Commentary

"Nearly all the Republican presidential candidates are showing their muscles, supporting the war on terror and a robust military while also vowing to do whatever it takes to disarm Iran. They know that it is essential to play the jingoistic 'American exceptionalism' card, and they understand that being president also means becoming commander in chief of America’s armed forces with the responsibility for committing U.S. soldiers to die for their country. But how are they qualified to do that?" (12/22/11)

"The very idea that there can be a choice of economic systems is silly. It was not too silly for Mises, sadly. Mises thought that it was wise to admit to a choice but to repeatedly say there was no third way. The [economic calculation argument], that Mises adopted and made his own, suggested there was no second way either." (12/21/11)

"The Senate and the House of Representatives have held fiery hearings on NOAA. Senior staff, including chief NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, have been hauled before congress. We have read scathing Inspector General and Special Master reports. Congressman have repeatedly called for terminations. There is more criticism ... but NOAA is still a rogue agency." (12/21/11)

"[W]e must never lose sight of this important asymmetry: complete or near-complete state control of the economy has proven to be a sure recipe for deep impoverishment and brutal tyranny, while historical periods that have been close to laissez faire -- that is, much closer to laissez faire than is America at the dawn of 2012 -- have produced nothing remotely of the sort." (12/21/11)

"In the time since the end of the Cold War, there have been many years in which advocates of freedom and democracy found endless reasons for gloom and few for hope. This was not one of those years." (12/22/11)

"At the grassroots level, voters worried about excessive immigration are motivated by an inchoate sense that the country has lost control of its borders or by vague concerns about cultural transformation. Although united in opposition to specific bills like the McCain-Kennedy amnesty or the DREAM Act, grassroots restrictionists don’t have a detailed legislative program of their own. As Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies has observed, they tend to assume the immigration they dislike is illegal. This makes these voters susceptible to manipulation." (12/21/11)

"This writer is a paleo-libertarian; a libertarian of the Right. If libertarianism is ever to appeal to middle America, it is this libertarianism, as it is rooted in the founding ideas, which is also why I prefer classical liberalism as a philosophical label." (12/20/11)

"Despite all the mischaracterizations, it’s encouraging that George Monbiot has begun to write about libertarians so frequently. We are on the rise -- in politics, in economics and in academia -- and this understandably threatens people like Monbiot whose world centres on the state." (12/20/11)

"Government not only enforces artificial title to vacant and unimproved land held out of use for speculative purposes, but actively colludes with developers to promote a sprawl-based, monoculture model of development. The result is to drive up rents in older, centrally located neighborhoods and gentrify poor residents out of there. So what the state does with its left hand, through rent control, is a feeble effort to partially offset what it already did with its strong right hand. It’s another example of the state breaking your legs and giving you crutches." (12/20/11)

"Apparently the Obama administration views Afghanistan as a bit like the Eagles' famed Hotel California.  We can check out but never leave. ... The U.S. has no interests at stake which warrant a permanent presence in Central Asia. At a time of fiscal crisis, Washington should be shedding, not adding, permanent commitments." (12/21/11)

"The genius of modern democracy is that it makes the citizen a party to his own enslavement. Rather than give up 10% of his output to his feudal lord and master, he gives up 30% to 50% to his democratically-elected bosses. They tell him what to do. And he believes he is giving the orders! And then, he believes he has discovered the best form of government in the world. It is so good he can’t wait to force others to be democrats too!" (12/20/11)

"How restricting the promotion of 'off-label' pharmaceutical use puts doctors and patients at risk." (12/21/11)

"Playwright-turned-president Vaclav Havel owed his status as anti-Communist rock star more to the West than to the Czech people." (12/21/11)

"There didn’t seem to be a lot of outrage last month when it was reported by the Washington Post that the Dover Air Force Base mortuary had for years been disposing of the unidentified remains of U.S. soldiers by cremating them and then dumping the ashes in a landfill in King George County, Virginia. The Dover mortuary receives the remains of all U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other overseas locations. More than 6,000 U.S. soldiers have died in foreign wars since 2001." (12/20/11)

"Climategate, both 1 and 2, are textbook cases of gross lapses in professional ethics and scientific malfeasance. To understand why, one must first understand what science is and how it is supposed to operate. Science is the noble pursuit of knowledge through observation, testing and experimentation. Scientists attempt to explain, describe and/or predict the implications of phenomena through the use of the scientific method." (12/14/11)

"The politicians aren’t interested in saving lives, or they wouldn’t be involved in what they do in the first place. The truth is really quite simple. They want us to speed. Because this means that one of their badge-wearing servants is more likely to pull us over and issue us a ticket." (12/21/11)

"According to US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on December14, 'we are winning this very tough conflict here in Afghanistan.' Well, he and his followers might imagine they are winning their war, but in addition to Washington’s sacrifice of 1856 American soldiers (so far) in a futile conflict, what the geniuses of the Pentagon and the aid industry have also lost in their ten years of war is a very great deal of US taxpayers’ money. And they intend to waste much more in years to come." (12/21/11)

"In 1927, seven years before the board game was created, Washington state decided to play monopoly. It gave a private interest the exclusive right to operate a ferry on 55-mile long Lake Chelan in the northern Cascade Mountains. The state apparently will defend this folly until Judgment Day, when state officials will get an earful from the Creator who -- we have Jefferson's word for this -- endowed everyone, including Jim and Cliff Courtney, with the rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (12/19/11)

"Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States (1841), an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence." (12/21/11)