The way to really “win” a fake shutdown isn’t to successfully shift blame, it’s to successfully seize credit. Trying to shift blame and seeking a compromise looks like weakness. “Proudly” taking credit and refusing to bend looks like strength. And voters, as a rule, seem to value strength more than they value morality or intelligence. In politics, boldness tends to win the day.
Tag: appropriation
Intellectual Property Makes Everyone a Criminal
Unlike with non-scarce non-objects, the users of material property can account for permission of their use. If they cannot, then they are likely thieves who have stolen material property from its owner. Because we all use ideas without accounted for permission everyday, we are all thieves.
Landsharks
It may take an hour-and-a-half of your time, but if you want to know about rent-seeking, I cannot recommend a better resource. Today, I have been listening to the this lecture by Dr. Robert Higgs. And it has struck me that the principal occupation of humankind is piracy.
A Continuous Series of Cultural Appropriations
Cultural appropriation has been our salvation and our glory as a species. It is the way in which discoveries and inventions have been disseminated among the human population. To condemn it is stupid.
Defining Anti-Semitism, Threatening Free Speech
In May the benign-sounding Anti-Semitism Awareness Act appeared before the U.S Congress “to provide for consideration a definition of anti-Semitism for the enforcement of Federal antidiscrimination laws concerning education programs or activities.” No big deal? Let us see. S. 2940 is sponsored by Republican Sen. Tim Scott and has four co-sponsors: Republican Lindsey Graham and…
Here Comes the Next “Defense” Shakedown
Is Trump truly under the mistaken impression that US military might is ailing? Or is he mindlessly aping Ronald Reagan and hoping it brings in the re-election votes? Or perhaps something else entirely?
Words Poorly Used, Another Devil’s Dictionary #6
Tax Relief — Chump Change. A flea on the back of theft. Theft — Taxation and other scams, schemes, grifts, cons, and endless variations of misappropriation. Promise — That which disappears on or before its delivery date. There may or may not be an actual delivery.
Words Poorly Used #113 — Appropriation
Don’t we humans make a distinction between appropriation and misappropriation? In the sense of legislation, it means adding money to an enactment, sufficient to pay for the enactment or to establish a spending target.
The Voluntaryist Constitution, an Oxymoron?
Trey Goff had an interesting article published at Mises.org outlining what he is calling a “voluntaryist constitution.” Can such a thing even exist? I don’t believe it could exist as anything more than an ideological creed. I thought it’d be fun to scrutinize the so-called voluntaryist constitution from my particular voluntaryist perspective.
Libertarian Solutions: How to Keep Americans Safe From The Next Big Hurricane
When it comes down to it, it’s a matter of voluntary choices vs. coercion. If no one would voluntarily insure a building in a flood plain for a low premium, then forcing us to do it is always going to lead to a perverse, wasteful, and in this case, even potentially deadly result.