Ready for some good news?

As the U.S. apparently prepares to jump into yet another Mideast war, would you like some good news?

Bryan Caplan, a libertarian economist and blogger (and a pacifist), points out in his post, "Peace on Earth is Almost Here," that despite all of the bloodshed in North Africa and Asia, much of the rest of the world is peaceful. Caplan writes, "If you don't feel grateful, you should.  Yes, things could get worse.  At some point, they almost certainly will for a spell.  But the utopian dream of peace on earth now looks amazingly realistic.  Who knows?  We might abolish war before we get driverless cars!"

Meanwhile, Reason's writers continue their apparently quixotic quest to keep the U.S. from intervening in a civil war on the same side as Al Qaeda. For example, here are Peter Suderman's "8 Reasons Not to Go to War in Syria," and Jesse Walker's "The 'Experts' Who Want a War With Syria."

Over at Dangerous Minds, leftist Richard Metzger reacts to all this by complaining that Timothy Leary once supported Ron Paul. (Mysteriously, Leary lent his support to one of the few politicians who was then ready to call for an end to the war on drugs. Leary biographers are still puzzling over the strange episode.) Whatever you think of Ron Paul, his antiwar credentials are pretty solid. I think Dangerous Minds is a fine blog, but Metzger's timing seems a little off this time.

Another voice on Ron Paul

Libertarian writer Brian Doherty, who wrote at length about Robert Anton Wilson in his book "Radicals for Capitalism," has posted an interesting blog entry at Reason's Hit and Run blog, entitled "Why I Don't Think the Ron Paul Newsletters Are Very Important."

Here's a quote: "I believe it's less important to beat up on and condemn a certain set of powerless and marginalized people who think and believe some nasty things everyone agrees are wrong than it is to beat up on and condemn the set of incredibly powerful people who actually act to commit crimes and rights-violation and damage to life across the globe who everyone thinks are perfectly right to do so. And Ron Paul is the only candidate with any public traction and fans who condemns and would fight to stop such crimes, from the drug war to non-defensive overseas wars to armed assaults on people because they sell raw milk to rampant violations of American's civil liberties and privacy to an organization in charge of our money supply that uses that power to scuttle the entire world economy and bailout its buddies."

More here.

Doherty has a book about Ron Paul coming out in May, so I suppose he has an interest in whether Paul does well, but I don't think that's what he's about. His "Radicals for Capitalism" book (a history of the modern libertarian movement in the U.S.) emphasized the antiwar views of key figures such as Murray Rothbard, and I believe his interest in Paul stems from sincere support for Paul's views on peace and civil liberties.

I wrote Doherty a few weeks ago and asked if "Radicals for Capitalism" will become available as a Kindle book, but I haven't gotten a reply yet.

Addendum: Interesting Tweet from @normative, Julian Sanchez: "Why not just name the newsletter authors? Jim Henley's theory: http://j.mp/sLeiG0 My guess: Rothbard had a hand in some ugly bits."