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Liberty and Power

  • Aug 25, 2004

    Bush's loyalty oath

    by Liberty and Power

    Bush organizers are requiring people in New Mexico (and apparently elsewhere) to sign a loyalty oath pledging their support before they will be issued tickets to attend an RNC rally. The
  • Aug 25, 2004

    USA Today

    by Liberty and Power

    URLs reconfigured FYI: I have an editorial in the current issue of USA Today regarding Kobe Bryant's accuser. For more commentary, please see McBlog.
  • Aug 24, 2004

    Expect Bill Bennett to Blame Nintendo

    by Liberty and Power

    How does an occupying force amuse itself in a country where booze, dope, and hookers are hard to come by? From today's Washington Post:
      An Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal has found that military police dogs were used to frighten detained Iraqi teenagers as part of a sadistic game, one of many details in the forthcoming report that were provoking expressions of concern and disgus
  • Aug 23, 2004

    Being Pro-War Is Not Necessarily Patriotic

    by Liberty and Power


    As the 21st century dawns, Americans have come to define patriotism as uncritical support of war and the military. In this year’s presidential campaign, John Kerry touts his war exploits in Vietnam, and those with connections to George W. Bush try to rewrite this history decades later. The president dresses up in military garb and lands on an aircraft carrier, pretending to be a war hero to make people forget that he avoided the danger of conflict years earlier. Both Bush and Kerry favor
  • Aug 23, 2004

    Within and Between Ostracism

    by Liberty and Power

    Regarding David's post, here's a thought I posted on SCSU Scholars. Suppose you ran a school in a predominantly minority neighborhood, and you actually tracked kids by ability level. Suppose, moreover, that you let everyone -- including parents -- know you were doing it. Because intelligent kids have been ostracized in America rega
  • Aug 23, 2004

    Introduction

    by Liberty and Power

    Hi, I'm Matt Barganier, and Prof. Beito graciously invited me to guest blog here for awhile. I'm an editor at Antiwar.com and the 2nd AWCer to post on Liberty & Power (Backtalk editor Sam Koritz was a guest last year). I began working full-time for AWC in May after writing occasionally for the site for over a year. Before joining Antiwar.com, I received a BA in history and philosop
  • Aug 21, 2004

    The Second Empire Strikes Back

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    The years 1848-1852 were particularly interesting times (in the Chinese sense) for France; I'm currently reading through accounts of this period by such contemporary witnesses as Tocqueville, Dunoyer, Proudhon, Molinari, Marx, and Hugo. (This was also of course the period in which the"problem of the best régime" was finally solved -- in theory though alas not in practice -- by Molinari in h
  • Aug 21, 2004

    What Motivates the Kerry Smear Merchants: The Demand for Obedience, Revisited

    by Liberty and Power

    Last week, I wrote an entry about the smear campaign directed at John Kerry, entitled"Sinking into the Filth." Unfortunately, subsequent events compel me to revisit this very unpleasant subject.

    A few aspects of the general context in which this vicious campaign is taking place should be noted at the outset -- and these particular facts are those which the people engaging in the Kerry attacks would prefer that every

  • Aug 20, 2004

    Speeding

    by Liberty and Power

    I got a speeding ticket two weeks ago. Heading home to Alabama from Ohio, a Tennessee state trooper got me on radar six miles from the Alabama border going 87 in a 70. The cost of the ticket: $172. Ten bucks per mile over the speed limit!

    Now, maybe going 87 sounds fast to you, but consider: it was a clear day, a big highway (I–65), and there was little traffic; moreover, just about every car made in the last ten years, including mine, can cruise at 80 or 90 (or more) in comfort an