Some bits and pieces from here and there:
- “LittleSis is a free database of who-knows-who at the heights of business and government.” It seems to be a cleverly-engineered, crowdsourced, ever-evolving database of the connections between politicians, lobbyists, business executives, organizations, bureaucrats, and the like.
- “The Neglected Costs of the Warfare State: An Austrian Tribute to Seymour Melman” — Melman was the Winslow Wheeler of , keeping a watchful and critical eye on the military budget and both its inherent and extravagant waste. This article looks in particular at the opportunity costs of military spending, and at the common fallacy that such spending stimulates the economy and enriches society.
- A little while back I read Visions of Poesy: Anthology of 20th Century Anarchist Poetry and didn’t find anything in it inspiring or interesting, sad to say. Read IOZ’s A Coherent Philosophy instead.
- At Strike the Root, Glen Allport describes How the 1% took America’s Wealth (and How to Get It Back).
- Claire Wolfe has an interesting column on developing derring-do.
- Greek tax protesters in Athens hung their unpaid utility bills on a Christmas tree.
- Argentine congresswoman Griselda Baldata couldn’t help but notice that nobody was maintaining the road on Route 36, but the company in charge of maintenance was still collecting a toll. So she stopped paying and urged her constituents to do likewise.
- Martin Newell, from the London Catholic Worker community, broke into Northwood Headquarters with the hopes of disrupting the disreputable. He was instead hauled into court and fined. He refused to pay and was sentenced to 24 days in prison for his refusal.
- Carl Watner has put his introduction to Render Not: The Case Against Taxation on-line.