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Liberty and Power

  • May 21, 2007

    And for news on real science...

    by Liberty and Power

    The New Scientist has just published a site where you can go see the arguments against global warming criticized from mainstream scientific perspectives rather than read mainstream science critiqued by ideologues.

    http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462

    And before the dead enders on this site diss New Scientist, they are the source for reports some of you have given describing resear
  • May 20, 2007

    Rudolph Giuliani, Radical Free-Marketeer?

    by Liberty and Power

    The Ron Paul moment in the second GOP"debate" made me forget another extraordinary remark by Rudolph Giuliani. He said said Hillary Clinton believes"an unfettered free market is the most disastrous thing in modern America."

    What? Are we to conclude that Giuliani -- the persecutor of Michael Milken -- or anyone else who was on that stage, favors an unfettered free market? (Only Ron Paul comes anywhere near that position.)

    Cross-po
  • May 17, 2007

    Professor Kehowski and Opie and Anthony in the Same Boat

    by Liberty and Power

    Here is an absolutely horrible story about a tenured professor, Walter Kehowski, who has been recommended for termination merely because he sent a e-mail containing George Washington's"Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789" with a link to Pat Buchanan's website where he found it.

    Professor Kehowski is fighting back with the aid

  • May 17, 2007

    So Who's Been Watching the Sopranos?

    by Liberty and Power

    The Guardian reports that an angry Wolfowitz engaged in a four-letter tirade.

    "An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night."

    "Sounding more like a cast member of the Sopranos than an international leader, in testimony by one key wit
  • May 16, 2007

    "Science versus Consensus"

    by Liberty and Power

    Considering the recent discussions here about science, consensus, and global warming, I thought this paper by Frank Van Dun would be of interest. Here's how it gets off the ground:

    Tonight I am not going to comment on any particular item in the vast field of the “science” that supposedly underpins the Summary for Policy Makers (published on February 2, 2007) of the United Nations’ Intergo
  • May 16, 2007

    Market Prices and Peer review: Isomorphic Processes

    by Liberty and Power

    The discussions we have had on peer review are particularly interesting to a libertarian blog because as a coordinating mechanism, peer review is akin to the price system in the market. That is, both science and markets are emergent orders where information vastly more complex and uncertain than any human being can hope to master is coordinated in ways making it useful to unknown others pursuing unknown purposes.

    Prices enable coordination among amounts of information that

  • May 15, 2007

    Dr Roger Pielke Sr on Climate Models & Predictions -- One Example

    by Liberty and Power

    Apropos of climate studies: Here is Dr Roger Pielke Sr on a recent paper in the Journal of Climate. The paper used “high resolution weather prediction models”. For “the eastern United States”, these regional models “predicted” very much higher temperatures “for five future summers” than did the global model from which the regional models were derived.

    Dr Pielke listed some “remarkably serious shortcomings of the model study”. His final para re
  • May 15, 2007

    Beijing bans scary stories to protect young

    by Liberty and Power

    "China's capital is seizing ghost and horror books from shops to protect the 'physical and mental health' of its youngsters, local media said on Tuesday."

    Read the entire article.

    Clearly the authorities missed the insight of C.S. Lewis in"On Three Ways of Writing for Children":"A far more serious attack on... children’s literature comes from those who do not wish children to be frightened...
  • May 14, 2007

    An Unwise, An Unjust Veto

    by Liberty and Power

    One of the many reasons I have for disliking President Bush is the fact that his actions leading to his unpopularity cost Maryland Republican Governor Robert Erhlich his reelection. Ehrlich was by no means a libertarian and was philosophically comfortable with paternalistic government. However, he was also a man of moderation when it came to governing and he pursued some worthwhile policies. He held the line on taxes and spending restoring the state’s finances. He supported slot machines to save
  • May 14, 2007

    Robert Nisbet and "the ecological community": shared roots

    by Liberty and Power

    Tim Sydney sent this comment to my Ecology and Classical Liberalism discussion below. He raised issues that I think are well worth discussing, but the thread he posted on has lost its monenbtum. And so, with his permission, I am reposting it here in hopes it will generate some good discussion.

    Tim Sydney wrote:

    Another linkage between 'classical liberalism' and ecology is provides by Robert Nisbet.

    Although he avoided the 'classical liberal' label

  • May 13, 2007

    A Global Warming Winner

    by Liberty and Power

    William Stepp and Mark Brady have brought to my attention an absolutely outstanding essay by Alexander Cockburn, titled "Who are the Merchants of Fear" which is posted on Counterpunch. In a previous piece, linked to here by Brady, Cockburn inquired about the sinfulness of Global Warming and in this new article he recaps the basic thrust of his earlier work saying that, "I re
  • May 13, 2007

    Free Speech Under Assault at Tufts University

    by Liberty and Power

    At the last conference of the American Historical Association, those who successfully opposed our resolution to condemn the use of speech codes to restrict academic freedom, asked for"more examples." Here's another one for them, not that it will change their minds:

    Showing profound disregard for free speech and freedom of the press, Tufts University has found a conservative student publication guilty of harassment and creati

  • May 11, 2007

    That Mercantilist Commerce Clause

    by Liberty and Power

    The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution has been used to justify a wide expansion of government power, from antidiscrimination laws to drug prohibition to a ban on guns near schools. In objecting to use of the Commerce Clause for such remote purposes, some constitutionalists rely on a particular historical interpretation of both the Clause and the Constitution as a whole. Could that interpretation be wrong?
    The rest of this week's
  • May 10, 2007

    More on the Ron Paul Blackout

    by Liberty and Power

    Thomas E. Woods, Jr. asks:"So how does the Establishment deal with a Ron Paul candidacy? What else did you expect? By ignoring him as much as possible."
  • May 10, 2007

    Governmental Gas Scrooge

    by Liberty and Power

    Here is another example of the adage that if the government does not subsidize an activity, it will probably prohibit it:

    A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices.

    Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pa