What is he nuts on?

Abortion. I'm still voting for him though since it's unlikely he can change the current abortion laws.

He wants to leave the abortion issue to the States instead of having the Federal government intervene.  He's pointed out that before Roe v Wade doctors would perform abortions anyway for certain cases (rape, certain harm to the mother, etc.).  I guess I fail to see how that makes him nuts.  But you're right in that he doesn't believe in a president exceeding constitutional powers and so is unlikely to be able to change something like abortion without congressional support.

The fact he's against abortion is what bothers me. The fact he claims to be a libertarian yet doesn't understand that a woman removing a baby from her womb is her right also bothers me.

It's only her right if the baby is not a human life yet, correct?  If it's a human life she has no more right to kill the baby than she would to kill her three-year-old child outside the womb.  In pure libertarian philosophy she could simply stop feeding the baby and let someone else take care of it, but she can't kill it because that would violate the baby's right to not be murdered.  So the difficulty is defining when life begins and what life is.

Seth King of the Daily Anarchist is now accepting bitcoins for his flags.  Check out his website and take a look at the flags:  http://dailyanarchist.com/store/.

Note: His server-side client to receive bitcoins through the store isn't up and running yet, but if you contact him directly through email you can purchase the flags with bitcoins. 

[that]

I realize there are valid critiques of libertarianism, but why do so many people result to outlandish and absurd examples when attempting to disprove libertarian theories?  For example:

What if your grandma is in a desert dying of thirst and a greedy rich business man comes along with a cup of water and refuses to sell the cup of water for anything less than a million dollars?  How will libertarianism deal with that?

Really?

Anyone else have problems with the Tradehill Captchas?  I've tried about ten times and it can't login because I keep getting the Captchas "wrong".  Perhaps I am just a bot and don't know it?

Have we reached the end of the bitcoin mining gold rush where new people rush to get rigs set up for mining?  Is it still profitable for new individual miners to enter the market, or have we reached the point where most of the mining will be done by large, efficient mining operations?

Thoughts?

For the resident anarcho-capitalists, enjoy:

http://youtu.be/38K9X5PMLRU

Is anyone else here living in Alaska? I sometimes think I'm the only Bitcoiner in the state.  

Anyone else? Anyone?  Bueler?

[customers]

I was debating with an acquaintance the other day and he made the argument that taxes aren't really stealing because the money is not yours to begin with.  Basically his argument was that companies take tax rates into account when they decide salaries and so the taxes you pay come from that extra money the company appended to your salary.  Now he admitted that for the higher tax brackets the amount added by the company doesn't compensate for your entire tax burden, but at lower levels it accounts for most of it.

As I see it, that's still theft, even if it is at a reduced rate.  Also, it simply means the businesses are footing more of the bill rather than the individual tax payers.  Or actually, the customers of the businesses pay the difference as businesses pass those extra costs onto their products and services.  So really, isn't the individual tax payer still paying for it?

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting argument and was one I hadn't heard before.  Thoughts?

Apparently the US finally hunted down Bin Laden.  I'm waiting for the pictures.  Thoughts?

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2011/05/01/osama-bin-laden-dead-obama-to-announce/

Is anyone else having problems accessing Mt. Gox?

Hey, doood, I'd like to refer you to this cool site I found.  It's called the "Straight Line Doubler" and if you join it on my referral I'll get 0.20 BTC.  Do it!
 



http://sldoubler.com/?id=46

Roger Mitchell claims that the United States is Monetarily Sovereign and therefore can fund unlimited programs because it can always print more money.

http://rodgermmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/monetarily-sovereign-the-key-to-understanding-economics/

My understanding of the way the US "prints" money is that it actually sells US Treasury bonds to the Federal Reserve, and therefore at some point has to pay back those bonds with interest.  If this is true, this guy is completely nuts or just doesn't understand basic economics.  Thoughts?

Has anyone else read this book?  I just finished it a few days ago and it blew my mind.  Butler Shaffer describes how private property is essential for social systems to function correctly, where people treat each with respect and respect themselves as well.  A lot of people seem to have the misconception that anarcho-capitalists are strident individualists who just want to watch out for themselves and fuck everyone else and that an anarcho-capitalist society would lack the social aspect necessary for most people to thrive.  Shaffer destroys this misconception.  And he does it so beautifully.  I highly recommend this book.