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Liberty and Power

  • Aug 14, 2004

    Another Greek Myth

    by Liberty and Power

    The opening of the Olympics mentioned another myth; that Pythagoras invented the mathematics theorum named after him in the West. Chinese mathematicians had developed it about 500 years earlier, and it was tranmitted across the Persian Empire into the Greek world. Pythagoras was more Persian than Greek anyway, wearing the Persian trousers, living in the Asia minor area, and the leader of the aristocratic conspiracy which hated Greek democracy and science.
  • Aug 13, 2004

    Truth better than myth

    by Liberty and Power

    Watching the opening cermonies at the Athens Olympics, I just knew someone would mention the "legend" which underlies the marathon - the Athenian army beat the Persians, and this one dude ran back to Athens to share the good news, and promptly dropped dead of a heart attack - and then hint that it's probably just a cool story. When I was reading up on the Greco-Persian Wars a couple years back, I discovered that the truth is actually more interesting: The "marathon myth" is
  • Aug 12, 2004

    Anarchy Is Upon Us!

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    At the Mises University on the evening of August 6th, I was assigned to be the"mystery speaker." Jeff Tucker asked me to pick a controversial subject, so I picked anarchism (though I’m not sure that counts as a controversial subject before that particular audience!).

    Anyway, an MP3 audio file of my talk is now onlin
  • Aug 12, 2004

    Al Qaeda at the Office

    by Liberty and Power

    This is absolutely fascinating--almost too fascinating to make political points with it. It's an Atlantic Monthly article written by a WSJ reporter who lucked into buying Ayman al-Zawahiri's abandoned laptop in Kabul in Fall 2001 in the wake of the US invasion. It's just surpassingly strange to read Bin Laden's chief deputy bitching out a subordinate for abusing the company credit card:

    6- Please explain the cell-phone in

  • Aug 11, 2004

    Aeon Skoble is Back!

    by Liberty and Power

    Last night, the Empire State Building dimmed its lights in honor of Fay Wray, who passed away at the age of 96. She starred in the original 1933 version of"King Kong."

    That's the kind of classic black-and-white movie that my colleague, pal, and fellow Yankees fan, Aeon Skoble, would really appreciate. He's got impeccable tastes in film (we agree on so much), and also happens to be a first-rate thinker. L&P reade

  • Aug 11, 2004

    Molinari Society Update

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    The first Molinari Symposium has been scheduled! The venue is the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Boston, December 28th. The topic is"Libertarianism and Feminism." The participants include Elizabeth Brake, Charles Johnson, Jennifer McKitrick, Aeon Skoble, and your humble correspondent. More details
  • Aug 10, 2004

    Bringing Back Saddam (Almost)

    by Liberty and Power


    The Saddam-al Qaeda connection has fizzled and no nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons have been unearthed in post-invasion Iraq. So the Bush administration’s fallback, ex post facto rationale for invading Iraq, is that the country is better off without Saddam. But the U.S.-backed Iraqi government seems to be ruling more like Saddam everyday.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has recently ordered the arrest of political opponents, closed a prominent media outlet reporting