I’ve been looking through my blog archives for major items to add to the “past rants” list on my front page [since removed, Dec’04], as well as for broken links. That activity led me again to Francis Fukuyama’s goofy screed of 2002 May 2, and I finally got around to following links to a whole mess of replies: John Tabin; Brink Lindsey [gone]; Glenn Reynolds; Dan Hanson; Stephen Green; Virginia Postrel; Perry de Havilland; David Dieteman; Christopher Pellerito; Eugene Volokh; Anand Giridharadas.

I am disappointed to find practically all of them making the same point: “But Frank, lots of libertarians support US military interventions overseas.” If anyone anywhere joined me in observing that military force is not the only way to engage with the world, I missed it. If anyone pointed out a distinction between defense and intervention, I missed it.

Oh well. “It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.” (G H Hardy)

Guns and Dope Party

May we Suggest
EVERYBODY FOR PRESIDENT!

— Well, at least everybody who feels ready for the responsibility of self-goverment. Those who still need a Big Daddy or a Big Momma to discipline and dominate them should vote for whatever führer or saviour they like best. If you want self-government don’t vote for the Two Lying Bastards of the Democan and Republicrat parties . . . . . or for any minority party that also wants to govern you . . . .

WRITE IN YOUR OWN NAME

2006: The domain is now junk.

I often hear it argued (usually by tax cranks) that where the law says something like

As used herein, the term “United States” includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other territories and possessions

it means that the law does not apply to Illinois. I wonder whether any of the twenty people who read these humble rantings can point me to any ruling in which the word include was held to be exclusive.

I’ve occasionally seen this language in contracts and/or regulations:

The masculine includes the feminine, and the singular includes the plural.

Am I to understand that such a clause redefines he to mean only the feminine they?

Why do gun-grabbers hate people so much?

2006: The link is now stale. I don’t remember the item, but I’ll bet it was a piece of hate mail from someone who hopes advocates of RKBA are gruesomely murdered.

Someone or other (oops!) reminded me of Matthew Hogan’s essay “Mesolibertarians: Are You One? Have We a Home?”. For the record and for whatever it’s worth, in principle I don’t quite agree with every plank of Hogan’s platform but it is a compromise well within my comfort zone.

Northcote Parkinson wrote (“Parkinson’s Second Law”):

In 1957 Mr John Applebey remarked that those responsible for the [British] public accounts seem to confuse themselves as well as everyone else.

Presumably the creators of Yes Minister, and thus of Sir Humphrey Appleby who speaks in riddles, had read this.

Swen quotes Phil Ochs’s “Love me, I’m a Liberal”, which reminds me of this from The National Lampoon’s White Album Gold Turkey: National Lampoon Radio Hour/Greatest Hits:

I wish I was a Negro, with lots of Negro soul,
so I could stay true to my ethnic roots and still play rock and roll.
If I was a funky Negro, eatin’ soul food barbecues,
I wouldn’t have to sing the middle class liberal Well-Intentioned Blues.

I wish I was an Indian, a grown-up Sioux papoose,
so when I get drunk on a beer and a half I have a good excuse.
I’d be a noble savage, wouldn’t ever wear no shoes,
and I wouldn’t have to sing the middle class liberal Well-Intentioned Blues.

I wish I was a wetback on a strike in a lettuce patch
or a slant-eyed peasant with Viet Cong stashed underneath my thatch.
I only ever cross a picket line to pay my union dues
to keep on singing the middle class liberal Well-Intentioned Blues.

But I am not a Negro (come on!), not a red man nor a Mex. (Join me, kids!)
I’m a member of the oppressing color, language, age and sex.
I sympathize with the Arab cause; I feel for the put-upon Jew.
And I keep singing —
the middle class liberal —
humanitarian —
meaningful dialogue —
we are all responsible Well-Intentioned Blues.

(And again I wish I knew how to display this with hanging indents.)