Liberty ~ Increasingly AWOL from US... WTF!

As this amazing country celebrates its birth -- an epic achievement made possible ~230 years ago by righteous, civic-minded, and wise men who despised and indeed fought the grotesque evil, "political correctness", and geopolitical stupidity of their day -- let's think earnestly about the subsequent violations of the US Constitution and seemingly neverending erosion of and painful decimation of hard-won liberties, including...

• Gerrymandering and Illegitimate Non-Representation 
• Illegitimate Warfare, Invasions, and Offensive Actions
• Unwarranted Searches and Seizures in both Physical and Digital Realms
• Unfunded Mandates, Conscription, and Similar Unconstitutional Equivalents to Slavery
• Taxation without Proper Representation or Proportionality including Rapacious Income and Wealth Taxation
• Criminalization of Victimless Vices including Drug Use, Prostitution, Gambling, etc 
• Unequal Treatment of Voting Age Citizens via Drinking, Smoking, Driving, and other Illegitimate Age-based Discriminatory Laws 
• Myriad Unconstitutional Impositions upon peoples Freedoms of Religion, Speech, Commerce, Migration, and Choice 
• An enormous Governmental Bloatocracy, endless Illegitimate Entitlements, and increasingly Outrageous Debt
• Absence of Reason, Facts, Evidence, Logic, and Thought in far too much of what the Government does

The list goes on and on and it's painful to recite all the evil incarnate that left and right wingnuts in office have perpetrated. It's urgent to return ASAP to the moral middle, the sensible center, the authentic pro-freedom libertarian core of America.

Enlightenment Now ~ Pinker on Progress...

Professor Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress summarizes proof that health, wealth, and happiness are improving worldwide due to enlightenment values of reason, science, and humanism. He discusses this in his TED talk Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers...

"We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one," he says. "But there's no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing."

Innovation and Religiosity ~ Is Reason > Faith?

The Economist charts Innovation and Religiosity...

Reason & Riches ~ Beyond Religion's Dominance

Thanks to Christopher Kissane at the Guardian for reviewing Jared Rubin's Rulers, Religion and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not...

"By getting “religion out of politics”, Europe made space at the political “bargaining table” for economic interests, creating a virtuous cycle of “pro-growth” policy-making. Islamic rulers, by contrast, continued to rely on religious legitimation and economic interests were mostly excluded from politics, leading to governance that focused on the narrow interests of sultans, and the conservative religious and military elites who backed them."

Making Meaning ~ Tyson on Life & Happyness...

Neil deGrasse Tyson on making one's meaning in life...

Bulldozing the Future ~ Unwise Preservationism...

Reason's Jim Epstein shares how The Destruction of Penn Station Led to the Landmarks Preservation Movement and re-evaluates it...

"The underground Penn Station that replaced the old structure is a planning nightmare that's outright disliked by the general public, but that’s an argument for replacing it with something new, not saving the flawed structure that preceded it. New York became the world’s preeminent city by letting its developers sometimes violently tear down old buildings. Progress isn't free, and neither is preservation."

Religion is Bullshit ~ Carlin, Gervais, Maher, et al

Comedians on how and why Religion is Bullshit...

Making Nature Useless ~ Beyond Peak Farmland

Ronald Bailey at Reason asks Can We Save Nature by Making It Economically Useless?

“Decoupling” human economy from ecology could render large areas of pastures, croplands, and managed forests too remote for exploitation. [...] "The way we will save nature is by rendering it economically worthless," declared Ted Nordhaus. Nordhaus, chairman of the Breakthrough Institute, was speaking at "Making Nature Useless," a seminar sponsored by the D.C.-based think tank Resources for the Future. With that one sentence, he summed up the entire session’s theme. [...] "Why are we using just half of the planet's ice-free land surface?" he asked the audience. Cropland only occupies about 12 percent; pasture, 24 percent; managed forests, 9 percent; cities, 3 percent. About 12 percent of the world's ice-free land, he noted, has been formally set aside for conservation and preservation. What makes that 12 percent different? His answer is that, for the most part, it is too high, too dry, too steep, and too remote. We have saved what we have saved, he suggested, largely because it is not worth anything economically. Most of the lands that are not legally protected but remain unexploited share the same economically off-putting characteristics. [...] humanity is on the cusp of "peak farmland." If current land-use trends continue, an enormous amount of crop and pasture land will be abandoned and returned to nature. [...] Urbanization contributes to the process of decoupling economy and ecology, since fewer hungry people engaged in low productivity subsistence farming mean more land for nature. [...] Analysts with old-fashioned Malthusian mindsets are again decrying the imminent approach of "peak everything" followed by a collapse of civilization. The data presented at Wednesday's seminar points toward a much happier version of "peak everything," as humanity increasingly withdraws from the natural world during the rest of this century."

Dog Days ~ Frank Docu on Street Food Venturing!

Thanks to food freedom advocate Baylen Linnekin at Reason.com for spotting frank documentary Dog Days on DC street food venturing...

"If you want to see the challenges small food entrepreneurs face on a daily basis -- with long hours of hard work as their only guarantee -- then you’ll love Dog Days. [The Directors say...] we began shooting when there were only a few food trucks on the scene, and we loved Coite’s idea of bringing new food to the streets, but working with existing vendors. We also felt like there was a largely untold story there about an immigrant population of vendors that have been selling food on the streets of DC for over 20 years. [...] We wanted to capture the immigrant story in the film because it’s a community that can easily be overlooked in the course of day-to-day life."

Defend US Constitution ~ Rep Massie on DNA...

MIT alum and now US Representative Tom Massie excoriates recent and insidious violations of the US Constitution... P.S. Here's more Rep Massie courtesy Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie!

End of Manhattantown ~ Tragic Urban "Renewal"

Thanks to Strong Towns piece It's so much more than density by Charles Marohn for spotting Reason.tv's piece on the corrupt Democratic machine-enabled Tragedy of Urban Renewal: The destruction and survival of a New York City neighborhood...

"New York City's Manhattantown (1951) was one of the first projects authorized [for destruction and "upgrading"] under urban renewal and it set the model not only for hundreds of urban renewal projects but for the next 60 years of eminent domain abuse at places such as Poletown, New London, and Atlantic Yards. The Manhattantown project destroyed six blocks on New York City's Upper West Side, including an African-American community that dated to the turn of the century. The city sold the land for a token sum to a group of well-connected Democratic pols to build a middle-class housing development. [...] The community destroyed at Manhattantown was a model for the tight-knit, interconnected neighborhoods later celebrated by Jane Jacobs and other critics of top-down redevelopment."

P.S. How ironic that Cape Town's District Six got the same treatment just a couple decades later.

Way Better Futures ~ Diamandis on Reason.tv...

UD spots Abundance co-author Peter Diamandis on Reason.tv...

Flat Tax ~ Dan Mitchell on Simplicity & Growth

The Flat Tax is simple, just, and good. CATO's Dan Mitchell explains!

O'Leary Slams EU ~ Ryan Air Innovation Formula

Thanks to International Liberty's Dan Mitchell for spotting the In-Your-Face Smackdown of Europe’s Bureaucratic Empire by Ryan Air's Michael O'Leary. Brilliant evisceration of unmitigated bloatocracy!

Giving Thanks ~ Ingersoll's 1897 Epic Sermon!

Thanks to Cynical-C for spotlighting Ingersoll's 1897 epic Thanksgiving Sermon! This is just an excerpt, my favorite parts...

"Standing here at the close of the 19th 
century -- amid the trophies of thought -- the triumphs of genius -- here under the flag of the Great Republic -- knowing something 
of the history of man -- here on this day that has been set apart for thanksgiving, I most reverently thank the good men. the good women of the past, I thank the kind fathers, the loving mothers of
 the savage days. I thank the father who spoke the first gentle 
word, the mother who first smiled upon her babe. I thank the first
 true friend. I thank the savages who hunted and fished that they 
and their babes might live. I thank those who cultivated the ground
 and changed the forests into farms -- those who built rude homes
 and watched the faces of their happy children in the glow of
 fireside flames -- those who domesticated horses, cattle and sheep
 -- those who invented wheels and looms and taught us to spin and
 weave -- those who by cultivation changed wild grasses into wheat 
and corn, changed bitter things to fruit, and worthless weeds to
 flowers, that sowed within our souls the seeds of art. I thank the 
poets of the dawn -- the tellers of legends -- the makers of myths
 -- the singers of joy and grief, of hope and love. I thank the
 artists who chiseled forms in stone and wrought with light and
 shade the face of man. I thank the philosophers, the thinkers, who
 taught us how to use our minds in the great search for truth. I
 thank the astronomers who explored the heavens, told us the secrets 
of the stars, the glories of the constellations -- the geologists 
who found the story of the world in fossil forms, in memoranda kept 
in ancient rocks, in lines written by waves, by frost and fire -- the anatomists who sought in muscle, nerve and bone for all the 
mysteries of life -- the chemists who unraveled Nature’s work that
 they might learn her art -- the physicians who have laid the hand 
of science on the brow of pain, the hand whose magic touch restores
 -- the surgeons who have defeated Nature’s self and forced her to
 preserve the lives of those she labored to destroy. I thank the discoverers of chloroform and ether, the two 
angels who give to their beloved sleep, and wrap the throbbing
 brain in the soft robes of dreams. I thank the great inventors -- those who gave us movable type and the press, by means of which
 great thoughts and all discovered facts are made immortal -- the
 inventors of engines, of the great ships, of the railways, the 
cables and telegraphs. I thank the great mechanics, the workers in
 iron and steel, in wood and stone. I thank the inventors and makers
 of the numberless things of use and luxury. I thank the industrious men, the loving mothers, the useful
 women. They are the benefactors of our race. The inventor of pins did a thousand times more good than all 
the popes and cardinals, the bishops and priests -- than all the
 clergymen and parsons, exhorters and theologians that ever lived. The inventor of matches did more for the comfort and
 convenience of mankind than all the founders of religions and the 
makers of all creeds -- than all malicious monks and selfish
 saints. [...] I thank the statesmen who have preserved the rights of man. I
 thank Paine whose genius sowed the seeds of independence in the
 hearts of ’76. I thank Jefferson whose mighty words for liberty 
have made the circuit of the globe. [...] I thank the great scientists -- those who have reached the
 foundation, the bed-rock -- who have built upon facts -- the great
 scientists, in whose presence theologians look silly and feel
 malicious [...] I thank the 
scientists one and all [...] I thank the heroes, the destroyers of prejudice and fear -- the dethroners of savage gods -- the extinguishers of hate’s
 eternal fire -- the heroes, the breakers of chains -- the founders
 of free states -- the makers of just laws -- the heroes who fought 
and fell on countless fields -- the heroes whose dungeons became
 shrines -- the heroes whose blood made scaffolds sacred -- the 
heroes, the apostles of reason, the disciples of truth, the
 soldiers of freedom -- the heroes who held high the holy torch and
 filled the world with light. With all my heart I thank them all."

Amen!

Occupiers ~ Reason.tv Groks the "Movement"...

Reason.tv interviews the Occupiers, attempts to grok the "Movement"

Vinge on Futures ~ Freedom, SF, Singularity...

Reason.tv converses with author-educator Vernor Vinge on Freedom, Science Fiction, and the Singularity...

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. [...] There are Makers and Breakers in the world..."

Nanny Statism ~ Reason.tv on Stupid US Rules...

Reason.tv's Nanny of the Month on the latest statist stupidities...

"...top dishonors go to the sour bureaucrat who put the squeeze on a group of kids for running a lemonade stand. Sure they were raising money for a worthy cause (pediatric cancer research), but they were doing it without a permit, and that's why they got slapped with a $500 fine. Presenting Reason.tv's Nanny of the Month for June 2011: Jennifer Hughes of Montgomery County, Maryland's Department of Permitting Services! The episode sparked so much outrage that the county eventually backed off, but this is no isolated incident. Across America, the permit police are cracking down on pint-sized peddlers of liquid freedom."

Atlas Made ~ Film Producers @ Reason Weekend

Latest about making Atlas Shrugged, Part I...

"On April 16, at Reason Foundation's annual Reason Weekend, Nick Gillespie interviewed producers John Aglialoro, Harmon Kaslow, and Mike Marvin, and actor Matthew Marsden (he plays James Taggart) live in front of about 100 people. They talked freely about the challenges of making the film on a tight budget and an even tighter deadline; how Rand's politics play in Hollywood (spoiler alert: poorly!); where the inspiration for the film came from; how the train and other memorable scenes were shot..."

Religion Meets Science ~ Biocultural Studies...

Thanks to Karen Weintraub for her Globe interview Religion Meets Science with Patrick McNamara, BU associate professor and co-founder of the Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion. Among the tasty discussion morsels...

"Q. What do you think science can learn from religion?
A. If we can uncover the essential nature and functions of religiousness, we’re going to learn something really deep and interesting about human nature.
Q. Is this a feedback loop -- does religion offer anything to the brain?
A. I think one of the things that religion does when it’s working properly is it strengthens the prefrontal lobes. All those practices that the religious people tell their adherents to do -- like prayer, ritual, abstaining from alcohol, controlling your impulses -- strengthen the ability of frontal lobes to control primitive impulses.
Q. Does that help explain why religion has had such staying power?
A. If you’ve got a cultural system that produces people who are reliable, who cooperate, who are relatively honest and trustworthy, who can control their impulses, who are good parents, who abstain from ingesting addictive substances -- if a cultural system does that on a consistent basis over the centuries, that’s a pretty valuable system."

Fascinating stuff!