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Liberty and Power

  • Jun 5, 2006

    John Stossel: A Libertarian Against the Iraq War

    by Liberty and Power

    Because so many free market pundits have gone over to the pro-war side, I am pleasantly surprised to see the following comments by John Stossel:

    I'm a Libertarian," according to Stossel, the TV network consumer reporter turned staunch free-market defender."I hold beliefs Conservatives abhor."

    Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the conservative Fraser Institute think tank yesterday, Stossel made it cl

  • Jun 5, 2006

    Iraq: The Political Fight Begins

    by Liberty and Power

    The political battle to gain more power in Iraq has now come out into the open. The two most important Shia contenders -- the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) & Moqtada al-Sadr have each their own army, of course. But there are crucial differences in the regional coverage of their power-bases. SCIRI’s followers are in the Shia-majority -- & oil-rich -- southern provinces, but al-Sadr has an extremely large following in Baghdad*. This is why he opposes regionalism
  • Jun 4, 2006

    Once More Unto the Breach

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted on Austro-Athenian Empire]

    Probably no intellectual has suffered more distortion and abuse than Spencer.
    He is continually condemned for things he never said –
    indeed, he is taken to task for things he explicitly denied.

    -- George H. Smith


    As my regular readers know (see the links to my previous
  • Jun 2, 2006

    The Governmental Habit

    by Liberty and Power

    In 1977 the late economic historian Jonathan R. T. Hughes published a book called The Governmental Habit (updated in 1991 as The Governmental Habit Redux). It showed how pervasive government intervention in the economy has been since colonial times. The title captures an important phenomenon. People are in the habit of looking to government -- the only agency that may legally wield or threaten force aga
  • Jun 2, 2006

    Drugs and Dildos

    by Liberty and Power

    Pierre Lemieux on creeping tyranny, the drug war, and a perverse law in a certain southern state, here.
  • Jun 2, 2006

    Firearms Refresher Course/Katrina

    by Liberty and Power

    My cousin, Joe Marina, sent me the following note, which has, apparently, been making the rounds on the Internet.

    "Subject: Firearms Refresher Course:
    If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq Theater of operations during the last 22 months; that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.
    The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are 25% more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's
  • May 31, 2006

    Gilead Watch continues

    by Liberty and Power

    My "Gilead Watch" idea has proven to have some legs. Jason Kuznicki offered a new one the other day. I've also received two "submissions" directly. One from regular commenter Lady Aster points us to an article about "Purity Balls

  • May 31, 2006

    Jesus Christ: A Victim of Democracy?

    by Liberty and Power

    "Democratic Athenians believed that justice is the will of the majority, on the theory that ninety men are right and ten are wrong. Under this theory, they killed off their intelligent and honest men. Pontius Pilate also obeyed a majority, though more skeptically."

    Rose Wilder Lane,

  • May 31, 2006

    Thomas Woods and His Critics: A Review Essay

    by Liberty and Power

    Thomas E. Woods, Jr., THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO AMERICAN HISTORY. Washington: Regnery, 2004. xvi + 270 pp.

    Reviewed by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Department of Economics, San Jose State University.[*]

    Forthcoming in the JOURNAL OF LIBERTARIAN STUDIES.

    Thomas E. Woods, Jr.’s, POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO AMERICAN HISTORY not only became a NEW YORK TIMES bestseller but also raised an amazing amount of furor, to a certain extent among the left leaning,
  • May 30, 2006

    Honest Scientist

    by Liberty and Power

    A recent large epidemiological study showing that there is no link between even the heaviest marijuana smoking and lung cancer has received much publicity. The senior researcher Dr. Donald Tashkin is an unimpeachable source because up until now his work has been used to promote the idea of such a link. Apparently, there are still some hone
  • May 30, 2006

    Clarence Beeks??

    by Liberty and Power

    A great character actor I always enjoyed, Paul Gleason, has died. Obit here. Check him out on IMDB -- impressive list ranging from Trading Places to Miami Vice, although he's probably better known for the Breakfast Club and Die Hard.
  • May 30, 2006

    The Bribe of the Righteous

    by Liberty and Power

    "The bribe of the righteous is usually a supposed good to be secured by a little twisting of principle, of course only this once."

    Isabel Paterson,"The Riddle of Chief Justice Taney in the Dred Scott Decision," Georgia Review 3 (Summer 1949), 201.

  • May 29, 2006

    "More than 1,000 Desert UK Forces"

    by Liberty and Power

    According to the BBC,"[m]ore than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted the armed forces since the start of the 2003 Iraq war."

    It comes as the UK Parliament considers a bill to make it an offense for military personnel to refuse to participate in the occupation of a foreign country. Refusal would be punishable by a maximum life sentence in prison.

    "[T]he BBC has been told that more than 1,000 military
  • May 29, 2006

    Unhappy Anniversary

    by Liberty and Power

    On May 7th the hundred year anniversary of the District of Columbia Pharmacy and Poisons Act, America’s first federal drug law, occurred. To coincide with the occasion Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML and the California Drug Policy Forum, has written an outstanding article putting the enactment into historical context and discussing its ramifications.

    I liked it so much I assigned it to my online cl

  • May 26, 2006

    Natural, Not National Rights

    by Liberty and Power

    Somewhere in my reading about immigration, someone made the deceptively simple point that it's not immigration we should be talking about but migration. That's another way of saying the focus has been on"us," when it should be on the people coming to the United States. The discussion has proceeded as if they have no rights in the matter but we do. We will let them come here if and only if we have a use for them. And"we" doesn't refer to a group of free individuals, but