A power plant, cancer and a small towns fears – CNN.com

ahhh…a libertarian paradise with little government oversight, what an idyllic, pastoral paradise we could all live in!!!!!

The researchers say they havent traced where the uranium comes from, although EPA officials said they believed the contamination to come from underneath a layer of granite 70 miles away near Atlanta.Uranium is also heavily concentrated in coal ash. Plant Scherer produces hundreds of acres of coal ash per year. The waste is stored in a 900-acre pond surrounding the plant. Over the past 30 years, several studies have found coal ash more radioactive than the waste from nuclear power plants.

via A power plant, cancer and a small towns fears – CNN.com.

The Rude Pundit

But, no, no, these are not optimistic times. These are days where, in the name of freedom of the individual, the individual is crushed.

via The Rude Pundit.

How did WordPress win?

Yes. The Internet is indeed the great irony that gives a lie to capitalism and to the libertarian dream. People will work for free if they like what they are doing. The internet and all of the freeware expose the lie that people need to be paid for work.

Now, the great irony is that even for all of WordPress’ open sourcey, socialist, hippy goodness, it is the competition driven by the capitalist free market that drives much of WordPress’ innovation today.

via How did WordPress win?.

Top hedge fund mixes Ayn Rand, behavioral psych – Paul B. Farrell – MarketWatch

Top hedge fund mixes Ayn Rand, behavioral psych – Paul B. Farrell – MarketWatch.

What would the wealth distribution look like without redistribution? | vox – Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists

Holy Shit! Not good for the Libertarian progrom that it is all about skill.

What does the distribution of wealth look like in an economy in which all households have identical skills and patience, but there is no redistribution? This column argues that without some redistributive mechanism – either explicit in the form of government tax or fiscal policies, or implicit in the form of limited intergenerational transfers – the wealth in the economy tends to concentrate at the top.

via What would the wealth distribution look like without redistribution? | vox – Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists.

Maladjustment, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Maladjustment, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty.

The breathtaking hypocrisy of libertarians: fraud for me but not for thee. In the comments section, many of the libertarians would just let the banks off with the massive amount of fraud since the banks ultimately are in the right. No comments were made about the errors where they foreclosed on someone whom they had no business foreclosing. Those errors were made because of their failure to follow the rule of law and following simple requirements for enforcing contracts. Which is that not what the Libertarian paradise is, government is around merely to enforce preserve property rights and contracts.

Libertarian paradise doesn’t just materialize with everybody agreeing to get along.

DownWithTyranny!: Rob Zerban vs… Ayn Rand

Part of Rob Zerban’s response about Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) Ayn Rand fetish:

I have also gotten many questions about the influence Ayn Rand has had on Paul Ryan. I believe this selfish atheistic philosophy has played a formative role in Paul Ryan’s career. Ayn Rand’s icy cold social Darwinism is popular among boys in High School because it is a philosophy without responsibility. It says that whatever benefits you is what is right and good. He is a huge fan of Ayn Rand and his budget may well me the best example of selfishness yet in government.

Selfishness, including the kind Ayn Rand is so fond of, is exactly what is wrong with this country. We have companies that spill oil and crash the economy without a care in the world. We have politicians that sell out students, seniors, and middle class families for campaign contributions. All of this selfish behavior has hurt our country and it is clear that Paul Ryan’s philosophy is a root cause of this behavior.

via DownWithTyranny!: Rob Zerban vs… Ayn Rand.

Is the White Working Class Coming Apart?—David Frum – The Daily Beast

A conservative bashing a truly ignorant conservative. Best line.

As I looked backward and forward in time, however, I had to face this awkward fact: America became more culturally stable between 1910 and 1960 as it became less economically and socially libertarian. As it became more economically and socially libertarian after 1970, America became culturally less stable:

“The greatest generation was also the statist generation. Like them or loathe them, the middle decades of the twentieth century were an entirely anomalous period in American history. Never had the state been so strong, never had people submitted as uncomplainingly, never had the country been more economically equal, never had it been more ethnically homogeneous, seldom was its political consensus more overpowering.”

via Is the White Working Class Coming Apart?—David Frum – The Daily Beast.

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