No Truce With Kings

There’s a new movie of Solomon Northup’s autobiography 12 Years a Slave.

I learned that there was an earlier film made from the book that I haven’t seen. I’d like to see this film because I found the book very interesting.

Via Clayton Cramer

By Ron Bailey at the Reason.com blog. (This article also appears in Reason’s latest print edition.)

Seven Surprising Truths about the World
A lot of the bad news you think you know is wrong.

Did you know that the incidence of cancer in the United States has been declining for nearly 20 years? That the spread of pornography correlates with a decline in rape? That average IQs are going up substantially all around the world? These are just some of the truths that are well-known to the scholars who study those subjects but generally come as a surprise to even the best-educated among us.

Cato has an interesting set of audio clips about “The Ideas of Liberty” which is available here.

There are 12 topics presented in 15 clips that you can download (MP3) or listen to at their site. There’s no fee – it’s available free.

Home Study Course

When was the last time you were truly energized by ideas? In our WiFi, high def, high res, compressed digital, podcast and video clip era of 24-hour news channels and sound bites – how can you gain calm perspective and thoughtful understanding? Whatever happened to real thinking?

For that, you can turn to the Cato Home Study Course. It offers you the opportunity to deepen your perspectives, knowledge, and insight through exposure to some of the world’s most compelling thinkers. The growth of human freedom – and with it science, culture, and capitalist prosperity – are examined, explained, and clarified through the works and ideas of some of our civilization’s most brilliant thinkers. Mastering their ideas can make you a more effective advocate of freedom, a more informed and interesting member of your community, and someone more people will turn to for guidance and insights. […]

The 12 Home Study Course programs are:

• The Ideas of Liberty
• John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government
• Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence
• Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (part 1)
• Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (part 2)
• The Constitution of the United States of America
• The Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments to the Constitution
• John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty and Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator
• The Achievement of 19th Century Classical Liberalism
• The “Austrian” Case for the Free Market
• The Modern Quest for Liberty

There are so many aspects to like about this story that I’m not sure where to start. Let’s see:

Cool physical technology? Check.
Cool communications tech? Check.
An accident victim’s never-say-die attitude? Check.
People using available tools to improve their own lives? Check.
That old bottom-up organization thing working its magic to improve other people’s lives? Check.

Does a story get any better than this?

Here’s part of a short essay by Alex Horton at a Veterans’ Affairs site.

When Memorial Day Bleeds Across the Calendar

[…] Even as a young kid, I reflected on my distant relative killed at Gettysburg, and the men my grandfather and uncle knew in Korea and Vietnam who came home in flag-draped transfer cases. But a turn down a trash-strewn road fundamentally changed the concept of love and loss for many in the platoon. We were young soldiers and unaccustomed to death. It was no longer something only our grandparents had to worry about. Suddenly we were eulogizing our brother who never had a chance to grow old and live a full life.

Memorial Day is meant to remind folks of the sacrifice borne by those who fell in battle in defense of the country, as well as their families. But once you lose someone in combat, Memorial Day bleeds across the rest of the calendar. […]

I hope civilians find more solace in Memorial Day than I do. Many seem to forget why it exists in the first place, and spend the time looking for good sales or drinking beers on the back porch. It’s a long weekend, not a period of personal reflection. At the same time, many incorrectly thank Vets or active duty folks for their service. While appreciated, it’s misdirected. That’s what Veterans Day is for. Instead, they should take some time and remember the spirit of the country and the dedication of those men and women who chose to pick up arms. They never came home to be thanked, and only their memory remains.

This is another video by the Australian who goes by Topher. It’s from his ‘Forbidden History’ series and talks about the costs and benefits of freedom of speech – particulary in Australia.

Anyone remember Semmelweis?

In February, I posted another clip from that series which was about taxes.

Via Maggie’s Farm

I think it would be hard to find a more graphic example of spontaneous order. (That’s not to say there aren’t equally good examples; farm cooperatives come to mind.)