Nanny Statism

Follow-Up to: Why Isn’t There an All-Smoking Airline?

by Wilton Alston November 21, 2011

Right on cue, the vigilant bureaucrats at Protect-You-From-Yourself-Central, A.K.A., New York City, have launched a volley for concerned tax-feeder busybodies everywhere.  Writes LRC Blog reader, James Nellis: I thought this was an excellent sidebar to your recent blog post:  NYC sues roll-your-own cigarette shops over taxes The linked piece is chock-full of statist brilliance, and I don’t want [...]

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Why Isn’t There an All-Smoking Airline?

by Wilton Alston November 20, 2011

I am not a smoker. Never have been. Frankly, I admit to thinking it’s a vile habit. Those caveats aside, the treatment of smokers in the U.S. is something of a quandary to me. Here is a group composed of a cross-section of Americana that might be unrivaled in its breadth. Rich people smoke. Poor [...]

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On Sweatshops, Liberty, and Social Justice

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché November 17, 2011

Over at the Center for a Stateless Society, Michael Kleen asks whether compassionate libertarians can agree to oppose sweatshops as a matter of social justice. Ah, but what does he mean by “oppose” and “social justice”? Libertarianism is not about people just getting by; it is about maximizing human liberty. Liberty cannot be achieved as long as [...]

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Oh The Things (And People) I Own!

by Manuel Lora November 16, 2011

In one of my first posts on this blog I mentioned the usage of “the” as a catch-all term to include a variety of government-”offered” “goods” and “services” that people in general refer to offhandedly (“the” schools, “the” roads, etc.). The Florida Department of Health has launched a campaign to eliminate second hand smoke from bars, parks [...]

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Keynesian Economic Policy Is a Negative-Sum Game

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché September 7, 2011

Keynesian economic policy is a negative-sum game: They essentially believe that you can take water from the deep end of the swimming pool with a bucket, carry it to the shallow end while sloshing water out onto the deck along the way, dump it back in, and somehow the water level of the swimming pool [...]

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Anders Behring Breivik and Norwegian Prisons

by Matthew Alexander July 27, 2011

The latest news from Norway is the prison that might, for the next 21 years, be a home for Anders Behring Breivik. After reviewing the videos and photos, I must say, Ohio State offered me no better when I went there on scholarship some years ago (and my scholarship was only good for four years). [...]

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Helmet Laws and Needless deaths

by Robert Wicks July 4, 2011

Yahoo News reports the death of a motorcyclist during a protest ride against New York’s helmet laws. While it is certainly tempting to simply cite this as a case of someone “asking for it” and getting it, consider the specifics of this case: Philip Contos was riding without a helmet at this place and at [...]

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