No, President Obama should not deport Justin Bieber. He shouldn’t deport anyone. If Bieber has committed a (real) crime, then he should be forced to pay restitution to his victims. That’s it. If people want to continue associating with Justin Bieber, they should be free to do so. Where he was born or why he’s…
Category: Two Cents
On Bitcoin Acceptance and Illicit Trade
I mentioned in Episode 008 of the EVC podcast the latest big retailers to except bitcoin, Overstock.com and Tiger Direct, and how their acceptance will push along the growing snowball that is the bitcoin economy. Other than the obvious benefits to society that this news represents, there’s another side to the story that’s quite important…
On Coercion
One might object to the claim that threatening to shoot someone if they don’t give up their wallet is an act of coercion because the act of parting with one’s wallet is a voluntary choice. I think that’s true, as far as it goes, but that’s not what makes the threat coercive. What makes the…
On the Voluntary Principle
The difference between voluntaryism and libertarianism is the voluntary principle, that all human relations should happen voluntarily, or not at all. In other words, where libertarianism is concerned with non-aggression toward individually-owned property, voluntaryism is concerned with non-coercion toward other individuals. As Carl Watner wrote, the voluntary principle is “a means, an end, and an…
On the Non-Aggression Principle
Everybody adheres to the non-aggression principle. Property is a corollary of the non-aggression principle, and vice versa, meaning, property ownership is the exclusive right of control, an exclusion that precludes aggression, an uninvited boundary crossing, by non-owners. People disagree, however, on what constitutes property. Some only consider the body and movable personal possessions as property;…
On the Reefer Bowl
What a glorious opportunity we who advocate drug freedom have these next two weeks. The Denver Broncos, of Colorado, will face the Seattle Seahawks, of Washington, on Sunday, February 2nd in the 48th Super Bowl of the National Football League. Because these teams are from the first two States to legalize the possession of marijuana,…
On MLK and Private Action
Martin Luther King, Jr. acted as a private individual with a personal agenda. He was not a state employee implementing the state’s agenda. Whatever political beliefs the man held, one thing is clear: he saw injustice and didn’t wait for permission from anybody else before combating it. That he acted according to his own conscience,…
On Monopoly
If one’s business were immune from competition, what incentive does he have to increase quality, lower prices, and innovate change? What incentive does he have to decrease quality (thereby lowering his costs), raise prices, and stifle change? What happens to these incentives if this business owner may also force others to buy his goods or…
On Food Labeling
A seemingly benign statist regulation is the requirement to describe on the labels of food what the ingredients are. Of course, every statist regulation is anything but benign, backed by the the threat of theft, imprisonment, and ultimately death that they are, but food labeling is desirable, it seems, by almost everybody in society. In…
On Police Brutality
I have known decent police officers, the type of people I have a hard time believing would ever do what Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli did to Kelly Thomas. But what do we expect from a monopoly provider of law and order, ie. the state? Most in society rightly denounce would-be monopoly providers of many…