I didn't understand the Russo-Georgian conflict, but I strongly suspected that the KGB had had a bad influence in that conflict. As usual, reality is worse. The Truth About Russia in Georgia, by Michael Totten. (Merci, FG)
She turns the trivial into the stylish. She creates beauty around her. She handles all things with taste. She makes my life happy. I'm proud to introduce Snugglegram.
I'm back, and that's for good, even though my return may be less spectacular than the Dissident Frogman's. | Je suis de retour, et pour de bon, quand bien même ce retour serait moins spectaculaire que celui du Dissident Frogman. |
Khodorkovski: réquisitoire contre la réussite en Russie, par Christian Michel, dans l'agefi. (Ouch, l'accès est restreint et bug me not ne connaît pas de mot de passe. Y a-t-il un P2P pour de tels articles?)
Mon commentaire: Cet article vous permettra de comprendre par l'exemple qu'en-deçà des problèmes institutionnels (notamment soulevés par Hernando de Soto), le problème des pays pauvres est un problème culturel: une culture qui exècre ceux qui s'enrichissent par la création économique, et célèbre ceux qui s'enrichissent par la prédation politique, aboutira à l'oppression des uns, et au règne des autres. Sans la bonne culture, les institutions coercitives seront mauvaises (et corrompues); avec la bonne culture, les institutions coercitives sont inutiles (et corruptrices). Encore une fois, la liberté commence dans votre tête.
Note: j'adore la plupart de ce qu'écrit Christian Michel, maintenant président de Libertarian International, et qui est après tout celui qui m'a converti à l'anarchisme. Il est pour moi un grand philosophe contemporain. Nos différends théoriques, relativement mineurs, portent notamment sur la notion de Police; en découlent des conséquences pratiques sur les actions les moins nuisibles que l'on peut attendre de l'État tant que dure son règne.
PS: le verdict est tombé: coupable!
College Profs Denounce Western Culture, Move to Caves. (Cám ơn, GNXP).
At long last some coherence! Integrity, the cardinal virtue of a philosopher, is for the philosopher to live according to his philosophy. Not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk -- and precisely the walk that he talks about. Of course, walking the walk is more important; it's just that without the talk, you're not a philosopher; and what I meant above was that being a philosopher is less important than being a successful human being; but of course, being a philosopher can be a powerful means to the end of being a successful human being.
I had submitted a variant of my Black Magic text to the essay contest conducted by The Better-World Project. The results were just published on Build Freedom, and I only got a consolation prize. That was well deserved: the other texts were much more inspiring. I invite you to read the actual winners! Thanks again to Frederick Mann for being such a source of inspiration, through his many sites and projects. Few people in the world know the road to freedom. He does, and he leads the way.
I've recently discovered the word
captcha
.
Of course, I already knew the concept.
I first faced it on the internet long ago,
quite possibly at the time when there were still free SMS services
and they tried to limit abuse.
Then, I wrote about using them in my article
stamps vs spam.
Captchas are an inconvenience, but that's their whole point of them: they are a economic signalling device, by which the solver proves that he cares by accepting a sunk cost. The real problem with captchas is that they can be defeated, thanks to distributed porn-processing. Or maybe not.
( Read more...Collapse )Is it possible that Political Power be used in the interest of Liberty? Yes, sometimes it just does happen. Does that imply that on the whole, Political Power is good? Nope. But before you may reply to this kind of question, you have to be familiar with economic reasoning, as opposed to accounting fallacies. Then you will understand that before it may be answered, the question has to be refined: good as compared to what?
À la tête de Paris, l'embrayage (la pédale de gauche)
a fait passer le socialisme municipal à la vitesse supérieure.
Dépenses somptuaires en fêtes pour les amis,
en art comptant pour rien
mais rapportant gros aux courtisans propageant l'idéologie officielle,
en amusements publics
donnés en patûre à la couche oisive de la populace, etc.
Nous revoilà au temps de l'empire romain:
clientélisme, panem et circenses
et moeurs dépravées pour couronner le tout.
Contrairement au régime municipal précédent,
nous n'aurons sans doute pas droit
à un enrichissement personnel scandaleux de la part des officiels;
à la place, les richesses prélevées de force
partiront en fumée dans une pure destruction de richesse à court terme;
et ceux qui s'enrichiront le feront avec davantage de mesure ou de discrétion
-- ou tout simplement auront une justification légale à leur captation de richesse,
comme une commande artistique
étatique.
La différence entre un voleur efficace et un vulgaire vandale, c'est que
le voleur efficace s'approprie beaucoup de richesses avec peu de pertes,
tandis que le vulgaire vandale
détruit beaucoup de richesses pour peu de profit,
si tant est qu'il lui reste quelque chose après son coup.
Prédation contre déprédations.
Le socialisme aura - peut-être - réduit un peu la prédation municipale,
et - sûrement - augmenté énormément les déprédations.
Qui paie la facture? Les habitants. Les entreprises.
Ceux qui créent encore des richesses à Paris.
Mais ceux qui le peuvent quittent Paris et la France,
ou ne s'y installent pas.
À quoi bon venir subventionner les canailles qui s'encanaillent
de la république fromagère?
Today is the centenary of the birthday of Ayn Rand, the great thinker of Liberty, who alone dared to defend Capitalism on moral grounds! Let's celebrate, together with the ISIL, Libertarian International, or the french ADEL!
The Graphing Calculator Story, that is making rounds in computist blogs, reminds me of the .sig by Alan Schmitt:
The hacker: someone who figured things out and made something cool happen.
The world needs more hackers and fewer witch doctors. Now, I wonder how much of the difference in psycho-epistemology is in-born, and how much is acquired... and I admit I am rather pessimistic as to the answer and its consequences.
Diverses entreprises m'ont fait passé des entretiens d'embauche. Mais j'ai aussi accordé d'autres interviews, dont la suivante que vous pouvez lire sur Liberté Magazine.
crazyHe's been my all-time fav' hollywood star, if only for the name I can't quite manage to pronounce; now you can know his dark secrets: Skrwy Skwrl.
In other news, I'm looking for a job starting in january 2005. Time to complete my CV.
Red Liberal est un des sites que bloglines me recommande d'après sa connaissance de mes lectures habituelles.
Non, il ne s'agit pas d'un socialiste rouge américain, mais d'un réseau libéral espagnol.
Les mots sont souvent trompeurs. Cherchez le sens!
No, I am not a devil-worshipper, a proponent of capitalist exploitation, an opponent of the glorious democracy, an enemy of the State, a traitor to the Nation, or any such thing. Indeed, the devil doesn't exist, and neither do capitalist exploitation, the glorious democracy, the State or the Nation — they are delusions. I am not taking a stance opposite to yours, I am rejecting your premises. I am not immoral, I challenge your notion of morality. I am not your enemy — I am your doctor. In as much as I care for the categories against which you're trying to classify me, I am here to cure you from believing in their relevance. The treatment may hurt, but if anything is being fought, it isn't you, but parasites that feed upon you. I am not going against you, I am going against some nefarious memes that use you for transportation, but that are not you: they hurt you and you don't need them.
Yes, he's talking about YOU.
(As I have argued earlier -note 14-, any Human Action can be viewed as Research.)
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