Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

This week's 'toon is, unfortunately, very timely. Again. When some Palestinian terrorists attached a school in Israel, Golda Meier said that "One does not make politics on the backs of children." Unfortunately, exactly that has become the custom in this country. Instead of doing something that would actually solve the problem.

Maybe this is the reason we don't have cheap space travel yet.

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

In This Issue

L. Neil holds forth on national ID and drivers licenses.

Antônio F. Oliveira continues his article on the AI revolution in social media with section four, on the Twitter Files.

Sean Gangol notes libertarian aspects of the Kingsman movies.

Charles Curley reviews Michael Gear's latest entry in the Wyoming Chronicles series.

Events

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Links! Have we got Links!

As also noted in our paper, "The main economic attributes of a technically effective currency rests on three functions: as a unit of account, a store of value and as a medium of exchange."

But there is a fourth function of money: as a means of social control. The centralized monopoly over the functions of money held by sovereign governments and central banks has generated great income and wealth imbalances. Concerns about a lack of central bank performance with respect to financial inclusion, income inequality, economic system stability and the tendency of central banks to intermediate on behalf of large financial institutions supported the creation of cryptocurrency."

— The Fed Proposes a 4th Function of Money: Means of Social Control

Of course a government will try to use money for social control. See the Chinese social credit system. What is more interesting is this statement from the same paper:

"As we noted in our paper 'Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and the Future of Monetary Policy,' confidential, not-for-distribution research sent to select members of the House Financial Services Committee, it is critical to understand that bitcoin was created in direct response to the failure of global regulators to protect the public in the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2007/2008. Thus, the ethical and monetary functionality of cryptocurrency is superior to that of paper money. Eventually, cryptocurrency is going to dominate."

Note that the quoted paper is not an official Fed document, but a response to a request for comment on a proposed faster clearing system which is already in the works, FedNow. The file PDF is dated 10/8/19. Still….

I wrote recently on Leftism as a Religion. Here are two recent Quillette articles on similar themes. Comparing Wokeness to Christianity Is an Insult to the Church, and Fantastical Beliefs in a Post-Christian Age.

From the highly respected Stephen P. Halbrook: Second Amendment Roundup: An Opening Judicial Salvo in Defense of Illinois’ New Rifle Ban

"Leave it to the United States Government to lose track of almost three states worth of public land. Only an institution with so little incentive and ability to allocate resources for the betterment of human wellbeing could instantiate such a catastrophic waste of potential." And how private enterprise found that land. How Government Lost 15 Million Acres of Public Land in the United States Yet another reason to turn the public lands over to the states.

Trumpolatry wins the day at CPAC. Trump Dominates CPAC. But Young Conservatives Whisper ‘We Want Someone Else.’ "… CPAC, where an adoring crowd silenced anyone who tried to raise the question: Is it time we moved on?"

The Crusade Against 'Malinformation' Explicitly Targets Inconvenient Truths: The legal challenge to censorship by proxy highlights covert government manipulation of online speech. A law suit worth watching, by the way. (Just reading the list of defendants is interesting!)

D. D. Harriman, call your office: Japanese outfit's private Moon mission enters Lunar orbit: Now all it has to do is land. OK, it isn't a manned mission, and there is no mention of diamonds under the pilot's seat.

Eminent Oxford Scientist Says Wind Power “Fails on Every Count”

Asian Voters Abandoning Woke Democrats As Crime Rises In Cities Asian voters, particularly those of Japanese descent, might recall that it was a Democrat president and a Democrat governor of California who rounded up Japanese Americans and packed them off to concentration camps during World War II.