Archive for internet
Recapping the interesting and significant news of this past week.
RawStory reports that ISPs based in the United States will begin reporting your internet usage to the Feds as early as July 12, 2012. Ostensibly the purpose is “reduction of piracy” but this is the federal government for goodness sake, the most benign and generous institution on the planet!
Joe Carter continues his criticism of libertarians at the Acton Blog. You can see my response to his initial volleys here, and there will indeed be more to come next week. In the meantime, perhaps Hayek’s article Why I am Not a Conservative would be worthwhile to review again.
The Ludwig von Mises Institute Blog is going through a transition period right now, and one result is the founding of a new blog for interesting commentary called The Circle Bastiat. I’m excited to see what TCB bloggers will do with their new site.
My friend and former LVMI visionary Jeff Tucker is now the head of the great company Laissez Faire Books. He now writes regularly for their main blog, Whiskey and Gunpowder (fantastic name), and I highly recommend signing up for their mailing list. Even for the week or so that I have been on the list, I have found the articles they are sending superb. For instance, The Economics of the Timeline is a great read. He also had some excellent commentary on the aforementioned internet-spying debacle.
Did you visit LCC this week? Here’s what you missed if not:
- Some Caliphate
- Debating Christian Libertarianism
- The TSA is Wasteful, Unhealthy, and Unnecessary
- Should Christians Support the War on Drugs?
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: government, internet, libertarianism, News of the Week, regulation
Today is Internet Blackout Day
Posted by: |If you tried to visit Wikipedia today, you probably were quite disappointed since you saw a page much like this:
Tags: intellectual property, internet, law, legislation
This fantastic video reminds us of how amazing the free market truly is. We should never forget how people working freely together will help lift all boats in ways no one can anticipate. Don’t let anyone tell you that God wants a socialist economy, EVER. Such thoughts are completely fallacious, and completely antithetical to how God intends for us to live together.
Freedom is the default.
(Great job Students for Liberty friend Michelle Fields as well. If I recall correctly, she is a student at Church of Christ-based Pepperdine University as well! Michelle, if you’re an LCC reader please comment so we can all brag on you a bit…)
Tags: economics, free market, free society, internet, poverty, wealth
News of the Week: Of Memes and Clouds
Posted by: |I have been so busy the past few weeks that I haven’t really kept up with the latest happenings around the world, aside from the US military bombing the crud out of Libya… but let’s think happier thoughts for a moment. Why so serious? (NO Batman.) Here are a couple of fun things I happened across this week.
I am fascinated by cultural movements for a variety of reasons, and some of the most interesting cultural tidbits you find occur in the form of internet memes. The website Know Your Meme does an incredible job of documenting and explaining how these things develop and propagate, and this live presentation at a recent conference illustrates why they consider their work important to the preservation of cultural knowledge. It even has some implications to how we think about intellectual property (or the lack thereof). Best quote: “Culture isn’t just valuable when you can stuff it full of DRM and sell it.”
Also, if you haven’t heard about Amazon’s Cloud Player, check it out. It is AMAZING.
That’s all for now, enjoy your weekend!
Tags: culture, fun, internet, News, video
News of the Week: Walk like a rioting Egyptian
Posted by: |Recapping the interesting news and stories of the past week.
Egyptians are rioting in protest of corruption and terrible economic policies in their government. This is some of the first serious international news of this sort I have seen since the economic crisis began, and it indicative of how the entire world economy continues to suffer from the insane economic policies of central banks and governments around the world.
Reports from social networking services and beyond indicate that the government is cracking down on the spread of information via the Internet.
Yet we also see great and small signs of hope in this crisis. Boing-Boing has posted multiple pictures (click here and here) of protesters quite literally approaching the barbaric and tyrannical police and army forces and kissing them. I smell a Pulitzer prize coming for this photo:
Check out this photo recap of yesterday’s protests.
The bullet point version of what’s happening (courtesy of TDW):
- Egyptian riot police clash with thousands of anti-government demonstrators.
- Police fire tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria.
- Suez sees some of the worst violence, with a police station being set on fire.
- Reports say opposition figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei, who joined Cairo protests, has been placed under house arrest.
- The authorities have disrupted mobile phone networks and internet services.
- The unrest follows three days of protests in which at least eight people have been killed.
Whew, that was heavy.
Here’s a fun comic to top it off.
Tags: Egypt, fun, internet, News
Norman Horn is the creator and primary writer for LCC. Learn a little bit about him in the 