Ten years ago, the 9/11 Commission released its report on the challenges to the nation. Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, the chairman and vice chairman of the commission, have a platitude-laden piece this morning in USA Today: “The “generational challenge” against terrorism we anticipated 10 years ago has entered a new and dangerous phase. America cannot […]
June 25, 2014 The Medals of Freedom vs. America’s Freedom by JAMES BOVARD For almost 50 years, politicians have used Medals of Freedom to reward their henchmen who started wars or subverted freedom. Prior to the 1960s, the U.S. government avoided the temptation to distribute nonmilitary awards by the bucket. However, in 1963, President […]
From the Future of Freedom Foundation’s monthly journal – Freedom vs. Medals of Freedom by James Bovard Though proximity to power is its own reward, rulers have long recognized the benefit of distributing trinkets to potential sycophants. From medieval times onwards, the English king was seen as the “fount of all honors.” The British government […]
I don’t know about other political skeptics, but I certainly don’t recognize myself in this New Republic portrayal of folks who distrust the government. I’ve never taken an AR-15 to bed even when I was liquored up bad. And choosing Cass Sunstein to review Richard Epstein is a hoot. I first sparred with Sunstein when […]
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 […]
From the Freeman, September 1999 – partly extracted from my Freedom in Chains (1999) Here are a few of the punchier lines from the piece – * The benevolence of government rarely transcends the venality of politics. * The amount of power a politician can seize over other people is inversely related to the politician’s […]
R R Schoettker
“In July 2003, Americans learned that the Bush t
Jim
I am opposed to expanding political control of edu
Jill
While I whole-heartedly agree that the U.S. federa
