Archive for News
News of the Week
Posted by: |Recapping the interesting and significant news of this past week.
From the nanny-state department…
The Feds have now mandated that all new cars must be built with rear-view cameras by 2014. It’s for the children, people! We have to do EVERYTHING for the children to keep them “safe” no matter the cost!
The corrupt and insane Austin City Council (where I live) passed a plastic AND paper bag ban this past Friday morning (a 2 a.m. bill, no shame I guess). Here is what one of my friends had to say about it:
Plastic bags are an incredible benefit to society, allowing for a cheap, efficient, and more environmentally-friendly way to transport goods and later be recycled for all sorts of other uses, from acting as lining in a trash receptacle to cleaning up after pets. Furthermore, they are less burdensome for waste management and landfills.
Thank you, City of Austin, for saving humanity from a better tomorrow.
My sentiments exactly.
Ever wondered how much it cost to build the Death Star from Star Wars? Wonder no longer. I’m telling you, statism is EXPENSIVE!
More Star Wars fun… Over at the Young Americans for Liberty blog, Zach Foster has begun a series of articles about Star Wars and Austrian economics. If you are a fan of either, this series will probably be fun for you.
The International Students for Liberty Conference was hosted just a few weekends ago in Washington D.C. (If you have been around LCC for a while, you know that I love SFL and have been quite involved with them over the past few years.) A major highlight of the conference was the Stossel show taping an entire episode with all the students. It was pretty interesting, and there was even a little controversy. You can view the episode in its entirety here:
Did you visit LCC this week? Here’s what you missed if not:
- The Things That Make For Peace by Isaac Morehouse
- Don’t Tread On Who? by Doug Stuart
Have some relevant news and links you want to share? Post in the comments below. I read every comment and respond to almost all of them. Let me know what you’re thinking!
Tags: economics, government, regulation, science, students
News of the Week: The Great Gibson Guitar Raid
Posted by: |Recapping the interesting and significant news of this past week.
Last week I mentioned that I would be defending my PhD Thesis in Chemical Engineering. Well, I passed! The DOCTOR is IN!
Have you joined the Christian libertarian Facebook Group yet? There has been a lot of interesting discussion going on in this group, and you are welcome to join in. Just this week alone we added nearly 100 members, totaling to over 400! It’s a great time to be a Christian libertarian, so please add yourself to this great group of people (and “Like” the LCC page while you’re at it).
Onward to the real news…
Joe Carter at the Acton Institute PowerBlog writes about Gleaner Technology, borrowing the principle of “gleaning” from scripture (see Deut. 24:19) to describe basic technologies that can help the poor in unique ways. It’s a bit of a stretch, but I appreciate this idea nonetheless. His first example: solar bottle lights.
Wired published some neat articles on science in the past week. There has been some significant controversy surrounding a find in a lab in Italy where neutrinos were traveling faster than the speed of light (this would have been a monumental discovery). But, turns out it could be just a faulty cable. Wired also wrote about a rare book fair where some original copies of the greatest works of science written hundreds of years ago were displayed and sold. It is really neat to observe how humanity has progressed in this arena.
In other random science news, Slate reports that shale oil has been a major boon to the production of petroleum products. It’s nice to see this immensely innovative process recognized. Of course, it also disparages “peak oil” alarmists (the new Malthusians, I think). People forget that basic economics explains so much of what goes on in these types of industries sometimes, you know, supply and demand changes tend to incentivize new, unanticipated means to production?
James Madison came up in two interesting articles this past week. First, Ray Nothstine at Acton writes about Madison and religious conscience. I would add that Madison is right, but it is because of the principle of self-ownership. Second, Tom Woods reviews Kevin Gutzman’s latest book on Madison at LewRockwell.com – it’s a great article that you should definitely check out.
Did you know that the Feds raided the Gibson Guitar Company’s factory in Tennessee TWICE in the past 3 years for an obscure violation of the Lacey act? What is more, they still have not been charged with a crime! I suppose I am particularly infuriated because I am a guitarist, but this is pretty outrageous. ReasonTV made the following video to report on their plight. It is nice to see Rand Paul come to their defense in the Senate.
Rand Paul also blocked an egregious synthetic drug ban in the Senate. This is a good move by Rand, for sure.
Did you visit LCC this week? Here’s what you missed if not:
- The Law is Written on Our Hearts by Isaac Morehouse
- The Problem with Public Education by Laurence Vance
Have some relevant news and links you want to share? Post in the comments below. I read every comment and respond to almost all of them. Let me know what you’re thinking!
Tags: charity, crime, economics, government, poverty, regulation, science, technology
News of the Week: Fiat Money Proves Useful After All
Posted by: |Recapping the interesting and significant news of this past week.
Needy in Hungary? (Pun intended.) How about burning your fiat currency to stay warm? I just knew there had to be a good use for worthless paper… (HT Bob Murphy)
In other financial news, ProPublica has an interesting article reporting how Citi basically dumped bad mortgages onto taxpayers.
Did you have a nice Valentine’s Day? Do you know who St. Valentine actually is and how he defied the Roman State?
Shaun Connell writes a good piece about Romans 13. For more perspectives, make sure you read LCC’s offering on the theology of Romans 13 as well.
Geoff Plauche reports on free speech violations on a university campus. I just like it because it involves one of my favorite shows ever, Firefly.
The city of Keene, New Hampshire gets a freaking tank for its SWAT team. Has anybody here not figured out yet that cops are essentially bought and paid for by the Federal Government at this point? Well, they are. I doubt there are very many decent policemen around anymore. I certainly have met very, very few. Incidentally, Keene is a bastion of the Free State Project.
This week was the last week ever for Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show FreedomWatch. Here is the final segment from the final episode. We shall miss you, Judge.
Did you visit LCC this week? Here’s what you missed if not:
- Ron Paul is Right About United States Overseas Military Bases
- What is the Christian Libertarian position on recreational drug use?
Just a heads up to everyone, I am defending my PhD thesis this next Tuesday. From then on, you can call me “Dr. Horn,” thank you very much. 
Preparations for my defense have been the primary reason I have not been posting quite as much these past few weeks, but it’s all over soon! If you feel so moved, say a prayer for me on Tuesday morning. Thank you all for your support!
Have some relevant news and links you want to share? Post in the comments below. I read every comment and respond more often than not. Let me know what you’re thinking!
Tags: christian libertarian, economics, libertarianism, money, News of the Week, Romans 13
Recapping the interesting and significant news of this past week.
Tom Woods posted a fun article this week concerning 26 Things Non-Paul Voters are Basically Saying.
Sadly, Judge Andrew Napolitano’s FreedomWatch show on FoxBusiness is being canceled. Not cool, Fox.
An LCC reader sent me an interesting interview from the BBC with Alexandre Christoyannopoulos asking if Jesus was an anarchist.
The Onion satirizes that Iran is concerned that the U.S. is on the verge of obtaining its 8500th nuclear weapon. Oh noez!
If you’re a V for Vendetta fan, you might find this article interesting about the culture connection between V and the hacker group Anonymous.
I find technology trends quite interesting, and of course one of the hottest trends right now is tablet computing. Dan Moren writes about using his iPad as his only work computer for a three days.
You ought to give a Fed Valentine this week.
If you are like me, you sort of threw up in your mouth during Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl commercial. Reason.tv responds with this:
Did you visit LCC this week? Here’s what you missed if not:
Have some relevant news and links you want to share? Post in the comments below. I read every comment and respond more often than not. Let me know what you’re thinking!
Tags: anarchy, iran, News of the Week, Ron Paul, technology, Tom Woods, V for Vendetta, video, war
News of the Week: War, books, and Romans
Posted by: |Recapping the interesting and significant news of this past week.
Economist, Mises Institute scholar, and friend Bob Murphy gives his perspective on Romans 13, pehaps the first of several posts on his blog?
Shaun Connell presents a Biblical case for libertarian government.
Judge Andrew Napolitano asks: What is a just war?
Jon Utley at American Conservative magazine (my favorite “conservative” publication) talks about Evangelicals, Ron Paul, and War.
President Obama invokes Christianity to support his policies. Impressively bad on all fronts.
This week on LCC, Doug Stuart reviewed two books for us:
I found this picture hilarious. If you don’t get it, don’t worry about it, it would take a while to explain…
Here’s another picture, HT George on Facebook:
Awesome.
Have some relevant news and links you want to share? Post in the comments below. I read every comment and respond more often than not. Let me know what you’re thinking!
Tags: libertarianism, News, News of the Week, Romans 13, theology, war
Norman Horn is the creator and primary writer for LCC. Learn a little bit about him in the 
