Serf City
March 15, 2010
15:40
As of today, 83,904 Americans are waiting for a kidney transplant, the oldest and most cost-effective organ transplant surgery, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which comprises data from all transplant programs in the country. In 2006, there were 18,052 kidney transplant operations performed, and while that figure has been trending up from [...]
March 13, 2010
13:10
Contrary to rumor, the print edition of Serf City is not dead. Despite being forced by The Man to purge our plastic newsracks from the streets of NYC, we are moving forward with the next paper issue.
Ernie Hancock, godfather of the r3VOLution and candidate for Libertarian Party national chairman, has proposed that we round up [...]
March 12, 2010
09:29
The Free Agent has been mulling over the elegant parable offered by M. Frederic Bastiat in “That Which is Seen and That which is Not Seen” in opposition to pointless destruction (and brilliantly, to trade barriers, “nothing else than a partial destruction”). The story is this: A shopkeeper’s son carelessly breaks a pane of glass, [...]
March 9, 2010
15:03
I don’t know about you but when I think of a Town Hall I think of a two-way interactive discussion. I think of a give and take conversation where concerned citizens share ideas and opinions. It doesn’t necessarily have to be sweet and polite – but it needs to be an open forum. In the invitation [...]
March 5, 2010
09:29
Do you support gay marriage? The knee-jerk libertarian answer, “why do we authorize the state to recognize or withhold recognition for personal relationships?” while true, doesn’t really advance the conversation. A more thoughtful response is to ask what is this “marriage” fuss is about anyway? After all, anyone can call themselves married, you can call [...]
March 1, 2010
09:23
Throughout The Free Agent’s career, she has fascinated youthful admirers with her stories about the olden days, i.e., the 1970s. (Extremely precocious, she was able to absorb and analyze current events even as she changed her own diapers.) She is reminded of that unfortunate era by recent events like increased money supply beyond economic growth [...]
February 26, 2010
12:56
The Tax Foundation’s Bill Ahern posted this yesterday saying that the jobs bill recently passed by the U.S. Senate would pay companies for the wrong things. The short article is full of great links so you should really read it for yourself, but here are the bullets.
Firms that claim the credit would have hired the person [...]
February 22, 2010
10:31
The infamous Christopher Guest-produced ad for this year’s census, featuring a stable of his favorite actors, debuted during the Super Bowl at a cost of $2.5 million, and packages the 2010 census as kind of a big national family reunion. A census for the Facebook age.
Fortunately, it’s also a census for the twitter age, compared [...]
February 20, 2010
17:19
In his weekly address this week President Obama announced his plans for bipartisan meetings to work on bipartisan health care legislation. He started with some stories about 25% health insurance increases those nasty insurance companies are about to force on us. He then suggested that the Republicans really need to get on board and act [...]
February 19, 2010
09:49
A gentleman of The Free Agent’s acquaintance posted a comment on Facebook recently to the effect that he’d sooner trust Congress to provide his health insurance than the “greedy” insurance companies “now prowling the halls of the Capital office buildings”. This is not the first time I’ve heard this argument, that trust is required somehow [...]
February 16, 2010
09:23
When defending libertarian policies, which we all should, it’s easy to get tripped up on definitions alone. Is a liberal in favor of liberty? In some areas. Most of the time. Probably? Is a conservative unlikely to advocate state intrusion into private matters? Yes. No. Wait. What day is it? Where do the Democratic and [...]
09:23
When defending libertarian policies, which we all should, it’s easy to get tripped up on definitions alone. Is a liberal in favor of liberty? In some areas. Most of the time. Probably? Is a conservative unlikely to advocate state intrusion into private matters? Yes. No. Wait. What day is it? Where do the Democratic and [...]
February 15, 2010
19:51
Today’s Freedom’s Phoeinx had an item from the Tenth Amendment Center on an Arizona effort to nullify Cap and Trade. According to the Article Arizona State Senators Allen, Gould and Grey are the primary sponsors for Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1050.
SCR 1050 ,known as “the Freedom to Breath Act”, would make it illegal to enforce federal Cap [...]
19:51
Today’s Freedom’s Phoeinx had an item from the Tenth Amendment Center on an Arizona effort to nullify Cap and Trade. According to the Article Arizona State Senators Allen, Gould and Grey are the primary sponsors for Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1050.
SCR 1050 ,known as “the Freedom to Breath Act”, would make it illegal to enforce federal Cap [...]
February 13, 2010
16:49
Should we comprise principle when necessary to reach moderate and independent voters or stick unswervingly to the strictest of libertarian principles to avoid losing the moral high ground? The debate rages on with Libertarian Party regulars.
One of the most recent examples was our nomination of Bob Barr for President in 2008. The pragmatists argued that [...]
February 12, 2010
10:04
The February 1 issue of The New Yorker magazine featured Larissa MacFarquhar’s report of her ride-along adventures with New York’s Department of Investigation, whose mission is to root out fraud and corruption among city employees and the people who deal with them. A worthy mission, The Free Agent agrees.
First stop: the Hill Tap Tavern in [...]
February 9, 2010
10:12
“Avatar”, James Cameron’s triumph of 3D visuals over 2D story and characters, has been described as a searing sci-fi indictment of capitalism. So much so, that the Free Agent’s friends and family have been turning cyber-eyes her way for an expected dissection and rebuttal. Well, I finally saw it a week ago, and [...]
February 8, 2010
11:01
The Coalition for Informed Choice has issued an urgent action alert regarding a vote tomorrow on draconian vaccine legislation working its way through Albany.
S4779 and A6702 would permit all present and future vaccines and drugs for sexually transmitted diseases to be given to New York children without parental consent. The Senate codes committee is expected to vote on the [...]
February 5, 2010
10:13
Everyday as I walk into my office at 55 Broad Street I glance over at a plaque commemorating Marinus Willet who on June 6th, 1775 along with a small group of men seized five wagonloads of arms from British Troops evacuating New York City. The men were members of the Sons of Liberty, a group [...]
February 4, 2010
11:12
I’ve never been one to keep quiet about my politics – much to the dismay and horror of many of my Leftist friends. It usually doesn’t take too long for my business associates, customers and vendors to get the message either. It probably costs me some business but the alternative costs me something a lot more [...]
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