Block's Building Blocks

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Foreword to Building Blocks for Liberty

Murray Rothbard, in his life, was known as Mr. Libertarian. We can make a solid case that the title now belongs to Walter Block, a student of Rothbard's whose own vita is as thick as a phone book, as diverse as Wikipedia. Whether he is writing on economic theory, ethics, political secession, drugs, roads, education, monetary policy, social theory, unions, political language, or anything else, his prose burns with a passion for this single idea: if human problems are to be solved, the solution is to be found by permitting greater liberty.

Yes, Walter Block is provocative. He is an admitted anarchocapitalist, and his signature treatise is called Defending the Undefendable. But readers who spend time with his prose discover that there is far more to the Blockian method than simply breaking taboos. He is provocative not just because of his conclusions but also because he is relentlessly logical, unfailingly truthful, and unusually sincere. He wants answers to the most vexing human problems — whether they are small or large — and he is going to pursue that truth as far as human reasoning can take him.


I can recall looking through correspondence that Professor Block has had with colleagues in topics such as monetary policy, letters in which Block is sharply in disagreement with his correspondent. His argument on behalf of his position is so pointed and attractive that his opponent cannot resist attempting an answer, but of course that only elicits yet another response, and yet another rejoinder, and another response, and so on. The rounds of correspondence can go on for dozens of interchanges. Block persists not because he wants to beat anyone down, but because he is so sincere about finding truth and ferreting out error. If he is wrong about a point, he wants to know it. That's why his opponents always end up on the hot seat.


There is another aspect to his work that should be noted. His public persona is as a plumb-line libertarian, but his method and mode of argument come from his core training in the science of economics. He deploys economic tools in the service of finding answers to social problems. This shows up not only in his exposition; he is also an inspired teacher who never misses a chance to present his argument step by step so that the reader can come to understand economic logic along the way.

You might be surprised at how reasonable-sounding Block can make what might otherwise be considered an outrageous idea. Not every reader will accept every one of Block's conclusions. But everyone will learn how a top-notch economic thinker in the Austrian tradition approaches a huge range of issues. If you disagree with him, you would do well to do so with the same method: that of thinking through problems with close attention to logical and analytical detail.

There is one final trait of Block that might be overlooked: his humility. In a world of academics with inflated egos and selfish ambitions, Block displays constant sincerity, a sweet trust in believing that the truth demonstrated with patience and logic should be enough to carry the day. In our politicized world of charlatans and agenda-driven ideologues, this is rarely the case, of course. But Block charms us with his truth-seeking way, his desire to engage counterarguments of any sort, and his willingness to be shown where he is wrong.

A volume of all the "critical essays" by Walter Block would surely run into thousands of pages. But this is an excellent sampling, and a great tribute to one of the most inspired and hardworking intellectuals of our time.



Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail], former editorial assistant to Ludwig von Mises and congressional chief of staff to Ron Paul, is founder and chairman of the Mises Institute, executor for the estate of Murray N. Rothbard, and editor of LewRockwell.com. See his books.

Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Great Political Insight

''New reports on Sarah Palin's 'Going Rogue' bus tour. They say she's been traveling on private planes to various stops and then just hops in the bus at the local town. So, let's see what you got. You have Sarah Palin, who's no longer governor, who's promoting a book she didn't actually write by going on a bus tour which is not really a bus. Her big complaint? Politicians who aren't real.''

—Jay Leno

The War on Drugs

"The War on Drugs is a price support system for terrorists and drug pushers. It turns ordinary, cheap plants like marijuana and poppies into fantastically lucrative black market products. Without the War on Drugs, the financial engine that fuels terrorist organizations would sputter to a halt."

Ron Crickenberger, Libertarian Party Political Director 2/4/02

U.S. Can't Force People to Buy Stuff

by Ilya Shapiro

This article appeared on CNN.com on December 13, 2010



Ilya Shapiro

 Today is a good day for liberty. By striking down the unprecedented requirement that Americans buy health insurance — the "individual mandate" — Judge Henry Hudson vindicated the idea that ours is a government of delegated and enumerated, and thus limited, powers.


But this should not be surprising, for the Constitution does not grant the federal government the power to force private commercial transactions.


Even if the Supreme Court has broadened the scope of Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause — it can now reach local activities that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce — never before has it allowed people to face a civil penalty for declining to buy a particular product. Hudson found therefore that the individual mandate "is neither within the letter nor the spirit of the Constitution."


Stated another way, every exercise of Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce has involved some form of action or transaction engaged in by an individual or legal entity. The government's theory — that the decision not to buy insurance is an economic one that affects interstate commerce in various ways — would, for the first time ever, permit laws commanding people to engage in economic activity.

Read the rest at Cato

Rhetoric Rides Again

by Thomas Sowell



Thomas Sowell

 Let's face it, politics is largely the art of deception, and political rhetoric is largely the art of misstating issues. A classic example is the current debate over whether to give money to the unemployed by extending how long unemployment benefits will be provided, or instead to give "tax cuts to the rich."


First of all, nobody's taxes – whether rich or poor – are going to be cut in this lame duck session of Congress. The only real issue is whether our current tax rates will go up in January, whether for everybody or nobody or somewhere in between.


The most we can hope for is that tax rates will not go up. So the next time you hear some politician or media talking head say "tax cuts for the rich," that will just tell you whether they are serious about facts or just addicted to talking points.

Not only are the so-called "tax cuts" not really tax cuts, most of the people called "rich" are not really rich. Rich means having a lot of wealth. But income taxes don't touch wealth. No wonder some billionaires are saying it's OK to raise income taxes. They would still be billionaires if taxes took 100 percent of their current income.

Read the rest at Lew Rockwell

MdLP Petition Signatures top 6,000

Dundalk, MD: The Maryland Libertarian Party is reporting that over 6,000 signatures have been collected in the past three weeks as the MdLP is working to retain it's party status. On November 10, 2010 the LNC Executive Committee authorized $12,500 towards the effort.

The State of Maryland requires that Third Parties either collect a minimum of 10,000 valid signatures or receive 1% of the vote in either the Gubernatorial election or the Presidential election to retain official party status. Once a political party garners 1% of the registered voters in the State of Maryland then it remains a party as long as it maintains 1% of the registered voters.

In 2010 the MdLP ran candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, 7 congressional candidates, numerous candidates for House of Delegates, 1 for school board and a County Council seat. Over 61,000 votes were cast for Libertarians in Maryland in 2010. The MdLP is the third largest political party in Maryland with over 9,000 registered voters.

For more information on the Libertarian Party you can visit the national site at www.lp.org. The Maryland Libertarian Party's site is http://www.blogger.com/www.MD.lp.org and their blog at http://www.blogger.com/www.mdlibertarian.com. To arrange an interview or speak to someone for more information contact the MdLP's Communication Director Lorenzo Gaztañaga at http://www.blogger.com/.

FRAUD: WHY THE TAX CUT BILL IS JUST AN EXCUSE TO SPEND ANOTHER TRILLION DOLLARS!

PROOF THAT OUR POLITICAL LEADERS HAVEN’T LEARNED A THING.




By Wayne Allyn Root, Former Libertarian Vice Presidential Nominee and Best-Selling Author

Didn’t we just have a historic Tea Party election? Wasn’t the message STOP THE SPENDING, PAY OFF THE DEBT, and STOP THE INSANITY? The message was loud and clear, yet the first major bill after the election adds about one trillion more in debt as we face economic Armageddon -- a rapidly approaching debt crisis (that will make Greece look like child’s play), 20% real unemployment, and eventually hyper-inflation that could turn America into Zimbabwe. This is insanity folks. But hey, what is another trillion in debt among friends?

As a small business owner, entrepreneur, and capitalist evangelist no one has been a bigger cheerleader for lower taxes than me. Tax cuts leave more money in the hands of those who earned it and deserve it -- small business and taxpayers. Their investing and spending of that extra money is what fuels the economic engine that creates jobs to get America out of this mess.

Extending the Bush-era tax cuts is essential to any chance at an economic and employment rebound. Ronald Reagan proved that massive tax cuts can turn the worst bust into a historic boom. A massive tax cut right now is just what the doctor ordered to save the U.S. economy.

However, just like the recent “Food Safety Bill” has little to do with food safety, or the recent “Jobs Bill,” which never created a job, this tax cut extension bill has little to do with tax cuts. It is just an excuse for Congress to spend another trillion dollars and expand government.

Great Political Insight

"Democrats are calling Christine O'Donnell 'the Sarah Palin of the East.' Really? She's a loud, emotionally unstable woman from Delaware. That's not Sarah Palin, that's Joe Biden."

–Craig Ferguson

Ron Paul's Questions for Ben Bernanke

by Gary North

I have good news and bad news for Ben Bernanke.


First, the good news.



Gary North

 I AM OUT OF THE OFFICIAL LOOP

I am no longer Dr. Paul's research assistant. If I were, I would be working at least half of my time on compiling questions for Dr. Paul to ask Dr. Bernanke.

I would be actively cultivating leakers from inside all 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks (private), as well as staffers working for the Board of Governors (government). There is always some disgruntled employee ready to open locked closets. I would be encouraging every one to become the equivalent of Bradley Manning. "Purloined documents R us!"

Thirty-four years ago, I held that position. Dr. Paul was then the Congressman with the least amount of seniority in Congress. His term came to an end only eight months after it began. He was elected to fill an interim position, due to a resignation, and he lost by 268 votes out of about 180,000 in November. He came back two years later, but by then, I was off to greener pastures.

In those days, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System was Arthur Burns. He had been inflating like mad, trying to pull the economy out of Nixon's 1970–71 recession, then Ford's recession in 1975. Gold bottomed in the summer of 1976 at $105. It would never again get anywhere near that price.


Dr. Paul was already becoming Dr. No – voting no on most spending bills. He opposed the extension of funding of the International Monetary Fund. I wrote the dissenting paper on my first full day on the job – a Saturday. Back then, staffers could come into the Capitol office buildings without police checkpoints of any kind, at any hour. Those were the good old days.

Dr. Paul was not in a position to give much trouble to Dr. Burns. A year before, the head of the House Banking Committee had been Wright Patman, an anti-FED Congressman from east Texas. He had been giving the FED trouble for 25 years. It was Patman who, along with fellow Greenbacker Jerry Voorhis, got the law changed in the early 1940s to force the FED to return to the Treasury all money above expenses. That was the greatest single victory Congress ever had in dealing with the FED. But Patman had been ousted in a coup by younger Democrats in 1975. They revolted against the old seniority system in the aftermath of Watergate. The new chairman, Henry Reuss [ROYCE], was pro-FED. There was no way that there would be any confrontations allowed under Reuss.


Ben Bernanke was 23 years old.

That was then. This is now. That's the bad news for Dr. Bernanke.

"QUESTIONS! WE'VE GOT QUESTIONS!"

Read the rest at Lew Rockwell

Great Political Insight

"Joe Biden accidentally revealed the location of the Vice President's top secret bunker. The guy can't help it. But he did apologize. He said, 'I am so sorry for the mistake. The launch code is 85334. It will never happen again. It will never happen again. My Gmail password is robot23. What am I doing? The house key is under the plant near the doorstep.'"

--Jimmy Fallon

Ron Paul Appointed Chairman of Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee

Ron Paul

Congressman Ron Paul has been appointed to head the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee in the 112th Congress. The subcommittee has jurisdiction over monetary policy, currency, commodity prices, and matters related to the Federal Reserve Bank generally.


Congressman Spencer Bachus, incoming Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, announced Paul’s appointment today:


“Congressman Paul has been a leading voice in Congress on the topics of monetary policy and the Federal Reserve,” Bachus stated. “His commitment to sound money and free-market principles will serve him well as Chairman of the subcommittee.”


“I’m very pleased and excited about being named Chairman of the subcommittee,” Paul stated. “I first ran for Congress in the 1970s because I was concerned about inflation and the dollar. I believed then – as I do now – that unchecked monetary expansion posed great risks for the American economy and our standard of living. In the decades since, we have seen how expansion of the money supply by the Federal Reserve has eroded the value of our dollar. We also have seen how the Federal Reserve, in concert with Congress, has enabled the Treasury to incur almost unbelievable amounts of debt.”

Paul is well known as the author of comprehensive legislation to audit the Federal Reserve Bank, with the goal of providing both taxpayers and world financial markets with full transparency of U.S. central bank actions.

As chairman, Paul expects to hold regular hearings with Federal Reserve Bank officials, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. He also plans to solicit testimony from prominent economists concerning both monetary policy generally and Fed actions in particular.

Great Political Insight

''Hey, this is absolutely true. There's an organization now called 'Draft Dick Cheney for President, 2012.' Yeah. Good luck with that. They tried to draft Dick Cheney five times during Vietnam. That didn't work.''

—Jay Leno

Great Political Insight

"After signing the law, President Obama said our government shows it is serious about setting a good example for children's health. Then he went outside to smoke a cigarette."

–Craig Ferguson

LP Monday Message: Republicans jack up government spending

Dear Friend of Liberty,

I'm sure you've seen the media reports of how President Obama and the Republicans are making deals for big increases in government spending (while keeping tax rates very high). Ethanol subsidies, more unfunded unemployment spending, etc.

About a week ago, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, "I think the current [35%] tax rate is appropriate for our country." No it isn't, it's way too high. In fact, I don't think there should even be an income tax. Section 2.4 of the Libertarian Party Platform calls for the abolition of the IRS.

When I heard Republicans repeat the words "less government" on the campaign trail this year, I wasn't fooled. I knew they were lying. I hope you weren't fooled either.

Unlike the Republicans, we Libertarians believe in cutting government spending. In fact, we want to cut spending across the board -- and that includes the military, Social Security, and Medicare. And we want to get rid of ethanol subsidies and other corporate welfare -- while the Republicans vote to increase it.


Sincerely,

Wes Benedict
Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee

Pearls of Wisdom from Vice-President Joe Biden

Vice President of the United States of America - Joe Biden, apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened."

Great Political Insight

"FedEx said that it shipped 16 million packages today on its busiest day of the year. That's right, they handled 16 million packages. Or as the TSA calls that, 'kind of a slow day.'"

–Jimmy Fallon

Count Our Holiday Blessings: At Least We’re Not Starving

by C.J. Maloney

"The root of famine lies not in the gods or in the stars but in the actions of man."

                                      Murray Rothbard (1985)

This being the holiday season it is good for the soul to spend a moment and give thanks to God for His blessings so thereafter, soul at ease and heart full of holiday cheer, you may rush back to Wal-Mart and resume punching out your fellow shoppers during infantile orgies of spending. I fear with America’s high unemployment and a political elite seemingly bent on destroying the currency we might be psychologically inclined, as libertarians, to look on the dark side of things this Christmas. Allow me to point out a little ray of sunshine.


By examining our nation’s history we see that America is indeed exceptional and blessed by God in one very important way – we have never experienced famine. It might not sound like much, but you don’t know what you’ve got until the refrigerator is bare. Episodes of famine are rife throughout recorded time; the past gives us innumerable episodes when millions of desperate, starving people were reduced to wander like the animals of the forest, every moment of their last wretched days spent in agonizing and often futile searches for food.


Famine is an unrivaled horror; of all the ways to die none comes close to matching the physical and psychological torment of starving to death. It is the most painful way to end your life, a slow, drawn out execution that will reduce even the most proud of men to root eagerly through horse manure and swallow any undigested oats within it. Better for any nation an atomic bomb attack than famine, if history is any guide. Hardly any peoples on earth can boast of never knowing famine. During their time under the Tsars famine swept Russia so frequently that permanently staffed government bureaus were always on hand to deal with them.

Resources

"When politics are used to allocate resources, the resources all end up being allocated to politics."

P.J. O'Rourke

Thoughts from Robert Anton Wilson

"To me, it doesn't matter if your scapegoats are the Jews, the homosexuals, the male sex, the Masons, the Jesuits, the Welfare Parasites, the Power Elite, the female sex, the vegetarians, or the Communist Party. To the extent that you need a scapegoat, you simply have not got your brain programmed to work as an efficient problem-solving machine."

Robert Anton Wilson

The Party of No.....

Control

"I am convinced that we can do to guns what we've done to drugs: create a multi-billion dollar underground market over which we have absolutely no control."

George L. Roman

Thoughts from Alan Dershowitz

"Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use this same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like."

Alan Dershowitz, in The Conceptual Foundations of Anglo-American Jurisprudence in Religion and Reason, 82 Mich L. Rev., 204 (Dan Gifford), 1995

Obama on Health Care

''UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems.''

—Barack Obama, attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009

Lying Is Not Patriotic

by Ron Paul

WikiLeaks’ release of classified information has generated a lot of attention world-wide in the past few weeks.


The hysterical reaction makes one wonder if this is not an example of killing the messenger for the bad news.

Despite what is claimed, information so far released, though classified, has caused no known harm to any individual, but it has caused plenty of embarrassment to our government. Losing a grip on our empire is not welcomed by the neo-conservatives in charge.

There is now more information confirming that Saudi Arabia is a principle supporter and financier of Al Qaeda and this should set off alarm bells since we guarantee its Sharia-run government.

This emphasizes even more the fact that no Al Qaeda existed in Iraq before 9/11, and yet we went to war against Iraq based on the lie that it did.


It has been charged, by self-proclaimed experts, that Julian Assange, the internet publisher of this information, has committed a heinous crime deserving prosecution for treason and execution or even assassination.


But should we not at least ask how the U.S. government can charge an Australian citizen with treason for publishing U.S. secret information, that he did not steal?

And if WikiLeaks is to be prosecuted for publishing classified documents, why shouldn’t the Washington Post, New York Times, and others that have also published these documents be prosecuted? Actually, some in Congress are threatening this as well.

The New York Times, as a result of a Supreme Court ruling, was not found guilty in 1971 for the publication of the Pentagon Papers. Daniel Ellsberg never served a day in prison for his role in obtaining these secret documents.

The Pentagon Papers were also inserted into the Congressional Record by Senator Mike Gravel with no charges being made of breaking any National Security laws.


Yet the release of this classified information was considered illegal by many, and those who lied us into the Vietnam War and argued for its prolongation were outraged. But the truth gained from the Pentagon Papers revealed that lies were told about the Gulf of Tonkin attack which perpetuated a sad and tragic episode in our history.

Just as with the Vietnam War, the Iraq War was based on lies. We were never threatened by Weapons of Mass Destruction or Al Qaeda in Iraq, though the attack on Iraq was based on this false information.

Questions to consider:

1. Do the American people deserve to know the truth regarding the ongoing war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen?
2. Could a larger question be: how can an Army Private gain access to so much secret material?
3. Why is the hostility mostly directed at Assange, the publisher, and not our government’s failure to protect classified information?
4. Are we getting our money’s worth from the $80 billion per year we spend on our intelligence agencies?
5. Which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths; lying us into war, or WikiLeaks’ revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers?
6. If Assange can be convicted of a crime for publishing information, that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the First Amendment and the independence of the internet?
7. Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on WikiLeaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?
8. Is there not a huge difference between releasing secret information to help the enemy in the time of a declared war – which is treason – and the releasing of information to expose our government lies that promote secret wars, death, and corruption?
9. Was it not once considered patriotic to stand up to our government when it’s wrong?

Thomas Jefferson had it right when he advised: “Let the eyes of vigilance never be closed.”

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.



Government Planning

"It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money."

 P.J. O'Rourke

In-Depth Political Analysis

"Iran began holding talks with the six world powers. Participants were the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France, and Oprah."

Conan O'Brien

Natural Laws

by Tim Case

"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts...For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it."

~ Patrick Henry

It was a 3 AM wakeup in late September. The threat of an early frost had necessitated that the last 1000 acres of corn be harvested quickly to avoid the potential loss of what remained of the 2010 harvest.

Cresting the Cascade Mountain range of central Washington, beginning my decent into the Yakima valley, I noticed that it was just minutes before sunrise. The crystal clear dark blue sky promised a warm day, but was also the cause of nights that were getting colder. The truck thermometer read 28 degrees however, that was to be expected at 4000 feet on top of a mountain. I remember wondering if it had gotten cold enough to frost further east. In almost the same instant, I noticed what seemed to be small drops of my engine oil on the door window.


Having driven the road literally thousands of times, over the years, I knew there was a turn-out less then a quarter mile ahead where the truck with its dual trailers could safely be pulled off the road and a search for the cause of the oil droplets could be made.

Exiting the cab I was greeted with the unmistakable smell of engine oil which had unceremoniously left its assigned place in the engine, made obvious by the myriad of miniature puddles of oil forming under the truck. The rogue oil now coated the driver side fender well; the underside of the hood, the driver side running boards, and in a final act of rebellion was flowing off the left fuel tank quickly threatening to combine into a rather larger extended puddle on the side of the road.

Lifting the hood to expose the 475 horsepower, Caterpillar C15 engine, I noticed that my partner, who had stopped a short distance from me, was approaching the driver side door. "Wow, it looks terminal to me."

"Yeah, something is really wrong," I answered.

Gerald with his usual dry wit didn’t understate the obvious: "Well, at least that CAT® engine decided to bleed out on a nice day. It won’t be too bad a wait for the shop mechanics. Only two and a half; maybe five hours and you should be on the road again. Sure looks like it’s been raining oil, doesn’t it?"

I wasn’t amused and my expression must have shown my annoyance because Gerald then turned serious. "Let’s see what we got here before we call the shop."

As we both approached the driver side steering tire Gerald started looking at the oil filter and rear of the engine while I began inspecting the lines and the front of the engine. It was only a matter of seconds when I realized that the whole problem was due to the oil filler cap which was no longer in the filler tube but hanging from its retaining chain.


When that filler cap had left its assigned position the laws of pressure (expansion) had instantly come into play. High pressure always flows to a low pressure. The high pressures that are generated in an engine of this size (or any engine for that matter) are useful as long as the system remains closed.

In my case that meant the release of pressure took one gallon of engine oil with it; all in a matter of a few minutes.

I mention this not because it is anything extraordinary but because it is how prudent people respond countless times a day to a potentially serious crisis. When something doesn’t look, feel, or sound correct we judiciously stop and find out where the problem resides. We do this to avoid loss of production, to evade suffering a financial catastrophe or for countless other reasons.

Read the rest at Lew Rockwell

Good Intentions

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

Headlines.... Just in Time

WikiLeaks: Qaddafi Travels Everywhere With “Voluptuous Blonde” Nurse

Explains his good health and sunny disposition.

Poll: Ellen DeGeneris Would Be Best Holiday Party Host
Andy Rooney the worst.

GOP Senators Pledge to Block All Democratic Bills

Result of election mandate to do nothing at all to help economy ever.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley Doing His Best for the Economy
To destroy it with higher taxes and more regulation.

In-Depth Political Analysis

"President Obama has set aside over 180 million acres of land for polar bears. When Sarah Palin heard about it, she said, 'Todd, get my gun.'"

Conan O'Brien

In-Depth Political Analysis

"President Obama's pledge to have the most transparent administration in history has come true. Thanks to WikiLeaks."

Jay Leno

Don't Shoot Messenger for Revealing Uncomfortable Truths

by Julian Assange

In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."

His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's exposé that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.

Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.

I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.

These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.

WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?

Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.

Read the Rest @ Lew Rockwell

Innovation and Regulation

"People who create things nowadays can expect to be prosecuted by highly moralistic people who are incapable of creating anything. There is no way to measure the chilling effect on innovation that results from the threats of taxation, regulation and prosecution against anything that succeeds. We'll never know how many ideas our government has aborted in the name protecting us."

 Joseph Sobran May 13, 1998 (commenting on US vs Microsoft)

In-Depth Political Analysis

"Obama was going to have a meeting with Afghan President Karzai about the country's corruption, incompetence, and the wasting of American tax dollars. And that's just what Karzai was going to lecture Obama about."

Jay Leno

Moral or Immoral Government

by Walter E. Williams

Immorality in government lies at the heart of our nation's problems. Deficits, debt and runaway government are merely symptoms. What's moral and immoral conduct can be complicated, but needlessly so. I keep things simple and you tell me where I go wrong.


My initial assumption is that we each own ourselves. I am my private property and you are yours. If we accept the notion that people own themselves, then it's easy to discover what forms of conduct are moral and immoral. Immoral acts are those that violate self-ownership. Murder, rape, assault and slavery are immoral because those acts violate private property. So is theft, broadly defined as taking the rightful property of one person and giving it to another.


If it is your belief that people do not belong to themselves, they are in whole or in part the property of the U.S. Congress, or people are owned by God, who has placed the U.S. Congress in charge of managing them, then all of my observations are simply nonsense.


Let's look at some congressional actions in light of self-ownership. Do farmers and businessmen have a right to congressional handouts? Does a person have a right to congressional handouts for housing, food and medical care?

Read the rest at Lew Rockwell.

Intrusion

"The privacy and dignity of our citizens [are] being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen – a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a [person's] life."

William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Osborne v. United States

In-Depth Political Analysis

"Because of a printing error, a billion new $100 bills have to be destroyed. They're going to burn $100 billion dollars — just like they did with the last stimulus program."

Jay Leno

The Promise of Human Action

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.




This speech was delivered at the Mises Institute, September 14, 1999, the date on which Human Action was published 50 years earlier. The Mises Institute has just published the pocket paperback edition.

In a 1949 memo circulated within Yale University Press, the publicity department expressed astonishment at the rapid sales of Ludwig von Mises's Human Action. How could such a dense tome, expensive by the standards of the day, written by an economist without a prestigious teaching position or any notable reputation at all in the United States, published against the advice of many on Yale's academic advisory board, sell so quickly that a second and third printing would be necessary in only a matter of months?

Imagine how shocked these same people would be to find that the first edition, reissued 50 years later as the Scholar's Edition of Human Action, would sell so quickly again.

How can we account for the continuing interest in this book? It is unquestionably the single most important scientific treatise on human affairs to appear in this century. But given the state of the social sciences, and the timelessness of Mises's approach to economics, I believe it will have an even greater impact on the next century. Indeed, it is increasingly clear that this is a book for the ages.

Making Parks Decent Again

How the private sector can save public parks

John Stossel

America is filled with parks that are filthy, dangerous, and badly maintained. The governments in charge plead: We can't help it. Our budgets have been slashed. We don't have enough money!

Bryant Park, in midtown Manhattan, was once such an unsavory place. But now it's nice. What changed? Dan Biederman essentially privatized the park.

With permission from frustrated officials who'd watch government repeatedly fail to clean up the park, Biederman raised private funds from "businesses around the park, real estate owners, concessions and events sponsorships. ... (S)ince 1996, we have not asked the city government for a single dollar."

Sounds good to me. But not to Shirley Kressel, a Boston journalist.

I asked her what's wrong with getting the money from private businesses, as Dan does.

"Because it goes into private pockets," she said.

So what?

"Because it's very good (for Dan) to use the public land for running a private business, a rent-a-park, where all year 'round there's commercial revenue from renting it out to businesses. He keeps all that money. People don't realize that."

So what? I don't care if they think the money is going to Mars. The park is nice, and people don't have to pay taxes to support it.

The park is certainly more "commercial" now. The day I videotaped, there were booths selling food and holiday gifts. The public seemed fine with that.

Read the Rest at Reason

Transportation

 P.J. O'Rourke

"We're told cars are wasteful. Wasteful of what? Oil did a lot of good sitting in the ground for millions of years. We're told cars should be replaced with mass transportation. But it's hard to reach the drive through window at McDonald's from a speeding train. And we're told cars cause pollution. A hundred years ago city streets were ankle deep in horse excrement. What kind of pollution do you want? Would you rather die of cancer at eighty or typhoid fever at nine?"

Headlines.... Just in Time

Pallbearers Carry Leslie Nielsen’s Coffin Without Incident

Excitement Growing Among Beatles Fans For Paul McCartney's Funeral

PRESIDENT MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO AFGHANISTAN
Delivers Purple Hearts to U.S. servicemen, bags of cash to Afghani officials.

Senate Passes Food Safety Bill

After 51 senators get diarrhea from eating at Senate cafeteria.

Conservatives: Death Sentence For Those Who Leaked Classified Material
Except Scooter Libby.

David Letterman's "Top Ten Signs Your Neighbor Is The WikiLeaks Guy"

10. Name on mailbox reads 'WikiLeaks Guy'

9. Spends most of his free time burying stuff in the yard
8. He insists you speak directly into his necktie
7. More than once, you've caught him crawling in your ventilation ducts
6. He told you about Jeter's new contract at Thanksgiving
5. He insists you speak directly into his necktie — that joke was already in the Top Ten. We really need someone checking these things
4. On recycling day, he puts out cans, bottles, and classified documents
3. His idea of small talk is 'Good morning' and 'Want the coordinates of our secret military base in the Strait of Hormuz?'
2. Any time you talk to him, all he says is, 'I know. I know. I know . . . '
1. Gets drunk and takes a 'WikiLeak' on your porch — Hayo!

Libertarians, Power, and the Message of Freedom

by William L. Anderson

People who believe in liberty are in a minority, and it is a minority that few of us really can comprehend, as for the most part, libertarians cannot grasp the real costs that they will be facing in the coming years. Those of us who have spoken out against the abuses committed by those in power no longer will be ignored by those who control the police and "justice" apparatus, and we will be on the radar screens of those who believe they have the power to silence us.

In response to the call for a boycott of Amazon because it gave in to pressure from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I had this post on Lew Rockwell’s blog. The post was a brief compilation of some of my thoughts, but as I read it again, I realized that we are dealing with a much, much bigger issue than the debate about whether or not we should try to punish Amazon because of its actions.

The economics department where I teach, Frostburg State University, shares office space with the political science department, and like so many other Poli Sci departments across the country, it is a repository for Democratic Party activists. These are the Progressives who believe that every regulatory agency and every government department is forever protecting us from those evil corporations that seek to impoverish all of us, make us eat poison, foul our waters and air, and turn our temperate climate into something akin to what is experienced in summer in the Mojave Desert.

FCC Should Remain Neutral on Net Neutrality

posted by Michelle on Dec 07, 2010

The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski, released a statement on December 1st addressing the issue of net neutrality. The FCC has proposed several regulations that would stop internet service providers from blocking or promoting any website over another. Essentially, internet users will be able to search any website they want without discretion from broadband companies. This proposal is set for a vote on December 21st, and if passed, the FCC will be able to regulate “net neutrality.”

But this FCC action is unwarranted and unfavorable both now and in the long run.

While the idea of equal consumer access to websites and information is desired, it’s important to question whether or not the government should be involved in the first place. Consider this Cato Institute policy analysis by Adam D. Thierer. It asserts that federal regulations on internet access are truly unjustified since providers have not shown any significant signs of web discrimination. The consumer demand for these regulations is minimal, if not absent, within the internet market. This preemptive strike against internet companies is unnecessary and further expands the government’s control over our personal actions and those of American businesses.

These regulations will transform open internet service in to a government commodity with hidden long- term consequences. An article published by The Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses how net neutrality laws essentially decide who will have the responsibility of managing networks. Should it be the internet service providers (the actual owners of the network) or the government (outside regulators) who control how the internet gets distributed? The owners of the network have an incentive to provide the most open and accessible internet in order to satisfy consumer demand; whereas, the government operates within a policy framework unaffected by market forces.

If the FCC passes these regulations, the policy- driven internet service will be incapable of reacting to market changes; the only response will be an eventual decline in the growth of and investment in the internet companies that currently support these regulations.


More information on Net Neutrality:
The Phantom Menace in the ACLU's Case for Net Neutrality
The Durable Internet: Preserving Network Neutrality without Regulation
A Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality
Does Net Neutrality Promote Competition?

Michelle is an intern for the Libertarian National Committee in Washington D.C.

Warren Buffett endorses PB & J

Great Political Insights

"President Obama held a ceremony at the White House to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. In response, Republicans said, 'It's even worse than we thought. He's a Jewish Muslim.'"

—Conan O'Brien

Gay Marriage and the Law

The battle over Proposition 8 inches closer to the Supreme Court

Damon W. Root

Towards the end of his landmark majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), where the Supreme Court struck down that state’s anti-sodomy law as a violation of individual liberty, Justice Anthony Kennedy inserted a reference to the looming legal battle over gay marriage. The present case, Kennedy wrote, “does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter.”


“Do not believe it,” snapped Justice Antonin Scalia in an angry dissent that accused the majority of having “largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda.” In Scalia’s view, Lawrence threw the door wide open for gay marriage. “Today’s opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned.”

Was Scalia correct? We may soon find out. On December 6 a three-judge panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. At issue is California’s Proposition 8, the controversial voter initiative which added the phrase “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” to the state constitution. In August, federal district Judge Vaughn Walker—a Ronald Reagan appointee championed by conservative legal hero Edwin Meese—prompted the appeal by striking down Prop. 8 as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which commands that no state may “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.”

Read more Reason

Thoughts from Robert Anton Wilson

"Taking somebody's money without permission is stealing, unless you work for the IRS; then it's taxation. Killing people en masse is homicidal mania, unless you work for the Army; then it's National Defense. Spying on your neighbors is invasion of privacy, unless you work for the FBI; then it's National Security. Running a whorehouse makes you a pimp and poisoning people makes you a murderer, unless you work for the CIA; then it's counter-intelligence."

 Robert Anton Wilson

In the mood for TSA

Thoughts from Ron Paul

"When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." 

Ron Paul, M.D., Republican congressman from Texas and Libertarian Party candidate for President in 1988

Pearls of Wisdom from Vice-President Joe Biden

Sons of Liberty

"What are all the Riches, the Luxeries, and even the Conveniences of Life compared with that Liberty where with God and Nature have set us free, with that inestimable Jewel which is the Basis of all other Employments?"

Alexander McDougall

Interesting Quotes

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Al Gore

The Dog-Biscuit Miracle

by David Bond

David Bond

Wallace, Idaho – To those in search of miracles, I give you this:


Without fail, every morning, give or take 5 minutes depending on the weather, at 0530 our newspaper appears on the front porch. Not in the weeds or the snow. On the front porch, right by the door, so a be-slippered old geezer can reach out for it without embarrassing his neighbours or getting frostbite on his toes, even in the dark.

The impeccable and predictable timing would be enough to remark upon. Except that, winter or summer, tucked into the newspaper is a dog biscuit. Whoever throws the paper on our porch has never met Chase, our dog, because he is inside the house at this dark hour. But Robert has heard a grump or a woof and figures somebody inside would like a treat.


Comes out of his own pocket, this newspaper-carrier's milk bone. Now, milk bones are not the most expensive of things, unless you buy them 365 days a year for the hundreds of dogs who live along his route. And I know that our paper-guy does this, because at 3:30 a.m., throwing papers way up in Mullan, he is doing the same thing for the dog-people there. I have witnesses.

Central Bank Secrecy and Corruption

End the Fed

by Matt Stoller

“We probably know more about tribes in the Amazon jungle than we do about the real nature of power in the United States. Neither political science, nor history, nor economics do very well on this.” ~ Tom Ferguson

Something new is happening around the contours of monetary policy. It’s becoming part of our popular political landscape. We saw this a few weeks ago, when Sarah Palin injected into the 2012 presidential race the idea of fundamentally reorganizing the Federal Reserve’s mandate. Republican Mike Pence, Senator Richard Shelby, and a host of other Republicans have jumped on this concept, and there will soon be legislation introduced to make this happen.


Beyond Republican politicians, the public is beginning to rethink our monetary order. A YouTube video on quantitative easing has over 3 million views. The video slams the Fed for missing the dotcom bubble, the subprime crisis, for being fundamentally undemocratic and unaccountable, and for being engaged in collusive dealings with Goldman Sachs. Financial blogs and CNBC discuss the Fed, and its associated characters, with deep insight and passion. And Bernanke drew 30 no votes in his confirmation hearing in 2009, the most ever for such a position, just four years after drawing almost none. The market nearly crashed on the possibility that Bernanke’s nomination would fail before the White House stepped up aggressive lobbying efforts. On the left, the last few years saw a remarkable grassroots coalition of economists and activists to bring transparency to the central bank, joining a long-sought libertarian crusade. I was a staffer for Rep. Alan Grayson, who was working with that coalition to require an independent audit of the Federal Reserve. Tomorrow, because of provisions put into Dodd-Frank by Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressmen Grayson and Ron Paul, the Federal Reserve will release details of its 2007-2010 emergency loans to the web.

The Rest is at Lew Rockwell

Intervention

"If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate. If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're an extremist."

Joseph Sobran (1995)

Interesting Quotes

“This whole thing about not kicking someone when they are down is b.s. Not only do you kick him—you kick him until he passes out—then beat him over the head with a baseball bat—then roll him up in an old rug—and throw him off a cliff into the pounding surf below!!!!!”

Michael Scanlon, former chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) and business partner of convicted felon Jack Abramoff, during the Clinton impeachment proceedings.

A PATRIOT Act for Food?

by Mark Nestmann

“Control food and you control people.”

~ Henry Kissinger, Former Secretary of State

Leave it to Congress to make criminals out of organic farmers and anyone else having anything to do with the production, distribution, or sale of food. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate enacted S-510, the “FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010.”


It’s the equivalent of a USA PATRIOT Act…for food. Yes, for food. And since a companion act in the House of Representatives has already been enacted, the bill will become effective as soon as President Obama signs it.

S. 510 empowers the FDA to regulate every aspect of food production and processing. Nothing is to be exempted…your grandchild’s lemonade stand is probably a “food distribution facility.” So is your backyard organic garden.


Organic farmers, though, are the most likely target of this bill. For instance, a growing number of consumers purchase raw, unpasteurized milk from dairy farmers. It’s true that this poses a potential health risk. The farmer must apply scrupulous hygienic standards, and also insure cows don’t eat poisonous plants that could contaminate the milk. Pasteurization eliminates most of this risk.


Because of the risks of raw milk, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and many other organizations have recommended banning its production. And under the authority of this bill, the FDA could issue regulations to do exactly that.

Certainly, problems do exist in our food supply. The CDC estimates that food-born diseases cause 5,000 deaths in the United States annually.

The rest is at Lew Rockwell

Wikileaks Humor

Corruption

"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."

 

P.J. O'Rourke

The Right to Profile

by Mike Calpino



Mike Calpino

 As we bemoan the many ills of our society today, one of the ones often mentioned is that of our general cultural decline. Morals and values that were the norm fifty or one hundred years ago are almost non-existent, taboo behaviors of past eras are now not only accepted but granted privileged status. This is important because it is common history, values and experience that provide cohesion for a people, society and culture. Today everyone recognizes how divided we are and that is due, in large part, to the disintegration of the things that have historically provided our national "glue".


We must first identify what provided that cohesion in the past. Our nation was founded on several principles, some of which were in conflict and provided a dynamic tension that forced us to engage in constant cultural debate. The men who settled Jamestown did so primarily because they were seeking fortune. The were the rugged individualists who set out for a new land for the unlimited opportunity it offered, opportunities that were non-existent in the stratified society of England. On the other hand were the "pilgrims" who settled Massachusetts. They came for religious, and by extension, intellectual, freedom. They had come to the conclusion that the church of England was not providing the best way to interact with God and they devised their own. It requires a certain mindset to swim against a well established tide and just as carving a home out of the wilderness requires courage and perseverance, so does that ability to create a whole new theology and form of worship within a dominant culture. Particularly where that culture not only has the societal norms that enforce conformity, but the legal ones as well.

On the American continent there was a dynamic cultural environment on a scale that would have been impossible in Europe. There were religious societies founded on intellectual and religious freedom of conscience that wanted to enforce conformity. There were unbridled capitalists who saw a duty to help the poor. It was the rugged individualist working within a community essential to everyone's success. All of them had the shared experience of carving out a new home in the wilderness of America.

Libertarians oppose Republican plans to hang onto Obamacare

WASHINGTON - Incoming Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor has said that Republicans now want to keep two significant parts of Obamacare: forcing insurance companies to offer coverage for people up to age 26 under their parents' policies, and forcing insurance companies to issue coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Libertarian Party (LP) Chair Mark Hinkle commented, "This switch is predictable. Republicans love to say the words 'less government,' but they always vote for more government. It's a shame that the big-government Republican Party succeeded in fooling Americans again on November 2. We tried to warn the tea partiers."

Hinkle continued, "Repealing one bill and replacing it with much of the same thing doesn't count as a repeal.

"Issuing coverage for a pre-existing medical condition is like issuing coverage for a house with a pre-existing fire. It doesn't make any sense, and no insurance company would do it in a free market.

"By the same token, forcing insurance companies to cover adults up to age 26 under their parents' policy is absurd. Republicans and Democrats both love to treat adults like children.

"If Republicans succeed in keeping these Obamacare policies, it will mean significantly higher insurance premiums for everyone, in order to subsidize the huge new expenses that insurance companies will be forced to pay."

The LP platform plank on health care states, "We favor restoring and reviving a free market health care system. We recognize the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want, the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions. People should be free to purchase health insurance across state lines."

For more information, or to arrange an interview, call LP Executive Director Wes Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.

The LP is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets, civil liberties, and peace. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party at our website.

Sealed With a Kiss

by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers

What does modern North Korea, 1600 ~ 1853 Imperial Japan and the USA have in common? Those government's try to support failing systems by cutting their people off from the foreign influence. It's called, in Japanese, Sakoku. Sakoku means something like isolation from the outside.

In North Korea, if they catch you trying to escape, they execute you. Imperial Japan did the same thing. How much longer until the USA tries this? Laugh now but the situation there is getting more absurd by the minute.

People from the outside of the USA can't send you regular mail in many cases anymore.

Americans have lost their freedoms and their country. How much longer will they tolerate what has happened to them? How much farther will they allow their government to invade on their privacy in order to give them "security"?

What Newsweek sould have used

The Sons of Liberty

"The Constitution shall never be construed … to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

Samuel Adams

Education

"The reality is in this country, we're facing what I call a General Motors moment. We don't have as much money as we did to spend on education. We've not had great outcomes from what we did spend . . . This is one of those true moments in history where all of us must be doing better, and all of us must be willing to make major changes."

Bob Wise, Former governor of West Virginia, President of Alliance for Excellent Education: "Stats underscore push for state education change ," The Charleston Gazette, wvgazette.com, posted May 23, 2010

Pearls of Wisdom from Vice-President Joe Biden

Economics

"Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire."

Ludwig von Mises

Don't Start Another Korean War

by Ron Paul

Before the US House of Representatives, November 30, 2010, on the resolution condemning North Korea

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this saber-rattling resolution that unnecessarily escalates tensions between North and South Korea and may in fact put U.S. troops stationed in the area at risk. This resolution portrays the recent hostilities between the two Koreas as "an unprovoked military attack'' by North Korea, which is untrue. We know that South Korea was conducting live fire military exercises in the vicinity of disputed territory and that this action, taken with U.S. military support and participation, likely led to the exchange of gunfire between the two sides.


As the resolution states, the "USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group is conducting exercises with Republic of Korea naval forces in the waters west of the Korean Peninsula.'' Let us for a moment imagine the Chinese military holding joint exercises with Venezuela off the Texas coast. Might that be viewed as provocative by the United States? This is not to excuse or endorse the actions of the North Korean military, which are certainly regrettable, but it is important to accurately portray the events.


This resolution is long on inaccuracies and hyperbole but it avoids the real issue, which is why, more than fifty years after the end of the Korean war, the American taxpayer is still forced to pay for the U.S. military to defend a modern and wealthy South Korea. The continued presence of the U.S. military as a "tripwire'' to deter North Korea is ineffective and dangerous. It is designed to deter renewed hostilities by placing American lives between the two factions. As we have seen recently, South Korean leaders, emboldened by the U.S. protection, seek to provoke North Korean reaction rather than to work for a way to finally end the conflict. The U.S. presence only serves to prolong the conflict, further drain our empty treasury, and place our military at risk. I encourage my colleagues to reject this jingoistic resolution and instead use our Constitutionally-granted authority to finally end the U.S. military presence in and defense of South Korea.

Two Visions

"There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.

The other vision finds its roots in the spirit of our founding revolution and in the leaders of this nation who embraced the age of reason. It loves freedom, encourages diversity, embraces science and affirms the dignity and rights of every individual. It sees America as a moral nation, neither completely religious nor completely secular. It defines patriotism as love of country and of the people who make it strong. It defends all citizens against unjust coercion and irrational conformity.

This second vision is our vision. It is the vision of a free society. We must be bold enough to proclaim it and strong enough to defend it against all its enemies."

Rabbi Sherwin Wine

Interesting Quotes

"When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal."

Richard M. Nixon