Digging in the Dirt

by Patrick Cahalan November 1, 2011

Todd recently asked where everyone came from and how they wound up being part of the League. My first comment is apparently this one. I admit I didn’t remember precisely when I started reading the League, but if the back-end database is accurate, I have 53 comments as “Patrick Cahalan”, and 2,058 as “Pat Cahalan”. [...]

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Hardwood Pines : Ten Things I’m Missing Due to the NBA Lockout

by Tod Kelly November 1, 2011

Every year, come the end of October, there is a special bounce in my step as I eagerly await the opening tip-off of the new NBA season. I love sports in general, but I love basketball more than any of them. And even though the spirit and grit of the college game is unquestionably awesome [...]

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Some, Many, and Most

by Ethan Gach October 31, 2011

While flipping through yesterday’s New York Times I hit upon this piece which gave me pause.  For a number of reasons it didn’t sit right with me, and I was happy to see Glen Greenwald highlight a few of them.  I only recently subscribed to the Times Sunday edition, and despite the fact that they [...]

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Are You In for NaNoWriMo?

by Alex Knapp October 31, 2011

Hey there, folks – for those of you interested in playing the National Novel Writing Month game, we’ve set up a mailing list for encouragement, support, and venting. You can join here. Happy writing!

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Can the Occupy Movement Tackle Crony Capitalism?

by Tim Kowal October 30, 2011

In a comment on Shawn Gude’s previous post on the main page about the Occupy movement, I asked who the “1%” is and whether Occupy protesters were primarily aggrieved about “Wall Street,” or whether they were aggrieved about “wealth inequality” more generally.  Commenter Michael Drew referred me to this post at Rortybomb entitled “Who are [...]

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On Paths Taken: A League Census

by Tod Kelly October 30, 2011

One of the questions I sometimes get in the real world when discussing the League of Ordinary Gentlemen is why a libertarian blog would ever have me be a contributor. (This question is a distant second to the one most asked, which is: “I’m sorry, the league of what?”) I have never considered this a [...]

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Anti-Heroics with a Side of Boredom

by J.L. Wall October 30, 2011

William Brafford wonders about the meaning behind the rise of the anti-hero in the television shows favored by certain audiences (and, not to point the finger at myself too much, by a certain writer).  He concludes: There are two motions here: there’s a larger structure of judgment, within which the characters’ bad choices are shown [...]

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Democracy, Coercion, & Liberty

by E.D. Kain October 30, 2011

I’m afraid that in our recent discussion of democracy and coercion the conversation tended to hew toward the relative merits of democracy rather than on what I think was my more important point: namely, that all societies require coercion in order to exist, even anarchistic ones or night watchmen states. The coercion present in those [...]

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The New Colossus

by Guest Authors October 30, 2011

~by wardsmith The Statue of Liberty turned 125 yrs old on Friday the 28th of Oct. These words were inscribed in the Statue of Liberty in 1903: The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A [...]

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Weekend Navel Gazing: Old Boys Clubs

by Murali October 29, 2011

Commenter Ktward writes And so I’m wondering, E.D.: If you weren’t speaking to Forbes readers and the Boys Club that is the League (not a criticism, simply an observation), might your take on OWS be less guarded? Granting that she is just making an observation, it seems that her observation is correct. The gentle-persons in the [...]

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No, Tyrion isn’t just like me

by Daniel October 29, 2011

A little while ago both Erik and myself were giggling over this clip of Ben in Parks and Recreation passionately casting down the idea that HBO’s Game of Thrones would ever be canceled. Ben argues that it’s a hit because it tells real world stories in a fantasy setting. At the time, I said that [...]

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Egyptian Protesters March in Support of Occupy Oakland

by E.D. Kain October 28, 2011

Protesters in Egypt marched from Tahrir Square to the US Embassy to protest recent police violence in Oakland, CA where riot police descended on the Occupy Oakland encampment earlier this week, arresting many of the protesters and using tear gas and flash bombs to disperse crowds. Holding signs proclaiming the solidarity of the various protest movements springing [...]

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Friday Jukebox

by Mark Thompson October 28, 2011

I am currently surrounded by innumerable and extraordinarily high stacks of case law printouts and briefs, looking forward to a weekend of the same.  But moments ago, my good friend Mr. Jimmy Cliff came to visit through the magic of Pandora, followed immediately by my secret friend Steve Perry.  That made everything better.  Hopefully, they [...]

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I apologize to interrupt the politics but this is important. And Open Thread.

by Jaybird October 27, 2011

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is on sale at Steam. Five Bucks. Five Smackeroos. Five Samoleons. A fin. The sale ends after Halloween. I originally wrote a review here but, as this won’t convince many, let me just say this to you right now: This game has an 80 from Metacritic. Its ratio of critic reviews are 51 [...]

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Unions and the Occupy Movement

by Shawn Gude October 27, 2011

I recently compared the Occupy Movement to the New Left, but it’s truly striking how different the former’s relationship is with organized labor. The New Left assailed societal bureaucratization and powerful elites, including potentates in organized labor. Union members beat up antiwar protesters. Forty-plus years later, unions have gotten squarely behind Occupy Wall Street and [...]

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Who is Mitt Romney anyway?

by Elias Isquith October 27, 2011

Like the White House, it seems that the media has decided that, momentary signs of life notwithstanding, Rick Perry will not be defeating Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination next year, that we will have our first Mormon candidate for President challenge our first African American Presidential incumbent. And so the stories now begin to flow [...]

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Reining In the SWAT

by Will Truman October 27, 2011

I decided to make my inaugural front page post a relatively short one. For those of you who know me, skip this paragraph. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a contributor to Not a Potted Plant as well as the primary author of Hit Coffee, a generally non-political blog. I am [...]

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The White Luck Warrior (and a new fantasy book club)

by E.D. Kain October 27, 2011

Don’t worry, no spoilers in this review. I just finished R. Scott Bakker’s novel The White Luck Warrior (Available at Amazon) a couple days ago. It’s the second book in his Aspect-Emperor trilogy and the fifth in his series The Second Apocalypse which is comprised of three trilogies. So this is the middle book of the middle [...]

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Jon Stewart, Michael Moore, and the Professional Left

by Elias Isquith October 27, 2011

David Masciotra’s got a piece up at Popmatters that takes on a liberal sacred cow in service of defending someone else who is not quite a pariah, but certainly a guilty pleasure—at least for the kind of liberals who would even use such a phrase. The cow is Jon Stewart, the guilty pleasure is Michael [...]

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Comment Rescue: Mike & The Police

by Patrick Cahalan October 27, 2011

Mike asks: > Absolute power corrupts absolutely – > or is it more complicated than that? It’s more complicated than that. Social organizations of any type represent aggregated power. This is true whether you’re talking about a tribe in pre-history Europe, a community organization in the modern first world, a government, or an international corporation. [...]

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“An Incompatible Combination”

by Ethan Gach October 27, 2011

I’ve watched every presidential debate thus far in the Republican primary.  And I’ve done more than my fair share of laughing, weeping, and sometimes just staring blankly at the television screen.  In a way, these debates are the best reality show on TV.  Everyone involved in this circus is deadly serious about it and a [...]

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Clearly, Hand Grenades Are the Answer

by Jason Kuznicki October 27, 2011

Every time I see a sign like this this — “CAPITALISM DOESN’T WORK” — I can’t help but think of a graph like this:

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It’s Almost Halloween People

by E.D. Kain October 26, 2011

This is from The Dish: Somebody has way too much time on their hands.

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Gridlock, Graft and Governance

by Murali October 24, 2011

There seems to be a libertarian tendency to celebrate gridlock. Given that this is running off the top of my head, the latest example by Prof Hanley  can’t afford either “low key” government or any gridlock…government that brooks no dissent is all I currently have. While I may be over-interpreting him, I do remember lots of [...]

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Health is the War of the State

by James K October 24, 2011

Healthcare is a political football in every Western country to some extent.  In countries with extensive government healthcare the debate is about what the government should pay for, in the US it’s about whether the government should provide broad services at all.  Cost is a constant source of frustration everywhere and despite the significant differences [...]

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Whose Translation Is It, Anyway?

by J.L. Wall October 23, 2011

“Which translation do you prefer?” has spent the past half-decade climbing my list of least-favorite questions.  While still somewhere behind “Favorite book/author/album – Go!” it is somewhat more mendacious in that it’s hard to explain quickly why I find it so difficult to say anything other than, “All of them.” By this, of course, I [...]

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Weekend Jukebox: Retro style! (as if we do it any other way)

by Murali October 21, 2011

So, as the newcomer, its my turn to do the weekend Jukebox. Enjoy folks! And for something which everyone should know…   Consider this an open thread.

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Weekend Open Mic Poetry Reading That Has Nothing To Do With Either Tea Parties Or Occupy Wall Street

by Jaybird October 21, 2011

Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior will kick us off: Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay, That was built in such a logical way It ran a hundred years to a day, And then of a sudden it — ah, but stay, I’ll tell you what happened without delay, Scaring the parson into fits, Frightening [...]

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George Washington was wrong

by Guest Authors October 21, 2011

~by Creon Critic Reacting to the news the US would deploy 100 armed advisers to central Africa to help defeat Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony, Michelle Bachmann cited George Washington, “I will tell you George Washington was right when he said in his farewell address, be careful of unnecessary foreign entanglements.” George Washington [...]

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The Truth is Out There, But is It A Fantasy?… on the X-Files and the difference between sic-fi and fantasy

by Tod Kelly October 20, 2011

 (Note: Some of my thoughts here are riffed off of comments I made in Jaybird’s Explanation! post over at Mindless Diversions.  I recommend that site a lot.  For those that have never jumped over to Mindless Diversions, you should.  Have fun.  You think about politics too much.  Relax.)   Over at American Times, Erik has [...]

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From the Comments: Justice and Sweatshops

by Guest Authors October 20, 2011

by Creon Critic, in a rejoinder to Murali (1.) Should there be any limits on working conditions? Are their any abuses that are intolerable in and of themselves, abuses which need be stopped irrespective of how (supposedly) productive or economically valuable they may be? Can we agree that children for instance should not be engaged [...]

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Would J.R.R. Tolkien Have Occupied Wall Street?

by E.D. Kain October 20, 2011

I’m not sure where this came from originally (I found it on Facebook) but it’s pretty hilarious. Of course, it’s hard to say what Tolkien would have thought of these particular protests. He was an odd duck when it came to politics. Socially a traditionalist, he was also something of an anarcho-monarchist, and his ungoverned [...]

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Our Feckless Discourse About Immigration

by Ryan Bonneville October 20, 2011

Just a quick followup on Tod’s post about the debate. As has been widely reported for several days now, Obama set a new deportation record in the last fiscal year (narrowly edging out the previous record, which also belonged to his administration). This is, no doubt, the latest in his myriad attempts to co-opt the right and [...]

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Economics and Values

by Murali October 19, 2011

In a semi-recent post by fellow Gentleman JamesK, commenter Creon Critic gave an ineresting comment that bears a reply Take the issue of trade liberalization discussed in this thread. Competing values include preserving a way of life and expressing disapproval at exploitative working conditions in developing countries. Specific values issues that might come up: What cultural [...]

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Police Corruption and the War on Drugs

by Jason Kuznicki October 19, 2011

My colleague Jonathan Blanks writes: Last week, former undercover police officer Stephen Anderson told the New York State Supreme Court that planting drugs on innocent people was so common that it didn’t even register emotionally to him. The story is starting to get traction in the media as an egregious example of police corruption, but [...]

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Vengeance is Clean; Vengeance is Cruel

by J.L. Wall October 19, 2011

Ta-Nehisi writes: When I think of Django Unchained all I see are rape scenes and scowling dudes. One of the problems, at least for me, is that I don’t actually hunger for a revenge flick about slavery. I understand why Jews might hunger for a some cathartic revenge in terms of the Holocaust. There’s a certainly clarity [...]

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The EPL: A Parable of Globalized Capitalism

by Mark Thompson October 19, 2011

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of reevaluation of my political views; mostly, I’ve been questioning whether political philosophy and theory mean a whole heck of a lot, even when they’re right.  A big part of that reevaluation has been a focus on some obvious (to me, anyhow) truths, to wit: -Political power can always [...]

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Democracy, pluralism, and Occupy Wall Street

by Shawn Gude October 19, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street movement is metastasizing, or salubriously spreading, depending on your perspective. Over the weekend protests occurred across the globe, with occupiers taking over Times Square, resisting removal in Chicago, and mobilizing in Madrid. Monday marked the month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. And its coffers are swelling. These are heady times for a [...]

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VIVA LAS VEGAS!!! – Random thoughts about tonight’s GOP Debate

by Tod Kelly October 18, 2011

(Rick Perry wins the Debate Raffle, accepts life-size inflatable Mitt Romney Doll prize from Herman Cain.)   Two quick confessions: First Confession: I have not seen any of the GOP debates up to this point. I’d like to make excuses about time and commitments, but the truth is I kind of have a “meh…” feeling [...]

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“That’s What I Know, That’s What I Am”

by Ethan Gach October 18, 2011

Mr. Kain has graciously invited me to start posting on the main page here at the League, so a more official introduction is probably in order. Instead of writing about where I live and what I do, I thought a kind of genealogy of my political attitudes might be more helpful, and go a long way [...]

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A Hundred Thousand Words Later…

by Burt Likko October 17, 2011

I just finished A Feast For Crows last night. Now I’m considering whether to drop the extra money on A Dance With Dragons, but of course I know I’m going to. Still, I am taking a bit of time to consider it. Here’s why. (Spoilers below the jump. If you don’t want the spoilers, don’t jump, don’t [...]

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All Things Nuclear, Part I

by Patrick Cahalan October 17, 2011

This is the first post in a series. This took a significant amount of time to write (most of the research had been done previously), so don’t expect these to come with a low delta between posts. We’re going to start with The Bomb, we’ll get to Nuclear Power in subsequent posts. First, an important [...]

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Found Conversation

by Christopher Carr October 16, 2011

SCENE: News footage of Occupy Boston protestors getting manhandled by police comes on screen, patrons at American Legion bar smirk and shake their heads. Bartender: Ya’know what these clowns want, do yah? Socialism! Socialism is what they want! Patron 1: As fah as I’m concerned the cops kin arrest as many’a’em as they like… Bartender: [...]

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I Am Ben from Parks and Recreation

by E.D. Kain October 16, 2011

Yeah, so this made my day: It’s creepy how much this is me.  

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On Dodging Bullets

by Jaybird October 15, 2011

There was recently an article in The Atlantic called All the Single Ladies in which the author explains how she broke up with her steady boyfriend when she was 28 (“something was missing; I wasn’t ready to settle down”) and went on to find herself still unmarried at age 38 (and is, apparently, unhappy about this). [...]

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