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Liberty and Power

  • May 9, 2007

    The Answer Comes From Within Islam

    by Liberty and Power

    One country that is having some success in combating Islamic terrorism is Indonesia. Much of this progress is due to a former terrorist, Nasir Abas, who changed sides. 60 Minutes profiled him last Sunday and his story illustrates the point that the ultimate solution to the problem of Islamic terror comes not from military a
  • May 9, 2007

    The Liberal Media Ignores and (or Misrepresents) Ron Paul's Views on Iraq and Civil Liberties

    by Liberty and Power

    Media bias was on ample display in last night's post debate shows. Only this time, the victim of bias was actually a candidate who took positions that most liberals claim to share.

    Ron Paul firmly and repeatedly attacked the war on Iraq and called for withdrawal. He closed by blasting Bush's record on civil liberties and pledging to defend habeas corpus if elected. The post-debate spin shows, however, either completely ignored what he said or, worse, lumped him in with all the rest.

  • May 8, 2007

    Global Warming Media Bias

    by Liberty and Power

    Recently Al Gore addressed a gathering of national media ethicists at Middle Tennessee State University where he asserted that a lack of action on the global warming problem was due to media bias. He contended that "more than half of the mainstream media have rejected the scientific consensus implicitly — and I say 'rejected,' perhaps it's the wrong word. They have failed to report that i
  • May 7, 2007

    Peer Review, Publication In Top Journals, Scientific Consensus, And So Forth

    by Liberty and Power

    In following the discussion of global warming and related issues at Liberty & Power in recent weeks, I have been struck repeatedly by the assumption or expression of certain beliefs that strike me as highly problematical.

    I do not pretend to have expertise in climatology or any of the related physical sciences, so nothing I might say about strictly climatological or related physical-scientific matters deserves any weight. However, I have thirty-nine years of professional experience―twe

  • May 6, 2007

    Ecology and Classical Liberalism

    by Liberty and Power

    Since so many dead enders are using this site as their personal soap box to attack science, I figured I’d offer a small post on ecology and classical liberalism. The issue is filled with paradoxes.

    The theory of spontaneous order first developed in the Scottish Enlightenment, especially by Adam, Smith, is the only theory rooted in the social sciences that has enriched the natural sciences. It provides the fundamental logic behind both ecological science and the theory of evolution
  • May 6, 2007

    What Next, a Committee on Un-Scientific Activities?

    by Liberty and Power

    Brendan O’Neill describes how in Britain a group of scientists and science communicators has written an open letter to WAG, a TV production company, insisting that it make changes to its film The Great Global Warming Swindle before releasing it on DVD.

    O’Neill concludes that"[p]erhaps more than any other area of life, science develops through a self-corrective process. In demanding that something be corrected f
  • May 3, 2007

    Ron Paul Does a Great Job

    by Liberty and Power

    Ron Paul isn't as flashy as some but he did what he needed to do: attacked the war, defended limited government, and ended with a flourish by promising the roll-back Bush's assault on civil liberties. Kudos all around. He has clearly staked out a position as the only anti-Iraq war candidate in the GOP field but will the media notice? The debate should be repeated later tonight on MSNBC.
  • May 1, 2007

    Fairtrade Coffee: Does It Buck The Market?

    by Liberty and Power

    From The Australian 28 April 2007: ‘Oxfam coffee 'harms' poor farmers’

    To bring out the main points, I quote & rearrange:- “ Two Melbourne academics have lodged formal complaints against Oxfam Australia ” with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, asking it “ to investigate Oxfam ”. They say Oxfam “ is guilty of misleading or deceptive conduct u
  • May 1, 2007

    California's Postpartisan Agenda

    by Liberty and Power

    In a recent op-ed, I argue that"Having Republicans approve all the big government programs in the Democratic agenda and the Democrats approve all the law-and-order crackdowns and new prisons in the Republican agenda is not a reason to celebrate."
  • Apr 29, 2007

    Global Warming on Mars

    by Liberty and Power

    A story, titled "Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says" on the National Geographic website tells us that "in 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide"ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row." The scientist responsible for this observation is Habibullo Abdussamatov, hea
  • Apr 29, 2007

    At Least Papal Sales of Indulgences Produced Beautiful Monuments

    by Liberty and Power

    Alexander Cockburn asks Is Global Warming a Sin?

    "In a couple of hundred years, historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. Then, as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet's rapid downward slide."

    "The

  • Apr 27, 2007

    An invitation for those in/near Nashville, TN

    by Liberty and Power

    On May 8, 2007 at 7:00pm, join the Tennessee Center for Policy Research and ABC News 20/20 reporter John Stossel for an evening of delicious food, refreshing libations and stimulating conversation as John exposes the errors behind hundreds of media-generated myths—and reveals that the truth is often the opposite of what we've been taught to believe.

    Stossel, the winner of 19 Emmys and five awards for excellence in con
  • Apr 27, 2007

    Labor's "Right to a Free Market"

    by Liberty and Power

    No issue is more contentious in labor relations than the Employee Free Choice Act. This bill, now pending in Congress, would require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to recognize a union when"a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations." Under current federal law, an NLRB-supervised election must be held and a majority must vote by secret ballot for the union before it becomes government-certified. The union-backed
  • Apr 26, 2007

    The Emperor Comes To Alabama

    by Liberty and Power

    As thousands of refugees stream north in search of food and water, the University of Alabama plays football. Some few people will heed the Athletic director's call to relinquish their hotel rooms to the refugees. Many will not.

    Here is what should have happened: President Witt should have announced that the University of Alabama would forfeit the game to Middle Tennessee. Rooms would have been freed and important resources could have been diverted to helping the refugees. Instead, wh

  • Apr 26, 2007

    More on Stephen Foster (1809-91):

    by Liberty and Power

    I want to thank David Bieto for bringing Stephen S. Foster and his REVOLUTION THE ONLY REMEMDY FOR SLAVERY (1855) to our attention in a previous post. Foster's attitude toward VIOLENT revolution was a bit more equivocal than David suggests, however. Among antebellum abolitionists, he is best known for his extreme "come-outerism," in which he would disrupt church services to protest slavery, sometimes suffering beatings and imprisonment as a result. Like William Lloyd Garrison, Foster w