Misdefining Liberty

from the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Daily (January 2011 issue) MISDEFINING LIBERTY by James Bovard The definitions of liberty devised in ivory towers and elsewhere have a profound impact on political and judicial thinking. Regardless of how wrongheaded some concepts of liberty prevalent early last century may now appear, America’s legal structure is now […]

Continue Reading

Columbine Anniversary #12: The Forgotten Lies & Cowardice

The American Spectator August,1999 HEADLINE: They Couldn’t SWAT a Fly But police commando teams are still a menace to society. BYLINE: by James Bovard. James Bovard is the author of Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen (St. Martin’s Press). Federal and Colorado officials have transformed the April […]

Continue Reading

Waco Redux

This is the 18th anniversary of the FBI’s final assault at Waco. Here are a few pieces I wrote for the Wall Street Journal about Waco in 1995 during a brief window when Republicans claimed to be intent on discovering what actually happened at that debacle. Janet Reno’s comparison of a 54-ton tank to a […]

Continue Reading

MP3 of Interview with Antiwar’s Scott Horton on Idiot Libyan Policymakers

From Antiwar.com: “James Bovard, author of Attention Deficit Democracy, discusses his article, “Uncle Sam’s big plans for your hard-earned tax dollars;” the two-party “consensus of rascals” on US foreign policy; the “best and brightest” government policymakers who are blinded by arrogance, tunnel vision and echo chambers; and the confusion about whether disastrous foreign policy decisions […]

Continue Reading

Your Tax Dollars at Work and Play

Washington Times, April 15, 2011 Uncle Sam’s big plans for your hard-earned tax dollars by James Bovard Congratulations – your tax payment is probably your biggest purchase of the year. The federal tax burden now amounts to more than $20,000 per household, according to Internal Revenue Service data. Your contribution to the Treasury coffers will […]

Continue Reading

Absurdity of Trusting Foreign Policymakers

sent out this morn by the Future of Freedom Foundation… The Absurdity of Trusting Foreign-Policy Makers by James Bovard, April 13, 2011 The United States is attacking Libya on the basis of vague hopes that peace will triumph after the Allied bombing ceases. There are plenty of reasons to doubt whether a few hundred cruise […]

Continue Reading

Obama’s Torture Regime?

Spencer Ackerman of Wired has an excellent piece today on the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command’s secret jails in Afghanistan. Ackerman notes: Human rights groups have been sounding the alarm about these detention centers since 2009. Detainees who claim to have gone through the sites have told them about abuses inside the so-called “Black Jails” […]

Continue Reading