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Monday, November 26, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [26 Nov 2012]

26 November 2012
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 Best of the Moment

Human Sacrifice

Peter Leeson | Peter Leeson | 26 November 2012

"Human sacrifice is a technology for protecting property rights. It improves property protection by destroying part of sacrificing communities' wealth, which depresses the expected payoff of plundering them". Academic paper (PDF) Comments

Congo Slips Into Chaos Again As Rebels Gain

Jeffrey Gettleman | NYT | 25 November 2012

"The rebels have been eviscerating a dysfunctional Congolese Army, whose drunken soldiers stumble around with rocket-propelled grenades and whose chief of staff was suspended for selling crates of ammunition to elephant poachers" Comments

Land Of The Seven Moles

Calvin Trillin | New Yorker | 26 November 2012

Get past the first three convoluted paragraphs, and discover a virtuoso romp through the joys of Mexican and other Latin American food. Includes tasting notes on grasshoppers, guinea pigs, iguana spleens and dried worms Comments

Is This The End?

James Atlas | NYT | 24 November 2012

Reflections on Hurricane Sandy. "Whether in 50 or 100 or 200 years, there’s a good chance that New York City will sink beneath the sea. Or the city could move to another island, the way Torcello was moved to Venice, stone by stone" Comments

America, Israel, Gaza, The World

Walter Russell Mead | American Interest | 18 November 2012

The American approach to war. "With no feudal past in this country, Americans see wars as wars of peoples rather than wars of elites. In a war of peoples the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate targets tends to collapse" Comments

Hayek, Friedman, And The Illusions of Conservative Economics

Robert Solow | New Republic | 16 November 2012

Long review-essay pegged to Angus Burgin's book "The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression". Solow sees Hayek as the deeper and more pragmatic thinker; Friedman as a step back, more brittle and dogmatic Comments

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