OK, maybe “maligns” is too strong of a word. The Washington Post has a front page article today on the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, located just south of Front Royal, Virginia. The Smithsonian research facility is on the same turf that was the Beef Cattle Research Station where I grew up. The Post article mentions that […]
I had a lively chat yesterday with Mises Institute President Jeff Deist regarding Hayek, Mencken, Washington venality, the Great Books, that bastard Nixon, and some of my muckraking over the past decades. I was not aware that folks had considered me a unicorn – I’m more accustomed to being compared to weasels or guttersnipes. Their interview description refers […]
This is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. It is a great blessing that western Europe is now at peace – regardless of how much political leaders squabble at the commemoration ceremony. D-Day back in the news reminds me of my first visit to World War Two venues. In 1977, after dropping […]
From the February 2014 issue of FFF’s Future of Freedom – HOW I LEARNED NOT TO SHOVEL by James Bovard The Obama administration has touted government jobs and training programs as one of the solutions to America’s high unemployment rate. Such programs can teach young people invaluable lessons — especially about the unreliability of political […]
Reading about the city of Richmond’s zoning code crackdown on Tom Blanton reminded me of how I fell into similar crosshairs while living in Blacksburg, Virginia in the late 1970s. Here’s the riff from Public Policy Hooligan: How An Eviction Notice Made Me an Anti-Zoning Zealot – In late 1976, I moved into a […]
OK, I wasn’t an Easter Rabbit. I was a Beatrix Potter promotion rabbit. But rabbits are rabbits dammit. And as Attorney General John Ashcroft always said, “terror is terror.” The following is from the section of “Playing Left Field in Boston” chapter of Public Policy Hooligan on the various jobs I did to pay the rent. That chapter uses […]
Libertarian hardline hell-raiser talk show host Scott Horton and I had a rattlin’ good chat yesterday on his radio show about the Cluster Bomb Congress article, asset forfeiture, police brutality, and a couple other damn outrages. Being on Scott’s show always vaccinates me against my moderate tendencies. You can download or listen to the show by […]
