Liberty, Property, and Automobiles by Bart Frazier June 1, 2002 The Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County, Va., recently passed a measure that limits the portion of a home’s front yard that can be paved for a driveway to 25 percent (30 percent for very small lots) and also prohibits parking on the homeowner’s grass. Why are too many ...
No Bailout for Amtrak by Bart Frazier June 1, 2002 Once again, Amtrak is in dire need of our tax dollars. Without a cash infusion, Amtrak president David Gunn said it will have to halt operations. Negotiations are now underway that will provide a guaranteed “loan” (read: subsidy) to the railroad. The question that no one seems to ...
Economic Liberty and the Constitution (Table of Contents) by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002 Part 1 (June 2002) Introduction Part 2 (July 2002) The Declaration of Independence; judicial review Part 3 (August 2002) The influence of Adam Smith Part 4 (September 2002) The Slaughter-House Cases Part 5 (October ...
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Classical-Liberal Alternative by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 2002 A MAN IS WALKING through the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, late one night. Suddenly there is an arm around his throat and he is pulled into a dark alley. A gun is then put to his head and the voice behind him asks, Be yeh a Protestant or be yeh a Catholic? Thinking fast, the man replies, Im ...
What Is the Constitution? by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002 JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA is probably the smartest man on the Supreme Court. That makes him a living example of how bad political and philosophical premises can put great talent in the service of an evil cause, namely, the destruction of individual liberty. In November, while speaking at the University of Missouri, Scalia was asked what he thought about proposals to ...
What Is the Constitution? by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002 JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA is probably the smartest man on the Supreme Court. That makes him a living example of how bad political and philosophical premises can put great talent in the service of an evil cause, namely, the destruction of individual liberty.
The Other Terrorism Problem by James Bovard June 1, 2002 A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT report observed, “The feature distinguishing police from all other groups in society is their authority to apply coercive force.” Americans are taught to view police as trustworthy symbols of authority. Programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) put “Officer Friendly” in classrooms in order to endear law enforcement to children at an early age. The ...
Bill O’Reilly and the Conservative War on Drugs by Thomas L. Johnson June 1, 2002 BILL O’REILLY IS HOT. He is a broadcast journalist who has a very popular cable-news program on the Fox News Channel called The O’Reilly Factor, and a widely read book of the same title. His latest book, The No Spin Zone, has been number one on the nonfiction bestseller list for many weeks. O’Reilly is intelligent and loquacious and a ...
Going Postal: A Libertarian Tradition by Wendy McElroy June 1, 2002 BENJAMIN TUCKER, editor of Liberty (1881–1908) and the prototypical 19th-century radical libertarian, constantly experimented with strategies to educate people away from government. He particularly delighted in anti-government stickers, which he declared to be “highly useful” because of their cheapness and versatility. The stickers were “invented” by Steven T. Byington, who also translated Max Stirner’s Ego and His Own, and ...
Book Review: Communism by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 2002 Communism: A History by Richard Pipes (New York: The Modern Library, 2001); 175 pages; $19.95. IT SEEMS HARD TO BELIEVE that it is already more than 10 years since the collapse and disappearance of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was only about 10 years earlier, in 1981, that the conservative French social critic Jean-François Revel first published his book ...
9/11 and Pearl Harbor by Jacob G. Hornberger May 22, 2002 Immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attack, some people compared that attack to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 12/7/1941. It now seems that the comparisons might be more appropriate than anyone could have imagined. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration ignored increasing signs that a surprise attack somewhere in the Pacific was ...
Bush’s Reluctant Embrace of Civil Liberties by Jacob G. Hornberger May 10, 2002 Bowing to public pressure, the Bush administration has agreed to modify its rules for its military trials of accused terrorists captured abroad. Included among the new rules are: (1) the accused will be presumed innocent rather than guilty; (2) the accused will have the right to have an attorney represent him; (3) the government will ...