Yuppie Birthday Parties

When I was a kid, we had simple birthday parties. A cake, maybe a pin the tail on the donkey, often under someone's carport, with makeshift tables set up. A few cheap paper conical hats perhaps.

Now that I have 2-year old, and live in a big city with a bunch of yuppie breeder friends, a trend that I had only been dimly aware of is starting to manifest itself more clearly to me. It's now routine for parents to have over-the-top birthday parties, inviting dozens of kids with any connection to their own--neighbors, classmates, what have you. I know parents who have to go to 3 or more such parties in a given weekend. I went to one this morning myself; and am having another at my own house this afternoon (but family only, thank God).

The kids love it. It's often done off-site, at a place like Gymboree, or an indoor soccer stadium, or indoor playground (Houston is HOT in the summer), with various personnel hired to entertain the kids--clown, referee, "poodle lady", whatever. Catered food, for both kids and adults. I am not sure if they try to outdo each other, but they are sure lavish. And now it's standard to provide "party favors"--little parting gifts for the kids attending, so they don't feel "left out". Aww, we are so careful not to bruise their precious little egos nowadays, aren't we?

The worst thing, as my wife pointed out, is the kids don't even open their gifts there--it's like a wedding reception, with tons of loot piled on a table somewhere, to be opened later, with thank you cards duly mailed out. Ridiculous.

However, if there are at least 2 milfs present, it helps ease the pain.

UN approves new international symbol for "marriage"

As reported here -- "After 5 years of heated debate, the Commission of Human Rights approved the new International Symbol of Marriage." (similar report here).

Will the REAL Tom Palmer Please Stand Up?

See the post on Palmer Periscope; comments should go there.

Is this Palmer?

See post on Palmer Periscope.

Wiki on Mises and SPLC

Addendum: Wiki rejects this blog post as authority for the contention that "some view SPLC as hypocritical and PC" etc. Please comment below w/ any links or sources you are aware of that criticize SPLC.

***

From Wiki's entry on Mises:

the Southern Poverty Law Center alleges the Mises Institute to be a Neo-confederate organization, though its application of this term is controversial.

In my view, this kind of charge is merely the result of an excess of political correctness run amok. The politically-correct and liberal types often hypocritically excuse or whitewash the genocides and mass murders committed during the twentieth century by governments they would otherwise view as benevolent. Charges of Neo-confederacy and the like fly in the face of the tremendous amount of anti-socialist and anti-Fascist writing on the Institute's website and demonstrated in their programs, e.g. seminars such as the The Economics of Fascism.

I have edited the Wiki entry a bit; others may be interested in correcting the entry (or massaging my own comments as noted above) but should do so from a neutral point of view only.

The Wiki entry may link to this very post, so feel free to post comments below criticizing groups like SPLC who would make such ridiculous allegations.

GNAA

Re this site: I apologize for ... umm... nevermind. (Wiki entry)

Niger Innis typo

I apologize for MSNBC doing this (2) to Niger Innis. And for thinking to myself, "Roy Innis, what were you smoking when you chose your kid's name?"

Literary Apologies

I have fallen to the Harry Potter mania and have bought the latest book. I have decided to read that instead of *gasp* Atlas Shrugged. Perhaps I don't need to apologize about this after all...

Plain Text

I hate people who send me emails formatted in plain text. When I reply, I need to convert it to HTML, then change the format back to normal, etc. Dumb morons.

Almost as bad are those who forward me a 17th-generation forwarded email, where each previous forwarder was too fricking stupid to remove the forward info so that the meat is buried 17 floors below in a nest of headers. Or, it's one email attached to another, and so on, you have to drill down 3 or 5 levels to find the original. And they are invariably all these 7th grade level humor things or some dumb religious crap or pro-war or anti-Arab humor. Jesus. If tree-huggers are the brain-numb foot soldiers of liberalism, these blue collar rubes are their Republican analog.

Here's another. I ask someone to fax me something on FINE mode. "Do whutt?" I explain it to them, "Look, there's a button on your fax... oh fucking nevermind."

Annoying also are the dipwads who send me email with stationary font in the background. Or they put their name in script font, sometimes in blue color. What, do they think that'll fool me?

And why do some poeple insist on deleting context when they reply to an email. Do they think the CIA is tailing them?

And I love these ignant morons who, when you send them a PDF file attached, say, "Uhhh, Ah cain't open it. Eeet won't open." I invariably say, "Do you have the latest version of the free Adobe Acrobat reader?" And if the answer is, "Uhhhmmm, how would I know that," then I know the answer is no.

And if I see one more person click twice on a hyperlink, I will go berzerk.

NASA, Palmer, and the Handicapped

Three apologies today.

First, for this joke: Hey, did you hear the shuttle launch was canceled? Yeah, NASA couldn't afford the gas.

Second: for wasting my time battling with Palmer.

Third: Yesterday I picked my baby up from school during a bad thunderstorm. On a fairly main road that was getting too flooded for normal cars, I just plowed through with my trusty Land Rover. I hit a huge patch of water creating a huge arc of water spraying up from the passenger side wheels; my baby was delighted. So I did it again; and then espied on the sidewalk, inexplicably, this nurse lady pushing some handicapped kid in a wheelchair--in a thunderstorm. I saw her raise her arms over her head and a look of fear on her face, as my tsunami wave arced over toward her. I felt so bad, but nothing I could do; I hit the brakes, but the spray of water was on its way to her. I had passed her but I am sure the wave of water drenched her and her poor handicapped kid (who were no doubt wet already from the storm). I really apologize!

some hnn comments restored

Following up on this post: the comments on hnn were not deleted. The links to them were. I had some links saved from my previous duplicate posts, so was able to get some of them. They provide some context for some of my comments:

• From the Miserable Libertarians post: some comments; and some more comments
• From the I'll Let You Know In A Couple Years post: some comments

Anyone reading these comments and my other comments elsewhere in this blog can judge for themselves whether or not Palmer is relentlessly on the attack (as are, to varying degrees, others including Steve Horwitz and Charles Johnson--have I left anyone out?).

hnn comments deleted

I can't say I'm surprised--but some of the hnn threads I have posted on recently, primarily arguing with Tom Palmer and combatting his repeated libels of fellow libertarians, have been deleted. The editors means only to cut off comments but inadvertently deleted the comments. Nonetheless, I'm not surprised, as can be seen from the last several posts where I re-posted some of my comments there, on this blog, just in case they ended up disappearing.

Here are the posts that mention the deletion of the comments sections:

• Civility (Jason Kuznicki)
  
• More Civility (Steven Horwitz)
  
• Hear, Hear, Libertarian Gaggism! (my comment, Do Not Equate the Initiator with the Victim, is reproduced below--guess why)

***

There is of course nothing unlibertarian with "private" censorship; the fact that we feel compelled to explain this to each other is a bit depressing.

Personally I do not buy into the "both sides need to simmer down" type of view. My opinion is this: Tom Palmer (and some others, to varying degrees) repeatedly resort to personal attacks on the character and motives of fellow libertarians, as part of a response to substantive discussions. The motivations behind our views are questioned and snidely impugned, etc. It's to the point where if you have a differing view on federalism, it's because you come from the "fever swamp" of neo-confederate slavery apology. These type of personal attacks and libel seem to me to be prohibited by this blog.

It is not surprising that others, such as me, respond to these completely outrageous, uncivilized attacks on the character and motives of people I know to be decent people and sincere advocates of liberty. If anyone wants to equate my or others' response to the outrageous personal attacks of Tom Palmer or others, they are free to make this mistake. But just as there is a difference between initiating force and responding to it, there is a difference between launching an assault on someone and the response to it.

I and others that are regularly attacked by Palmer et al. are perfectly happy to go about our merry way, trying to understand and advocate liberty as we see it. There is no need to respond in a non-civil way to people who are not already breaching rules of civility, etiquette, courtesy, charity, decency, and honesty.

In my view personal attacks like those hurled by Palmer and implicitly or snidely suggested by others on this forum, ought to be prevented or a warning issued. But until this is done, I can tell you right now, whenever I see anyone maligning decent, fellow libertarians and impugning their motives, suggesting outrageous things like racism, bigotry, anti-semitism, I am going to call a spade a spade and denounce it. Ban me for doing this if you will. It's your property.

The problem is that Tom Palmer has demonstrated he will not treat me or others affiliated with the Mises Institute with civility, other than calling me "Mr. Kinsella." So blinded by malevolence and irrational emotions is he, he hardly sees us as humans, much less libertarian. Just like liberals, who act morally superior despite being willing to inflict terrible harm on individuals, Palmer here has the gall to adopt a superior stance all the while acting like an utter cad.

And I also posted this reply:

And a good place to intercede might be at the first sign of a personal attack on a fellow poster or fellow libertarian. This would include allegations that the other libertarian has a given, say, political or constitutional view because he does not care about liberty, or is racist, or anti-semitic, or yearns for slavery, or is not a "real" libertarian. It would include snide comments that imply the advocate of a given argument has evil, hidden, unlibertarian motives.

In fact, since accusing someone of anti-semitism, bigotry, racism, etc., are arguably libelous, not to mention outrageous and not conducive to honest discourse, it would be a very good idea for a given forum not to tolerate it.

No offense, Tom Palmer.

More hnn replies

A few more posted here, in case hnn deletes them.

First, this reply:

P-dog writes:

A very weak retort. Thomas Jefferson did not lead a revolution for the purpose of furthering slavery. The signers of the South Carolina secession resolution did. There's a difference. Evidently you don't get it. A libertarian, on the other hand, would.

Ah. I see. Can't reply direclty to my own post--don't want to sully your hands. It's all electrons, Tom, you know. And no one cares about you finnicky rules. You insinuate here I am not a libertarian. I think you are not one. So there. Where are we now? Fisticuffs? On Segways?

Look, you obviously have a carefully-mapped out list of what is permitted, and what is not. It's okay to worship Jefferson, even though he owned slaves and raped one of them... but not to admire Jeff Davis, who freed his slaves.... because of "the" "purpose" of the "secession." Jefferson was in favor of secession... so was Jeff Davis... both secessions resulted in independent nations where slavery was legal... hmm, but "the" "purpose" --heck, I didn't konw there was "a" "the" purpose. You sure are smart, Tom.

Jusy give us the list of officially approved rules (run it by your benefactor first, would you) so we will know how to conform to the new world order.

And another one:

P-dog sayeth:

When someone says that I'm a contrarian at root, I'm tempted to deny it.

Interesting. Do they say that to you often? I don't think anyone's ever told me that. But then, I mostly hang out with normal people, most of whom have never used the term "contrarian" in their life.

But in this case, it would be true. To be a "contrarian" per se is just to be contrary: against what others believe. I believe in liberty. It is a positive value. I want it and I work for it. That's the difference between libertarians and people who are merely "anti-state." The latter are merely against something, but not for a positive alternative.

And here goes the shiv. P-dog first subtly implies that we--you know, the ones he constantly libels on his smearblog--are "merely" anti-state. This is ridiculous. As Roderick Long pointed out on this thread, "Pessimism?? Is this pessimism?" Of course, P-dog does not reply to Roderick (and strangely, he will not bash his friends or others with some weird immunity, even though they share the same views he schizophrenically attacks in others associted with this bete noir, the Mises Institute--you know, the big, hairy, evil group--ghoulish, he calls them elsewhere, who have "opened the gates of hell" (his words)--who ummm, promotes free-market, Austrian economics and, er, umm, libertarianism. Yeah, they are SCARY, SCARY. .... BOO!).

We are not "merely anti-state". We are of course in favor of rights and liberty. Has Palmer ever heard of, oh, I don't know, the fricking JOURNAL OF LIBERTARIAN STUDIES? Or Reason Papers, which Mises Institute hosts? Can P-dog with a straight face deny that the Mises Institute promotes the thought of Mises and Rothbard? Would either be called "mere" anti-statist? with no positive views about liberty, or rights? This is ridiculous.

As for being "for a positive alternative," now we get to the nub of the matter. I suggest Lew Rockwell's article Regime Libertarians. Just because not all libertarians are compromising, sell-out policy wonks who want temporary, incremental increases in liberty at the cost of liberty in other areas, or don't toe the line of a given beltway thinktank, does not mean we are not also "for" a "positive alternative." The insufferable arrogance emanating from Palmer's perch is truly a sight to behold.

Lots of people are in opposition to the state: they include a great many people with whom I would not want to be categorized, such as criminals, terrorists, advocates of other forms of coercion and tyranny, such as a Caliphate or feudalism.

Yeah, deep, man, deep. Wot a great insight.

You know, lots of hippies and scumbums are also in favor of legalized drugs and prostitution too. Let me guess--you are not "merely" in favor of drug legalization. You are "more" than that, right? And you would not want to be "reduced" to a mere defender of porn or drug rights. Hey, I have an idea--why don't you realize the universalizability principle actually applies here? Hmmm?

I'm not just "against the state," because I favor liberty, which is why I favor restrictions on the state. When people enjoy more liberty, I am pleased by that, at the same time that I am mindful that injustices still exist.

Being a "contrarian" is being a second-hander, letting others dictate to you what you will stand against, rather than choosing that *for* which you will stand.

Whatever. Cue violins. When the Randroid lingo comes out, my eyes glaze over.

Of course, those fellow libertarians whom you malign and hate at the Mises Institute are in favor of liberty and individual rights.

And another:

Mr. Gregory, if a state were torturing people to death in truly cruel and unsual ways, would you join hands with Mr. Kinsella and march against the federal courts taking steps to stop such behavior? I would hope that you would leave Mr. Kinsella to march on his own, as would all of the rest of the libertarians on the planet.

Mr. Palmer, can you not read? I have admitted many times over the purely instrumental value of the US Constitution. I would not hesitate to oppose it where I thought it unlibertarian. As a matter of fact, I think it is unlibertarian and I think the federal state it set up ought to be disbanded. You would not I suspect, because we need a benevolent nanny to ride herd over the nasty, naughty states, and the feds are your daddy, aren't they? WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

If the state were torturing people, this would not change the fact that the US Constitution does not authorize the feds to stop it. Would I in some cases "want" the feds to march on the states to stop this anyway? I don't know. What has that to do with whether the Constitution authorizes this action? To my mind, integrity calls for an honest interpretation of the Constitution. Where it is illiberal, we can acknowledge this, and then consciously choose to abandon the Constitution, or try to change it.

Reply -- hnn: Palmer on federalism

reply to Palmer here reprinted, in case hnn deletes it:

***

Do the "rules" of this board prevent disingenuous replies or outright libel? I guess not.

P-dog says:

What I find remarkable is the eagerness to resist restrictions on state power emanating from the federal courts when they are (or could be but didn't, as in the Kelo case) issuing opinions that are well grounded in the text of the constitution.

But they are not well-grounded in the "text" of the Constitution. This is mere question-begging. Palmer here snidely implies that hmm, there must be some sneaky reason we are "eager" to "resist restrictions" on state power. P-boy here snidely implies that those who are in favor of federalism--you know, like all educated libertarians until the modern "improved" generation--are "eager" to want states to be able to hurt people. This vile slander is inappropriate in this forum.

If one thinks the "text" that reads "privileges or immunities of citizens" automatically and obviously means citizens' rights, as implicit in the.... Bill of Rights, despite the history of the 14th amendment, then he must have a crystal ball. I mean, they left the word "rights" out because ... ahhh ... .well, who knows, but they MUST have meant rights, anyway. And, umm, just because this language tracks language in a previous bill that clearly referred to a narrow set of rights, not a broad set, well, let's just ignore that. And look, just because they listed due process in the 14th amendment, even though they didn't need to if the privileges/immunities clause incorporated the one from the 5th amendment--let's just ignore that too.

Rejecting the 14th Amendment on the grounds that it isn't part of the Constitution is absurd; we currently do have a federal Constitution.

P-dog may be right; but none of us are basing our argument on this claim. Now the brilliant Gene Healy does make this quite respectable argument:

Given that the Fourteenth Amendment was never legitimately ratified,we’re freer to adopt a narrow construction of the amendment than we would otherwise be. By giving a narrow reading to the Fourteenth Amendment (which was not a product of constitutional consent), courts keep faith with the Tenth (which was). From this perspective, the post-Civil-War Court’s crabbed construction of the Privileges or Immunities Clause in Slaughterhouse might well be justified as a blow for originalism.

That is, we can't ignore the 14th, but recognizing its problematic origin, perhaps when the federalism principle of the 10th butts up against the alleged erosion thereof in the 14th, we give the nod to the 10th. Just a thought.

But our arguments don't rest on this. We assume the 14th is part of the Constitution. So why does Palmer use this straw man?

We should appeal to it when the appeal is well grounded in the text and likely to advance liberty.

Well now, finally an unambiguous normative assertion about what "we" "should" do. I welcome a rigorous defense of this, coupled with some explanation why it is obvious why anyone who disagrees with it is an apologist for slavery, bigot, racist, anti-semite--am I leaving any out?--the kind of outrageous, disgusting smears that Palmer regularly trots out on his smearblog as the kneejerk response to anyone who does not toe the Cato line. But eve if this mere assertion were true, it again rests on the notion of appeals "well grounded in the text." Of course, this is what is in question, so it is question begging, as well as disingenuous.

What exactly is P-dog saying? Is he saying everyone (or just libertarians?) should (?) "adopt" a given argument for construction of the Constitution, as long as someone can plausibly say "it is well grounded in the text", so long as in one concrete case it increases liberty? What exaclty is he saying? That it does not matter what the Constitution really means? That the original limits on the feds are elastic? Subject to their discretion? Or only ... if they are libertarian judges? What?

Similarly, the guarantees to citizens of the several states in Article IV of "all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States" is in the federal (and unamendd) Constitution, as is the guarantee of a "Republican Form of Government."

HO HO! So here we come to the fall-back. Notice Palmer first tries to imply that the 14th amendment's "privileges or immunities" clause somehow includes some broad set of rights, supposedly largely coextensive with those express or implied in the Bill of Rights (well, only, er, some of htem--not those in the 10th, or the 27th amendment, or the unratified 1st article of the 12 articles submitted... or not in the 3rd, or 2d, amendment, and not parts of the 5th, and, er, um, also not the due process clause of the 5th, because, you see, that's already in the 14th).

Then his fall-back: why, we never had federalism at all! You see, FROM THE BEGINNING, the feds had the power to review state laws for all the rights in the Bill of Rights, because of the original privileges or immunities clause (even though this is not in the power-graning section of the constitution) or the Republican form of government clause--but let's ignore the fact that, say, the original privileges or immunities clause was adopted in 1789, when there WAS NO BILL OF RIGHTS (that came in 1791), so how in the world could the earlier P-I clause include those rights, as is argued that the later one does... or does the earlier P-I clause incorporate, oh, I don't know, some other unspecified set of rights? So that the feds have strictly enumerated powers... except here--they had the power to enforce whatever rights they wanted to against the states, no definition or limits at all. Even though the States would never have consented to a federal Constitution that granted such power.

Nice. Convenient. Let's chuck all we know about history and context, and just read the bare words on paper, in the most favorable way as possible for (centralized) libertarianism... then just "assume" we can somehow, someday, find enough libertarian judges to interpret it the same way...

Oh, it's so beautiful, I want to cry.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are in the federal Constitution.

Interesting, that--curious, if the 14th Amendment's due process and/or privileges or immunities clause are so fricking broad, then presumably so is its equal protection clause. You know, that one that prevents states from treating classes of citizens differently, from discriminating? So just curious, mind you, but if that one is so broad--wouldn't you THINK it would have prevented States from discriminating against BLACKS and WOMEN in the FUNDAMNETAL FRICKING RIGHT TO VOTE? Well, I would. But lo and behold, we needed the 15th, and 19th, amendments, to give blacks and women the right to vote. Hmmm, interesting. I guess the "equal protection" clause of the 14th ain't as broad as it seems to a college libertarian on first reading, is it? Maybe, just maybe, the same is true of the privileges or immunities clause? Nahhh--can't be. Anyone who thinks so is a Christian or an anti-semite (or is there a difference?).

If a state were to deny a person the legal right to vote on the grounds of race, would Mr. Anthony favor the intervention of the federal courts or of the federal Congress?

You see, there is actually constitutional grounding for such an intervention. There happens to be a constitutional amendment to this effect--the 15th. We don't deny this. Strangely, as I noted above, the equal protection clause of the apparently very broadly construed 14th does not cover the right to vote; but no matter. Just b/c the 15th does grant a right to vote to blacks, does not mean that the privileges or immunities clause of the 14th includes the rights implied in the bill of rights. These are separate matters. Palmer need not caricature our view; we are actually very clear and upfront about it. We admit some constitutional limits on states, and deny others. For some reason, for those libertarian centralists who are apparently not bothered by the idea of a non-limited federla government, anyone who thinks federal supervisory power over states is limited must be a fascist secretly yearning for states to permit mobs to lynch blacks once more.

Palmer on the Civil War

My reply to Palmer on hnn's Liberty & Power blog is reprinted on this post on the Palmer Periscope, in case the pinheads there delete it [coda: I was prescient; daddy is now down the memory hole!]

Palmer on Junge Freiheit

See this post on Palmer Periscope.

Pesto and Chops

Why do some fine steakhouses hold themselves out as having great "steaks and chops"? What the eff is a chop? Do they mean fricking pork chops? Pork chops? Who goes to a nice restaurant for a goddamned pork chop? I don't think I have ever seen anyone do this. I have seen pork cops ordered at your regular shops, but a fine steakhouse? I mean yeah, a nice fish, or lobster--I sometimes see people order those instead of steak at a nice place. But pork chops? What the hell is going on here? If they don't mean pork chops, what the hell do they mean by "chops"?

And what the eff is pesto anyway? No one ever defines it. It's sort of like geffiltefish, as best I can tell.

Palmer Lies about Involuntary Unemployment--yet again! ha ha ha

In this thread, Heinrich wrote:

Palmer continues repeating the assertion that the work published by the LvMI is "an embarassment". In particular, he thinks Hoppe's work is "an embarassment". At one point in the past, he argued that Prof. Hoppe's claim that "on a free market, all unemployment is voluntary" was an embarassment to Austrian economists. Stephan Kinsella responded by quoting a statement of Ludwig von Mises saying the same thing. Palmer then facetuously accused Kinsella of an "appeal to authority" (http://tinyurl.com/ba5e4) Also, in that regards, see *The Ludwig von Mises Legacy: A Reality Check* by J.H. Huebert (http://tinyurl.com/d6kjz).

Palmer replies:

And Mr. Heinrich, be careful of what you quote, since the quotation from my personal correspondence of a few years back with the odd Mr. Kinsella contains quite a few of those little dots [...]. The claim that in a free market all unemployment is voluntary is not a tenable thesis; insisting that it must be true because Mises said something that could be interpreted that way is mere evidence of cultishnes, and nothing more.

Now as even Heinrich's summary makes clear, and as Palmer well knows by now (as I have explained it to him numerous times), I did not insist that the comment about voluntarly unemployment is true because Mises said it, as anyone of even normal intelligence can understand (in fact, I do not believe I have ever stated that I do even fully agree with Hoppe and Mises here).

As I have explained repeatedly, I was simply showing Palmer's assertion was ridiculous--that Hoppe's comments were an embarrasment to Austrian economics. If they are perfectly consistent with the explicit views of the preeminent Austrian as expressed in his magnum opus, well, then Palmer's critique is inexplicable. The real truth is that when I pointed out this statement it embarrassed Palmer and it nailed his ass. Does anyone doubt that when he saw the Mises quote that was in line with what Hoppe said, Palmer thought, "Oh shit. I wish I would have not picked that example."--?

He was cornered and like a cornered animal, he stupidly fought harder. Since I had him dead to rights, he had no real defense but to lie and claim that I was acting cultlike in appealing to authority. I was not appealing to authority, and Palmer knows it. He used a ridiculous example that made him look like the ass he is when I pulled out the Mises quote, and he is desperate to cover it up.

As he wrote, "If you're right, then so what? Is that an argument? If you're right about this, then Mises was wrong. Is that so hard to accept?" I never said Mises or Hoppe were right. I was not appealing to authority at all, except to show that the view in question was also held by the most prominent Austrian, and therefore was, umm, Austrian, or hardly an embarrassment to Austrianism.

I can just imagine Palmer's reaction when he saw I had found a quote of Mises that says EXACTLY what Hoppe said, that Palmer had criticized in his pompous fashion. I bet his little eyes bugged out. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Palmer also calls me "odd." He just embarrasses himself by such comments. What he finds is odd is someone who is intelligent, articulate, successful, not a loser, not a religious nut, and who also has a sense of humor--and who does not take him seriously. He just can't fathom that, so oddly arrogant is he. I decided to tease him by making fun of his hypersensitive, ridiculous PC standards--he and his ilk call anyone who sneezes a bigot--by asking if he had ever used the word "bigger"; because if so, that is just one letter away from the n-word, so he is a semi-racist. Obviously the point is to make fun of his stupid accusations of bigotry etc. Yet he feigns innocence, ominously intoning that something must be seriously wrong with me to fixate on the word "bigger"--even doing me the favor of banning me from his smearblog for doing this.

What is truly odd is someone like Palmer--who is objectively odd, given the things I have heard about him and that he has manifested--thinking he is in a position to call me odd. I someone like Palmer did not think me odd, that's probably when I would start worrying.

Coda:

The sad, pathetic, monomaniacal Mr. Palmer has a final comment on the thread:

"That goes for simply accepting as truth everything said by Mr. Kinsella. My advice is that you be more careful about labelling someone a liar based on one person's heavily edited extracts from personal correspondence to which you have no access."

Hmmm, let's see. Now Palmer tries to deflect from the clear case that shows he's a buffoon by pointing to the fact that his comments were from a private email and that ellipses were used.

Palmer the shell of a human (as someone called him) published the following comments:

...Skousen made subtle reference to ... Hoppe's failure to understand fundamental Austrian economic principles, such as the role of time in economic adjustment. "As the editor of this volume, I have to admit that I do not agree with everything Professor Hoppe presents as Misesian economics, even in this significantly revised chapter. For example, I have serious doubts about his claim that market unemployment is 'always voluntary.' Certainly, permanent unemployment is always voluntary in the unhampered market, but a dynamic market is constantly generating temporary unemployment that requires time to correct." ... One could go on with examples of how Hoppe and the Mises Institute have proven embarrassing to the Austrian economists by whom they claim to be inspired .

What is Palmer saying here? He trots out Hoppe's view about unemployment being voluntary on an unhampered market, an then says he says, "One could go on with examples of how Hoppe and the Mises Institute have proven embarrassing to the Austrian economists by whom they claim to be inspired". One "could go on" with examples implies there are other examples--in addition to the one just given--that show Hoppe is embarrasing to Mises (the economist by whom he claims to be inspired). So Palmer is clearly stating, in published writing (not in private email), that Hoppe's view about voluntary unemployment is an ebmarrassment to Mises.

Now, it so happens Mises said exactly the same thing. There can be zero doubt that Palmer was unaware of Mises's views here, or he would not have chosen such an embarrassing example that makes him look like a moron with an vendetta.

Silly Tom Palmer ridicules some of us for believing in --gasp--limited federal government and enumerated federal powers. He repeatedly jumps to the libelous conclusion that anyone who says that, say, the Civil War was unjustified under the Constitution, or that states have a constitutional right to secede, are neo-confederate apologists for slavery pining for the antebellum south. And yet, some of Cato's own people, notably the brilliant Gene Healy, hold the same view, and you don't hear Palmer slandering him. Hmm, could it be--double standard, Mr. Palmer? Coward. Worm.

And he snidely attacks Hoppe's "argumentation ethics" defense of rights, arrogantly dismissing it with a flourishing wave of the hadn--"For the new prophet arrives, who teaches the truer version of that truth, while others have fallen away: say, Hans-Herman Hoppe, who has "proven" that merely to open your mouth to contradict him is to affirm what he believes, and therefore to contradict yourself. Presto! A new prophet." And yet, Cato's Roger Pilon, has promoted a similar defense of rights based on Alan Gewirth's Principle of Generic Consistency (as I have explained here); yet you don't hear Palmer snidely attacking Pilon's (great) work. Again: a sniveling, ignorant, dishonest coward with an axe to grind. Palmer has revealed himself time and again to be an utterly disgusting human being. For him to call me "odd," I take as a compliment.

Finally, numbnuts Palmer says:

There is no comment section at lewrockwell.com or at antiwar.com, where people might defend themselves from the outrageous claims or distortions served up by Rockwell, Raimondo, and their merry band of kooks and crackpots.

First, Rockwell and Mises Institute have nothing to do with antiwar.com. Second, Palmer conveniently omits to note that the Mises blog does have comments.

Palmer apparently has no qualms about revealing that he has zero integrity and that he is an unfair, nasty person. What is interesting is that he adopts this arrogant pose, as if he is somebody important. That is what is truly amusing. Not content to be a plodder, he must make a name for himself by becoming the smearblogger nonpareil!

Too much sense

A couple of expressions I like. First, "come to find out," as in: "Wayull, Ahh thought she wuz single--but come to find out, she wuz married."

Second, "that would make too much sense," as in: "Why don't they put up signs in the airport parking garage showing which way to walk to get to the elevators? Why? Because that would MAKE TOO MUCH SENSE!"

Voila

I confess to feeling utter disdain when the French use "voila" so casually. I mean I think of "voila" as some dramatic move, like when a magician unveils a tiger behind his cape. So it seems bizarre and pompous to me when a waiter hands me a cup of coffee or the check, with a flourish and "voila!" like Ricardo fricking Montalban and his rich Corinthian leather.

Earthquake in Mejico

Joke someone told me recently:

Did you hear about the earthquake today in Mexico? Yeah, it killed like 250,000 people. Canada has announced a multi-million dollar aid package, and George Bush has declared he is prepared to send them 250,000 replacement Mexicans.

Truck Nutz

I am tempted to buy a set of these: a pair of testicles for your truck, hanging down from the receiver hitch.

Have mercy on my soul

I would like to apologize for being from Louisiana and not liking crawfish or Tabasco, for being hispanic and not having rhythm and thinking that Alberto Gonzales should be cleaning my house or better yet, making me a chalupa. I apologize for using Linux yet pinching my geek friends' brains for being closet socialists. Also, while I am not a graphic designer or homosexual, I like Apple computers. Finally, for today at least, I apologize for having a pistol with a 17-round mag, and that sadly, I don't (yet) put it under my pillow when I sleep.

BK's Dumb Theory

Fellow Apologist Burger King Marcus writes:

I have a new hobby: rather than writing my own pieces for LewRockwell.com (which requires, after all, sifting through email feedback that's 1/3 hateful race theory and 1/3 gibbering leftist idiocy), I'm going to try to get myself mentioned in everyone else's stuff.

Sorry, BK, but I really doubt your strategy is gonna pay off.

Waitasec....