The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel
"Democracy, police state."
"Poe-TAY-toe, poe-TAH-toe."
-- Bobaloo
# Scott Bieser at Big Head Press - The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel - Mr. Bieser's rendition of L. Neil Smith's classic is now shipping. I couldn't find it in their on-line catalogs yet, but if you don't want to wait for Amazon to start selling it ( ISBN 0974381411), you can contact Laissez-Faire Books, Renaissance Books, or Liberty Book Shop. The books first six chapters, 42 of its 185 graphic pages, are on-line here.
# Robert Murphy at The Ludwig von Mises Institute - People Can Just Get Along - why free trade is good, especially when it exports jobs. The key to realizing this is that capitalistic trade is not a zero-sum game. Both parties to a voluntary trade benefit, or they wouldn't do it. [mises]
Although simplistic, the baseline Ricardian fable illustrates an important feature of human cooperation: Because of the differing skills of their constituents, any given group can increase their consumption if they cooperate by letting each person do what he or she is (relatively) best at and then divvying up the total output, rather than having each individual consume only what he or she could produce in isolation. This principle is true whether we are dealing with our farmer and Johnny, the Swiss Family Robinson, or the millions of citizens living in France and England. Any external obstacles--such as tariffs or other government regulations--will reduce the total amount of goods produced. Now perhaps such measures may be justified on grounds of equity or some other criterion, but we shouldn't forget that there is less total stuff to go around when labor is channeled into less productive lines.
# William Rivers Pitt at Truthout - Conyers to Hold Hearings on Ohio Vote Fraud - Ukraine is getting a revote. Looks like America, Ohio at least, may get a recount. I won't hold my breath. [oilempire]
Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, ranking Minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will hold a hearing on Wednesday 08 December 2004 to investigate allegations of vote fraud and irregularities in Ohio during the 2004 Presidential election. The hearing is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. EST in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.
# Bill Whittle - Notes from the Publisher, New Material, and My Dinner with Sauron - The phenomenal initial sales wave of Silent America will be delivered in about a week. Mr. Whittle is planning to write three new books simultaneously. He expects to publish a new essay, "Sanctuary", this weekend. And he will get to meet, oh joy, Michael Moore at his day job today around 11am today. [whittle]
# George Paine at Warblogging - Ghetto on the Euphrates - The United States has decided that Fallujah will be a model city for the "liberation" of Iraq; they're turning the entire city into a giant prison camp. Practice for Bushnev's third & eternal term in Amerika? [warblogging]
Most residents of Fallujah are currently refugees without homes. Under the plans being drawn up, these refugees would be funnelled into Fallujah through "citizen processing centers". Once at a citizen processing center the Fallujan would have a DNA sample taken and their retina scanned. They would then receive identification badges displaying their home address. Those ID badges will be required. They must be worn and visible at all times.