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Liberty and Power

  • Jan 16, 2004

    "Embedded"

    by Liberty and Power

    The international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders -- Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) -- has completed its investigation of the US Army's attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on April 8, '03 in which two reporters staying there died. RSF concluded that the deaths"were not a deliberate attack [by the US] on the media. However, it [RSF] said US soldiers should have been told by their commanders that many journalists were

  • Jan 16, 2004

    FELONIOUS MONK

    by Liberty and Power

    [Cross-posted at In a Blog's Stead]

    There's been some discussion recently on L&P (see here, here, and here) as to whether ex-felons should have their Second and Fifteenth Amendment rights restored. Let me add a couple of points in favour of this.

    a) The most funda
  • Jan 15, 2004

    DIDN'T DO A GOOD JOB WITH THIS ONE.

    by Liberty and Power

    Ed at The Captain's Quarters has a story today of a student who doesn't quite understand TANSTAAFL.
    By far the funniest of these was a young lady from our state, who described herself as a college student and a Republican who wants socialism and doesn't think Bush can deliver it. Medved, obviously amused, asked her what she meant by soci
  • Jan 15, 2004

    SPACECRAFT AS SOULCRAFT

    by Liberty and Power

    I totally agree with Will's sentiments on the President's federal" couples counseling" initiative. Not only is it a risibly stupid idea, it illustrates the administration's utter contempt for constitutional limits.

    Lately I've had my eye out for stories that illustrate what a collosal joke the Bush administration has been. Here are a couple:

    Describing the

  • Jan 15, 2004

    HUSSEIN, BIN LADEN, AND GRAMSCI

    by Liberty and Power

    While the debate over the yet-to-be-found Iraqi WMDs continues, let's not forget that one of the other prime reasons for the US invasion was alleged evidence of"ties" between Al Qaeda and the Hussein regime. Because there were networks of Al Qaeda and Iraqi interests, some Bush administration officials suggested a full-fledged alliance was afoot.

    I've no doubt that there were informal networks and, perhaps, even a few formal meetings between various Iraqi and Al Qaeda representati

  • Jan 15, 2004

    BERNSTEIN, LIBERTY OF CONTRACT, AND CIVIL RIGHTS

    by Liberty and Power

    David Bernstein shows again why he is one of the more thought-provoking of the new libertarian scholars who write on black history and the history of civil rights. I often learn something new about history when I read his published work and his posts at the Volokh Conspiracy (though we sometimes disagree on foreign policy).

    In his latest post, he writes"I'm teaching the Civil Rights Cases (1883) tomorrow which invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875's prohibition of discrimination by i

  • Jan 15, 2004

    UNDERSTANDING "HOW GOVERNMENT WORKS"

    by Liberty and Power

    Senator Rick Santorum was in a pedagogical frame of mind:

    A Republican senator delivered a blistering attack yesterday against Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards, describing North Carolina’s junior senator as an “empty suit” who lacks understanding of how government works.

    U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania made his remarks yesterday afternoon, in an interview with senior editors

  • Jan 15, 2004

    RE: BARBARIANS AND WIMPS

    by Liberty and Power

    Will's post below is right on the money, especially this bit:

    Conservatives tend to see the feminist movement and the so-called sexual revolution as perverse, willful repudiations of the sorts of regulative convention that make civilization possible. Yet here we are; civilization remains. And they fail to relate these cultural shifts to the ongoing development of capitalism, which, in other moods, they are on

  • Jan 14, 2004

    What About O'Neill's Performance

    by Liberty and Power

    While it is certainly amusing seeing George Bush being portrayed as an alternately detached or conniving incompetent by his ex-Treasury Department head Paul O’Neill, according to two good columns in today’s Washington Times, one by Stephen Moore and the other by Bruce Bartlett, it seems O’Neill was no great shakes as Treasury Secretary himself
  • Jan 14, 2004

    We're the Government. We're Here to Help!

    by Liberty and Power

    This is just nauseating. The New York Times reports that the Bush administration is planning to provide"$1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain 'healthy marriages.'"

    This is apparently what compassionate conservatism comes to: the intrusion of the state in even the most personal spheres of life; social engineering through therapy.

    "We know this is
  • Jan 14, 2004

    Barbarians and Wimps

    by Liberty and Power

    Terence O. Moore is worried that manhood is ailing, and that our culture now produces only barbarians and wimps. While there is some truth to his complaints, my issue with this kind of conservative social criticism is its utter lack of imagination. The world has changed, and despite Moore's loathing of whiners, all he seems to manage is a mannered, whining lament for classical"thumotic" masculinity. One hopes for more f

  • Jan 13, 2004

    ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

    by Liberty and Power

    I continue to find it altogether remarkable that many conservatives and even many"libertarians," who don't trust the government to do much of anything very well on the domestic front, still believe that the same government has the wisdom to remake large portions of the globe, and to bring"democracy" to oppressed countries.

    Well, they're probably right. Two years after 9/11, it seems that everything here in the United States is going