I am having occasional problems with the new management sytem on WordPress, and had earlier posted this thoughtful comment by Alvaro Vargas Llosa from the New York Times: “The Winner in Honduras: Chávez”
I just noticed that it was somehow deleted, so….here it is again.
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I find myself sometimes bored on airplane flights and unable to write any more reports or read any more serious books. So, I admit it, I sometimes spend time on just fun fiction. I recently read The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks on a long flight. It was fun and I recommend it to people who enjoy science fiction writing. (The surprise wasn’t a big surprise at all, but it was rewarding, nonetheless.)
But I do try to keep up with my history, philosophy, and political economy, too. (I recently got several histories of India, and will try to work through those, as well as some more works on jurisprudence and legal and political theory.)
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Still in Power
CNN: “Analysis: Why sanctions aren’t working in Myanmar”
This is a clear case of the distinction between “intentions” and “consequences.” Most advocates of sanctions tell us about their intentions, but willfully ignore the consequences. They didn’t remove Saddam Hussein, but did impoverish the people of Iraq. They didn’t remove Fidel Castro, but did give his dictatorship a ready excuse for their failures (the Cuban state trades freely with the rest of the world — just not the US, but they don’t produce much that anyone else wants). They generally don’t work. (Economic sanctions strengthened apartheid in South Africa, but it seems that the sanctions on travel and sports helped to undermine the regime; if so, that is the only major exception of which I can think, and it was not the purely trade sanctions, but the travel and cultural sanctions that seemed to have done the job.)
More analysis (from studies published over a long period of time) here.
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My book Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice will soon be available in a Kindle edition and can be pre-ordered now. (Note: I love my new Kindle DX.) Amazon.com has also put up a searchable “Look inside this book” option for Realizing Freedom.
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BBC: “Gay sex decriminalised in India”
The position of the Roman Catholic Church is disagreeable, but compatible with civilized treatment of others:
Father Dominic Emanuel of India’s Catholic Bishop Council said the church did not “approve” of homosexual behaviour.
“Our stand has always been very clear. The church has no serious objection to decriminalising homosexuality between consenting adults, the church has never considered homosexuals as criminals,” said Father Emanuel.
“But the church does not approve of this behaviour. It doesn’t consider it natural, ethical, or moral,” he said.
I disagree with the priest’s views about sexuality, nature, ethics, and morality, but in a free society, we tolerate the beliefs of others, no matter how odd or eccentric or unfounded, so long as they do not use force. As members of a great society, the leaders of the Catholic Church could have done better: they have agreed not to object to liberty (rather than endorsing the freedom, while criticizing the behavior), when they should have been insisting on liberty, just as I would demand liberty for them to preach their views without any hindrance. Freedom is a fundamental right for everyone — those who disagree with us no less than those who agree with us.
The response of one (and I should note that that does not mean that it is the view of all) Indian Muslim was very different. Note the strangeness of referring to the repeal of a prohibition as itself a law that he would not “accept”:
The head cleric of Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, criticised the ruling.
“This is absolutely wrong. We will not accept any such law,” Ahmed Bukhari told the AFP news agency.
Does that mean that he will go and punish with force gay people on his own?
Here is the legal decision.
P.S. Sorry for the slightly garbled version first posted. I was rushing to write it in the Mexico City Airport and then had to go to board my flight.
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I gave the opening address to the Universidad IPEA on “The Nature of Freedom” and was awarded a handsome award (pictured here) by the leadership of IPEA. It’s a great group of young people who are very dedicated to the the promotion of individual liberty and limited government.
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The media discussion of events in Honduras is remarkably confused. Here’s CNN:
The president of the U.N. General Assembly scheduled a noon session Monday to discuss the situation in Honduras, following a military-led coup that ousted the sitting president.
and
Micheletti, the head of Congress, became president after lawmakers voted by a show of hands to strip Zelaya of his powers, with a resolution stating that Zelaya “provoked confrontations and divisions” within the country.
….
The coup came on the same day that he had vowed to follow through with a nonbinding referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal.
Imagine that George Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan or some other American president had decided to overturn the Constitution so that he could stay in power beyond the constitutionally limited time. To do that, he orders a nationwide referendum that is not constitutionally authorized and blatantly illegal. The Federal Election Commission rules that it is illegal. The Supreme Court rules that it is illegal. The Congress votes to strip the president of his powers and, as members of Congress are not that good at overcoming the president’s personally loyal and handpicked bodyguards, they send police and military to arrest the president. Now, which party is guilty of leading a coup?
This is another example of populist, dictatorial, anti-democratic thought parading as “democratic.” I discuss the issue in my recent lecture on enduring democracy in New Delhi.
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I will be personally autographing copies of Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice at Freedom Fest and at several events in Europe in the near future. It’s available on Amazon and from Laissez Faire Books (LFB will be selling copies at Freedom Fest) I’m told that Amazon should have the “Search Inside” feature soon, as well as a Kindle edition.
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I’m leaving today to speak at the IPEA University in Mexico and to meet with friends and colleagues in Mexico to promote free trade.
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The new iPhone software is a big improvement. I upgraded my iPhone today (at no charge) and I’m quite pleased so far.
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I’ll be speaking this summer in Marseille at the European Resource Bank and in Aix-en-Provence at the Summer University of the New Economics.
And Cato University, of course! And the InLiberty.ru Summer School in Odessa.
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As a part of the preparation for my trip to India, I started the versions of The Ramayana and The Mahabharata rendered into modern English prose by R. K. Narayan. I had had little exposure to Indian literature before, so this was a really pleasant surprise. Overall, they reminded me of Homer, especially The Iliad.
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