I have never liked or favored the estate tax, and yet I am very much of two minds about actually abolishing it. I’m glad of the benefits to the individuals involved, and yet it is only one of the issues involved in planning for what happens to all of us eventually, and abolishing it removes …
Category Archives: Politics
Making Prepayment Penalties Illegal
I got a search for “which states allow prepayment penalties”. I’m not aware of any that don’t. If there are any, I’d like to know. Any such states should immediately be renamed “Denial”. I really hate prepayment penalties, for a large number of reasons. Nonetheless, to make them illegal would not be in the best …
Transparency, National Security and Shield Laws
Asymmetric Information has an excellent article on what journalistic ethics are and are not, much to the chagrin of Juan Cole. As I stated a few days ago, I would not make it illegal for the press to publish anything, so long as they’re willing to defend its factuality in court. That they publish a …
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Media a Privileged Class? I Don’t Think So!
Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent article on the state of the law vis-a-vis publicizing past felony convictions. I ask, how can it be permitted for the media to do something that private citizens cannot? Does the media have more freedom of speech than a private citizen? I would submit that the first amendment was clearly …
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Libertarians and the Art Of Politics
(Originally written in 2005. Still valid) Of all the political parties, my personal sympathies lie closest to the official platform of the Libertarian Party. Nonetheless, I have never been a registered Libertarian, never sent them money, and likely never will. The Libertarian Party, you see, is primarily interested in ideological purity. They’ve been hijacked by …
Jihad versus Hirabah
Enrevanche sent me an email about a Chapomatic article and his own response on the distinction between Jihad (or “holy war”, a name for war in the name of religion), and hirabah, which to quote The term hirabah refers to public terrorism in a war against society and civilization. In legal terminology it is defined …
Surveillance – Should it be Illegal?
Balloon Juice has a piece on how you can get anyone’s phone records for just over $100. And this evidently surprises not only him but the place he got it. Since the 1970s, the technology has existed to monitor every conversation in any room that has windows from basically any distance. The great defenses have …
The Economics of Housing Development
The genesis of all of this is Something’s Gotta Give, a report (.pdf format) from the Center For Housing Policy. Furthermore, there is an article in the Washington Times from UPI that connects the dots on the tactical level. The Center for Housing Policy report details some of the costs to society. Not surprisingly, when …
The Basis of War
(This was originally going to be part II of Is the United States Worth Defending? but that got too long to continue.) What are my political priorities? Quite simply, I want to make the world as a whole and the United States in particular better places to live. I want people to live longer, richer, …
Is the United States Worth Defending?
The question of where anyone’s priorities are begs the question of “Where do your loyalties lie?” I am loyal first to the long term good of humanity. I want as many people as possible to live the best lives possible. I realize that this makes me sound like some sort of socialist or communist. Nothing …