The socialists are right

…during World War I, as illustrated by Schenck v. United States (1919) .  Charles Schenck, the secretary of the Socialist Party of America, was responsible for the distribution of a pamphlet advocating opposition to the draft.  For such a heinous crime against American military intervention, the Supreme Court upheld Schenck’s conviction under the Espionage Act …

Post column and Libya

I’ve slacked on updating the blog lately, but here’s a few updates: I now write a column for The Post which runs every Monday this quarter.  My first column discusses the perils of government intervention in the economy. CIA Operative in Libya to gather intelligence on rebel fighters The Obama administration has sent teams of …

Isabel Paterson link aggregation

Lately I’ve received hits from individuals searching for Isabel Paterson, which has led me to attempt an aggregation of online information about Paterson.  If I’ve missed any, leave a link in the comments section or e-mail.   Literature Archive (Mises Institute) A Woman with impact Twitter account for Paterson quotations Finding Atlas I.M.P. (abbreviated biography in …

The Westboro Baptist Church and the first amendment

The recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the right of Westboro Baptist Church members to protest  at military funerals elicits two thoughts. 1) “Justice is always the same in the case of men and things you do not like, as in the case of those you do like.” -Albert Jay Nock, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, …

Omnipotent Government (preface)

For my final paper in sociology class, I’m analyzing the social problem of statism: the tendency to harness political power to achieve social change.  I have not written the paper itself yet (or began it, for that matter), but I have borrowed Omnipotent Government by Mises (from the wonderful Alden Library at Ohio University) to …

Theory and behavior: a master-slave relationship

The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. -John Maynard …