no laughing matter

Beer Blogging: Are cans better?
Sacrilege, you say? Maybe not: read more... (11)

Intervention and Moral Hazards
Michael Brendan Dougherty highlights an article suggesting that humanitarian interventions actually increase the likelihood of genocide and ethnic cleansing: read more... (0)

Shoup Himself Responds to O'Toole
Donald Shoup has made a career out of studying the effects of government parking mandates on the way we drive and live. After a bit of a blogospheric kerfluffle about free parking, Shoup responds in detail to one of his most persistent and consistently wrong critics. (4)

Lomborg Recants
Well, this is interesting (via Grist):

The world’s most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront,” in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.

Churchill on Appeasement
Quoting the same article twice is probably bad form, but I had to highlight one of Churchill’s lesser-known lines, which should be thrown back in the face of hawks every time the word “appeasement” is uttered in public: read more... (2)

Patriotism Against Nationalism
From an excellent New Yorker article on Churchill: read more... (2)

Master Plan to Destroy America
Endear yourself to the Mooslims: check. I’m prepared to take bets on how long it will take the anti-Park51 crowd to start citing this new Gallup poll as yet more evidence that President Obama is really a radical Muslim Manchurian candidate  and that the Cordona House Project must be stopped to save America. read more... (13)

The Unapology
I’m sorry, but does anyone other than Andrew Sullivan actually give a shit what Levi Johnston has to say about anything? (6)

This.
Timothy Lee identifies the problem with fusionist libertarianism. I agree in full with his conclusions. read more... (17)

Irshad Manji on Park51
What’s this?  A thoughtful, non-demagogued, and thought-provoking piece on Park51?  Heaven forfend! (5)

C4C Again
Here’s one thing I don’t think has been grasped by the dissenters in the C4C business. You could have had everything that was even arguably good out of Cash for Clunkers without destroying the cars. read more... (20)

Beer Blogging: Heavy Seas Hang Ten
Short Review: Quaffable, but not transcendent. read more... (0)

Regime Change
It was a disaster, a quagmire, a nightmare, and the American government should have never gotten us involved… But, some short term goals have been met and now they’re getting ready to start pulling out, which is at least moderately good news… I speak, of course, of General Motors. (10)

How bad was the Deepwater Horizon spill?
At Master Resource, Paul Schwennesen takes on oil spill alarmism: read more... (11)

Beer Blogging: The Godfather Comes Out of Retirement
If you’ve been following Erik’s debate over the origins of the craft brew movement, you might be interested in the story of Jack McAuliffe, a beer enthusiast who built the first modern microbrewery in 1976. read more... (1)

Beer blogging: What makes a craft brew?
Interesting thoughts from The Washington City Paper on what makes a craft beer. Now that the industry is expanding, do numbers or quality distinguish between micro and macro brews? (1)

Bradbury at 90
Bill Kauffman just reminded me of his excellent Ray Bradbury remembrance (you’ve already caught Bradbury’s tirade against big guvmint, the Internets, and our lack of space travel, right?). (0)

"The Great Ghastly Rand"
NR’s latest on Ayn Rand is quite good. As a side note, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who enjoyed The Fountainhead a lot more than Atlas Shrugged. (20)

I suppose this was inevitable
Philadelphia starts requiring bloggers to get $300 licenses (via): read more... (14)

That's just going to make them angrier...
Peter Jaworski holds an annual “Liberty Summer” event for fellow libertarians on his parents’ land in Orono, Ontario. This year, irony-loving Canadian government officials shut down the event by threatening to fine him up to $50,000 for using the property for “reasons unapproved by government“. No doubt, that’ll learn ‘em. (7)

ATTN: DC Beer Week
I hope Washington-area readers are taking advantage of DC beer week, which features some truly excellent activities. (0)

Beerblogging: Some Stats
The Czech Republic leads the world in per capita beer consumption. China wins on volume. Sad to say, the United States doesn’t even lead the western hemisphere. (5)

Our First Cyborg President
It’s almost hard to grasp how many things this guy gets wrong. But I’ll try. read more... (26)

Gay Gentlemen
Helpfully, Christwire has posted a list of warning signs that a man might be gay. Regular readers will note that the list effectively outs as gay males everyone who writes here, with the exceptions of Jason, who’s already out, and Lisa, who’s female. So, anyone want to help with the LOOG float for next year’s Pride? (15)

The Red Tories' "Big Society"
So far, David Cameron’s domestic agenda sounds pretty darn good. (3)