Well, it's time for me to part with a little money

for a couple of books: The Myth of National Defense, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and Crisis and Leviathan, by Robert Higgs, to see the well-developed arguments for privatization, in the former case, and against endless growth of government in the latter.

I have to say, that The Devil You Know over at Lucifer's Condiments has a pretty good, if somewhat Marx inspired, take on the pitfalls of pacifying a foreign region that wasn't your own to control until recently. But of course he goes and spoils my admiration by slandering my beloved Ayn Rand. I came to that piece via his comment on
Ayn Clouter's blog about a post ripping Ann Coulter for her namby-pamby moderation.

Ms. Clouter thinks that Libertarians are her tools. She forgets that we insist on the retention of, not only pitchforks and torches, nor ever merely pistols and hunting rifles, but all the weapons customarily issued to regular soldiers. Retained by the individual citizens for their own protection. Keep in mind that the Soviet Union was overthrown with less. An Oligarchical Conspiracy won't have as much support.