Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

As a Johnny-come-lately to Avatar, I must say that of course I was amazed by the effects and 3D and all that. But it was interesting to think of the problem posed in the movie, namely, whether a peaceful solution to the problems of both the humans and the Na’vi could be found. At first [...]

The American right defines itself entirely in opposition to the left. They have no ideas of their own except protecting the status quo and the politically powerful and, of course, war. They merely hate the left. But being against something is not a positive program. Brown’s victory is a reaction to Obama’s policies, a good [...]

Here is this beautiful article. “Universities, like cathedrals, were sanctuaries from wars, political machinations, revolutions, and kingly belligerence… ‘even under the Russian czars the police were forbidden to enter the university’.”

Mises believed that private property is useful only insofar as it serves human ends:

Private property is a human device. It is not sacred. It came into existence in early ages of history, when people with their own power and by their own authority appropriated to themselves what had previously not been anybody’s property. Again and [...]

Here’s Ron Paul on earmarks.
And here’s Mises, discussing the same issue 60 years ago:

Those advocation a restriction of the parliament’s prerogatives in budgeting and taxation issues or even a complete substitution of authoritarian government for representative government are blinded by the chimerical image of a perfect chief of state. This man, no less benevolent than [...]

Modern civilization is a product of the philosophy of laissez faire. It cannot be preserved under the ideology of government omnipotence. Statolatry owes much to the doctrines of Hegel. However, one may pass over many of Hegel’s inexcusable faults, for Hegel also coined the phrase “the futility of victory.” To defeat the aggressors is not [...]

Intellectual property issues are hot among libertarians now, spurred by Jeffrey Tucker’s live blogging of Against Intellectual Monopoly and renewed interest in Stephan Kinsella’s “Against Intellectual Property.” Below I attempt to sketch a theory of copyrights and trade secrets.
The crucial term relevant to IP is “information” whose nature it is to reside in minds [...]

The original one.

“What is history, but a disgusting and painful detail of the butcheries of conquerors, and the woeful calamities of the conquered?” – Anti-Federalist #3.

1. Mitchell Jones writes: “Being alive surely presupposes access to food; but, just as surely, it does not presuppose that you have a right to access to food, or even that the particular food to which you have access is yours by right. (Consuming stolen food can sustain life and the ability to argue.)” This [...]

Hoppe’s argument in favor of self-ownership is that in the process of arguing a person asserts his property rights over his body and maybe some other objects; therefore, if he argues that he does not have these rights, then he is engaging in a performative contradiction. He is exercising the rights even as he claims [...]

Cops, even local city policemen, seem hostile to people, something which in my view is entirely unnecessary. I will suggest five reforms which should improve the image of cops in the eyes of the public.
First, raise all speed limits by 20 mph. Lower the drinking age to 16 or repeal it entirely. Permit drinking and [...]

Call people you dislike (or affectionately, it’s up to you) anything you want: kikes, papists (check both), niggers, wops, gooks, frogs, etc., etc., as long as you don’t drop a fucking bomb on them. Sticks and stones, you know? Or, and freedom of speech and association. Got it?

You know the stories in which humanity dies out and which describe the adventures of those few who remain? (The Day of the Triffids and Waterworld come to mind.) For example, it is an interesting question whether all the stuff on the shelves in stores right now in the city of Kent, OH can feed [...]

In arguing against the conclusions of Free Market Madness reviewed by David Gordon, Enjoy Every Sandwich writes: “I’m not aware of any serious advocates of the free market who argue that the market works because all humans employ perfect reasoning. Rather, all of the ones I’ve read so far argue the opposite: that the free [...]

One way is by having an ideology, e.g.: “While praxeology, and therefore economics too, uses the terms happiness and removal of uneasiness in a purely formal sense, liberalism attaches to them a concrete meaning. It presupposes that people prefer life to death, health to sickness, nourishment to starvation, abundance to poverty. It teaches man how [...]

Lawrence M. Hinman lists 5 arguments against the effectiveness of foreign aid. (Contemporary Moral Issues, 413) Of these, (1) administration costs of relief agencies and (5) local corruption seem less potent, because in the “market” for clear consciences people have an incentive to discover the best charities, and charities have an incentive to minimize their [...]

I want to examine a common argument in favor of the welfare state, namely that from a utilitarian standpoint taking $1,000 from Donald Trump and giving it to some poor person Smith is morally licit and even required, because Trump will barely feel the loss, while the poor person will rejoice greatly. This allegedly serves [...]

Even if I succeed at justifying retributive punishment, that is, the right of the aggrieved party to give the criminal what he deserves, I will by no means have established that it is wise to exercise that right. As Rothbard has pointed out a number of times, the victim can always forgive the offender and [...]

It’s funny how some people interpret the expression inter arma silent leges (in the midst of arms (i.e., in time of war) the laws are silent) as “in time of war the laws ought to be silent, and therefore the President, say, ought to, again, assume unlimited powers,” instead of merely describing a highly unfortunate [...]