Links and Minifeatures 2005 08 05 Friday

First, be sure to check back here Monday morning for RINO Sightings carnival!

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Eric is begging for traffic to hit his 40k unique mark a little earlier. But he's got a couple actually worth reading so he doesn't really need to be begging. Scratch wherin he wonders how much support the elephants are going to get from the Libertarian/Independent wing of their coalition next time, and Finally about the subway searches in New York. I disagree with the latter post, but don't have the energy for more than a pocket refutation right now. It's still worth reading.



Pocket refutation: Traveling the New York Subway is not a right, much less using it with a backpack, and exposes all aboard to a certain degree of risk if those around you are not searched. There certainly is reasonable suspicion of intent on behalf of our enemies. Would you suggest that you could go into the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, without being cleared? What about airline travel, or is that somehow different, and if so, how? If there were no searches performed, could we not hold the subway liable for breaching a duty of care should there be any incidents? (Actually, with the token measures that are being taken, they're likely to be liable anyway.)



I like my privacy when we're talking about home and private property. But privacy in public spaces is a fallacious argument in the first place, and if you have read this book, you should understand the dangers of privacy. However much I enjoy my privacy, I have come to appreciate how much better off we would be with a right of public surveillance. Police Interrogation rooms? On webcam. Public offices? On webcam. Public spaces? On webcam. Anytime there's a crime in the area, access the webcams and find out who did what. Anytime you want to, look at any given webcam. You want to conceal something that happens in a public space? That requires a court order and legal witnesses.



Surveillance in public spaces is already here. We can call it evil, pretend socially that it doesn't exist, and refuse to benefit - and the rich or powerful or criminal use it anyway, and block it from being used on themselves. Or we can put it in our arsenal as well. Given a choice, I'd rather the latter.



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Combs Spouts Off has an excellent critique of the special election in Ohio.



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Louisiana Libertarian has another reason the Libertarian party shouldn't be taken seriously.



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Watchful Investor disagrees with me on the 30 year bond. Seems our disagreement is the assumption of long term inflation. I don't think we're going to see huge inflation numbers, he fears that we are. Whatever happens, though, it's not going to happen all at once. Of course you can get hit big if the government does something severely inflationary, but there is a market for Treasuries. You can always sell. Of course, the government would still have the money locked at a low figure for 30 years, but unless you completely ignore the market or are king of the wishful thinkers you can sell if things start looking less than solid. Of course, you might get less than the cost of the bond, but that's the risk you take when you buy it.



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Libercontrarian has more about the Zetas. Scary.