James Bovard

The following lines are from Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (St. Martin’s/Palgrave, 2000): Those who forget past boondoggles will be perpetually taxed for new boondoggles. The issue is not how much a politician cares but how much power he seeks. Clinton exploited and expanded the dictatorial […]

That was the opening theme of the interview today on the Brian Wilson show. Podcast is available here. I don’t know if the Lysol references will register with people below a certain age. Somebody should do a study of the collateral sanitary benefits of VCRs etc.

This Newsweek cover from a couple weeks ago had an unconscious irony. Newsweek touted an article “Quitting the Thug Life” at the same time that they proclaimed “We Are All Socialists.” Perhaps Newsweek’s wizards are not aware that socialism quickly degenerates into nothing more than economic thuggery. But as long as the New Socialism works […]

The Obama administration proposals to nationalize banks are appalling. The Bush administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” TARP bailout of Wall Street was obscene. Once the feds started bankrolling the banks and other financial institutions, it was only a question of time until politicians claimed the right to control what they subsidize. It would have been […]

Epigrams from Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard (Palgrave, 2006) Americans have devoted far more effort to spreading democracy than to understanding it. Modern democracy is far more effective at unleashing government than at protecting individuals. When people blindly assume that their leaders are trustworthy, the biggest liars win. Rather than a democracy, we increasingly […]