Mises Institute “The Austrian” Newsletter, Issue #1, 2015 The Absurdity of “Reform” in DC by James Bovard In the 1930s, peasants who were starving because of the Soviet regime’s brutal farm collectivization policy lamented, “If only Stalin knew!” Nowadays, American social scientists look at floundering federal programs and lament: “If only Congress knew!” And […]
Counterpunch: Eric Holder, Patron Saint of Killer Cops
COUNTERPUNCH, February 23, 2015 Eric Holder, Patron Saint of Killer Cops by JAMES BOVARD Attorney General Eric Holder is collecting buckets of accolades in his final weeks in office. Newspapers are especially praising Holder’s suggestion that the feds begin keeping tabs on shootings by police across the nation. But Holder’s own career shows his devotion […]
Barron’s Retort: Health Care Subsidies Justify Banning Cigars
This week’s Barron’s contains a response to my article on the feds’ anti-cigar crackdown from Dr. Ioan P. Cleaton-Jones. His letter is headlined: “A Healthy Choice”: James Bovard’s Feb. 9 Other Voices essay, “Nanny Doesn’t Like Cigars,” asserts that the rights of 13 million cigar smokers to choose to consume a harmful product would be violated by […]
Obama’s Latest Hokum on Violent Extremism: Arar Retorts
In his speech this week to his anti-extremism conclave in Washington, President Obama declared that “former extremists have the opportunity to speak out, speak the truth about terrorist groups, and oftentimes they can be powerful messengers in debunking these terrorist ideologies.” But what about former victims of government extremism speaking out? Maher Arar is a […]
FFF: Eric Holder, Patron Saint of Trigger-Happy Cops
Future of Freedom Foundation, November 2014 Eric Holder: Patron Saint of Trigger-Happy Cops by James Bovard Attorney General Eric Holder received a tidal wave of laudatory media coverage for his visit to Ferguson, Missouri, in the aftermath of a local white policeman’s killing an 18-year-old black man. Holder assured the people of Missouri, “Our investigation […]
Wash. Times: Obama’s Liberal Spending Panacea
Washington Times, February 16, 2015 Obama’s liberal spending panacea The president ignores the crushing impact of more debt By James Bovard President Obama recently denounced the “mindless austerity” that threatens his dream of spending $4 trillion in the coming year. In lieu of the current sequestration restrictions on federal spending, Mr. Obama promises “smart investments […]
Trouncing Federal Reserve Secrecy and All-Round Rascality
I did a brief monologue for Press TV yesterday morning (early enough that it was before I spoke English fluently) on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal for the Federal Reserve to bail out the Greek government: The Federal Reserve “has been so out of control for a long time, but especially during the last 12 years. It’s […]