January 2008

“The most stupid fool is better off than those who think they are wise when they are not.”

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché January 31, 2008 @ 11:55 pm (Austrian) Economics

I added a new quote to the Great Quotes on the left sidebar. I hope it is not too pretentious of me, as it is one of my own, albeit but a modification of a great Rothbard quote on ignorance of economics. Here they are for comparison: “It is no crime to be ignorant of [...]

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Comments on Roderick Long’s “Inside and Outside Spooner’s Natural Law Jurisprudence”

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché January 29, 2008 @ 1:43 pm Aristotelian Liberalism

During December 27-30, 2007 I attended the annual eastern division meeting of the American Philosophical Society. There I offered comments on Roderick’s paper, “Inside and Outside Spooner’s Natural Law Jurisprudence,” presented as part of the Molinari Society Symposium. I have been remiss in procrastinating on typing up and posting my comments. So now, fully a [...]

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Movie Review: Cloverfield, with Star Trek XI Teaser Trailer

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché January 26, 2008 @ 10:52 pm Fiction Reviews

I’ll keep this review brief like the last. It’s a monster movie thriller, set in New York City, filmed in a Blair-Witch-home-movie style. We catch glimpses of the monsters once in a while. Mostly we are bombarded by images and sounds of their handiwork. The movie starts off with a going-away party thrown for some [...]

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Movie Review: Children of Men

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché January 26, 2008 @ 10:01 pm Fiction Reviews

I’m finally getting around to reviewing a movie I saw for the first time on dvd a couple of weeks ago. I’ll keep this brief. Children of Men was an interesting dystopian film set in a near-future fascist Britain. The country has traded freedom for “security,” has closed its borders to immigrants and systematically rounds [...]

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Arthur C. Clarke must never have read Mises and Rothbard…

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché January 15, 2008 @ 9:20 pm (Austrian) Economics

…because according to this quote cited by Gregory Benford in his happy-birthday letter in Locus Magazine (January 2008), he claims that “there are some general laws governing scientific extrapolation, as there are not (pace Marx) in the case of politics and economics.” Well, far be it from me to disagree that Marx was wrong about [...]

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A Catholic Defends The Golden Compass

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché January 13, 2008 @ 11:40 pm Religion

…against ignorant critics. “Why attack ‘Compass’ but not C.S. Lewis?” by Jonathan D’Ambrosio (rogerebert.com Letters) My own two cents: How many of you who denounced and/or boycotted the movie have actually read the book? How can you honestly criticize that which you have not read or seen?

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Some Libertarian-Related SF&F News (And One Just for Fun)

by Geoffrey Allan Plauché January 13, 2008 @ 5:07 pm Libertarianism

Items from the January 2008 issue of Locus Magazine. (I hope they don’t mind.) The first is just for fun, the rest are libertarian related. My comments are occasionally interjected in [] within an entry or after the blockquoted entry.Dating, the Final Frontier Fans of science fiction now have a new place to look for [...]

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