From the comments on Tom Woods’s stupid post: “So, you just said that left-libertarianism concerns itself with oppressive social relationships whether or not they depend on the direct use of violence. But, hey — if you take *your* statement about oppressive social relationships, and re-interpret it according to *my* definition of the term ‘oppressive,’ which you just explicitly rejected, you end up with an inconsistent position!” Well, yes, yes I suppose you would. http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/the-central-committee-has-handed-down-its-denunciation/comment-page-2/#comment-33292

Damn, this sucks. RIP Aaron Swartz. http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N61/swartz.html

From Matt Zwolinski: Matt’s review of Markets Not Capitalism now published in The Freeman, with some extra commentary over at BHL.

Hursthouse on Annas on virtue ethics. This is a book that I want. http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1179821.ece

Progressive President, Part 1,023 of ??? http://libertycrier.com/government/obama-administration-throwing-medical-marijuana-patients-into-federal-prison-at-unprecedented-rate/ “Obama Administration Throwing Medical Marijuana Patients Into Federal Prison at Unprecedented Rate “WASHINGTON – January 4 – Fallout from the Obama Administration’s aggressive federal enforcement in medical marijuana states has reached a fever pitch this month with three people being sentenced, two others due to surrender to federal authorities to serve out sentences of up to five years in prison, and one federal trial in Montana currently scheduled for January 14th. . . . Far surpassing his predecessor George W. Bush, President Obama has conducted more than 200 SWAT-style raids on state-compliant medical marijuana businesses and has indicted more than 80 people since he took office.” Via Anthony Gregory

is printing and folding copies of this month’s Market Anarchy and Anarchist Classics Series chapbooks. Going out to subscribers this month: in M@: Kevin Carson’s “The Subsidy of History” (taken from his groundbreaking 2001 essay, “The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand.”) In the Anarchist Classics Series: Voltairine de Cleyre’s provocative “They Who Marry Do Ill.” http://distro.libertarianleft.org/for/market-anarchy-zine-series/kevin-carson-subsidy-of-history/ http://distro.libertarianleft.org/for/anarchist-classics-series/voltairine-de-cleyre-they-who-marry-do-ill/

To-day at Fair Use Repository: “Social Organism Again,” by Mary Hansen (from FREE SOCIETY, February 23, 1902). http://blog.fair-use.org/2012/12/18/social-organism-again-mary-hansen-free-society/ I’ve been going through some Free Society issues from the early 1900s in the hope that I’ll be able to recover and recirculate some more material from Hansen (who is one of the most underappreciated writers from the Philadelphia Anarchist scene — to the extent that one of her most notable pamphlet-length works, “A Catechism of Anarchy” is often mistakenly attributed to Voltairine de Cleyre). More to come soon, I hope.

To-day, December 17, is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. http://www.december17.org/ “December 17th is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This event was created to call attention to crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe. Originally . . . a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle Washington, the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers has empowered workers from cities around the world to come together and organize against discrimination and remember victims of violence. . . . The assault, battery, rape and murder of sex workers must end. Existing laws prevent sex workers from reporting violence. The stigma and discrimination that is perpetuated by the prohibitionist laws has made violence against us acceptable. Please join with sex workers around the world and stand against criminalization and violence committed against our communities.” Some local events listed here: http://www.december17.org/event-locations/ http://radgeek.com/gt/2012/12/17/december-17-end-violence-against-sex-workers/ “Any serious commitment to freedom for, and an end to violence against, women, means a serious commitment to ending violence against women who work in the sex industry. All of it. And that means any kind of violence, whether rape, or assault, or robbery, or abduction, or confinement against her will, or murder. No matter who does it. The one image of violence against sex workers that the malestream media never tires of repeating is the roving madman, cutting women down in the streets. But roving madmen come in a lot of shapes and sizes and uniforms. It may be a serial killer. But it may be a pimp. Or a trafficker. Or a john who imagines that paying for sex means he owns a woman’s body. Or, lest we forget, it may be a cop who believes that his badge, and his victim’s status in the system of patriarchal sex-class, makes absolutely any kind of sexual predation or physical torture a cop’s prerogative and nothing better than what the victim deserves. Or, lest we forget, a cop or a prosecutor or an immigration control freak, who calls the violence of an assault, restraint, and involuntary confinement an arrest or a sentence under the color of The Law. The Law has no more right than anyone else to hurt women or shove them around.”