Freedom Foundation Annual Meeting and Installation of Officers

Freedom Foundation Annual Meeting and Installation

 The officers and board members of the Bay State Chapter of Freedoms Foundation for the 2011-12 season are  (seated, l-r) Lino Rullo, Francine D’Andrea, President Joseph Ferrino Jr., Marisa DiPietro and Past President Ed Coletta, and (standing, l-r) Richard Ferrino, Sal Bramante, Buddy Mangini, Ron Vecchia, Barbara Survillas, Philip Salois, and Riccardo Rullo.

More photographs at eastboston.com

A Saturday night delight: Soft Machine Live in Italy 1974

One of the great fusion bands of all-time, in my humble opinion, Soft Machine introduced us to the marvel that is Allan Holdsworth.

YouTube - Soft Machine live on RAI 1974

Information sharing interferes with 'wisdom of crowds': study

Information sharing interferes with 'wisdom of crowds': study

(PhysOrg.com) -- A statistical phenomenon, called the Wisdom of Crowds, happens when a group of individuals make guesses and the average of the guesses reveal accurate average answers. However, researchers have discovered that when the individuals are made aware of other participant’s guesses, there is a clear disruption to the accuracy of the guesses.

Fukuyama on Hayek

A balanced review a tour-de-force

Unlike Beck, Hayek was a very serious thinker, and it would be too bad if the current association between the two led us to dismiss his thought. Hayek always had problems getting the respect he deserved; even when he was awarded the Nobel in economic science in 1974, the awards committee paired him with the left-leaning economist Gunnar Myrdal. With the passage of time, however, many of the ideas expressed in “The Constitution of Liberty” have become broadly accepted by economists — e.g., that labor unions create a privileged labor sector at the expense of the nonunionized; that rent control reduces the supply of housing; or that agricultural subsidies lower the general welfare and create a bonanza for politicians. His view that ambitious ­government-sponsored programs often produce unintended consequences served as an intellectual underpinning of the Reagan-Thatcher revolution of the 1980s and ’90s. Now that the aspirations of that revolution are being revived by Tea Partiers and other conservatives, it is useful to review some of the intellectual foundations on which it rested.

Current reading

I am currently reading Aristotle by Jonathan Barnes, which is a very good primer on the "prince of philosophy."

From the summary at bookfinder:

The influence of Aristotle, the prince of philosophers, on the intellectual history of the West is second to none. In this book Jonathan Barnes examines Aristotle's scientific researches, his discoveries in logic and his metaphysical theories, his work in psychology and in ethics and politics, and his ideas about art and poetry, placing his teachings in their historical context.

MIT on MainStreets

Eastboston.com

MIT planning students have done their homework. They were all ears on how best to scope out the future for MainStreets. Next week they'll be presenting at three stakeholder meetings in East Boston.

R.I.P. Richard Cornuelle, "prince of classical liberalism"

Peter Boettke  on the passing of a great thinker Richard Cournuelle.

In Healing America (1983) Cornuelle argued that what was required was a radical reconsideration of the scope of government responsibility.  Public policy had come to a dead end.  We had come to believe that we cannot make society habitable without making government bigger, and yet we cannot pay the cost of the bigger government without creating more problems that add to the cost of government.  A vicious cycle ensued following the Great Depression --- "Government is growing as it fails, and, to a chilling degree, it is growing because it is failing."

By the late 1960s and 1970s, the failure of government programs was recognized even by those who were entrusted with their management.  By the 1980s, the extent of the failures of the bureaucratic attempt to address the social ills of poverty had intensified.  We don't have much of a choice, Cornuelle tells us, when our policy options are humanity or solvency.  To solve the crisis we didn't need to starve the state of resources (this is not ultimately a tax and spend issue), we needed to starve the state of responsibility (it is a question of scope and fundamentally about political theory).  In other words, if we can theoretically and empirically demonstrate that the voluntary sector can outperform the state sector in the delivery of basic social services, then we can avoid the crisis of the fiscal state (and the inhumanity of bureaucratic 'solutions') and unleash the power of people and the communities they live within, and actively participate in, to tackle the social ills of poverty, unemployment, health and education.  The American Dream is of a society that is at once free, prosperous and caring.  The "good society" Cornuelle argued did not result from grand designs, but from "millions upon millions of caring acts, repeated day after day, until direct mutual action becomes second nature."

Here is his essay "New Work for Invisible Hands."

For Easter Sunday, Patti Smith

Patti Smith - EASTER

Easter Sunday, we were walking.
Easter Sunday, we were talking.
Isabel, my little one, take my hand. Time has come.

Isabella, all is glowing.
Isabella, all is knowing.
And my heart, Isabella.
And my head, Isabella.

Frederick and Vitalie, savior dwells inside of thee.
Oh, the path leads to the sun. Brother, sister, time has come.

Isabella, all is glowing.
Isabella, all is knowing.
Isabella, we are dying.
Isabella, we are rising.

I am the spring, the holy ground,
the endless seed of mystery,
the thorn, the veil, the face of grace,
the brazen image, the thief of sleep,
the ambassador of dreams, the prince of peace.
I am the sword, the wound, the stain.
Scorned transfigured child of Cain.
I rend, I end, I return.
Again I am the salt, the bitter laugh.
I am the gas in a womb of light, the evening star,
the ball of sight that leads that sheds the tears of Christ
dying and drying as I rise tonight.

Isabella, we are rising.
Isabella, we are rising . . .

from http://www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/view/patti_smith/easter/

Linux turns 20

One of the great stories of human civilization and the impulse to collaborate. The "alternative" operating system that is far more pervasive than you think turns 20. Bravo.

The amazing Steve Vai

Steve Vai, "For The Love Of God" with an orchestra. Very nice.

Randy Barnett, libertarian lawyer, now arguing against Obamacare, profiled

The man who is making the case against Obamacare.

Barnett, 59, argues that the law’s requirement that almost all Americans obtain health insurance by 2014 is a government intrusion.

Such a mandate is unconstitutional, Barnett says, because the Constitution’s Commerce Clause — the underpinning of much federal regulation — does not give Congress the power to compel Americans to buy a product. In this case, the product is health insurance.

To put his view another way, Congress cannot regulate inactivity as commerce.

“Giving the Congress the power to do these mandates is essentially giving the Congress the power to take over your life,’’ he declared in an interview.

The Notes, a BlogTalkRadio program, hosted by Stephanie Davis and D.R. Tucker featured an interview with Barnett last month.

Listen to internet radio with The Notes on Blog Talk Radio

Listen to internet radio with The Notes on Blog Talk Radio

Jordan Rudess has exceptional taste in progressive rock

A very good list if I do so say myself. Wow!

Carl Palmer, minimalist

Too old to rock and roll

Love him or hate him, Phil Collins is a musical talent and far better than the young musicians you find dominating the scene today.

Table of mathematical symbols - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Table of mathematical symbols - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bravo Adele

YouTube - Adele - Rolling In The Deep

Yeah, like let's blame libertarians

Reason Magazine:

A similar thing happened to me over the weekend. I twisted my ankle playing pick-up basketball. As I clenched my jaw in pain, I could only look up to the sky, shake my fist angrily, and curse the name Robert Nozick.

Read the whole entry. It's not like government didn't have anything to do with the 2008 meltdown.

Mass High Tech: Ken Olsen, co-founder of DEC, dies at the age of 84

Ken Olsen, who founded Digital Equipment Corporation and helped establish Massachusetts as a technology hub, has died. He was a Massachusetts high-tech icon who left a rich local legacy. He will be missed.

More from CNet News.

Thought for a day from a Chinese fortune cookie

"It takes more than good memory to have good memories."

Current listening

Ashokan Farewell : Here played by Mark O'Connor.



Background on the composition from Wikipedia.