a couple of unemployed Libertarian IT Guys plugging their services, one of them ready to work for $75.00 ( I hope thats per hour, but the ad isn't exactly clear).


Libertarians: like hippies without the hippy chicks.

H/T CC.

Libertarian Gets All Knotted Up Over Concept Of Freedom

From Will Wilkinson, who looks like he might be a fairly decent read:

Whenever I say nice things about Canada, some people get annoyed. After all, they have socialized medicine and are more inclined to regulate certain kinds of speech. But these are anecdotes. If looks for anecdotes on the lack of freedom in the U.S., one becomes buried in them. If I look at actual indices that attempt, however imperfectly, to measure various freedoms, the U.S. and Canada come out pretty much identical on a classical liberal conception of freedom. And Canada comes out ahead on contemporary capabilities conceptions of positive liberty. To my mind, the evidence pretty strongly supports the conclusion that Canada is at least as free as the United States. Why is this a problem for some Americans?

And then this corker on why U.S. Libertarians don't want to move to Canada:

But My sense is that some American libertarians have a vague sense that if Canada really was more free, then they should want to move there. But they emphatically don’t want to move to Canada. My diagnosis is that many libertarians prefer to live in a place where it easy to find others who share their individualistic and libertarian values over living in a place where they would actually be more free, but would feel more culturally alienated.

...which rather seems as though he is saying that U.S. Libertarians would rather talk the freedom talk down there then come to the True North and actually walk the freedom walk because the ground up here is too thick with non-Libertarians. Or, alternatively, that Libertarians would prefer to feel free rather than be free. Or, even better, Libertarians prefer the ideological homogeneity you get when surrounded by other Libertarians.

Of course, the WS's Terrence Watson argues that, if you think Canada is more free than the States, you just haven't weighted your freedoms properly:

In any event, while in practice the U.S. and Canada may be similar in terms of liberty, they are not identical in terms of freedom of speech. And, since freedom of speech is an extremely important liberty, this suggests that Canada may be less free than the United States, in terms of the freedoms that matter the most.

Speaking of cultural conformity, incidentally (as a number of Wilkinson's commenters do), nothing beats hanging around a hot-bed of Libertarianism like small town Arizona (Yuma, specifically). Five radio stations playing either C&W or Rush Limbaugh, and every dept. store selling the same cheap American flags.

A whole herd of independent thinkers, down there.