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Liberty and Power

  • Apr 21, 2004

    Government Stripped Bare

    by Liberty and Power

    Do you want to see the true nature of government, particularly the U.S. government? Then read this, this, and this. No comment necessary.
  • Apr 21, 2004

    The Supreme, Irreplaceable Value of a Single Human Life

    by Liberty and Power

    I am not at all surprised, but I am profoundly saddened, that circumstances force me to revisit a topic that I would have greatly preferred not to have to discuss again. That subject is a military draft. To begin with, we have this news story:

    A senior Republican lawmaker said that deteriorating security in Iraq (news - web sites) may forc
  • Apr 21, 2004

    Military Fodder

    by Liberty and Power

    I got up this morning and, while having a little breakfast, I decided to watch a bit of the morning news shows. First up was the Today show. Matt Lauer was busy interviewing Sen. Joseph Biden and Sen. Chuck Hagel about the buzz concerning the military draft. The gents were also kind enough to let us know that the administration is sitting on a $50 to 75 billion request for additional fun

  • Apr 20, 2004

    Deluding Ourselves

    by Liberty and Power

    When I read Arthur Silber’s post below, the first sentence of his quote from the National Review, sparked a thought. The magazine wrote; “Since the conclusion of the war, the Bush administration has shown a dismaying capacity to believe its own public relations.”

    After reading this it occurred to me that the entire case against pulling our troops out of Iraq tomorrow is based on a delusion. It is the idea that somehow we are i

  • Apr 20, 2004

    Heaven Help Us!

    by Liberty and Power

    The New York Times reports today on research supposedly designed to"measure" what's going on in people's brains when they see various political images. In other words: more mumbo-jumbo from the world of neuroscience. (If I find out there was tax funding for this, I know which part of my brain will erupt.) A sponsor of the study said,"These new tools could help us someday be less reliant on clichés and unproven adag
  • Apr 19, 2004

    Another Piece on Free Trade

    by Liberty and Power

    In response to Pat's post below, let me plug an essay of mine on the subject of free trade. I hope it hits the same level of passion that Pat desires, and that John achieves. It was published online for awhile, but the site is gone, so it rests on my homepage. I'm hoping to find a good home for it - all suggestions welcome. After circulating this link on our faculty listserv, I got several invites to classes of lefty colleagues to give
  • Apr 19, 2004

    Conservative Crackup

    by Liberty and Power

    Following up on a fine post by Arthur Silber concerning the crackup in modern-day conservatism over the war in Iraq (and don't forget to check out Silber's post on Jim Pinkerton as well), I'd just like to highlight an article by David D. Kirkpatrick in today's NY Times, entitled"
  • Apr 19, 2004

    Just Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

    by Liberty and Power

    You can be certain that a disaster must be in the making, when reality manages to seep through even into the editorial ranks at National Review. Via Matthew Barganier (and as David Beito already mentioned here), I note that those self-same editors who have been endlessly advocating for remaking the entire Middle East -- for which project the invasion of Iraq was onl

  • Apr 19, 2004

    The Clear, Ringing Sound of Principle

    by Liberty and Power

    From today's New York Times:

    "We don't want to put troops into a situation that is increasingly a public-relations problem for the president," said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a group of conservative political donors."No one wants body bags coming home in September and October."

    Or November 1 or 2.

  • Apr 18, 2004

    "The Natural State of Human Rule"

    by Liberty and Power

    George Will has an intriguing and unusually thoughtful column in Newsweek:

    The president correctly says,"It's not a civil war." But that is bad news. Were it a civil war, many Iraqis would be eagerly fighting the insurgents, and we could help them. Perhaps Iraqis are, as the president says,"a proud and independent people." But they have no living memory of moderate politics of which they can be proud. Hence Americ