22 Nov 2008
Whip Conflation Now

Backwards ClockThis is an excellent essay by Roderick Long on the perceived "message" that libertarians often project in the political marketplace, and it's effect on the ideology as whole. It is very heartening to see the Cato Institute lend it's forum to this view, if only as a sort of op-ed, as I've considered it since it's founding to be the main font of what is referred to as "vulgar libertarianism".

Left libertarians, who are in my not so humble opinion the carriers of the purest form of the ideals of the Enlightenment, recognize the contradiction inherent in the very idea of the corporation. A corporation is wholly a creation of the State: no truly free market would ever recognize the limits on liability it confers on "owners" (shareholders). Corporations are chartered and controlled by the State. No sane person would recognize and treat an organization as a "person" - people are people, companies are companies (however organized) and the one is not the same as the other. The only thing that makes these fantasies possible is the force of law (read: guns of the State) behind them...

Defenders of the free market are often accused of being apologists for big business and shills for the corporate elite. Is this a fair charge?

(link) [Cato Institute: Unbound]

19:02 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Eliminate DST Nationwide

Backwards ClockI mentioned this study back when it was released, but the authors now have an op-ed in the Grey Lady using it as a basis for recommending elimination of daylight savings time nationwide. Why?

"Daylight time costs Indiana households an average of $3.29 a year in higher electricity bills, or about $9 million for the whole state. We also calculated the health and other social costs of increased pollution emissions at $1.7 million to $5.5 million per year."

Note to Obama: wanna save energy? You know what to do!

Why do we — along with 75 other countries — alternate between standard time and daylight time? Although many people believe it has an agricultural provenance, daylight time has always been a policy meant to save energy. As Benjamin Franklin argued, if people moved up their summer schedules by an hour, they could live by “sunshine rather than candles” in the evenings.

(link) [New York Times]

09:24 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link