From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

To act on behalf of a group seems to free people of many of the moral restraints which control their behavior as individuals within the group.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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My race is “American”

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

If the "community" or the state are prior to the individual, if they have ends of their own independent of and superior to those of the individuals, only those individuals who work for the same ends can be regarded as members of the community.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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I'm sort of like a news feed, but slower, buggier, and much, much quirkier . . .

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

One of the inherent contradictions of the collectivist philosophy is that, while basing itself on the humanistic morals which individualism has developed, it is practicable only within a relatively small group. That socialism so long as it remains theoretical is internationalist, while as soon as it is put into practice, whether in Russia or in Germany, it becomes violently nationalist, is one of the reasons why "liberal socialism" as most people in the Western world imagine it is purely theoretical, whole the practice of socialism is everywhere totalitarian. Collectivism has no room for the wide humanitarianism of liberalism but only for the narrow particularism of the totalitarian.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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Tournament time--lots of sports today! Go Rabbits!

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

Collectivism on a world scale seems to be unthinkable--except in the service of a small ruling elite.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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I get a solid A- for effort today, on the Obama curve . . .

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

The fact that German anti-Semitism and anti-capitalism spring from the same root is of great importance for the understanding of what has happened there, but this is rarely grasped by foreign observers.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

It is in connection with the deliberate effort of the skilful demagogue to weld together a closely coherent and homogeneous body of supporters that the third and perhaps most important negative element of (the creation of a popular totalitarian movement) enters. It seems to be almost a law of human nature that it is easier for people to agree on a negative program--on the hatred of an enemy, on the envy of those better off--than on any positive task.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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No Word today. I'm pretty much speechless. Well, except for the usual . . . Whips may be intermittent through the middle of next week, as I'll be off to the Summit League basketball tournament in beautiful Sioux Falls, South Dakota . . .

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

That socialism can be put into practice only by methods which most socialists disapprove is, of course, a lesson learned by many social reformers of the past. The old socialist parties were inhibited by their democratic ideals; they did not possess the ruthlessness required for the performance of their chosen task.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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I went a little crazy with the YouTube videos of liberty-oriented songs. So, sue me. Or, rock on! Whatever. Scroll down, click the "read more" or do whatever you think you need to do. It's a free country. Sorta.

In other news . . .
From the The Early Adopters: Reading the tea leaves--an excerpt (full document at the link as a .pdf.)

Attempts to define the Tea Party movement--its motivations, values, beliefs, and goals--continue to miss the mark and yet to date there have been no in-depth conversations with the people who actually make up the movement themselves. Market research through data collection has focused on the opinions others hold of the movement; this report examines the motivations of the individuals themselves.

- Due to continued participation and activity, the Tea Parties are emerging as a movement that is both long-term and critical for political strategists and participants to understand.

- The people involved with these movements are not political junkies or crusty right-wing extremists; 46.9% were uninvolved or rarely involved with politics prior to 2009.

- They aren't in it to express anger alone. An overwhelming majority characterized the goal of their initial involvement as "to stand up for my beliefs."

- They are self aware. They aren't falling for a Third Party trap, including social issues on their docket, nor are they content to be labeled as protesting for the sake of protesting. 70.3% are hopeful that they are having a positive impact on their country.

- About one third remains unabashedly loyal to Sarah Palin's presidential candidacy, yet the field splits from there. DeMint, Romney, and Huckabee each garnered at least 10% of their support.

- They have a sophisticated, well-informed understanding of the U.S. Constitution and American history in general.

The conclusion of this report is that the Tea Party activists are not the "other," and they cannot be defined through a single statement, document, or definition. They are the early adopters of a new empowerment. As early adopters, they are paving the road they believe our country must proceed down in order to regain control over its government, and they are modeling the type of paradigm shift--the reawakening of the "people" component of a democracy--that they believe is necessary to our survival as a representative democracy.

The recommendation from this report is the time has come to better understand and attend to the Tea Parties. They are powerful, both in their political sway and in their passion.

This is what the Tea Partiers are upset about:

We're So Screwed! From Veronique de Rugy at The American via Reason. "This is what 'unsustainable' looks like." Obamacare will just make it worse.

Too late to apologize? Maybe . . .

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

We must here return for a moment to the position which precedes the suppression of democratic institutions and the creation of a totalitarian regime. In this stage it is the general demand for quick and determined government action that is the dominating element in the situation, dissatisfaction with the slow and cumbersome course of democratic procedure which makes action for action's sake the goal. It is then the man or the party who seems strong and resolute enough "to get things done" who exercises the greatest appeal.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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Video: The Four-Minute Guide to the Seven-Hour Summit:



Your right to health care is exactly the same as your right to a car, or an ice cream cone, or a shirt, or a laptop computer. You certainly have a right to obtain those things--well, for now, anyway you have a right to obtain all of those things. But nobody else has any obligation to give you any of them, and you have no right to demand at the point of a government gun that somebody else hand any of those things over to you because of your "need." There may be people who feel that it is a moral thing to give to those less fortunate, but there is no obligation to do so--indeed, the virtue inherent in the act of giving is precisely that it is NOT an obligation. There is NO virtue in being generous with somebody else's money, time, skills, or life. Indeed, being generous with somebody else's money, time, skills, or life is a pretty good working definition of evil.

In a free market, you can have pretty much anything that you can afford. There is nothing magical about health care. There is nothing special about health care, other than its unique emotional hold on each and every one of us. It is just another economic good, which some people produce and other people consume--like a haircut, an airline ticket, or a meal. It's not fair that some people can afford $200 haircuts and some people have to do it themselves in front of a mirror. It's not fair that some people can fly first class, others have to fly on Southwest, and others can't afford to fly at all. It's not fair that some people can afford filet mignon and some people can't even afford McDonald's. Fairness is not a part of the discussion. Here's why:

THE DEMAND FOR HEALTH CARE IS INFINITE Everybody will always want more health care, especially if they don't have to pay for it, or even really know how much it even costs. But that's the health care system we have built in the United States today. Nobody knows how much their health care costs. Nobody really cares, because we have separated the consumer from the cost of the good being consumed. We have removed the cost control mechanism imposed by a free and open market--which is the only fair, humane cost control mechanism we know of. The ONLY alternative to cost control via the free market is some form of Sarah Palin's "death panels," however cleverly and intricately they might be structured. If the free market is not allowed to impose discipline on the individual health care customer, then the only alternative is to have some arbitrary authority do it. Freedom, or control. One or the other. Choose wisely.

Central control of economies does not work. Ever. Central control is ALWAYS less efficient than a free market and central control is ALWAYS more cruel and arbitrary. The extent to which central control appears to work, is the extent to which the free market can absorb the distortions and inequities that central control introduces into the economy. But there comes a time when the free market can absorb no more interference. There comes a time when the goose that lays the golden eggs becomes too weak to lay any more. Does anybody really want to let things go the way they're going? No more goose, no more golden eggs. Do we really want to risk killing the goose?

See, here's the deal, people. The problem with health care is not a supply problem. It's a demand problem. The demand has been artificially inflated due to the stupidity of government intervention, and the further stupid demogoging of the issue by vicious, cynical power-grubbing people bleating "people having a right to health care" which is utter, complete, unadulterated, evil, cruel, heartless, manipulative bullshit.

The time for choosing is now. The Democrats have chosen control over freedom. The Tea Partiers have chosen freedom over control, and are dragging the Republicans (and some Democrats) kicking and screaming to the pro-liberty position.

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

Just as a democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans, so the totalitarian dictator would soon have to choose between disregard of ordinary morals and failure. It is for this reason that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending towards totalitarianism. Who does not see this has not yet grasped the full width of the gulf which separates totalitarianism from a liberal regime, the utter difference between the whole moral atmosphere under collectivism and the essentially individualist Western civilization.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

Some security is essential if freedom is to be preserved, because most men are willing to bear the risk which freedom inevitably involves only so long as that risk is not too great. But while this is a truth of which we must never lose sight, nothing is more fatal than the present fashion among intellectual leaders of extolling security at the expense of freedom. It is essential that we should re-learn frankly to face the fact that freedom can be had only at a price and that as individuals we must be prepared to make severe material sacrifices to preserve our liberty. If we want to retain this, we must regain the conviction on which the rule of liberty in the Anglo-Saxon countries has been based and which Benjamin Franklin expressed in a phrase, applicable to us in our lives as individuals no less than as nations: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

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March. The first hints of spring begin to seep into the frozen parts of the inhabited world. The world isn't quite as cold as it has been. A season of hope. College basketball reaches its crescendo. Spring Training is in full swing. Sure, there are slush ponds and sloppy mud puddles and piles of dirty snow, melting at the sides of the roads and parking lots and sidewalks and driveways. But it's March. Time to look forward to spring, and on to summer.

My favorite season has always been fall. But March isn't bad. Sure, it comes in like a lamb and out like a lion--or vice versa, but the point is that there's a lamb at one end or the other, unlike January, which is just harsh and never really very much fun, and not just because of the post-holiday depression.

So here's to March, and the hope of better days ahead.

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Hey! It's Sunday. So what if it's 2 in the afternoon for the "Morning" Whip?

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

The younger generation of today has grown up in a world in which in school and press the spirit of commercial enterprise has been represented as disreputable and the making of profit as immoral, where to employ a hundred people is represented as exploitation but to command the same number as honorable. Older people may regard this as an exaggeration of the present state of affairs, but the daily experience of the university teacher leaves little doubt that, as a result of anticapitalist propaganda, values have already altered far in advance of the change in institutions which has so far taken place.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.