Welfare Corruption in the New Deal by Jim Powell September 1, 2009 How likely is it that a big government-spending program — Obama’s or anybody else’s — won’t be manipulated by politicians pursuing their special interests? In two of his recent New York Times columns, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman claimed that Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was free from corruption. Consequently, he thought it was likely that Obama, too, can have an ...
Langdon, Stark, Bennington, and the Triumph of a Private Army, Part 1 by Scott McPherson September 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Had we a standing army, when the British invaded our peaceful shores? Was it a standing army that gained the battles of Lexington, and Bunker’s Hill, and took the ill fated Burgoyne? Is not a well-regulated militia sufficient for every purpose of internal defence? And which of you, my fellow ...
The Supreme Court’s Attacks on Freedom, Part 1 by George Leef September 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom by Robert A. Levy and William Mellor (Sentinel, 2008); 299 pages. Americans like lists. Most often, we get “Top Ten” lists, but this book is a ...
Ten Tenets of Freedom, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 Even while resisting the steady erosion of liberty in America, it is important that we keep in mind an overall vision of what a free society looks like. For if people lose sight of the “big picture,” the risk is that they end up settling for — and even celebrating — an unfree society ...
Obama’s Betrayals by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2009 After President Obama announced he would fight the release of photographs showing American soldiers abusing “war on terror” detainees, Richard Haass, president of the quintessentially mainstream Council on Foreign Relations, said that Obama had learned the difference between campaigning and governing. He wasn’t being ironic. It was said during the presidential campaign that one of the candidates was running for ...
The Media As Enablers of Government Lies by James Bovard August 1, 2009 Why do politicians so easily get away with telling lies? In large part, because the news media are more interested in bonding with politicians than in exposing them. Americans are encouraged to believe that the media will serve as a check and a balance on the government. Instead, the press too often volunteer as unpaid pimps, helping politicians deceive ...
Obama’s Link to “Old Iron Pants” by Jim Powell August 1, 2009 Since Barack Obama pledged a “New New Deal” for the American people, he has been favoring a combination of more government spending, more government regulations, and more power for labor unions. This has led some observers to conclude that he might be drawing inspiration from “Old Iron Pants” — the hard-drinking, fast-talking Gen. Hugh Johnson, Time magazine’s 1933 “Man ...
Imprisoning Musical Creativity by Jennifer Warren-Baker August 1, 2009 I am a composer. Since the age of 12, I have been painting canvases of sound at the piano. But my teachers never cared. In fact, my type of talent was deemed worthless by the government’s public-school system. Growing up in the D.C. area, I didn’t have any real models to follow. In the shadow of the nation’s capital, ...
A Prudent Foreign Policy by Doug Bandow August 1, 2009 Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America by Ted Galen Carpenter (Cato Institute, 2008); 352 pages. Change has come to Washington in the form of a new administration. Yet the cast of characters looks much the same. Their philosophies, while differing in degree, remain solidly interventionist. The question ...
Gold and Freedom, Part 4 by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 On April 5, 1933 — about a month after taking office — President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order commanding every American to turn in his gold to the federal government. The order was soon ratified by Congress, which made it a felony offense for Americans ...
Still Meddling After All These Years by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2009 American presidents have long regarded Latin America as their “backyard.” The Monroe Doctrine warned the European powers to stay out — by what right? — and since then American chief executives have deemed it entirely proper to intervene when things did not go as they liked. Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the ...
The Early History of a Worldwide Nuisance by James Bovard July 1, 2009 Few federal agencies have as much bipartisan support as the National Endowment for Democracy. Created in 1983, NED’s stated mission is to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts.” In actuality, NED allows U.S. politicians to meddle in foreign elections at the same time they pretend ...