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Liberty and Power

  • Aug 14, 2006

    Poll of Members by Historians Against the War: My Response

    by Liberty and Power

    I am a longtime member of Historians Against the War, a group formed in 2003 to oppose the Iraq War. Joining is extremely simple and does not cost a cent. All you have to do to do is sign this statement.

    The steering committee of HAW is now polling members on whether HAW should take “positions on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, U.S. threats to Syria and Iran, the so-called 'global war on terror,' and the socio-econo

  • Aug 14, 2006

    Gottfried Dietze, RIP

    by Liberty and Power

    Gottfried Dietze (1920-7/10/2006), classical liberal historian, died recently in Washington, D.C. He devoted his life to his teaching at Johns Hopkins, and his scholarship on the nature of liberty, the rule of law, and government.

    Dietze was a Wehrmacht soldier and friend of Otto Skorzeny, with

  • Aug 14, 2006

    Celebrating Joyce Appleby

    by Liberty and Power

    I recommend the current HNN "History Doyens" piece on Joyce Appleby. She influenced many libertarian-oriented historians that attended grad school in the 1980s and 1990s. Two choice selections:

    "Since we toss around complex with the same abandon as nuanced, I'll define how I think of complexity in history. Complexity in human affairs arises from the fact that human beings are never single-minded in their efforts and decisions, and events never slide along a predicta
  • Aug 14, 2006

    LvMI in the WSJ

    by Liberty and Power

    Congratulations to the Mises Institute for this great write-up in the Wall Street Journal! An excerpt:

    The Mises Institute counts free-marketers from more than 30 states and at least 23 countries among its faculty. Its students' homes are equally far-flung: Poland, Peru, Argentina, Canada, France and China this summer alone."Every one of them is an id
  • Aug 14, 2006

    Armed Forces & Empire: Some Interesting Figures

    by Liberty and Power

    1. It was said ‘the sun never set on the British Empire’. ‘Because’ -- as one wag put it -- ‘God didn’t trust the British’. Be that as it may, it is obvious that the British armed forces during the Imperial period must have been far, far larger than in the late 20th century -- correct? Since they had that far-flung, global Empire to ‘defend’. Well, have a look (the figures cover the British Army, the Royal Navy, & the Royal Marines):

    1861, British armed forces, total: 281,
  • Aug 12, 2006

    TV Watchers Watch TV

    by Liberty and Power

    From Vinay Menon of The Toronto Star, Aug. 10:

    In our culture of default victimhood, those who advocate nanny-state regulations enjoy playing the blame game because it advances their own special interests. TV is a reliable scapegoat.

    Read the article.
  • Aug 12, 2006

    "What is Left? What is Right? Does it Matter?"

    by Liberty and Power

    The current issue of _The American Conservative_ attempts to define the modern American right. I found the essay by Kirkpatrick Sale especially interesting. See http://www.amconmag.com/
  • Aug 11, 2006

    Ayn Rand at 100

    by Liberty and Power

    A new book entitled Ayn Rand at 100, edited by Tibor Machan, makes its debut on Wednesday, August 16, 2006. And it is being published by the Liberty Institute in India!!! The book synopsis states:"Eminent authors discuss the impact [Ayn Rand] has had on their contribution to philosophy and, most importantly, Rand’s Indian connection."

    A reprint of one of my Ra

  • Aug 10, 2006

    Racial Gap in IQ Scores Narrows

    by Liberty and Power

    An article in Science News reports the following:
    A statistical analysis of four national intelligence tests indicates that the difference in scores between blacks and whites decreased by about a third between 1972 and 2002. The findings challenge a century-old argument that the racial gap in performance on IQ tests is primarily genetic and therefore invulnerable to social change, say the researchers who perform
  • Aug 8, 2006

    A Vote for Inflation?

    by Liberty and Power

    From today's press release by the Federal Reserve:

    "Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Susan S. Bies; Jack Guynn; Donald L. Kohn; Randall S. Kroszner; Sandra Pianalto; Kevin M. Warsh; and Janet L. Yellen. Voting against was Jeffrey M. Lacker, who preferred an increa
  • Aug 8, 2006

    Obscuring the Reasons for 9/11

    by Liberty and Power

    From Ivan Eland of the Independent Institute:
    As both the Bush administration and its client government in Israel, with their invasions of Arab states in Iraq and Lebanon respectively, make the United States ever more hated in the Islamic world, a new book by the Chairmen of the 9/11 commission admits that the commission whitewashed the root cause of the 9/11 attacks—that same interventionist U.S. foreign policy....

    The book usefully details the administration’s willful
  • Aug 8, 2006

    Look What "Jumper"ed Out of the Black Box? Cuba, All Over Again?

    by Liberty and Power

    Mr. Marina is Professor Emeritus in History at Florida Atlantic University, a Research Fellow of the Independent Institute, Oakland, CA, and Exec. Dir. of the Marina-Huerta Educational Foundation. He lives in Asheville, NC.

    Air Force Gen. John Jumper has announced that the American Empire's idea of Iraqi "Democracy" includes four, huge, permanent Air Bases, with all of the troops, etc., that will be needed to protect such enormous facilities in perpetuity. Welcome to four

  • Aug 5, 2006

    American Indians or Native Americans?

    by Liberty and Power

    "The one thing I've always maintained is that I'm an American Indian. I'm not politically correct. Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans." Russell Means.

  • Aug 4, 2006

    Maybe Self-Loving Does Make You Blind

    by Liberty and Power

    Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent and author of many books and articles, including Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age (Routledge, 2004), casts a skeptical eye on Europe's very first Masturbate-a-Thon event to be filmed and televised on Channe