Author Archive | Jim

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WSJ: Confessions of a One Season Santa Claus (2011)

A lot of folks say that freelance writers never do any honest work.  Pshaw! I worked as a Santa Claus more than 30 years ago, so that charge doesn’t apply to me. Here’s a repost of a riff that was published in the Wall Street Journal three years ago.  I used this story in my memoir essay, […]

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Torture and the New Definition of American Virtue

The Washington Post/ABC News poll earlier this week showed that most respondents approved of CIA torture and most opposed disclosing the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA abuses. Apparently, as long as the government denies its atrocities, Americans can still feel virtuous. And seeking the truth is giving aid & comfort the enemy…   Another […]

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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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Bill of Rights Day Our Anti-Politician Day

Make Bill of Rights Day America’s Anti-Politician Day  by James Bovard Today is the 223rd anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights — the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Bill of Rights Day should be the preeminent Anti-Politician Day on the American calendar. Instead, it has become simply another pretext for rulers […]

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USA Today: Govt. by Cromnibus – blind, deaf, & dumb

USA TODAY, December 12, 2014 Government by Cromnibus – blind, deaf and dumb: Column by James Bovard The Know-Nothing Party Rules Us All “You can lead a man to Congress but you can’t make him think,” quipped Milton Berle in 1950. Last night’s House of Representatives’ approval of the 1,603 page, $1 trillion Cromnibus bill […]

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Senate Torture Report – My Initial Two Cents+

I have not finished reading the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture.  Following are some of my initial thoughts via Twitter @jimbovard – #TortureReport CIA interrogators often did not speak the language of detainees so they compensated by beating hell out of them — James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 11, 2014 #TortureReport With all the […]

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Torture Deja Vu: Congress Covered up Torture 8 Years Ago

It is good that Americans are finally learning some of the details of the CIA torture regime thanks to the Senate Intelligence Committee report.  But were the most shocking details redacted? Will we ever know?  Following is a piece I wrote 8 years ago after Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act which effectively retroactively legalized […]

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