Freespace

LOL

Stephan Kinsella adds a new one to the Lew Rockwell Vituperation Watch! Evidently, condemning fanatics who irresponsibly encourage violence and civil war and throw around ridiculous charges of fascism and whatnot qualifies as "one of most disgusting 'libertarian' things I’ve ever read." You can always count on Kinsella (who has never in his life done a single thing to make a single person freer) for thoughtfulness.

Update: LOL, indeed. Kinsella quotes a typical note from his semiliterate fan base. It refers to the United States as an “empire” of “conquered land,” embraces secession, attacks Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and American participation in World War II, and, of course, wait for it...likens Obama to Hitler and Nazism. Knew that one was coming, didn’t you?

Thank you lord, for a world in which people are still free to make such asses of themselves.

Daniel Webster on the embarrassing opposition to Obama

Ran across this quotation from Daniel Webster, that says well what I was trying to say earlier about the embarrassing opposition to Obama. Webster said this at the time when the Hartford Convention was being organized, during the War of 1812. Webster was a New England Federalist and very opposed to the War, but he was equally opposed to the Hartford Convention:

With respect to the war, in which we are now involved, the course which our principles require us to pursue cannot be doubtful. It is now the law of the land, and as such we are bound to regard it. Resistance and insurrection form no parts of our creed. The disciples of Washington are neither tyrants in power, nor rebels out. If we are taxed, to carry on this war, we shall disregard certain distinguished examples, and shall pay. If our personal services are required, we shall yield them to the precise extent of our Constitutional liability. At the same time, the world may be assured that we know our rights, and shall exercise them. We shall express our opinions on this, as on every other measure of government, I trust without passion—I am certain without fear. We have yet to learn that the extravagant progress of pernicious measures abrogates the duty of opposition, or that the interest of our native land is to be abandoned, by us, in the hour of her thickest dangers, and sorest necessity. By the exercise of our Constitutional right of suffrage, by the peaceable remedy of election, we shall seek to restore wisdom to our councils, and peace to our country.

More grounds for skepticism toward fMRI studies

I've long been skeptical of fMRI studies, or, more accurately, of the hasty conclusions many writers draw from them. See, for example, my review of Michael Shermer's Mind of The Market. Now comes this hilarious example justifying resistance toward such studies: fMRI results on a dead salmon.

Tord Gustavsen plays "Still There"

Contempt of court

Remember the courtroom deputy who swiped papers out of a defense attorney's file folder during a hearing? He's been ordered to apologize or face jail for contempt--but now the Sheriff's office looks like it's ready for a stand-off against the judge.

Friday poem

From "On Freedom's Ground" by Richard Wilbur

Back then, before we came
To this calm bay and savage oceanside,
When Bedloe's Island had no English name,
The waves were but the subjects of the tide
And vassals of the harnessed wind, which blew
Not as it chose, but as it had to do.

The river had no choice
But to create this basin to the south,
Where every springtime tuned the peeper's voice
And drove the shad-run through its narrow mouth,
And the high-hovering sea-birds, even they
Were slaves to hunger, driving on their prey.

Where was the thought of freedom then?
It came ashore within the minds of men.

Before doing sex to me!

Best SNL skit ever. Or at least in the past 30 years.

Happy Thanksgiving

A classic Thanksgiving post from two years ago.

Rand Paul opposes closing Guantanamo

Ron Paul's son Rand Paul opposes closing Guantanamo Bay. HT: Mr. Civil Libertarian.

Now here's an unusual self-portrait

Beauty Revealed by Sarah Goodrich, 1828. Probably NSFW. A gift from the artist to Daniel Webster.