Author Archive | Jim

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The Great TSA Cigar Cutter Robbery of 2018

On my way to Alabama last Thursday, the TSA pilfered a cigar cutter – the final absurdity of my visit with them that day. Here’s the story from my speech the following day at a Mises Institute conference – Here’s a link to a better quality video of that speech (I had to reformat the […]

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Torture as the Greatest Boondoggle – Mises Speech

When someone asked me to name the biggest U.S. government boondoggle I had seen, I leaped at the chance to flog torture. From my Friday presentation to the Mises Institute conference –   Here’s a link to many of the articles I have written on torture since 9/11.  

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Why Government Never Learns: Mises Institute Speech

Here’s a link to my speech at the Mises Institute Austrian Economics Research Conference this past weekend in Auburn, Alabama.  I appreciated the opportunity to pay my respects to Leviathan.   I will be posting a few outtakes from this speech in followup blog posts. Mises President Jeff Deist featured much of the speech on his […]

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Iraq War: 15 Years of Lies and Pointless Carnage

This week is the 15th anniversary of the Bush administration’s attack on Iraq.  The nation has not recovered from the calamities that war inflicted at home and abroad.  Here are some of my epigrams in response to the Iraq war and the war on terrorism in general, pulled from Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice […]

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The Hill: End Democracy Promotion Flim-Flam

And here’s some testy responses from Hill readers – The Hill, March 16, 2018 TIME TO END DEMOCRACY PROMOTION FLIM-FLAM by James Bovard Democracy promotion has long been one of the U.S. government’s favorite foreign charades. The Trump administration’s proposal to slash funding for democratic evangelism is being denounced as if it were the dawn […]

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FFF: Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Opponents

  DONALD TRUMP’S AUTHORITARIAN OPPONENTS by James Bovard President Trump has said and done many things to appall the friends of freedom. From Trump’s pro-torture comments to his praise of police brutality to his cruise-missile barrage against Syria to his threat to annihilate North Korea, there are ample signs that he scorns a freedom-and-peace posture. […]

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The Hill: Gun Crackdowns Ignore Waco & Other ATF Atrocities

The Hill, March 7, 2018 Gun crackdowns have already led to too many federal abuses by James Bovard President Trump declared last week that the law enforcement should “take the guns first, go through due process second.” But the history of federal firearms enforcement shows that due process is often a mirage when federal bureaucrats […]

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