Be Prepared for National Ask Day, June 21
Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?
Answer: Princess Diana's death.
Question: How come?
Answer: An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whiskey, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines! And this is sent to you by an American, using Bill Gates' technology Which he enjoyed stealing from the Japanese. And you are probably reading this on one of the IBM clones that use Taiwanese-made chips, and Korean-made monitors, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by lorries driven by Indians, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, trucked by Mexican illegal aliens, and finally sold to you.
That, my friend, is Globalization! Finally, an explanation in English.
Sunni Maravillosa - Sunni's Freedom Book of the Month for January, 2003: A Lodging of Wayfaring Men - in case I didn't convince you to get A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, maybe Sunni will. Note that Liberty Book Shop reorganized their content, so my earlier links were broken. I have fixed them. [Jim Bennett]
A Lodging of Wayfaring Men is in some important respects better than Atlas Shrugged. It offers a deeper understanding of human psychology, and therefore in some areas will be more effective at reaching the reader, especially those not already inclined to value freedom. The speechifying is much more subtle, and often couched in dialogue rather than long soliloquy; but it also misses the mark more than Rand's does. The characters are more complex and therefore more realistic (particularly the women); and their interactions are also deeper and more satisfying. The structure and pacing of A Lodging of Wayfaring Men is uneven, and the book overall would have been much improved by more careful copy editing. Still, it is a compelling book that offers much for freedom-loving individuals to think about.
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Particularly endearing to me was the repeating theme of the need to address reality, whatever its form. It seems to me that many freedom-oriented individuals focus more on what ought to be, rather than what is, and thereby lose efficacy. I wish the Free Soul house were a real place where people could go to hang out and interact. A Lodging of Wayfaring Men doesn't offer a utopian vision as much as it does sound ideas on ways to make what we do have much better. For all the quibbles I have with the book, its solid presentation of many ideas had me folding corners of pages so that I could return to specific ideas and consider them in more detail at my leisure. As full as my reading schedule is, I plan to make time to return to A Lodging of Wayfaring Men in order to glean the most from this interesting, thought-provoking tale.
Patrick Fleenor at The Cato Institute - New York's Deadly Cigarette Tax - Bloomberg's hike in NYC's cigarette tax, accompanied by hikes in the state tax, have made the black market in cigarettes very lucrative. $7.50 for a (legal) pack of cigarettes? Absurd! When I was a kid, a pack of cigarettes cost thirty-five cents (and a candy bar cost a nickel). [villagechoice]
The recent rise in New York's cigarette-related crime is no surprise after looking at the bloody history of the city's illicit cigarette trade in my recent Cato Institute study. Problems began after New York State raised its cigarette tax in response to the 1964 Surgeon General's report on smoking and health. That encouraged organized crime to muscle its way into the smuggling racket. By 1967, officials estimated that one quarter of the cigarettes consumed in-state were the product of bootlegging. The problem was thought to be greater in the city.
Owen Moritz at The New York Daily News - Nickel-and-dimed on the IRT: It was anything but a case of turnstile justice - a man was ticketed $50 for "blocking a turnstile" because he bent down to pick up some change that had fallen from his pocket. Sheesh. [villagechoice]
Rachel Lucas - I really need to get to the range - June 21 is National Ask Day, promulgated by a group called PAX, who want parents to ask if there are guns in the house before allowing their kids to go play. Actually, this sounds like a good idea. If the other family doesn't have guns in the house, they obviously don't care about their own or your kids' safety. Maybe your kid shouldn't play there. To prepare in case you are asked, Rachel recommends that you arm yourself with information, by reading Guy Smith's Gun Facts.
Fred Bayles at USA Today - Pilots say TSA disrupting gun training - pilots are now allowed by federal law to carry guns on airplanes, but they must go through training first, at the behest of the Taking Scissors Away folks, who appear to be doing their best to delay that training. [kaba]
