August 09, 2005

Down With Democracy!
By Lady Liberty

Americans have a thing for democracy. Some Americans, in fact, claim to love it so much that they want to make it our primary export. Even those who aren't particularly fond of the idea of a war in Iraq are behind the notion that we're bringing democracy to the beleaguered Iraqi citizens. Those Americans who feel that way are those, however, who don't really understand democracy much at all.

There's a saying that goes, "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner." The more educated American will point out that we don't live in a true democracy, but rather in a democratic republic, or representative democracy. They apparently don't know the corollary of that old saying which states, "Representative democracy is when the flock elects a wolf to decide what's for dinner." (Read the rest here)

The Failed “War on Terror”
By Ivan Eland

U.S. government officials, both politicians and career bureaucrats, always imply that a tradeoff exists between security and liberty and that we cannot have both. This view, however, depends on buying into key erroneous assumptions made by those same officials.

The Bush administration’s high-octane “war on terror” has undertaken an active and highly publicized agenda domestically and overseas to rid the world of “evildoers.” Unfortunately, after the September 11 attacks, the American public would have been freer and safer, both at home and when traveling and doing business abroad, if the administration’s security bureaucracies had taken a long vacation. In short, the administration’s activism—whether it be for ulterior motives, as in the invasion of Iraq, or to win public relations points with voters—ensures that Americans will see both their security and liberty eroded. (Read the rest here)

Why Payola Doesn’t Matter
by Bart Frazier

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has recently leveled a $10 million fine against Sony BMG for payola, a practice in which radio producers are paid for promoting certain songs.

Why the fine?

The argument against payola is that music lovers are not choosing songs on the merits of quality but instead are being manipulated by the record labels to purchase something that they wouldn’t have purchased otherwise. As Spitzer argues, “Our investigation shows that, contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity, air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees.” (Read the rest here)

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Libertarian Commentary on The News
By Nathan A. Barton © 2005

Sometimes you can have fun and still fight the bad guys, as this cute little story reminds us:
Amish Law
An Amish man answered a knock on his door one morning. An electric company worker handed him a piece of paper stating that the electric company would like to run a power line through his pasture. The Amish man said, "No."

"Legally, that paper says we can." replied the worker.

As he turned and left, returning to his co-workers in the field, the Amish man went to his barn and turned his bull into the pasture. As the bull rumbled toward the workers in the field, the Amish man hollered, "Show HIM your paper!"

Anyway, on to the news!

Good News

Russians cheer sub rescue
San Francisco Chronicle
"Exhilarated Russians celebrated Sunday's rescue of seven sailors who survived three days in a cold, dark submarine trapped on the Pacific Ocean's floor with dwindling air supply. But many observers warned that the accident and Russia's inability to save the crew without international help demonstrated that the Kremlin must pump resources into the nation's dilapidated, cash-strapped navy." (08/07/05)

Even though it was a stupid government trick that put these people in danger in the first place, and hubris kept them from taking proper precautions and planning for getting support, it is good news that they survived. Will Russia try to fix things? Probably not. (Read the rest here)

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