So we are offering a £500 cash prizeand other goodies to the winner of our 2010 Young Writer on Liberty competition. To win, you have to be under 20 on the entry deadline of April 30, and you need to write three short blog-style articles – up to 400 words each – on the topic ‘Ways to advance liberty.’ Articles from the top three winners will be published on the Adam Smith Institute blog. Simply email entries to charlotte@adamsmith.orgalong with contact details and DOB.

Tonight on Fox he condemned Geert Wilders. It was a disgrace that no one on the panel had the knowledge on the guts to stand up for free speech and against islamism. Pathetic and clearly they don’t get it…

I would expect AB to repeat politically correct platitudes but not the other ones.

Update: Glenn “Ego” Beck is also hammering Geert. Glenn mate… if Charles “Shill of Soros” Johnson likes what you are saying you got a problem.

Update II: New English Reviews echoes the commenters point with an interesting post about Fox’s investors.

Update III: The Weekly Standard editor gets harangued for his daft comments.

I appeared last week on Patios on the News to discuss the tea party movement. Here is the video. Its an hour long and we hit all the relevant points. It was congenial and lots of fun, and boy did the guy do his homework.

Too-low vocals on most of this, which some might consider a plus. I was primarily concerned with the sound of the guitars, which were clipping the red zone of the VU meters throughout. Later on, we re-recorded this with legible vocals and whatever musical skills we could muster. It’s not bad, if not the best thing we’ve done.

And I have a story in it… the press release.

Here is the latest Haveil Havalim. And Fausta is back with her Latin American Carnival. Britblog Carnival is up at MrEugenides.

Jon Pearce was kind enough to mention the novel in his most recent post on Samizdata.

If little else from the Contract from America.

Wear it with pride.

Thanks to the Teawell for the inspiration.

Look how they praise his claiming 9/11 was an inside job.

The convergence writ large.

The Guardian has written two high pieces on the Young Britons Foundation, run by my friend Donal Blaney. They call their weekends Tory Madrasa and the members radicalised Conservatives. The Guardian talks as if both of these things are a bad thing. The comments obviously hilarious in a Guardian way.

Politeia has an amusing take on it replete with an appropriate musical number.

An illuminati puppet spreading mind-control to the masses. Funny the image of bahomet is used in the piece as well, for no apparent reason.

On a similar loony bent, the American Fascist Family Association believe the killer whale who accidentally killed its trainer should be… stoned to death. I am guessing right about now tea party groups approached by the AFA to work together are glad they passed.

Then again there is Repent Amarillo if you want true Christian fascists.

I shall be the guest on the show this evening @ 8est. Thanks to Toni for the invite and please have a listen.

Music Reviews: Joe Perry, King Hell, Social Code, Blood Cult

Adam Holland has done a review of some of the highlights of the CfL website. Gee I wonder why I think that the cultist variety of Ron Paul supporters are jew-hating paranoid conspiracy crazed lunatics. And Ron Paul fans claim I “smear” CfL when I brings things like this up. Check out the advert at the end of the report.

Mine to be exact. Its much improved and even features RSS feed.

The Telegraph:

The Sunday Telegraph revealed last September that the Libyan government had paid for the medical evidence which helped Megrahi, 57, to be released. The Libyans had encouraged doctors to say he had only three months to live.

The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time, or less, to live.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, ruled last August that Megrahi should be freed. Megrahi’s release came after Libyan leaders warned that lucrative oil and trade deals with Britain would be cancelled if the bomber died in jail

Gee. Color me surprised.

Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, and served six terms before successfully running for the Senate in 1998.  2010 will be Bunning’s last year in Congress, as polling indicates that he would be thumped by any of the four Democrats vying for his seat.

Bunning, who was recently declared the third-most conservative Senator by the National Journal, has been hailed as a hero by conservatives — and derided as callous and insensitive to the plight of the unemployed by the left — for his refusal to give in on the recent bill that would extend jobless benefits.  Largely abandoned by other Republican Senators — and even attacked by some, like Susan Collins (R-ME) — Bunning held up the bill for five days before relenting this evening.

In return for his consent, Bunning was guaranteed the right to propose an amendment to the bill, one that would have closed a tax loophole.  Not surprisingly, the amendment failed, and thus Bunning got nothing for his epic one-man, giant middle finger at the hypocrites on the other side of the aisle.

This episode is an apt eulogy for Bunning’s career:  Despite being one of the most conservative Congressmen in DC for the past 20+ years, Bunning has never been an effective leader, and has failed in his (admittedly modest) attempts to stop the onslaught of government-expanding policies during his tenure.

I recently put together a list of inflation-adjusted, per capita spending by the federal government for every year since 1940.  All figures were adjusted to FY2000 dollar values. (If you’d like a copy, feel free to email me at taffastrophe@yahoo.com and I’ll send you the Excel file.)

The analysis shows that in the 23 years Jim Bunning has been in office, per capita spending did what it has always done:  it went up.  The more Americans make, the more government spends.  When Bunning got to Washington in 1987, one of his first duties was to pass the FY1988 budget, one that saw the federal government spend $5,922 for every man, woman, and child in America.  And while the 1990s made history — the only decade to see federal per capita spending decrease — the out-of-control spending in the 2000s and into 2011 will see per capita spending skyrocket to $9,207.

As these are inflation-adjusted numbers, the irrefutable truth is that government is bigger than it has ever been, spending even more than it did in building up our military during World War II.  Despite Bunning’s conservative rating, he has been complicit in allowing government spending to balloon to ridiculous proportions.  Over the past year, Americans have slowly come to realize the gravity of our current predicament, and that’s why a guy like Bunning was in serious danger of being voted out of office despite being the 3rd most conservative Senator in Washington.

In his 23 years in DC, Bunning has failed to staunch the bleeding — no, hemorrhaging — of cash.  His retirement from the Senate is welcomed by fans of smaller government.  Other so-called conservative Congressmen should take note.  Even when there is a surplus of tax revenue, Americans don’t expect spending to go up.  They want taxes to go down.

At a recent anti-tax rally in Olympia, Washington, angry citizens showed up to protest a proposed $11 billion state tax hike.  Shelby Blakely, the Executive Director of New Patriot Journal, found Brad Klippert, a Republican in the Washington State House of Representatives, and had the following conversation:

Shelby Blakely: Will you vote to raise revenue this year?

Brad Klippert: The way you phrased that makes it hard to answer. Will I vote to raise taxes? No. Do I want to increase revenue? Absolutely. I want revenue to go up because that means the economy is doing better and the state overall is doing better so yes, I want revenue to go up.

SB: Do you think the State of Washington has enough money?

BK: Yes.

SB: Then why would you want to increase revenue? Wouldn’t it be better to leave that money in the economy and never have it go through Olympia in the first place?

BK: (Long pause)

Yes, you’re absolutely right; it should stay in the economy. Washington State government has enough money… leaving that capital outside Olympia and in the economy is the way to create revenue.  People need money in their own pockets.

(Note that Klippert referenced “creat[ing] revenue” in his last statement, revealing himself as another Republican that still doesn’t get it.)

Sixty million Tea Party voices are finally being heard, but the message still isn’t being understood by politicians.  Economic growth is a staple — a hallmark, really — of the American capitalist environment.  Government — and even solidly conservative Congressmen like Jim Bunning — should not interpret our prosperity as a green light to spend more money.

Over at Pajamas Media I try to get my head round the fact that the Conservatives are so close to losing to Gordon Brown. A hung parliament with such an unpopular government and an economy is just beyond belief. Then again I predicted that he would not cut it soon after he was elected leader and predicted a hung parliament over two years ago. Please head over and take a look, leave you comments and see if you can explain to yanks what the hell is going on.

Here is my review of Atomic Jihad a rather interesting if disturbing video about Iran’s nuclear intentions.

An installation for the Barbican in London, England. A description:

French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. Boursier-Mougenot’s installation for The Curve, his first solo exhibition in the UK, takes the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a random and captivating soundscape.

Well, whatever. I was taken by the little guy with a twig, doing his best Jimmy Page impression.

One from a frothing Christian extremist site and one from a Islamist extremist site.

NB: The actual post on WND is not bad, but the email that I got it in was pretty vile…

“HE MENTIONS JUDGES, JOURNALISTS AND THE ACLU, DON’T FORGET THE JEWISH POLITICIANS, WHO “DO NOT” BELIEVE IN CHRIST!”

Um, no Jews believe in Jesus Christ, if they did they would be Christians.

Then again there are these loons who seem to hate everyone.

Then again Massachusetts might be joining in rather soon.

NB: I predicted a hung parliament since not long after Cameron was elected leader. He just does not have the stuff to impress the country.

Seats: Con 286, to Labour 273

UKIP is really feeling their power now that the Conservatives are so wonky. Farage really has a chance to beat Bercow (the Speaker) and become an MP.

The International Olympic Committee announced Monday that it has taken back the gold medal previously awarded to American skier Lindsey Vonn and given it to U.S. President Barack Obama.

More.

Those wondering if its such a bad thing to have government, in this case the US, run a car company? Well not surprisingly, Autoblog reports that GM is signed up with the idea of having “black boxes” in all cars.

“General Motors has now come out publicly in favor of the proposal. GM has been installing event data recorders in its cars since 1995 as part of the air bag system. In accidents where the airbags are triggered, GM can use the data stored in the EDR for diagnostic purposes to improve the function of its safety systems. The recorders save the last few seconds of data before a crash from a number of sensors. GM is not only supporting the installation of these recorders in all vehicles, but also supports making the data accessible so that accident causes can be more accurately determined.”

Yet, another reason to avoid buying a GM vehicle methinks. Its not just bad enough they went broke and were bailed out by the taxpayer, now they want to spy on your driving. You would think since they are now just another government arm ther opinion on this should be discounted.

John Hawkins new impressive site with more quotes that you can possibly imagine. Go have a look and I bet you’ll one you love.

Reports from the UK, Hull specifically, tell me that And Glory has arrived for those who ordered their books.

Dr Eamonn Butler, of the Adam Smith Institute, has a new book. Its sets out a great vision for fixing the mess the UK is in right now.