All Posts Tagged With: "9/11"
Ten Years After
After 9/11 the U.S. Congress created the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). America went to war, overtly and covertly, in several countries. Nearly $8 trillion was spent on what is called “security,” Chris Hellman of the National Priorities Project estimates. Was it worth it? Yes, in many ways, says author [...]
30Nov2011 | John Stossel | 4 comments | ContinuedFear-Mongering and Servitude
In his 1776 essay, “Thoughts on Government,” John Adams observed, “Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.” The [...]
22Jun2011 | James Bovard | 33 comments | ContinuedThe Gasoline Demagogues Will Be Back
Here we go again. In late February gasoline prices across America were surpassing $3 a gallon. Forecasters are advising us to expect $4 by summer, maybe higher. So be prepared for something else with it all: the broken-record rhetoric of anti-market types about “gouging.” It’ll be coming from a lot of the same people who [...]
23Mar2011 | Lawrence W. Reed | 13 comments | ContinuedGun Control: An Economic Analysis
In Economics 101 we teach students about several fundamental concepts, including the relationship between means and ends, forward-looking behavior, the use of substitutes, opportunity cost, and the role of moral hazard. Further, we insist that these concepts can be used to help understand the world around us and have applicability far beyond the classroom. Yet, [...]
20Jan2009 | and Scott A. Kjar | 12 comments | ContinuedThe USA PATRIOT Act and Finance: The Hidden Threat
After 18 years in the investment business, a time I might add that has been rewarding in many ways, I am now truly questioning whether I should stay in this profession. It just isn’t fun anymore. When it actually stopped being fun is hard to pinpoint, but why it stopped is not. Although we in [...]
1Sep2006 | Gary D. Barnett | 2 comments | ContinuedWartime Executive Power: Are Warrantless Wiretaps Legal?
Robert Levy is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute. This article is drawn from his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, February 28, 2006. President Bush has authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop, without obtaining a warrant, on telephone calls, e-mails, and other communications between U.S. persons in the [...]
1Aug2006 | Robert A. Levy | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Futility of the Government Airline Bailout
In recent years many airlines have struggled, and following
9/11 Congress passed a massive aid package aimed at rescuing the industry. After years of government aid it is appropriate to ask what has been accomplished.
Undoing the Fourth Amendment
Carlos Gonzalez, 21, of Weston, Florida, stands
spread-eagled while an officer pats him down.
When the officer bends to frisk his legs, Carlos
lowers his arms without asking permission. The officer
snarls, “Hey,were not even close to being finished.What
are you trying to hide?” While a crowd watches, Carlos
is ordered to disrobe. He hands over his shoes and belt
and empties his pockets as the search continues in mortifying
detail.
Federal Surveillance: The Threat to Americans’ Security
Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11 the Bush administration has launched many new surveillance programs in the name of homeland security. When critics raised questions about the potential abuses of the new powers, some administration supporters insisted that Bush’s new surveillance policies were benign because there was no evidence the programs were being abused. But [...]
1Jan2004 | James Bovard | 2 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – November 2003
Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life by James R. Otteson Cambridge University Press • 2002 • 338 pages • $70.00 hardcover; $26.00 paperback Reviewed by Robert Batemarco One of the puzzles confronting students of the history of economic thought is the apparent inconsistency of the two masterworks of Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and [...]
1Nov2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – October 2003
The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I by Thomas Fleming Basic Books • 2003 • 543 pages • $30.00 Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling Imagine how different the twentieth century might have been if Lenin and the Bolsheviks had never come to power in Russia in 1917 and had not set in motion all the cruel crimes that were [...]
1Oct2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe State’s Quest for Total Information Awareness
David Brown is a freelance writer and editor. This is the second of two parts. Efforts to transform the United States into a surveillance regime on a totalitarian or quasi-totalitarian model are currently underway. In addition to attempts to beef up and make uniform the state driver’s licenses-thereby blending them into either a de facto [...]
1May2003 | David M. Brown | 4 comments | ContinuedNew Laws Will Protect Americans from Snipers?
The handcuffs had barely been slapped on the two Maryland sniper suspects—John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo—before the so-called liberals began invoking their crimes as a pretext to undermine the rights of all Americans. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, writing on October 31, 2002, invoked federal crime statistics indicating that “the number of [...]
1Feb2003 | James Bovard | 0 comments | ContinuedBlurring the Civilian-Military Line
Gene Healy is senior editor at the Cato Institute. The soldier’s mission, as soldiers often phrase it, is “killing people and breaking things,” and they’re trained accordingly. In contrast, police officers, ideally, are trained to operate in an environment where constitutional rights apply and to use force only as a last resort. Accordingly, Americans going [...]
1Feb2003 | Gene Healy | 3 comments | ContinuedPrivatizing Airline Safety and Security
The events of 9/11 underscore the importance of improving the safety and security of air travel. The government’s response to the terrorist attacks employs a command-and-control approach. That approach ought to be questioned. After all, it was the Federal Aviation Administration’s system that failed on 9/11. Why should we expect additional controls to be more [...]
1Nov2002 | and Paul A. Cleveland | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Danger of National Identification
It seems innocuous. What could be so sinister about finding out who people are? But the national identification regime that some in government and the media want to establish in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks would likely do much to threaten individual privacy and security while doing little in itself to prevent terrorism. [...]
1Oct2002 | David M. Brown | 4 comments | ContinuedThis Is America?
I have long had an uneasy relationship with airport security. Before September 11, I resisted the demand that I produce a government-issued ID, believing that it smacked too much of the “Papers, please” of the former Soviet Union that Hollywood movies used to mock and we free Americans used to laugh at. I also used [...]
1Jul2002 | James R. Otteson | 12 comments | Continued-
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