Not with a Bang But a Whimper

Social change can be revolutionary, sudden, and swift. More commonly it moves at a glacier pace. Yet glaciers work great change, and great damage, given enough time.

What The Drug Warriors Have Given Us

Does anyone still think the “war on drugs” is a good idea?

That may strike some people as an odd question under the circumstances, so let’s take it from another direction. Have you seen the news stories about the violence on the border being perpetrated by the Mexican whiskey and cigarette cartels?

No? That’s probably because there was no such violence and are no such cartels.

So why are there violent cartels in marijuana, cocaine, and heroin but not in whiskey and cigarettes?

All together now: prohibition.

“Deliberative Democracy” Dementia

A specter is haunting America ‘s politicians and professors—the spect(er of illegitimacy. The political-intellectual elite fear that millions of Americans will conclude that the current democracy is a fraud—that they are being given bogus choices at the ballot box—and that the phrase “will of the people” now means as little as “the check is in [...]

Hurricane Katrina Shows that Government Is Too Small?

By now everyone is aware of the almost inconceivable
incompetence of the Federal Emergency Management Agencys (FEMA) response to Hurricane Katrina.Those who cherish liberty might think this episode would bolster their cause.However, as usual the states intellectual bodyguards have attempted to use this disaster to justify ever higher budgets and even more dictatorial powers.

Property Protects

Opponents of authentic liberalism have long held that the state must be powerful enough to protect the powerless from the ravages of private property. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Kelo eminent-domain case last summer shows what that principle is worth. To recap, the city of New London, Connecticut, condemned 15 working-class homes for an [...]

A Philanthropist Goes to Washington

In philanthropy, as in other human undertakings, there are degrees of performance, from inspired to disappointing. Because the very act of generosity merits some credit, we are reluctant to give an entirely negative rating to any donor, but sometimes a philanthropist comes along who tests our forbearance. A case in point is Ruth Lilly, heiress [...]

Homeland Security Circa AD 285

Alexis de Tocqueville said that nothing is so threatening to individual liberty as extended war. Wars add to the relative power of the central government, and this change in the balance of power is accompanied by the decline of personal freedom. “A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat [...]

Airline Protectionism Hurts Travelers

In one form or another the U.S. government has regulated the domestic airline industry since 1930. The imposition of various rules and regulations has kept the industry from becoming as efficient as it might have become had it evolved in a free market. While many controls ended in 1978 and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) [...]