Tag Archives | philosophy

Leviathan_by_Thomas_Hobbes

Freeman: Government as Slaveowner (2000)

UPDATE: Here are some perhaps improved versions of a few lines in the following essay (thanks to Twitter space limits): Government worship tautology: because government has almost boundless power, it is presumably the source of all rights. *A good definition of liberty must provide a barricade that 10,000 federal agents cannot breach. *Tax burdens are […]

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Logo Mises Institute

My Rollicking Interview with Mises Institute President Jeff Deist

I had a lively chat yesterday with Mises Institute President Jeff Deist regarding Hayek, Mencken, Washington venality, the Great Books, that bastard Nixon,  and some of my muckraking over the past decades.  I was not aware that folks had considered me a unicorn – I’m more accustomed to being compared to weasels or guttersnipes.  Their interview description refers […]

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Future-Of-Freedom-Cover

Equality versus Liberty – the Obama Update

From the Future of Freedom Foundation – OBAMA AND HIS “MOST EVIDENT” RIGHT: EQUALITY by James Bovard In his second inaugural address, Barack Obama quoted the Declaration of Independence and hailed “the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal.” Obama never explained why “created equal” was more evident than the right to liberty. […]

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orlando sentinel employees

Columnist Charley Reese, R.I.P.

One of the nation’s best newspaper columnists passed away last week.  Charley Reese was a beacon of light at the Orlando Sentinel from 1971 to 2001.  He continued to write columns which were syndicated nationally through 2008, and his pieces provided readers with superb insights into the nature of the government and politics. I never […]

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jpb 1985 Firing LIne photo

Hayek Birthday and 1985 Firing Line Transcript

Friedrich Hayek was born this day in 1899. Hayek had a huge influence on the development of my political thinking. I learned about Hayek’s existence when William F. Buckley spoke at Virginia Tech and touted the Austrian economist’s opposition to the Welfare State. I zipped to the bookstore the next morning and snared Hayek’s 1944 […]

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