Climate change. On the one hand, every scientific body of national or international standing accepts the basic findings of human influence on recent climate change, and mainstream economists are in broad agreement that taking action to reverse or mitigate warming is both affordable and necessary.
On the other hand, the President of the Czech Republic, recalling that sprin 40 years ago when the Soviets sent solar-powered tanks rolling through Prague and forced their radical environmentalism on his country, says it’s a Commie conspiracy. Who to believe? If you are a libertarian, the choice is clear.
Now, it does seem odd to randomly accept the ideosyncratic views of an obscure Eastern European leader with no particular expertise in any relevent discipline over the consensus of the overwhelming majority of highly-qualified, dedicated experts, doesn’t it? HA! You have fallen for my trap! By tacitly admitting your befuddlement, you have proven yourself ignorant of the Libertarian Academy, an entire parallel system of intellectual inquery and credentialing completely outside the Commie conspiracy which, since the fall of Communism, has brainwashed or cowed every scientist, every economist, and every world leader but one. Carefully designed by John Stossel, Leonard Cohen, and the whole gang at Reason magazine, this completely de-pinko-fied list of the foremost Libertarian-approved authorities from in and around New Europe will enable you to Go Galt from the whole collectivist-statist “Knowing What You’re Talking About” global conspiracy!
| For expert advice on this tricky question: | Simply consult: |
| What is the latest scientific thinking on global climate change, and what are the best available policy solutions? | Václav Klaus |
| Does a Hilbert curve or z curve achieve better clustering when applied as an access method for an arbitrary spatio-temporal database? | A 2/3rds majority of the Kiev Society of Model Airplane Enthusiasts. |
| Is this lump cancerous? | Jaromir Jagr |
| What is the mass of the tau neutrino? | Miss Teen Latvia 1987 (runner-up) |
| If I receive a refund from taxes payed taxes to a foreign government in FY 2007, do I claim this as income for FY 2008? Will this retroactively effect my claimed earned income credit in FY 2007? | Udo Kier |
| What are the likely long-term impacts of the new federal stimulus bill on the commodities futures market? | t.A.T.u. |
| Can one usefully apply genetic algorism to multi-hierarchical complex mechanical structure scheme innovation design? | Jean-Claude Van Damme, “The Muscles of Brussels” |
| What are the implications of surjectivity to the study of the exponential maps of Lie groups? | Dino Rađa |
| How did Locke’s ”corpuscularian hypothesis” differ from Scholastic-Aristotelianism? | Balki Bartokomous |
They laughed at Gallileo too, you know. That’s what Klaus Kinski told me, anyways.
March 11, 2009 at 7:35 pm
FYI: Mr. Van Damme is also occasionally known as “The Bulging Belgian.”
March 11, 2009 at 11:55 pm
None of these guys are as cool as Fran from Boston. But you knew that.
March 11, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I always thought that Jaromir Jagr was the name of some kind of medical syndrome.
March 12, 2009 at 12:41 am
[...] am on March 12, 2009 | # | The Editors describe the libertarian method for seeking truth. HA! You have fallen for my trap! By tacitly [...]
March 12, 2009 at 12:43 am
The libertarian method? I thought it’s called “Sound Science”.
– bi
March 12, 2009 at 12:49 am
Also, you forgot Joe the Pl^H^HEconomist.
– bi
March 12, 2009 at 7:59 am
Does anyone know anything about the state of Reason Magazine’s finances? I would think that things have to be tough since wingnut welfare seems to be drying up. Any chance that stupid rag will go out of business? It would force several so-called “journalists” to find real work.
March 12, 2009 at 8:01 am
Balki Bartokomous.
March 12, 2009 at 11:30 am
Geez, you scared me with that Leonard Cohen thing. I didn’t want to have to think of him as a libertarian.
March 12, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Yeah, what’s up with the link-fake on Leonard Cohen? My heart stopped for a minute and I actually read the whole Gillespie biosketch.
March 12, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I do not have a problem with consulting t.A.T.u. on everything all the time.
‘Scuse me, consulting break.
March 12, 2009 at 7:59 pm
You’re still number one Teh Editorez!
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Does+a+Hilbert+curve+or+z+curve+achieve+better+clustering+when+applied+as+an+access+method+for+an+arbitrary+spatio-temporal+database%3F
Er, except when you’re number two…
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+are+the+likely+long-term+impacts+of+the+new+federal+stimulus+bill+on+the+commodities+futures+market%3F
I jest luv ciphers and cipherin’ why heck, sum of dem smartee pants can make dem numbers dance!
March 12, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Incidentally, I’m a libertarian and I’ve just had a paper on the ethical dimensions of climate change accepted for publication in The Independent Review (a peer-reviewed academic journal mainly oriented towards a free-market audience). In it, I argue that many libertarians have done a bad job dealing with the issue of climate change, and that there are very good reasons for libertarians to be concerned with it — even from their own perspective.
My paper won’t be coming out until August, but you might be interested in checking out a cool paper by a fellow libertarian, Edwin Dolan: Science, Public Policy, and Global Warming: Rethinking the Market-Liberal Position. Dolan’s analysis is very different from mine, and ultimately we disagree on a number of things. But his indictment of the “mainstream libertarian” response (haha mainstream libertarian) is compelling and well put together, and I cite the paper extensively in my own essay.
My point in posting all of this is to show that the problems with the way that libertarians have tended to approach the issue of climate change is not lost on everyone within the libertarian camp. We’re working on it!
March 14, 2009 at 6:18 am
Anyone interested in an actual ticket stub from a Rush concert in 1975? Yeah, I know, I’m an old fart. But the stub is legit.