Departments

;

Liberty and Power

  • Apr 18, 2006

    Castro Reinvents the Cuban Revolution—Again

    by Liberty and Power

    Leftist Richard Gott has written an interesting essay on how Fidel Castro is seeking to ensure that his legacy survives in some shape or form.

    A new direction in economic policy is bringing about greater market liberalization."While health and education will remain free, subsidies on electricity and housing will be lowered, and food rationing will eventually be phased out." Gott informs us that Castro"is not moving
  • Apr 18, 2006

    Double Standards?

    by Liberty and Power

    Here is a story that compares the official treatment of Rep. Cynthia McKinney with that of Rep. Tom Lantos. Perhaps there's more to be said about both incidents but I suggest the article throws an interesting light on how the U.S. Capitol Police treats different members of Congress.
  • Apr 17, 2006

    George Mason's Feet of Clay

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    We should never let our admiration for a thinker’s virtues blind us to his flaws (or, of course, vice versa). Commenting on past U.S presidents, I recently wrote:

    [I]t often seems like the better they are, the worse they are; i.e., when you look at the Presidents who d
  • Apr 17, 2006

    Patents and Other Privileges

    by Liberty and Power

    The New York Times had an enlightening story yesterday on the background to the BlackBerry patent miscarriage of justice. It turns out that a computer pioneer and entrepreneur who hates the idea of patents wrote about wireless e-mail a decade before the idea was patented, and this fact was overlooked or withheld when Thomas Campana patented the idea and when Campana's patent-holding company, NTP, sued Resear
  • Apr 16, 2006

    Good Quote

    by Liberty and Power

    Browsing Chomsky on Anarchism at Barnes & Noble today, I came across this quotation from Daniel Bell:
    It has been war rather than peace that has been largely responsible for the acceptance of planning and technocratic modes in government.
    Conservatives who sincerely dislike big government might think about that one.

    Cross-posted at Free Association.
  • Apr 14, 2006

    Gotta Love 'Em

    by Liberty and Power

    I love those conservatives and Republicans who say that the key to ending the illegal immigration"problem" is to crack down on the employers who hire the"aliens." Whatever happened to free enterprise? It's okay as long as businesses hire the right people.

    But the illegals broke the law, they say. There's no duty to obey an unjust law. I thought that was established long ago.
  • Apr 14, 2006

    "Failure to File" Says It All

    by Liberty and Power

    “Willful failure to file a tax return is a misdemeanor per IRC Section 7203. In egregious cases, willful failure to file may be elevated to a felony under IRC 7201 Tax Evasion. In addition, a civil penalty for fraudulent failure to file may be applicable per IRC Section 6651(f).”

    That passage in the Internal Revenue Manual, Part 25 (Special Topics), Chapter 1 (Fraud Handbook), Section 7 (Failure to File) is enough to sober up a drunk. (See it for yourself at the IRS websi
  • Apr 14, 2006

    Michelle Malkin's Campus Crusade Backfires

    by Liberty and Power

    Here's a story that provides a cautionary tale for those conservatives, like David Horowitz, who believe they can outwit their opponents on campus by fighting fire with fire.

    In a classic Horowitz-style campaign, Malkin and other conservatives took up the cause of students who complained about an idiotic instruct

  • Apr 14, 2006

    Exploiting the Workers

    by Liberty and Power

    I discuss tax day here, mainly focusing on taxes as an assault on the workers to benefit the corporate state, and why liberals should come to recognize that once again.

    I briefly mention in passing one little bit of history that a lot of Americans, including educated libertarians, seem not to know, despite its not being that obscure or esoteric: that the Income Tax Amendment was the dirty work of Republican William Ho
  • Apr 14, 2006

    Secret Gold Tooth Seizure Sought

    by Liberty and Power

    Federal Prosecutors in Washington state have, in my opinion, sunk to a new low. They tried to use asset forfeiture procedures to secretly seize the gold tooth crowns out of the mouths of two drug suspects. The crowns are permanently bonded to the teeth and would have had to have been ripped out by a dentist. Mind you, the two men, Flenard T. Neal Jr. and Donald Jamar Lewis, have not yet been convicted of any crime.

  • Apr 13, 2006

    A Dismissive Word

    by Liberty and Power

    The Associated Press has a story about an Esquire article concerning comedian Dave Chappelle's choice to leave his highly successful television series. The move caused quite a bit of controversy and "his decision to leave the Comedy Central series last May led fans and industry executives to question his motives, and his sanity."

    This is not the first time Chappelle has sp

  • Apr 12, 2006

    Passover and the "Quiz Time" discussion

    by Liberty and Power

    I have just returned from our university's annual Passover Seder, a holiday that celebrates the freedom of Jews and the freedom of all people everywhere by recounting not just the Exodus from Egypt, but also all the various times that Jews have had to struggle for their freedom against both the state and the sorts of tropes about Jews that legitimize that state power. Juxtaposing the most libertarian of Jewish holidays against my reading in the "Qu
  • Apr 12, 2006

    Bush and Blair's Policy on Iran Is "Completely Nuts"

    by Liberty and Power

    Wednesday's Guardian carries Simon Jenkins's splendid essay on U.S. and UK policy on Iran.

    The title says it all:"If ever there was a nation not to drive to extremes, it is Iran."

    "The US and Britain are goading Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, while Blair's jihadist rhetoric is inciting a fourth crusade."

    He concludes,"One country in the region that has retained some political plura
  • Apr 12, 2006

    Oprah: Wealth is "A Good Thing"

    by Liberty and Power

    You go, girl:

    Speaking in Baltimore on Monday at a fundraiser for Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, Winfrey told the audience,"I have lots of things, like all these Manolo Blahniks. I have all that and I think it's great. I'm not one of those people like, 'Well, we must renounce ourselves.' No, I

  • Apr 11, 2006

    Quiz time

    by Liberty and Power

    "The crucial factor in President Bush's decision to attack [Iraq] was to help Israel."

    Is the source of this quote the much debated Mearsheimer and Walt article or an essay on the Holocaust revisionist Institute for Historical Review website?

    Tough one, eh?

    It's the latter, and it appears as part of a pair of neo-Nazi flyers that made the rounds on walls at Harvard this week. The author of tha