Machiavelli and U.S. Politics Part 4: War by Lawrence M. Ludlow August 19, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 On the subject of war, Machiavelli offers simple advice (chapter 14): Thus a prince should have no other object, nor any other thought, nor take anything else as his art but that of war and its orders ...
Machiavelli and U.S. Politics Part 3: Lies and Appearances by Lawrence M. Ludlow August 19, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 In words that are echoed in the mendacity of today’s political class, Machiavelli enthusiastically endorsed lying. In chapter 18 he summed up his reasons: How praiseworthy it is for a prince to keep his faith, and to ...
The Answer to Cindy Sheehan’s Question by Jacob G. Hornberger August 19, 2005 Cindy Sheehan has asked President Bush an important question: Exactly what “noble cause” did her son Casey die for in Iraq? It’s a question that some Ohio parents whose children were recently killed in Iraq are also asking. It’s a question that every American should be asking.
Cindy Sheehan Is Right by Sheldon Richman August 19, 2005 The sort of people who think there is no greater honor than to die in a war are visibly uncomfortable with Cindy Sheehan. They can’t understand her. Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan, a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. She’s camped outside President Bush’s Crawford, Tex., ranch ...
Machiavelli and U.S. Politics Part 2: Ethics and Creating the Facts by Lawrence M. Ludlow August 17, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Once we understand Machiavelli’s dismal view of humanity, it is easier to understand the ethical universe in which he operates. Machiavelli opens his discussion of princely virtues by immediately discarding them. His explanation is that virtues lack ...
Virginia Politicians and Highway Pork by Jacob G. Hornberger August 17, 2005 For a good example of the moral perversity of the budget-busting, pork-barrel highway bill, consider what recently happened in Bristol, Virginia. While on his annual statewide listening tour across the state, Republican Sen. George Allen proudly told Bristol voters that their local officials were going to receive even more money from Congress than they had ...
Machiavelli and U.S. Politics Part 1: Pattern and Perception by Lawrence M. Ludlow August 15, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 During a much-quoted radio broadcast in October 1939, Winston Churchill commented on the surprise Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland — an invasion that closely followed the German attack from the west, which triggered World War II. In ...
Why Payola Doesn’t Matter by Bart Frazier August 5, 2005 New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has recently leveled a $10 million fine against Sony BMG for payola, a practice in which radio producers are paid for promoting certain songs. Why the fine? The argument against payola is that music lovers are ...
Zen and the Art of Iraqi Regime Change by Sheldon Richman August 3, 2005 What does it mean to overemphasize the presence of what is absent? That Zen-like question arises from an interview the Associated Press recently published with Douglas Feith, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s departing chief policy advisor. Feith told the AP the Bush administration “overemphasized” the matter of weapons ...
A Conflict of Paradigms by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2005 Understanding the true nature of a free society entails asking ourselves two basic questions: What does it actually mean to be free, and what is the legitimate role of government in a free society? Reflecting on those two fundamental questions might provide the way out of the ...
Coercion: It’s What’s for Dinner in Postconstitutional America by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2005 Most recent free-speech controversies have been about government efforts to restrict someone’s right to express himself. So it is noteworthy that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving not stifled speech, but rather coerced speech. Alas, it decided the case wrongly. Everyone has seen the generic TV ...
A New Federal War on Dissent? by James Bovard August 1, 2005 On October 15, 2003, the FBI sent Intelligence Bulletin #89 to 17,000 local and state law-enforcement agencies around the country. The bulletin warned of pending marches in Washington and San Francisco against Bush’s Iraq policy and stated, While the FBI possesses no information indicating that violent or terrorist activities are ...