Arrogance Is Humility by Sheldon Richman December 4, 2002 Taking a step back from all the particulars, the lesson of 9/11 is that for more than 50 years the U.S. government has put the American people in harm’s way by its heavy-handed intervention in bitter disputes throughout the Middle East. Then, despite hundreds of billions spent each year on “national security” and countless signals ...
D.C. Sniper Didn’t Need Legal Loopholes by Sheldon Richman December 4, 2002 Like clockwork, the gun controllers are shamelessly exploiting the D.C.-area sniper horror to press their agenda. How unseemly it is to attempt to parlay every decent American’s revulsion at random serial murder into support for their program, which would do nothing to prevent such crimes in the future. How many laws ...
With Friends Like These by Jacob G. Hornberger December 2, 2002 Without any shame whatsoever, President Bush has returned John Poindexter, Elliott Abrams, and Henry Kissinger to the federal government. Poindexter is in charge of “Total Information Awareness,” a government information-gathering operation straight out of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Abrams has been appointed as top National Security Council envoy to the Middle East. And ...
Economic Liberty and the Constitution, Part 7 by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2002 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Table of Contents In 1895 the New York legislature enacted a law ...
The Dangers and Costs of Pax Americana by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2002 On September 17, 2002, the White House released a 31-page document entitled “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America.” It spells out the planned global agenda for the U.S. government for the foreseeable future. It is nothing less than the declared statement of the intention for the United States to consciously become the policeman and social ...
In Our Name by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2002 Are we justified in feeling a raging contempt for the people who call themselves our “leaders”? I believe so. For more than 10 years, these people have bombed Iraq and kept food, medicine, and sundry vital supplies from children and other innocent Iraqis in our name, yours and mine. If that isn’t worthy of contempt, what is? And now, if ...
Drug-War Justice for the Rich and Powerful by James Bovard December 1, 2002 Even in these difficult times, a few simple rules can take some of the peril out of everyday life. For instance, if you’re planning to become a crackhead, make sure that you are the president’s niece. And a governor’s daughter. And that your family is rich enough to hire three lawyers to ply every legal ...
Immigration Controls Are Bad for the Economy And for Freedom by Scott McPherson December 1, 2002 At the risk of uttering a terrible clich, America is a land of immigrants. The 13 British colonies that flourished on the Atlantic coast could not have existed were it not for brave men and women willing to start life anew in a strange land. These people came for many reasons; some wished to escape religious and political persecution; ...
Book Review: The Myth of Ownership by George Leef December 1, 2002 The Myth of Ownership — Taxes and Justice by Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel (Oxford University Press, 2002); 190 pages; $25. During the Vietnam War, a popular protest slogan went “Fighting for peace is like drinking for sobriety.” After reading The Myth of Ownership, I feel like making a sign reading, “Taxing for justice is like fighting for peace and drinking ...
Book Review: Rethinking the Great Depression by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2002 Rethinking the Great Depression by Gene Smiley (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002); 179 pages; $24.95. The Great Depression of the early 1930s has left a deep and lasting mark on the United States. For many in the general public the Great Depression still conjures up the image of mass unemployment caused by the failure of unregulated capitalism. For many in the ...
The Embarrassment and Illegality of the No-Fly Zones by Jacob G. Hornberger November 21, 2002 President Bush's "zero tolerance" for Iraqi violations of UN resolutions has apparently dropped to "two percent tolerance." According to administration officials, Iraqi forces have once again fired on U.S. planes patrolling the no-fly zones in Iraq, which U.S. officials had previously claimed would constitute an immediate justification for invading Iraq, not ...
The Glass Houses of Dictators by Jacob G. Hornberger November 18, 2002 President Bush’s reaction to the Iraqi parliament’s rejection of the newly enacted UN resolution authorizing renewed inspections in Iraq provides a fascinating insight into the direction in which our own nation is headed. According to the New York Times, President Bush said, “The Iraqi Parliament is nothing but a rubber stamp ...