Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard January 27, 2006 The following is the introduction to James Bovard’s new book, Attention Deficit Democracy. The forms of our free government have outlasted the ends for which they were instituted, and have become a mere mockery of the people for whose benefit they should operate. — “Americus” Delusions about democracy ...
Osama’s Back by Jacob G. Hornberger January 27, 2006 Osama bin Laden undoubtedly infuriated President Bush with his most recent audiotape, which was played last week on Aljazeera, for four reasons: First, bin Laden’s tape serves as a reminder to the American people that he is still alive despite the untold number of innocent people that U.S. personnel killed and maimed in the attack on ...
Government Perpetuates the Underclass by Sheldon Richman January 25, 2006 Sunday’s New York Times ran a depressing story about a new study showing that day laborers, most of whom are “illegal aliens,” are often stiffed by employers. Of course, they’re already working in dangerous low-paid construction jobs. The Times reported, “Forty-nine percent of those interviewed said that in the previous two ...
Hurting Wal-Mart’s Employees by Sheldon Richman January 20, 2006 Government is little more than a coercive transfer machine. If you can’t acquire something through consent and exchange, you ask politicians to compel others to provide it. This goes on every day. Never was it more blatant than when the Maryland legislature passed a law to compel Wal-Mart to spend at ...
It Takes Government to Create a Reading Crisis by Sheldon Richman January 11, 2006 When Horace Mann and his colleagues launched the public-school movement some 175 years ago, they made extravagant promises. Turn the education of children over to enlightened altruistic experts working under government auspices, they said, and illiteracy, vice, and crime will become things of the past. I’m not kidding. Most people don’t know ...
Selective Posturing on Guns by Scott McPherson January 9, 2006 I was recently in the Passport Agency in Washington, D.C., and while standing in line I noticed a number of fliers published by the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs providing travel tips for those going to the Middle East, China, Mexico, and Canada. Tips for travelers in China or the Middle ...
The FISA Farce by James Bovard January 9, 2006 President Bush proudly announced last month that he is violating federal law. He declared that in 2002 he ordered the National Security Agency to begin conducting warrantless wiretaps and email intercepts on Americans. He asserted that the wiretaps would continue, regardless of the law. Bush claims that he must ignore the law because the secret federal court created to authorize ...
School-Choice Flaws by Sheldon Richman January 6, 2006 Some advocates of what is euphemistically called “school choice” argue that their reform would be a crucial step along the road to the separation of school and state. Some of us have dissented. Knowing how government works, we’ve had a hunch that vouchers and tuition tax credits would most likely ...
Leaving It All on the Field (Not in the Halls of Congress) by Adam B. Summers January 4, 2006 Congress certainly has had its plate full lately. Important things are going on in the nation and around the world. A New York Times report that President Bush signed a secret order authorizing the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without obtaining warrants has sparked controversy, Iraqis have ...
Book Review: Perilous Times by George Leef January 2, 2006 Perilous Times — Free Speech in Wartime by Geoffrey R. Stone (Norton, 2004); 730 pages; $35. If it is true to say, as Randolph Bourne did, that war is the health of the state, it is equally true to say that war is the sickness of individual liberty. The ...
The Separation of Education and State by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2006 Americans, like most people around the world, have become so accustomed to the role that government plays in educating children that the idea of separating education from the state usually comes as a complete shock to them. While everyone is aware of the ever-growing problems associated with public schooling, the ...
Who Made the State the Ultimate Parent? by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2006 When an opponent declares, “I will not come over to your side,” I calmly say, “Your child belongs to us already.” — Adolf Hitler If you believe that parents have a fundamental, natural right (recognized in the Constitution) to raise ...