Haunted by his muse

Lately, it has seemed to me as if Republicans and many leaning towards right-wing economics have been idolizing a softer, warmer vision of Ayn Rand: one that never existed.  Tom Toles shows what Ayn would really have thought of them.

Haunted By His Muse

What's New

The new site is growing closer to functionality.  I've solved the problem of book entries for now, which will make it easy for me to cite books and quote from books.  It also makes it simple to find books online, at Amazon, or elsewhere.  The first books I've added are in the Fundamental Libertarian Books index.  Take a look!  The books important to refuting libertarianism will be imported from the old site and a bunch added from my library.

I've imported A Non-Libertarian FAQ from the old site: it was much easier than I expected.  I should be able to import my own writings from the old site very rapidly.

I'm ready to populate the new site with the 500+ links from the old site.  I have two javascript tool pages that allow me to compose pages rapidly with my templates.  They are at the bottom of the sidebar. 

Though my summer vacation is almost done, and I have not yet imported the 500+ links, I've gotten the most important tasks for the new site done.  Soon I'll be able to change the old site to just a bunch of redirects!

NEW 8/20/2012: Bullies, Sissies And Other Libertarian Nutjobs [More...]

Shanu Athiparambath's personal story of the wackiness of libertarians in India. Libertarianism is cross-culturally looney. He includes some excellent, relevant cartoons; but without needed statements of permission from their authors. [more...]

NEW 8/20/2012: Merchants of Policy [More...]

Shanu Athiparambath's personal story of the corruption and cynicism of Indian libertarian think-tanks. [more...]

NEW 8/20/2012: Think-Tanks In General

A very few think-tanks are non-ideological and attempt to solve problems. The vast majority are ideological propaganda organs that spew the bullshit their donors pay for. [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: Under Construction

Pages that are incomplete and need more work before they should be linked. [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: Healing Our World: In an Age of Aggression

Libertarianism repackaged for the new-agey. Pseudoscientific, pollyanna claptrap. [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain

Richard Epstein takes the Lockean Fable about property seriously, and builds cloud-castles of his wished-for law upon it. [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do : The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country

How an obsession with liberty can lead you to discount all externalities. Nothing you do can affect anybody else! [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: The Law

An ancient essay that suffers badly from being pre-marginalist, pre-institutionalist and based on natural rights. [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: The Libertarian Reader

Cherry picking from historical figures as if they wouldn't object strongly to modern libertarianism. Plus selections from the usual ideologues. [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: Libertarianism: A Primer

A pollyanna view of just how wonderful libertarianism is! [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: The Road to Serfdom (Comic Book) [More...]

Friedrich von Hayek's propaganda simplified for the masses. A comically failed prediction of the coming totalitarian socialist state in western nations. [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: Libertarianism In One Lesson: Why Libertarianism Is the Best Hope for America's Future

David Bergland provides first exercises in libertarian self-indoctrination. It's amazing how he calls 158 pages "one lesson". [more...]

NEW 8/16/2012: PBS TV Series "Free to Choose" by Economist Milton Friedman [More...]

The television version of Free To Choose that preceded the book. [more...]

NEW 8/15/2012: William Buckley on Murray Rothbard

William Buckley puts Murray Rothbard in his place. Pages xxiii to xxv from the introduction to American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century by William Buckley. [more...]

NEW 8/15/2012: Anarcho-capitalism

The "logical" extreme of libertarianism, doing away with all government in favor of hi-tech feudalism. [more...]

NEW 8/15/2012: William Buckley on Ayn Rand

William Buckley puts Ayn Rand in her place. Pages xx to xxii from the introduction to American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century by William Buckley. [more...]

NEW 8/13/2012: YouTube

YouTube links can be ephemeral, and cannot be searched. Some people have a preference for videos, so a few are present here. [more...]

NEW 8/13/2012: The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand [More...]

Ayn Rand disses government, religions, and love of almost everybody but yourself. She is such a caricature of a Russian charlatan. YouTube [more...]

NEW 8/08/2012: Who /Really/ Invented the Internet? [More...]

David Warsh smacks down libertarian denial that government launched the Internet. [more...]

NEW 8/08/2012: Of Means and Ends: Liberals and Libertarians [More...]

Libertarians such as David Boaz claim that they are the true descendants of classical liberals. There have been many attempts to steal the word liberalism: libertarians are simply making another. [more...]

NEW 8/08/2012: Classical Liberals

Libertarian use of the term classical liberal is based on a revisionist history of what early liberals actually stood for. By cherry-picking quotes and positions, and ignoring much, libertarians claim classical liberals were just like modern libertarians. [more...]

NEW 8/08/2012: Liberalism

Liberalism differs substantially from libertarianism. All modern first-world nations are liberal. There are no libertarian communities, let alone nations. [more...]

NEW 8/08/2012: The Liberal Idea [More...]

Stephen Holmes sketches out a set of claims that are broadly characteristic of liberal political thought since the time of the classical liberals until now. [more...]

NEW 8/08/2012: Libertarian Revisionist History

History doesn't favor libertarian ideology. The solution? Libertarians write their own history! [more...]

NEW 8/07/2012: Mary Ruwart

A former Libertarian Party presidential candidate, author of several Polyanna-ish books. [more...]

NEW 8/07/2012: Can the Libertarians Go Mainstream? [More...]

Time Magazine points out how Mary Ruwart endorses children having rights to willingly participate in sexual acts. Other libertarians point out how she puts them at risk of being poster children for NAMBLA. [more...]

NEW 8/07/2012: Its Hip! Its Cool! Its Libertarianism! [More...]

"Libertarianism isn’t some cutting-edge political philosophy that somehow transcends the traditional "left to right" spectrum. It’s a radical, hard-right economic doctrine promoted by wealthy people who always end up backing Republican candidates, no matter how often they talk about civil liberties, ending the wars and legalizing pot. Funny how that works." [more...]

NEW 8/07/2012: The Case Against Egoistic, Libertarian Baby-Starving [More...]

"According to some Libertarians and Objectivists, it is permissible to abandon or refuse to feed one's children [...]" [more...]

NEW 8/04/2012: Many capitalisms? [More...]

"We might imagine that there are three "attractors" that define a modern capitalist political economy: the values associated with the market and independent decision making by corporations and entrepreneurs; the value associated with the establishment of regulations protecting the common good and the safety and health of the public; and the value associated with securing the welfare of the whole population, involving a social security system and a willingness to redistribute income and wealth through taxation." [more...]

NEW 8/01/2012: Being a Libertarian Can Play Havoc With Your Sex Life! [More...]

David MacGregor attributes socialism to the women's vote. "Such sensibilities [women's] are fine and praiseworthy, when applied to voluntary interactions between people (as in a family) - but once they enter the "political" domain (coercion), they become a tyranny in the making." [more...]

Unclassified Criticisms

A miscellany of interesting criticisms. [more...]

Richard Epstein

A law-and-economics, laissez-faire, University of Chicago Professor who views the world through the peephole of property rights. [more...]

Which (macro)-economists are worth listening to? [More...]

"[...] policymakers and the public should listen to economists who fulfill two critera: first, they have made empirically testable predictions [...] that have proved, by and large, to be broadly consistent with the data; and second, they base those predictions on an analytic framework (not necessarily a formal model) that is persuasive." He names names. [more...]

The Myth of the Libertarian Internet [More...]

Matt Yglesias ridicules Peter Thiel for the foolishness of standard libertarian ideological analysis. [more...]