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Liberty and Power

  • Nov 5, 2006

    Objectivist heckled with condoms

    by Liberty and Power

    A battle of political extremists ended in the throwing of meat and condoms Friday as about a dozen protesters from the LaRouche Youth Movement interrupted a lecture by an Ayn Rand Institute speaker. Story here.

    You are cordially invited to browse and join
  • Nov 5, 2006

    Who Really Won the Second World War?

    by Liberty and Power

    Not the Brits, theirs was a small contribution. The Americans—well, yes, in large part. But more than either of those, the Soviet Union made the greatest contribution. Norman Davies presents the revisionist case to a wider audience here.

    "After talking at Cambridge recently about the preponderance of the eastern front and the scale of the Red Army’s triump
  • Nov 4, 2006

    Fear d'Jour

    by Liberty and Power

    August 28 headline in the New York Times:

    Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity

    Yesterday's headline in the
  • Nov 3, 2006

    Economists Against Economics

    by Liberty and Power

    Five economists who either won the Nobel Prize in economics or who served as president of the American Economics Association -- and three who did both -- recently joined over 600 other economists in urging the federal government to increase the minimum wage. The signatures were gathered by the union-backed Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which unsurprisingly supports substantial government intervention in the economy.

    I guess this is supposed to make us think more of th
  • Nov 3, 2006

    Eminent-Domain Chutzpah

    by Liberty and Power

    Talk about chutzpah! A development company is thinking about suing Florida and the city of Riviera Beach for refusing to use eminent domain to provide land for upscale condominiums and a marina. Viking Inlet Harbor Properties was assured the city would condemn a number of working-class homes, but the city council had second thoughts. Now the company fears the $50 million it has already spent acquiring other lots will go to waste. “I’m stuck wi
  • Nov 3, 2006

    Open Secrets

    by Liberty and Power

    With next week's elections imminent, readers may care to visit Open Secrets, a website that monitors campaign contributors and their donations to candidates for federal office.

    Go here to find out how much Charles Koch of Koch Industries has contributed to whom during the 2005-2006 election cycle. Go
  • Nov 2, 2006

    Compelling Editorial

    by Liberty and Power

    Last night MSNBC broadcast one of the most powerful political editorials that I have ever seen. In it Keith Olbermann made a connection between the pre-Civil War attack on Senator Charles Sumner and the recent demands from Bush supporters that John Kerry apologize for an alleged sta
  • Nov 2, 2006

    Clifford Geertz (1926-2006)

    by Liberty and Power

    Clifford Geertz, the eminent cultural anthropologist who had a significant influence in many other disciplines, died Monday. He was a professor emeritus in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, where he had served on the faculty since 1970. For an account of his work and career go here.
  • Nov 2, 2006

    See below

    by Liberty and Power

    I just made a lengthy comment to David's last post, which on reflection should have been a post of my own. So go look. Short version: I remain unconvinced that's there's not much difference between Dems and GOP in the aggregate (obviously in any particular race, one might be clearly better than the other).

    While I'm here, some shameless self-promotion: any L&P readers at the Univ of Wisc, feel free to come to a ta
  • Nov 2, 2006

    Hey Libertarian Party: It's the War Stupid!

    by Liberty and Power

    The latest issue of Reason (link apparently not available) has appeals from assorted Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians on who deserves the votes of libertarians.

    At a time when most Americans want to exit from Iraq, Terry Michael, the Democratic Party defender, hits the mark (at least rhetorically). He depicts the Democrats as the best hope"to keep the government out of the bedroom, and hopefully out of Iraq."

    By contrast, William Redpath, in his brief for the Libertarian

  • Nov 1, 2006

    The Elections

    by Liberty and Power

    I'm not voting, of course. But I want to see the Republicans lose, and yet I doubt it will do any good. Likely, things will continue to get worse, and I think the libertarian benefits of gridlock are overstated. There are downsides, too, in fact.

    See more on my take here, as well as in this addendum.
  • Nov 1, 2006

    Mid-Term Elections, 2006

    by Liberty and Power

    I've received a bit of email from people who were wondering why it is I have not commented on the upcoming mid-term elections."Sciabarra, you're a political scientist, for Chrissake! What do you think?"

    Well, let's leave aside the question of how much science goes into politics: It's always nice to know that some people find value in what I say. But with all due respect: There's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. I have not changed

  • Oct 31, 2006

    Saving Our Constitution

    by Liberty and Power

    As Gus notes, he and I are participating in a Teach-In here on campus on Friday. I thought I would provide a link to the poster for the event:

    http://www.stlawu.edu/gallery/images/06socdetails.jpg

    In addition, here is the mission statement of"Save Our Constitution":

    We are deeply concerned about the assaults on the U.S. Constitution, a document animated by the highest ideals of human freedo
  • Oct 31, 2006

    Occupiers Setting Up Democracies: Not So Rare

    by Liberty and Power

    Over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen makes the following assumption:
    Modeling the current Iraq is difficult for a few reasons. It is rare for an occupying power to set up a democracy, so historical data are scarce. In any case this is not the world of MacArthur and postwar Japan.

    This does not bear clear scrutiny. It is not rare at all for occupying po

  • Oct 31, 2006

    The Big Lie and the Totalitarianism of the Right

    by Liberty and Power

    This post is based on remarks I will give at a Save Our Constitution teach-in at St. lawrence University this Friday. Fellow HNN member Steve Horwitz will also speak. My subject was the role of language in the current assault on the Constitution. I am working on a more encompassing discussion of contemporary right wing American totalitarianism, but these remarks stand by themselves.
    ----

    The Troubling Dishonesty of the Republican Party and its Conservative Supporters