The Deadly Perils of Predatory Idealism by James Bovard How would people react if, on the third time their broken-down car was towed to the same repair shop for the same problem, the swaggering mechanic told them: “Sure — the engine doesn’t work today but — follow me on this — next year, you will […]
We Never Got to Torture Congress by James Bovard, May 26, 2025 Folks who believe the current political atmosphere is uniquely hateful have forgotten the boundless vitriol prevailing a few decades ago. During the George W. Bush administration, Republicans relied on push-button rage to suppress all criticism of the war on terror. After I appeared […]
My best friend from Blacksburg High School passed away on Friday after a brief but brutal fight with cancer. I met Doug Bell when my family moved to Blacksburg just before the start of my senior year in high school (Doug was also a senior). Doug and I were on the track team; he threw […]
Painting by Mort Kunstler, “On to the Shenandoah” May 23, 1862 – Full size at his website Today is the 163th anniversary of the battle of Front Royal, Virginia (the town near where I was raised). On May 23, 1862, almost all the Yankee soldiers in Front Royal were captured, killed or wounded during a […]
No Vaccination against Unlimited Political Power by James Bovard, May 18, 2025 Late in the last century, theater goers were jolted when a character in the X-Files movie declared that the Federal Emergency Management Agency can allow “the White House to suspend constitutional government upon declaration of a national emergency.” If the same line was […]
Political Slavery in the COVID Era by James Bovard, May 12, 2025 In 1977, East Germany ransomed hundreds of its leading intellectuals and artists to West Germany, partly because it did not wish to endure public criticism by its own citizens during an International Rights Conference. In spite of the human sale, there was no […]
[reposted on the Mises Institute blog and the Libertarian Institute blog and elsewhere] FEDERAL JUDGE SETS FREE OP-ED WRITER Federal judge orders Trump administration to release Tufts University grad student Rumeysa Ozturk from ICE lockup. Ozturk, who had a valid student visa from Turkey, was only guilty of writing an op-ed. Secretary of State Marco […]