From the August 2013 issue of The Future of Freedom – The Sordid History of IRS Political Abuse by James Bovard The power to tax has long conferred the power to destroy one’s political opponents. When the latest IRS politicization scandal erupted in May, many commentators talked as if the abuses were a novelty in […]
Archive | December, 2013
Playing Around with a Book Cover Collage
For cover headers on Twitter & Facebook, I hear tell that authors are supposed to use book covers. This is my first swing at putting them together. I will probably be using the collage in slots that are 30-40% smaller than the above slice. I welcome suggestions on how to make this look… uh…. better.
Federal Judge Blesses Federal Seizure of Everyone’s Phone Records
If this isn’t a @#$@#$ anti-Constitution ruling, I don’t know what is. Federal judge William Pauley upheld the feds seizing all Americans phone records. Why? ““This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Pauley decreed. This dude should be a White House spokesman, not a federal judge. At least his decision, by creating a […]
Xmas Redux: Confessions of a One-Season Santa Claus
Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2011 Confessions of a One-Season Santa When I asked one girl what she wanted for Christmas, she gritted her teeth: ‘I want you to leave.’ By James Bovard In the fall of 1977, I moved to Boston seeking literary triumphs and intellectual stimulation. As a 21-year-old college dropout from the mountains […]
How Abe Lincoln Destroyed Religious Freedom
The New York Times has an excellent column today on how Abe Lincoln destroyed religious freedom during the Civil War with a wink and a nod. Huntington College professor Sean Scott details how Presbyterian minister Samuel B. McPheeters was expelled from his St. Louis by a northern military commander for refusing to embrace the northern cause. McPheeters sought to keep politics out […]
Slower Than Christmas: Public Policy Hooligan Page on Facebook
I finally got around to creating a Facebook page for Public Policy Hooligan. Dealing with Facebook’s specifications reminded me of some of the most inept federal agency web pages I have encountered this past year. The cover image had to be a particular size – recreated above. Even I wouldn’t repost the book cover that many […]
Obama Gives His Wish List to Santa
“You covered?” is the perfect question. Obama has sovereign immunity – which is even better than government-issued health insurance. Now if there was only a way to work in a trampled Bill of Rights – or maybe a burning Statue of Liberty in the background…. But I ask too much at this time of […]