Returning recently from a trip to Turkey, my wife and I had the distinct displeasure of passing repeatedly through ”security” checkpoints, not to mention waiting in long queues in order to arrive at these unpleasant passages. Although every country’s airport security boasts its own unique idiocies, all have much in common. It’s a waste of...
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Although forced population movements are not unique to the twentieth century, as anyone of Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, or Choctaw ancestry can attest, such atrocities are among the greatest disgraces of the past century. One of the earliest such movements in this era was the population exchange between Turkey and Greece under the terms of the...
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[Cross-posted at Organizations and Markets] Several folks in my part of the blogosphere have noted John Hasnas’s terrific op-ed in yesterday’s WSJ, “The ‘Unseen’ Deserve Empathy, Too.” Hasnas invokes the great Bastiat to counter President Obama’s call for judges who have compassion, empathy, and understanding of “people’s hopes and struggles.” As Hasnas points out,...
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The Independent Institute, the Institute for Principle Studies, and Economic Thinking cordially invite homeschooled students and their parents to attend: UNDERSTANDING TODAY’S ECONOMY Preview for Homeschoolers from the Challenge of Liberty Summer Seminars Thursday, June 4, 2009 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, California Map and Directions Seminar fee:...
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I thought this was too good not to share. Here is an excerpt from pp. 69-72 of Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis: He had in fact been a strict socialist at Oxford. Everything ought to be run by the State; private enterprise and independent professions were for him the great evil. He...
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Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian novelist and father of Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa, was also detained upon his arrival today at the Caracas International Airport. Venezuelan customs authorities withheld his passport and held him for nearly two hours after his flight landed. Vargas Llosa and his wife are on their way to their hotel...
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On the evening of May 25, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa was detained for questioning for almost three hours by Venezuelan authorities following his arrival at the Caracas International Airport. Since the officers in charge of his custody forgot to take away his cell phone, he was able to answer a call...
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As a Floridian, I’m looking at California’s budget mess with some amazement. The state’s 2009-10 budget is $111 billion, up 6% from the prior year, and $25 billion more than the year’s projected revenues of $86 billion. The budget’s expenditures are 29% greater than projected revenues! Yes, times are tough, we’re in a recession...
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In the flurry of the last several days we now know Obama is planning to maintain indefinite detention powers, even going further than Bush was willing to do openly. He is also perpetuating a slightly tweaked version of the Bush military commissions and is being harshly criticized by a U.S. district judge over his...
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Our very own Alvaro Vargas Llosa, on his way to a conference on democracy and free enterprise in Venezuela, was detained by its authorities for two hours. Thankfully, his call to the media made them back off for now. The Buenos Aires Herald reports that his passport was withheld as he was detained and...
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