Positive Liberty

First, the serious bit: Matt comments (on “Corporatism“),

Something like this is, I think behind the opposition to markets by the European left. Consider a typical privatisation in an EU country.

Corporation makes a donation to ruling political party.

Corporation is invited to tender for a government asset.

Corporation gains control of that asset for far less than it would fetch in an open market.

Government provides a subsidy that more than repays whatever the corporation paid for the asset.

Any profits are taken by the corporation, any losses are met by the taxpayer.

And this we are told is the marvel of the free market and private enterprise!

It’s certainly a terrible abuse, and I could see how someone might end up hating the “free market” if this were what he usually found under that name. Without a doubt, there are better and worse ways to privatize a state-owned enterprise. Perhaps a useful constitutional rule would be to outlaw asset sale privatization, while allowing for other forms of privatization.

Cracked features the Nine Most Baffling Theme Parks From Around the World. Weird food tie-in: Bon-Bon Land, which is just really scary. Now With Devastation: Grutas Park, also known as “Stalin’s World.”

The Onion’s A.V. Club has started hosting food reviews. I’m delighted. The first item on the menu is that twitchingly horrid canned cheeseburger we all read about a few weeks back. With video. My god, with video.

Cliopatria isn’t one to be left out, I guess. I can’t decide if this is the funniest or the most tasteless thing ever linked at the heart of the history blogosphere. But it’s a new record either way, with weird food and devastation in every single frame.

The last scene redeems it all, in a macabre sort of way.

And last, never count out Wikipedia. From the entry on “Shock and Awe,” we read,

Following the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003, the term “Shock and Awe” has been used for commercial purposes. The United States Patent and Trademark Office received at least 29 trademark applications in 2003 for exclusive use of the term. The first came from a fireworks company on the day the United States started bombing Baghdad. Sony registered the trademark the day after the beginning of the operation for use in a video game title, but later withdrew the application and described it as “an exercise of regrettable bad judgment.” Miscellaneous other uses of the term include golf equipment, an insecticide, a set of bowling balls, a racehorse, a shampoo, and condoms.

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