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Liberty and Power

  • May 8, 2006

    The Israel Lobby: The Debate Continues

    by Liberty and Power

    As readers would expect, the London Review of Books has carried extended correspondence about Mearsheimer and Walt's article on the Israel Lobby about which my co-blogger Sheldon Richman posted a while ago. Go here to read the first letters, here to read Alan Dershowitz and others, and
  • May 8, 2006

    More on M&W

    by Liberty and Power

    This TNR essay is important, also. Unfortunately, it's registration-required. But you're savvy enough to get around that, aren't you?
  • May 8, 2006

    Lusitania: The 9-11 That Didn't Lead to War

    by Liberty and Power

    A German submarine sank the British passenger ship Lusitania nine-on years ago on this date. Over thousand people died including 128 Americans.

    Outraged politicians and newspapers demanded revenge and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, the lone antiwar voice in the administration, resigned in protest. It looked like war was inevitable.

    In a few weeks, however,

  • May 8, 2006

    America's Finest?

    by Liberty and Power

    For an interesting account of gang activity in the U.S. military, read this account. It would, of course, be absurd to blame all U.S. atrocities in Iraq on the presence of members of black and Latino gangs and the Aryan Nation. That said, I suspect military recruiters are quite happy to have young men with this sort of background help do the dirty work of"pacifying" the local population and even win a
  • May 7, 2006

    A Fascinating Article on Contemporary China

    by Liberty and Power

    The spring 2006 issue of Dissent magazine carries a fascinating account of teaching political theory in Beijing. There's many fewer political constraints than you might think.

    Hat tip to Lew Rockwell.
  • May 6, 2006

    Who Said This?

    by Liberty and Power

    "Me, I have no political heroes. I can take them all or leave them. Even as pure and wonderful and I am (?), I’m afraid that too much power would make a monster out of me too."

    Zora Neale Hurston in Carla Kaplan, ed., Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters (New York: Anchor Books, 2003),654.

  • May 6, 2006

    The Sorcerer's Apprentice

    by Liberty and Power

    Trump and Stewart are trying to keep it under wraps, that the Sorcerer (Dick Cheney)'s Apprentice (George W.) may be auditioning for their shows.

    The question is, what job to Apprentice him into, and should we wait 3 more years?

    George again showed his incredible ineptitude as a Sorcerer-in- Training by his neglect of the situation in America while he was off chasing Dragons of Mass Destruction (DMDs) in Iraq.

    Meanwhile, back at the Ranch

  • May 5, 2006

    Rights Under Attack

    by Liberty and Power

    This year marks the tenth anniversary of PhreakNIC, the event that began as the largest U.S. hacker convention east of the Mississippi, and evolved into a national technology and culture symposium with a distinct cyberpunk mentality. This year's theme is"Rights Under Attack."

    Last year's focus was surveillance. Artist Todd Lyles set the tone with his striking parody of Uncle Sam:
  • May 5, 2006

    Closing the Last Private Space in America

    by Liberty and Power

    Long ago, it was commonly claimed that a"a man's home is his castle." Of course, it is no longer possible to say this with a straight face.

    In recent decades, many of us came to regard the interior of our automobile as a new" castle" of freedom and sovereignty. Apparently, however, if a growing number of state legislators have their way, the days of this last private refuge are numbered.

    By a vote of 66 to 31, the L

  • May 4, 2006

    Satchmo and Marijuana

    by Liberty and Power

    In an article for HNN, L and P blogger Keith Halderman explores Louis Armstrong's pro-liberty views on Marijuana:

    Armstrong maintained marijuana to be a thousand times better than whiskey and that it relaxed him while also keeping him clear headed. He pointed out that, though he smoked marijuana, during the enti
  • May 3, 2006

    Galbraith, Again

    by Liberty and Power

    It occurred to me that I was too easy on the recently late John Kenneth Galbraith the other day. In the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, David Henderson reminded us:
    He was also Kennedy's ambassador to India in the early 1960s. While there, Galbraith gave a series of speeches on economic development in which he hailed the role of government planning as opposed to economic freedom. In one speech, Galbraith stated,"The market cannot reach forward to t
  • May 3, 2006

    Boobus Americanus Can't Find the Baghdad Cafe

    by Liberty and Power

    Our public schools in action:

    "Despite nearly constant news coverage since the war there [Iraq] began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country on a map of the Middle East. Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel."

  • May 3, 2006

    The Frightening Unitary Executive Doctrine

    by Liberty and Power

    George II and his people have made frightening claims about the scope of the allegedly inherent and implied powers of the presidency. Under this doctrine, a president may do anything in the name of fighting a war. Since in the administration's view the current and implicitly permanent "war on terror" includes the U.S. in the battlefield, the president can pretty much ignore the Bill of Rights even for citizens. Bye-bye Fourth Amendment protections. See ya, habeas corpus. Laws and treat
  • May 2, 2006

    The Immigration Solution

    by Liberty and Power

    Bill Walker over at LewRockwell.com nails it, as he takes on the economic, cultural and other arguments for leviathan to"do something" about illegal immigration:
    Libertarians should have learned by now to be a little suspicious when politicians offer to solve our problems with the use of minefields and secret police. Especially when it’s the same politicians who created the problems in the first place.

    We laugh
  • May 2, 2006

    The Sad Case of Sal Culosi

    by Liberty and Power

    Over at Cato (and previously on FoxNews.com), I have an overview and update piece on Sal Culosi, the Virginia optometrist shot and killed by a local SWAT team. Culosi's" crime" was wagering on sports with a group of friends.

    Since his death last January, Fairfax County officials have intimidated the dead man's friends and family (likely in anticipation of the family's lawsuit); refused to name, discipline, or prosecute t
  • May 2, 2006

    John Kenneth Galbraith

    by Liberty and Power

    John Kenneth Galbraith died at age 97 over the weekend. The nicest thing I can say about him is that he spent his long career trying to subjugate the individual to an all-powerful state administered by him and people like him. His answer to concentrated corporate power was concentrated political power, which is the source of corporate power in the first place.

    Cross-posted at Free Association.
  • May 1, 2006

    T.R.M. Howard: Thirty Years Later

    by Liberty and Power

    T.R.M. Howard (pictured fourth from the left during the Emmett Till trial) died thirty years ago on this date. He made his mark whether it was in business, voluntary mutual aid, or politics. He rose from poverty to become one of the wealthiest blacks in Mississippi. His investments included an insurance company, home construction firm, cotton plantation, and small zoo. His hospital in the all-black