Wendy McElroy on Individualist Feminism
1) You are one of the leading dissident voices in the gender debate. Could you please explain your vision of individualist feminism, what are its main tenets and how it differs from mainstream feminism?
The main tenet of individualist feminism is that women and men deserve equal treatment under just law. A just legal system is one that seeks to protect the person and property of individuals equally, and it is applied to all individuals.
Mainstream feminism advocates social and economic egalitarianism, which necessarily violates the property rights of individuals. For example, affirmative action and non-discrimination policies dictate who should be hired by private companies, who risk sanctions such as lawsuits if they do not comply. Mainstream feminists applaud this use of governmental force to violate the property rights of individuals — including business owners — in order to distribute money and power within society from men to women.
2) Is the free-market enough to allow a full emancipation of women, or should the government intervene in order to reduce the gender gap and change things more rapidly?
The answer depends on what you mean by “full mancipation”; frankly, I think every individual has to decide its personal meaning for themselves. But if you mean “complete fairness” or “social justice,” then ‘no’, the free market will not provide that in and by itself. Other peaceful forces may well be necessary, such as moral suasion applied to those who are unfair, offensive, denigrating, etc.; this is largely what happened in the American civil rights movement before it was co-opted by government. What I do contend about the free market is that it delivers emancipation better than any other competing system, such as state interference. Indeed, any governmental interference aimed at providing social justice actually provides the opposite. That is to say, it violates individual rights which must be the basis of all justice.
3) In spite of the undeniable distance from mainstream feminism, libertarian feminists chose to contend the label “feminism” rather than picking a different name. Do you believe that this strategy is effective? Is there a risk this choice can reduce the appeal of your ideas among that silent majority who associates feminism and leftist statism, while hardly gaining ground among tradition self-identifying feminists?
Yes, there is not merely a risk but an inevitability that some people will automatically reject individualist feminism because of the word “feminist.” I have experienced this frequently.
Nevertheless, I persist in the label for a few reasons. First, I want the roots of American feminism to be recognized and acknowledged; those roots were profoundly individualist and grounded in the early 19th century abolitionist (anti-slavery) movement. Happily, this is happening. Individualist feminism was unheard of in academia when I started to write but it is now generally recognized.
(Read more)
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This is a nice counter-point to the Stefan Molyneux video I posted a while back “Feminism is Socialism with Panties.” Here it is again:
Lew Rockwell vs proud government employee
Ancient Bible Challenges Contemporary Accounts
A secret Bible in which Jesus is believed to predict the coming of the Prophet Muhammad to Earth has sparked serious interest from the Vatican.
Pope Benedict XVI is claimed to want to see the 1,500-year-old book, which many say is the Gospel of Barnabas, that has been hidden by the Turkish state for the last 12 years.
The £14million handwritten gold lettered tome, penned in Jesus’ native Aramaic language, is said to contain his early teachings and a prediction of the Prophet’s coming.
The leather-bound text, written on animal hide, was discovered by Turkish police during an anti-smuggling operation in 2000.
It was closely guarded until 2010, when it was finally handed over to the Ankara Ethnography Museum, and will soon be put back on public display following a minor restoration.
A photocopy of a single page from the handwritten ancient manuscript is thought to be worth £1.5million.
Turkish culture and tourism minister Ertugrul Gunay said the book could be an authentic version of the Gospel, which was suppressed by the Christian Church for its strong parallels with the Islamic view of Jesus.
He also said the Vatican had made an official request to see the scripture – a controversial text which Muslims claim is an addition to the original gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.
In line with Islamic belief, the Gospel treats Jesus as a human being and not a God.
It rejects the ideas of the Holy Trinity and the Crucifixion and reveals that Jesus predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad.
In one version of the gospel, he is said to have told a priest: ‘How shall the Messiah be called? Muhammad is his blessed name’.
And in another Jesus denied being the Messiah, claiming that he or she would be Ishmaelite, the term used for an Arab.
Despite the interest in the newly re-discovered book, some believe it is a fake and only dates back to the 16th century.
The oldest copies of the book date back to that time, and are written in Spanish and Italian.
Protestant pastor İhsan Özbek said it was unlikely to be authentic.
This is because St Barnabas lived in the first century and was one of the Apostles of Jesus, in contrast to this version which is said to come from the fifth or sixth century.
He told the Today Zaman newspaper: ‘The copy in Ankara might have been written by one of the followers of St Barnabas.
‘Since there is around 500 years in between St Barnabas and the writing of the Bible copy, Muslims may be disappointed to see that this copy does not include things they would like to see.
(Read more)
The Great Gibson Guitar Raid: Months Later, Still No Charges Filed
Man arrested after daughter draws picture of gun at school
Ontario, Canada
A Kitchener father is upset that police arrested him at his children’s’ school Wednesday, hauled him down to the station and strip-searched him, all because his four-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun at school.
“I’m picking up my kids and then, next thing you know, I’m locked up,” Jessie Sansone, 26, said Thursday.
“I was in shock. This is completely insane. My daughter drew a gun on a piece of paper at school.”
The school principal, police and child welfare officials, however, all stand by their actions. They said they had to investigate to determine whether there was a gun in Sansone’s house that children had access to. (Read more)
C-SPAN Callers School Terror War Profiteers Cheerleader On Underwear Bomber Fairy Tale
Watching this bolsters my failing faith in America.
‘Being raped by a gang is normal – it’s about craving to be accepted’
Technically, I don’t think this is describing “rape” since the women accept it. Is this an example of multiculturalism in London?
A female former gang member has exposed the growing levels of sexual violence against young women who join them, saying that many are willing to risk being raped in return for the status of membership.
Isha Nembhard, who was part of an 80-strong gang in Peckham, south London, said some girls readily accepted that they would be sexually abused when associating with male gangs.
The 20-year-old said that the problem had reached a point where being raped was becoming “normalised” among many young women. “Girls who are getting treated very badly know what they are getting into. They sleep with a boy and the boy asks if she will sleep with all his friends. (Read more)
Social apps ‘harvest smartphone contacts’
Twitter has admitted copying entire address books from smartphones and storing the data on its servers, often without customers’ knowledge.
Access to the address book is enabled when users click on the “Find Friends” feature on smartphone apps. (Read more)
How Goldman Sachs helped mask Greece’s debt
Eurozone finance ministers are holding talks in Brussels aimed at securing a second vital bailout for Greece. France’s Finance Minister Francois Baroin has said all the elements are in place for a deal.
Nick Dunbar, author of The Devil’s Derivatives, revealed how the country turned to investment bank Goldman Sachs for help getting around the deficit rules.
Government Efficiency in Transportation
From Oakland County Michigain:
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The sign tells drivers that on school days, they need to slow down to 25 between 6:49-7:15, 7:52-8:22 and 8:37-9:07 during the mornings and 2:03-2:33, 3:04-3:34 and 3:59-4:29 during afternoons.
The three schools along that stretch of road are Lakeland High, White Lake Middle and Lakewood Elementary schools. . . .
Ed Harris, White Lake Police Chief, said a meeting is being called with the White Lake supervisor, Huron Valley School district and the Road Commission of Oakland County to discuss the sign. Harris said the township did not erect the sign.
“We are aware of it and trying to resolve it,” he said.
School zone speed limits are determined by the motor vehicle code, Harris said.
Harris said it is not a speed trap for his officers, noting that patrols near the school are “hit and miss.” (Read more)
Supreme Court Likely to Endorse Obama’s War on Whistle-Blowers by Chris Hedges
Below are some excerpts from a great essay by Chris Hedges. The only thing I disagree with is his surprise that the state chooses to increase its authority.
I’m no longer surprised when government courts rule that the government is right, and we underlings are wrong. This is Hoppe’s argument for what he calls “a private law society” (what others call anarcho-captialism). A monopoly on justice will always rule in its own favor.
Historian and author Tom Woods makes a strong case for nullification being a better protector of the Constitution than the panel of providentially appointed judges.
The government also gets to unilaterally decide how much to charge you for this “service” and kidnaps you if you refuse to pay, labelling you a “tax evader.”
Totalitarian systems disempower an unsuspecting population by gradually making legal what was once illegal. They incrementally corrupt and distort law to exclusively serve the goals of the inner sanctums of power and strip protection from the citizen. Law soon becomes the primary tool to advance the crimes of the elite and punish those who tell the truth. The state saturates the airwaves with official propaganda to replace news. Fear, and finally terror, creates an intellectual and moral void. . . .
And a conviction of Bradley Manning, or any of the five others charged by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act of 1917 with passing on government secrets to the press, would effectively terminate public knowledge of the internal workings of the corporate state. What we live under cannot be called democracy. What we will live under if the Supreme Court upholds the use of the Espionage Act to punish those who expose war crimes and state lies will be a species of corporate fascism. And this closed society is, perhaps, only a few weeks or months away.
Few other Americans are as acutely aware of our descent into corporate totalitarianism as Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 to The New York Times and is one of Manning’s most ardent and vocal defenders.
. . . .
The Supreme Court has yet to hear a case involving the Espionage Act. But one of these six cases will probably soon reach the court. If it, as expected, rules that the government is permitted to use the Espionage Act against whistle-blowers, the United States will have a de facto official secrets act. A ruling in favor of the government would instantly criminalize all disclosures of classified information to the public. It would shut down one of the most important functions of the press. And at that point any challenges to the official versions of events would dry up.
The Obama administration, to make matters worse, has mounted a war not only against those who leak information but those who publish it, including Assange. The Obama administration is attempting to force New York Times reporter James Risen to name the source, or sources, that told him about a failed effort by the Central Intelligence Agency to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer, is charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking information about the program to Risen. If Risen confirms in court that Sterling was his source, Sterling probably will be convicted. A Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Espionage Act would also remove the legal protection that traditionally allows journalists to refuse to reveal their sources. (Read more)
How to live a moniless life? Scavenge, beg and steal from the people who still use money, apparently.
This well-meaning man, despite his degree in economic is wrong in a number of ways. Money is not evil. Only being FORCED to use a particular type of money is evil.
Money allows fr the division of labor. Without the division of labor, we are destitute, and must endure poverty as this man does. It is only mitigated by the huge amount of wealth around him which he benefits from in a variety of ways.
Politics = Poly-Ticks
Israeli Court Invalidates a Military Exemption
he Israeli Supreme Court has invalidated a law that exempted from military service ultra-Orthodox Jews engaged in religious studies, adding a new urgency to the government’s negotiations with religious parties over a more equitable distribution of the burdens of citizenship.
The 6-to-3 decision, handed down late Tuesday, declared the so-called Tal Law unconstitutional at a time of growing tension in Israel over the place of the ultra-Orthodox. The law, in effect since 2002, granted exemptions to tens of thousands of religious academy students. It was widely viewed as a failure, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already said it would not be renewed when it expired this summer.
Still, the ruling will now force the government’s hand to come up with a new way forward, one that will be strongly resisted by religious party coalition members. . . .
Using data presented by the army, the decision noted that last year fewer than 1,300 ultra-Orthodox youths enlisted out of a pool of 8,500, a rate of 15 percent. Among the rest of the Jewish population, the enlistment rate is 75 percent. . . .
The place of the ultra-Orthodox, also known as the Haredim — those who tremble before God — has long been controversial in Israel, but the issue has heated up in recent months. As a group, the Haredim do not accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state before the arrival of the Messiah and believe that the primary task of men should be studying Torah. (Read more)