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Liberty and Power

  • Jun 6, 2004

    More on Assisted Suicide

    by Liberty and Power

    Here is my response to the private reaction I got to my position on the Ayn Rand Institute’s statement on physician-assisted suicide:

    Thomas Szasz's point about principals and assistants is crucial because clear language is both an inducement to and a consequence of clear thought. The physician is not merely an assistant if he has the power to veto the patient's desire

  • Jun 6, 2004

    Bushes on Reagan

    by Liberty and Power

    The most sickening parts of the tributes to Ronald Reagan are the ones coming from George H. W. and George W. Bush, both of whom tried to score political points by taking none-too-subtle shots at Reagan's reputation for favoring small government. What else did"a kinder, gentler nation" and" compassionate conservatism" mean?
  • Jun 6, 2004

    Ronald Reagan

    by Liberty and Power

    I was never a big Reagan fan. There was always more small-government talk than action. And in foreign affairs, there wasn't even talk. But I will say this: I despised most of his enemies, for they were the type who believe that anyone who opposes activist government is a bumpkin whose views deserve no response. By the way, my favorite picture of him is the one of him reading The Freeman while on an airplane, with Nancy asleep next to him, her head on his shoulder. As Steve says below, he
  • Jun 5, 2004

    Wal-Mart is Coming to Town

    by Liberty and Power

    Well two items of news from small-town America today. First is that today was the official start of summer in Canton, with the Dairy Princess Festival and Parade. You really haven't experienced small-town America until you've had a Kraft caramel hurled at your head by a 10 year-old girl in a cow costume.

    Second is the apparent arrival of a Wal-Mart Supercenter to the Canton-Potsdam area. There are non-Supercenter Wal-Marts 20 and 40 minutes away in other towns, but this wil

  • Jun 5, 2004

    Pay-Offs and Buy-Outs in Academia

    by Liberty and Power

    We have heard little from Mississippi State University lately, after University officials successfully bought off Professors Glamser and Stringer.

    Even the titilating website,"firethames.com," has closed up shop.

    Should we be surprised? Probably not. Faculties are made up mostly of selfish and self-centered egoists who do not define themselves as members of the same class, and whose sense of collective interests, therefore, is deeply stunted. We behave as if we were singular lit

  • Jun 5, 2004

    Ominous Feelings

    by Liberty and Power

    I'm beginning to fear that Bush-Cheney-Rove are going to wiggle out of the tight spot they've been in. Truces are being arranged in the troublesome cities. American casualties will become scarce. The UN Security Council will pass the U.S.-U.K. resolution apparently giving the new Iraqi interim government"full sovereignty," including the authority to ask U.S. and other foreign forces to leave. Even though the new U.S.-backed Iraqi prime minister says that their exit would be a"disaster," the Bush
  • Jun 5, 2004

    What's the Difference?

    by Liberty and Power

    A serial killer motivated by money is a hit man.
    A serial killer motivated by anything but money is a psychotic.
  • Jun 5, 2004

    What a "History of Mental Illness" Means

    by Liberty and Power

    Submitted to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

    To the Editor:

    I am puzzled by your June 4 story about moving “criminally acquitted patients” from facilities in Little Rock to facilities in Corning (“Judges get final say in patients’ transfers”). If they have been acquitted, why are they being moved anywhere? Then I learned that the Arkansas Partnership Program “has provided treatment to those acquitted of crimes because of mental disease or defect since…1995.” It goes

  • Jun 4, 2004

    Betting on Racing, at Least

    by Liberty and Power

    As Smarty Jones heads toward his date with destiny this weekend at Belmont Park in New York numerous sportswriters and pundits are bemoaning the"death" of horseracing in America. While it's clear that horseracing is not as popular as it once was, most of the arguments one hears about what's wrong with the sport have no grounding in reality.

    See for example this piece in The New Republic on line. Many observers of this b

  • Jun 4, 2004

    Blog Update: Site Feeds Now Provided to L & P Readers

    by Liberty and Power

    Thanks to the computer gurus at HNN, we are now able to provide site feeds to our readers who use news aggregators to keep track of their favorite blogs. The address to link to is http://hnn.us/blogs/rss/4.xml and it is an RSS 2.0 feed.

    Many bloggers use site feeds to check up quickly on regularly visited sites -- this should drive more linkage to L&P.

  • Jun 3, 2004

    Very Well Said

    by Liberty and Power

    Since my time for blogging has been non-existent today, here's a lovely summation from Josh Marshall of the troubles justly visited upon the Bush administration at the moment:

    Now [Tenet]'s the fall-guy for it all, in all likelihood made to take the fall by the true bad-actors.

    Having said all that, beside the possibility that the White House's favored Iraqi exile was an Iranian agent, that

  • Jun 3, 2004

    Breaking News: The Cracker Jack Come Back!

    by Liberty and Power

    Sometimes, it pays to stand up and fight for your principles! As I explained here, the New York Yankees thought they'd replace the sale of Cracker Jacks, at Yankee Stadium, with Crunch 'n Munch. I, along with thousands of other fans, protested this destruction of a noble baseball tradition, immortalized in"Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

    Well, Cracker Jacks have returned to The Stadium by popular demand!

  • Jun 2, 2004

    Ayn Rand Institute Wrong on Assisted Suicide

    by Liberty and Power

    The heirs of Ayn Rand who congregate in Irvine, California, with Leonard Peikoff have blundered. In a news release titled “Assisted Suicide: A Moral Right,” the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) expressed relief that Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide (PAS) law survived a challenge from the Bush administration.” Thomas A. Bowden, an attorney and ARI senior writer, said:

    The real issue is whether each individual lives by right, or only by society's permission. Sometimes happiness becomes