The Pirate Party of Sweden hits US shores

There's a new party in town, the Pirate Party, and it's about time. Arrrr!

As mentioned in my last post, I agree with Randy Barnett that Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the US Constitution is a defect and needs to walk the plank. Any party worth its weight in doubloons would construct such a plank. Along these lines, the Pirate Party of Sweden set out on its first voyage earlier this year. Now there's a budding US counterpart. They are destined for great things ... if they be liberalizing pirates. They'll part some waters. I feel it in my bones.

Here is a speech by Rickard Falkvinge, founder of these brigands, entitled Friends, Citizens, Pirates, in which he declares, My name is Rickard and I'm a pirate.

Avast! and answer me this. Be ye an intellectual-monopoly landlubber or be ye a pirate?

Liberty and Randy Barnett on Minnesota Public Radio

Randy Barnett, author of Restoring the Lost Constitution, talks to MPR's Kerri Miller on Midmorning today. Here is the audio.

I met Barnett years ago at an IHS seminar when he was still a young professor at Chicago-Kent School of Law. He's come up in the world, arguing in front of the Supreme Court in the California medical marijuana case (Gonzales v. Raich) and landing a new position as Professor of Legal Theory at Georgetown Law Center. I read his book on the constitution a year ago November, and it comes closest to my starting point in thinking about government.

In this interview on MPR, Randy and Kerri have a wonderful conversation on the topic of liberty. I was particularly pleased to hear that Barnett's legal case defending the use of medical marijuana lives on. According to Barnett, after his defeat in the Supreme Court last year, he is rearguing the case in the 9th Circuit on the basis of individual rights, instead of the commerce clause.

In short, Barnett argues for a "presumption of liberty". He writes:

The Constitution that was actually enacted and formally amended creates islands of government powers in a sea of liberty. The judicially redacted constitution creates islands of liberty rights in a sea of governmental powers. Judicial redaction has created a substantially different constitution from the one written on parchment that resides under glass in Washington. Though that Constitution is now lost, it has not been repealed, so it could be found again.

Barnett also edited two volumes of essays on the Ninth Amendment The Rights Retained by the People Volume I Volume II. For those who are not familiar with the 9th amendment, here it is:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Barnett does not argue that the United States Constitution is perfect. For example, we both see Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, as a defect (Restoring the Lost Constitution, p. 355). He does argue that changes must be made deliberately with debate and amendment, not by ignoring the language.

Is Osama bin Laden an alcoholic?

Tonight I saw the movie United 93. As I left the theatre, I felt both shaken and stirred. It's been nearly five years, and I have something to say....

Consider this hypothesis. Osama bin Laden has alcoholism and is not in recovery.

Active, abstinent, binge, god knows which kind....

The idea occurred to me after reading Doug Thorburn's Alcoholism Myths and Realities, given bin Laden's destructive, controlling, ego-inflated behavior. Adam Robinson's Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of the Terrorist corroborates it. Thorburn writes, Recovery requires abstinence and ego deflation. Without both, good solid recovery in which behaviors markedly improve is impossible. (p. 12)

I'm not an expert on alcoholism. Might Hazelden, Talbott, or Sierra Tucson invite him for a month's stay? I don't know. But it's an idea. Family week might get a bit busy.

Update (Aug 1, 2007):
I am currently reading Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer Prize winning book The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Wright does not support this hypothesis.

"Wide-angle liberalism" - Alternative Libérale

A new party is born in France. Alternative Libérale. Its spirit is liberalism, liberalizing liberalism, and its color is violet, underlining that it's ni gauche, ni droite, neither left, nor right, neither socialist, nor conservative, neither red, nor blue.

Edouard Fillias sent me an email today with the news. This is news, big news. I love France, and I hope the French escape from the dirigistes that plague them from both the right and the left. I might even decide to work there if they do. Half the battle is understanding what liberalism is. Here in America, too.

Sabine Hérold, photographed above, explains their opposition to the French Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy is liberal on the economic plane, but not on the societal one. With us, it's wide-angle liberalism Edouard Fillias says, We do not have a cult of authority like Sarkozy. We do not believe in a savior. Liberals don't like it when someone bosses them around.

By the way, in the last sentence I translated the French verb diriger, which I really think should become an English verb of opprobrium, to dirige. The noun dirigisme already exists in English. Diriger literally translates to the English verb to direct, but it carries connotations of arbitrary, centralized, top-down control.

I first found out about Hérold and Fillias last June from the blog of a friend Tom Palmer.

Danish cartoons and a dozen writers

12 writers have come to the defense of the 12 cartoonists. In their call to pen-and-ink battle against religious totalitarianism, in their call to defend the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas, they deploy the means that are their very ends.

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism ....

Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people ....

We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of Islamophobia, an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers ....

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

The signatories include Irshad Manji, Salman Rushdie, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Hirsi Ali is the Mogadishu-born writer of the movie Submission. What's particularly poignant is that Hirsi Ali once thought that Khomeini was right when he called for her fellow signatory, Rushdie, to be killed for insulting Muhammad. Hirsi Ali now defends the the right to offend. I suspect from this piece that she had a lot to do with framing their statement in the context of other totalitarianisms. Hirsi Ali currently holds office in the Dutch parliament, the Tweede Kamer.

Minneapolis - Indian Ocean Restaurant

My first taste of Somali cuisine was the Indian Ocean Restaurant in Minneapolis thanks to a heartfelt recommendation from a cab driver. Everyone in my party enjoyed the fantastic food and excellent service and the endearing banana included with every meal.

Our salads were memorable. When was the last time you had a memorable salad? We ordered mediterranean greek salads with feta and chicken, which were presented elegantly with a subtle sauce on the chicken. It was one of my favorite feta salads ever, and at a quite modest price.

As for the main course, I combined into one order their Somalian Key Key and philly steak. It is a bit confusing to see philly steak on the menu, but they prepare it magnificently with Somali spices in bite-size strips. If you like things spicy, try their green sauce, bursting with coconut flavor.

Be sure to order some Somali spiced tea. It's chock full of cardamom.

I'm going to come back.

Update

Here's more info.

Directions: The Indian Ocean is just off of 8th St. as you're heading from downtown towards Hiawatha. Turn right after Elliot Park, on 11th Ave, and it's one block down.

Wafa Sultan - "Civilizations do not clash"

Wafa Sultan speaks out courageously on Al-Jazeera. She packs a punch with six words.

The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on the other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts and those who treat them like human beings.

What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete.

translated from Arabic by the MEMRI TV Monitor Project