Friedrich Hayek was born this day in 1899. Hayek had a huge influence on the development of my political thinking. I learned about Hayek’s existence when William F. Buckley spoke at Virginia Tech and touted the Austrian economist’s opposition to the Welfare State. I zipped to the bookstore the next morning and snared Hayek’s 1944 […]
The director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas R. Insel, tells the New York Times that the new Diagnostic Statistical Manual – the psychiatrists’ bible – is a crock. But we will still be endlessly taxed to pay for treatments that shrinks gin up as a result of the profusion of new […]
Congress is finally paying attention to the choking profusion of federal criminal laws. The House Committee on the Judiciary Over-Criminalization Task Force of 2013 will be launched this week, seeking to pare back the federal criminal code. The Wall Street Journal, which has had an excellent series of reports on this problem in recent years, notes, […]
This month is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bruno Leoni, one of the most penetrating political thinkers of the post-World War Two era. His 1961 book, Freedom and the Law, helped me get a handle on the perils of majority rule. (E-text versions of that book are available free from the Liberty Fund […]
In honor of Bush’s library dedication today, here are some more epigrams he inspired from Terrorism & Tyranny (Palgrave, 2003) Killing foreigners is no substitute for protecting Americans. Habeas corpus is an insurance policy to prevent governments from going berserk. Perpetual war inevitably begets perpetual repression. It is impossible to destroy all alleged enemies of […]
Down in Texas, the George W. Bush Library will be officially opened today. In honor of the occasion, here’s a few epigrams from my 2004 book, The Bush Betrayal: Truth is a lagging indicator in politics. The arrogance of power is the best hope for the survival of freedom. The only way to reconcile the […]
Police were continually screaming “don’t look out the window!” during their sweep in Watertown last week. This photo shows what happens to folks who disobeyed that order. And here is a stunning video of how the raids were carried out. Maximum feasible intimidation… So our security now depends on permitting police to threaten to kill […]
Jim Bovard
Thanks! I do try to make it warm for them.....
Ron Redrift
Not satisfied with the long list of government off
Jim Bovard
Thanks very much, Ron! Ping pong balls can provi
Ron Redrift
'[T]he American Federation of Government Empl
