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Liberty and Power

  • Jan 7, 2010

    L&P Bloggers in Phoenix

    by Liberty and Power

    Roderick, David, and I will all be escaping the cold this weekend at the International Society for Individual Liberty retreat in sunny and reasonably warm Phoenix. If you're interested in the schedule, you can find it here.
  • Jan 6, 2010

    Hopefully this is the Start of a Trend

    by Liberty and Power

    Bravo to the Lexington County GOP in South Carolina who voted to censure Senator Lindsey Grahman a noted disparager of libertarian ideas. Predictably, the legislator blames “fringe Ron Paul supporters” rather than his own abysmal record of championing ever more government control over our lives for this event. Since the tally was thirteen to s
  • Jan 4, 2010

    Regime Uncertainty - Now Maybe People Will Take the Idea Seriously

    by Liberty and Power

    Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, Gary S. Becker, Steven J. Davis, and Kevin M. Murphy discuss how the government’s multifaceted efforts to “reform” health care, energy and environmental controls, financial regulation, taxation, monetary policy-making, and various other aspects of the politico-economic order have created such great uncertainty that business people are reluctant to invest or to hire
  • Jan 4, 2010

    Entitlement U.S.A.: Colleges as Attendance Centers

    by Liberty and Power

    Several years ago, I chuckled when I dropped my young daughter off at a friend’s elementary school. In fact, the school was named an “Attendance Center.” I never learned why “school” was suddenly out of fashion.

    “Attendance Center.” How apt a phrase for what is happening in higher education, as every politician and president (Bush and Obama included) promise “more, more, more!”

    A new book is getting acclaim for documenting how simply funding more college “attendees” is a waste of m

  • Jan 1, 2010

    Your Alma Mater Wants Your Money

    by Liberty and Power

    Did you give money to your college last year? If you even gave it a fleeting thought, you might like to read about my dilemma over giving to Wellesley.
  • Jan 1, 2010

    2010

    by Liberty and Power

    Happy new year to all L&P readers and bloggers!
  • Dec 30, 2009

    Thirteen Outstanding Books of the Past Decade

    by Liberty and Power

    The end of a year or a decade tempts many of us to make up lists of the best or the worst of things—events, movies, songs, books—during the interval that is coming to a close. Having consumed many such lists, I now undertake to produce one of my own, with a twist.

    The twist is that I cannot in good conscience represent my list as one that contains the best books of the past decade. My reading is much too limited for me to make up such a list, and I have no doubt that many excellent books w

  • Dec 29, 2009

    Another Old Picture

    by Liberty and Power

    This is from IHS in the Summer of 1987 and includes quite a number of libertarian luminaries in it. Sorry for the large file size but I needed the good resolution.

    The core of the IHS staff at the time is down front: Walter Grinder, Leonard Liggio, John Blundell. In front fo the porch on the right are Randy Barnett, Sheldon Richman, Jeremy Shearmur, and Ralph Raico. Students there include, that I can identify, Roderick Long, Pete Boettke, Dave Prychitko, myself, and I believe th
  • Dec 29, 2009

    Let's Hear It for Gladstone!

    by Liberty and Power

    Today marks the bicentenary of the birth of William Ewart Gladstone, four times prime minister of a Liberal administration.

    Geoffrey Wheatcroft makes the case for the Grand Old Man.

    You can read more about Gladstone here and his family
  • Dec 28, 2009

    A Most Demanding Mistress

    by Liberty and Power

    The sun never set on the world straddling British empire, and not a moment in time may slip past America's Caesar without his steady, Harvard educated mind mulling it over, looking to see if there’s any room for improvement. Poor Obama is learning that power is a ravenous addiction, and not for a moment are you ever left alone.
  • Dec 27, 2009

    Standing Up to the TSA

    by Liberty and Power

    The TSA has apparently put into place new rules for international flights headed to the US, including requiring passengers to stay seated the last hour of the flight. Aside from yet another attempt to stop the last attack, this will be a major inconvenience (buy some Depends stock!). To what degree have these various efforts at social control made us too passive in the face of such inconveniences? At what point do we say "enough is enough" and make it clear that the best defense aga
  • Dec 25, 2009

    More Light on Possible U.S. War Crimes During World War II

    by Liberty and Power

    This story is not likely to make its way to the History Channel. Warren Kozak has a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal, "The Real Rules of War," on massacres of German prisoners by U.S soldiers. At the Battle of the Bulge, for example, the Americans killed over 100 Germans they had captured. According to Kozak, his father, who served in a nearby town, recalled that"We didn't take prisoner
  • Dec 25, 2009

    Will the Real Rate of Unemployment Please Stand Up

    by Liberty and Power

    As the recession has deepened and the rate of unemployment has risen, a number of commentators have sought, for various reasons, to portray the situation as far graver than the “official” rate of unemployment indicates. Some of these commentators charge that the government is deliberately misrepresenting the amount of unemployment and that the “real” rate of unemployment is much greater than the official rate that the government announces and the news media report each month.

    I have no des