Oh wow, they still exist: this guy is defending the war in Iraq
One of the reasons I'm supporting Obama
Roy: while i totally agree with why obama is and should be the choice, i personally feel bad for hillary; it is quite remarkable that a woman has (or had) a shot to win this thing, and i don't know why ppl dislike her so much. i mean, they are both great candidates.
lukas: yeah i agree
Roy: but anyway some in her camp are saying that she should drop out soon if the margin is too wide
lukas: hillary does have a certain unfortunate lack of charisma
Roy: ya, i've been trying to pinpoint it, but to no luck. i mean, she is a fairly concise and strong speaker, and she comes across very intelligent
Roy: somehow though she seems frigid
lukas: and she's just not inspiring you know?
Roy: i guess. it's too bad that in fact the elections are really driven by these media driven characterization of the candidates
lukas: well no i think that part is important actually - not the media-driven part, but the inspiration part
lukas: basically i think we need someone who can motivate popular support for their positions if we're going to escape the dem-rep bickering
lukas: and i think obama is that guy and hillary isn't
Roy: i suppose. i don't quite know that i trust the population to take more action just because they like the president; that said, so many ppl dislike hillary in washington that it would be polarizing
lukas: yeah i agree
Roy: but anyway some in her camp are saying that she should drop out soon if the margin is too wide
lukas: hillary does have a certain unfortunate lack of charisma
Roy: ya, i've been trying to pinpoint it, but to no luck. i mean, she is a fairly concise and strong speaker, and she comes across very intelligent
Roy: somehow though she seems frigid
lukas: and she's just not inspiring you know?
Roy: i guess. it's too bad that in fact the elections are really driven by these media driven characterization of the candidates
lukas: well no i think that part is important actually - not the media-driven part, but the inspiration part
lukas: basically i think we need someone who can motivate popular support for their positions if we're going to escape the dem-rep bickering
lukas: and i think obama is that guy and hillary isn't
Roy: i suppose. i don't quite know that i trust the population to take more action just because they like the president; that said, so many ppl dislike hillary in washington that it would be polarizing
'I don’t think that the problem with the American people is that they are not being forced to get health care,' Mr. Obama has said. 'The problem is they can’t afford it.'You don't say.
A collection of projects making the operation of government more transparent. For example, Where Are They Now tracks former Hill staffers who are now lobbyists. Nice find, Eric.
Some good news, cuz we all need it
Looking at Obama's political record OR the confirmation bias in action
I got excited about Barack Obama before I knew a lot about him. Obama has only been in the Senate for three years, so his voting record doesn't have too much that's interesting yet (although his votes against his party have some interesting nuggets.) So I have to look for little kernels that shed light on what's unique about his record.
Update: this Times piece is the most comprehensive look at Obama's record I've seen, going back to his community organizing days and with actual insight about what he achieved as a legislator, rather than just a list of votes.
Update: get past the velociraptor jokes and there's some great discussion in this reddit thread.
Update: this Times piece is the most comprehensive look at Obama's record I've seen, going back to his community organizing days and with actual insight about what he achieved as a legislator, rather than just a list of votes.
Update: get past the velociraptor jokes and there's some great discussion in this reddit thread.
- He's willing to talk about child care as an issue of equality
- He proposed a relatively detailed health care plan that economist Brad DeLong likes although he has since come in for criticism from other economists (because he didn't go far enough, apparently - he isn't willing so far to admit that mandates on employers would be required. Update: Obama on why his plan doesn't include a mandate.)
- Cute
- Open to limited legalization of marijuana
- He'd talk directly to Iran
- Open to nuclear power (everyone will have to be eventually; Hillary is "agnostic")
- Voting record contrasted with Hillary's. No earthshaking revelations.
- A look at his "present" votes in the Illinois state senate
- To be continued...
In praise of separation
This discussion in praise of idleness prompted me to think about how the Greeks (according to Hannah Arendt) separated their activities into two parts, labor and work. Labor is those activities required to support life: getting food, shelter, etc. Work is basically political activity: arguing, voting, taking part in the life of the city.
I've struggled myself with how to achieve deep alignment between my values and my work, with the assumption that it's best to do one thing that is simultaneously my job, my passion and my push toward a better world. Having a corporate job that pays, and doing non-profits on the side, looks like a lesser alternative.
But the Greeks had an entirely different starting point. For them, taking money for political activity would cheapen and degrade the experience, and put your motives under suspicion. The basis of a political life is the freedom to reason and act apart from pure self-interest. So they serenely and proudly built on the very separation that I've been wondering how to eliminate.
I've struggled myself with how to achieve deep alignment between my values and my work, with the assumption that it's best to do one thing that is simultaneously my job, my passion and my push toward a better world. Having a corporate job that pays, and doing non-profits on the side, looks like a lesser alternative.
But the Greeks had an entirely different starting point. For them, taking money for political activity would cheapen and degrade the experience, and put your motives under suspicion. The basis of a political life is the freedom to reason and act apart from pure self-interest. So they serenely and proudly built on the very separation that I've been wondering how to eliminate.
Ministry of the Interior
The more antagonistic a person is toward the traditional order, the more inexorably he will subject his private life to the norms that he wishes to elevate as legislators of a future society. It is as if these laws, nowhere yet realized, placed him under obligation to enact them in advance at least in the confines of his own existence. The man, on the other hand, who knows himself to be in accord with the most ancient heritage of his class or nation will sometimes bring his private life into ostentatious contrast to the maxims that he unrelentingly asserts in public, secretly approving his own behavior, without the slightest qualms, as the most conclusive proof of the unshakable authority of the principles he puts on display. Thus are distinguished the types of the anarcho-socialist and the conservative politician.
- Walter Benjamin summarizes every "Conservative senator in sex club shocker" article until the end of time
Brad DeLong argues that Scott's Seeing Like A State (crudely summarized, a critique of high modernist social engineering) is really in the tradition of Hayek and should be honest about it, instead of casting aspersions on free markets. Henry from Crooked Timber draws out the differences:
[Scott] is much more interested than [the Austrians] are in the actual political processes through which markets come into being ... markets – even and perhaps especially Hayekian markets – don’t exist in an institutional vacuum – and the institutions on which they rely are going to shape the extent to which they succeed or fail in making use of local knowledge.So: what goes on behind the curtain that keeps the show running? And what eggs were broken to make this omelet?
Meanwhile, in the real world
- Judge strikes down part of the Patriot Act. The feds now have to go to a judge before requesting records from ISPs. Time to renew my ACLU membership.
- There are a lot of entities that look like banks but aren't regulated like banks. This seems important. Think "a run on the
banksstructured investment vehicles".
Hypothesis being that the bombings in Iraq, largely targeting Muslims, have decreased the attractiveness of suicide bombing.
The length of copyright for recorded music will stick at 50 years. I'm glad that those of us arguing for sanity in IP law can show that limiting copyright terms isn't some communist pipe dream - it's been done, and it was based on hard-headed cost-benefit analysis: "Economists calculated the net present value of the 95th year of copyright at less than the net present worth of a lottery ticket."
That NPV argument is the right one, too: the purpose of copyright is not to enrich the Walt Disney company 95 years after Walt's death, but to create an incentive at the point of creation.
That NPV argument is the right one, too: the purpose of copyright is not to enrich the Walt Disney company 95 years after Walt's death, but to create an incentive at the point of creation.
People use government to escape Prisoner's Dilemma situations.
Come on, then!
Glasgow's not a good place to do terrorism. "Nobody gets between 10,000 Weegies and a Ł99 week in Ibiza booked on Thursday night through Barrhead Travel." The BBC notes a legend in the making.
Boring, land-locked Republican citadels like Phoenix growing at the expense of the cool cities. Although I'd like to have more detailed data - ok, the Interior Boomtowns are generally Republican, but within those, how is that broken out? How culturally conservative can Las Vegas be, for example?
Los Angeles notes I
I'm dreading Eli Broad's massive downtown ego extension. Give LA a center, are you kidding? "I was fearful we would have unplanned development there that would create a mess" - something's happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Broad?
I want a bullet train to the Bay as much as anybody, and arguing that you can't invest in rail because "the voters are crying for relief from congested freeways" is the very definition of myopic, but Governator's got one good point: if you can't attract private investment (for a state-sponsored monopoly ... with a glut of capital looking for an opportunity ...) maybe time for a reality check.
From Foreign Policy: "...John B. Bellinger III, Condi Rice's top legal advisor, has entered the ring with a series of lengthy posts defending the administration's conduct. In response to the routine criticisms lobbed at the administration for its seemingly indefinite detention of suspected terrorists, Bellinger argues that so long as we are engaged in distinct, parallel wars with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, detaining "enemy combatants" is appropriate. This raises the obvious question: When do these wars end? The responding bloggers, including the venerable David Sloss and Eric Posner, are grilling Bellinger on this question, judicial review of the detentions, his own role, and related legal issues in the war on terror. The entire debate, a rare instance of the Bush administration engaging its critics seriously and at length, is not to be missed."
Really amazing, actually.
Really amazing, actually.
Only normally, putting things in perspective doesn't make you shake with rage
Talks about killradio, "a Los Angeles collective of activists and DJs devoted to non-commercial radio and independent media", and cool stuff to do in LA, including a Joshua Tree sculpture environment.
Not the really good stuff, Baker didn't actually put Bush over his knee and spank him. Ok, who knows if the meeting ever took place at all. But it's a good story, and he and elder Bush had some role in Rumsfeld getting fired apparently.
Ha! it has a tag cloud.
elections coming up
This never would have happened when Fred Rogers was still alive.
"'Political jokes weren't a form of active resistance but valves for pent-up public anger.'" And the understanding that inspired such humor makes the inaction that accompanied it all the more unforgiveable: "...the country wasn't possessed by 'evil spirits' nor was it hypnotised by the Nazis' brilliant propaganda, he says. Hypnotized people don't crack jokes."
Before you make the understandable misinterpretation, I think the Daily Show et al provide a valuable service in exposing the vapidity of current political discourse. But if it's a narcotic (it is) let it be an amphetamine, not an anaesthetic.
Before you make the understandable misinterpretation, I think the Daily Show et al provide a valuable service in exposing the vapidity of current political discourse. But if it's a narcotic (it is) let it be an amphetamine, not an anaesthetic.
Cato Institute paper arguing against terrorism alarmism
Many people have argued the "terrorism is more a political tool than a real threat" angle before, but this comes from a respected right-wing think tank (albeit libertarian, thus not totally in step with the current GOP.)
Many people have argued the "terrorism is more a political tool than a real threat" angle before, but this comes from a respected right-wing think tank (albeit libertarian, thus not totally in step with the current GOP.)
Well, we now know what would happen to Jesus Christ if he returned. He would be arrested for feeding the poor in Las Vegas.
It's good to be reminded that there are rational human beings on the other side of the aisle.
a brief correspondence between Mahatma Ghandi and Count Leo Tolstoy on non-violence
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Just published, sounds v. good. Buy at Amazon or download CC-licensed PDFs. Also see the associated wiki maintained by the author.
Just published, sounds v. good. Buy at Amazon or download CC-licensed PDFs. Also see the associated wiki maintained by the author.
Passport - A blog by the editors of Foreign Policy
Down off the mountaintop, mixing with the rabble. Not only that, it's not a "personal site, don't blame my employer" type thing either. A first for old-line media?
Down off the mountaintop, mixing with the rabble. Not only that, it's not a "personal site, don't blame my employer" type thing either. A first for old-line media?
corporate checks and balances?
I think there's a central but seldom-stated disagreement in arguments about markets and corporate power: to what degree do the interests of corporations coincide? I think most - well, most liberals anyway, would argue that the areas in which the majority of corporations share a common interest should be carefully watched in a democracy. Liberals that are extremely suspicious of corporations often appear to believe that firms' disagreements are superficial, and that on important issues they operate monolithically. Market-friendly liberals like me disagree, and while I could come up with examples in both directions, it seems like something that could be systematically addressed.
I think there's a central but seldom-stated disagreement in arguments about markets and corporate power: to what degree do the interests of corporations coincide? I think most - well, most liberals anyway, would argue that the areas in which the majority of corporations share a common interest should be carefully watched in a democracy. Liberals that are extremely suspicious of corporations often appear to believe that firms' disagreements are superficial, and that on important issues they operate monolithically. Market-friendly liberals like me disagree, and while I could come up with examples in both directions, it seems like something that could be systematically addressed.
The Global Baby Bust
Philip Longman argues that declining birthrates will be socially and economically ruinous.
Philip Longman argues that declining birthrates will be socially and economically ruinous.
Nationmaster
Tons of statistics in a bunch of categories, with different visualization options. Very interesting feature that shows you which variables are correlated with the variable you're looking at. Shame you can't look at things over time.
Tons of statistics in a bunch of categories, with different visualization options. Very interesting feature that shows you which variables are correlated with the variable you're looking at. Shame you can't look at things over time.
danah: favorite non-profits/foundations?
what I posted there:
"Dammit, beaten to the microfinance punch! :) Anyway, Grameen Foundation, an offshoot of the original Grameen Bank that, unlike the original, operates outside of Bangladesh.
http://www.gfusa.org/
(Difference from Kiva above is that this is pure donation - Grameen will likely get the loan back to use again, but you won't.)"
what I posted there:
"Dammit, beaten to the microfinance punch! :) Anyway, Grameen Foundation, an offshoot of the original Grameen Bank that, unlike the original, operates outside of Bangladesh.
http://www.gfusa.org/
(Difference from Kiva above is that this is pure donation - Grameen will likely get the loan back to use again, but you won't.)"
Sign and Sight
English digest of German media.
English digest of German media.
Political Theory Daily Review
A lot like Arts & Letters Daily, but less annoying.
A lot like Arts & Letters Daily, but less annoying.
Freakonomics Authors' Blog
Most posts by Steven Levitt.
Most posts by Steven Levitt.
A U.S. Marine (L) and sailor (R) hug loved ones aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard during a deployment at Naval Station San Diego December 6, 2004 in San Diego, California. About 6,000 U.S. Marines and sailors are deploying to Iraq aboard 6 ships and a submarine as part of a massive troop rotation. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
ready for war
bush to see a gay marriage ban
The coasts will explode, that's a given. More importantly, though, we have to mobilize reasonable people in the middle of the country.
update: oh, right, he tried this before and failed, and he won't succeed this time, either. I need to take a break.
bush to see a gay marriage ban
The coasts will explode, that's a given. More importantly, though, we have to mobilize reasonable people in the middle of the country.
update: oh, right, he tried this before and failed, and he won't succeed this time, either. I need to take a break.
last election tidbit, promise
Basically: anywhere you go, at least a few people voted for Kerry, but there are a lot of places where no one voted for Bush. Still, he won the popular vote.
update: looks like the vote share historgram was inaccurate.
update: looks like the vote share historgram was inaccurate.
this is bad
We create our own reality... I bet Napoleon felt the same way before he invaded Russia. What word do you use to describe someone simultaneously arrogant, stupid, and very powerful? Evil?
"I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principals and empiricism," Suskind writes. "He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
It's considered unfashionably shrill to refer to the Bush administration as fascistic, but this is pretty clearly the language of totalitarianism. Indeed, in her seminal 1951 book "The Origins of Totalitarianism," Hannah Arendt wrote, "Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it."
We create our own reality... I bet Napoleon felt the same way before he invaded Russia. What word do you use to describe someone simultaneously arrogant, stupid, and very powerful? Evil?
Fuuuuck.
Some thoughts about Hernando de Soto
Apparently the English translation of The Mystery of Capital isn't that great. Pity.
Apparently the English translation of The Mystery of Capital isn't that great. Pity.
Bruce Schneier
Best existing writer on security and related policy and technology.
Best existing writer on security and related policy and technology.
2004 voters information guide
Wait, come back, this one is useful. Registration deadlines approaching.
Wait, come back, this one is useful. Registration deadlines approaching.
peace at a post-WWII high
Not only that, but these are absolute numbers, so deaths due to war are much lower per capita than before.
Not only that, but these are absolute numbers, so deaths due to war are much lower per capita than before.
I feel like everybody debating politics on the Internet watched the same Saturday Night Live political debate sketch, the one where Dan Akroyd starts his rebuttal with "Jane, you ignorant slut." Only they thought it was real and used it as a template.
That said, Lileks, you pathetic chickenhawk piece of shit, don't ever adopt that high-handed tone again. We're destroying Iraq in order to save it, and you're pissed that Salam isn't showing the proper gratitude?
I'm sure he's grateful that American troops are risking their lives to ensure Iraqi security, but the absurd gap between Bush's rhetoric and the way the invasion and occupation have actually been executed calls for bucketloads of snark.
That said, Lileks, you pathetic chickenhawk piece of shit, don't ever adopt that high-handed tone again. We're destroying Iraq in order to save it, and you're pissed that Salam isn't showing the proper gratitude?
I'm sure he's grateful that American troops are risking their lives to ensure Iraqi security, but the absurd gap between Bush's rhetoric and the way the invasion and occupation have actually been executed calls for bucketloads of snark.
Crooked Timber
Am I a Bright? Or just a pretentious fuck?
Am I a Bright? Or just a pretentious fuck?
america briefly had price controls
"On August 15, 1971, more or less out of the blue, President Nixon declared a freeze on wages and prices."
What?
more: 1
"On August 15, 1971, more or less out of the blue, President Nixon declared a freeze on wages and prices."
What?
more: 1
After having lunch with Judge Learned Hand, Holmes entered his carriage to be driven away. As he left, Judge Hand’s parting salute was:
“Do justice, sir, do justice.”
Holmes ordered the carriage stopped.
“That is not my job,” Holmes said to Judge Hand. “It is my job to apply the law.”
“Do justice, sir, do justice.”
Holmes ordered the carriage stopped.
“That is not my job,” Holmes said to Judge Hand. “It is my job to apply the law.”
Robert H. Bork, The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law (New York: The Free Press, 1990), p. 6
"We were not lying, it was a matter of emphasis."
"To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war — a global show of American power and democracy."
track this story with blogdex
track with technorati
"To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war — a global show of American power and democracy."
track this story with blogdex
track with technorati
Why Vaclav Havel is our era's George Orwell
"... at that moment, I was overwhelmed by an intense feeling that this dear man belonged to a world that I no longer wish to have anything to do with ... the world of cunning shits."
"... at that moment, I was overwhelmed by an intense feeling that this dear man belonged to a world that I no longer wish to have anything to do with ... the world of cunning shits."
Media Log by Dan Kennedy
News blog by an actual journalist.
News blog by an actual journalist.
Back to Iraq
Weblog of a journalist making his way to Iraq.
Weblog of a journalist making his way to Iraq.
Kim Jong Il (the illmatic)'s LiveJournal
"Dear diary. Bush still doesn’t ‘get it.’ I tried making my feelings clear but he’s too busy ignoring me, he is such a jerk. Everything in his life is just Saddam, Saddam, Saddam and I am sick of it.
On the plus side, I think my hair looked pretty good today. Also I went frolicking at Paektu Mountain and the rainbow came out again. After dinner some of my subjects sang me a song because I invented Outer Space."
"Dear diary. Bush still doesn’t ‘get it.’ I tried making my feelings clear but he’s too busy ignoring me, he is such a jerk. Everything in his life is just Saddam, Saddam, Saddam and I am sick of it.
On the plus side, I think my hair looked pretty good today. Also I went frolicking at Paektu Mountain and the rainbow came out again. After dinner some of my subjects sang me a song because I invented Outer Space."
protest pics go here
+start
+people, flags
+grainy
+rode the six hundred
+what are they looking at?
+it's not over here either
+daddy...
+jump!
+"the people, united"
+"will never be defeated..."
+actually, this is as far as they got
+corraled in times square
+nothing to see here
+spam in times square
+after, on the train
what the cops did and why
On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, harry wrote:
> http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0203/26protest.html
>
I heard three crowd comments when I was in New York. Two of them were predictable: "Go back to Iraq!" and "Get out of New York! You're not wanted here! I wish you had a loved one that died in 9/11, then you'd know what time it is."
The third was a hotel doorman to another hotel doorman, watching the stream of protestors: (in strong accent) "These are the real Americans right here...all the rest is just bullshit."
+start
+people, flags
+grainy
+rode the six hundred
+what are they looking at?
+it's not over here either
+daddy...
+jump!
+"the people, united"
+"will never be defeated..."
+actually, this is as far as they got
+corraled in times square
+nothing to see here
+spam in times square
+after, on the train
what the cops did and why
- ----
On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, harry wrote:
> http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0203/26protest.html
>
I heard three crowd comments when I was in New York. Two of them were predictable: "Go back to Iraq!" and "Get out of New York! You're not wanted here! I wish you had a loved one that died in 9/11, then you'd know what time it is."
The third was a hotel doorman to another hotel doorman, watching the stream of protestors: (in strong accent) "These are the real Americans right here...all the rest is just bullshit."
"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him,--'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent: I see it, if you don't.'
The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood."
Leaving Iraq aside, Bush has arrogated power to himself that no one should have. If terrorism will always be a threat, the power to make war on a state you believe aids terrorists is the power to make war on anyone at any time.
*Text originally at http://kinkade.ws/cwt_alt/resources/e-texts/lincoln/02.htm - that site now taken over by a not safe for work photo site...
The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood."
- Abraham Lincoln(*)
Leaving Iraq aside, Bush has arrogated power to himself that no one should have. If terrorism will always be a threat, the power to make war on a state you believe aids terrorists is the power to make war on anyone at any time.
*Text originally at http://kinkade.ws/cwt_alt/resources/e-texts/lincoln/02.htm - that site now taken over by a not safe for work photo site...
a mathematical model of "self-segregation"
"In the simulation I've just described, each agent seeks only two neighbors of its own color. That is, these "people" would all be perfectly happy in an integrated neighborhood, half red, half blue. If they were real, they might well swear that they valued diversity. The realization that their individual preferences lead to a collective outcome indistinguishable from thoroughgoing racism might surprise them no less than it surprised me..."
Depressing as a prediction, encouraging as an explanation.
"In the simulation I've just described, each agent seeks only two neighbors of its own color. That is, these "people" would all be perfectly happy in an integrated neighborhood, half red, half blue. If they were real, they might well swear that they valued diversity. The realization that their individual preferences lead to a collective outcome indistinguishable from thoroughgoing racism might surprise them no less than it surprised me..."
Depressing as a prediction, encouraging as an explanation.
political weblogs by Muslims
Interesting digressions on history and culture, except that they're not really digressions, they're integral to an explanation of the politics. Which is weird to us Americans.
(er, except, Latif isn't Muslim apparently.)
Latif's Cavern
muslimpundit
the Kolkata Libertarian
list at alt.muslim
Interesting digressions on history and culture, except that they're not really digressions, they're integral to an explanation of the politics. Which is weird to us Americans.
(er, except, Latif isn't Muslim apparently.)
Latif's Cavern
muslimpundit
the Kolkata Libertarian
list at alt.muslim
Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm
"In this paper I explain that while free software is highly visible, it is in fact only one example of a much broader social-economic phenomenon. I suggest that we are seeing is the broad and deep emergence of a new, third mode of production in the digitally networked environment. I call this mode "commons-based peer-production," to distinguish it from the property- and contract-based models of firms and markets. Its central characteristic is that groups of individuals successfully collaborate on large-scale projects following a diverse cluster of motivational drives and social signals, rather than either market prices or managerial commands."
"In this paper I explain that while free software is highly visible, it is in fact only one example of a much broader social-economic phenomenon. I suggest that we are seeing is the broad and deep emergence of a new, third mode of production in the digitally networked environment. I call this mode "commons-based peer-production," to distinguish it from the property- and contract-based models of firms and markets. Its central characteristic is that groups of individuals successfully collaborate on large-scale projects following a diverse cluster of motivational drives and social signals, rather than either market prices or managerial commands."
Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal
Economics prof holds forth.
Economics prof holds forth.
The New York Times - Nuclear Nightmares. Was what prompted this.
Brink Lindsey won Hernando de Soto's praise.
