I had a great time at the Freedom School in Dallas. What nice people and what commitment to liberty! I’m now on my way to Vienna (and blogging from the air) to meet with some of our partners for our upcoming October conference in Tbilisi. I’ll try to upload the Powerpoint/PDF for my talk to the Freedom School. It seems a bit big to upload now.
Thanks so much for joining us again at Freedom School, Tom. As usual you had so much to bring to the table. Your talk today on the ongoing effort to spread liberty throughout the Middle East was incredibly insightful. It’s downright moving to know someone who truly “walks the talk” of liberty. Stay in touch and see you soon. We really do consider you a member of the Freedom Family.
Cheers/PC
Yes, spreading liberty by killing those Arabs. And now you’re going after the Russians. Who’s next?
These efforts — e.g. the placing of free market economics books in Iraqi libraries, Arab and Russian language websites with libertarian essays, etc. — are exactly what the world desperately needs. We need *more* of such efforts to spread libertarian & free market ideas. Keep them going!
(Meanwhile, criticism of Tom Palmer & Cato hits a new low. They’re killing Arabs and Russians? What a pointless and idiotic snipe.)
The principle behind these attacks would seem to be that because Iraq became accessible to peaceful interactions through means that classical liberals do not approve of, therefore all foreign activities within that country are illegitimate.
But then, if we’re being really consistent, no country on earth could withstand such exacting scrutiny, and, as a result, the only true libertarian is the one without a single square inch of earth on which to stand.
Well, when Justin gets a new IP address, he just has to use it.
“Going after the Russians” refers to some remarks I’ve made that are critical of the Mayor of Moscow’s arranging the beating of a tiny handful of gay activists after having banned a “gay pride parade” and to having a conference in a part of the world that used to be a part of the Soviet Empire and that some people think really should be a part of a new Russian Empire. It was a good thing for the Yeltsin government to legalize homosexual love, as it was a good thing he did (good for the Russians, as well as others) to let the empire split up. (They should also have let the Chechens go, as most Chechens wanted, but instead the Russian government just made things worse and worse by insisting on Chechnya being a part of Russia.)
The conference in Tbilisi will involve Russians, as well, and Russian will be one of the three languages of the conference: Georgian, Russian, and English.
By the way, I’m quite pleased with some of the contacts I’ve already made here at the European Resource Bank (lots of old friends, as well, of course), with whom I look forward to working in the Arab world, Eurasia, and elsewhere.