Daily Archives: October 9, 2023

Oct. 6Two candidates are vying for a single seat on Nov. 7 to represent District 3 on the Fox Chapel Area School Board.

In Districts 1 and 2, there are two candidates seeking two open seats in each district. The Fox Chapel Herald is featuring races only in contested districts.

Here are the candidates' responses to questions posed by the Herald:

Name: Emily Glick

Age: 37 years

Political affiliation: Libertarian since 2020, Independent prior to that

Occupation: Environmental consultant/geologist, project manager

Education: Bachelor's in geological science, Ohio State University; Master's in geology and environmental science, University of Pittsburgh

Elected or political experience: Current O'Hara Township Zoning Hearing Board member, 2020-2022 Director of Pennsylvania Council of Professional Geologists

What is the biggest issue facing the school district?

We live in a fantastic school district with excellent teachers and plentiful opportunities for students. However, I feel that the school board and administration do not view community input as actionable, nor do they clearly communicate the direction in which they are leading us. Healthy communities should have respectful public conversations on a regular basis.

What can you do to solve it?

We are an intelligent community with diverse backgrounds. I believe in the power of people to optimize and find opportunities when freely working together. When I talk with families, I hear repeated concerns and ideas; improve the quality of school foods, increase walkability to schools, and allow for more outdoor learning. I would push for the use of surveying tools for our entire community on an annual basis, and additional surveying when our school district is facing a contentious issue. Ensuring that the school community is heard will ultimately best serve the community now and into the future.

Would you support banning or restricting access to certain books in school libraries if parents demanded it?

As a Libertarian, I am for economic and personal freedom, I wouldn't ban books. The preamble for the Libertarian Party states, "...we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings..." Refer to FCA School Board Policy Code 109, Resource Material. "A list of resource material provided by the district shall be maintained by the Superintendent and ... available to Board members, district staff, students, parents/guardians and community members." I would provide parents and guardians with information to make the right choice for their children.

Name: Marybeth Dadd

Age: 53

Political affiliation: Democrat/Republican (on the ballot as both)

Occupation: Educator

Education: Bachelor's of Arts, secondary education/social studies; Master's of Science, curriculum Development and instructional technology

Elected or political experience: FCASD School Board Director, 2019-present

What is the biggest issue facing the school district?

We continue to be an academically strong district but now that the pandemic is over, we must redouble our efforts to make sure students are growing academically and feeling supported emotionally.

What can you do to solve it?

As a board member, my job is to review policy, allocate resources and adopt curriculum so that the district can achieve the goals it sets. We benchmark student growth throughout the school year, while also continuing to open up supports for a greater number of students in our buildings. We will also continue to work with families to provide resources for students who may be facing mental health challenges. These are just a few steps that the district is already taking to meet the needs of our students.

Would you support banning or restricting access to books in school libraries if parents demanded it?

The district has a robust process for the evaluation of instructional/resource materials. These instructional/resource materials go through a review process established by our board policies and administrative regulations. These policies are written to follow the law, PA School Code and a belief in the First Amendment. A parent may opt their child out of curricula or activities that they feel are not suitable for them at any time. I trust the highly trained librarians and teachers employed by our district to make excellent choices for our students.

Joyce Hanz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joyce by email at jhanz@triblive.com or via Twitter .

See the rest here:

Fox Chapel Area voters will choose among two candidates for District 3 school board seat - Yahoo News

With the Polish parliamentary elections just around the corner, the country's rising far-right threaten Poland's relations with Ukraine in more ways than one.

The Confederation party, a contender for third place in the upcoming Oct. 15 elections, is a disrupting force that pushes the country's mainstream further and further to the fringe, setting the tone for Polish foreign policy.

Traditionally Kyivs most ardent and vocal ally, the Polish governments relationship with Ukraine has been recently marred by diplomatic spats and trade disputes.

The ruling right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) is not only putting its foot down on Ukrainian grain imports but also chastises Kyiv for an apparent lack of gratitude for Polish support and plays on painful historical grievances.

This seemingly sudden change is not without cause PiS is feeling the pressure of the Confederation, a far-right alliance fighting for the same voters and capitalizing on the creeping Ukraine fatigue.

At one point surging as high as 14% and, in the more recent polls, oscillating around 10%, some surveys place the "nationalist-libertarian coalition" party as potentially the third strongest candidate behind PiS's United Right coalition (37%) and the liberal Civic Coalition/Civic Platform (30%).

To halt the spilling of its voters to the more radical and hardline Confederation, PiS is forced to up the ante in its Poland first rhetoric and convince a significant part of its voter base that Law and Justice can protect their interests better than the far-right upstarts.

The ruling conservatives must also consider that the Confederations MPs may hold keys to the next government. With their hands likely on a strong result, the radicals may become the kingmakers of these elections, something that the current Polish government is well aware of.

The Confederation Liberty and Independence was formed ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections as a coalition of nationalist, conservative, and libertarian political projects, winning around 6.8% and 11 MPs in Sejm, the lower house of the country's parliament.

The far-right group espouses hardline Euroscepticism, a tough stance on immigration, and is set to introduce reduced taxation and government spending. Its members have, however, also accumulated a substantial record of anti-semitic and racist statements.

As the Confederation is heading toward even stronger results in the October elections, its views on Ukraine raise worries regarding Warsaw and Kyivs future rapport.

In their program, the party stresses the primacy of Polands own interests when it comes to their eastern neighbors. The radicals also managed to hit the nerve on some of the most sensitive topics, including the dark legacy of the Volyhnia massacres committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) against the Poles during World War II.

Despite mutual efforts by both Ukrainian and Polish leaders to settle this painful chapter of the shared history, the topic of Volynhia, UPA, and its ideological leader, Stepan Bandera, keeps haunting Polish-Ukrainian relations.

Read also: Sawomir Sierakowski: Polands destructive grievance politics

These understandable sentiments are capitalized not only by Polands own radical groups but also by external forces seeking to drive a wedge between the two countries.

Lukasz Adamski, a historian, political scientist, and vice director of the Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue, points out that the Confederation is more closely connected to the organizations of Volyhnia victims relatives an influential lobby in Polish politics than other parties.

While being made up mostly of sincere Polish patriots, these groups have also been, to some extent, infiltrated by pro-Kremlin forces, Adamski said.

For example, a July demonstration at Ukraines embassy in Warsaw ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Volyhnia Massacre was organized by Krzysztof Tolwinski, who preaches reconciliation with Belarus and Russia amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The event was also attended by Mateusz Piskorski, a suspected Russian spy, and Leszek Sykulski, the founder of the pro-Russian Polish Anti-War Movement.

The rally's participants called for holding Ukraine responsible for Banderism and Nazism and urged to cut weapons supplies for Kyiv, a clear nod to Russian decades-long propaganda.

The Confederations own leading members are also no strangers to anti-Ukrainian or pro-Russian statements.

80-year-old Janusz Korwin-Mikke, one of the coalitions founding members notorious for anti-semitic and misogynist statements, has a history of defending Russian President Vladimir Putin and even questioned Russias responsibility for the Bucha Massacre.

In 2015, Korwin-Mikke visited Russian-occupied Crimea and met with Russian occupation authorities.

Firebrand Grzegorz Braun rallies against what he calls the Ukrainization of Poland by Ukrainian refugees and said he wants to seek reparations from Kyiv for the Volyhnia tragedy.

While these statements are likely to grab the media headlines, it is not the face that the Confederations younger party leaders wish to present to the public.

Michal Lebduska, a researcher at the Prague-based think-tank Association for International Affairs, said that figures like Korwin-Mikke or Braun are being pushed to the background as their ultraconservative rhetoric does more harm than good to the partys performance.

Instead, the Confederation focuses on younger male voters, namely entrepreneurs, using their libertarian platform and attacking PiS' populist spending on pensions or family benefits.

The partys 2019 presidential candidate, 41-year-old Krzysztof Bosak, denied that the Confederation would be pro-Russian and said that the party does not have any delusion about Russia.

The far-right coalition criticizes the scale of Warsaws support for Ukraine, branding it gullible and naive, but it does not call for cutting Ukraine support completely.

"I have no doubt that helping Ukraine, also militarily in some sphere which does not lower Poland's own military capabilities, is necessary," Confederation spokesperson Anna Brylka told Reuters.

Adamski rejects branding the Confederation as pro-Russian, explaining their hardline stance toward Ukraine rather as an attempt to set the party apart from the mainstream politics, represented by both PiS and the rest of the opposition, namely Donald Tusk's liberal Civic Platform (PO).

This party (Confederation) is trying to get electorate support by using anti-mainstream political slogans and calling for transactional policy when it comes to Ukraine, and this is fundamentally different than being pro-Russian, Adamski said.

However, it remains unclear whether this shift toward more moderate, rational rhetoric reflects the partys actual policy goals or whether it is merely a play not to scare off potential voters during the campaign.

Some experts warn against underestimating the strength of the anti-Ukrainian strand among Confederations party members.

Wojciech Przybylski, the editor-in-chief of Visegrad Insight, noted that while younger leaders of the Confederation are effective at attracting younger electorate by effective PR and libertarian rhetoric, they have little to say on the security of foreign policy.

When it comes to foreign and security issues, Braun and Korwin-Mikke dictate the party agenda, Przybylski said, adding that these two figures, in fact, set the "value structure and hierarchy of the coalition.

In spite of the months of squabbles coming both from Polish and Ukrainian official channels, it is crucial to remember that the decisive majority of the Polish population remains supportive of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

Nevertheless, polls show that the initial pro-Ukrainian fever from the first months of the war is cooling down. This shift is largely driven by war and refugee fatigue common for other countries supporting Ukraine.

With the enthusiasm of the first months slowly falling off, Polands public is shifting attention to the 1 million Ukrainian refugees who became their new neighbors.

According to surveys, the number of Poles decisively in favor of continued support for refugees dropped from 49% to 28% between January and June.

Around 60% of respondents said Ukrainian refugees should not have access to the same social benefits as Polish citizens, and over half are against providing them with free food and accommodation.

Lebduska adds that some of the traditional issues between Poles and Ukrainians, such as the aforementioned historical grievances or Polish negative stereotypes about Ukrainian migrant workers, subsided with the start of the full-scale invasion but are now slowly resurfacing.

As this mood swing played right into the hands of the Ukraine-skeptic Confederation, PiS was forced to adopt a more hardline stance toward Kyiv as well.

With the struggle for electoral support so intense that every one or two percentage points count, other parties are inclined to adopt certain slogans of the Confederation, Adamski said.

Read also: Sawomir Sierakowski: The strongest army in Europe?

In May, Lukasz Jasina, a spokesperson for the Polish Foreign Ministry, said that Kyiv had not done enough to accept responsibility for the Volyhnia Massacre, sparking outrage in Ukraine.

Polish Secretary of State and Head of the International Policy Bureau Marcin Przydacz sparked another diplomatic conflict in the summer when he said Ukraine should show more gratitude for Polands aid.

The tensions reached new heights following Warsaws decision to extend the ban on Ukrainian grain imports past Sept. 15, after which Ukraine said it will sue Poland at the World Trade Organization and threatened its own embargo against Polish products.

This strategy may have brought some fruit. In July, the Confederation peaked in the polls at 14%, and PiSs United Right polled at 35%. The more recent numbers show the far-right alliance dropping to around 10% and the ruling party slightly rising to 37%.

Even so, PiS is most likely still looking at a notably lower result than in the 2019 parliament elections (43.6%) and will need another partys support to secure a majority in the Sejm.

Given the convergence between the ruling conservatives and the Confederation on issues such as the EU or social issues, the far-right party appears to be the most logical choice for post-election negotiations.

As Ukraine-skeptic populists grain ground both in Europe and the U.S., there are concerns that the Confederation might drive Poland to join this trend, especially if PiS tries to accept the far-right as potential coalition partners.

It remains to be seen what will be the result of the October vote, but despite the vitriol in the air, there is little prospect of a new right-to-far-right government spelling a sudden end to Ukraine's military aid.

Both PiS and Confederation have previously spoken against a joint coalition.

While politicians statements often count for little once the last ballot is cast, there are reasons to believe that the Confederation will not seek to enter into the government with PiS.

I dont see Confederation having an appetite to enter (into coalition with PiS), Przybylski said.

The smaller of the parties would be too weak in such a potential coalition and likely devoured by its larger partner, the expert believes.

Lebduska pointed out that the radical coalition has been building an image of a fresh alternative to the stale duo of PiS Jaroslaw Kaczynski and POs Tusk.

Becoming a coalition member in a government led by either of the two could take away much of the Confederations appeal as an anti-system party.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Biden says American support for Ukraine cant be allowed to be interrupted

Should PiS receive a chance to build a government, they are more likely to try and poach some of the Confederations lawmakers or negotiate some kind of conditional, silent support in the Sejm.

And even if such an improbable but not impossible scenario came to pass, the support for Ukraine, including military supplies, is unlikely to dry out.

Poland will remain an important ally of Ukraine, at the least in the military area, Lebduska said, pointing out that there is a broad consensus on this subject in much of the Polish society.

As the decisively anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian segment of the Polish population remains in a clear minority, even the Confederation would be forced to respect the majority's opinion.

Polands historical experience with Russian occupation and Moscows military presence in the neighborhood make Ukraines survival a vital security interest for Warsaw and the Polish people.

Join our community

Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight.

Support Us

However, both Przybylski and Adamski said that the shift in PiS rhetoric, driven by the far-right challenge, would likely leave scars on long-term Polish-Ukrainian relations if the Law and Justice holds on to power.

Whatever result PiS gets, some of it will be based on nationalist votes that are skeptical of Ukraine, Przybylski said.

The party knowingly decided to build its strategy on "capturing nationalist sentiments" and will be under pressure to keep their promises, he added.

Neighborhood of two agrarian countries would naturally generate some conflicts, but this conflict has been solved through emotions, Adamski said, pointing out that Kyiv is also to blame for the escalation.

President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered scathing remarks against Poland at the UN General Assembly, hinting that their grain embargo is aiding Russia.

In response, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the Ukrainian president to never insult the Poles again.

Gathering nationalist voters, a new PiS government might be obliged, with or without the Confederations political support, to take a more protectionist stance toward Ukraine.

As Kyiv seeks to enter the European Union, its aspirations may encounter hurdles laid by Warsaws economic interests and historical grievances.

Read also: Peter Tkacenko: Slovakia after election If not friend, certainly not enemy of Ukraine

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.

Original post:

Far-right party may hold keys to next Polish government, sets tone in talks with Ukraine - Yahoo News

This is an audio version ofThe Reason Livestream,which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern onReason's YouTube channel.

On June 30, PornhubAmerica's most-trafficked adult websiteannounced that it was blocking access in Mississippi, Virginia, and Utah. Why? Well, Pornhub was reacting to the passage of age-verification laws in those three states. Similar laws have passed in Louisiana, Texas, Montana, and Arkansas, leading Politico to declare that "A Simple Law Is Doing the Impossible. It's Making the Online Porn Industry Retreat." But the industry is fighting back and won a preliminary injunction against Texas' law.

Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe talked about these developments with Aella, a former OnlyFans star and outspoken libertarian defender of sex workers who leverages her sizable social media following to run sex polls and surveys, the results of which she analyzes and publishes on her blog Knowingless. In this conversation, they discuss Aella's sex surveys, delve into the psychological literature examining online porn consumption, unpack the privacy implications of age verification laws, and talk about a recent debate Aella attended hosted by The Free Press and FIRE about the effects of "the sexual revolution" on American society.

Continue reading here:

Aella: Is Porn Too Pervasive? - Reason

(UPDATE:The House of Representatives voted 216-206 on Tuesday afternoon to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (RCalif.) as speaker of the House, with eight Republicans voting in favor of his dismissal. It is the first time in U.S. history that a sitting speaker has been ousted in this manner. The position will remain vacant until a majority of the House votes to appoint a new speaker.)

Ahead of what could be a dramatic afternoon in the House of Representatives, Rep. Thomas Massie (RKy.) occupies an unusual and possibly unique position.

Massie is the closest thing to a libertarian that you'll find in the House and a frequent ally of the right-wing Freedom Caucussome members of which are aiming to topple Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a vote that could come this afternoon. But in an interview with Reason on Tuesday morning, Massie offered a defense of McCarthy's speakership, and he warned that the Republican rebels might not understand the damage they would do by firing him.

"In many ways, this is a referendum on whether the House is going to try regular order or not, because the next speakerif Kevin is deposed todayis not going to say 'oh, if only we had tried more regular order, this could have worked out,'" Massie toldReason. "The next speaker is going to go back to the Old Testamentand we're going to devolve to the former method, which was an omnibus bill every year and gang warfare to try and get your thing in the omnibus bill."

For Massieand for anyone who wants to see Congress budget more responsibly regular order is a big deal. Effectively, that means that Congress should bring each of its 12 annual spending bills to the floor via the process that everyone learns in civics class: with committees voting on what to include in each, then amendments, and debate on the House floor before a final vote. Congress hasn't correctly completed that process on time since 1996.

As part of the compromise McCarthy reached with the House Freedom Caucus in January, he agreed to go back to that system.

He's been criticized for failing to follow through. While there are certainly personal issues involved in Rep. Matt Gaetz's (RFla.) attempt to dump McCarthy from the speakership, some of Gaetz's criticism is focused on McCarthy's unwillingness to send single-subject bills to the House floor.

Gaetz filed the motion to vacatea rarely used procedural tool that allows the full House to vote to remove a speakerafter McCarthy suspended the rules to bring a continuing resolution to the House floor on Sunday to prevent the government from shutting down. The bill passed with support from Democrats and against the objections of the Freedom Caucus.

Massie voted against the continuing resolution but said Tuesday it was "the least worst of a bunch of bad options." If the House bill hadn't passed, he said, it's likely that a Senate-drafted continuing resolution including a higher level of spendingmostly because of added military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which was left out of the House measurewould have become law.

McCarthy's defenders argue that he's working to reform the budget process and needs more time to see it through.

Massie points out that McCarthy has allowed two Freedom Caucus membersReps. Chip Roy (RTexas) and Ralph Norman (RS.C.)onto the Rules Committee. Together with Massie, that's a voting block that can effectively control what bills reach the House floor, something that Massie says would have been unthinkable under previous Republican speakers.

"They have been listening to us and we have been guiding the process," he says.

Norman has also voiced support for keeping McCarthy in charge of the House. "I have been profoundly disappointed in several elements of Speaker McCarthy's leadership, but now is not the time to pursue a Motion to Vacate," he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday morning.

If McCarthy survives today's vote, does that mean regular order will prevail and Congress will pass all 12 budget bills before the new continuing resolution expires in mid-November? Massie says there's "a good chance" that will happen.

On the other hand, "ifKevin fails today, we're going to get the Schumer-McConnell special," he says, referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKy.), who Massie believes will have the upper hand in any dealings with a leaderless House GOP caucus.

"And it's going to be an omnibus," Massie added, "and it's not going to be pretty."

Originally posted here:

Massie: McCarthy Speakership Showdown a 'Referendum' on ... - Reason

[Source]

American sportswriter and host Pablo Torre recently spoke about his college days with entrepreneur Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy, shedding light on the Republican presidential candidate's persona in the classroom.

That Guy: In the Sept. 26 episode of the "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast, Torre reminisced about Ramaswamy's college days at Harvard, referring to him as "That Guy" on campus. Torre explained that "That Guy" is typically a "campus celebrity" who possesses an extraordinary level of ambition and an acute awareness of their image.

"Ramaswamy, when we were both freshmen, was famous on campus for his alter ego 20 years ago," the ESPN host recalled. "His alter ego was a libertarian rapper that he called 'Da Vek.'"

Drawing cringe: According to Torre, Ramaswamy fits the "That Guy" description perfectly as he was allegedly undeterred by how his actions leave others cringing. Torre said Ramaswamy would often raise his hand conspicuously in the shape of a 'V' during lectures, resembling a "bat signal for terrible libertarian takes."

More from NextShark: US citizen sentenced to death in China for fatal 'revenge' stabbing of ex-girlfriend

Obama karaoke: Torre elaborated on Ramaswamy's behaviors in MSNBC's "11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle." Torre said part of what's "absurd" about the GOP presidential candidate is his conduct of "Obama karaoke," daring people to think "this is what a smart person looks like" when it's what "an extreme, ridiculous person looks like."

"As a tool of the 'deep state' here to undermine his campaign, I've been instructed to remind people that the dude has been ridiculous for 20 years," Torre jokingly added.

More from NextShark: TikTok suppressing get-out-the-vote content, study suggests

Ramaswamy, who announced his bid for the Republican nomination in February, has a net worth of over $950 million as of August, as per Forbes. Should he win the 2024 election, he pledged to fire 75% of federal employees, end civil service protections for bureaucrats and abolish multiple federal agencies, including the Education Department, FBI, ATF, IRS, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

More from NextShark: Comedian Resorts to Racism Against Asian People, 'Ching Chong Virus' on Twitter

Here is the original post:

ESPN's Pablo Torre explains how Harvard classmate Vivek Ramaswamy was 'That Guy' in school - Yahoo News

When it comes to personal privacy, the promises of DeFi summer have rung hollow.

Projects flooded the scene with buzzwords like financial privacy and cryptographic security during the DeFi boom of 2021, setting user expectations sky high when the industry was still in its earliest stages.

As a result, once the dust settled, it became apparent that most of DeFis bold privacy declarations had fallen short of expectations. This issue has been further underscored with the rise of new on-chain analytics services like Arkham Intelligence and Chainalysis, whose data dashboards revealed how traceable DeFi users on-chain activity actually is.

Now, the DeFi sector is facing increased regulatory pressure to de-anonymize certain transactions and user profiles, while simultaneously dealing with flagging user confidence in terms of their individual rights to data privacy.

But do these challenges mark the demise of privacy in DeFi? We certainly dont think so.

The fact is, todays most pressing issues are not a criticism of the nature of DeFi itself, but of its current state of evolution. More specifically, the problem for developers is that much of this frenzy was built on underdeveloped technology which has not lived up to the hype. However, the underlying infrastructure is rapidly maturing, and the Web3 development paradigm is shifting away from the notion that transparency must invariably be linked with a lack of privacy.

There is a significant difference between a libertarian approach to crypto privacy (doing what you want with no regards to anti-money laundering efforts) and privacy that enables new use cases in a regulatory-friendly way (doing what you want as long as your funds come from a legitimate source).

Read more: Privacy remains sticking point in Americas ongoing CBDC debate

Fortunately, most privacy laws allow for this delineation, which is why the vast majority of existing regulations have more to do with areas concerning customer protection rather than a blanket opposition to privacy.

For instance, the US government supports privacy-enhancing technologies as long as they align with existing AML/CFT rules. However, when organizations use private blockchains without following these guidelines or use services that operate outside the current laws, they create unnecessarily risks for their users.

The key to making this approach to privacy both practical for regulators and agreeable to users could be, for instance, a decentralized data storage of users credentials such as idOS a GDPR-compliant identity system recently announced during this years TOKEN2049 conference. With a solution like that, no single party is in control of users credentials even as the system verifiably ensures that users are not on any authorized sanctions lists.

Rapidly maturing technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized identity systems eliminate the need for (and the possibility of) divulging extraneous user data to any external party. At the same time, they enable regulators to identify and act on malicious on-chain activity with confidence and rapidity. Combining such a storage system with privacy-enhanced DeFi apps makes for a comprehensive privacy trading suite that is also aligned with AML regulations.

All of which is to say, Web3 builders are listening to both regulators and end users and developing more nuanced solutions that cater to both ends of the spectrum. There is no doubt that the industry as a whole currently does not live up to the expectations of either side.

Read more from our opinion section: DeFi has a reputation problem

However, one could say the same about the modern Internet, which mirrors DeFis evolutionary trajectory from both a developmental and regulatory perspective.

For context: The birth of the internet can be traced to an academic initiative conducted by the US Advanced Research Projects Agency but the Internet as we know it today was largely the result of a series of informal interactions and decisions made by tinkerers and fringe enthusiasts in the following years. Small, experimental testnets and applications that few people imagined would ever matter gave rise to essential Internet protocols still in use today, including File Transfer and TCP/IP.

During this time, the internet was essentially unregulated. Until the expansion and commercialization of the internet in the mid-1990s, the internets primary governance model was decentralized and based on informal standards and protocols voluntarily adopted by builders, with a focus on making networks interoperable.

And yet regulations eventually followed, developers adapted, and the vast majority of todays global financial activities are conducted online something that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago given the internets discombobulated origins. Despite all its issues, the internet has unquestionably been a force for good in the world: The rapidly maturing DeFi sector has the potential to have a similar impact on the financial system and beyond.

As DeFi continues to grow and mature, regulators will develop new frameworks to govern this industry while developers will create new, responsible privacy-preserving technologies. Thats why Web3 builders should recognize that todays privacy shortcomings are a puzzle to be solved, not an indictment on the industry. And if an industry outsider cannot imagine a Web3 protocol that addresses regulators privacy concerns while satisfying users privacy needs, thats only because that solution hasnt been built by an industry insider yet.

Antoni is a co-founder of Aleph Zero Foundation (Switzerland), an organization overseeing the development of the Aleph Zero blockchain, and a Managing Partner of Cardinal Cryptography (Poland), firm focused on core development of the Aleph Zero ecosystem.

Dont miss the next big story join ourfree daily newsletter.

Follow Sam Bankman-Frieds trial with the latest news from the courtroom.

Here is the original post:

DeFi has not followed through on its privacy promises yet - Blockworks

"The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations."

This spicy little sentence is typical of the zingers littered throughout David Friedman's The Machinery of Freedom. The anarcho-capitalist classic turns 50 this year, and it's worth revisiting for both its spirit and substance.

The book has a chaotic energy. Just a few pages after the epigraphwhich pairs a moderately profane joke by Lenny Bruce with a verse from "libertarian troubadour" and future U.S. congressman Dana Rohrabacherwe're deep into a discussion of the Federal Communications Commission's role in spectrum allocation before bouncing back out for chatty speculation about how to "sell the schools," a riff on "socialism, limited government, anarchy, and bikinis," and a treatment of the vital question, "is william f. buckley a contagious disease?" (Stylish '70s lowercase in the original, of course.)

But there is a method to the madness. In his "postscript for perfectionists," Friedman hammers home what is not included in the book: "I have said almost nothing about rights, ethics, good and bad, right and wrong." This strategic agnosticism is what captured my attention as a 19-year-old college student, already weary of banging my head against the wall of deontological disagreement.

It's very hard to convince someone to change their mind about what is right and wrong, but as Friedman observes, "it is much easier to persuade people with practical arguments than with ethical ones." Perhaps not coincidentally, that postscript was written right around the time that James R. Schlesinger was coining the phrase, "You are entitled to your own views, but you are not entitled to your own facts." If, as Friedman hypothesized, "most political disagreement is rooted in questions of what is, not what should be," many people have been going about the project of consensus building and political change all wrong. "I have asked, not what people should want," he says, "but how we can accomplish those things which most of us do want."

This approach suggests a methodology: Scrutinizing existing, highly effective voluntary institutions and systems for alternative ways to perform functions that even a minarchist libertarian might reserve for the state, and then extrapolating from there toward shared goals of peace, prosperity, and justice.

Asking how the world works nearly always yields more interesting and productive discussions than asking how the world should be. Often accused of utopianism, anarcho-capitalists are the opposite. ("I have wondered whether I might have originated 'Utopia is not an option,' but probably not," Friedman mused while casually popping into the comments section of a 2015 Slate Star Codex post about his greatest work.) Friedman's comfort with uncertainty is inspirational, heroic even. He isn't quite sure how things would play out if roles currently performed by the state were instead accomplished via market mechanisms, but he's happy to make a guess. After all, if he knew for sure, he'd be the CEO of the Court Services Co. or Professors Incorporated instead of being a guy who writes books.

***

"There are essentially only three ways that I can get another person to help me achieve my ends," Friedman writes: "love, trade, and force."

In a world where individuals are free to pursue their own interests and desires, people are more likely to engage in mutually beneficial relationships driven by genuine connection rather than social expectations or legal obligations. Loveor "more generally, the sharing of a common end"is a powerful coordinating tool in society, and one too often underestimated or undermined by other political theories.

Still, love only gets you so far. Force, the preferred tool of toddlers and tyrants, too often leads to unintended consequences while failing to actually achieve its stated ends. That leaves trade as the primary mode for getting things done. Part of the charm of The Machinery of Freedom is that it proceeds on the assumption that voluntary exchange is largely up to the task of organizing society. Friedman underscores that trade is not just limited to material goods but can also encompass intangible assets such as knowledge and ideas.

The most striking thing about The Machinery of Freedom is its cheerful, eclectic optimism. It weaves back and forth between history, politics, and speculative fiction in ways that are enlivening and energizing. Friedman was not the first to make market anarchist arguments, but in the decades that followed the book's publication, they grew in appeal as an alternative to the angry polarization gripping those who preferred to fight over state power. He is generous with his ideas. If you don't like his plan for voucherizing university classes, he's happy to offer you another option for education reform. If you are skeptical about market provision of national defense, he's happy to suggest a theory of change inspired by the French monarchy's habit of selling tax exemptions. If you're worried about who will pay to build the roads, he's happy to tell you a weirdly prescient story about "electronic recording devices, computer-controlled entrances, and three-to-eleven working days" while conceding that those innovations "sound like science fiction."

The appeal of Friedman's anarchism is not that he has the answer, but that he has dozens of them and he's not at all bothered by the idea that none may be the perfect one. "It is fashionable," writes Friedman, "to measure the importance of ideas by the number and violence of their adherents. That is a fashion I shall not follow. If, when you finish this book, you have come to share many of my views, you will know the most important thing about the number of libertariansthat it is larger by one than when you started reading."

Original post:

At 50, 'The Machinery of Freedom' Remains an Anarcho-Capitalist ... - Reason