From the Future of Freedom Foundation’s February 2015 magazine – ObamaCare Racketeering and Intellectual Knavery by James Bovard Paternalism is a desperate gamble that lying politicians will honestly care for those who fall under their power. This axiom has been made stark with the controversy arising from a video of Jonathan Gruber, one of the […]
The good folks at the Advocates for Self-Government reposted a chunk of my USA Today Devil’s Dictionary piece last week. I learned via email this morning that Sharon Harris is retiring after 20 years as the president of the Advocates. Sharon has done great work – she is very savvy and is the incarnation of a […]
Washington Times, April 2, 2015 The mandatory voting panacea Obama would deploy coercion in the voting booth By James Bovard – – Wednesday, April 1, 2015 President Obama recently suggested that mandatory voting could cure some of the ills of American democracy. Mr. Obama observed that compelling everyone to vote is one way to “encourage […]
Many libertarians are justifiably exasperated by Sen. Rand Paul joining the saber-rattling against Iran. But his foreign policy positions have been shaky for a long time. Here’s a review of his 2012 book, Government Bullies, from the American Conservative magazine (perhaps Rand’s biggest supporters in the Washington media). Rand has been getting dreadful foreign policy advise […]
On August 14, 1994, President Bill Clinton told a Washington church audience that it was “the will of God” that Congress approve his anti-gun crime bill. The same day, thousands of angry gun owners converged on the National Mall for a rally in favor of the Second Amendment. The crowd stretched far along both sides […]
Washington Times, March 12, 2015 Saving Obamacare with supreme hypocrisy By James Bovard – March 12, 2015 Justices fret over coercing states while endlessly menacing individuals At last week’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act, several justices questioned whether a verdict against Obamacare would be “unconstitutionally coercive” to state governments that did […]
I had a jovial chat with Al Korelin, the host of the hardline Korelin Economic Report, in his weekend report on the debility of contemporary democracy. Here are a few of my comments: *”The system that we now have is an elective dictatorship in which the president can dictate almost as much as he pleases and […]
