Parity: Bureaucratic Tyranny by Moral Fraud by James Bovard September 1, 1999 The word "fairness" sometimes has the same mesmerizing effect upon people's critical faculties that the phrase "divine right" had a few centuries ago. Modern morality is based on "push-button fairness": the government announces a new regulation, enforcers twist arms, and — voilà! — fairness triumphs. The vast expansion of ...
Child Labor and the British Industrial Revolution, Part 1 by Lawrence W. Reed September 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 Everyone agrees that in the 100 years between 1750 and 1850 there took place in Great Britain profound economic changes. It was the age of the Industrial Revolution, complete with a cascade of technical innovations, a vast increase in industrial production, a renaissance of world trade, and a rapid growth of urban populations. Where historians ...
The Power of Truth by Leo N. Tolstoy September 1, 1999 The power of the government is maintained by public opinion, and with this power the government, by means of its organs — its officials, law courts, schools, churches, even the press — can always maintain the public opinion which they need. Public opinion produces the power, and the power produces public opinion. And there appears ...
Book Review: Property and Freedom by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1999 Property and Freedom by Richard Pipes (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999); 328pages; $30. In his 1848 treatise, The Principles of Political Economy, John Stuart Mill stated: "The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical laws. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them.... It is not so with the distribution of ...
Exploiting JFK Jr.’s Death by Sheldon Richman August 2, 1999 Advocates of activist, overbearing government claim to be against exploitation. But they did not hesitate to exploit John F. Kennedy Jr. in death. Do you believe for a moment that the death of the son or daughter of any other ex-president (or even an ex-president himself!) would have set off the shameful media frenzy we ...
Watering Down the Separation of Powers by Jacob G. Hornberger August 2, 1999 Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening is exercising political power that would be the envy of dictators all over the world. Declaring an emergency due to the current drought, Glendening has issued orders criminalizing the usage of water in Maryland. The governor's decrees prohibited watering lawns; topping swimming pools; washing paved or outdoor surfaces; and ...
A Libertarian Visits Cuba, Part 3 by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Even though I knew that it is a serious criminal offense to criticize Cuban socialism, I was determined to deliver a presentation of libertarian principles in the middle of Havana. I got my chance when one of the research centers I visited asked me to explain libertarianism to its staff. I ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 32: Friedrich A. Hayek and the Case for the Denationalization of Money by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 ...
Educational Coercion and Aberrant Behavior by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 1999 Central to all the solutions to aberrant behavior in America's public schools is that public schooling is the unquestionable "given." That is, the continued existence of public schooling itself is accepted without question and is viewed as a central element around which the solutions must revolve. But what if public ...
Seeking Explanations, Not Causes by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1999 So much has been written about the shootings of students by students at schools that you'd think there would be nothing left to say. But there has been surprisingly little comment about the location of the shootings: government schools. Maybe this shouldn't be surprising. Government schools are nearly sacred to most people. They couldn't possibly be a — or ...
Blockbuster Victory for the Second Amendment by James Bovard August 1, 1999 Last April, federal judge Sam Cummings issued a decision that chilled the hearts of gun grabbers across the nation. Cummings struck down as unconstitutional a provision in a 1994 law that routinely turned husbands and others targeted by domestic restraining orders into felons. The Clinton administration is appealing the ...
Drugs and George W. Bush by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1999 Oh, I was like that when a lad! A shocking young scamp of a rover, I behaved like a regular cad; But that sort of thing is all over. I'm now a respectable chap And shine with a virtue resplendent And, therefore, I haven't a scrap Of sympathy with the defendant! Those words were penned mor than a century ago by the great satirist W.S. ...