GMcGath @gmcgath@liberdon.com

Black mobs in South Africa attack black foreigners, killing at least 12. This article shows that nationalism and racism aren't the same thing. Which is not to say that either is less bad than the other.
https://theweek.com/print/441086/105821/south-africa-explosion-xenophobic-rage

Civil forfeiture, Salem MA, 1692: "The belongings of convicted witches were routinely seized, ostensibly to pay for their jail expense. ... After Samuel Wardwell was executed and his wife sentenced to death, the couple’s property in Lynn, Massachusetts was confiscated an assigned to court officials, including [presiding judge] John Hathorne."
https://historyofmassachusetts.org/john-hathorne-the-salem-witch-judge/

@billblake2018 You might find this bit of song which I wrote in 2002 interesting:

http://www.mcgath.com/songs/Roper%20Man.pdf

Interesting piece on software copyrights and patents. http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/2055
Personally, I think software should be copyrightable but not patentable.

@BenjaminStyles777 If I didn't know Greek, I'd have just gone "Huh?"

An interesting notion: Can promoting tribal hostilities by the left and right against each other promote opposition to govt power? I'm not convinced; each side may just become more entrenched in its desire to expand the governmental powers it wants. Still, it's a thought.
https://reason.com/2019/09/19/government-employees-think-people-hate-them-increasingly-theyre-right/

Sheriff in NC indicted for plotting to kill a deputy who allegedly had a tape of the sheriff making racially offensive remarks. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/17/sheriff-indicted-plotting-murder-over-racially-offensive-tape/2352263001/

@mr_penguin Good piece. RMS is definitely not one of my favorite people, but we'd be no better than the SJWs and Trumpists if we didn't put principles above personalities.

Today I had this horrible thought: Imagine if Martin Luther had had a Twitter account. His rants could make Trump sound mild.

Who says you can't serve both God and Mammon? British supermarket chain Asda sacked an employee for linking on Facebook to an anti-religious comedy video by Billy Connolly. Asda sells the same video on DVD. Jesus & Mo is worth following in general. https://www.jesusandmo.net/comic/billy/

@BenjaminStyles777 "Paraskevidekatriaphobia!" A new word for my vocabulary, and the Firefox spelling checker doesn't even know it!

The 2019 Cato Economic Freedom report actually shows the rank of the United States going up, to 5th. However, the report is based on 2017 data, so it doesn't include most of the damage from Trump's tariffs. https://www.cato.org/economic-freedom-world

A little digging for #libertylinks turned up one close to home for me: the Free State Project blog. It actually contains good news!
https://www.fsp.org/news/

Possibly worth bookmarking: Libertarian Blog Aggregator. http://libertarian.zebby.org/

I've decided one useful thing I can do here is find libertarian sites and post links to them. The quality of what I find will certainly vary, but hopefully I'll find some that people here will consider keepers. Tag #libertylinks

@yaakosine A free-market answer to discrimination. It does make me wonder what questions they ask, though.

Eighteen years into the war, a Pentagon spokesman says: "The number of troops that we will have will always be the appropriate level that we need to provide security there." In other words, the Forever War will never end. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-pronounces-taliban-agreement-dead-and-peace-talks-over/2019/09/09/d302135a-d33f-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html

@MinorityOfOne Both carry significant risks, and it isn't necessary to choose between weapon prohibition and a heavily armed staff. They're both unrealistic over-reactions.