Health Is the Health of the State by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2002 PRESIDENT BUSH has named a new surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona of Arizona, to succeed Bill Clinton’s man, Dr. David Satcher. Satcher is the surgeon general who vowed to get us all to lose weight with his “Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity.” As he put it, “Our ultimate goal ...
Finding Safety from Terrorism by Scott McPherson July 1, 2002 Since September 11, safety, security, and liberty are at the forefront of every American’s mind. As in most crises, some Americans believe that a stronger and more powerful central government is the answer. But is it? Responding to an increased demand for protection, the federal government has embraced a number of “solutions” to the terrorist threat, ...
Farmers Should Oppose Socialism by Scott McPherson July 1, 2002 The Brownsville, Tennessee, offices of the Department of Agriculture were the scene of a recent five-day sit-in by black farmers who claim that government loan applications are being stalled by a racist system. Instead of complaining about racism, though, they should be complaining about socialism. Over the last 70 years, ...
When Will the Catastrophists Learn? by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2002 The doomsayers never give up. Whats more, they are an ever-moving target. Refute one of their claims of catastrophe, and they are back with another before you can say, “The future is bright.” Sometimes even the good news is bad. The global catastrophists, such a Paul Ehrlich, used to say, “The ...
Is the Prison-Industrial Complex on the Ropes? by James Bovard July 1, 2002 PRISONS HAVE BEEN THE most reliable growth industry in America over the last two decades. The surge in lockups in this country in recent times is spawning a prison-industrial complex, hungry to rig the political system to ensure the continued delivery of legions of bodies along with their related financial profits. But the boom could finally be coming to ...
Conscription: Not Now; Not Ever, Part 1 by Doug Bandow July 1, 2002 Part 1 | Part 2 ON SEPTEMBER 11, it had been almost 60 years since the U.S. homeland had come under attack. As they did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans turned to the military for their defense. But now, in contrast to the past, they are finding security in a volunteer military. When ...
The Price of Liberty and the Cost of War by Jeffrey A. Singer July 1, 2002 Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, ...
Book Review: After Liberalism by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2002 After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State by Paul Edward Gottfried (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001); 185 pages; $35. IN THE 1960s, Friedrich A. Hayek published a monograph entitled The Confusion of Language in Political Thought. He emphasized that one of the greatest difficulties in clarifying and arguing for the idea of freedom is the misuse and abuse of ...
Economic Liberty and the Constitution, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger June 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 1905, the constitutionality of Joseph Lochner’s criminal conviction by the ...
The World’s Poor Lose a Friend by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002 On May 2 the best friend of the world’s poor died at home in London. Peter Bauer was 86 and had just been named winner of the first Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, awarded by the Cato Institute. Never heard of Peter Bauer? That’s because his analysis of poverty ...
A Positive Development in the War on Terrorism by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002 There might be one positive development arising from the U.S. government’s reaction to its failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks. The Washington Post reported today (May 29) that “the FBI will shift 480 agents from drug and other criminal investigations to counterterrorism posts....” Doesn’t that imply that if FBI agents weren’t spending their time prosecuting ...
Rights Belong to Individuals by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002 If you want insight into the mentality of the intellectual elite, observe the hysterical reaction to the Bush administration’s declaration that the right to keep and bear arms is — horror! — an individual right. In two U.S. Supreme Court briefs filed by the Justice Department on May 6, Solicitor General ...