Today marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. This event, more than the Declaration of Independence, Constitution or the American Revolution, signifies the true birth of the modern American nation-state. It was on this day that the federal government first repudiated the Founding Fathers’ republican form of government—a coalition of...
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Scott Horton, human rights attorney and editor of widely-read blog, No Comment will be in the next speaker in the Liberty and Power Lectures on Thursday, April 14. His talk, “James Madison, Executive Powers and the Rise of the National Security State,” will begin at 5 p.m. at the Bedsole Moot Court Room at...
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The Daily Mail (U.K.) reports that a British National Party candidate was jailed for burning a copy of the Koran. He was charged with violation of section 29 of the Public Order Act. Under this statute, “A person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, is guilty...
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Robert Nelson, in the Independent Institute’s recent book, The New Holy Wars, points out that environmental religion owes its moral activism, ascetic discipline, reverence for nature, and fallen view of man to the Protestant theology of John Calvin. Manhattan’s new Church of Earthalujah is perhaps the most striking—though hardly rare—expression of this new religion....
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The Obama administration has detained the alleged Wikileaks whistleblower under torturous conditions—for almost a year, he has been subjected to solitary confinement in a windowless 6×12 cell for 23 hours a day, under constant surveillance, prevented from exercising, lacking a pillow or sheets. For the remaining hour every day, he is allowed to walk...
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It’s not often we get a real market test of the popularity of public employee unions, so this recent experience from Wisconsin provides an interesting peek at the real public’s perception. If a harbinger of broader public opinion, members of public employee unions may want to rethink their tactics. Owners of businesses from large...
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A few days ago, tens of thousands of Mexicans in scores of Mexican cities participated in public protests against the War on Drugs and the use of the Mexican army as anti-drug warriors. The violence that has accompanied the Mexican government’s attempts to defeat the drug dealers during the past several years has claimed perhaps as...
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Thank goodness for the Republicans and Democrats, who in the eleventh hour, put aside their differences and compromised to avert the catastrophe of a government shutdown. You see, the Republicans wanted to cut something like $78.5 billion from what Obama wanted to spend—itself more than $78.5 billion over the year before. The Democrats were...
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Ever since Woodrow Wilson, who embroiled American troops in the mud of Flanders and contributed to the deaths of millions of soldiers in a global “war to end all wars”, U.S. presidents have, to greater or lesser extents, pursued the goal of making the world safe for democracy. That objective is a fool’s errand....
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The U.S. is running deficits somewhere between one and one and a half trillion dollars, and in Washington the Republicans and Democrats are still squabbling over petty change. The Republicans are pushing $40 billion in “cuts” as a compromise to prevent a “government shutdown.” It is hard to keep track of the exact partisan...
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