Value-free

Rothbard writing about his philosophical position vis-a-vis that of Mises- Mises, despite his bitter criticisms (and correct ones) against the positivists, has accepted the crucial point of their position—that values are only subjective and a matter of taste or “emotion” that cannot be decided on rational grounds. What I have done is to go back [...]

Forgive and forget

A few days back, I happened to see a public service advert/ message/ whatever on the 60th anniversary of the Indian constitution (1950-2010) wherein Gulzar talked about the document having protected his “hakk” of freedom of expression. I guess he no longer remembers Aandhi.

Big, memory, Australia etc

Companies sabotaging their competitors and thus preventing innovation is not an uncommon phenomenon. Some use patents to do the dirty work. Others use the government and the bureaucracy. Rand, in an attempt to defend capitalism, once wrote a piece titled “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business.” To be fair to her, she writes about the persecution [...]

A1

India never thought of incorporating something resembling the US First Amendment into its constitution, and the meager protection that article 19(1) offered was not acceptable to Nehru. I am a realist and don’t think it would have survived in any case; there is no country in the world where the absolute right to free speech [...]

Wood and trees

Some people are so caught up in their own problems that the implications of their musings on the subject completely evades them. Maybe it doesn’t. The Register ran a piece a few months back on computer security expert Kaspersky based on a ZDNet interview with the man. From the interview- If you had the power [...]