Places that will make you think--Update again

To continue with my wildly erratic journey in search of interesting Libertarian-related blogs:

Nanny Knows Best will explain to you (with snarky good humour) exactly why, even if the Brits now have a per capita GDP slightly higher than ours, it is difficult to live your live inside a P. G. Wodehouse novel. Recent posts cover the town council that refused to pick up an old lady's garbage because of a four-inch step outside her house, and park wardens who keep parents from snapping pictures of their children in public parks.

Outright Libertarians is one of several organizations attempting to support the inclusion within the Libertarian Party of "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other self-identified "queer" (LGBTQ) Libertarian Party activists and supporters." I agree completely with their cause, although I do wish they had some sense of humor.

I got to Prettier than Napoleon because a blog key-word search turned it up with "Libertarian." Otherwise I might not have stopped in, which would have been my loss. Lighter and somewhat more whimsical, even non-political fare than my usual, but good book reviews and the occasional penetrating piece like "How to Beat Your Wife," which covers advice on partaking in a favorite traditionalist Islamic pastime.

Another blog that successfully mixes the personal and political is Shadowscope, which should be read for Richard's Wednesday's Hero posts if nothing else. However, since I am also a culture-deprived lowbrow (and proud of it), I suggest you start with Crap! How'd I Miss That? (Please notice, in the best Libertarian tradition, in the end he cleans up the mess himself without relying on the State.)

I'm not sure yet if I agree with the politics of The Blackbird Whistling or Just After, but I know thoughtful writing when I see it. You must read Self-Immolation a Growing Trend in Afghan Girls & Women.

I've been remiss in not having Alan Coffey's The Digital Federalist on this list, since (a) I read it regularly and (b) Alan has been a loyal reader and commentator on this blog since the very beginning. What I most like about Alan's position is that he strives to be ethically consistent about his Libertarianism. His How Much Do You Hate Earmarks ? Even when they are our own? takes on the issue of Federally funded beach replenishment, and ends with a question I've often asked myself but never got around to publishing: "Delaware benefits from the beaches, shouldn’t we pay for the maintenance of the beaches?" Good damn question. If earmarks aren't good when Alaska wants to build a bridge to nowhere, then they aren't good when Delaware needs more sand to keep attracting tourists.

Checking in from Great Britain is The Libertarian Alliance: BLOG, which is full of posts like The assault on food: humans should go extinct in order to save corals, and Jamie Oliver, ethical Paragon, celebrity role model, and “chef”, thinks meat should be costly.

Here's just a (meat-free) appetizer:

I bet you didn’t watch Jamie Oliver, a “chef”, who used once to be a nice scally London oik, who probably ate burgers with relish in both senses, on the Wireless tele Vision last night. Nor did I: but, just like theoretically shagging Elizabeth Taylor (when she would have been rather younger) I could imagine EXACTLY what it would be like.

He and Hairy-Hugh Frightfully-Posh are the latest useful idiots recruited by the Leninist caucus which is assaulting people’s right to buy what food (specially meat) that they want, at the lowest prices that a Market Civilisation is prepared to offer.

I was particularly upset by a phrase I had never seen before, in the Sunday Torygraph’s Wireless tele Vision pages a week or so ago - “The Ethics of Eating Meat” - to do with a trailer for these progs. I mean, meat is food. Man requires it, preferably as nearly like his onw as possible and preferably cooked so as to be able to shorten his gut and look like a man on two legs, in order to keep and run a very expensive brain, that requires 22 times more energy per gram per unit time than skeletal muscle.

Because the state “school” “syllabus” is itself so gutted and contains no scientific knowledge whatever that’s worth the name, plenty of people will have been taken in by his antics, himself electrocuting and blood-draining a chicken on live Wireless tele Vision. (At least he electrically-stunned it first unlike some protected classes of people I could mention.)

Keeping there in the category of "people with funny accents who are nonetheless Libertarians," we also have Thoughts on Freedom, the Australian Libertarian Society Blog. These Aussies have an even more biting style: for starters munch on Political Advantages of a Voluntary Tax, Pervert Brought to Justice, and ALP online Censorship. Here's the opening of that latter post:

Welcome to the nanny state, or should I say Labors new even more regressive version of the old one. The federal Government plans to protect the little children by censoring what we can access on the Internet. Little warning was given of this prior to the election, presumably because Howard didn’t say it so Kevvy didn’t have to say “Me too.”

I also imagine as such a move would be unpopular, it was decided to keep us in the dark. Always remember that while politicians are always forthcoming about what they will do for you when seeking your vote, they are usually reticent about what they will do to you after they get it.

Well I suppose we have to catch up with the rest of the world and following the examples of the great liberal democracies like China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, and Burma is a promising start.

Last and not least, I encourage you to try Where HipHop and Libertarianism Meet, A look at politics and hip-hop from a libertarian perspective. Damnit there really are all flavors of Libertarian. Where else are you going to find "Skillz 2007 'Rap-Up'" juxtaposed with "John Edwards argues for more lobbyists"? Admittedly, I can't tell you if the music reviews are on target, because my own tastes fossilized some decades ago. But the political analysis is both first-rate and refreshing.