The Ghost Writer

Fiction Reviews (Movies), Pop Culture
By / / 1 minute of reading
Share

Libertarians may especially enjoy Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, which is now playing in second-run theaters and coming to DVD in August.

I wish I could tell you more about why, but it’s the sort of movie that’s best entered with minimal knowledge. The plot involves a man (Ewan McGregor) assigned to write the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) who has recently been charged with war crimes for torture. An earlier ghost writer who worked on the book was found washed up on the beach at Martha’s Vineyard, and McGregor’s unnamed character tries to solve the mystery and avoid the same fate.

It was delightful to see the movie not only call attention to the Blair/Bush/Obama war crimes but also depict the CIA as nothing other than a force for evil in the world.

Above all, though, it’s a great, old-fashioned suspense thriller — written for intelligent adults, not teenagers — which is refreshing at a time when it seems that most movies are little more than a series of special effects, brutal killings, and/or dirty jokes.

I recall that Murray Rothbard referred to a certain type of film as a “movie movie.” I’m not sure what that means, but I’m pretty sure this is one.

The Ghost Writer Read Post »

Before We Worshipped Presidents

Anti-Statism, Police Statism, Vulgar Politics
By / / 4 Comments / 2 minutes of reading
Share

Last week, Lew Rockwell posted an item about officers “subduing” and arresting two people who had the audacity to stand where President Obama’s motorcade wanted to go.

I recalled this yesterday as I read an October 1900 newspaper article, which reported an indignity that VP candidate Theodore Roosevelt suffered when newsboys threw mud at him “and greeted him with insulting language . . . as he departed from the church at which he had attended.” The story was a small item several pages into the paper and there is no indication that the boys were “subdued” or arrested, or that they got into any trouble at all. Instead, the mud-spattered TR just huffed off on his way.

The story included no quotes from experts on how terrible it is that our youth would show such disrespect for a great political leader and no editorializing.

Today, of course, this would be the top news story for a week, Chris Matthews would rend his garments over the blasphemy against our civic religion, and the kids would likely be tazed or killed, and, if they lived, charged with felonies.

Another newspaper article from the same month mentioned that trick-or-treaters stopped by the White House and were greeted by President and Mrs. McKinley. The kids weren’t participating in a photo op, but were just knocking on the front door as they would at any other house. Because you could do that, because the president was not a god.

For more details of the good old days when people treated presidents like the ordinary jerks they are (and how far we’ve fallen), I highly recommend Gene Healy’s The Cult of the Presidency.

(Cross-posted at The LRC Blog.)

UPDATE: Norman Horn points out that The Cult of the Presidency is now available online for free in PDF, Kindle, and ebook formats.

Before We Worshipped Presidents Read Post »

…and this is bad because?

Education, Nanny Statism
By / / 2 Comments / 1 minute of reading
Share

Over 2,400 tax-feeders-in-training are threatening to go ‘on strike’ by skipping classes today in protest over the MTA’s plan to cut NYC students’ free usage of the subway & bus system, which is an annual subsidy of at least $214 million (assuming they only use it twice a day to travel between home and school.)

Students decry the hardship and indignity of having to actually pay for something which might cut into their costly cell phone, video game and designer-jeans budgets. The strange thing is that I can’t see the downside here — in fact I’d like to think of this as a ‘win-win’ situation.

…and this is bad because? Read Post »

Immigrants Are Not Statist Enough!

Immigration, Protectionism
By / / 1 Comment / 1 minute of reading
Share

I heard a segment on a local radio station where someone opposed immigration because often times immigrants are coming to the country “only” to work. Tragedy #1 no doubt. But that’s not all. The same person was saying that they are also not respectful of the government or of the state or of the laws. Tragedy #2.

Now I’ve heard it all.

Immigrants Are Not Statist Enough! Read Post »

Article: The Property And Freedom Society — Reflections After Five Years

(Austrian) Economics, Anti-Statism, Articles, Vulgar Politics
By / / 11 Comments / 1 minute of reading
Share

This article is an edited version of Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s opening address to the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Property and Freedom Society (PFS) held in Bodrum, Turkey at the Hotel Karia Princess, June 3-7, 2010. The address provides an insightful overview of various libertarian alliances and strategies over past decades, including the paleo-libertarian/paleo-conservative alliance, and reasons for its failure. Hoppe illustrates how the state has coopted even most free market think tanks into serving the state’s aims, because they are not radical enough and their principal addressee is the central government. Hoppe argues (a) that libertarians must not put their trust in politicians or get distracted by politics and (b) using the case of Pat Buchanan as an example, that it is impossible to have a lasting intellectual association with people (such as some conservatives) who are either unwilling or incapable of grasping the principles of economics.

In view of these insights and this history, Hoppe surveys the brief history of the PFS and sets out its basic purposes.

Read the Full Article by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Afterwards, discuss the article below.

Article: The Property And Freedom Society — Reflections After Five Years Read Post »

Scroll to Top