Archive for technology
Keep TSA Scanners Out of Austin
Posted by: |Here’s a special message from www.tsatyranny.com. Even if you don’t live in Texas, you can have an effect – you can tell the City Council that you are more likely to travel to or through Austin if they can be assured that their rights will not be violated by the TSA. Or, take the example of Texas an run with this in your own state.
‘Keep Austin Free’ of TSA Scanners and Groping Pat-Downs
Austin, Texas has an historic opportunity to keep TSA tyranny out of the city’s airport—and it’s time to lend your voice in support of this critical effort!
Unlike many major US cities, Austin has yet to have the Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) full-body scanners installed in their commercial airport, and if Texas’ capital city were to forbid the TSA from installing these invasive machines at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA), it could spark a national movement for liberty.
The good news is this: On December 14, the Austin Airport Advisory Commission (AAAC)—the official body tasked with giving Austin City Council input on airport policy—passed a unanimous resolution calling upon the Council to “oppose the installation of AIT’s at ABIA and further oppose the practice of invasive body searching.”
What’s more, a broad coalition of diverse groups has risen up in support of the AAAC’s resolution to check TSA tyranny in Austin, including the Travis County Republican Party, the ACLU of Texas, the Travis County Libertarian Party, Texans for Accountable Government (TAG), the Central Texas Republican Liberty Caucus, and We Are Change Austin.
Momentum is building to see Austin become a safe-haven for liberty—and we encourage you to join our effort and take action.
Contact Austin City Council
The Austin City Council needs to hear your voice!
All those who use Austin-Bergstrom International Airport as their primary airport or would be inclined to make ABIA their airport of choice when coming to and from Texas —if Austin’s airport becomes a tyranny-free zone—should contact the Austin City Council and let them know you stand behind their Advisory Commission’s call to keep ABIA free of the full-body scanners and groping pat-downs.
We have prepared a one-page Sample Letter that you can personalize and send to Austin’s Mayor and City Council with the click of a single button.
Don’t delay—send your letter this week as part of our coordinated campaign.
Join the Effort, Spread the Word
Please forward this note to all your friends who love liberty and who desire to travel freely to and from Texas without having their rights violated by the TSA.
Spread the word about this historic opportunity to “Keep Austin Free”!
Keep Austin Free.org will be sending out e-mail updates related to the Austin TSA battle, call-to action alerts, and more. Click here to sign up, and be on call to oppose TSA tyranny in Austin.
Tags: police, politics, technology, transportation, TSA
LCC on iTunes Back on Track
Posted by: |For some unknown reason, a few months ago the special LCC podcast feed broke down. The issue probably had something to do with settings in the WordPress plugin I use. It got so bad that iTunes even redirected the podcast feed to a single post rather than the feed itself.
The problem has been solved, and the podcast feed now works. If you unsubscribed, you can now re-subscribe in a normal feed reader or your podcast software just like normal. If you left your subscription intact, it will now work again! I have re-submitted the feed to the iTunes store, so eventually you will be able to add it directly to iTunes as well.
This has taken far too long to fix, but now that it’s done I’m looking forward to doing more podcasts again. So many things to do!
Tags: audio, Blog News, LCC, podcast, technology
Against Net Neutrality
Posted by: |Yesterday, the FCC voted 3-2 for new measures regulating how content is transferred over the internet. Stephan Kinsella’s blog post at Mises.org the day before is a good summary with lots of links showing how this new power grab by the government technocracy is both immoral and completely stupid. The internet is one the last bastions of freedom in the world, and it would be terrible for regulation to ruin it.
Quoting Stephan in full:
As a recent column in the Wall Street Journal reminds us, online freedom is jeopardized in the name of “net neutrality” (The FCC’s Threat to Internet Freedom). This is just another case of the state re-labeling things to sound benign but that are really invasions of liberty and property rights–another good example being use of the term “intellectual property” to masque the true nature of state-granted monopoly privilege rights (patent and copyright) (see my post Intellectual Properganda).
It is true that some corporations probably have extra-market power to control aspects of the Internet, as the result of state interventions such as IP, FCC licensing, antitrust law, big business favoritism, and so on. But the solution is not to grant the state even more power to regulate private companies.This is the criminal gang that has fouled things up in the first place. Another recent example of federal Chutzpah is the Obama administration’s proposal to provide a “Web Privacy ‘Bill of Rights’“–how obscene. The mob that is the greatest threat to online privacy freedom, and rights will protect us? I’m reminded of the phrase, “We’re from the government. And we’re here to help.” Thanks, but no thanks, guys.
These are the same parasites who do everything they can to hobble and destroy business and innovation–they impose costly regulations; tax individuals, making employees more costly; inflate the money supply and cause destructive business cycles; impose insane, murderous policies on pharmaceutical and medical innovations via the FDA; and then impose double tax by taxing corporations too, after imposing Sarbannes Oxley on them for the “privilege” to exist as a corporation (a privilege that is not a privilege; corporations do not need state privileges to exist–see Legitimizing the Corporation and Other Posts; Richman and Carson on the BP Oil Spill; Should Libertarians Oppose “Capitalism”?; Rothbard on Corporations and Limited Liability for Tort; Comment on Knapp’s Big Government, Big Business — Conjoined Twins; Pilon on Corporations: A Discussion with Kevin Carson; Defending Corporations: Block and Huebert).
And then, as a solution to the damage done to innovation by the state’s malicious hobbbling, the maniacal intellectual properteers urge giving the state more power to grant intellectual monopoly privilege grants to companies. (But then, if the companies use these monopoly grants “too much”, it’s called “abuse” and the state persecutes them under its evil antitrust laws.) (See State Antitrust (anti-monopoly) law versus state IP (pro-monopoly) law.)
Likewise, net neutrality is an attempt by the state to see more power to control private property rights as an ostensible response to various “market failures” that are really themselves caused by state intervention. In this, it is anohter example of the state’s creating a crisis and using this as a justification to seize more power under the pretense of saving the people from the crisis that it caused. (See Robert Higgs, Crisis & Leviathan.)
Libertarians should oppose net neutrality–and the state interventions that gives rise to the problems net neutrality pretends to address. (See my posts Net Neutrality Developments and Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality (both reposted below); also Harvard’s Yochai Benkler on Net Neutrality and Innovation.) Don’t trust the state to “protect” you. Ever.
Tags: intellectual property, internet, net neutrality, technology
News of the Week: Dec. 12-18, 2010
Posted by: |Recapping the interesting and significant news of this past week.
There are plenty more reactions to Wikileaks to keep track of.
And somebody even has a reaction to my Students for Liberty article. (My response will be forthcoming next week…)
Apparently, NASA has discovered arsenic-based life (though some doubt). If I said this was kick-As, would you get the pun?
Lifehacker has a cool article about getting answers online (without using Google).
And finally, my favorite comic of the week.
Just FYI, there will not be a “News of the Week” post on Christmas Day next week. 
Tags: internet, libertarianism, science, technology, wikileaks
Top 10 Books for Libertarians–Christmas 2010 Edition
Posted by: |Of all posts on LibertarianChristians.com, the holiday book lists are some of the most perennially popular. 2010 has seen some great books enter the market, and it’s time to highlight what some of those are (plus some classic texts). Check out some of these great gift ideas for your libertarian (and non-libertarian!) friends and family. Some of these are explicitly Christian, and some are just to enhance your education in economics and liberty. Also, remember that by shopping at Amazon.com through an LCC link you’re supporting the work we do here with your purchase. Thanks for your continued support! So in no particular order…
Libertarianism Today, by Jacob Huebert. This is one of my favorite new books, and is arguably the best explanation of libertarianism set in the context of the 21st century that we have to date. My review of this book is forthcoming…
Nullification, by Thomas Woods. The idea of nullifying Federal law at the state level has really taken hold in the past year, and Tom has done a great job of explaining its use in American history with this excellent book. Go forth and nullify!
Foundations of Economics: A Christian View, by Shawn Ritenour. Hey homeschoolers, are you looking for an basic economics text that you can go through with your high-school age kids? Shawn’s book is what you want. Easier than Human Action or Man, Economy, and State, and far better than that garbage you’ll get from Bob Jones University Press. (No offense intended, but they really don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to political economy.) That being said, it’s not just for high-school students. This is Austrian economics at its best.
Faith and Liberty, by Alejandro A. Chafuen. A classic that every Christian libertarian should read.
Human Action (the Pocket Edition), by Ludwig von Mises. Make sure that Austrian in your life is never without some Mises. At $10, this version is hard to beat for affordable access to one of the greatest books on economics of all time. You can also get this directly from the Mises Institute Store. Coincidently, this is now the best-selling book at the Mises Institute of all time!
Disciple of Liberty, by Jason Rink. Many of our Christian friends are beginning to realize the corrupt nature of Government, and Jason’s short book really helps people to understand that being “conservative” doesn’t cut it. Plus, you can now get the ebook version for FREE until the end of 2010. How about that? (Note: You won’t find this on Amazon.) Check out my review of Jason’s book and see what you think.
The Road to Serfdom, by F.A. Hayek. Hayek’s works have surged in popularity over the last year, and this seminal work should be on every libertarian’s bookshelf.
How an Economy Grows, and Why it Crashes, by Peter Schiff. This book is great to give your friends who don’t understand what’s going on with the economy these days. Schiff explains how the market works in a way that everyone can enjoy, using humorous examples and solid principles to teach and entertain.
The Kingdom of God is Within You, by Leo Tolstoy. This marvelous work by Tolstoy is gripping. To see why, read my review.
Anarchy and Christianity, by Jacques Ellul. French philosopher Jacques Ellul had a way with words, and in this book he explains how he came to understand that Christianity and statism don’t mix. It’s challenging, interesting, and actually quite short. Read my review here.
Bonus: All us tech-lovers have been curiously watching the ebook reader and tablet computer wars emerging on the market over the last year. So if you are so inclined, don’t forget that an Amazon Kindle or iPad filled with the Mises Institute library and Christian Classics is clearly the coolest gift ever (hint hint anybody who loves me). You know, almost every book the Mises Institute publishes (and much more) is available to download for free as a PDF on their website. You could easily fill a flash drive with liberty PDF’s from the Mises Library and tons of classic theological texts from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library and Project Gutenberg.
Merry Christmas to all!
Tags: Book Reviews, christian libertarian, economics, Hayek, libertarianism, liberty, Mises Institute, recommended books, technology
Norman Horn is the creator and primary writer for LCC. Learn a little bit about him in the 