My friend and colleague Robert Higgs has written on the increasing adoption by Americans of the Italian Fascists under Mussolini’s slogan, “Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato:” “Everything for the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” And I have also previously posted on President...
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Of special interest to all freedom lovers is the sweeping, new, epic, independent film directed by Dean Wright, written by Michael Love and starring Andy Garcia, For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada, that has just been released in theaters across the U.S. This story is one with particular interest to Garcia, the...
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Harvard’s Mary Ann Glendon has a good op-ed in the WSJ dealing with the Catholic Bishops’ suit opposing the contraception mandate. Here is a snippet: The main goal of the mandate is not, as HHS claimed, to protect women’s health. It is rather a move to conscript religious organizations into a political agenda, forcing...
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The blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng’s hopefully being able to take refuge (with his family) as a visiting scholar at NYU would indeed be a happy outcome of his ordeal. His documentation of forced late-term abortions and sterilizations has led to more than four years in prison; followed by his, his wife’s, and children’s...
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In the mid-1970s, I began to do consulting work in addition to my academic work. By that time, I had become familiar with how economists generally analyze cooperation and competition, in both the economy and the political realm. Economists put great weight on gains from trade. Nobody, they like to say, walks past a...
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How has the vision of our forebears—of men and women, black, white, and every other complexion, standing tall, shoulder to shoulder, in free and full access to equal opportunities and enjoying the blessings of equal rights in the sanctity of our persons and property—devolved to skirmishes among dependent subjects of the state over the...
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I have devoted much of my scholarship over the years to studies of the state—its nature, its growth, and its relationships with other aspects of social life. I have been struck repeatedly by a certain fact about episodes of sudden or extraordinary expansion of the state: when push came to shove, those who resisted—often...
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In governing style, Mr. Obama continually resets to the strategies of his community organizer roots, including enlisting members of the clergy to further his political agenda. I have already detailed his use of the Department of Health and Human Services Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to hold conference calls with religious leaders, urging...
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The net has been abuzz about a recent case where a state magistrate judge dismissed harassment charges against a Muslim defendant. It is alleged that the defendant confronted and attacked an atheist (dressed as Zombie Mohammad). Zombie Mohammad was dancing with “Zombie Pope” in a local Halloween parade. In court, the Muslim man denied...
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Various state attorneys general have filed suit in federal court in Nebraska. The suit challenges the constitutionality of a regulation promulgated by the Federal Government which would ”coerce religious organizations, institutions, care providers, outreach groups, and social service agencies, among others, to directly subsidize contraception, abortifacients, sterilization, and related services in contravention with their religious...
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