See J. Henderson’s post at blog.Mises for a quick summary of “socially responsible investing” (SRI).

Like the whole “fair trade” scam, “green business,” etc., SRI is legitimately a part of the free market, and libertarians (qua libertarians) cannot fault it.

But we all have subordinate values as well.

I know socially conservative libertarians who will decry pornography, drugs, prostitution, etc., while also opposing any use of force against them. Me, I’m all for pornography, drugs, and prostitution (though not before noon), but I’ll happily revile the irrationalism of secular religions such as “social justice” (collectivism’s perversion of individualism’s ideal), environmentalism (aka “ecological mysticism”), or any activist cause with the word “child” or “children” in its name.

Here’s a quick tip: whenever you encounter a perfectly good individualist word, such as responsible, justice, or contract, modified by “social” or “socially” … hold your nose, hold your breath, hold on to your wallet, and remove impressionable offspring from the source of semantic pollution.

Man, I love Calvin!

Especially that last panel.

Today’s word at A.W.A.D:

Anu Garg, editor of A.W.A.D says, “The suggestion that a vomitorium was the place for the ancient Romans to vomit during a feast has no basis.”

You know, no matter how disillusioned and increasingly cynical I feel about my own schooling, I continue to be caught off guard by some of the things I was taught that turn out to be just plain wrong.

I always thought my middle-school Latin teacher was an ass, but I figured he knew his stuff.