Tag: anarcho-capitalism

Highlights from Mises University 2014

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For new readers, Mises U is a week-long summer economics program hosted by the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. The conference covers theoretical and applied economics, with lectures covering topics such as epistemology, entrepreneurship, comparative economic systems, political economy, and the history of economic ideas. To see the schedule and recorded lectures, visit this page. This was my third year at Mises U. I attended in 2010 and 2011, then went to the AERC (formerly ASC) for the past two years, and decided it was time for Mises U again. I remember seeing posts about Mises U 2013 last summer…

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You Can’t Take the Sky From Me: A Review of Firefly

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  When all of your geek friends are telling you to watch a TV show, you know you need to do it. Last year one of my friends recommended I watch Joss Whedon’s ill-fated TV show, Firefly, but with Sherlock and Doctor Who going on, I didn’t get to it. After enough friends told me to watch it, I realized this needed to be a higher priority. Plus, with Doctor Who on hiatus till August and Sherlock on hiatus for who knows how long, I figured this would be a good time to get into another series. Firefly. I didn’t really know…

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The Problem of Property

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There’s been a lot of controversy about the Bundy Ranch situation, and like basically every other high-profile news event, there’s an awful lot of hype associated with it. I’ve been following the story, but I haven’t dug into all the details. However, this article from the Mises Institute is a thought-provoking exploration of property rights in the West. While the 19th century “Wild West” was in some ways an excellent example of anarcho-capitalism, this freedom was eventually overshadowed by the federal government’s intrusion into the West and its claim on much of the land. Just as one could point to the…

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Thoughts on Transform Rockford

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After attending the last Transform Rockford community visioning session last night, I wrote a post describing the event. For the sake of brevity (or my feeble attempt at it) I didn’t really give much commentary on the organization itself. I am never short on opinions, so I know my readers would be disappointed if they didn’t get to hear my views on Transform Rockford.  As an introduction, I’ll admit I went to this meeting with much skepticism. I didn’t want to actually make a judgement without attending at least one event, but I was cynical, to say the least. The event turned out to…

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Why My Conscience Will Not Allow Me to Vote for Romney

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I am afraid this is beating a dead horse, but there are several reasons for dredging up the “to vote or not to vote” issue again:

1) The horse may be dead, but it is an important horse. There are many subjects that I disagree with other people about, but I figure it isn’t a big deal, and is not worth publicly disagreeing. However, for anyone who has discussed this issue in person with me, you will know I’m passionate about what I believe. It is no small matter, this comes down to our basic assumptions about the role of government and the duty of the Christian. It is not to be taken lightly.

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In Defense of Liberty

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My latest post, The Lesser of Two Evils, resulted in quite the controversy. I had a feeling about that, so I wasn’t completely surprised. I really hesitated to publish it because I knew the topic was so loaded. I have compiled a list of arguments against my position, and I’d like to take the time to respond to each of those.   1) A person must use the “lesser of two evils” principle and vote for the candidate who has the best chance of winning.  I don’t see why this is necessary. We are called to do what is right. As long…

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Avoiding the Question

I was listening to NPR today because my classical radio station wasn’t coming in, and that was the only other option, besides Rush Limbaugh, which, although it may be hard to believe, is even worse to listen to than NPR. So the host was interviewing this NPR political correspondant who has covered news from Congress for about 10 years and is now leaving to develop a new project. They were discussing the situation in Washington right now, gridlock, party conflicts, etc…and one of the comments was, “Washington is broken. And we need to figure out how to fix it.” And…

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Cyber-Property: An Apology

Note: This is not an apology for my beliefs, but rather the justification of them and my reasons for the said beliefs. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Facebook, let me briefly explain how it works: everyone on facebook has a profile and a wall. A wall is where they post updates, links, etc…and by default, everyone else who is their “friend” can see and comment on anything on their wall. Is that all settled? Okay…let me begin… I posted a very innocent update to my wall, announcing that I’ve started a new book and the working title…

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What the 4th of July Should Be

I need to preface this with a confession, taken from my latest Facebook status. “I’m afraid I’m a hopeless introvert.” It is true. Probably part of my aversion to 4th of July parades, county fairs, and all those fun American things is that I just don’t like people much. I mean, there are particular people I like, and some I like very much, but I find the general population to be so insipid, close-minded, self-centered, and utterly boring that I don’t really care much for being around people. Under certain circumstances, I enjoy watching people, but I find it hard…

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The Free Market

I’m posting the resources from  a recent webinar as a blog post to give readers better access to the info. Slides are available here. Video from the webinar can be viewed here. Here’s a list of the resources and links mentioned in the webinar – Chaos Theory by Bob Murphy – Privatization of Roads and Highways by Walter Block – The Enterprise of Law by Bruce Benson – Walter Block Interview on Road Privatization, http://mises.org/daily/3431 –  A Future of Private Roads and Highways by Walter Block, http://mises.org/daily/3416 – This video is a study on a formerly-controlled intersection in England that now has…

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