Iraqi Insurgency offers a Truce?

But it comes at a price:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/22/iraq.main/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Take a Stand for LGBT Rights!

Hey guys--here's a great opportunity to put those nice political discussions into action.

Equality Virginia is having a lobby day on Jan 17th, going from 8:30 AM - 7:30 PM. You can register online Here. Also, I'll be driving, and will have open spots in my car! Also, you don't have to have any experience to come lobby--they provide training, etc, and you don't have to be LGBT to participate!

Happy Holidays, Folks

I hope everyone's exams are going well, and kudos for checking the blog!

Here is a stocking stuffer idea for all the good boys and girls of CLR:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Monopoly

Dinner at Trevor's

Trevor's email (slightly edited):
---
To celebrate the end of the semester, I'd like to invite everyone over to my apartment for dinner Wednesday night. I'll make some food; there will be drinks (I promise better fare than last time, aka more than water and bourbon). Vegetarian, nonalcoholic options will be available. Food will most likely be pasta.


CLR Dinner
8 pm, Wednesday, November 29th
Same place as last time!

Identity Theft, Recent History

This link includes a visual representation of the major ID theft data security breaches in the last year or so. I wonder what a chart would like like for UVA?

Last Meeting of the Semester

Last meeting of the semester-

Why not talk about the first year legislative agenda we want Congress to push?

America's spoken, and it's said not the status quo.

So let's set the CLR Agenda.

Free State Project

I checked out the Free State Project, and I can't really make a judgment on it yet. Could this be effective?

Averting Climate Change

Here's an item relevant to Patrick's last post.

Fascinating article

Externalities make fascinating challenges to classical liberal philosophy. I'm staunchly against things like price ceilings and quotas in economic governance, but I also strongly agree with this claim-

"It is regulation which creates the market"

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/09/20/a-world-turned-upside-down/

Libertarians need to...

Here's a thought-provoking list of what libertarians need to do to get some real momentum.

Andrew Sullivan, Blogger/Pundit

Andrew Sullivan's work is hard to describe, but I believe him to be fundamentally libertarian (at least in the ways that matter to me. He's worked all over the place, but now is a blogger and columnist for Time magazine.

Sullivan's blog mixes direct political commentary by Sullivan himself with links and quotes from everywhere. Here are links to a few of the shorter posts from his blog:

An excellent quote from Barry Goldwater.
A Jefferson quote along similar lines.
A post on physics, certainty and morality.

De-westernization/Globalization

We'll do an intro coverage of the UVA "Globalization" initiative this week; next week, hopefully, Svantje Swider will come to talk about it. She's been following the whole subject fairly closely, and will have quite a bit to say on the subject. If anyone knows anyone else to invite, either do it or let me know and I can invite them too.

More on North Korea, from Nature

From the scientific journal Nature:

"They're an embarrassment to the nuclear club... this is supposed to be really easy"

Nuclear Brief

First Question on Ballot

When you vote, or if you're about to send in your absentee ballot, consider this point about the first question.

It Bans Gay Marriage. But Wait—That's Not All!
6:47 AM
by Jacob Sullum
Cato's David Boaz complains that the press is describing Virginia's Ballot Question 1, a constitutional amendment, as a "ban on gay marriage," when 1) gay marriage is already banned (by statute) in Virginia and 2) the initiative's language is so broad that it could be read to prohibit any employer policy, statutory right, or contractual arrangement that gives unmarried couples (gay or straight) "the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage." Nick Gillespie noted the potentially sweeping effects of the amendment last month. SurveyUSA numbers from mid-September indicated that supporters of the amendment outnumbered opponents by more than 2 to 1 among likely voters.

Arcane Tax Dynamics

SO! Bush cuts taxes, the economy goes into recession. Bush keeps taxes cuts, the economy doesn't really do much. But then tax revenues begin to rise, and the deficit shrinks-

because corporations and star individuals begin to make record amounts of money in our new world order. And everyone else doesn't make much more than they did than in 2000. This one's a doozy:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601121.html

Taking Land or Just Borrowing It with Interest?

Continuing on our discussion of eminent domain, here's an article from Ronald Bailey.

Libertarian Blogs and Podcasts

So, for my first post on this blog, I figured I'd share my favorite libertarian spots on the web.


Hit and Run is the blog run by the folks at Reason magazine. It's well run, and it's a good read.


Hammer of Truth is less professional than Hit and Run, but still has a refreshing libertarian spin on the news.

Penn Radio, is the radio show of Penn Jillette, which runs on Free FM weekdays from 2-3. You may know him as the big guy who talks from the magic and comedy duo Penn and Teller. In addition to stories from Hollywood and show business, he's a libertarian. Well, he calls himself a libertarian, but he's more of an anarcho-capitalist, and also has crazy opinions on all sorts of things that makes the show fun to listen to.

North Korea

Did North Korea fail its nuclear test? If it didn't, the test would be one of the smallest ones in history.

http://news.google.com/news?q=north+korea+nuclear+test&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&oi=news&ct=title

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_North_Korean_nuclear_test

Speaker on Eminent Domain Abuse

Students for Individual Liberty proudly presents

Steven Anderson

Attorney at the Institute for Justice and Coordinator of the Castle Coalition

BACKLASH: EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE IN THE POST-KELO WORLD

October 11th, 7:30pm
Clark Hall 107

For more information, please visit www.uvaliberty.org

Eminent Domain Abuse

Does anyone have any good links on Eminent Domain abuse? SIL's bringing in a speaker next week to give a lecture on the topic, and it'd be cool if we could coordinate our discussion in CLR with the speaker coming to UVA.

Here's a little something-something to get everyone started:
Summary of the relevant (recent) Supreme Court Case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._New_London
Summary on Eminent Domain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain

CLR members rock the CD

One-two punch here in the Cav Daily-

Trevor:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=28013&pid=1488

Mark:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=28015&pid=1488

You guys have way too much time on your hands. Just kidding, we're all very proud of you. If you'd only get yourselves arrested too- for pride.

Fall Break

Is there any interest in having CLR this week, during fall break? I probably will not be able to make it, but if you guys feel like it, the room will be open. Let everyone know by commenting on this post.

- Patrick

Short Story on Linguistics, Perfect Language

This is a short story by my favorite Sci Fi author, Greg Egan. He's an Aussie. This story is about neurological enhancements that allow people to transcend the shortcomings of verbal language and communicate concepts directly. Read the story (it's a bit long, but totally worth it) and you'll understand what he's talking about. I can't do it justice in a 2 sentence summary.

China Tests Fusion Reactor

Is this real? The news source is reputable, but I don't know if I believe it. If China is really 10 years ahead of the US in fusion technology, what does that mean for us, economically, in 20 years?

Update about the Blog

So, to avoid a Facebook sized reaction against my changes, here they are in full:

1. The "About" text below the page title. Let me know if it's ugly or wordy. I actually think the wordiness contributes to the page's effect. It's possible to switch that huge chunk of text for the smaller bite of text at the bottom of our sidebar- that might work well.
2. New "Title" field in posts. I went back and titled most of the entries that had a bold item that was obviously its title. The links to previous posts are much neater now.
3. We're now co-linking with Cavblog.com; so we link to them, and they link to us. More about this in the meeting
4. There's a tiny new button on the bottom right of each post. It lets you send our posts in emails to people. So... perhaps we can engage in lazy marketing, which is what the new economy is all about.

Just to save you time, here's a premade group name for you guys:

I hate the News Feed and Mini Feed (Official Petition to CLR to change their website back)

Mini-Constitutions on $1 Bills

This link from Cavblog is fantastic! A high school government teacher in Ashburn, VA wants to put a small summary of the constitution on the back of every $1 bill printed, so that everyone will read the Constitution more frequently and know their rights.

What do you think?

SI Hayakawa, Semanticist:

Last week, we talked about semantics in debate, and I mentioned one of my favorite authors, SI Hayakawa. I looked online several times this week to find some of his essays to send to everyone. This was the best link I found. It's not Hayakawa, but someone else applying his points (he's dead) to a current debate.

There is also a wealth of Hayakawa literature at JSTOR, the online academic journal database. You can access it for free at any UVA library computer, without logging in or paying. Just search for "S I Hayakawa".

Next week: Semantics! (and other stuff)

Can there be a universal language?

What is the nature of agreement?

Who will win in CLR, the Utilitarians or the PoMos? HOO knows!

UVA's Budget

1) Professors vs. Researchers
2) New student admission: students or infrastructure first?
3) Sports vs. Academics

Topic: Privacy

• Facebook. News Feed. Selling your information. Data mining. 550,000 individuals join facebook group against the new facebook features.
• FBI. Mining "ter-rist" data from student aid.
• Do we need a new privacy amendment to the Constitution?
• What's right and wrong about the assumed identity and veracity of information in these databases? Is the problem that they tell too much, or that they reveal misleading information?
• Do we need a new concept of the individual in light of digital violations of privacy? Is there a technical or nontechnical solution?

http://podcastroundtable.com/?cat=6

Assorted Items

Dinner Party Tomorrow! [See entry below for details]

Essembly. What is it?
www.essembly.com is a social networking website- kind of a facebook with the ability to vote on "resolves." Resolves are statements for which agreement or disagreement is possible- for example, "I support equal rights for women." On essembly, you're given a place to create resolves, vote on them, and comment about them. Create an account and join the Essembly CLR group!

Computers and the Destruction of Bureaucracy
(A possible topic for next week)

Computers make decisionmaking and information transfer scores earlier by compiling large amounts of information and allowing an individual to generate documents in much less time than it used to take. Computers (and especially the internet) also created a gigantic economic and productivity boom and expansion lasting many years. That was the win in this economic situation. What was the loss? Nothing, except the destruction of the organizational lifestyle Americans have gotten used to since the industrial revolution...

Peter Drucker (professional visionary) in 1988: "The typical large business 20 years hence will have fewer than half the level of managements of its counterpart today, and no more than a third of the managers. In its structure, and in its management problems and concerns, it will bear little resemblance to the typical management company, circa 1950, which our textbooks still consider the norm. Instead it is far more likely to resemble organizations that neither the practicing manager nor the management scholar pays much attention to today: the hospital, the university, the symphony orchestra. For like them, the typical business will be knowledge based, an organization composed largely of specialists who direct and discipline their own performance through an organized feedback from colleagues, customers, and headquarters. For this reason, it will be called what I call an information-based organization.

... [In the new information based organization], it becomes clear that both the number of management levels and the number of managers can be sharply cut. The reason is straightforward: it turns out that whole layers of management neither make decisions nor lead. Instead, their main, if not their only function is to serve as "relays" - human boosters for the faint, unfocust signals that pass for communication in the traditional pre-information organization."

From "The Coming of the new Organization," by Peter F. Drucker and Managing Engineering and Technology, by Lucy C. Morse and Daniel L. Babcock

One sort of "democratized" business: http://www.fastcompany.com/online/28/ge.html

CLR & Liberty Coalition Dinner Party

Who: Old members, new members, anyone interested in CLR.
When: 8pm, Monday, September 4th
Where: 1815 Jefferson Park Ave # 28 **
What: Continuing last year's tradition, I'd like to invite everyone to my apartment for dinner so we can get know eachother better. Fare will be pasta with some sort of sauce, along with wine and whatever else I can come up with.


**Directions: Walk down JPA away from UVA/the Hospital. 1815 JPA is on your right, right after Kent Terrace. If you get to Shamrock Rd you've gone too far. My apartment is on the right side of the building on the top floor (#28). If you get lost, call my cell phone, (703)5895290.

First Meeting 3PM, 9/3/2006

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Ho

Princeton psychologists show that length of time of exposure to a face doesn't change one's opinion of it (even if it's just a flash of 100milliseconds): http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S15/62/69K40/index.xml?section=topstories

They say, when we've made up our minds, we don't tend to change it.

I say to you, Princeton: "Isn't it great that your research has confirmed what we knew all along?"

First Meeting 3PM, 9/3/2006
Compiled Topics List
(we won't use all of them this week)
For sure:

• Q&A about UVA student life
• Q&A about libertarianism

Maybe:

• Power only comes from the end of a gun.
• Hard Science vs. soft science in governing human society
• Opening science grants to market based competition
• Obligations to the first amendment
• Constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance
• Rights of illegal immigrants
• Treatment of disabled persons
• Guantanamo bay detention facility

Is the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional?

Does the government have a responsibility to differently-abled citizens?

Do illegal immigrants have rights under US Law?

...and what about those being held in Guantanamo?

Liberty Coalition Elections

Elections for the following offices will take place next Sunday (9/3), 30 minutes before the CLR meeting at 2:30pm.

Liberty Coalition President
Classical Liberal Roundtable President
Students for Individual Liberty President
University Libertarians President

If you are interested in running for office or voting, please attend.

2:30pm, September 3rd
Pavilion 8, East Lawn
Room 103

See you then!
-Trevor

More possible topics:

• Is opening up basic scientific research to a market-based system of competition (to replace the current system of subsidies and grants) possible? Bigelow Aerospace's $50 million "America's Space Prize" suggests an interesting new way of looking at scientific research. Would it be possible to replace government institutions like NIH with a system of grants and prizes offered for useful research in different fields?
• The 1st Amendment gives us certain rights. Does it also give us any obligations?

Current Topics List:

1. Courtesy of Mark Brewster: "I've had some good discussions over the statement 'power only comes from the end of a gun.'"
2. As a UVA specific thing, a Q&A about UVA student life with the upperclass of CLR
3. From Essembly: "I would rather live in a society governed by people who were trained in the hard sciences, mathematics, and engineering than in an equally powerful society governed by people who were trained in the soft sciences"

Signing up

*Updated 6:30PM!* See "Discussion Topics"

It was great meeting many of you at the Student Activities Fair!

If you want to sign up, there are several ways to stay connected, and you only have to do one of them.

1) Comment on this blog with your blogger account's email address (create one for free at blogger.com)
2) Send an email to ph4t [at] virginia [dot] edu expressing interest and, if you wish, giving me the email address associated with your blogger account. You can do this if you want to be informed only of CLR events.

Stop by Sunday, September 3rd at Pavilion 8!

There is no meeting this Sunday, but there will be one next Sunday.

To suggest a topic for the agenda, just make a blog post.

First Discussion Topics
For the first meeting, I'd like to add both something general and something UVA-specific to the topics list.

1. Courtesy of Mark Brewster, a general topic: "I've had some good discussions over the statement 'power only comes from the end of a gun.'"
2. As a UVA specific thing, a Q&A about UVA student life with the upperclass of CLR

First Meeting:

Sunday, September 3rd

Start thinking up topics!

CLR

The Classical Liberal Roundtable (CLR) is a First Amendment Forum at the University of Virginia. It is both a political discussion group and a social group. It's nonpartisan, with the aim of promoting interesting and intelligent discussion among students and increasing the impact and quality of their thought.

We have weekly Sunday meetings and regular dinner parties. The Sunday meetings are held in Pavilion 8 on the East Lawn. Topics for the meeting will be collected in the preceding week through this blog, and we spend a reasonable amount of time on each topic before moving on. The Sunday meetings will require little preparation on part of the members, but via the blog, interested members can post background information.

CLR's Sunday meetings are 3PM in Pavilion VIII (Room 103). Those interested in CLR should stop by. If you want more information about us, contact UVA email ID ph4t or check us out at the student activities fair.

Related Activites
CLR is a member of the Liberty Coalition (www.uvaliberty.org)

All our current members are active in the online forum www.essembly.com. It's an addicting online direct democracy and social networking site.

Our members are also extremely involved in the UVA undergraduate community. We have majors in topics ranging from Economics to Biomedical Engineering. We have members in IRO, and in both the Washington and Jefferson Societies.

Filmmakers at UVA: We're beginning a project to create online opinion shows to cover topics of On Grounds importance. If you're interested in the project, please email UVA e-mail ID ph4t. We'll try to cover all sides in On Grounds controversies. The level of involvement in the project is negotiable.