An Echo, Not a Choice by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2012 Last November, Barack Obama stood before an audience and said government needs to be “responsive to the needs of people, not the needs of special interests.” He added, “That is probably the biggest piece of business that remains unfinished.” He made those remarks, the New York Times reports, before a $17,900-a-plate fundraising dinner at the home of Dwight and Antoinette ...
The Federal Wetlands War, Part 1 by James Bovard July 1, 2012 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Since the 1980s, federal wetlands crackdowns have been one of the most brazen violations of American property rights. Federal agents have continually sought to play trump cards that effectively turned owners into serfs of federal bureaucracies. And despite a recent Supreme Court ruling vindicating landowners, the ...
Keynesians, Austrians, and the Continuing Economic Depression, Part 2 by William L. Anderson July 1, 2012 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The existence of business cycles — the boom-and-bust patterns — has puzzled economists. While Marx might have created a theory of why depressions occur, nonetheless there was nothing in Marxism to explain the boom period that preceded the bust. Furthermore, there was nothing in Marxism that could ...
Book Review: The Reality of Race Oppression by Anthony Gregory July 1, 2012 The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (New York: New Press, 2010); 312 pages. Many Americans deny that their country is home to any serious problem of institutional racism. Segregation was abolished generations ago and slavery has been extinct nearly a century and a half. Those favoring smaller government often see that the ...
Flexing Executive Privilege by Wendy McElroy June 29, 2012 The rather dry matter of executive privilege is becoming a hot talking point in the news. This power of the executive branch is the latest battleground between the president and a largely hostile Congress. The Republican congressman Darrell Issa — chairman of the recently scorned House Oversight Committee — is determined to create as much heat as ...
Polish Senator’s Startling New Allegations about the CIA Torture Prison in Poland by Andy Worthington June 29, 2012 In the long quest for accountability for those who ordered, authorized, or were complicit in the Bush administration’s torture program, every avenue has been shut down within the United States by the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the courts. The only hope lies elsewhere in the world, and specifically Poland, one of three European ...
Obama’s Logic of War by Sheldon Richman June 29, 2012 Despite the alleged difference between Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran, both embrace a position that logically commits them to war. If war is to be avoided, as Obama says he wishes, he will have to abandon his current stance. The difference between Obama and Netanyahu is more apparent than real. Both say Iran’s possession of ...
How Roosevelt’s Farm Policy Paved the Way for Obamacare by James Bovard June 28, 2012 The Obama administration invoked a 1942 Supreme Court agricultural-policy case to justify its sweeping health- care law compelling individual Americans to purchase health insurance. The role of Wickard v. Filburn in sanctifying Obamacare is a reminder of how the New Deal continues to imperil our rights and liberties. Unfortunately, few U.S. Supreme Court justices or journalists recognized the sordid ...
The Big Health-Care CON by Michael Tennant June 28, 2012 For decades governments have been passing laws and regulations with the stated goal of bringing down health-care costs. For just as long libertarians have been pointing out that government policies such as Medicare, Medicaid, physician licensing, pharmaceutical regulations, and insurance mandates are at the root of the problem and that every attempt to fix the problem without addressing those ...
Congressional Contempt by Tim Kelly June 28, 2012 The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has voted 23–17 in favor of holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. The resolution is expected to reach the full House for a vote this week. The party-line vote came after a 16-month investigation into the botched anti-gunrunning operation named Fast and Furious. That the committee would split along ...
Self-Defense and the Anti-Gun Mentality, Part 1 by Scott McPherson June 27, 2012 Part 1 | Part 2 I recently attended a meet-up group started by a friend of mine. The goal of the group is to bring people together from across the political spectrum to discuss a variety of issues and to, as the mission statement reads, use “common sense ideas to build a healthier and happier community.” The group ...
An Unfamiliar Definition of “Voluntary” by Wendy McElroy June 27, 2012 It is called a “voluntary safety plan.” Using the plan, Child Protective Services (CPS) can bypass the constitutional rights of parents and take children away from non-abusive homes. (Note: agencies function under different names from state to state, but they are often referred to merely as CPS.) The definition and implementation Texas guidelines offer a typical CPS definition of a safety ...