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Liberty and Power



  • Get a Reagan Into the Race

    by Liberty and Power

    Fellow HNN blogger Allan Lichtman has a post, which discusses how the considerable attention paid this past week to Ronald Reagan’s legacy will affect the presidential campaign. He points out that Bush is the natural inheritor of this legacy but also that that fact can be a double-edged sword. Lichtman writes, ”On the one hand, he might be helped by celebration of the conservative heritage and the contributions of Ronald Reagan, which will lik

  • Go Forth and Earn

    by Liberty and Power

    Here's the best advice college grads could possibly get, but is so rarely given to them:
    The conclusion is unavoidable: If you have a good education, you shouldn't just consider getting rich. Creating and amassing wealth is an outright moral obligation. Do so and you can take comfort not just in financing public services but in knowing that you are giving people what they need or want, generating jobs and underwriting the

  • Martha Stewart Meets the X Games

    by Liberty and Power

    Mat_Fox_taxi.sized.jpg

    Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Extreme Ironing:

    Clawing up ice-crusted, razor-sharp mountain peaks can get a little boring. And dangling upside down from a bungee cord over jagged cliffs is, face it, rather ho-hum.


  • The Sounds of Science

    by Liberty and Power

    Here's a very cool NY Times article on the what the early cosmos may have sounded like. Prof. Mark Whittle used ripples in the cosmic microwave background to discern what songs were played in the earliest moments of time:
    The cosmic sound waves stretched 20,000 light-years, moved at half the speed of light, and were about 50 octaves below what people can hear. Dr. Whittle shifted the sounds to the huma

  • A Memorial Day Weekend Tribute to Uncle Sam

    by Liberty and Power

    As the nation remembers its dead from wars past and present on this Memorial Day weekend, and as special attention is being focused on the opening of a National World War II Memorial, I wanted to take a moment to tell you about a man who, not unlike others of his generation, served his country abroad. His name was Salvatore"Sam" Sclafani, first cousin to my Dad, married to my mother's sister, and forever etched in the minds of our family as"Uncle Sa


  • More on Ray and Rushmore

    by Liberty and Power

    I think NY Daily News syndicated columnist Zev Chafets must be reading Liberty & Power. A few days after I noted Brother Ray's passing, and our very own Sheldon Richman suggested adding him to Mount Rushmore, Chafets writes that Charles and other trailblazers of the rock 'n' roll revolution,"deserve a R


  • A Defense of Pleasure

    by Liberty and Power

    Here's a wonderful defense of good eating and the good life by NY Times food critic William Grimes. Excerpt:
    Unfortunately, in the United States, where even serial killers are considered innocent until proved otherwise, all sorts of harmless pleasures are routinely described as guilty.

    May I mount a defense? Most arguments agai


  • Brazen Evil

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    William Saletan of Slate has compiled a chronological series of quotations from Bush, Rumsfeld, etc., showing how, even as the abuses at Abu Ghraib were becoming public knowledge, the Administration continued to mouth the line that U.S. troops had forever rid Iraq of"torture chambers and rape rooms." (Thanks to

  • The Birth of a Narcostate

    by Liberty and Power

    I've discussed the role of Drugs and Terror and the fact that even with the best of intentions, a US invasion of Afghanistan (which I supported) can lead to unintended consequences of monumental significance. In the aftermath of that invasion, Taliban elements still exist, Bin Laden is still at large, and Afghanistan itself is inching ever closer to becoming a major Middle East Narcostate.

    This morning, on"


  • How to Reduce Sports Associated Violence

    by Liberty and Power

    Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel recently got himself in trouble by making a joke that suggested that if the Detroit Pistons won the NBA title there would be violent rioting in that city, saying it just was not worth it. This led to his show being temporarily pulled from the Detroit affiliate and an apology by him. However, like all good satire there is a strong grain of truth in what Kimmel said. Recent history is replete

  • Ranking the Presidents

    by Liberty and Power

    It must be remembered that the survey published by Wall Street Journal, referenced in David Beito’s post below, did not use any objective criteria to give the President’s their rankings. All that really counted was subjective opinion.

    However, in a book titled Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom, edited by John V. Denson and published by the Mises Institute, someone did use a


  • Mount Rushmore

    by Liberty and Power

    There has been talk about adding someone to Mount Rushmore, and I have to agree it's time. Add Ray Charles! (And remove Lincoln and TR.)

  • Peggy's Prose Pierced by Pierce

    by Liberty and Power

    Once upon a time, when the world was a bit younger and the shoe was on the other foot, Miss Peggy Noonan wrote this:

    MEMO

    To: Democrats

    From: Paul Wellstone

    Date: Oct 30, 2002

    My friends, I miss you and send you love.

    That memorial rally was . . . something. I watched it from where I am, in the place beyond. It's wonderful here. You'll be amazed at what I think is one of the