Another government interferes with the operation of the market, this time for the purpose of “rescuing” customers and restoring high-overhead, Mère-et-Père (French for “money pit”) bookstores to their rightful place of prominence in the French book market. In this case, the threat came in the form of dangerously inexpensive books from Amazon.

Now, if the French regulators get their way, those French bargain seekers are going to have to pay for their books like every other respectable Frenchman–par le nez.

(Thanks to Eric Garris.)

Even organized crime is feeling the pinch from the rapidly deflating housing bubble. According to a Jane’s Security News brief:

Shooting match: Gang-related killings surge in Japan


Japan witnessed an upsurge in gang-related shootings in the first half of 2007. The violence is a result of organised crime syndicates seeking new ways to generate income as traditional revenue sources from bid-rigging in the construction industry dry up.

[first posted to http://jir.janes.com - 18 September 2007]

Of course, the official bandits have yet to lay off of the printing presses, and the vast majority of their victims aren’t criminals at all.

The man credited with founding Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales — known to Wikipedians as “Jimbo” — was a finance major at Auburn University when the Mises Institute’s Mark Thornton suggested he read “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” a now-famous essay written by Austro-libertarian economist and Nobel laureate Friedrich von Hayek.

The essay argues that prices in the market represent a spontaneous order that results from the interaction of individuals with diverse wants, allowing them to cooperate to achieve complex goals. According to a June 2007 Reason magazine interview, this insight of Hayek’s is what led Wales to found Wikipedia. The rather lofty vision that inspired Wales? “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.” FULL ARTICLE

According to a fascinating article in The Times, walking to work may actually result in your augmenting, rather than reducing your “carbon footprint.” The article debunks the claims of those promoting many “green” or “eco-friendly” products and services. Included among the myth-busting:

• Traditional nappies are as bad as disposables, a study by the Environment Agency found. While throwaway nappies make up 0.1 per cent of landfill waste, the cloth variety are a waste of energy, clean water and detergent

• Burning wood for fuel is better for the environment than recycling it

• Organic dairy cows are worse for the climate. They produce less milk so their methane emissions per litre are higher

As usual with the environmentalist anti-human crowd, the conventional wisdom isn’t so wise. It is good to see a major media outlet like The Times outing some of the environmentalists’ dogma as bunk. Now, if only people will view this as a reductio ad absurdum that deals a death blow to the anti-human agenda, rather than a warrant to further impede the production of food and transportation.

According to an article in Variety magazine, megastars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are among the possibilities for the lead roles in a new movie version of Ayn Rand’s classic novel Atlas Shrugged. Says the article,

As for stars, [the] book provides an ideal role for an actress in lead character Dagny Taggart, so it’s not a stretch to assume Rand enthusiast Angelina Jolie’s name has been brought up. Brad Pitt, also a fan, is rumored to be among the names suggested for lead male character John Galt…. Oliver Stone was attached to direct a remake of “Fountainhead” for Warner Bros. and Paramount, but the project has languished in development. Along the way, Pitt expressed interest in playing Roark.

The article also notes the difficulties encountered in previous attempts to turn Rand’s novel into a movie, even in spite of the interest of big-name stars:

For years, producer Al Ruddy tried to make Rand’s definitive book into a movie, attracting the interest of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, and Faye Dunaway at one point. But while Rand was still alive, she had script approval, complicating the process.

According to a WorldTribune.com article, Blackwater USA now has a brigade-size force (1500–3500 personnel) available for low-intensity conflicts. While speaking at the Special Operations Forces Exhibition in Jordan, J. Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA, stated:

“There is clear potential to conduct security operations at a fraction of the cost of NATO operations.”

Blackwater USA is most noted for its roles in the current Iraqi conflict and in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. While the conditions that resulted in this company’s marked growth are clearly the consequences of state-sponsored military action, everyone basically agrees that Blackwater and other private military corporations (“PMCs”) are far more cost-effective than government-administered military forces for virtually any engagement.

Take a look at this article, which (briefly) describes the arrest of a Korean minister who was implicated in a black market organ transplant ring. According to the story, this clergyman and his cohorts were taking “premiums from terminally ill patients in return for arranging tours to China for transplant surgeries.” How dare anyone actually find organs for desperately ill patients! What was the compensation to the conspirators? Again, according to the article,

It was uncovered that Koh and his collaborators earned W120 million (US$120,000) from 28 liver cancer patients.

Perhaps $4200 per patient wasn’t adequate to generate the required protection money.

According to this article, Richard Branson‘s Virgin Galactic space venture will set up shop in the Southwestern US. Unfortunately,

“New Mexico announced an agreement Tuesday for the state to build a $225 million spaceport.”

It seems that the state of New Mexico has been buffaloed into subsidizing the venture because of the usual tripe about job creation, etc., with the company claiming that the venture would “give birth to a new industry in New Mexico.”

The article cited seems to indicate that Virgin Galactic may eventually repay the state of New Mexico for the costs associated with the project.

“Virgin will have a 20-year lease on the facility, with annual payments of $1 million for the first five years and rising to cover the cost of the project by the end of the lease.”

You can read the company’s press release here.

Left and Right was a “journal of libertarian thought” founded by Murray Rothbard in 1965. It was edited and published by Rothbard until 1968, and includes many exciting essays by Rothbard, Leonard Liggio, Ronald Radosh, Gordon Tullock, and others.

Most of the essays from Left and Right have been available on Mises.org for some time, but there were many errors in the online table of contents, and some outright omissions. Thanks to the kind assistance of Laurence Vance, the table of contents has been corrected, missing articles have been added, and the full collection of Left and Right is now accessible online for the first time.

Be sure to peruse this invaluable resource now that it is available!

The Brady Campaign, a prominent gun control advocacy group that has long been rightfully reviled by supporters of gun-rights is now engaging in a campaign to attempt to educate foreign tourists and others about a new Florida law that gives citizens greater latitude in defending themselves. The new law, which can be reviewed here, does away with the “duty to retreat” that previously required an individual to retreat from, rather than shoot, an attacker if feasible.

The Brady folks, being hysterically anti-gun rights, are understandably upset by the passage of this law, and are predicting doom and gloom for Florida. They have since begun a major campaign to inform foreign tourists and others about this law. As reported in The Scotsman here, the Brady campaign has issued a statement saying,

Warning: Florida residents can use deadly force,” says one of the adverts. Another reads: “Thinking about a Florida vacation? Please ensure your family is safe. In Florida, avoid disputes. Use special caution in arguing with motorists on Florida roads…”

Peter Hamm, the communications director of the Brady Campaign, said: “It’s a particular risk faced by travellers coming to Florida for a vacation because they have no idea it’s going to be the law of the land. If they get into a road rage argument, the other person may feel he has the right to use deadly force.”

Imagine that, someone standing their ground with an attacker, rather than running away! What is this, America?

It seems then that this ad campaign effectively does what lawmakers/lobbyists were arguably trying to do with this law: let potential attackers know that there is now the possibility of a reckoning at the hands of everyday folks. Could this gun control campaign then actually help to reduce the incidence of attacks?

In an announcement that anti-statists everywhere have been waiting for, a private firm, 4Frontiers, has announced plans to colonize and mine the planet Mars.

From the Wired article:

The new company, 4Frontiers, plans to mine Mars for building materials and energy sources, and export the planet’s mineral wealth to forthcoming space stations on the moon and elsewhere.The company also wants to build the first permanent human settlement on Mars, using strictly Martian materials, as early as 2025. The idea is to make Mars a center for needs of the solar system economy, said Bruce Mackenzie, co-founder of 4Frontiers and the company’s vice president and outreach director.

US Labor Secretary Elaine Chao apparently skipped Bastiat in her studies, and has declared that “what will happen — and I have seen this in previous catastrophes and hurricanes — there is a bright spot in that new jobs do get created.”

Read the article at Yahoo!News here.

The Russians seem to be close to achieving yet another space first: a trip around the moon that will be wholly funded by “space tourists.” The tab? A cool US$100 million. Of course, with three individuals in the Russian Soyuz capsule for up to 21 days, the accomodations for this voyage may not exactly be luxurious.

…Mr. Kraft added that the flight would be cramped and probably extremely unpleasant. With three people in a small Soyuz craft for an extended trip, he said, “I imagine that you could endure that, but, man, it would be tough.”

Mr. Anderson of Space Adventures said the craft had about as much room as a sport utility vehicle. “Will it be cramped? Yes,” he said. “But will it be doable? Yes.”

He noted that the Gemini capsule was smaller than the Soyuz, and that the astronauts James A. Lovell and Frank Borman orbited the Earth for 14 days in the Gemini 7 mission in 1965.

But Mr. Kraft, who was the flight director for that mission, recalled that Mr. Lovell and Mr. Borman were miserable. They complained bitterly that the trip was like “14 days in a men’s room,” and Mr. Kraft said that he had to talk them out of ending the mission early. “They wanted to get out of there,” he said.

Marc Emery, the head of a Canadian marijuana seed distributorship that is reputed to be the largest such enterprise in the world, was arrested earlier today in Halifax, apparently due to a “request” from the US DEA. Emery, also an avid anti-drug-war activist and the editor/publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, is apparently slated for extradition to the US, according to this blog and other sources.

MSNBC is reporting that the icepick purportedly used to kill Leon Trotsky may be offered for sale by its present owner, Ana Alicia Salas of Mexico City. Salas’ possession of the ice pick came about due to her father’s position as a secret police commander in the 1940s.

Trotsky’s grandson, Esteban Volkov, objects to the possibility of a sale on Indiana Jones grounds, arguing that the owner should not be able to sell the artifact because, “It should be in [a] museum.” Volkov, apparently not taking his grandfather’s ice-pick “lesson” to heart, declares in the article that “Marxism is still valid, and present… though we do live in a market economy.” Well, it is certainly present…

People often complain that there are not enough ‘honest’ politicians. One lawmaker in New York has demonstrated the reason why honest politicians do not necessarily enjoy the greatest popularity–politicians have little if any real regard for their constituency!

Assemblyman Willis Stephens says he thought he was sending the e-mail to an aide. Instead, he sent the note to nearly 300 people on an online discussion group that focuses on the community of Brewster.

The message included the comment that he was “just watching the idiots pontificate.”

Read the Washington Post story here

In the wake of the Kelo vs. City of New London decision, Freestar Media Group has asked the City of Weare, New Hampshire to exercise eminent domain on their behalf. Specifically, Freestar has petitioned the city’s Board of Selectmen to use eminent domain to allow for the razing of Supreme Court Justice David Souter in order to make way for a hotel development. The press release explains the particular necessity of confiscating this piece of land:

The proposed development, called “The Lost Liberty Hotel” will feature the “Just Desserts Café” and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon’s Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.”

Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans.

(29 June 2005) UPDATE: In response to the above action by FreeStar Media, the city’s code enforcement officer had this to say:

“Am I taking this seriously? But of course,” said Charles Meany, Weare’s code enforcement officer. “In lieu of the recent Supreme Court decision, I would imagine that some people are pretty much upset. If it is their right to pursue this type of end, then by all means let the process begin.”

British drivers may soon pay by the mile for their use of public roads in the U.K. According to this article, the British government is seriously considering the implementation of a system where individual vehicles would be tracked by satellites in order for individual road-use fees to be assessed.

While this news is likely to raise the hackles of privacy advocates who will undoubtedly lament the state’s possession of such information, it also demonstrates the feasibility of individually-tailored fees for the use of roads. This type of technology, in the hands of private-transportation entrepreneurs, could facilitate more streamlined private transit provision, and offers an answer to those opponents of the free market who almost inevitably object to private ownership/management of roadways with comments about the inconvenience of toll-roads and the stop-start nature of their access ramps.

In a move that has previously only been imagined in the punchlines of jokes, a group of emergency doctors in Great Britain is promoting the idea of a ban on long, pointed kitchen knives in a new editorial in the British Medical Journal. The recommendation comes in response to increases in knife attacks in recent years, a 17.9% increase in British violent crimes between 2003 and 2004, and a new study that shows that almost one quarter of 16-year-olds in Britain carry some sort of edged weapon.

The BBC story is here. The NY Times story is here.

Of course, if guns were re-legalized, the costs associated with entering a life of violent crime would be higher, but I guess Britain would rather have chefs with dull knives. What’s next, a legislative warrant for safety scissors?

In a report [.PDF] that is being picked up by Janes Intelligence Group and others, Ryan King and Mark Mauer explain how the U.S. government now spends more on marijuana enforcement than ever before.

More importantly, the report details the change in drug enforcement policy over the last 20 years, as well as the perceived effects of such policy on use of the drug.