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Liberty and Power

  • Jan 22, 2004

    IDEOLOGY AND MYTH IN AMERICAN POLITICS

    by Liberty and Power

    In one of my very first undergraduate political science courses at New York University, I studied with H. Mark Roelofs, who wrote Ideology and Myth in American Politics. I'll never forget the first class: I swear ... he sounded like a villain out of an Ayn Rand novel."There is no such thing as objectivity," he bellowed."This class will be devoted to my opinion. You can certainly try to interject your own opinions, but I won't be listening." I figured it would be downhill fro

  • Jan 21, 2004

    AN ARGUMENT FOR DENNIS KUCINICH

    by Liberty and Power

    An Associated Press canvass of the candidates on what album they'd most like to pop into their CD players turns up gospel, opera, hip-hop, country and rock.

    The rock fans are Wesley Clark, who likes Journey's"Greatest Hits"; Sen. John Edwards,"The Essential Bruce Springsteen"; and Sen. John Kerry, the Beatles'"Abbey Road."

    Howard Dean singled out the music of Grammy-winning hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean. Rep. Dennis Kucinich chose country's Willie Nelson (who has endorsed him), and

  • Jan 21, 2004

    Moon/Mars

    by Liberty and Power

    To the amazement of many, Bush is championing the boondoggle known as NASA in a bid both to set up permanent human digs on the moon and to reach Mars. At the same time he shows no interest in privatizing space and exploration despite private entrepreneurs almost begging to do so at their own expense. Conspiracy theories abound. Wired claims that Bush's pro
  • Jan 21, 2004

    IOWA CAUCUS

    by Liberty and Power

    On Comedy Central’s The Daily Show tonight they did a story on the Iowa Caucus and Stephen Colbert said that Howard Dean’s numbers had “dropped like a duck on Demerol.”

    I agree with Chris Matthew Sciabarra when he said in his post yesterday, referring to the Democratic Party nominating process after the Iowa results, that, “This might actually be fun to watch.” Though, I hope it is not too much fun because that could mean a brokered

  • Jan 20, 2004

    AMERICA'S BLOODIEST RACE WAR?

    by Liberty and Power

    Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the History Channel's documentary on Little Big Horn this weekend, but I did happen to catch the promos for the show which billed the event as"America's bloodiest race war."

    Beyond the smart-alecky observation that this curious terminology sounds both politically correct and Mansonesque at the same time, I don't have much comment on this. Howe

  • Jan 20, 2004

    MY VERY FIRST BLOG

    by Liberty and Power

    I'm Mark and I'm your guest blogger this week. Thank you, David, for your kind invitation to blog at Liberty & Power. I'm looking forward to the week ahead.

    For those who don't know me, I've been a libertarian for well over thirty years. I was born in Windsor and grew up in Egham, a small town southwest of London and very near Runnymede, where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215. I have resided in the U.S. for twenty of the past twenty-five years. For many years I taught econom

  • Jan 20, 2004

    PAUL O'NEILL'S BOOK OF REVELATIONS

    by Liberty and Power

    Here's a revelation from the Paul O'Neill book that isn't getting nearly as much play as it deserves:

    Mr. O'Neill also pushed the president to set aside $1 trillion of the projected surpluses to fund one of Mr. Bush's big ideas during the campaign: the privatization of Social Security. Allowing people to invest Social Security contributions into private retirement accounts would reduce the government's future re

  • Jan 20, 2004

    UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA CENSORSHIP: MOBILE REGISTER ARTICLE

    by Liberty and Power

    Sean Reilly from the Washington Bureau of the Mobile Register has penned a lengthy article about the University of Alabama's ban of the Alabama Observer. The Observer is the newspaper of an organization I head, the Alabama Scholars Association. The article begins:

    "A conservative faculty organization at the University of Alabama is accusing administrators of censorship after the group was barred from using the campus mail system to distribute its newspaper without regular postage.

    Lea

  • Jan 20, 2004

    POLITICAL MUSINGS

    by Liberty and Power

    For political junkies, like myself, this is the kind of competitive season on which I feast. No, I'm not talking about the return of"American Idol" (which is always a hoot to watch). I'm talking about the Presidential primary season.

    Arthur Silber has some very nice musings on the subject of the Iowa caucus and the Presidential race, especially the need for a pos

  • Jan 19, 2004

    CONSUMER SOVEREIGNTY

    by Liberty and Power

    Another point about consumer sovereignty: producers are consumers too. Suppose you want to hire me to teach a philosophy course with only multiple-choice tests, but I refuse to offer the course unless I can give essay tests. Does this conflict with consumer sovereignty? Not at all. Teaching the course my way is a consumption good for me; it's part of the price I demand for my services. And of course each of us is free to take or leave the
  • Jan 19, 2004

    ARE STUDENTS CUSTOMERS?

    by Liberty and Power

    No, says Joe Nathan:
    The best relationship between educators and families is via partnership. And this is not at all the same kind of thing that's involved when a family goes to a restaurant or a grocery store to buy food, or a department store to buy clothing. Although I may return to the business if I'm pleased with the food or clothing, there is no need for ongoing conversation between the busi
  • Jan 17, 2004

    In Defense of the Caucus!

    by Liberty and Power

    As an irrationally proud and defensive Iowan, I am annoyed by the headline of the top story on the Slate front page. It says:"The Phantom Pollbooth: Why You'll Never Know who won Iowa." (The headline over the story itself reads, cryptically,"The Vanishing.")

    The implication here is that there is something wrong with the caucus system, as if there is some one right, especially legitimate, way to choose dele