Tag Archives | intellectuals

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FFF: Freedom vs. Medals of Freedom

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 […]

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New Republic Gets Libertarians All Wrong

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 he […]

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Hayek Birthday and 1985 Firing Line Transcript

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 […]

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Freedom-in-Chains

Political Accounting: Why Waste is Inevitable

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 […]

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