My paper for the upcoming Molinari Symposium is now online.
In related news, Gary Chartier has decided to boycott air travel in order to protest the irradiate-or-grope screening process; I’ll be reading out his responses (along with Kevin Carson’s commentary) in absentia sua. Doug Den Uyl will also not be attending (though he’s not boycotting anything as far as I know); Doug Rasmussen will read out their joint commentary.
For Immediate Release
12/05/10
POC Thomas L. Knapp
Media Contact:
media@c4ss.org
530-618-C4SS
Technical Contact:
admin@c4ss.org
ANARCHISTS LAUNCH WIKILEAKS MIRROR, ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
December 5th — “Censorship has always been wrong and irresponsible,” says Brad Spangler. “Now it’s another thing: Impossible.”
Spangler, director of the Center for a Stateless Society, announced on Sunday that the Center is now mirroring Wikileaks — an international whistle-blower site which reactionary elements in the US government have worked assiduously to suppress over the last week — and encouraging and assisting others in doing likewise.
“I feel [US Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton’s pain,” says Spangler. “Wikileaks’ release of 250,000 diplomatic cables previously hidden behind a state secrets wall has been tremendously embarrassing to her, not to mention implicating her in an international identity theft scheme that looks a lot like Watergate and the Zimmerman Telegram rolled into one.
“But embarrassment or not, state officials have no right to hide their misdeeds from the people who foot the bill, in money and blood, for government actions. Nor, now, do they have the power to do so.”
Using custom software developed by C4SS web administrator Mike Gogulski, the mirror site (wikileaks.c4ss.org) updates daily from Wikileaks’ servers regardless of where those servers are located.
C4SS is also making the software publicly available and encouraging others to mirror Wikileaks as well. “This is an opportunity for those who support freedom of information to take action,” says Gogulski. “We particularly hope to see people and organizations with greater resources than we dispose of — the Electronic Frontier Foundation, for example, or US Representative Ron Paul’s IT staff — making use of those resources, and of the tool we’re offering, to settle this issue once and for all.”
“The toothpaste is out of the tube and we intend to keep it out of the tube,” says Spangler. “This information will remain publicly available to anyone who cares to look it over.”
-30-
about 300 words
C4SS Mirror of Wikileaks:
http://wikileaks.c4ss.org
Information on setting up your own mirror:
http://c4ss.org/content/5238
I’m back in the frozen north (relatively speaking).
Various items, in no particular order:
1. The following proposal appeared on the Nov. 2, 2010 Alabama ballot:
Proposed Statewide Amendment Number One (1)
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to provide that the provision in Amendment 778, now appearing as Section 269.08 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, which prohibits the payment of any fees, charges, or commissions for the assessment and collection of any special ad valorem tax on taxable property levied by the county commission pursuant to Amendment 778 (Section 269.08) shall only apply to any ad valorem tax first levied and collected pursuant to Amendment 778 (Section 269.08) for the tax year commencing October 1, 2006. (Proposed by Act No. 2009-286.)
Evidently the measure failed by 568,861 to 459,917 – which means that 459,917 people not only thought they understood what the hell the proposal meant, but cared about it enough to vote for it.
2. From an AP story about a cruise on Lake Nasser:
The cruise includes several classy touches, like cocktails at the start of the trip as the ship sails past the Tropic of Cancer, the northern boundary of the tropics. Then as the awesome statues of Abu Simbel rise out of the waters on the final day the triumphal sounds of Verdi’s Egypt-inspired opera “Aïda” burst out of the ship’s speakers.
Because, y’know, nothing says “class” like modern music blaring kitschily at you to jerk you out of the moment as you’re trying to look at ancient monuments.
3. In an interview with Olbermann last month, Nancy Pelosi warned that if the Supreme Court’s horrifying defense of free speech in Citizens United were to enable corporate fatcats to pull off a Republican victory, it “would mean that we are now a plutocracy, an oligarchy.” As opposed to what we’ve been for the last two centuries?
4. A recent “Quote of the Day” from my local newspaper:
“Adventure is not outside man; it is within.” — George Eliot
That would be a great tagline for Fantastic Voyage.
5. Damon Root mentions my post on Lane.
6. Check out how you can promote the cause of market anarchy by buying Christmas music.
Hey all. I’m spending a very relaxing but all too short Thanksgiving break in Key Largo.
Ran down to Key West on Wednesday, had a great holiday dinner back here at the Conch House on Thursday. Heading back tomorrow morning, alas.
Jeff Riggenbach quotes me in his piece on Nozick on Mises.org today.
The Molinari Society will be holding its seventh annual Symposium – this time with two sessions – in conjunction with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in Boston, December 27-30, 2010. Here’s the latest schedule info:
GIV-3. Tuesday, 28 December 2010, 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Molinari Society Symposium, SESSION 1:
Author Meets Critics: Gary Chartier’s Economic Justice and Natural Law
Marriott/Westin-Copley, precise location TBAchair: Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)
critics:
Jennifer Baker (College of Charleston)
Kevin A. Carson (Center for a Stateless Society) [Commentary online: to be read in absentia]
David Gordon (Ludwig von Mises Institute)
Douglas Den Uyl (Liberty Fund)
Douglas B. Rasmussen (St. John’s University)author:
Gary Chartier (La Sierra University)GVII-4. Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Molinari Society Symposium, SESSION 2:
Topic: Spontaneous Order
Marriott/Westin-Copley, location TBAchair: Gary Chartier (La Sierra University)
presenters:
Charles Johnson (Molinari Institute)
“Women and the Invisible Fist: How Violence Against Women Enforces the Unwritten Law of Patriarchy”
Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)
“Invisible Hands and Incantations: The Mystification of State Power”commentators:
Nina Brewer-Davis (Auburn University)
Reshef Agam-Segal (Auburn University)
As part of the APA’s continuing policy to prevent free riders, they’re not telling us the name of the room until we get to the registration desk. As part of our policy of combating evil we will of course broadcast the name of the room far and wide as soon as we learn it.
This year we have managed to avoid any schedule conflict with the Ayn Rand Society (Dec. 28th, 9:00-11:00) or Jan Narveson’s author-meets-critics session (Dec. 30th, 9:00-12:00) but not, alas, with the American Association for the Philosophic Study of Society (Dec. 29th, 9:00-11:00).
Okay, Machete isn’t Hitchcock or anything; but it’s a fun movie. It also has some interesting libertarian aspects:
Now we just need to convert Robert Rodriguez to agorism and we’ll be all set.