Some recommended reading

Here are a few interesing things I thought I'd point out.

First, Roderick Long's recent speech titled "They Saw It Coming: The 19th Century Libertarian Critique of Fascism" is now available for all to read, thanks to Lew Rockwell.com. A brief clip:

In short, the 19th-century libertarians observed the rise of the various tendencies that would come together to make fascism – militarism, corporatism, regimentation, nationalist chauvinism, plutocracy in populist guise, the call for “strong leaders” and “national greatness,” the glorification of conflict over commerce and of brute force over intellect – and they bitterly opposed the whole package. And although they ultimately lost that battle, their fallen banner is ours to pick up.

The second item is a Guardian article revealing one way in which the law of unintended consequences has reared it's head as a result of Ireland's ban on smoking in bars, pubs and restaurants. Seems as if smoking is cooler than ever over there, thanks to government nannys and the clueless folks who cheer on such nonsense.

Last up in this installment are a couple of recent blog posts about Bastiat's broken window fallacy. B.K. Marcus wrote a nice post summing it up and relating it to the common confusion between wealth and money. Kevin Carson then chimes in with a post relating it to the GDP and those who either place too much emphasis upon it or wish to have it scrapped.