The Green-Eyed Monster

Cameron Diaz made $10 million for her voice work on Shrek 2. Tony Romo just signed a 6-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys worth $64 million. David Beckham scored $250 million over 5 years with Major League Soccer. The cumulative pay of the top 10 highest paid CEOs in the past 15 years totaled $11.7 [...]

Is U.S. History Repeating Itself In Bolivia?

It looks like the political situation is deteriorating rapidly in Bolivia. Evo Morales and his MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) party have recently taken it upon themselves to authorize a draft of a new constitution, despite the fact that they did not have a quorum to do so – the opposition was boycotting the proceedings. [...]

Whip Inflation Now!

From last week’s AP article titled, “Led by Gas Prices, Consumer Inflation Surges Higher”:
“Consumer inflation surged by the largest amount in more than two years in November, led by gasoline prices. The cost of clothing, airline tickets and prescription drugs also jumped. The Labor Department said its closely watched Consumer Price Index rose 0.8 percent [...]

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Thermoelectric Semiconductor Cooling Systems

In 2005 the allegedly Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry, requested the creation of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which called for $200 million to be spent on various projects that the politicians in Austin deemed to be really neat high-tech ideas. In order to secure funding, the projects had to hold out the [...]

The Liberalism of Christian Conservatives

Faith is belief in the absence of evidence. Faith in government is belief despite all evidence to the contrary.
The issue of religious faith is once again a major factor in the Republican primary. Mitt Romney just delivered a stem-winding speech on religion and politics at Texas A&M that has many pundits [...]

Athlete, Cancer Survivor, Politician (2 Out Of 3 Ain’t Bad)

The Dallas Morning News is speculating that Lance Armstrong may be on the verge of a career in politics. He apparently made quite an impression on some by his successful advocacy of Prop 15, a taxpayer-funded cancer research program here in Texas. Some people are even throwing around the word “hero” to describe [...]

Leviathan’s Next Crisis

One of the preeminent books in libertarian circles is Crisis and Leviathan, by Robert Higgs. His central thesis is that government uses crises (real or imagined) to increase the scope of its control. The newly created controls may be relaxed a bit once the crisis passes, but they never return to their pre-crisis [...]

I’m the Philosopher-King of the World!

In The Republic, the Greek philosopher Plato laid the intellectual foundation for a strong central government and even socialism itself. After seeing his predecessor Socrates condemned to death by the democratic Athenians, he had become very distrustful of the common folk and their ability to distinguish right from wrong. This traumatic experience led him to [...]

Food Sovereignty

The following article was posted at “Inside Costa Rica” on November 12, 2007:
Bolivia Secures Food Sovereignty The Bolivian government announced new political measures Sunday to consolidate food sovereignty, and stop importing basic products. According to Vice President Alvaro Garcia, by 2009 the State will invest over 60 million dollars in the sector, distributed [...]

What’s So Great About Liberty?

Liberty. Freedom. Property rights. Capitalism. Blah, blah, blah! I sound like a broken record, railing against the most basic government services that just about everyone else takes for granted. Sure, liberty is great and all, but why should it be held in such high esteem? There’s more to [...]