Fat
The Scientist and the Stairmaster
Gary Taube, New York Magazine, 24 September 2007.
Exercise doesn’t make you thin.
Created on: 18 November 2007
Last updated: 18 November 2007
Last updated: 18 November 2007
Pages
Categories
Globalisation
Shock Jock
Tyler Cowen, New York Sun, 3 October 2007.
Review of Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”. He doesn’t think much of it.
Created on: 08 November 2007
Last updated: 08 November 2007
Last updated: 08 November 2007
Aid
Articles
The Unintended Consequences of Foreign Aid: Theodore Dalrymple on how Western policies have poisoned the water supplies of 70 million in Bangladesh
Social Affairs Unit, 3 September 2007.
It’s UNICEF what done it.
Created on: 03 October 2007
Last updated: 08 November 2007
Last updated: 08 November 2007
Tactics
Articles
Purpose and Strategy of the Libertarian Alliance, Libertarian Alliance, 1979. Keep it intellectual and be patient.
How to Win the Libertarian Argument, Brian Micklethwait, Libertarian Alliance, 1990. You start by having it.
The Tyranny of The Facts, Brian Micklethwait, Libertarian Alliance, 1990. Facts matter a lot less than people tend to think.
Created on: 20 September 2007
Last updated: 21 September 2007
Last updated: 21 September 2007
Ticket Touts
Articles
In Praise of Ticket Touting, Charles Earl, Libertarian Alliance, 1996 (pdf). Touting - known as scalping in the US.
Scrap scalping laws
Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, 8 August 2007.
AKA touting in the UK (via Pajamas Media)
Created on: 20 September 2007
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Constitutional Matters
Articles
Liberty versus Democracy, Brian Micklethwait, Libertarian Alliance, 1983 (not 1981 as advertised) (pdf). Democracy is worse than Liberty but better than civil war.
Created on: 20 September 2007
Last updated: 20 September 2007
Last updated: 20 September 2007
Economics
Articles
Oil’s Supply and Demand Curves
Robert Smithson, The Oil Drum, 19 August 2007.
Although, as the name suggests, primarily about oil, it serves as an excellent primer on supply and demand in general. (Via Pajamas Media)
How hockey sticks explain the relative attractions of statism and of free markets
Brian Micklethwait, Samizdata, 1 October 2004.
Why state enterprises decay and why free markets (eventually) work.
The Success of the Industrial Revolution and the Failure of Political Revolutions: How Britain Got Lucky
Findlay Dunachie, Libertarian Alliance, 1996.
The Channel meant we didn’t need an army. The lack of an army made it difficult to oppress us. So, we were free. So, we started the Industrial Revolution.
Why We Should Concentrate on Free Trade and Stop Worrying About the Balance of Payments,
Adam Chacksfield, Libertarian Alliance, 1993.
Or dumping for that matter.
Factettes
A dreadful age
Brian Micklethwait, 30 September 2007
The dreadfulness and precariousness (if that is a word) of life in the time of Shakespeare. Serves as a reminder (which increasingly seems necessary) that wealth and progress are good.
Created on: 07 September 2007
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Last updated: 03 October 2007
General
Articles
I Am A Libertarian Because..., Brian Micklethwait, Libertarian Alliance, 2002.
Quotes
“To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good...”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Yeah, I know he’s a bit of a whack-job nowadays but I think he was right on the money here.
Created on: 07 September 2007
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Welfare
Articles
Culture, Virtue and Freedom: How Civil Society in Britain Has Been Undermined and How to Rebuild It, Simon McIlwaine, Libertarian Alliance, 1995. After a slightly dull start the author takes few prisoners as he lays into the welfare state.
Abolish the Welfare State and restore some Respect, Brian Micklethwait, Samizdata, 17 January 2006. The Welfare State causes crime.
The Disaster of the Welfare State, Simon McIlwaine, Libertarian Alliance 1989 (pdf).
Arguing About the Welfare State: A Radio Confrontation With Professor Peter Townsend, July 17 1996, Brian Micklethwait, Libertarian Alliance 1996. Only tangentally about welfare or even tactics, but fun anyway.
Quotes
The reason welfare is bad is not because it costs too much, nor because it “undermines the work ethic,” but because it is intrinsically at odds with the way human beings come to live satisfying lives. Charles Murray. Quoted by Samizdata on 29 August 2007.
Created on: 31 August 2007
Last updated: 20 September 2007
Last updated: 20 September 2007
DDT
Articles
A New Home for DDT, Donald Roberts, New York Times, 20 August 2007. Argues that DDT isn’t half as bad as was claimed back in the 1970s when it was banned. (Via Instapundit who adds: “The debate over DDT is over. There’s scientific consensus. Anyone who disagrees is a DDT denialist and a mouthpiece for Big Mosquito.")
Created on: 22 August 2007
Last updated: 22 August 2007
Last updated: 22 August 2007
Feedback
State Education
Articles
State Intervention and Nineteenth Century Education, Max More, Libertarian Alliance, 1986. It was just fine before the state started getting involved.
Education still in a mess despite cash injection, Jeff Randall, Daily Telegraph, 7 September 2007. In the UK, that is. More money, less discipline, easier exams.
Factettes
92% were literate before state education, A N Wilson, Evening Standard, 1 July 2002. Wonder what it is now?
Last updated: 20 September 2007
Smoking
Articles
Hitchens on Smoking
James Hamilton, More than Mind Games, 13 November 2007.
Actually, it’s James Hamilton on smoking. Suggests that smoking is perfectly rational. Seems to know what’s he’s talking about too.
Cuttings
Smoking ban hits charities, Chillicothe Gazette, 15 August 2007.
Last updated: 22 November 2007
Drugs
Articles
A Neither Profound Nor Original Article on Why the Sale and Use of Recreational Drugs Ought Not to Be Illegal, Sean Gabb, Libertarian Alliance, 1998. Good, precisely because it is neither profound nor original.
A Heated Debate, David Copperfield, The Policeman’s Blog, 16 August 2007. Do drugs really cause crime? Mind you this is a long way from saying that drug bans make things better.
Last updated: 07 September 2007
London Olympics
Hidden Costs Of Olympics, Burning Our Money, 9 August 2007. As well as costing a fortune in themselves, the Olympics will also put up construction prices for everyone else.
Last updated: 10 August 2007
Health and Safety
Cuttings
“I am now going to try an experiment”, UK Commentators, 5 August 2007. Winston Churchill shows just how much he cares about health and safety.
Destroying Civil Society, Burning our Money, 10 August 2007. Volunteer OAP gardener forced to comply with stupid H&S rules.
Last updated: 10 August 2007
Feedback
Gun Control
Articles
Gun control’s twisted outcome, Joyce Lee Malcolm, Reason, November 2002. Britain’s handgun ban hasn’t worked.
Gun Control in Britain, Sean Gabb, Libertarian Alliance, 1988. More gun laws, more gun crime.
Why the right to armed self-defence against criminals and against tyrants should not have been suppressed..., David Botsford, Libertarian Alliance, 1997. More gun laws, more gun crime.
How Gun Control ‘Worked’ in Jamaica, Tina Terry, Libertarian Alliance, 1998. Guns were outlawed and only the outlaws had guns.
Why Guns Should Not Be Illegal, Brian Micklethwait, Libertarian Alliance, 1995. Another article on guns. Interesting because of the Jamaican example.
Gun control doesn’t work. Wouldn’t you feel safer with a gun? Richard Munday, The Times, 8 September 2007.
Heh
“Guns don’t kill people, doctors kill people”
Something to Ponder, Theo Spark, 28 September 2007.
There’s a flaw in the logic somewhere. It’s just that I can’t spot it.
Quotes
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone, Theo Spark, 3 August 2007
Last updated: 03 October 2007
DNA Database
News Release against the DNA Database, Libertarian Alliance, 2 August 2007. All good stuff in principle but little on the practical downside of the measure.
Last updated: 09 August 2007
United Nations
Graphics
Last updated: 09 August 2007
Free Markets
Cuttings
“Abject poverty” to be wiped out in India, James Bartholomew, The Welfare State We’re In, 12 August 2007. Because they adopted free markets?
Quotes
“But we know in our bones that siding with the customer pays off for everyone in the end.” Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Quoted by Instapundit, 31 July 2007
Last updated: 16 August 2007
Feedback
Che Guevara
Articles
‘Cool’ Icon Che Guevara Was a Murderous Thug, Author Says, Michael Chapman, CNSNews.com, 31 July 2007. Interview with Humberto Fontova, author of “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.”
Last updated: 09 August 2007
Communism
Articles
The Big Lie or Many Smaller Lies: The Career and Impact of Communist Propagandist Willi Muenzenberg, Dr Helen Szamuely, Libertarian Alliance, 2007. Note: this is how the commies did it. That doesn’t mean that you should do the same.
Progressives against progress. An Investment in Failure, Thomas Sowell, Real Clear Politics, 21 August 2007. The left would prefer to keep people poor.
Man of Steel, Re-forged
Andrew J. Bacevich, National Interest, 29 August 2007.
Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 by Geoffrey Roberts.
In claiming that Stalin was a gifted supreme commander and a man of peace he has caused quite a stir. So, we should be grateful for Bacevich’s partial takedown. (Via A&L Daily)
Cuttings
Cuban athletes leave games early, BBC, 29 July 2007. Because four had already defected. (Via Pajamas Media)
Zimbabwe’s horrors, Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, 12 August 2007. Archbishop calls on Britain to invade.
Graphics
From Theo Spark
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Feedback
War on Terror
Articles
Why Are We so Scared of Offending Muslims?, Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 30 July 2007. Perhaps, because we think we’ll get blown up.
Enemy Lines
“Why are we so worried about terrorism when so many more people are dying on our highways?” asks Gregg Easterbrook (Road Kill, Gregg Easterbrook, Los Angeles Times, 5 August 2007 (via Jay Jardine). You could just as well make the comparison with MRSA or cancer and people - especially people who would rather the war just went away - frequently do. I think they are wrong to. It seems to me that there is a fundamental difference between these types of lethal danger but I don’t know what it is and I haven’t heard anyone else explain the difference either.
Last updated: 22 August 2007
Equality
Articles
The Inevitability of Prejudice, Axel Davies, Libertarian Alliance, 1995. This is one of my all-time favourite pamphlets.
Compare and Contrast, Laban Tall, UK Commentators, 9 August 2007. When it’s a racist who’s the victim of secret filming they investigate the racist. When it’s a Muslim fanatic, they investigate the film-makers.
Last updated: 07 September 2007
Russia
Articles
New history manuals worship Stalin
The New European, Transatlantic Politics, 1 August 2007.
Anna Politkovskaya’s Deadly Foresight
Kim Zigfeld, Pajamas Media, 7 October 2007.
Putin is a dictator. Language is a bit high-falutin towards the end. Frankly, without socialist ideology to drive it forward, Russia isn’t going to be much of a threat. At least not to Western Europe.
Last updated: 03 December 2007
Rail
News
Las Vegas Monorail going bust
Impending Las Vegas Monorail Bankruptcy: Comments by Thomas A. Rubin, f.t.h, 30 July 2007.
(via Peter Gordon)
JR East to lift speed limit of Shinkansen to 320 kph
Asahi, 27 July 2007
Pendolinos smell
Christian Wolmar, Rail, 28 October 2007
First it was the loos, then it was the carpets.
Metronet had a unique structure
Telegraph, 8 November 2007.
Which meant it went bust.
We’ve used the wrong fuel, says rail chief
Times, 16 November 2007.
Mainline electrification would be cheap to do, apparently.
Last updated: 19 November 2007
About
The aim behind Patrick Crozier’s Libertarian Filing Cabinet is to create a store for those things on the internet that I think might be useful at some later date. That’s going to be things like libertarian writings, writings by libertarians, things of interest to libertarians and facts that have a bearing on libertarian arguments. All organised by subject, type of writing and general usefulness.
At the moment it’s pretty empty but hopefully this will change. We shall see.
Last updated: 04 December 2007
Feedback
Compulsory Education
Articles
Home Schooling: A British Perspective
Sean Gabb, www.seangabb.co.uk, September 2004.
The whys are wherefores of home-schooling.
Could this be the ‘golden issue’ that changes a generation?,
Perry de Havilland, Samizdata, 30 July 2007.
Argues that raising the school leaving age to 18 could turn a generation of school children against the state.
Prolonging the Agony of School,
Wat Tyler, Burning Our Money, 31 July 2007.
Looks at the costs of raising the school leaving age to 18.
Last updated: 29 November 2007
Flooding
Articles
Stopping immigration will not curb flooding, Johnathan Pearce, Samizdata, 28 July 2007. Also argues that if building on flood plains was really such a good idea rising insurance premiums would end the practice.
Last updated: 08 August 2007
Global Warming
Cuttings
Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny, James M Taylor, 30 July 2007, LA Times. Takes issue with a number of Al Gore’s favourite claims. (via Peter Gordon)
Oh good, something else to worry about, Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, 20 June 2007. The sun’s about to cool.
The global warming scam, Melanie Phillips, 22 June 2007. Global warming does not cause hurricanes and the IPCC is dishonest.
How much better is local food for the environment?
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution, 30 July 2007.
Apparently, lettuce grown far away consumes less energy than lettuce grown locally - in this case Boston.
Ships’ CO2 ‘twice that of planes’
BBC, 19 October 2007
Other
Junk Science will award $100,000 to anybody who can prove that global warming is happening and it’s a bad thing. 8 August 2007. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone takes this up.
17,000 scientists deny that pollution will cause catastrophic global warming. 17,000? Jeez. OK, it’s been carrying on for a while and the whole Kyoto thing has been lumped into the wording but still… (Via Okie on the Lam)
Last updated: 19 October 2007
Planning
Articles
Britain’s Soviet Planning System,
Don Riley, Libertarian Alliance, 2000 (pdf).
How planning, stuffs up the building profession, lowers quality and leads to hoarding of building and land.
Why Dallas houses are sanely priced while LA (and London) houses are not
Brian Micklethwait, Samizdata, 12 October 2007.
Well, that’s down to planning. But more interestingly, he links to Virginia Postrel who notes that by pricing out the middle classes we are beginning to see a cultural split in the US. We already know it as the Red State/Blue State divide but it would appear that it is about to get a whole load worse.
Reports
Debunking Portland: The City That Doesn’t Work,
Randal O’Toole, Cato Institute Policy Analysis 596, 9 July 2007.
Argues that Portland, Oregon’s much-vaunted planning has been a failure.
(Hat-tip Peter Gordon).
Videos
The End of Affordability
Save Our Suburbs, 2007
Get this, they’ve put a stop to urban expansion in Australia. Australia, for heaven’s sake. Oh and it puts up house prices, and even manages to use up more energy. (Via From the Heartland)
Factettes
People would rather use the car even when stations are built nearby.
Peter Gordon, 30 July 2007.
The UK is not crowded
Brian Micklethwait, 6 November 2007.
Very little of the UK is built up.
Our green and pleasant land
Association of British Drivers, 2002? No author credited.
Britain is still very green. Maps are misleading.
Zoning without zoning,
Michael Lewyn, Planetizen, 24 November 2003.
Suggests, in passing, that it is the state itself that has created a lot of America’s so-called sprawl.
(Via The Transportationist)
Opposition Stuff
A success we should build on,
David Levinson, The Transportationist 10 June 2007.
Argues that we have a right to “access to the countryside”. I think this is drivel but it deserves a proper response.
My Stuff
Against Planning,
Insta-Patrick, 8 October 2006.
Last updated: 26 November 2007
MRSA
News Stories
British hospitals ‘among worst for superbugs’
The Telegraph, 9 June 2007.
NHS trusts ‘failing on infection’
BBC 18 October 2007.
Last updated: 30 October 2007
Feedback
Statistics
I suppose the point here is that government statistics aren’t very good. Oh, and how they often don’t mean what you think they mean.
Articles
Lies, damn lies, and bloody idiots, Squander Two, 20 September 2007. Statistics - especially the ones that get published - are rarely that much of a guide.
Clippings
MRSA deaths seriously understated, The Welfare State We’re In, 14 May 2007.
Last updated: 20 September 2007
Recycling
Articles
Recycling Rubbish, Daniel K. Benjamin, Property and Environment Research Centre, date missing. Argues that recycling is a complete and utter waste of time. US bias but most of the arguments could be applied to the UK and elsewhere. (Via Instapudit).
Recycling: Reducing waste or waste of time?
Martin Earnshaw, Battle of Ideas, 2007?
It’s a waste of time.
What a rubbish way to run a country, Tim Worstall, The Times, 28 May 2007. Argues that recycling is expensive.
Last updated: 18 November 2007
Nazism
Articles
Putting the socialism back into national socialism,
Volokh Conspiracy, 24 July 2007.
Argues that the Nazis persued socialist economic policies. I am not entirely sure this is a wise line to be taking - as the comments make clear. I think you’re on much safer ground to take the line that the Nazis’ economic policies were statist and disastrous.
Hitler’s Handouts,
Michael Moynihan, Reason, August 2007.
Review of Hitler’s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State, by Götz Aly. Doesn’t think much of it despite the idea that Nazi conquests having an economic motive being one of my favourite theories. (Via Instapundit).
William D. Rubinstein wonders how a nation came to be enthralled by a belief-system quite as insane as genocidal anti-semitism: The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 - Saul Friedlander
Social Affairs Unit, 3 September 2007.
He wonders but fails to find an answer.
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Fair Trade
Articles
The fairest drink on earth: a cup of free trade coffee, Liberal Polemic, 11 May 2007. Argues that fair trade far from helping poor farmers is in fact causing a glut.
Last updated: 08 November 2007
European Union
News Items
Galileo (the EU’s challenge to GPS) isn’t working.
Pajamas Media, 21 May 2007
Galileo to cost UK £1.7bn
Christopher Booker, The Telegraph, 2 December 2007.
Heh
From EU Referendum.
Last updated: 02 December 2007
Crime
Articles
Abolish the Welfare State and restore some Respect,
Brian Micklethwait, Samizdata, 17 January 2006.
The Welfare State causes crime.
Blair talks Giuliani’s language but handcuffs cops
Julia Magnet, Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2002.
How they brought crime down in New York
Fight crime by stamping out the seedbed
Norman Dennis, Daily Telegraph, 26 August 2007.
Crime used to be much lower.
Isolated incident?
UK Commentators, 25 August 2007.
It’s just, as Laban Tall points out, that there seem to be an awful lot of them.
Cuttings
Defame fathers, create crime?,
Norman Dennis, October 2000, as published by UK Commentators, 22 May 2007. Crime in the 1840s.
Friedrich Engels (of all people) in claiming that things were really dreadful in the 1840s succeeds in suggesting the precise opposite. Class.
Chopper Coppers,
Burning our Money, 16 August 2007.
Crime used to be much lower because police were on the beat.
Last updated: 03 October 2007
Mobile Phones
Opinion
Rob Fisher on the EU’s regulation on roaming. He’s against it although he thinks he’s likely to gain. I suspect in the long-run he (and everyone else) will lose.
Cuttings
New doubts raised over mobile phone safety, Telegraph, 30 August 2007. They cause cells to split, apparently.
Last updated: 31 August 2007
Health
Articles
A waste of time and money, Stephen Pollard, 10 May 2007. The colossal waste in the NHS.
Which is better, American or British medical care?, James Bartholomew, The Welfare State We’re In, 21 February 2005.
Argues that in the US outcomes are better and that includes for the poor. Points out that there is massive state involvement in the US.
A Cuban death rehearsal, Prospect, June 2007. Eye witness account (it’s someway down) of conditions inside Cuba’s hospitals.
Factettes
Cuba imported Spanish doctors to treat Castro. From Will He Ever Die? EU Referendum 27 July 2007.
Canadian woman gives birth to quadruplets at US hospital because there were no suitable beds in Canada.
Tim Blair, 18 August 2007
News stories
Patients ‘have been failed by NHS reforms’, Daily Telegraph, 10 September 2007. So say the patients’ “tsar”.
Private emergency healthcare growing in Australia, The Welfare State We’re In, 29 July 2007. Assuming this is true and assuming that Australia’s health system is as state-dominated as everybody else’s, suggests that, as there is a market for private alternatives, the state sector isn’t very good.
Woman, 108, must wait 18 months for hearing aid, Guardian, 30 July 2007. In Britain. (Via Arkanssouri)
Junior doctors forced to stay in unsuitable jobs, The Telegraph, 28 August 2007. They continue to be messed around by the government’s new computer system.
GP: I may go private because of NHS crisis
Telegraph 29 October 2007.
Record numbers go abroad for health
Telegraph 29 October 2007.
Hospital food fails safety inspection, Burning our money, 13 August 2007.
Last updated: 30 October 2007
Feedback
Prostitution
News Stories
The Most Happy Bordello, Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2007. Suggests that legal brothels looked after their workers.
Last updated: 08 August 2007
Test
Last updated: 24 July 2007
Media
Articles
The Talk-O-Sphere: Why the Empire is Striking Back with the Fairness Doctrine, Richard Miniter, Pajamas Media, 1 August 2007. Interesting not for what the title says is interesting but for a discussion about government restrictions on broadcasting in the US. These were abolished in the 1980s paving the way for “right-wing” talk radio hosts. But why nothing similar in TV?
Tilting at Windmills, Joshua Livestro, Pajamas Media, 9 July 2007. Bias from Holland’s state-owned broadcaster.
Crisis-prone BBC needs management clear-out, Jeff Randall, Daily Telegraph, 27 July 2007. Argues that there are an awful lot of pen pushers.
Harry Phibbs asks, did Michael Moore win the 2000 election for Bush? Citizen Moore: An American Maverick - Roger Rapoport, Social Affairs Unit, 31 July 2007. Suggests that Moore is not always entirely straight with us.
Cuttings
BBC staff face sack in cheat inquiry, Daily Telegraph, 20 September 2007. They even rigged a phone-in vote to pick a name for the Blue Peter cat.
Reuters Busted by a 13-Year Old, Little Green Footballs, 10 August 2007. Footage claimed to be of a recent event turned out to have come from a Hollywood feature film. (via Pajamas Media)
Going to the Well Once Too Often, Confederate Yankee, 15 August 2007. A press photo claiming to show bullets fired into a house in Iraq appear to have been faked. Badly. (Via Instapundit)
Spot the difference, Guy Herbert, Samizdata, 12 August 2007. Similar stories, completely different slant.
Quotes
“This August I’m sorry not to be in Edinburgh. Not because I’ll miss the Fringe. If I want left-wing propaganda masquerading as comedy I can always tune into Radio 4… ”Michael Gove, The Times, August 14, 2007. (Via Biased BBC)
Last updated: 20 September 2007