Making the Last Angry Man Just a Little Less Angry (Gillespie on Canadian Radio Edition)

Last week, I traveled to Canada to give a talk to the Montreal Economic Institute, a great free-market and libertarian think tank in Quebec. The topic of my talk was how smoking, trans fat, foie gras, and other similarly buttinsky bans infantilize adults and undermine a truly liberal society.

While I was up there, I did a radio show hosted by Beryl P. Wajsman, the self-described (and highly entertaining) last angry man referenced in the title of this post. To listen to his amusing rant about how unsafe (yet secure) childhood was a generation ago and about 15 minutes of me arguing that, in spite of endlessly multiplying nanny state intrusions into everyday life, things are actually pretty swell in this modern world, go here.

And check out Wasjman's Institute for Public Affairs, including the provocative journal Barricades, by going here.

Comments

[Edward]

I love the phrase "infantalizing adults." How about all the drug companies marketing drugs to healthy adults? There has to be a word for that.

[mtc]

Edward-

Marketing drugs to healthy adults is called (wait for it...) marketing. And as far as I know, marketing doesn't involve any coercion unlike, say, anything and everything the government does. Try again.

[Mo]

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that Wajsman is complaining about the government getting mixed into our business and then complains that the government should be cleaning up people's private property? Good interview Nick, but you should've called him out on that.

[SIV]

Foies Gras isn't banned for paternalistic reasons- it is banned because it violates the Constitutional Rights of Ducks and Geese.

[Doc your salary]

drug companies marketing drugs to healthy adults? There has to be a word for that

gratuiatrogenics

[Charlos]

Speaking of animals rights, I'm still upset about that cock fighting post from a few days ago.

[crimethink]

SIV,

But what if we force-feed the waterfowl at Gitmo?

[Hrmm.]

"But what if we force-feed the waterfowl at Gitmo?"

You do what you have to do when the security of the nation is at stake.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

You can have all my share of foie gras.

[Grotius]

As I've written a number of times, you'll have to take my foie gras from my cold dead hands. It is so yummy. 🙂

[andy]

Smoking and trans fat bans are made to try to lower health care costs in our partly-socialist system and to try to pave the path for one-payer insurance, something I see as inevitable in the next few decades.

The fois gras ban wasn't done to protect people but to protect the ducks and geese from inhumane treatment (regardless of whether you think the treatment's inhumane, that's why it was done).

Libertarians should shut up and learn to love smoking bans-75% of the population supports them already, plus you can go out at night and not come home smelling like an ashtray.

[zeiner the lurker]

Libertarians should shut up and learn to love smoking bans-75% of the population supports them already, plus you can go out at night and not come home smelling like an ashtray.

I don't mind smoking bands, just as long the government does not force it on business owners. I've been to a few restaurants that voluntarily banned smoking (yes, they do exists).

[Single Issue Voter]

"75% of the population supports them"

How DEMOCRATIC of you!

If Ducks and Geese have Rights...What are their responsibilities? I'd say they are PROPERTY.

Look for the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) to go after cookbooks that include info on foies gras.They are currently pursuing legal action against Amazon and others based on that US law-passed by their friends in Congress- prohibits publications that promote cockfighting. Animal Rights Fascists oppose freedom of speech and the press and asociation-not just Property rights.

Obligatory Godwin post before I retire....
HITLER was a Vegetarian.

[Edward]

mtc

I didn't say that marketing drugs to healthy adults involves coercion; I said there should be a word for it. Just "marketing" doesn't quite capture it.
You must have a problem with reading.

[DADIODADDY]

...if we can get the ducks & geese to fight (a la cockfighting) then we can harvest the livers from the losers and not only get a tasty treat but recycling points as well...

[andy]

SIV,

Ducks and geese do not have positive rights but they do have negative rights- namely the right not to be subjected to suffering. Just because they aren't as developed as you or me does not make them "property" anymore than a child or retarded person is "property."

And not all people are "fascist" just because they believe that belonging to a species other than Homo sapiens relagates a creature to the same status as a tractor or a hammer.

Believe me, I find your opinions towards non-humans disgusting and not a whole lot different than if you were advocating slavery of humans but I've been nice and not sunk to your level by treating you the way you would treat our non-human friends. Have a nice day.

[kwais]

Yeah, y'all can have my share of foi gras also.

[SIV]

andy,

Go prosecute cats for their crimes against
small birds and rodents.

Are you hosting any parasites? If not how do you justify it?

Humans are a subset of animals- other animals aren't human.

Foies gras birds and gamefowl have a far higher quality of life than broilers and layers. Good luck getting everyone to give up all animal products-including medicines.

[VM]

"Grotius | February 25, 2007, 11:52pm | #
As I've written a number of times, you'll have to take my foie gras from my cold dead hands. It is so yummy. :)"

mmmm. Foie Gras. mmmmm. 🙂

[DADIODADDY]

Andy
What it makes them is lunch...mmmmmm...though I'm not sure about children & retarded people...too stringy or too much trans fat?

[Shawn Smith]

The rant that Beryl P. Wajsman went off on at the start of the interview sounds just like an e-mail that my wife gets every now and then from her uncle. I wonder which came first.

[andy]

"What it makes them is lunch...mmmmmm...though I'm not sure about children & retarded people...too stringy or too much trans fat?"

I personally prefer developmentally normal adults, specifically females between the ages of 15 and 29.

[ChrisO]

Funny, I don't think of Canadians as a particularly 'angry' people. I guess every place has to have its professional old coots.