- George — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The little town of George, Washington, has two claims to fame: it is the only town in the country bearing the full name of a United States president, and its popular Fourth of July celebration features what is believed to be the world’s largest cherry pie, weighing in at one-half ton. Located at exit 149 off Interstate 90 in Grant County, George is midway between Seattle and Spokane. The town was built in the mid-1950s by Charles (Charlie) Brown, a pharmacist from nearby Quincy, who placed the winning (and only) bid of $100,000 on 339 sand-swept and desolate acres of land in an auction managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Reclamation. Brown put in waterlines, platted streets, sold pie-shaped lots, and built a truck stop he called the Martha Inn. The town was dedicated on July 4, 1957, and incorporated on July 4, 1961. After Brown died in 1975, George was purchased by a group of investors that had big plans that never materialized. Modest development followed in the early 2000s, but George never attained the special status that Brown had hoped for. In 2010, it was home to 503 residents.
- The Education of a Libertarian (cato-unbound.org)
Peter Thiel shares the belief that politics is mostly futile, a conclusion he reached after years of activism. In particular, he believes that democratic politics is unlikely to bring about libertarian outcomes. Fortunately, politics is just one sphere of human life, and it’s possible, he argues, to create technologies that minimize its reach. Thiel describes a “deadly race” between politics and technology, in which human freedom is the prize. The goal of libertarian activism should not be to win in politics, he argues, but to escape it.