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Looking for Freedom?
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November
27, 2006
I've had a very hard time hearing and seeing the cheery "Happy Thanksgiving" greetings and messages this year, and am finding it almost impossible to say those words myself. That's not because I don't think we have anything to be thankful for, of course. I count my blessings every day, and am more grateful than ever for all of them, but I can't put on a cheery face and forget all of the things going on right now that make this anything but a time for joyful celebration. How can we "celebrate" when our government, in our name and with our money, continues to murder and torture people around the world, especially in Iraq and right here at home? How can we bask in a holiday mood when that same government is plotting even more bloodshed and destruction, both abroad and here at home? How can we go on with "business as usual" with economic collapse hanging over our head like an avalanche? I can't. (Read the rest here) Unfortunately, the only change in two years is that it's gotten worse... ML
Repeating
History If you're a college football fan, you were doubtless delighted with the contest held between the first place Ohio State University Buckeyes and the number two ranked Michigan Wolverines. I have a friend who happens to be a big Ohio State fan, and I couldn't have missed hearing about the game even if it weren't under constant discussion on ESPN and mentioned in virtually every sportscast on every local station in every town in America. I like football well enough, but this struck me as being just a little over the top. To compensate, I made a point of looking especially innocent when I needled my friend by asking him, "What's the big deal? It's just a game!" He nearly jumped out of his chair before he stared at me in disbelief and said, "You did not just say that...!" (Read the rest here)
Feminist
Infiltration into the Conservative Ranks? It was one of those claims that only a feminist could dream up: "A 2005 U.N. Population Fund report found that 70% of married women in India were victims of beatings or rape." Despite the lack of credibility of anything that comes from the United Nations, this straight-faced claim actually made its way into a front-page article last week in the Washington Times. That, despite the fact that the research shows Indian women are the gender more likely to abuse. Plus, no one could track down the UN report that supposedly made the claim. The Washington Times is certainly no feminist rag. So what's going on here? (Read the rest here)
Personal
Preference and Local Tyranny Encouraged by a 13-year-old court ruling, the City of Concord, New Hampshire, two months ago banned businesses from displaying electronic signs. Already that ban has caused controversy, with a local businessman suing the city in federal court. The city bases its decision on a 1993 ruling by the state supreme court, which upheld a local sign ordinance because, according to the court, "it is within the power of the [town] to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy." (Read the rest here)
Economic
Coercion Is Not an Effective Foreign Policy Tool Many foreign policy experts advocate using economic sanctions to motivate foreign governments to change policy. And, while it may be true that many of these governments could improve their countries with policy reforms, history shows that economic coercion doesn’t work. Both conservatives and liberals like to use economic coercion. For more than 45 years, conservatives have largely been responsible for attempting to get rid of Fidel Castro by putting the screws to the Cuban population. Yet conservatives always maintained that economic coercion would not get rid of apartheid in South Africa. In contrast, liberals were skeptical that sanctions would get rid of Fidel, but warmly embraced them for use against the repressive South African regime. But measures of economic coercion should succeed or fail through the same processes, regardless of whether the regime is hated by the left or the right. (Read the rest here)
Individual
Liberty - 101 A
Century of War The most accurate description of the twentieth century is "The War and Welfare Century." This century was the bloodiest in all history. More than 170 million people were killed by governments with ten million being killed in World War I and fifty million killed in World War II. In regard to the fifty million killed in World War II, it is significant that nearly 70 percent were innocent civilians, mainly as a result of the bombing of cities by Great Britain and America. This number of fifty million deaths does not include the estimated six to twelve million Russians killed by Stalin before World War II, and the several million people he killed after the war ended when Roosevelt delivered to him one-third of Europe as part of the settlement conferences. George Crocker's excellent book Roosevelt's Road to Russia describes the settlement conferences, such as Yalta, and shows how Roosevelt enhanced communism in Russia and China through deliberate concessions that strengthened it drastically, while Nazism was being extinguished in Germany. (Read the rest here)
External
Articles: I was one day in the lobby of the House of Representatives when a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support, rather, as I thought, because it afforded the speakers a fine opportunity for display than from the necessity of convincing anybody, for it seemed to me that everybody favored it. The Speaker was just about to put the question, when Crockett arose. Everybody expected, of course, that he was going to make one of his characteristic speeches in support of the bill. He commenced: "Mr. Speaker -- I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. (Read the rest here) (Direct link to Advocates for Self-Government. Please use back button to return to The Price of Liberty. ML)
The
Mailbag
Home Front: The idea is certainly palatable, but as Steve says, expect the government to muck it up. Therefore I propose a reader survey on “What ten questions would you expect ANY American citizen to be able to answer?” I’m curious to see what people come up with: send your suggestions to TPOL-News-at-LibertyHaven.com, and we’ll run the lot! Mama's Note: Your responses will be placed on a special page! We may use this address for all future feedback as well. If you've missed the Mailbag, respond to this and let us know you want that feature back! (Read the rest here ) Page 2 is a special after Thanksgiving commentary!
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