On July 4, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed the first federal Freedom of Information Act. The federal government has pretended to be open to citizens ever since. The National Security Archive, a private non-profit research arm, celebrated the anniversary with this notice. That Archive has done a superb job of using FOIA to pry out […]
Author Archive | Jim
Happy Independence Day! & The Failure of the All-Volunteer Congress
July 4th is my Independence Day, regardless of how depraved the government has become. Thirty-three years ago, the New York Times printed a satire I wrote on the failure of the All-Volunteer Congress. Back then, the All-Volunteer military was relatively new, and critics were denouncing it for a dozen specious reasons. (Here’s an online link to one […]
Did Washington Post Soften Damning Pepco CEO Quote on Power Outage?
As the power outage drags on in the DC area, today’s Washington Post subscribers were relieved to read the following from regional Pepco president Thomas Graham: “You can’t say this was a Pepco issue.” I read that line early this morn, prior to my power returning. I checked the online version and was surprised to […]
Second Rule of Law Farce in 2 Days: No Eric Holder Prosecution.
This is the second “Rule of Law” Farce in 2 days: the Justice Dept. just announced that it won’t prosecute Attorney Gen. Holder, who the House voted in contempt yesterday for refusing to surrender documents on “Fast and Furious.” Who benefits from the illusion that the government is obliged to obey the law?
Don’t Count on Supreme Court for Freedom
Today’s Supreme Court ObamaCare ruling proves the folly of relying on 9 political appointees to rescue individual freedom. I’ll post more after I read the decision. (I need to restock on Raging Bitch before tackling that monstrosity).
Jean Jacques Rousseau, Intellectual Wrecker
June 28th is the 300th birthday of Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher whose writings have cursed political life since the mid-1700s. The New Republic has a good essay on Rousseau’s bitter legacy here. I paid my respects to Rousseau in Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen […]
Will Supreme Court Ignorance Torpedo Americans’ Freedom?
The Future of Freedom Foundation is shotgunning out this op-ed today… Will Supreme Court’s Ignorance Torpedo Americans’ Freedom? by James Bovard Americans have never had reliable protection against the ignorance of the Supreme Court. During the past 80 years, Supreme Court justices have routinely rubber-stamped government policies that they grossly failed to understand. Black-robed economic […]
