The high priests of the civic religion are very worried that people no longer seem to trust government. The law stands discredited. Once-hallowed institutions are under fire and losing status. People are openly loathing public officials. Movies, television, and best-selling books urge revolt. Most people don’t bother to vote.
And these priests wonder why.
Here’s an example of why. As the year opened, the House, Senate, and president all collaborated to enact the lar... (more)
It didn’t take long for the tragedy of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, which left 20 schoolchildren and six adults dead, to be co-opted by politicians and special interest groups alike, all eager to advance their ideas about how to prevent another deranged madman from taking innocent lives. President Obama is calling on Congress to issue gun control legislation that would limit access to assault weapons. The National Rifle Association (NRA) wants armed guards patrolling every school ... (more)
It costs about $60,000 a year to attend Georgetown University. Students who have enrolled in Professor Louis Michael Seidman’s class on constitutional law should demand a full rebate.
In a recent New York Times op-ed column, Professor Seidman urges Americans to “give up on the Constitution.” ... (more)
In the sub-discipline of economics known as public choice, an important concept is the theory of "rational ignorance." First articulated by political scientist Anthony Downs in the 1950s, and expanded upon by economist Gordon Tullock and others, the theory of rational ignorance holds that it is perfectly rational for individuals to largely ignore politics, or even not to vote. There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and we all spend most of our time doing our jobs, pursuing an educa... (more)
L: So Doug, the world didn't end in 2012, so it's onward into another new year. It's time to tune in to your guru-vision and tell us what trends you see shaping up and what actions they imply taking.
Doug: Yes, it looks like the Mayans missed this one; perhaps they'll get another kick at the cat a few millennia from now when it's once more time to turn the page on their calendar. Better luck next time, Mayan astrologers! But although nothing seems... (more)
When the "heroic" (and much-decorated) Seventh Cavalry slaughtered hundreds of starving, freezing Indians at Wounded Knee Creek in December 1890, the perpetrators of that massacre weren’t committing an atrocity. Instead, they were exercising what New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler calls “legitimate violence.” ... (more)
I have been called a lot of things since I began writing about ten years ago on the folly of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the evils of the U.S. military, and the belligerence of U.S. foreign policy.
Many of the things I have been called I can’t repeat because they are so vile and filthy. However, the negative e-mails have tapered off quite a bit over the years since these wars have turned out to be such debacles.
Those who take prosperity for granted — and all of us do whether we admit it or not — would do well to make their way to the film Les Misérables, which features Russell Crowe playing the role of the relentless French cop Javert (not to mention an astonishingly effective presentation of “I Dreamed the Dream” by Anne Hathaway).
This film brilliantly pictures a level of poverty that none of us has ever known. We do well to reflect on it and the reasons that we do not experience such ... (more)
Civilian disarmament advocates insist that the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre illustrates the dangers of inadequately restrictive firearms laws. That assumption is impossible to reconcile with the fact that Connecticut’s state government regards individual firearms ownership not as a right but as a highly conditional privilege subject to revocation without notice, on the whim of an unaccountable bureaucrat.
In 1999, the Connecticut legislature enacted Sec. 29-38c, a m... (more)
Government spying on Americans and surveillance of Americans are rapidly increasing. The government has forced telecommunications companies to partic... (more)
Considering taking a job with the government? You might want to rethink that. The new survey from Partnership for Public Service paints an ugly picture of job satisfaction at government agencies.
It’s worst of all at place like the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Labor, and Education. We find that only 50-60% of workers are satisfied with their jobs. To put it another way, every other person working in these concrete bunkers is a wreck.
The following interview with Hans-Hermann Hoppe first appeared in the German weekly Junge Freiheit on November 2, 2012, and was conducted by Moritz Schwarz. It has been translated here into English by Robert Groezinger.
Are taxes nothing but protection money? The state a kind of mafia? Democracy a fraud? Philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe is not only considered one of the most prominent pione... (more)
"Hi, my name is Larry Wasden," explained the short, stocky man, flashing a politician's practiced smile and extending a hand. "I'm the Attorney General."
"Mr. Wasden, my name is Will Grigg," I replied, shaking his hand. "Several years ago you tried to put a 66-year-old retired nun named Carol Asher in prison for fourteen years because she acted as a conscientious juror. Have you ever apologized to her for that abuse of discretion?"
The sure sign of a halfwit is someone who believes a politician's promise. They can be observed at candidate rallies with their faces beaming and their hands grasping tightly to a cardboard sign. In bars and restaurants they speak endlessly on how their preferred dictator is smarter, kinder, and cuter than the rest. In doing so, they make up for a lack of drunkenness with exuberance over the prospect of being ruled over. This mix turns the political enthusiast into a package more bothersome than... (more)
In show business parlance, it is a high compliment to say that a comedian "kills." When a president acts as a comedian, that expression should be taken literally.
The senseless and horrific killings last week in Newtown, Connecticut reminded us that a determined individual or group of individuals can cause great harm no matter what laws are in place. Connecticut already has restrictive gun laws relative to other states, including restrictions on fully automatic, so-called “assault” rifles and gun-free zones.
Predictably, the political left responded to the tragedy with emotional calls for increased gun control. This is unders... (more)
Somehow, left-liberals have associated the cause of gun rights with white racism, when if anything it is gun control that has a racist legacy. In the United States, early gun laws targeted recently freed blacks, and open carry first became banned in California under Governor Ronald Reagan to disarm groups like the Black Panthers. Today, blacks and Hispanics are dispropor... (more)
A few thoughts about the shootings in Connecticut and Aurora, and why the compassionate, caring calls for "gun control" are insane, immoral and destructive.
On a recent Saturday evening, some friends and I were at a loss at how to spend the night after a concert we planned on attending was booked up. In search around the venue, we discovered what appeared to be an unassuming club. Upon entering we discovered an empty dance floor with little activity around the bar. In not intending to be rude, it was decided we have one drink before vacating.
Unbeknownst to us, that night in the club was unique. As we were beginning to leave, the disc... (more)
If there is a more emotionally painful experience than a parent's losing a child, I can't imagine what it would be. The emotional wound is raw and goes down to the deepest recesses of a person's heart and soul.
And as we see with the Connecticut massacre of all those little children, it's not just the parents or even just Connecticut residents, who feel the pain and anguish over what has occurred. People all over the country sympathize deeply with the pain being suffered by the p... (more)
Following up on my blog post of December 17 on the shootings in Connecticut, "Those Government Gun-Free Zones," I wish to make a supplemental point, one about interventionism.
It appears increasingly likely that the Connecticut massacre will lead to some sort of gun-control measure being enacted by Congress.
Will whatever measure they enact mean that there will be no more massacres? Of course ... (more)
My inbox has been slammed with notes concerning the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Given the accessibility of information, and the pace at which it travels, people have treated this event as not just a case of a ghastly local crime, but much more than that, a signal and a wake-up call to the culture at large.
There is no harm in such reflections. The 500-year-old trend toward ever less violent societies — a trend that continues to go in the right direction in ... (more)
On December 15, Think Progress published a post titled The Five Gun Safety Regulations Even NRA Members Support. In this blog post, Igor Volsky cites a poll conducted by Frank Luntz for Mayors Against Illegal Guns that found a large majority of gun owners and NRA members support some gun regulations. Volsky describes these gun control policies as “sensibl... (more)
