Sunday, June 28, 2009
"The dilemma faced by commentators of all kinds, not just bloggers, on the Iranian protests can be summarised by a single, annoying portmanteau word: instapunditry. The pressure to take a view prematurely in such a situation can only produce a series of stock responses, either based on CNN filtered news, or speculation from various samizdat-style websites, or material provided by the Iranian media itself."
Filed under: LinkBlog
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
There is evidence that the turmoil surrounding the election in Iran is part of a neoconservative legacy regime change operation.
Filed under: LinkBlog
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Saturday, June 20, 2009
Kevin Carson reexamines the term and sorts out the stigma. "If anything, it’s the choice of “capitalism” as the conventional term for a free market that needs explaining. Why name an economic system based on free markets after one factor of production in particular, especially when even neoclassical orthodoxy regards capital as only one coequal factor among several? The choice of terms, perhaps unwittingly, suggests a system in which the interests of capital have an especially privileged status; it may also suggest something about the sympathies of those who chose the term."
Filed under: Anarchism, Capitalism, Economics, History, LinkBlog
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The Wall Street Journal examines the idea of secession.
Filed under: Decentralization, History, LinkBlog, Politics
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Monday, June 15, 2009

It’s hard for me to describe how awesome this video is, but truly it’s among the internet’s very best. Just perfect.

Sunday, June 14, 2009
Kevin Carson looks at lean manufacturing from a Mumfordian perspective at the Peer2Peer Foundation blog: "The true potential of lean manufacturing is to eliminate inventory altogether by gearing production to demand. It doesn’t matter how lean a factory is internally, if the inventory is just swept under the rug–or into the factories and trucks, rather–with a thousand-mile distribution chain. True lean production will only be achieved in a completely relocalized economy, in which the machinery is not only scaled to production flow within the factory, but the factory itself is scaled as closely as possible to local demand and sited as close as possible to the point of consumption."
Filed under: Economics, LinkBlog, Mutualism, Technology
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
Corporations started out as entities chartered by the state for particular purposes. The economic crisis implies that it might be time to return to a more limited form of incorporation.
Filed under: Economics, Law, LinkBlog
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Tuesday, June 2, 2009
dilbert
Friday, May 29, 2009
"I’m reminded of James O’Connor’s The Fiscal Crisis of the State, written in 1973. State spending in a capitalist society, he said, must fulfil two functions: to raise profits, for example by maintaining aggregate demand; and to legitimate the system by ameliorating inequalities. But, he said, these forces for higher spending increased faster than people’s willingness to pay tax. The upshot was a tendency to bigger budget deficits, even in decent economic times."
Filed under: Capitalism, LinkBlog
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Brutus discusses why he doesn't like to discuss politics with friends: "How do you maintain friendships with people who have implicitly told you they have no problem with armed men threatening to beat, imprison, or kill you because you disagree with their political agenda?"
Filed under: Libertarianism, LinkBlog, Politics
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Friday, May 22, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Kirkpatrick Sale discusses the recent rise in secessionist talk.
Filed under: LinkBlog, Politics
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Marcel Votlucka makes a crucial point about radical activists' attitudes in a new article at Black Oak Media: "...the very concept of 'sheeple' is perilous because it evokes the kind of arrogance, contempt and deep-rooted fear the State has for free, motivated and empowered people. It brings radicals dangerously close to thinking along the same lines as hard-core Statists even as we attempt to offer an alternative way."
Filed under: Activism, Anarchism, LinkBlog, Psychology
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Saturday, April 18, 2009
"Belief in big government rests upon the notion that there’s an elite of leaders which has the wisdom and know-how to manage our affairs from the top-down; this is why New Labour found common cause with corporate bosses - both share the same ideology. But it is an utterly anti-egalitarian notion. It is also utterly wrong."
Filed under: Activism, LinkBlog
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Friday, April 17, 2009
The truth behind the astroturf tea parties.
Filed under: Activism, Conservatism, Corporatism, LinkBlog
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