The Nightmare of the New Deal, Part 1 by George Leef December 1, 2007 Part 1 | Part 2 The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes (HarperCollins, 2007); 464 pages. If you ask a random sample of Americans who know (or think they know) something about U.S. history to discuss the twin subjects of the Great Depression and the ...
Big Government at Home and Abroad, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2007 Part 1 | Part 2 No matter how much we address the socialism and interventionism that pervade our nation on a domestic level, it will all be for naught if we fail to address the great big elephant in the room — U.S. foreign policy, including the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. For unless we dismantle the ...
“Patriotic Grace” in Support of War Is No Virtue by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2007 How amazing it is to hear how some people still talk about the U.S. occupation of Iraq at this late date. You’d think even the most naive nationalist would have long ago realized that something is terribly wrong — intrinsically so — with the U.S. “mission” and that calls for “hanging in there” are preposterous. When will the war ...
Do Elections Guarantee Freedom? by James Bovard November 1, 2007 Elections are sometimes portrayed as practically giving people automatic remote control on the government. Elections kindly provide a chance for people to pre-program the government for the following years. The government will be based on the popular will, regardless of the ignorance of the populace or the duplicity of the government. President Lyndon Johnson declared in 1965 that the vote ...
Iraq after the Gulf War: Sanctions, Part 1 by Rahul Mahajan November 1, 2007 Part 1 | Part 2 I am willing to make a bet to anyone here that we care more about the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein does. — U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, CNN Town Hall Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, February 18, 1998 We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more ...
I Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Part 2 by James Glaser November 1, 2007 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 The Tomah VA Medical Center sits on 173 acres in west central Wisconsin. The PTSD unit there was about 300 miles from my home, and it was a long trip driving down there thinking hard all ...
Gun Control Claims More Victims by Benedict D. LaRosa November 1, 2007 Last year, Virginia Tech University successfully lobbied the state legislature to prohibit concealed-permit holders from carrying a sidearm on campus. At the time, university spokesman Larry Hincker commented, I’m sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly’s actions because this will help parents, students, faculty, and visitors feel safe ...
The Lies of the Drug War by Paul Armentano November 1, 2007 Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics by Matthew B. Robinson and Renee G. Scherlen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007); 268 pages; $27.95. One war appears to be going well for the United States and its allies these days: the drug war. That was the lead in dozens of U.S. newspapers in response to a June 2007 ...
Randy Barnett’s Wrong-Headed Defense of the Iraq War by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2007 In an op-ed in the July 17, 2007, issue of the Wall Street Journal, Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett stated that President Bush’s war on Iraq could be defended on libertarian principles. He argued that the president’s attack on Iraq fell under the libertarian principle of self-defense. He also suggested that the reason that the occupation of Iraq has ...
A Bogus Libertarian Defense of War by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2007 Many conservatives dubiously insist that a robustly interventionist foreign policy can coexist with a free-market domestic policy. That’s why they have no compunction about supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while claiming to support limited and unintrusive government at home. On the face of it, these seem highly incompatible. War requires the accumulation and exercise of awesome powers. ...
Will a Drug Warrior Be Hanged? by James Bovard October 1, 2007 Thailand’s billionaire prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was deposed in a coup last year by the country’s military. Somchai Hom-la-or, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, recently declared that “Thaksin and his government committed crimes against humanity.” Thai lawyers and human-rights activists are suggesting that he be indicted and tried by the International ...
The Wrong Conversation About Iraq by Frank Nicosia October 1, 2007 Democrats and Republicans, pundits, retired military, the media, and other critics of the Iraq war are having the wrong conversation about how to leave Iraq. They and others, including most of the Democratic candidates for president, focus on the Bush administration’s lack of “success.” We should withdraw or “redeploy” our ...