Assimilation’s the Problem by Jeffrey A. Singer October 24, 2003 This article was originally published in the October 20, 2003 edition of the East Valley Tribune. The outcry grows louder in this time of heightened national security concerns. State budget crunches, high taxes, and recession-caused job losses make the issue more acute. Hardly a day goes by without some call for ...
Animal Rights Absurdity by Scott McPherson October 22, 2003 The “animal rights” group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sued fast-food-chain KFC last summer for allegedly misreporting the way it treats its chickens. PETA’s legal argument was that KFC was misleading the public, a valid complaint if true. But PETA’s broader objectives are not so sound. According ...
The Folly of Invading Iran by James Bovard October 17, 2003 Some Bush administration officials and advisors are hankering for another war. To judge from the saber rattling and rumblings coming out of the White House, the next target could be Iran. But invading Iran would be an act of folly that would make the invasion of Iraq look almost prudent by comparison. Almost no one alleges ...
Crowding Out the Crabbing Market by Scott McPherson October 15, 2003 The Washington Times reported on October 7 that “a proposal to ban crabbing three days a week is netting opposition from crabbers who say their livelihoods are in danger.” According to state officials, harvests of the blue crab need to be reduced by 35 percent if the ...
Legal Plunder in Alabama by Sheldon Richman October 13, 2003 Most Americans would take umbrage at the suggestion that they are serfs rather than citizens of the United States. But that just shows how far removed from political reality they are. How many people would be surprised to learn that the government can take their homes if it decides ...
The Washington Post’s Cave-In on Moussaoui by Jacob G. Hornberger October 8, 2003 In a major reversal of position, it seems that the Washington Post has abandoned its position that the Justice Department should remove Zacarias Moussaoui from the jurisdiction of a federal district court and transfer him to the control of U.S. military authorities for trial by military tribunal. ...
Bush’s New Morally Bankrupt PR Campaign on Terrorism and Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger October 8, 2003 The Bush administration is at it once again — engaging in a new public-relations campaign to scare the American people half to death with the possibility of terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction and to garner support for its invasion and continued occupation of Iraq, which has not only cost the lives of thousands ...
Desperately Seeking WMDs by Sheldon Richman October 6, 2003 The Bush administration wants $600 million to continue looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It’s already spent $300 million in search of the elusive weapons. This is beginning to look like an obsession. With chief weapons searcher David Kay now confirming to Congress that his massive team ...
We’re Number One … But Is That Good? by Jacob G. Hornberger October 3, 2003 Did you know that the United States has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world, that the U.S. inmate population has quadrupled since 1980 to two million people, that $46 billion a year is spent on U.S. prisons, that more than half of the incarcerations are for nonviolent offenses, and that ...
The Doomsday Weapon by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2003 Gun-rights advocates sometimes defend the Second Amendment in terms of the right to defend themselves from criminals and the right to hunt. Those things are, of course, important but they miss the real purpose of the right to keep and bear arms, which is to protect against tyranny imposed by federal officials. As Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski pointedly ...
The Fraud of Insider-Trading Law, Part 2 by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2003 Part 1 | Part 2 It is virtually unquestioned in America today that insider trading in the securities markets is a dastardly act. We must make a distinction here between trading by insiders and trading by insiders on the basis of nonpublic information. Insiders are legally allowed to buy and sell stocks. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires ...
Wilson’s Crusade and Bush’s Crusade by James Bovard October 1, 2003 George Bush’s promise to “rid the world of evil” — which he made in the opening weeks of his war on terrorism — is reminiscent of the 1917 promises of President Woodrow Wilson to “make the world safe for democracy.” Wilson, like Bush, was leading the nation into war and sought to push the hot buttons in Americans’ idealism. ...