1. Puddles the Clown
is at Joe's Pub tonight.
2. I first saw him at a live Aqua Teen Hunger Force
performance, but I suppose he is now best known for his amazing cover of Lorde’s song “Royals” -- and Lorde also
inspired South Park’s amazing episode mocking “trans” politics, “The Cissy.”
3. On a more Halloweenish clown note, I see the deliberately-creepy clown fad is
not just spreading in the town of Wasco: There appears to be actual clown
terrorism bourgeoning
in France. (Suddenly, those poor Juggalos don’t seem like such bad eggs,
relatively speaking, do they?)
This sort of thing is a reminder that there are many
circumstances in which I’d happily use a broader definition of “assault” than
some libertarians might. If people are reasonably -- and deliberately -- made
afraid of physical attack, that’s assault (as bullies everywhere are well
aware).
4. Now that they’re reportedly putting Jena Malone in 2016’s Batman
v Superman movie as Robin, cementing that film’s status as a partial
adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic Dark
Knight Returns miniseries, I say throw in that tale’s face-painted Joker
gangs, too. They’re more timely than ever!
5. In other rioting news, I’m amazed that people (including
relatives of a libertarian-leaning friend of mine) got teargased in Keene, NH and it didn’t have anything to do with the notorious little community of
libertarian radicals who live there, just out-of-control pumpkin festival
participants -- and, as seems to happen every time, cops who penned people in
and turned what could have been dispersing individuals into a single mob.
6. I can’t blame the press for being fascinated by the
incident, though it’s partly because trouble in New Hampshire (whence hails
half my family) is so novel. Not so, say, Detroit.
7. I must once more thank the Atlas Foundation for drawing my attention to the tragic way crime,
poverty, bankruptcy, and bad policy decisions have all been intertwined in
Detroit.
8. I also owe them and Students for Liberty for bringing to
my attention the nifty little volume Peace,
Love, & Liberty, edited by Tom
Palmer, which collects several essays by libertarian or libertarian-leaning
writers that underscore the fact that opposition to militarism is not just an
afterthought to libertarianism’s insistence on individualism and property
rights but a natural and important outgrowth.
9. Still, I hope the focus on a big, broad issue like war --
a consequence of the breakdown of the
non-aggression principle -- never undermines libertarians’ intellectual focus
on their precious and still far-too-secret philosophical basics, which must
always include the idea that individuals suffer least when they have full
control over their own bodies and property.
Sadly from that perspective, the literal final word in the Palmer-edited
volume goes to controversial young left-libertarian Cathy Reisenwitz, who is prone to manic fits of philosophical
sloppiness in which, for instance, she will proclaim her love of essays that
say property rights (or wariness about egalitarianism) may not be an important
part of libertarianism after all.
Through it all, she judges society harshly even while
insisting that the rest of us must never shame anyone. This is incoherence, and
that is not what will prevent the next world war. But Tom Palmer, like Jeffrey
Tucker, cannot be blamed for every inane utterance of his temporary colleagues.
War is worse than Reisenwitz, at least a bit.
10. And for a reminder that full-fledged modern liberalism
is still more horrible than anything in the broad, combative classical liberal
family, we need look no farther than this
recent scary Supreme Court denial, with the likes of (the not-so-empathic) Sotomayor and Kagan concluding that,
yes, the government can actually punish you for crimes of which you weren’t
convicted.
Just another reminder that libertarians cozying up to the
left is generally a waste of time. Liberty or bust.
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