Most everyone would agree that China is not a free society. It is ruled by a brutal communist regime, one that has absolutely no regard for civil liberties and such criminal-justice principles as due process of law, trial by jury, right to counsel, and habeas corpus. When the state wants to go after someone, there are no institutional barriers that stand in its way.
China has something else: the war on drugs, the same war that the U.S. government has been waging for decades. ... (more)
"[F]irst of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory."
Many people will recognize these as the words of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After taking t... (more)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington this week to prepare the American people for war against Iran. Backed by American neoconservatives, the Israel lobby, and assorted other war hawks, Netanyahu insists that Iran intends to build a nuclear weapon and thus is an "existential threat" to Israel. He has no confidence that President Obama will negotiate an agreement that once and for all will end Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions.
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In the 1930s, peasants who were starving because of the Soviet regime’s brutal farm collectivization policy lamented, “If only Stalin knew!” Nowadays, American social scientists look at floundering federal programs and lament: “If only Congress knew!” And the solution is the “evidence-based” reform movement which will magically beget a new era of good governance.
Show Me the Evidence: Obama’s Fight for Rigor and Results in Social Pol... (more)
A triumph of "free expression and democratic principles"? How stupid do they think we are?
It's been painful to watch the gradual tightening of government control in the name of net neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission's decision to rewrite the rules and declare the Internet as a public utility seals the deal. It cartelizes the industry and turns a "Wild West" into a planned system of public management — or at least intends to.
If you find no other argument against American intervention abroad persuasive, how about this one? When the U.S. government invades and occupies other countries, or when it underwrites other governments’ invasions or oppression, the people in the victimized societies become angry enough to want and even to exact revenge — against Americans.
Is the American empire worth that price?
We should ask ourselves this question in the wake of the weekend news... (more)
Yet again, the government wants to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. According to the Obama administration and the FCC, it is necessary to regulate internet service providers so that they don’t interfere with people’s access to the web. The claim immediately prompts one to ask: Who is being denied access to the web?
The official enemy de jour that has everyone all riled up and scared is ISIS. If U.S. forces don't bomb ISIS, the argument goes, ISIS will take over Iraq, and Syria, and Lebanon, and Europe, and Asia, and Latin America, and then the United States. If the bombs don't fall on ISIS, before long Americans will be speaking Arabic and their children will be studying the Koran in America's government schools.
It's all just one great big racket -- a racket based on "national security," a ... (more)
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H. L. Mencken
Twenty-five year old Terry Gillenwater will not be holding up any more pharmacies. That's because he was shot dead while committing an armed robbery at the Good Family Pharmacy in Pinch, West Virginia.
Gillenwater entered the pharmacy wearing a mask, pulled out a gun, and aimed it at the people behind the counter. What he didn't know was one of those people, pharmacist Don Radcliff, had a concealed-carry permit and was armed. Radcliff immediately took out his pistol, aimed it at G... (more)
The prospect of compulsory vaccination should trouble people even if they think the practice can be defended in principle as a kind of self-defense.
The burgeoning women's liberation movement of the 1960s emphasized a theme with a prominent American pedigree, powerfully expressed by John Locke, who helped to inspire the Declaration of Independence: the right to own your own body is the most basic of all rights. Proponents of voluntary vaccination stress this right.
If it seems like only months ago that America’s warmongers were claiming there would be no need for US boots on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), that's because it was. When the politicians initially decided to promote IS to the position of threat du jour, they promised that threat could be eliminated without sacrifice of American lives. Defeating IS would require only indirect measures, such as "support" for "our partners" in the region ... (more)
This year’s Valentine’s Day was disastrous — not just for me, but for many ex-couples. But as I sat there on Sunday nursing my broken heart, I realized what’s wrong with romance today: not enough regulation.
The United States government has wisely chosen to regulate most other aspects o... (more)
Many people believe that during war American soldiers are required to obey any orders they are issued to them and that the citizenry should honor the troops for serving their country by loyally carrying out such orders.
Actually, however, every soldier is taught that, as a matter of law, he must disobey orders that are unlawful. If he obeys such orders, he is subject to being criminally prosecuted.
President Obama held a much-publicized White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford last Friday, culminating with his signing onstage a new executive order calling for “collaboration” between government and technology companies to fight cyber crime.
The president is requesting Congress to pass an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) resolution against ISIS. Congress has not issued a similar resolution since 2002, when President Bush was given the authority to wage war against Iraq. The purpose of this resolution is to give official authority to the president to do the things that he has already been doing for the past six years. Seems strange but this is typical for Washington. President Obama's claim is that he does not need ... (more)
“I love America and I hate it. I’m torn between the two. I have two conflicting visions of America. One is a kind of dream landscape and the other is a kind of black comedy.”― Bono
Almost every week I get an email from an American expatriate living outside the country who commiserates about the deplorable state of our freedoms in the United States, expounds on his great fortune in living outside the continental U.S., and urges me to leave the countr... (more)
The scandal of the week is NBC anchor Brian Williams's shabby bid for self-glorification by falsely claiming he was in a U.S. military helicopter forced to land in the Iraqi desert after being hit by ground fire in 2003. Of course so-called news people shouldn't make up stuff to look good, but there's something much worse: uncritically passing along official lies intended to prepare the American people for war.
Williams, like nearly all of his mainstream media colleagues (wit... (more)
ISIS madness is what I call it. ISIS has become the newest fear that has taken over the lives of the American people. People are convinced that ISIS proses a grave threat to "national security." Unless it is stopped, the American people might have to start learning how to speak Arabic or terrorist.
The phenomenon is really no different from Saddam madness. People tend to forget that this same sort of thing occurred for 12 long years -- from 1991 to 2003, during the time that Sadda... (more)
If I were still a practicing ob-gyn and one of my patients said she was not going to vaccinate her child, I might try to persuade her to change her mind. But, if I were unsuccessful, I would respect her decision. I certainly would not lobby the government to pass a law mandating that children be vaccinated even if the children’s parents object. Sadly, the recent panic over the outbreak of measles has led many Americans, including some self-styled libertarians, to call for giving government... (more)
I’ve been asked if it’s possible to “let the market sort it out” on vaccines. I generally dislike that phrase because of it implies that markets are instigating agents, when in fact, markets respond to human desires and goals. Additionally, the phrase is also often followed by an irritating lack of detail as to how markets would actually “sort it out.” So let’s try to provide some detail.
Presumably, many human beings like to live and... (more)
Last week’s USA Today article demanding that people who don’t use vaccines should all be jailed, pretty much tells you the end game for the compulsory-vaccine crowd. A central tenet of the article’s claims is that there are some people (i.e. cancer patients) for whom the risks associated with receiving vaccines is very high, and thus... (more)
A measles outbreak in the U.S. has prompted a national debate over vaccinations, a debate that quickly turned ugly because both sides think they are protecting their children from harm. Some parents say that they should have the right to refuse vaccines if they think it is in their children’s best interest... (more)
The votes are in and the decision is overwhelmingly clear. Chris Kyle--the Navy SEAL portrayed in the blockbuster movie purported killer of some 200 Iraqis during four tours of duty--is the people's choice.
From record ticket sales to major media accolades, from the halls of Congress to the White House, the nation has spoken: "American Sniper" is all-American. Chris Kyle--the most lethal killer in U.S. military history, a true hero, a brave warrior--has been anointed as a role mod... (more)
