A Dead Milton Friedman Beats an Alive Naomi Klein

Happy Birthday

Today would have been Milton Friedman's 95th birthday. I guess it still is, but unfortunately he's not here to celebrate it. As a friendly reminder to all, his PBS Free To Choose series is available, at no cost, at ideachannel.tv.

Hey, I'm Drunk

That may be the case, but this is still a disgustingly simple review to be in the U.S. "Paper of Record." I don't even have any funny lines--this is just a poorly done review.

He skates over other questionable matters, too: for instance, that Friedman advised the murderous Pinochet regime in Chile; that Merwin Hart “infected his free-market thought with anti-Semitism”; and that Rothbard supported Strom Thurmond’s segregationist campaign for president in 1948 (because, Doherty casually observes, “he admired Thurmond’s states’ rights position”). The book fails to ask why people who claim to love freedom have so often had a soft spot for those who would deny it to others. Libertarianism has now arrived at an interesting juncture. The moment for its grandest ambitions seems to have passed. President Bush is no longer talking about privatizing Social Security, and his free-market approach to rebuilding Iraq has proven disastrous

Free market approach to Iraq? I'm laughing at that. Do any readers even know what that means? And how is Chile doing as of today? Oh what's that? It's a jewel in a cesspool of Latin American shittiness....And that's overlooking the facts of Milton Friedman's actual involvement with the Chilean government. Like that the University of Chicago had an on-going relationship with the Catholic University of Chile and Friedman never actually was an adviser to Pinochet. My bad for just accepting those as common facts.

I'm about 200 pages in, and I'm enjoying Radicals for Capitalism. Leonhardt's objections are what I would expect from the New York Times.

Full review here.

NEA Puts Hit Out on Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs takes a giant shit on the proverbial elephant in the room while speaking at an education reform conference this past week in Texas.

I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said.

"This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."

At various pauses, the audience applauded enthusiastically. Dell sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap.

Gee, that might effect business a bit Steve

"Apple just lost some business in this state, I'm sure," Jobs said.

Good for him. I don't know a lot about the guy so I can't say if he typically makes free-market arguments in public. No matter what though, it does take some balls for a CEO of a major technology company to come out publicly against the powerful teacher unions; so I give him all the credit in the world.

Some related thoughts here, from the guy who started in all, courtesy of a Reason interview in 2005 with Milton Friedman.

Ice/Snow Day Videos

I thought I would take the opportunity today to link to a few videos of Milton Friedman denouncing the War on Drugs and advocating legalization. Even if you have watched these before, watch them again. As always, he was clear, concise and completely confident that he is correct in his views. Check them out here and here.

Update: Oops. Same link. I've fixed it.