The Colombian Constitutional Court has put a stop to the principle of “President for Life” (BBC: “Colombian judges deny Alvaro Uribe third term poll“)

A Power Failure for Chavez (BBC: “Lights failure throws Chavez into darkness“)

I discussed the topic of sustainable democracy in the 2009 Julian L. Simon Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, “Democracy and Limited Government: The Unbreakable Partnership”

“Libertarian” Playboy Mag Hates Choice, Loves Authentic Communism by Michael C. Moynihan includes, as a bonus, Moynihan’s interview with Gorki Aguila of the Cuban band Porno Para Ricardo.

One of China’s most prestigious and influential magazines, Caijing, today ran my article on free trade: “Weaken Our Trade Barriers: It is not only America’s leaders who are erring, Chinese leaders must also change their trade policies.” It was based on a presentation I made at a seminar on trade policy at the Unirule Institute in Beijing. (Note: Click on the images to enlarge them to readable size.)


At the bottom of the page is a comment, expressing agreement, by Prof. Feng Xingyuan of the China Academy of Social Sciences and the Cathay Institute of Public Affairs.

Note: Careful readers of the Chinese text will note on page 1 references to “Lou Dobbs” and “Jack Cafferty,” two notorious China bashers on “CNN” whom I set straight. And further note: I can’t read Chinese, either. I wish I could.

From Foreign Policy: “The Islamists Are Not Coming: Religious parties in the Muslim world are hardly the juggernauts they’ve been made out to be,” by Charles Kurzman and Ijlal Naqvi.

From the Wall Street Journal Europe: “The West’s Betrayal of Iran: Europe’s ‘dialogue’ with the mullahs is just camouflage to cover up the trade and appeasement,” by Saba Farzan

I met Saba in Berlin last month and I certainly respect her passionate love of liberty for her native land, but I have queried her on just what she would have foreign governments do. (It is not clear from her article.) Trade embargoes have a terrible history of generating support for despotic regimes and even verbal criticisms can be used to tap deep wells of nationalism on behalf of such regimes. That said, many in Central and Eastern Europe recall fondly the remarks on the “Evil Empire” by Ronald Reagan during the Soviet occupation of those countries. (On the other hand, that was compatible with local nationalism, so it’s not clear that such remarks would have a similar impact on a population ruled by a domestic despotism.)

On the history of trade embargoes:
Cuba
Japan, Rhodesia, etc

The Wilson Quarterly has an excellent short article, “Rediscovering Central Asia,” by S. Frederick Starr, that offers an overview of contributions to human culture that emerged from Central Asia and some speculation on the causes of its decline. A prime culprit, the intellectual influence of Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ­al-­Ghazali, author of The Incoherence of the Philosophers. (Al Ghazali’s book was rebutted by Abū ‘l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd, usully known just as “ibn Rushd” or as “Averroes,” in his The Incoherence of the Incoherence, but it seems that, however fine ibn Rushd’s philosophical responses were, his view lost out, with terrible consequences for Islamic civilization.)

I’ve been extremely busy lately (meaning work until 4 am frequently, plus travel) and have been behind on some writing projects, but I am really, really pleased that I brought along on my trip to China James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed. It’s a remarkably interesting treatment (I’m only a bit more than 100 pages into it at present, so I’ve got more stimulating reading ahead of me) of the nature of “ungoverned” regions of the world, with a focus on various hill peoples of Asia. To put it in a nutshell, he argues that the traditional view of such ungoverned people is that they are holdovers from previous civilizations, or representatives of how people lived before states, etc., etc. Scott looks at them in a very different way: they live in ways that have enabled them to elude capture or domination by the state, and those ways of life (including agriculture, settlement patterns, kinship systems, religion, etc.) have been deeply influenced by the proximity of predatory states. They have, in effect, evolved in ways that elude being ruled by states. When you think about it for a few minutes, it certainly seems a more fruitful way of understanding such peoples and their ways of life than the dominant mode. And it should tell us something, as well, about the likely success of the Pakistani government in extending its writ throughout the Northwest Frontier Province or of the Afghan government extending its writ from border to border of the territory of Afghanistan. (That said, Scott’s thesis should not be confused with fantasies or romantic notions about how the most wonderful thing imaginable is to live without a state; some — not all — forms of statelessness, such as those that have emerged among groups that have avoided being captured by states, are remarkably brutal and savage, and there are some stateless populations [think contemporary southern Somalia] who are fare worse off by most criteria, including freedom, than people who live under relatively limited government.)

Still reads well: “Why Socialism Collapsed in Eastern Europe”

(I gave it as a lecture at a Cato University summer seminar on political economy in California during the summer of 1990, after having spent a good bit of 1989 and 1990 in Central and Eastern Europe.)

EurasiaNet.org: GEORGIA: SAAKASHVILI WANTS TBILISI TO BECOME “GOVERNMENT-LITE”

Ilia Chavchavadze

The Georgian leader used a reference to a national cultural icon, the revered 19th century novelist Ilia Chavchavadze, to sway any doubters who believe that liberalism is “a non-Georgian word.” Chavchavadze, a nobleman who led Georgia’s 19th century national movement and was later canonized, was “the first Georgian libertarian,” Saakashvili claimed, the Civil.ge news service reported.
“By choosing liberalism, we are choosing Ilia’s way,” Saakashvili said.

His speech is available in Russian here. (I will search for English.)
More information: “Saakashvili Lays Out ‘Act on Economic Freedom’”

Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama is escalating the war in Afghanistan and has made no additional moves, beyond what the Bush administration had planned, for any withdrawal from Iraq. He has done nothing to move the world, much less the US, toward peace. It seems he got the “I’m not a Republican” award. This has got to be the greatest cheapening of an international award since, um, Henry Kissinger got it for “peace in the Vietnam.”

Note the CNN comment:

Unlike his predecessors, Obama was selected not for substantive accomplishments, but for his “vision” and inspiring “hope” at the beginning of his presidency.

BBC: “Turkey, Armenia to restore ties”

Arguing over the nature or magnitude of crimes in the past is not necessarily a bad thing, unless it gets in the way of peace and freedom. It’s time for the people of Turkey and Armenia to discuss the past openly, through private discussion and through the institutions of civil society, and for their governments to make peace and allow peaceful exchanges among their people.

Los Angeles Times: “Obama and free trade: What’s the deal?”

Nine months into his administration, Obama’s trade policy is a pastiche of pro-trade rhetoric, violations of international agreements and protectionist bobbing and weaving. That’s why the U.S. can expect rebukes from its economic allies when the Group of 20 meets in Pittsburgh today. Obama’s recent decision to impose stiff tariffs on tires made in China is a clear violation of the vow made by all G-20 members not to raise barriers to trade, goods and investment.

on CNN iReporter

Yes, if done according to the law. (Richard Nixon was certainly impeachable, and would have been impeached had he not resigned; the articles of impeachment were drawn up and voted by the House Judiciary Committee.)

Here’s the analysis in the case of the removal from office of the former Honduran president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, prepared by the Directorate of Legal Research of the U.S. Library of Congress:

Conclusion:

V. Was the removal of Honduran President Zelaya legal, in accordance with Honduran constitutional and statutory law?

Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system.

However, removal of President Zelaya from the country by the military is in direct violation of the Article 102 of the Constitution, and apparently this action is currently under investigation by the Honduran authorities.

Hat tip: Daniil Gorbatenko

Miami Herald: “They’re torturing me, Honduras’ Manuel Zelaya claims”

Honduras’ fallen leader told The Miami Herald he is being subjected to mind-altering gas and radiation — and that `Israeli mercenaries’ are planning to assassinate him.

The fact that the US State Department revoked the visas of a group of Hondurans tells us a lot. It was the membership of the Honduran Supreme Court. Get it?

BBC: “Russian tower plans cause alarm”

Unesco has warned the building of the skyscraper, which would tower over the city’s Neva river and surrounding low-level buildings, could mean St Petersburg is added to the agency’s list of endangered world heritage sites.
“We’re hoping the (federal) decision to build it won’t be taken,” said Grigory Ordzhonikidze, the secretary-general of Unesco’s Russian commission.

It may be a while elephant, but it’s pretty clear that threatening to add St Petersburg “the agency’s list of endangered world heritage sites” will not, in the Russian climate, help with any plans for saving the beauty of old St Petersburg. This is certainly not a matter for the UN. (That said, it’s almost certainly going to be a temple to the new Russian state socialism, as it will house Gazprom.)

It’s easy!

You can join the free trade fan page and join thousands of people, including over 1,000 economists, who’ve stood up for free trade by signing the petition that “Free Trade is the Best Policy.” (It’s available in 32 languages.) And strike a blow for the freedom to trade.

(Don’t forget to visit YouTube.com/freedom2trade for a lot of videos on peace, free trade, and justice in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Bahasa, Russian, Arabic, Kurdish, Portuguese, and other languages; expect a lot more in the near future!)

Brian Doherty on Reason.com: “Obama’s Iraq Pullout on Schedule; 1,000 More Troops on Their Way!”

Takis Michas is a very brave Greek journalist who is not afraid to point out the idiocies of extremist nationalism and xenophobia and their awful consequences, especially in the Balkans.

He has suffered quite serious death threats for pointing out the craziness of threatening war over the name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and now he is being sued for pointing out the presence of Greek nationalist paramilitaries in Bosnia during the Srebrenica massacre. Here’s an interview with him on the case on the website of the Congress of North American Bosniacs: “Greek journalist sued for writing about the presence of Greek paramilitaries in Bosnia”

More on the case from the Srebrenica Genocide Blog.

AP: “Washington, Colombia near deal on base access”

The “War on Drugs” is a prime reason for the success of the military groups that are attacking the government and civil society in Colombia; it provides a comparative advantage in fundraising to groups that are well organized at brutality and violence. The best friends FARC in Colombia and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan have are in the US Drug Enforcement Agency. Without US drug laws, it would be much harder for them to get money to pay for weapons, soldiers, etc. And now, in an example of Ludwig von Mises’s insight that one intervention begets another, we have military interventions to combat the well financed forces that are financed so well because of the earlier intervention. More interventionism of this sort will raise the rents to the purveyors of violence who, under violent conditions, dominate drug markets, leading to more financing for narco-terrorism. To get rid of narco-terrorism, we need to get rid of the prohibitionist drug laws that make it possible.