Departments

;

Liberty and Power

  • Sep 23, 2006

    Washington Logic

    by Liberty and Power

    Washington is a funny place, with its own unique"logic." It's a" company" town, the" company" being the federal government, the"product" being public policy. As a result, an odd sort of"thinking" is encouraged there. It's not like other places. Or it wasn't before the accelerating centralization of power in recent times.

    A good example of Washington logic was featured on page one of Wednesday's
  • Sep 22, 2006

    How to Export 'Democracy'

    by Liberty and Power

    The BBC report Gen. Pervez Musharraf (on the immediate aftermath to the 11th September 2001):

    "The [Pakistan] intelligence director told me that Mr [Richard] Armitage said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age'..” [should the Pakistan govt refuse to join the US govt against Al-Qaida.]

    Bully-boy and 'standover' tactics as we say here in Oz. Nice.

    The report goes on: 'The US envoy also insisted that Pakistan suppress domes
  • Sep 21, 2006

    Insurgents in "Liberated Iraq" Become More Popular

    by Liberty and Power

    "Liberated Iraq" continues to live up to its growing reputation as an incubator for fundamentalists, suicide bombers, fascists, and assorted Iranophiles. Even the most dogged publicizers of"good news" in Iraq will have difficulty spinning this, though, no doubt, they will give it their very best try:

    A confidential Pentagon assessment finds that an overwhelming majority of Iraq's Sunni Muslims support the insurge
  • Sep 19, 2006

    NYT Trek appreciation

    by Liberty and Power

    I still haven't found the time to write a long tribute to Star Trek on its 40th anniversary, but this NYT op-ed is pretty good, esp. the first two thirds or so.
  • Sep 19, 2006

    Marijuana and Youth

    by Liberty and Power

    From the very beginning the war on people who use certain kinds of drugs has been waged in the name of youth. It started in the late 1800s with concern over white boys and girls spending time in Chinese opium dens and continued on into the 1930s in the form of"Marijuana Assassin of Youth," while today kids doing ecstasy at raves is a primary worry. Protecting young people from drugs is perhaps the most important pillar supporting drug prohibition.

    However, recently, in the case of marijua

  • Sep 18, 2006

    War on Food Choice

    by Liberty and Power

    Ex-Congressman Bob Barr continues to transform me (see here, here, and here) from foe to fan with some excellent commentary in today's Washington Times concerning the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) war on our food choice
  • Sep 14, 2006

    Conservatives Call for a GOP Defeat in November

    by Liberty and Power

    The latest Washington Monthly features several articles from" conservatives," including Joe Scarborough, Bruce Fein, William Niskanen, and Bruce Bartlett, centered on the theme that it is "Time for Us to Go."

    It may be well past"time" in a moral sense but will it actually happen? I am dubious. Much as the Bush administration richly deserves a black eye for its statist sins, I suspect that the GOP will hold its

  • Sep 13, 2006

    Does the Republican Base Know About This?

    by Liberty and Power

    From yesterday's Washington Post:
    For decades, marriages between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq were as ordinary as the daily call to prayer. But the sectarian warfare gripping the country has created a powerful barrier to Sunni-Shiite romances.

    Married couples have filed for divorce rather than face the scorn of
  • Sep 13, 2006

    Robert Higgs Wins Szasz Award

    by Liberty and Power

    Robert Higgs, author of Crisis and Leviathan and other important books, is the 2006 winner of the Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties (general category). Higgs joins a distinguished list of
  • Sep 13, 2006

    The New Orleans Notarial Archives - II

    by Liberty and Power

    As I mentioned in my earlier post (below), these Archives contain millions of notarial documents -- the raw materials of Louisiana (& other) history. But AP report that troops _refused_ entry to equipment essential to salvaging the documents. I have emailed the following about this:
    The Federal Preservation Officer in charge of such rescue:- John Ketchum (john.ketchum@fema.gov) (see David Beito’s comment.)
    The Chairman of the Pres
  • Sep 11, 2006

    Vermont Eugenics Program in the news

    by Liberty and Power

    The first recipients of the American Indian Youth Literature Award include a book on the Vermont Eugenics Program. Hidden Roots is written by Joseph Bruchac and published by Scholastic Press. The book is set within the historical framework of the Vermont Eugenics Program, a Native American sterilization program in the 1930s, and tells the story of the haunting effects of this shameful and tragic deed on one of the Abenaki families victimized by it. Author of more than 70 books f
  • Sep 10, 2006

    Militarized Police

    by Liberty and Power

    Rodney Balko has released a new book, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America. Read about it here.
    The book is important for two reasons. First, it has an disturbing story to tell of how the police can and do break into SAmericans' homes and kill them, even when innocent, with no reprucussions.

    Second, for those so-called classical liberals who still, insanely, provide excuses fo