Occasionally I run across people who claim to have “writer’s block” and find themselves unable to write. Here is my simple, one-step cure: just start writing already. Compared to many things in life, writing is ridiculously easy. Performing open heart surgery, getting through law school, or trying to understand the appeal of boy bands —…
July, 2000
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The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is starting to get scared that it’s not going to be able to tax the Internet economy. Specifically it is worried that Americans using strong encryption software will start engaging in financial transactions in countries that don’t share financial data with the United States (or in fact, Americans who do…
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One of the fun things about running a site like this is people are always sending me links to their libertarian-oriented web sites — most of which I would never have run across on my own. One of the better sites I’ve run across in this way in the past few months is LibertyBoard.Org. I’m…
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The Onion has a hilarious story poking fun at the controversy over the Harry Potter books, Harry Potter Books Spark Rise In Satanism Among Children (note, the story has language that is inappropriate for children — and if you are a Christian you might be offended by some of the made up quotes that mock…
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USA Today ran a story today about the Humane Society and the Red Cross training people to perform CPR on animals. My wife once saved a puppy’s life by giving it mouth to mouth. My neighbor’s dog was pregnant and one day the next door neighbor comes over in a fit not knowing what to…
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Some libertarians and capitalist anarchists claim that technology is inevitably winnowing away the power of the state. Dale Fitzgerald II wrote a piece for LewRockwell.Com the other day (Encryption, Finance, Freedom, and You) arguing that pervasive encryption would allow people to conduct financial transactions that would be impossible to trace (and hence tax). Jeremey Lott…
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In a recent Salon.Com article, Steve Bodow is aghast that in a Gallup poll 60 percent of Americans favored abolishing the federal estate tax (No relief). Only a vast right wing misinformation campaign could be responsible for such misguided views on the part of the American public. After all, the poor and middle class should…
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Occasionally I get e-mails that don’t criticize the content of my web pages, but instead focus on my perceived failings as a writer. On the one hand, I’m never too sure how much credence to put into criticism that rarely goes deeper than “you suck,” but on the other hand I have spent a lot…
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Over the past 20 years, gasoline prices have tended to follow the typical pattern for a mature commodity — prices have tended to oscillate in a 3-4 year cycle between high and low prices. Every time gas prices hit their highest levels, people and politicians whine about price gouging and lack of competition in the…
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ZDNet’s Marc Cooper thought he’d lambasted problems with journalistic integrity on the web, but ended up unintentionally providing a prime example of it himself in his recent story, Web news: the new frontier?. Cooper simply recycles the old tired complaints against web journalism, especially the amateur kind. “…let me suggest,” he writes, “that throwing a…