Book Review: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2003 War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges (New York: Public Affairs, 2002); 211 pages; $23. During the Second World War, my mother worked for the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C. When I was growing up, she would sometimes look back at those war years with a great degree of nostalgia. She would say that in ...
Racism and the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2003 Its all fine and good that Trent Lott is no longer Senate majority as a result of his praise for Strom Thurmonds 1948 race for president, in which Thurmond endorsed segregation. Its also fine and good that Lotts fellow members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, overwhelmingly condemned his racial insensitivity and elected Bill Frist in his stead. But given ...
The Costs and Madness of Empire by Richard M. Ebeling February 28, 2003 The costs of the American Empire become clearer with each passing day, as the U.S. government releases information about its various global actions and plans. The latest ones relate to the ongoing Muslim insurgency movement in the Philippines and the outlines for the making of a ...
Free or Not? by Sheldon Richman February 23, 2003 Free Bonus! FanMail!! Time magazine recently published its annual cover story on health, focusing on the relationship between mind and body. To its credit, it contains some rarely heard criticisms of the mental-health laws, which nearly everyone accepts as appropriate in the land of the free. But as John Cloud writes, “ diagnoses can ...
Healthcare Socialism by Scott McPherson February 21, 2003 Some ideas die hard. Among the most resilient is the utopian belief that health care could be cheap, free, and available to all, if only we’d let the government take care of it. It was in the spirit of reviving this tragically unwise socialist idea that former president Bill Clinton ...
The French Got It Right This Time by Sheldon Richman February 21, 2003 (BONUS! Hatemail from op-ed editors in response to this article.) The American put-downs of the French over their unwillingness to sign up for the Coalition of the Willing are a little too glib for my tastes. There’s the story of the American who asked the French citizen if he speaks ...
Speaking Out for Freedom in War and Peace by Richard M. Ebeling February 21, 2003 If war comes between the United States and Iraq, one of the first results right here in America will be the attempt to close off all further criticisms of U.S. foreign policy. Spokesmen for the Bush administration, various members of Congress, and many of the talking heads on the ...
Points to Ponder at Five Minutes before Midnight by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2003 On the eve of the U.S. government’s upcoming invasion of Iraq, we might want to ponder some important points: 1. The invasion will be illegal under the supreme law of the United States. Our Constitution, which is the law that binds the conduct of our public officials, requires a congressional declaration of war before the president can ...
The Iraqi Expulsion of Fox News by Jacob G. Hornberger February 19, 2003 The Iraqi government is throwing Fox News out of Iraq, apparently in retaliation for the U.S. government’s expulsion of a correspondent for the Iraqi News Agency (INA) for engaging in actions “harmful to U.S. interests.” Since the INA is owned and operated by the Iraqi government, it ...
Economic Sanctions in Iraq as a Tool of Foreign Policy by Robert W. McGee February 17, 2003 The United States has been imposing economic sanctions against Iraq since the early 1990s. Technically, they are UN sanctions, but the United Nations is involved in name only. The embargo would collapse within about 15 minutes if the United States withdrew its support for the sanctions. FACTS Since their inception, the ...
Taxing Dividends: Once Is Not Enough? by Sheldon Richman February 14, 2003 Why is it controversial to propose an end to double taxation? The centerpiece of President Bush’s economic package is elimination of the tax on dividends. No one disputes that this is a double tax. A corporation pays taxes on its profits. Then if it distributes the after-tax profits ...
War with Iraq Is Dangerous Folly by Howard Baetjer Jr. February 14, 2003 Suppose we do get proof that Saddam Hussein is producing banned weapons and hiding them from UN inspectors. Starting a war with Iraq on that account would be utter folly. It would very likely do far, far more harm than good. Those yearning to let slip the dogs of war, in ...