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Liberty and Power

  • Sep 10, 2006

    Wal-Mart, Gays, and Sloppy Reporting

    by Liberty and Power

    This LA Times story about Wal-Mart entering into a partnership with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce provides a good example of a trying to create controversy where there is none and insufficient critical thinking by the reporter.

    The theme of the story is best summarized in this sentence:"But not all of its usual supporters — nor some gay activists — welcomed
  • Sep 9, 2006

    Inflicting More Pain

    by Liberty and Power

    When government began controlling narcotics nearly 90 years ago, it assured Americans it would never interfere with the practice of medicine.

    Chalk up another in a long series of lies by the state. In theory government serves the people. In practice it does something else entirely.

    The crusade to determine what drugs we can and cannot use, and under what conditions, couldn't help but affect medical practice. Someone who wanted a drug controlled by the state
  • Sep 8, 2006

    Happy Birthday to an old friend

    by Liberty and Power

    40 years ago today, Star Trek premiered. I don't have time to write the long appreciation that it deserves (Amy? Roderick?), but at its best, it was great science fiction television. When I was watching it as a kid growing up, I learned a lot from it about optimism, and human potential, and diversity (IDIC!), and so on. I can still answer trivia questions and recite dialogue, without cheating with the internet. I confess I never w
  • Sep 7, 2006

    Destroying a Shill: Tucker Carlson Humiliates David Brock

    by Liberty and Power

    In this video, Tucker Carlson, who has described himself as a libertarian and a critic of the Iraq war, shows his mettle as a journalist. He thoroughly humiliates former rightwing (and current leftwing) hit-man, David Brock.

    No doubt, the pro-war bloggers now praising Carlson's doggedness in this interview will soon flip-flop when he gives one of their heroes the same treatment.

    Beauti

  • Sep 6, 2006

    Government Rationed Health Care

    by Liberty and Power

    The idea of"universal health care" or a"single payer system" would not be so popular if we called it what it is, government rationed health care.

    In a column for yesterday's Washington Times titled "Stethoscope Socialism" Deroy Murdock provided some enlightening comparisons between bureaucrat controlled systems and the relatively free market structure we still have in America. He also pointed out that "Unli

  • Sep 5, 2006

    Now Here's a Shocker

    by Liberty and Power

    It turns out that children of rich, famous, well-connected, or otherwise influential people are getting preferential treatment at colleges and universities.

    The article also mentions the by-now ho-hum fact that Asians are held to higher standards than any other ethnic group, although a new term is given to them: the"new Jews."

    One final thought: the article compares Notre Dame's practice of giving prefe
  • Sep 4, 2006

    "The Future of Iraq Project"

    by Liberty and Power

    This is a worthwhile website for understanding the lead up to the current imbroglio. The following quotes from H-Diplo:

    National Security Archive Update, September 1, 2006

    New State Department Releases on the "Future of Iraq" Project

    New Documents Provide Details on Budgets, Interagency Coordination and Working Group Progress
    Posting Includes State's 13-Volume Study Previously Released Under FOIA

    Washington, DC, 1 Se

  • Sep 2, 2006

    Distinguished historian Leonard W. Levy dies at 83

    by Liberty and Power

    From R. B. Bernstein, posted on H-Shear:

    Leonard W. Levy, a distinguished constitutional historian who won the
    Pulitzer Prize for History in 1969 and who taught at Brandeis
    University and the Claremont Graduate School, died on 24 August 2006 in
    Ashland, Oregon, at the age of 83.

    Born in Toronto, Canada, on 9 April 1923, Levy was educated at Columbia
    University, where he earned his Ph.D. degree under the mentorship of

  • Sep 2, 2006

    Missing the Boat -- Again

    by Liberty and Power

    [Cross-posted at Free Association.]

    The blogosphere is alive with discussion of what's been happening to compensation for regular workersw over the last few years. See the several posts and comments at Cafe Hayek. I've addressed the issue here, but I want
  • Sep 1, 2006

    Eye on the Ball

    by Liberty and Power

    Like clockwork, the New York Times has produced another page-one story purporting to show that living standards for many Americans have fallen, this time because wages in recent years have failed to keep up with inflation. This has been happening, write Times reporters Steven Greenhouse and David Leonhardt, despite rising productivity and even taking into account the shift from cash to noncash benefits, such as medical insurance. Meanwhile, profits are up. I
  • Aug 31, 2006

    More philosophy news

    by Liberty and Power

    I'm happy to announce the following session of the American Association for the Philosophic Study of Society, at the December meeting of the American Philosophical Association.
    THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION
    EASTERN DIVISION
    ONE HUNDRED THIRD ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM

    THURSDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 28, 2006
    GROUP SESSION II - 9:00-11:00 A.M.

    GII-1. American Association for the Philosop
  • Aug 30, 2006

    Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Tony Blair

    by Liberty and Power

    Geoffrey Wheatcroft writes consistently well-informed and well-written columns in the British press. This one is no exception.
  • Aug 29, 2006

    Selective Prosecution of War Crimes

    by Liberty and Power

    In Saddam Hussein’s war crimes trial for the 1988 Iraqi “Anfal” campaign that gassed Kurdish villages, his defense lawyers have argued that Iraqi forces were really attempting to strike Iranian forces and the Iraqi Kurdish pesh merga militias that were in and supported by the hamlets. In other words, the lawyers are asserting that the innocent Kurds who were killed were collateral damage in an effort by the Iraqi government to rid its territory of Iranian fighters and their Kurdish a