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Volunteer Day – June 29th
18 June 2013 By Leave a Comment
Safety vs. Liberty
18 June 2013 By Leave a Comment
This was originally published at Porcupine-Musings.org
Fear.
Fear is paradoxically a powerful motivator and pacifier. It compels us to fight back but sometimes can lull us into complacency if we believe such complacency will protect us. It was recently revealed that the NSA been collecting “metadata” from American’s phone conversations and recording the content of our internet usage in a furtive attempt to uncover the word “TERRORIST” in a virtual global-size Word Puzzle.
After this revelation there was much popular indignation. Liberal, libertarian, and conservative – all briefly joined together in outrage that their government would subject them to such scrutiny. We all (naively) believed our internet communications to be private; thus our outrage over such virtual eavesdropping was no different than had the NSA been bugging our bedrooms. Then something happened. The government did not blink. They were not at all shamed by this revelation. In fact all three branches of government defended it on the grounds of safety. Or the illusion of safety anyway. Without the PRISM program (the codename for the internet spying) we might have fallen victim to dozens of terrorist attacks, so they say. The brushfire of outrage was all but quenched with the bucket of our own fear – “well I guess it’s ok if it will keep us safe” now says John Q. Public. [Read more...]
Common Core: More Federal Government Involvement in Education
13 June 2013 By Leave a Comment
This was originally published at UnitedLiberty.
Anyone who follows education on any level has probably heard the phrase “Common Core” regarding curriculum in their home state. They’ve probably also heard that there is some push back against it, though most don’t really understand what the issue really is.
It would be easy to assume that Common Core requires such controversial topics as anthropogenic global warming and gun control to be taught. Well, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Oh, it’s happening, but it doesn’t seem to be the fault of the curriculum.
That’s not to say there aren’t problems. [Read more...]
Perverse Incentives Promote Disasters
10 June 2013 By Leave a Comment
This was originally published on Greg’s blog, Porcupine Musings.
In the wake of any industrial accident there follows a predictable chorus of pundits lamenting “market failure” in order to justify further interference of the state into every facet of business function. On the surface this might sound plausible, surely we need Big Brother looking over our employer’s shoulder to make sure everything is safe, right? The only problem with this narrative is that the pundits tend to conveniently omit the crucial fact that such disasters happened on the watch of government. There is no place in the world immune to at least some level of government oversight related to safety. Even in Bangladesh where there has been a recent spate of factory fires and building collapses they at least had building codes even if they weren’t followed. And there in lies the rub. The people entrust their government with the task of ensuring their safety (a dubious decision at best) but when that same government fails to adequately carry out that mandate and such failure is the proximate cause of some disaster oddly blame is 100% shouldered by the regulated entity rather than the regulator. If you had a jail in your community that routinely had prisoners escaping and killing people it seems like at some point the people running the prison should share in the culpability. [Read more...]
Goodbye First Amendment
5 June 2013 By
This was originally published at TheBlaze.com.
Once upon a time, we libertarians believed that on issues involving the First Amendment, we could look to Democrats as allies. Luckily, President Obama is doing everything in his power to disabuse of this notion.
Oh, he may claim that he had no knowledge that the IRS was targeting conservative groups for “special attention” regarding their non-profit status, but it happened under his watch. He’s responsible. If that was all that he had done, it would have been more than enough.
It’s just too bad it isn’t. [Read more...]
