Mises Search

Does democracy promote peace? We are told continually that it does. Let’s compare the rhetoric to the reality. Not to be confused with a republic, a democracy is a system in which, theoretically, what the majority says goes. The reality, however, is more complex and much uglier. In a democracy, various political elites struggle for control of the

New York Governor George Pataki, continuing his shameless lurch to the left in preparation for his reelection effort next year, has proposed banning cell phone use while driving. Pataki, who was elected in 1994 largely because he was the un-Cuomo, in recent months has begun to act like Cuomo on Quaaludes.   Ironically, one of his potential

I read the Supreme Court’s recent medical marijuana decision, which struck down California’s referendum to permit medical use, with great expectations. What a letdown. Here was my favorite justice—Clarence Thomas—slogging through the boring fields of statutory interpretation. Did Congress intend to allow the health of cancer patients to interfere

In his speech appointing the new head of the FBI, President Bush spoke of the career bureaucrat’s obligation to live up to the FBI’s “great tradition.”  He did not give details, so I thought that, as a public service, I would.   Much of this bureaucracy’s activities have involved economic interventions of one sort or another, not to mention direct

Since September 11, a heated debate has taken place over the true motivation for the terrorist attacks. The stakes in the debate are high because of what is implied in the answer: either the U.S. should reclaim its traditional policy of free trade and peace and thereby end its international military interventions, or it should wage unrelenting war

Bruce Lee--the author, not the karate guy--says that September 11 happened because “we starved our intelligence agencies.” We have been hearing this ever since. Get ready for a huge increase in “intelligence” spending, as well as “taking the handcuffs off.” But let’s see if we can kill this handsome theory with some ugly facts. Here is a list of

The premature death of Robert Nozick brings back memories.  It was 1979, and I was taking a course at the University of Buffalo in modern political thought taught by Paul Kurtz, founder of Prometheus Books.  (Libertarian theorist and fellow Buffalonian Roy Childs told me later that he had taken the same course years earlier). Among the required

George W. Bush’s State of the Union address must have baffled anyone who voted for him based on his pledge to cut the size of government. That speech has been properly and efficiently pilloried by Joseph Stromberg , Alan Bock , and others. The speech was both Wilsonian and Clintonian, which is to say that it proposed a political solution for all

“Lincoln was a typical example of the humanitarian with the guillotine: a familiar modern ‘reform liberal’ type whose heart bleeds for and yearns to ‘uplift’ remote mankind, while he lies to and treats abominably actual people whom he knew.” ---Murray Rothbard INTRODUCTION Ken Masugi is partially right about Tom DiLorenzo’s book, The Real Lincoln: