From Die Welt (in English translation): “Why Europe and the UN are mistaken concerning Honduras,” by Christian Lüth, Project Director, Friedrich Naumann Foundation Tegucigalpa, Honduras

BBC: “Coffee ‘may reverse Alzheimer’s’”

Of course, one mustn’t leap to conclusions:

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said previous research into caffeine had suggested it could delay Alzheimer’s disease and even protect against vascular dementia.

“This research in mice suggests that coffee may actually reverse some element of memory impairment.

“However much more research is needed to determine whether drinking coffee has the same impact in people.

“It is too soon to say whether a cup of coffee is anything more than a pleasant pick me up.”

Note that being “a pleasant pick me up” is, in today’s climate, considered by many to be sufficient grounds for banning it. Recall H. L. Mencken’s definition of “Puritanism”:

The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

(And a final note: “Puritanism” refers to the interpretation carried down in the American political context, and not to the original meaning of the term; many of the original English “Puritans” were quite libertarian.

BBC: “Zimbabwe army ‘to go from mines’”

For some serious analysis of the issue, see The Zimbabwe Papers, put together by a consortium of African think tanks.

I am having occasional problems with the new management sytem on WordPress, and had earlier posted this thoughtful comment by Alvaro Vargas Llosa from the New York Times: “The Winner in Honduras: Chávez”

I just noticed that it was somehow deleted, so….here it is again.

I find myself sometimes bored on airplane flights and unable to write any more reports or read any more serious books. So, I admit it, I sometimes spend time on just fun fiction. I recently read The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks on a long flight. It was fun and I recommend it to people who enjoy science fiction writing. (The surprise wasn’t a big surprise at all, but it was rewarding, nonetheless.)

But I do try to keep up with my history, philosophy, and political economy, too. (I recently got several histories of India, and will try to work through those, as well as some more works on jurisprudence and legal and political theory.)

Still in Power

CNN: “Analysis: Why sanctions aren’t working in Myanmar”

This is a clear case of the distinction between “intentions” and “consequences.” Most advocates of sanctions tell us about their intentions, but willfully ignore the consequences. They didn’t remove Saddam Hussein, but did impoverish the people of Iraq. They didn’t remove Fidel Castro, but did give his dictatorship a ready excuse for their failures (the Cuban state trades freely with the rest of the world — just not the US, but they don’t produce much that anyone else wants). They generally don’t work. (Economic sanctions strengthened apartheid in South Africa, but it seems that the sanctions on travel and sports helped to undermine the regime; if so, that is the only major exception of which I can think, and it was not the purely trade sanctions, but the travel and cultural sanctions that seemed to have done the job.)

More analysis (from studies published over a long period of time) here.

My book Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice will soon be available in a Kindle edition and can be pre-ordered now. (Note: I love my new Kindle DX.) Amazon.com has also put up a searchable “Look inside this book” option for Realizing Freedom.

BBC: “Gay sex decriminalised in India”

The position of the Roman Catholic Church is disagreeable, but compatible with civilized treatment of others:

Father Dominic Emanuel of India’s Catholic Bishop Council said the church did not “approve” of homosexual behaviour.

“Our stand has always been very clear. The church has no serious objection to decriminalising homosexuality between consenting adults, the church has never considered homosexuals as criminals,” said Father Emanuel.

“But the church does not approve of this behaviour. It doesn’t consider it natural, ethical, or moral,” he said.

I disagree with the priest’s views about sexuality, nature, ethics, and morality, but in a free society, we tolerate the beliefs of others, no matter how odd or eccentric or unfounded, so long as they do not use force. As members of a great society, the leaders of the Catholic Church could have done better: they have agreed not to object to liberty (rather than endorsing the freedom, while criticizing the behavior), when they should have been insisting on liberty, just as I would demand liberty for them to preach their views without any hindrance. Freedom is a fundamental right for everyone — those who disagree with us no less than those who agree with us.

The response of one (and I should note that that does not mean that it is the view of all) Indian Muslim was very different. Note the strangeness of referring to the repeal of a prohibition as itself a law that he would not “accept”:

The head cleric of Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, criticised the ruling.

“This is absolutely wrong. We will not accept any such law,” Ahmed Bukhari told the AFP news agency.

Does that mean that he will go and punish with force gay people on his own?

Here is the legal decision.

P.S. Sorry for the slightly garbled version first posted. I was rushing to write it in the Mexico City Airport and then had to go to board my flight.

I gave the opening address to the Universidad IPEA on “The Nature of Freedom” and was awarded a handsome award (pictured here) by the leadership of IPEA. It’s a great group of young people who are very dedicated to the the promotion of individual liberty and limited government.

The media discussion of events in Honduras is remarkably confused. Here’s CNN:

The president of the U.N. General Assembly scheduled a noon session Monday to discuss the situation in Honduras, following a military-led coup that ousted the sitting president.

and

Micheletti, the head of Congress, became president after lawmakers voted by a show of hands to strip Zelaya of his powers, with a resolution stating that Zelaya “provoked confrontations and divisions” within the country.

….

The coup came on the same day that he had vowed to follow through with a nonbinding referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal.

Imagine that George Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan or some other American president had decided to overturn the Constitution so that he could stay in power beyond the constitutionally limited time. To do that, he orders a nationwide referendum that is not constitutionally authorized and blatantly illegal. The Federal Election Commission rules that it is illegal. The Supreme Court rules that it is illegal. The Congress votes to strip the president of his powers and, as members of Congress are not that good at overcoming the president’s personally loyal and handpicked bodyguards, they send police and military to arrest the president. Now, which party is guilty of leading a coup?

This is another example of populist, dictatorial, anti-democratic thought parading as “democratic.” I discuss the issue in my recent lecture on enduring democracy in New Delhi.

I will be personally autographing copies of Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice at Freedom Fest and at several events in Europe in the near future. It’s available on Amazon and from Laissez Faire Books (LFB will be selling copies at Freedom Fest) I’m told that Amazon should have the “Search Inside” feature soon, as well as a Kindle edition.

I’m leaving today to speak at the IPEA University in Mexico and to meet with friends and colleagues in Mexico to promote free trade.

The new iPhone software is a big improvement. I upgraded my iPhone today (at no charge) and I’m quite pleased so far.

I’ll be speaking this summer in Marseille at the European Resource Bank and in Aix-en-Provence at the Summer University of the New Economics.

And Cato University, of course! And the InLiberty.ru Summer School in Odessa.

As a part of the preparation for my trip to India, I started the versions of The Ramayana and The Mahabharata rendered into modern English prose by R. K. Narayan. I had had little exposure to Indian literature before, so this was a really pleasant surprise. Overall, they reminded me of Homer, especially The Iliad.

After a rather hectic and stressful trip through Kabul to the airport, where I found that my ticket wouldn’t work and I had to buy another (cash only: thank God I still had some) and just barely made it on to the plane (a barely functional former Turkish Airways plane that apparently just made the inspection criteria for flying to Turkey and Europe). Anyway, in calm and nice Germany for a little while, then on to the airport……ack!…in 20 minutes.

BBC: “Asia takes first step on modern ‘Silk Route’”

This is very positive. Trade creates not only prosperity, but peace. Removing barriers (such as requirements that goods be unloaded and loaded at each political border) improves the chances of both prosperity and peace.

Before and after meeting with the leaders of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry today, I did a little shopping around Kabul. In the morning I drove out to the bazaar (with a driver who spoke no English, so we communicated in broken Russian and my handful of Persian words) and bought some clothes, then this afternoon I walked around and “stimulated” the Afghan carpet industry, which involved drinking tea and having a lot of carpets pulled out and displayed, followed by discussion of their merits and haggling over price. The photos taken on my computer (with Photo Booth) do not do them justice. These two are really beautiful. (I also went this evening before a dinner meeting with two classical liberal professors with whom I’m working to tour the renovation of the old part of Kabul undertaken by Turquoise Mountain. It was impressive — not only the “Peacock House,” but the improved conditions generally in those areas that have already been renovated in the traditional style.)

On the road I’ve re-read Carl Schmitt’s most interesting challenge to liberalism, The Concept of the Political, which will be discussed at a conference I’m organizing in France later this summer. It’s a maddeningly strange book at times, but presents one of the best full-frontal assaults on liberalism (well, on civilization, in my opinion) I’ve ever read. (To get the full sense of what Schmitt is about, I also recommend reading Ernst Jünger’s In the Storm of Steel, which presents a gritty glorification of militarism and “the Ideals of 1914.”)

Another very interesting book, which I read in preparation for my talk in New Delhi on “Enduring Democracy and Limited Government,” is Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s insightful, daring, and highly intelligent The Burden of Democracy, which offers an economically, sociologically, and psychologically rich discussion of liberal democracy, with special attention to the context and history of India. Mehta’s short and very readable book (I warn that you will have to ask Mr. Google or Mr. Yahoo for help with some of the Indian political references) reminds me of the better sociologically-oriented essays of Joseph Schumpeter.

I’m careful when driving not to photograph any military people (they tend not to like it) and I’ve not been in many places where I could just stop and snap photos, but here are a few:

Photo 1: A view from a farm in a village I visited with a friend

Photos 2 and 3: The ruins of the former royal palace, destroyed during the civil war

Photo 4: Lunch with some local businessmen.

P.S. We hope to publish books in Persian here and I’ll be meeting people tomorrow to get a program in Pashto going, as well. Frederic Bastiat is at the top of my list for both languages. (”The Law” and “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen” are now available in Persian, from www.CheragheAzadi.org and our publisher in Suleimani, Iraqi Kurdistan, and I have delivered the electronic files for it to scholars here. I’m hoping to commission translations into Pashto soon.)