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"A "A serious splendid blueprint collection for change." of -GEORGE E WILL informed analyses ... mustreading." "A futuristic - •• VISIon ••• charts ne-w­ territory for "Bristles the decades .with ahead." uncomfortable -Gov. WILLIAM E WELD ideas." -PETE DU PONT "Provocative new "Should be ideas ... a road the principal map for our "Facts, compass new president." reason, for -Go\!. L. DOUGLAS WILDER clear-eyed policymakers and and " Should be read disinterested public servants." andre-read analysis ... -MALCOLM s. FORBES, JR. by every member voila logic!" of Congress." -EJ. O'ROURKE -JACK KEMP

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1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001 • (202) 842-0200 November 1995 Inside Volume 9, Number 2

4 Letters Liberty's readers have their say. 7 Reflections Liberty's editors remember Jerry, revive the '70s, read the Unabomber, berate Bill Bradley, weep for Waco, and cerebrate Newtonian logic. Features 15 The Randy Weaver Show R. W. Bradford examines the prime-time police state. 23 A Warm Day in Peace Park Michael Oakes visits Hiroshima and learns that paeans to peace are not enough. 30 A Week in Bosnia and Points West Bryan Alexander journeys through the Bosnian interzone. 33 The Money Laundromat J. Orlin Grabbe explores the nooks and crannies of the international monetary system, explaining money-laundering, privacy, and surveillance. 45 Obscenity at the National Endowment for the Arts Richard Kostelanetz uncovers what's really obscene. 47 High Noon for the Feds? David J. Owsiany wonders whether the Supreme Court is finally reining in federal power. 49 Economical Cogitations Daniel Klein on licorice, liberty, etc. 50 Undercover Economist Matt Asher learns a lesson in real-life Chicago economics. 53 When Will It All End? David Ramsay Steele confronts the approach­ ing millennium. Reviews 55 I Left My Heart in Tenochtitlan Stephen Cox explores the ancient Aztec culture of ritual cannibalism and the bizarre Spaniards who penetrated it. 57 The Libertarian Iconoclast Max Schulz celebrates the latest legacy of H.L. Mencken. 59 Cosmetic Surgery Mark Rembert wades through Joe Califano's latest tome, searching in vain for a heterodox thought. 61 How the Ether Was Won Jesse Walker looks back on the cyberspace wars of 1928-1935. 63 Triumph of the Image Richard Kostelanetz recalls the life and work of Edmund Wilson. 64 Booknotes on spies, feds, coins, and Koontz. 68 Filmnotes We're all thumbs.

64 Classified Advertisements The Whole Libertarian Catalog. 69 Notes on Contributors You can't tell the score without a program. 70 Terra Incognita The sound of one finger snapping. November 1995

his courses. She may have learned of the celebrated Lossky from her earlier atten­ [ Letters dance at the Stoiunin gymnasium, a J school for young women at which Lossky taught, and which was founded An Old-Fashioned Home letter in the September Liberty for all of and administered by his in-laws. I disagree with Randal O'Toole ten seconds before my laugh reflex While it is accurate to note that the ("The Battle of Oak Grove," September kicked in. What happens to those "liber­ folly of Randian "self-creation" often 1995) about the "new urbanism." At tarian ideas" he claims he sneaks into stands in the way of a serious discussion bottom, neotraditional town planning is Star Trek? Surely they aren't on the of her thought, this is not the scholar's a return to the small lots, garages on screen. All I ever see is advertising for greatest obstacle. Take from one who alleys, and neighborhood shops of the big government in the form of the knows - the greatest myth that scholars 1910s and 1920s - about like the neigh­ United Federation of Planets and its like myself have faced is the belief that borhood I live in, which was developed military arm, Star Fleet. was merely a "pop philoso­ pre-zoning. After 50 years of building Question: Does anyone ever do any­ pher" or a "dime novelist." It is through on big lots, tying homeowners to these thing for profit on the show? Well, yes, such characterizations that many aca­ goddamned lawns, and chewing up the but then they're polluters or stereotypes demics and publishers have thwarted countryside, a way emerges to conserve so old that dust visibly falls off (the any serious consideration of her pro­ land while still preserving the single­ Farengi are just medieval Jews with big found intellectual legacy. Their time is family house. The garages on alleys are ears and bad teeth). up. Ayn Rand is here to stay. a way to move the garage out of the John Bergstrom got it right. Keep front of the house, so they can bring paying him. , N.Y. back the old-fashioned porch, built Robert McMillin Constructive Criticism within talking distance of the sidewalk. Garden Grove, Calif. Whether or not the many negative Streets are narrower to save on land, In Rand's Way "facts" R.W. Bradford quoted about Ayn and a grid system of streets takes traffic R.W. Bradford's discussion ("Rand: Rand are true, her contribution to the off the arterials. Allowing small shops Behind the Self-Mythology," September philosophy of freedom remains untar­ nearby ends the 100% reliance on cars. 1995) of the relationship between Rand nished. Furthermore, such a vicious per­ I live in a neighborhood like that, and N.O. Lossky, her most memorable sonal attack against someone who is no and I like it. Such neighborhoods have philosophy professor at the University longer alive to defend herself ought to not been built since the 1940s, I think. of Petrograd, raises significant historical be beneath a person of Bradford's stat­ My house was built in 1921. questions. Bradford states that, contrary ure. His time would be better spent O'Toole's story has to do with the to Rand's reminiscences, "Lossky was dealing with more constructive issues. retroactive application of "new urban­ not a Platonist, gave reasonably easy Christopher B. Heward ist" zoning on an already-built neigh­ examinations, in no way treated woman Torrance, Calif. borhood, which is something I'd never· students poorly, and was not even at heard of. New urbanism was explained Petrograd University when Rand stud­ Occam's Razorbacks to me as a way to build a type of new ied there." This is not entirely correct. R.W. Bradford ("I'm not a real presi­ development that is disallowed by tradi­ While in Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical I dent, I just play one on TV," September tional zoning. dispute Lossky's reputation as an 1995) imputes Bill Clinton's ignorance of Bruce Ramsey "authority on Plato," it is certainly con­ the Constitution to all of us who choose Seattle, Wash. ceivable that Rand would have viewed to live in Arkansas. ("Yale is an equal­ the mystic-collectivist content of opportunity, affirmative-action institu­ C'mere - Scratch My Back Lossky's philosophy as thoroughly Pla­ tion and it must be hard for Eli to find I know that my publisher, some time tonic, even if his dialectical methodolo­ enough Arkansans to fill its quota.") He ago, sent you a review copy of my gy owed more to both Aristotle and then resorted to self-satisfied, smug elit­ recent book, The Decline and Fall ofthe Hegel. Students of Lossky didn't con­ ism by noting ,that, although Clinton, a Supreme Court. I have heard nothing sider his exams especially difficult; the former instructor in constitutional law, about any impending review from your exams were described as forthright and was apparently ignorant of the Constitu­ quarter. fair. And though Bradford is correct to tion, it was understandable because "his The facts suggest a quid pro quo. IfI note that Lossky was not a misogynist, law professorship was at the University learn in a timely manner that my book it is incorrect to suggest that Lossky of Arkansas Law School." has been assigned to a reviewer, I will was totally absent from Petrograd While I, like many others in Arkan­ renew my subscription. Ifnot,not. That University. sas, share Bradford's opinion of Clinton, is probably somewhat too starkly put. Lossky had been barred from teach­ neither your disapproval of his politics But you cannot with any show of rea­ ing in the university proper due to his nor his lack of respect for his learning in son accuse me of obfuscation. religious convictions, but he retained an the law (received at Yale) justifies his Christopher Faille appointment to the University of suggestions that Arkansans are in need Enfield, Conn. Petrograd annex, the Institute of Scien­ of affirmative action in order to be tific Research. Rand would have had to We Would, But He accepted at institutions such as Yale and make a conscious decision to study with that, even at that, we poor, inbred Works for Free Lossky, to seek him out, and to gain I pondered Ronald Wilkerson's permission from the university to take continued on page 6 4 Liberty TliE QADICAL QOMANTIC

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LettersI continued from page 4 sound as if he wants institutions under which diversity will flourish. But as hillbillies can't even scrape together the their families locked themselves in their soon as anyone starts building"rain­ brain cells to fill out our quota. By synagogue and set fire to it, perishing in bows" that don't conform to his white applying your criteria, your dim-bulb an act of religious martyrdom. InJuda­ male stereotype, he'll be the first to use musings would lead me to believe that ism, this type of martyrdom is called federal power to squash them. the residents of Washington are Kadosh HaShem, Sanctification of the The real supporters of diversity are arrogant and aggressively ignorant. Name. When the holocaust occurred in the libertarians, whichever party they Furthermore, your swipe at the Waco two years ago, I was struck by the find themselves in. Why confuse every­ school of law at the University of parallel to this little-known incident in one by calling them IIconservatives"? Arkansas indicates that you are as medieval history. That the Davidians Charles Richardson ignorant of the quality of that institu­ may also have thought of themselves as Fitsroy, Australia tion as you are of the people of this acting to "sanctify the name" is a possi­ bility I do not discount. Neither, appar­ Shame! state. To review a book which you obvi­ Being a native of Arkansas, as well ently, does Bradford. While Bradford presents a compel­ ously never read must require consider­ as a resident by choice, I am, ipso facto, able courage. The thousands of folks, intellectually incapable of understand­ ling argument that the FBI must bear the burden of responsibility for whatev­ worldwide, who know the facts about ing the U.S. Constitution or the case law the struggle between the 40 retirees of interpreting it with which I work in my er actually happened at Waco, I quarrel with him on one point. I don't like the Antelope, Oregon, and the Indian guru, law practice every day. It must then be suggestion that the Davidians them­ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and his cult­ true, afortiori, that divining the insights selves bear no responsibility. Assuming ists will now hold all of R.W. Bradford's set out in your publication is far beyond - and this is all we can do - that the writings in suspect ("A Place in the my meager capabilities. At subscription Davidians did intend to immolate them­ Sun," September 1995). renewal time, if I can get my inadequate selves and their children with them, this Had Bradford read A Place Called brain to work, I will take that into was a conscious act on their part. I Antelope, he would have discovered that account. would grant them the dignity of respon­ the religion of the Rajneeshees was not W. Paul Blume sibility for that act; to do otherwise the concern. Their political clout put Little Rock, Ark. demeans an act which the Davidians Wasco County in jeopardy when they The Zombies Are Coming! must have considered the ultimate test importedthousands of voters from The Zombies Are Coming! and expression of their faith. Moreover, around the nation and then, to further their edge at the polls, poisoned over R.W. Bradford's use of "holocaust" to grant that dignity to the dead in no 750 county residents. to describe Waco ("Judgment call," way detracts from the terrible responsi­ bility borne And shame on him for demeaning September 1995) is obscene. None of the by the FBI agents and their superiors for creating the situation that "small-town" folks. victims of the "real" Holocaust had any drove the Davidians to their tragic and Donna Quick choice. Most tried desperately to avoid final end. Ryderwood, Wash. it. All ofthe Davidians were volunteers. W. Luther Jett They had choices and elected not to use Washington Grove, Md. ... continued ... them! I explained this earlier, but I sup­ The starting point for any discussion Wes, We Hardly Knew Ye pose I'll have to keep it up. of Waco has to be: "Was there any rea­ I don't read Liberty anymore because IfI hear that you plan a review of my son for the government to be there in it doesn't provide me with anything I recently published book, The Decline and the first place?" That has been need in my battle to get myself free. Fall ofthe Supreme Court, I will resub­ answered clearly. David Koresh was a Actually, I have already won that battle. scribe. IfI do not hear that, I will not. certifiable wacko, albeit a charismatic I only continue it to get the rest of you Christopher Faille one. It does not matter that he had relig­ free because that is the only long-term Enfield, Conn. ious delusions. What matters is that his assurance that I will stay free. followers had become mindless I have loved Liberty from its incep­ zombies and were building an arsenal tion but you are stuck where I was back that could easily outgun all the local in 1987. I simply outgrew you. Letters authorities. They were in a position to Westley Deitchler take away other people's most basic Miles City, Mont. liberty, namely, their lives. Policy Buchanan's Rainbow Farren H. Smith We invite readers to comment on Camden, S.C. Ifcreating the"general climatic con­ ditions that makes. rainbows possible" articles that have appeared in the pages Death With Dignity is "the forgotten core of American of Liberty. We reserve the right to edit R.W. Bradford/s commentary on the conservatism," as Paul Piccone suggests for length and clarity. All letters are Waco massacre brings to mind the ("Blunder on the Right," May 1995), assumed to be intended for publication following incident. On the night of then no one has forgotten it more unless otherwise stated. Succinct, type­ March 16, 1190, following six days of thoroughly than the conservatives written letters are preferred. Please anti-Jewish riots in York, England, the themselves. include your phone number so that we leaders of the Jewish community and Pat Buchanan might sometimes can verify your identity. 6 Liberty Who's to blame? - After listening to Janet Reno's "terrorists"), who he supported in the mid-1980s. He will testimony at the House committee hearings on the Waco hol­ soon be hawking a book - the ghostwriting industry always ocaust, I was inspired to conceive a new theory of the respon­ booms at election time - that he describes as a "journey into sibility for starting World War II. The Polish Army is at fault. America and a journey into myself." Yecch! Brace yourselves After all, they got in front of the German assault. -RH for more pap along the lines of Colin Powell's tome. Newsweek reports that Bradley "has been fascinated in Colinoscopy - It's a guilty pleasure, but I love recent months by the challenge of restoring American 'civic watching primaries, conventions, and election returns. Most society' - the conversations neighbors have with each other, experts have anointed Bob Dole as the GOP nominee. Do the ideally across racial lines, in local restaurants, school boards, Republicans really want a man who could run with the slo­ living rooms." This is a worthy goal, but Bradley is wedded gan "If you liked Nixon ..."? But the rest of the field isn't to a political faction that has worked overtime to build up the much better: Dole is joined by such winners as Lamar federal government at the expense of exactly this kind of real Alexander and Phil Gramm. community. Until he credibly distances himself from that fac­ With such an appalling cast, many an alleged outsider has tion, he's just chattering. -eS started dropping hints that he may run. Malcolm "Steve" Forbes, Jr. (who has just entered the race as a Republican), GOP flip-flOp - Last year, when the Clintons Colin Powell (who may run as a Republican or independent), suggested imposing "managed care" (Le., bureaucratically and New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley (who would run as a controlled medical care) on all Americans, Republicans rose Democrat or independent) are the flavors of the month. Of as one and denounced this as a monstrous threat to these three, Forbes is the best - but that's not saying much. everyone's health. Now the Republicans, as part of their His message amounts to warmed-over Kempism. He told attempt to cut down the growth of Medicare spending, Reason a few years back that he is "pro-growth. If that me~ns propose managed care for old people. Maybe there's enterprise zones, I'm supportive." More recently, Wall Street something to the old Democratic saw about Republicans Journal columnist Paul Gigot noted approvingly that Forbes being heartless about old folks after all. -RWB will fill the Republican Party's "growth and optimism void" by stressing a "rising tide" instead of "shrinking govern­ America, I want to talk to you! - On ment." All of this is wonderful if you believe there's nothing September 19, the Unabomber made his debut as a newspa­ more important than an ever-growing economy. As for me, I per columnist, quickly establishing himself as my second­ have my doubts about the virtues of endless growth - and favorite pundit (after Hillary Clinton). The Unabomber - or, whether it can be sustained without constant government as he prefers to call himself, "the terrorist group, FC" - got manipulation. into print by announcing he would stop bombing people if Media darling Colin Powell is the most popular of the the Times or Washington Post would print his anti­ would-be candidates, but so far he's just an empty uniform industrial ravings. (Penthouse volunteered to excerpt them, who's criticized the "liberals" and the "far right" enough to but this wasn't enough for FC, thus blOWing the theory that achieve centrist respectability. Here's a sample of his advice he's just another frustrated guy dreaming of getting pub­ to the country, from his book My American Journey: "We have lished in Penthouse Letters.) After much soul-searching - and to start thinking of America as a family. We have to stop not a little government pressure - both papers chose to run screeching at each other, stop hurting each other, and instead his manifesto. Word has it the document is no duller than start caring for, sacrificing for and sharing with each other. Abe Rosenthal's "On My Mind," but much longer. .We have to stop criticizing, which is the way of the malcon­ The great fear is that this will only salt the bomber's appe­ tent, and instead get back to the can-do attitude that made tite: today he demands space in the Times, tomorrow a spot America." Blah, blah, blah. on The McLaughlin Group, next week a chance to guest-host Powell's momentum is rolling along on nothing more Larry King Live. Before you know it, he's the White House than his respectability and his skin color. To his credit, he press secretary. Well, so what? What media figure hasn't left a doesn't buy into this nonsense about his "transcending race" pile of bodies in his wake? You think MacNeil and Lehrer got and has indicated an unwillingness to serve as Republican where they are today on their merits? Now who's being window-dressing. naive? -JW The worst of the lot is Bill Bradley. As Newsw~ek points out, Bradley is a "lOO-percenter with Clinton on major issues, Pap faction - I finally caught up with True Romance, from Head Start to student loans to the Brady bill to job train­ the Quentin Tarantino-scripted sex- and gore-fest Bob Dole ing." When he deviates from the Democratic Party line, it's denounced in his infamous attack on Hollywood. (His speech usually for things like aid to the Nicaraguan 1/contras" (read is said to have been written by Mari Maseng - Mrs. George Liberty 7 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Will - which explains all: getting laid by that smug little prig relations battle. But they won the battle of history. could derange any gal.) Dole, of course, got it exactly wrong: Even The New Republic now acknowledged, in an True Romance is a sweet picture in which a boy kills a pimp unsigned editorial, that many issues were settled: while defending his girl's honor, after which they take it on More to the point, there is no need to endlessly debate the the lam. Then again, what would Dole know of honor? After details of Waco. Many of them have been incontrovertibly all, in 1971 he snarled III want out" to the wife who had established, and they do not flatter the administration. There nursed his war wounds and endured his black moods, and were no drugs at the compound. Koresh was not /lstockpil­ before you know it he was making goo-goo eyes at the much ing" weapons, he was trading them. The ATF never ade­ foxier Elizabeth Hanford. quately understood the religious volatility with which it was That Dole's silly speech was roundly applauded by IIcon­ dealing. Time, like force, was on the government's side. The servatives" shows just how debased the American Right has feds had opportunities to seize Koresh when he left the com­ become. Among the many pernicious legacies of Newt pound, but they blew it. The gas they used made a surren­ Gingrich's hero Teddy Roosevelt is the notion of the presi­ der less likely. And so on. Law enforcement is a noble and necessary element of gov­ dency as the "bully pulpit." Bully shit! Even the most expan­ ernment, but at Waco the Clinton administration acted sive Schlesingerian conception of the executive doesn't make coarsely and thoughtlessly and lethally, and then it refused the president a cross between Roger Ebert and Miss Grundy. to consider what it had done. Can anyone imagine issuing an ex cathedra opinion on the latest novel by Howells? -BK Of course, TNR didn't arrive at this conclusion without taking a cheap shot at Waco's most determined critics: Who weeps for Waco? - The House hearings For the anarchists of the right the destruction of the Branch on Waco have come and gone, and seem to have had remark­ Davidians confirmed that the government is evil, that the ably little impact. On the opening day, little Kiri Jewell testi­ finest symbol of freedom is a rifle, that America is an eschat­ fied that Davidian leader David Koresh repeatedly molested ological scene. These people do not weep for Waco. They her. On the closing day, Janet Reno replayed her "I-take-all­ have a use for it. responsibility-the-buck-stops-here" act, while the Republican I suspect TNR was talking about me and people like me members of the committee looked on with trepidation. here. If so, they are crudely insulting. Yes, there is a sense in So far as the Left is concerned, the hearings were a right­ which I am pleased that the events at Waco have helped some wing bullet aimed at everything good and progressive in Americans see their government as a monster that has "acted American government, but somehow missed its target, thank coarsely and thoughtlessly and lethally, and then ... refused to God. So far as the Clinton apologists are concerned, the hear­ consider what it had done." But if the editors at TNR think I ings were a right-wing bullet aimed at the Clinton adminis­ would prefer the government act monstrously at the cost of tration, missing its target thanks to the heroic efforts of loyal the lives of over 80 innocent human beings to it acting sensibly Clintonistas on the committee, especially Rep. Charles and fairly and humanely, they are grievously mistaken. I wept Schumer. As far as the Right is concerned, somehow the new for the Davidians, like all decent people. But there comes a Republicans failed to bring the story into focus and rally pub­ time when one should dry one's tears and try to do what one lic opinion, mostly because they were not well-prepared. can to ensure that there are no more Wacos. -RWB (They didn't bother to figure out that Kiri Jewell was going to testify that she was molested - or to learn that she was not a No secrets in cypherspace - Community Con- resident of the compound, despite her testimony.) neXion, an Internet privacy server in Berkeley, California, has The Republicans blew it, everyone agrees. challenged hackers to find security flaws in Netscape I'm not so sure. Yes, there's little doubt that the Navigator, a wildly popular program that provides easy Republicans lost the public relations battle~ The superficial access to the Net. reports from the hostile media, ranging from The Wall Street Ian Goldberg and David Wagner, members of the

Journal to your local television news team, told a very simple IIcypherpunk" community, have found a way to break story: It's too bad so many children were killed, but David through Netscape security in 25 seconds. Since Netscape has Koresh was a monster, and maybe a few mistakes were advertised itself as a safe way to transmit sensitive data, cus- made, but he got what he deserved...... ------...., tomers have been sending their credit card But the congressional hearings did a great Liberty's Editors numbers, as well as bank account and stock deal more than provide grist for news pur- Reflect portfolio information, over the Net. veyors and opportunities for political postur- Community ConneXion will send lng.. The J'OInt 5u bcommittee ha dsu bpoena CAA Chester Alan Arthur Goldberg and Wagner free limited edition T- RWB R.W. Bradford power and used it. They obtained thousands SC Stephen Cox shirts. -WM of pages of documents, many of them dis- RH Robert Higgs crediting the ATF, the FBI, the attorney gen- BK Bill Kauffman Forbes in, Browne down ­ eral, and the president. No longer is it WM Wendy McElroy Steve Forbes' entry into the presidential race credible for anyone to maintain that what RO'T Randal O'Toole must have sent shivers down the spines of happened at Waco was right or just or CS Clark Stooksbury Harry Browne's campaign managers. reasonable. TWV Timothy Virkkala Radically lower taxes, less regulation, a return JW Jesse Walker The hearings may have lost the public to sound money, and "killing the tax 8 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 monster" are all themes that will resonate well with those involved in a personal conspiracy to commit murder -I voters who are most susceptible to Browne's message, as will doubt they took out a contract on poor old Vince Foster, who his refusal to accept taxpayer subsidy for his campaign. probably killed himself, sickened by his role in Arkansan Unlike other Republican candidates, Forbes has no ugly corruption. baggage on the issues of crime, drugs, and civil . His But Clinton's role in the Waco holocaust is looking more stand on - no federal funding, no third-term suspicious every day. The more outright lying I heard from , parental notification before minors can get the FBI as the Waco hearings rolled on, and the more I try to abortions - is more forthright than Browne's expressed decipher what went on at the Davidian compound at Waco, position. The fact that Forbes is better known, better financed, the more likely it seems that the fires were an intended conse­ and not burdened with the label of an obscure third party quence of the final tank raid at the Davidian compound. will also work in his favor. Until the hearings, I thought the conflagration was simply Whether Forbes will be able to make much headway a result of bureaucratic face-saving gone horribly wrong. Now toward the Republican nomination remains to be seen. My I think a very different verdict is equally plausible: Bill guess is that he will do well, given his competition. Steve Clinton gave the command to go with the tank raid, to save his Forbes is the only plausible outsider seeking the nomination, face, to salvage his popularity, to make sure he wouldn't go the only candidate calling for genuine tax cuts, the only down in history (or the polls) like his predecessor, Jimmy "I candidate who hasn't endorsed the Wars on Crime and Couldn't Do Anything About the Hostages" Carter. My guess Drugs. His ability to finance his own campaign will free him is that Bill Clinton made a huge mistake, a mistake that made from the need to spend half his time dialing for dollars and him responsible for the deaths of nearly a hundred people, schmoozing with fat cats. He is personable and reasonably people whose gravest crime was to put their eschatological articulate, especially when compared to other politicians. beliefs ahead of their own safety and who couldn't find a way While all the other Republicans except Arlen Specter compete (or, deluded by their ideology, didn't bother to find a way) to for support from social conservatives, Forbes ought to be able keep the murderous thugs at the FBI from killing them. to build broad support from the Republicans who aren't I now wonder just how far Molly Ivins will go to protect social conservatives - those who favor less regulation, less Clinton's reputation. Two years ago, Ivins was refreshingly taxes, and less government, but have little no desire to clamp critical of the feds' assault on the Davidians. Will she now down on civil liberties - a category certainly less vocal, but argue that this is not murder, but merely statesmanship? quite possibly more numerous. -eAA By the way, I'm not sure where Molly's Voltaire quotation came from, but I bet the old Ferney gardener was slamming Stand by your man - By now it is apparent to the Catholic Church, which he hated. Would he approve of everyone that Rush Limbaugh long ago sold his soul- and our government's Cult (Le., deviant religion) Policy? whatever claim he once had to intellectual integrity - to the It is disgusting to see a humanist liberal's words be used Republican Party. And most of us didn't really need a book to exonerate criminal conduct by government officials. entitled Logic and Mr. Limbaugh to notice that he is more than But Molly Ivins will do pretty much anything to save her willing to marshal a fallacy now and then in his chosen cause. man. -TWV Apparently, Limbaugh is not the only political commenta­ tor who has made such a deal. Syndicated columnist Molly Oregon rules - I have an intimate familiarity with Ivins has also sold out. But being her charming, out-of-sync­ Oregon forest practice rules, since I worked hard to change with-the-masses self, she sold her soul to the Democratic them during the 1970s. At that time, Oregon's forest practice Party. She has taken on the role of pro bono spin-doctor for the rules were written by a board of forestry that, by law, was Clinton administration. dominated by representatives of the timber industry. Not sur­ One could, of course, attack this left-wit for her posturing prisingly, the rules were filled with weasel words, such as down-horne-isms, her egregious use of backwoods homilies in defense of big-city . But I won't, since I used to enjoy her style, and since I probably would enjoy it stiJl if similarly shanghaied for my brand of cosmopolitanism. No, what is objectionable about Molly Ivins is that, professing herself wise, she makes fools of her fans. Consider just one recent instance of Molly Ivins' "integ­ rity." In a column that I pulled off the Net, Molly Ivins asserted that the accusations ("common on the 'Net and else­ where") that Bill Clinton is a murderer are H absurd." Yes, she said absurd. She offered a warning: To those who like to titillate themselves with sludge, I pass along an observation of Voltaire's: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Molly Ivins thus shows herself as a clever, but ignoble, rhetorician. It is not absurd to suggest that our president is guilty of murder. Of course, it is unlikely that the Clintons are Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

"minimum," "avoid," and "whenever possible." Christians putatively follow. Jesus was very clear on this: out­ During an annual review of the rules, I asked the board to ward observance and institutional arrangements are not what eliminate these ambiguities, but I got nowhere. I then went to is important; what is in your heart is what is important. To the legislature, at the time dominated by Democrats, and lob­ believe this requires no strange , no outre hermeneu­ bied to change the board to one composed mainly of citizens tic, no advanced theology. It is the soul of Christianity. with no financial interest in the industry. But the state's gov­ But it is not the soul of Christendom, which is all about ernor was a Republican, and Democratic leaders didn't want external observance and public pronouncements. to give him the power to appoint all members of a new Nor, apparently, is it at the heart of modem, public evan­ board. I gave up after two legislative sessions, which turned gelical advocacy. What matters to too many such Christians out to be too soon. As soon as a Democrat was elected gov­ seems to be nothing other than Pharisaic posturing about ernor, the legislature changed the board to exactly the setup I public rituals and public confession. had proposed: seven members, no more than three of whom What matters here, in America, is "public prayer in the could have a financial interest in forest products. (This was schools." standard for other Oregon boards and commissions, so I I am not the first to note how the perennial demand to can't take credit for it.) reintroduce "public prayer in public schools" sounds like a The new board soon took an aggressive look at the state's "whitening of sepulchers," akin to the public demonstrations forest practice rules. But by this time, I had discovered the role of incentives, and was no longer enamored with the idea of regulating everyone of Oregon's 24 million forested acres. Rush Limbaugh may have been fooled by In 1989, I made a presentation to the board arguing that Clinton's "turnaround" on the prayer-in-school the best thing they could do to improve forest practices was to lobby the federal government to charge recreation fees. issue, but evangelicals are not as marginally This would encourage private landowners to also charge fees religious as Rush. which, in turn, would lead those landowners to take better care of the non-timber resources on their land. I cited exam­ ples of International Paper and other companies in the South of religiosity that Jesus excoriated in the "scribes, Sadduccees that began to leave large buffer strips around streams and and Pharisees" who ostentatiously prayed on the streetcor­ lakes in order to promote more recreation. ners. And I am not the first person to be unsurprised to wit­ The board found this an interesting idea, but I imagine ness the majority of Christians flee the teaching of Jesus and they had little faith in their ability to convince the feds to embrace its supposed opposite. Jesus said that one would charge for recreation. So they passed stringent rules of the have to give up much to enter the kingdom of heaven; why kind I supported in the 1970s: strict requirements regarding should anyone be shocked to discover vast hordes of sup­ buffer strips, logging practices, and so forth. posed followers shirking the narrow path, traveling the open A few months ago, I got a phone call from my dad. A road of public religion instead? friend of his had promised her dying brother that she would But as unsurprising as this may be, it is a bit depressing. finance his son's college education. Now that her nephew The idea that corralling classrooms of children and praying at was about to start college, she wanted to sell the timber on a them could have a salutary effect indicates a belief not in the patch of forest she owned to help pay the tuition. teachings of Jesus but in the accommodations of Augustine, The state told her she couldn't cut the trees because who tried to refit Christianity to rule an empire, rather than nearly all of them were within a 200-foot buffer strip along a to subvert the worldly ways of man. Now, there is much to be fish-bearing stream. She remembered the trickle of water that said against Jesus and otherworldliness in general, I am sure, ran through her property and couldn't imagine it had any but not by Christians. (One would think.) fish in it. "Yes, it does," said the state forest officer. "The Fish And it is unsurprising to hear Bill Clinton speak to this and Wildlife Department stocked it with fish last week." issue, trying to show Americans that he "cares" about their My stomach went hollow when I heard this story. The religion. Clinton's style of presentation - earnest, oh-so­ rules I fought long and hard for nearly 20 years ago were earnest declarations from a heart-on-sleeve politician - sick­ now in place. But I had always imagined that those rules ens, of course. Every word he says echoes the contrived emo­ would apply mainly to big timber companies. Even though I tionalism of Jimmy "I was 'born again' in the back of a limo" knew that a quarter of Oregon's timber is in small wood lots, Swaggart or nearly any other of the half-dozen stars of the I never thought that the rules I wanted would impoverish "Christian media." I have known many ministers and revival­ people. ists and missionaries of integrity. Apparently the vast num­ Be careful what you ask for. You may get it. -RO'T bers of Christians out there in TV Land have not, elsewise they would not fall for brummagem spirituality. It is not the Christendom and Christendumber ­ Spirit that these men are filled with. But they still draw a Seren Kierkegaard distinguished Christianity from loyal audience. Amazingly, Clinton still draws a viewing Christendom. Though we should not expect evangelical audience. Clinton's paeans to spirituality are as unconvincing Christians to follow the Danish existentialist in very many as his predecessor's testimony that he had been "born again." things, one would think that they could follow him in this (But then again, Bush probably did not lie completely: politi­ distinction, at the very least. Why? Because the distinction cians are born again and again, each election, with ritual reg­ seems so in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, the Man whom ularity and magical magnitude. They live for each rebirth, for 10 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 each shift of the opinion polls.) Comes Alive, and related horrors of the not-so-distant past. Thankfully, the content of Clinton's prayer-in-the-schools I tried to retreat - first to the '20s, 'till my stereo grew program seems unobjectionable; he is very moderate, tired of Fats Waller; then to the early '80s, where, by being 15 demanding nothing that the Supreme Court has not already years behind my time, I could be five years ahead of it. None granted. School time and space designated for a diversity of of this seemed to work, so I decided to jump the gun and extracurricular activities may include prayer meetings and embrace my own era. I am now a '90s revivalist: Bible studies, and voluntary student prayers (such as in the Remember the '90s? A time oflost innocence, so long ago A lunchroom, or, traditionally, before tests) may not be prohib­ time when the worst thing you could get from sex was AIDS a ited. There is nothing radical here, nothing not reasonable, time when men and women ofdifferent races could share afreeway nothing worth much comment. An atheist could support this in relative peace ... a time when most young Americans hadn't position. Indeed, a likely atheist does: Bill Clinton. even heard of Andorra, let alone fear they might die there one day. Alas, I doubt that the institutional evangelical community A time when people weren't too jaded and cynical to enjoy agrunge will be content with the Clintonian compromise. Rush record. A time when abortion was a legal right, not an unfortunate Limbaugh may have been fooled by Clinton's "turnaround" consequence of the average woman's diet. A time when Rush on the prayer-in-school issue, but evangelicals are not as Limbaugh still hadn't gotten the notion that he could sing. marginally religious as Rush. Clinton's pronouncements are You don't miss y~ur water, kids, until your well runs dry. over two months old now, and no great change has visited -JW us. Public evangelicals have not- judged Clinton's "heartfelt" defense of Christianity as a great victory. They pray for Report from Ruby Ridge - Contradictions are something much more rich and strange: an official recogni­ everywhere. Agent Lon Horiuchi testified at Randy Weaver's tion of the "Christian roots" of America, an institutionaliza­ trial that visibility was "excellent" when he shot Vicki tion of religion and ritual in public places. They pray for a Weaver, but the FBI snipers claimed at the Senate Ruby Ridge sea change, a washing away of America's secularism, a con­ hearings that visibility was poor, and their supervisor said, version of America into the pillar of Christendom it once "You could almost say the sun never came up, tt was dark, it was. was rainy," etc. The rules of engagement gave the snipers·a They pray, I think, for too much. "green light" to shoot anyone, but were really no different So this is my prophecy: until evangelical Christians con­ from the FBI's standard policy on deadly force. The sniper vert, en masse, to the sober separatism that lies dormant in felt free to fire on the people from the Weaver cabin because their exiles' faith, until they renounce the temptations of they were threatening to shoot an FBI helicopter, but none worldly power and officially sanctioned ritual, there is little could recall seeing or hearing the helicopter at the time of the hope for freedom in this country. The state will remain shooting. Weaver held his gun in the "port arms" position supreme as long as masses of respectable people still invest it (from which it is impossible to fire a gun), but was also with the authority to bolster their fragile faith. threatening the helicopter. The marshals and FBI agents were Pray for a religious revival. - TWV acting to protect Weaver's wife and children, yet his wife and children, we were repeatedly told, were as big a threat to Back to the present - Revivals, it has often been them as Weaver himself. (This last claim turned out to be an noted, follow a 20-year pattern. There was a '50s revival in understatement - at least partly. Sammy Weaver actually the '70s and a '60s revival in the '80s, so I suppose the present obsession with the age of Pol Pot, Studio 54, REO ,ooL Speedwagon, and other atrocities was inevitable. There was a t4\ ( NI-\ '" ~ R l\ sPt,r s J valiant attempt to stave it off at decade's dawn, by moving, \~ \s ~ ~\~'A~f .. LEr11>O not forward, but backwards, into the'40s. But it was not to be. LUr-l

crossed the country playing a freeform - To Renew America counterculture. 1/At least Cherry Garcia blend of folk, blues, jazz, country, and lives," columnist Richard Grenier sarcas- rock'n'roll. His death at 53 brought an tically eulogized in the Washington Times. abrupt end to this uniquely American tradition in music, "Because if you overindulge in ice cream you just get fat. But leaving an empty space that cannot be filled. if you overindulge in a Jerry Garcia's lifestyle you might end Liberty 13 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 up a slab at the Serenity Knolls drug treatment center." Wall Peace Corps. He just played in a band, and"gathered to him­ Street Journal editorial feature editor David Asman was self throngs of the self-absorbed." equally unimpressed: "Onstage and offstage, Garcia was a Heroin is bad stuff, but McCarthy's intolerance for anyone drugged-up knockoff of a social experiment that went sour." who fails to live the good life (as defined by Coleman You might expect social conservatives to have little inter­ McCarthy, of course) is truly toxic. Ironically, while McCarthy est in or tolerance of a strange-looking fellow like Garcia, feels good about spending other people's money on ineffec­ with his long wiry hair and white beard. But perhaps the tual government programs, Garcia was funneling over $1 mil­ harshest criticism of Garcia and his following came from lion a year in Grateful Dead earnings to private charities Washington Post columnist Coleman McCarthy. Garcia had through the band's philanthropic arm, the Rex Foundation. committed the unforgivable sin of going about the business Just days before Garcia's death, another Washington Post of his own life instead of embarking on some holy crusade writer, Carolyn Ruff, took time to fret over the"darker, more for social justice. He "avoided involvement in the hard social malevolent side of the Grateful Dead milieu ... where the issues of human rights, hunger, and disarmament," sniffed looming specter of capitalism rules supreme." Even President McCarthy. Garcia didn't run for Congress or even join the Clinton, with no apparent sense of irony, took advantage of Garcia's death to worry over others' poor lifestyle choices. Though it probably pains liberals and conser­ "Maybe we ought to try to vatives alike to think it, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead embodied "capitalism" at its very figure out what has happened best. This is true in the vulgar meaning of the term, because Garcia made big bucks. The to cause these people to hate Grateful Dead was a huge, multimillion-dollar business venture that spent the past decade on the federal government." Forbes' list of top-grossing entertainers. "I have a concern I think that's greater than this, and I've written But Garcia was also a "capitalist" in Hayek's to my congressmen and senators about it, first time I've ever done more metaphysical sense. Without any intention that in my life - and that's my concern that we are fast going down of doing so, he contributed to the social order. As the road to a federal police force in this country. We seem to have a musical entrepreneurs, Garcia and the Dead tendency to federalize every crime; right now everything from car­ created a peaceful cultural phenomenon, nurtur­ jacking to abating child support is a federal crime in this country. ing the very process of free association between That really worries me. And I think in this kind of hysterical state free individuals. Such freedom may not be per­ we're in after Oklahoma City, that we run a big risk of passing some fect when measured against some imagined very repressive laws that are going to be, in years to come, detrimen­ utopian standard, but it works here on Planet tal to our civil rights in this country. And as a law enforcement offi­ Earth. cer I worry about that. For Deadheads, Garcia's death is difficult to "I think that for law enforcement to be effective, it has to be accept. "He's gone," the song goes, "nothing's accountable. And to be accountable, it has to be controlled at the low­ gonna bring him back." But his musical legacy est possible level. It worries me to think that we're vesting, and I can live forever. And so will freedom, if our gov­ don't mean to be fingering the FBI outfit, but we seem to be vesting a ernment and society's intolerants see fit to just let tremendous amount of authority in the FBI to take over every aspect us be. -Matt Kibbe of civil law enforcement in this country. And I feel strongly about that. I think that it is detrimental to our continued freedom in this Every spud a king - Recently, my country, because I don't believe anybody wants a national police friend Paul and I were discussing the bad habits force in this country, and I certainly don't. I just think we need to of certain Republican leaders. Among the most kind of step back, take a deep breath, and look at this thing. And, you disreputable of those habits is the practice of know, all the militia stuff and all that, it is serious, no doubt about it. invoking Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the But maybe we ought to try to figure out what has happened over the Republican Party's ancient enemy, as a figure years to cause these people to so just absolutely passionately hate the whom all Americans ought now to venerate. federal government. Former President Reagan said fond things about "People talk about being anti-government. I think sometimes I'm Roosevelt, and Newt Gingrich is currently doing anti-government. I don't like paying all the taxes I'm paying and a lot the same, despite the fact that Roosevelt created of other things. And I resent the fact that I think every aspect of our the social-welfare state that the Republicans sup­ daily life is intruded onto some way by some level of government. posedly want to dismantle. I'm not going to go out and take up arms against this country. Quite During our discussion, I mentioned to Paul the contrary, I'm going to defend it. I'm going to defend the constitu­ that Roosevelt, the new idol of small-government tion of Texas and this country as long as I can. But I just think that we Republicans, had gone so far along the road to ought to look at that." the omnipotent state as to support a - Capt. David Byrnes, Texas Rangers, Control Act. testifying before the House Waco Committee, Paul exploded. July 17, 1995 "Control potatoes! You can't control potatoes! continued on page 48 Television The Prime-Time Police State by R. W. Bradford

Justice flickers as America adjusts its reception.

As customary, September marked the hyper-hyped beginning of a new televi­ sion season, this one with over 40 new programs on the six broadcast networks alone. But it was not the mass debut of new sitcoms about single people sharing apartments, or new "dramas" about police or physicians or single people sharing apartments, or even the return of old, well-established hit programs along hopeless fans of politics. innocent of all serious charges and of those lines, that provided the most By marvelous coincidence, just as the original gun violation, but guilty compelling television. Indeed, the best the new fall television season began, a of failing to appear at his court date television was not even to be found Senate subcommittee began hearings and of violating pre-trial release con­ over the airwaves. on the events surrounding federal ditions. He served a brief sentence, No, the best television was found marshals' attempt to arrest Randy and was released. on an obscure channel available only Weaver for failing to appear in court Whether moved by zeal to defend to cable subscribers and satellite on a gun law violation. the U.S. Constitution or hope of receivers. I refer to C-Span, the non­ You'll recall that the affair resulted drawing attention to his longshot commercial network created and in the killing of Weaver's wife ­ presidential candidacy, committee funded by cable operators to cover the whose head was blown off as she held chair Arlen Specter was plainly not affairs of government, in hopes that their infant child in her arms - and one to be haplessly manipulated by by showing the tedious speeches of his son, a boy less than five feet tall, hack apologists for abusive state congresspeople, regulators, and weighing only 80 pounds, plus the power. No, Specter's Ruby Ridge bureaucrats, somehow their industry wounding of Weaver and a house­ hearings would not suffer the fate of will minimize congressional interfer­ guest, the death of the family dog, and the House hearings on Waco. There ence, regulatory intervention, and (not incidentally) the death of one fed­ would be no Kiri Jewell to grab head­ bureaucratic meddling. eral marshal. lines with incredible stories of rape, The affairs of state are usually as You know the rest of the story. Bo no wimpy Republicans bending over dull as Saturday night in Villisca, Gritz, the former gung-ho Green backwards to support "law enforce­ Iowa, so most C-Span programming is Beret, agreed to act as a negotiator. ment," no matter how brutal, irra­ boring beyond tedium: politicians Gritz had credibility with Weaver, tional, or lawless it may be. sloooowly reading uninteresting and the FBI reluctantly accepted his Of course, Specter had an advan­ speeches or witlessly evading report­ services. Weaver and Harris surren­ tage over the GOP Waco investigators: ers' questions, droning conferences dered and were charged with all sorts at Ruby Ridge, despite the FBI's best staged by special interest groups, and of crimes, ranging from violations of attempts to insure that there would be worse. Consequently, C-Span's view­ gun regulations to murder. The U.S. no "long siege" (i.e., to kill everyone ers are normally pretty much limited attorney sought the death penalty. In involved, as it would later do in to politicians' mothers and girlfriends, due course, Weaver and Harris were Waco), several of the targets of the reporters realizing their bosses won't tried by a jury of their peers. Harris, government assault lived to tell their know they covered a dull press con­ who had fired the bullet that killed story. And the "compound" at Ruby ference by watching it from the com­ U.S. Marshal Degan, was found inno­ Ridge was not burned to the ground, fort of their apartment, and a few cent of all charges. Weaver was found destroying physical evidence. Liberty 15 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Those who have watched the hear­ He spoke of the events of August decision that, in conjunction with the ings have by now seen moments of 21, 1992, when heavily armed men in zeal of ATF, the Marshals' Office, and high drama, heart-wrenching pathos, camouflaged clothing surprised him the FBI, ultimately resulted in the hilarious comedy, and sheer horror. and his son and their friend Kevin deaths of his wife and son. He came Harris as they followed their barking across as utterly guileless. Even Dianne Randy Speaks dog in search of game, how one of the Feinstein, who at first seemed intent on The hearings began with the testi­ men shot his dog, and how they then defending the law enforcement author­ mony of Randy Weaver. By the govern­ turned their machine guns on him and ities by discrediting Weaver, softened ment's account, Weaver was a monster his family. He told how Harris and and seemed even to sympathize a bit as who had plotted a war with the U.S. Weaver's 14-year-old son had fired the hearing wore on. government for nearly a decade, hop­ back at the armed intruders and tried ing to murder as many innocent people to escape to their shack, and how his Send in the Cops as he could in the process. little son was shot twice, once in the Things were different the following day, when the ATF agents testified. The Randy Weaver who testified arm and once in the back, as he vainly Herb Byerly, the ATF agent in charge before the committee bore little resem­ retreated for safety. He told how his of the case against Weaver, was one blance to that monster. He was dressed family retreated to their cabin, trying to in simple work clothes and spoke the very sweaty guy, palpably evasive understand what had happened. humble language of the rural America when questioned by former prosecu­ Tragic as the events of August 21 from which he came, apologizing for tors Specter, Patrick Leahy, and Fred were for Weaver and his family, the Thompson, all of whom seemed to following day was worse. Late in the smell entrapment and suspect an out­ afternoon, he and his daughter and right frameup. Committee chair Arlen Harris left their cabin to go to the shed Thompson questioned Andrew Specter was plainly not one to where his son's body lay. As Weaver Vita, assistant director of enforcement be haplessly manipulated by went around the shed and was about for ATF, about the quality of the initial to open its door, he was shot without case against Weaver, pointing out that hack apologists for abusive warning, from behind, by an FBI the case depended completely on the state power. sniper. As he ran back to his home, the testimony of a single undercover agent. FBI sniper shot again, this time killing Somehow, the undercover agent had his wife Vicki, who was standing behind the front door, and seriously his lack of eloquence, adding that if his wounding Kevin Harris, who was wife could be there, she could explain going through the door. He wept things better. ("My wife was the By the government's ac­ openly as he told of prying his infant smarter of the two by far," he count, Weaver was a monster daughter from the arms of his wife, explained. "Shecould speak very well who lay on the cabin floor with her who had plotted a war with the ... she could tell you like it was a lot better than I can.") head blown off. government for nearly a dec­ Weaver told how he had come to He spoke sincerely, even patheti­ ade, hoping to murder as many believe the government was out to get cally, about the terror of the next few innocent people as he could in him, how he had been ensnared by his days, as he and the surviving members own poverty and the blandishments of of his family lay on the floor of their the process. a professional informant into selling cabin, next to the rotting corpse that two shotguns whose barrels he had had been his wife and their mother, shortened, how he had refused a gov­ fearful that if anyone stood up, federal neglected to record key conversations ernment offer to let him off on the mis­ agents would see them through the that he claimed established Weaver's demeanor charge if he would only windows and shoot them dead too. He guilt, though he recorded many other "turn snitch" and try to entrap his told how FBI agents sent a mechanical conversations with Weaver. Worse friends. With little embellishment, he robot armed with a sawed-off shotgun still, the agent's payment was contin­ told how he came to be arrested on a to bring him a telephone, and how he gent on helping ATF prove its case, misdemeanor charge and had not had refused to be killed by such a giving the undercover agent a motive appeared for his trial. transparent ruse, and how FBI taunted to misrepresent this conversation. Vita He spoke simply, emotionally, him and his family. In a particularly was glib, slickly evading questions. plainly. He told how he withdrew to pathetic moment, he admitted that he Thompson was no fool - observing at his mountain cabin where he tried to had felt his only hope to come out alive one point that Vita was "begging the live in isolation with his family, only to was for Jesus Christ to return to Earth question" - and the senator was be the subject of extensive government and perform a miracle. clearly frustrated. surveillance involving videorecorders Weaver made no attempt to hide or Thompson turned his attention to hidden in the forest, helicopters flying sugarcoat his unpopular political and Byerly. Thompson wanted to know overhead, and even the government's rel.igious views, admitted to past mis­ about the letter Byerly had written the tracking the menstrual cycles of his takes, expressed regret that he had U.S. attorney, stating that Weaver had teenaged daughter. refused to appear in the first place - a a long criminal record. He wondered 16 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

whether this claim was true. Byerly was shown to the assistant U.S. leaving behind a widow and two admitted that it was not. Thompson attorney?" orphan children. We have two mem­ noted that this false information was "I don't know that, sir." bers of Randy Weaver's family dead. contained in a letter requesting that the "Well, did you take any affirmative We have millions and millions of dol­ U.S. attorney prosecute Weaver. "Of steps to correct your letter which said lars spent. We have the humiliation of course, the U.S. attorney's office some­ that he had prior convictions?" some of our top and best law enforce­ times declines minor cases even "I had telephone conversations ment agencies in this country. We with the assistant U.S. attorney con­ have careers being ruined, some cerning, ah, Mr. Weaver's, ah, criminal through mistakes and some appar­ background, he was certainly aware of ently through intentional - I'd call it Weaver spoke the humble it, the, ah, telephone conversations." malicious - action. And all this comes language of the rural America "Well, just a moment ago you said from somebody who sold two shot­ from which he came, apologiz­ you hadn't told the U.S. attorney that guns that you or I could buy at Sears the letter was incorrect. Now what's Roebuck and spend an extra 15 bucks ing for his lack of eloquence. the case?" for a hacksaw, cut them off, and if we He made no attempt to hide or "I ..." have any ability at all at woodworking sugarcoat his political and "Excuse me. Had you told the put the pistol grips on them and so on. assistant U.S. attorney that the letter I was thinking of this over and over religious views. was wrong when it said Mr. Weaver again, how anything could come so had prior criminal convictions?" tragically wrong. Agent Byerly, you "1 don't recall. I don't know if I did said that you wouldn't have done any­ though they're clear violations of laws, or I didn't. But I know I discussed the thing different up to the time of Mr. don't they?" case with the assistant U.S. attorney, Weaver's arrest and arraignment. "Yes," Byerly admitted, "they do." who knew that Mr. Weaver did not Would you have done anything differ­ "Do you think your telling the U.S. have a prior criminal history." ently after that part? After the arrest attorney that he had other convictions "Well, how did you know that the and arraignment." in the plural, that he had more than assistant U.S. attorney knew that Mr. Byerly looked left, then right, then one other conviction, might have had Weaver had no prior criminal history?" down, then swallowed hard, then something to do with their determina­ "Because I discussed the case with blinked. Eventually he said, "I'm not tion to prosecute this case?" the assistant U.S. attorney." sure I understand your question." "No sir, I don't. That letter, ah, is a "But did you discuss the fact that Leahy repeated the question. typographical error, error. Ah, I had your letter was wrong and in fact Mr. Byerly again seemed stumped. He been in, ah, telephone, ah, contact with Weaver had no prior convictions?" began to answer several times but each the assistant U.S. attorney, ah, before "I don't know, sir." time stopped before the first word was that, on several different times, and Specter's time was up, so he turned fully formed, looking around the room discussed this case with him. The, ah, the floor over the Sen. Leahy, who took like a trapped animal. Finally, he sum­ moned an answer to this softball ques­ that was a cover letter which accompa­ another tack. "I'm somewhat tion. "If I could have nies the criminal case report. The case troubled by all of this. done, or if I could had been discussed with the U.S. attor­ For what it's worth, I do anything, to ney's office prior to the submission of owna lot ofweapons: bring back the this letter and the case report." handguns, revolvers, lives that were "Well, I don't know what you just semi-automatics, long guns. I do a lost, of course I said. But it says here that he was con­ would." victed of activities ..." lotof shooting, target practice "So would we all. Thompson's allotted time was up, What I'm thinking but Specter took up the issue. ... I also, . like Sen. about are the "Well, Mr. Byerly, on that point did procedures." you tell the U.S. attorney that that letter Thomp­ son,have "I've thought was incorrect, that he had been con­ about this a lot, prosecuted victed or had prior convictions?" Senator. I believe in cases and "No sir, what that, that letter, ah, is, my heart that what I used infor­ is somewhat of a synopsis of what was pursued, the tech­ mants. I say contained in the case report. There is a, DOCt , niques that I used, were that because I rJ one of the exhibits in the case report is IiiJrJfi proper. I discussed the a record of criminal history, ah, and sit here listen­ .f~'" ing to all these 4 J-It? s r case with the assistant U.S. that record of criminal history was I attorney's office. I made my recom- little things that showed definitely to the U.S. attorney mendation that he be prosecuted. The that Mr. Weaver had no prior just jangle wrong in my mind as I hear U.S. attorney's office looked at the convictions. " this testimony. ... We have a u.s. cases and the U.S. attorney's office "Well how do you know that that marshal, Marshal Degan, who's dead, pushed the case forward. There was, Liberty 17 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

ah, information that, ah, I provided to against Weaver was a sham - a case of from Cooper's murderous machine gun the u.S. attorney's office concerning entrapment, plain and simple - and fire, Weaver stopped, turned around, various, various facets. I explained to that the government had not even and took a wild shot down the moun­ the u.s. attorney's office concerning attempted to make a prima facie defense tain, accidentally killing his son. When the, ah, 1985 investigation ah of Mr. against entrapment when Weaver was Specter pointed out that the shot that Weaver. I made them aware of all the ultimately tried in federal court. hit Sammy in the back was moving on information that I had, and they, they Specter mopped the floor with the ATF an upward trajectory, and therefore stated that they wanted to take the agents, reducing the sleazy Byerly to had presumably come from below, case." claims of a failing memory and the Cooper suggested that Randy Weaver Leahy changed the direction of his smarmy Vita to babbling incoherently had perhaps stopped to shoot wildly questioning. "Well, let's get a little bit about how he is "working very hard to from a depression further up the moun­ into how you get the information you restore the public trust." tain. Another bizarre moment occurred had and what information refers to when the marshals suggested that the things that were actually there and .. . And the Second Weaver family had ambushed them ­ things that were prompted by the gov­ Time as Farce ... despite the fact that it was the marshals ernment's own action. I assume the On September 13, the hearings who surprised the Weavers after sur­ ATF has guidelines for dealing with turned to comedy. Kenneth Fadeley, reptitiously entering their property, organizations like the Aryan Nations the undercover agent who had clad in camouflage, armed with .where some members might engage in entrapped Weaver on the gun law vio­ machine guns and silenced weapons. criminal acts while other members' lation, insisted on testifying from On September 14, the hearings sole interest in the organization is to behind a screen with his voice altered changed genres again, this time to a protect constitutionally protected to sound like Daffy Duck. Perhaps the horror story. Lon Horiuchi, the FBI speech.... Do you have such guide­ funniest moment came when he sharpshooter who shot Mr. Weaver, lines?" gravely wounded Kevin Harris, and "Ah, yes." killed Mrs. Weaver refused to testify on "Are they written down?" Weaver wept openly as he grounds that his testimony might "Ah, yes." told ofprying his infant daugh­ incriminate himself. This was no sur­ "00 you offer training or guidance prise. At the trial, he had testified that to agents or informants on how to con­ ter from the arms of his wife, as he fired at the fleeing Harris, it duct surveillance on things like the who lay on the cabin floor with appeared that Harris "was trying to Aryan Nations?" her head blown off. hold the door open or moving some­ "We provide instructions as to one out of the way," making it clear entrapment, as to, ah ..." that he knew there was someone "What I'm saying is, if you're talk­ behind the door and had fired through ing about organizations where some explained that although he had on four it anyway. And after the event, he members may be there just because separate occasions during the Weaver made a sketch of a door with a window they want to express their views, hate­ trial admitted that he would be paid with two circles that look a lot like a ful though we may find them, and you for his undercover work only if he woman's head and a baby in just about have other members who might be came up with evidence that would con­ the same position as Vicki and her there engaged in criminal activity. Do vict Weaver, in fact, ATF offered him baby daughter Elisheba. So there was you have training on that?" no incentive at all. He had simply been powerful evidence that he had will­ "To provide to informants?" confused at the trial, he explained. He fully shot a person who posed no "Yes." had tried to explain his error to the u.s. immediate threat to anyone and who "No, sir." attorney, but had been unable to find had not even been accused of commit­ "To agents?" his office. (One wonders whether his ting any crime; that is, that he has com­ Byerly again looked around the confusion at the trial resulted from mitted second-degree murder. room, apparently unaware of whether having to appear without the But the other eight FBI "sniper/ he had ever had such training himself protective screen or the Daffy Duck observers" who accompanied Horiuchi or administered it to others. At this disguise.) the day he shot Randy Weaver, Kevin point, the other witness piped up, giv­ The hearings became theater the Harris, and Vicki Weaver were there to ing a long-winded, cliche-laden answer next day, when the u.S. marshals who testify - and testify they did, in horri­ that Leahy could not understand. were "doing surveillance" on the fying detail. And so it continued: Vita long­ Weavers on August 21, 1992 testified. The snipers were members of the winded and slick; Byerly acting like a The dramatic highlight was Marshal FBI's elite "Hostage Rescue Team," liar fearing discovery; both of them as Larry Cooper's claim that he had not created to respond to violent situations evasive as Weaver had been forthright killed little Sammy Weaver, despite all where hostages are held. Before pro­ the previous day. the evidence to the contrary, but that ceeding to Ruby Ridge, the snipers had Specter was well-prepared, even the real killer was Randy Weaver. His met with superiors. Richard Rogers, brilliant. Before the hearings were over, theory was that, as Randy Weaver ran head of the HRT, told them that this he had proven that the ATF's case for his life up the mountain to get away would "be no long siege," that the 18 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

family was to "be taken down hard carrying weapons that deadly was justified even under normal rules and fast." force could be used." (Agent of engagement, which require an imme­ Rogers gave the snipers rules of Whitcomb, August 31, 1992) diate threat of bodily harm. "Well, Mr. engagement (ROE) that limited the • "We were told that we should use Monroe," he asked, "if the rules of conditions under which they could deadly force if no children were deadly force were to be used, or deadly shoot their weapons: endangered." (Agent Tilton, force was to be used where there's (1) If any adult in the area around the August 31, 1992) threat to yourself or another, then can you explain to the subcommittee what cabin is observed with a weapon Agent Dale Monroe began by read­ after the surrender announce­ ing a statement: "I would like to correct ment had been made, deadly something said last week in this hear­ force could and should be used to ing. Mr. Spence said we were trained Specter mopped the floor neutralize the individual. killers. We are not. We are trained to with the ATF agents, reducing (2) If any adult male is observed with save lives." Before the day was over, the sleazy Byerly to claims ofa a weapon prior to the announce­ viewers had strong reason to reject that ment deadly force can and should claim. failing memory and the be employed if the shot could be Monroe, who had been the partner smarmy Vita to babbling inco­ taken without endangering any of the killer Horiuchi, then took ques­ herently about how he is children. tions. The purpose of their mission that By all accounts, the ROE were day, he explained, was to "observe and "working very hard to restore extraordinary. The usual FBI policy report." This was too much for Sen. the public trust." requires that the target of deadly force Herb Kohl, who noted a powerful dis­ "pose a threat of serious physical harm, tinction between "observe and report" either to the officer or others ... [and] and "green light to use deadly force." the justification was for Mr. Horiuchi's Clearly, the snipers were not getting off shot which ended in the death of Mrs. to a good start with the investigators. Weaver?" Not surprisingly, the questions "Well, first of all the actions of the Professional ATF informant turned to the issue of whether the shots subjects the previous day," responded Kenneth Fadeley insisted on .Horiuchi fired that killed Vicki Weaver Monroe. "We knew that there was a testifying from behind a screen and wounded Randy Weaver and propensity for violence; they had Kevin Harris were justified. This was already exhibited that. However, the with his voice altered to sound not a surprise to anyone, given reason for the shot was because in my like Daffy Duck. Horiuchi's testimony cited above at the opinion, the helicopter crew was in trial of Weaver and Harris, the testi­ danger by the conduct of the individ­ mony of the other snipers, and the sim­ ual, adult males, with the rifles shortly possess an immediate threat to the ple facts that no one from the Weaver after they came out of the cabin." safety of others." The ROE at Ruby cabin had fired a weapon or even "Was the helicopter crew endan­ Ridge authorized deadly force against aimed one at anyone since the FBI took gered, in your opinion, at the time Mr. "any adult male observed with a over the case, that Weaver had been Horiuchi fired the shot which killed weapon," whether or not he was acting shot in the back as he was moving Mrs. Weaver?" asked Specter. in a threatening matter, immediate or away from the FBI snipers and the heli­ Monroe paused. "I believe as long otherwise. It went even further, saying copter, and that Harris and Vicki as the helicopter is airborne and it con­ that deadly force "should be employed" Weaver had been shot when Harris tains individuals that could be harmed, (emphasis added). The FBI snipers was racing into the cabin and Vicki and at any time there are individuals understood what they were there to was holding nothing more threatening out that have exhibited propensity for do: than a little baby. violence and shown that, I believe that • "We had a green light to use Sen. Specter wanted to know about the helicopter at all times was in dan­ deadly force against an armed the special rules of engagement: Were ger. And I also believe that whether the adult male." (Agent Monroe, they permission 22to use deadly force? individual, whether the threat was out­ August 31, 1992) "They were an authorization to use side the cabin, whether the threat to the deadly force only as long as the helicopter was outside the cabin or • "My understanding of the ROE requirements for the overall policy is inside the cabin. ... Actually, in my was that if I saw an armed adult met," responded Agent Monroe. "That opinion the threat was heightened with outside the residence, I was to is, that a threat has been shown to the individuals inside the cabin use deadly force against that indi­ myself or another, and a threat of grie­ because the rules of engagement were vidual." (Agent Winger, August vous bodily harm or death. And I only restrictive; they were not broadening of 28, 1992) interpreted those rules of engagement the deadly force policy. We knew there • "The ROE were that if before the within and under that umbrella. They were children inside that cabin. The occupants of the cabin were noti­ were advisories." individuals exhibiting threat could go fied that they were to surrender a Specter was stunned by this asser­ inside the cabin and from any point male adult occupant were seen tion that the shooting of Vicki Weaver they could fire." Liberty 19 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Specter: "Are you saying then it shot, the one that killed Mrs. Weaver, with hypotheticals. Let's say that was to prevent them from going inside was fired in violation of constitutional you're chasing a fugitive. Obviously, the cabin and taking positions to fire at standards?" under the standard rules, you are the helicopter?" Monroe: "I'm aware that the under immediate danger of death or Monroe: "Well, I definitely feel it Department of Justice did come to that grievous bodily harm. But let's say he was to prevent, to stop the threat and conclusion and I'm in complete disa­ turns and runs, and you chase him. prevent the threat that was being greement with that." Under the standard rules, is it your exhibited and ongoing." Specter: "Well, Mr. Monroe, you interpretation that you would be Specter: "Mr. Monroe, law enforce­ were on the field, you have standing to allowed to shoot him in the back?" ment necessarily has latitude in the use agree or disagree with anybody.... Monroe: "If the individual has of deadly force. And I've seen a fair You and the others were on the firing already demonstrated that he is a dan­ amount of it from experience that I've line. And that's a very different ger to society - has already been had. But there are the constitutional involved in the killing of another, and I bounds, and I think you have articu­ have reason to believe that if he gets lated them well: the threat of deadly Richard Rogers told his away he will kill again, then the deadly force against you or another or grie­ force policy, the policy will authorize vous bodily harm. But what we want team of snipers that "this deadly force to prevent the escape." to understand is, and we don't have would be no long siege," that Thompson: "And the potential that Mr. Horiuchi here, and you were the family was to "be taken he will kill again is your interpretation beside him, so you're the closest person of immediate danger of death or grie­ to the event, and we're asking you for down hard and fast. " vous bodily harm under the current your interpretation. Although you can­ rules. Does everybody agree with not give Mr. Horiuchi's interpretation, that?" At this point he looked around you are as close as we have at the position to be in.... We're interested at the other agents, none of whom moment. So is what you are saying that in how you felt, and you think, about offered any dissent. "If somebody once even though there was not a threat at that shot. Was [it] justified under the poses that kind of threat, then that kind that moment, as these three people standard for avoiding death or grie­ of threat kind of hangs out there for­ were running into the house, of grie­ vous bodily harm, even though ever and you can shoot them on sight. vous bodily harm or death to anyone, nobody was in jeopardy at that precise Is that your idea?" that the shot was taken to prevent moment?" Monroe: "Senator, that was a hypo­ them from being in a position subse­ Monroe: "Yes, I believe the second thetical, and I did not-" quently where there would be a threat shot was just as justified as the first." Thompson: "Well, I know, but it's of death or grievous bodily harm to Monroe's meaning was plain. He pretty important." others, including the people in the heli­ believed he and any other police officer Monroe: "I'm just saying if I had copter? I'm trying to understand what had a license to kill anyone who had reason to believe that the individual you really mean here ..." ever committed a violent act. Sen. continued to pose a threat. I thought Monroe: "Yes, in my opinion, the Thompson, apparently horrified at this that I had reason to believe that." threat, the threat of death had been notion, wanted to be sure that Monroe Sen. Leahy then asked each FBI exhibited, had been, their conduct, it understood what he was saying: sniper whether he agreed with was continuing ..." Thompson: "So, at any time for the Monroe. All affirmed their agreement, Specter: "But was there a threat of next few days, if you had seen them confirming Gerry Spence's claim that death to anyone or grievous bodily outside the cabin armed ... say the hel­ they were "trained killers," but demon­ harm at the precise moment that the icopter has made another run the next strating they were not very well shot was fired which killed Mrs. day. And they showed no movement trained about when to kill. Weaver?" toward the helicopter, didn't point any­ Then Sen. Specter, perhaps remem­ Monroe: (pause) "I believe a thing at it ... [but] they saw the heli­ bering Randy Weaver's desperate plea weapon can be fired from any position. copter. Under the standard rules of for permission to go to the bathroom, Previously we were told that Marshal engagement, you would still be asked the FBI snipers whether any Degan had been killed and I did not allowed to shoot them because of the desired a brief break. All manfully think that his death was the result of a danger that was still posed [because] denied any need or desire. Sen. highly planned shot. And even though they had the day before ... pointed a Thompson joked, "That doesn't the individual was running into the gun at it?" include counsel, right?" Specter cabin, our position, specifically Mr. Monroe: "Senator, I don't want to allowed that "if counsel would like a Horiuchi's and mine, could possibly get into hypotheticals, I know what I break, we'll take a break." The FBI have been known by the individuals saw. I know the threat that was admin­ attorneys jumped up as one and knowing where that first shot had istered by the two adult males. And acclaimed a need for a break. come from." those are the conditions that met the When he returned, Monroe virtually Specter: "Mr. Monroe, are you requirements of deadly force." recanted his earlier testimony, claiming aware of the conclusion of the Thompson: "Well, you know, rules that deadly force could be employed Department of Justice that the second of engagement, you know, has to do only when a direct, immediate threat 20 Liberty IIFNF fills a void in the libertarian movement by addressing how a free nation could come into being and exactly how it might function. II Mary J. Ruwart author of Healing Our World: The Other Piece ofthe Puzzle SEEKING A FREE NATION

What Will It Be Like When We Get There?

How will dangerous criminals be caught and punished? How will borders be defended? contracts enforced? epidemics controlled?

Will we have a constitution or a contract? What is it?

Philosopher Roderick T. Long, FNF Founder Richard O. Hammer, and others, propose answers to these questions quarterly in Formulations.

What do you propose?

Subscription to FormuLations: $10/year (four issues). Membership: $30/year. Members receive Formulations, discounts at FNF Forums, invitations to Board meetings, limited-distribution reports on management and finances. Single sample issue of Formulations: $3. drawing Free Nation Foundation ©1994 III West Corbin Street Peggy Combs Hillsborough, NC 27278

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IICriticizing the state is easy; FNF is moving to the front of the libertarian charge by describing real alternatives. II Bruce L. Benson Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Economics, Florida State University author of The Enterprise ofLaw: Justice Without the State Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

was evident. He added, preposterously, was about to position himself to ular government agency or a particular that he believed Weaver and Harris shoot at the helicopter. government agent has gone astray. It is were immediately threatening the heli­ Although we believe Harris and not that somehow, by some horrible copter even when they were retreating the Weavers knew that law enforce­ mistake, Lon Horiuchi killed Vicki into the cabin, subverting his previous ment personnel were present, no call Weaver. It is not that some aberrant fol­ testimony that he had never seen the out or surrender announcement agency entrapped Randy Weaver. lowed the first shot. The subjects helicopter, hadn't heard it except some The problem is that this is the way were never given a chance to drop 10 to 15 minutes earlier, and directly their arms to show that they did not the U.S. government works today. contradicting Horiuchi's testimony at pose a threat. The subjects simply Behind the Veil of Secrecy the trial that the helicopter was behind did what any person would do The Weaver case is an aberration, all the snipers and that Weaver was walk­ under the circumstances: they ran ing away from the helicopter when for cover. right. It is an aberration because Randy Weaver refused to be blackmailed into Horiuchi shot him, as well as his own Monroe's new testimony was testimony that Weaver and Harris were going undercover after he was clearly an attempt by the desperate FBI entrapped, and because the FBI snipers holding their guns in the "port arms" attorneys to mitigate his more horri- position - with their right hand on the failed to kill him when they fired their stock and their left hand on thebarrel­ high-powered rifles at his back as he a position from which it is impossible to moved away from them on August 22, £ire a weapon. Sen. Abraham, who obvi­ This was too much for Sen. and because the FBI committed a horri­ ously sympathized with the FBI, sum­ Herb Kohl, who noted there is a ble public relations mistake when it marized Monroe's new justification for difference between "observe killed his wife, and because against all using deadly force as "they might have odds a negotiator came on the scene had a chance to turn and shoot at a heli­ and report" and "having green who was acceptable to Weaver and who copter that might have been in the light to use deadly force. " the FBI could not reject, and because vicinity." Weaver obtained, free of cost to himself, Even the Justice Department's the services of a highly skilled attorney review of the events at Ruby Ridge, fying earlier testimony, to which all the to level the legal playing field against a which assumed that every statement other agents had agreed. government that spent tens of millions by every government employee was A week later, the highest level of of dollars to put him down, and, when true, rejected this argument, and the FBI confirmed the FBI policy that that failed, to convict him of murder stopped short of accusing Horiuchi of agents in the field should be a law unto and execute him. murder (or manslaughter) only themselves, with no oversight. If Randy Weaver had given in to the because it limited its concern to Larry Potts was the direct super­ BATF's blackmail and become a gov­ whether the actions violated internal visor of the FBI operation at Ruby ernment agent, he would have become bureau policies or federal law: Ridge, and later supervised the FBI part of the oppression he hated. If he operation at Waco. He was rewarded had appeared for the trial for the crime On one hand, Horiuchi believed for which he was entrapped, the that at least one subject was armed for his service by promotion to the and had intended to shoot at the position of assistant director of the FBI. chances that an attorney of the skills helicopter, and that the subjects In a carefully prepared statement and resources of Gerry Spence would now knew at least generally where before the Specter Committee, Potts have been available to him were virtu­ a sniper was located. However, this asserted: "The split-second decision of ally nil, and he almost certainly would perception must be evaluated in a sniper to fire, and the basis for doing have been convicted. If he hadn't conjunction with the reality that the so, are best known and understood by moved suddenly and unexpectedly as subjects were returning to their him alone, and it is unfair to condemn an FBI sniper fired at his back, he home and had not returned fire that decision from the perspective of would have been killed and forgotten. when shot upon. Thus, their actions hindsight." If the FBI had been able to kill the peo­ as they ran into the cabin were not To sum up: In the opinion of the FBI ple in the Weaver cabin, any investiga­ aggressive, but rather protective or agents who laid siege to the Weaver tion would have been inconclusive. defensive. cabin, if a law enforcement officer Typical television fare is contrived We find Horiuchi's explanation of believes, even erroneously, that a per­ and imposed on the audience. The the threat and necessity of the sec­ son has committed an act of violence Ruby Ridge hearings offered the ond shot speculative. Based on the and is likely to do so again, he can act viewer something very different: the facts known and the actions of the as judge, jury, and executioner and kill sort of drama that goes on frequently, subjects, we do not believe it was reasonable to perceive an immediate that person in cold blood. This is the con­ but is usually hidden from sight. It was threat as· they ran back into the scious operating policy of an elite officer of television at its very best. cabin. Once the family was back in the nation's most elite law enforcement The man who deserves the most the cabin, the potential threat to the agency. And this policy is supported by the credit for the Ruby Ridge hearings, safety of the helicopter and law highest officials within the FBI. Arlen Specter, promises another block­ enforcement personnel was more This illustrates what is most dis­ buster miniseries soon: hearings on the remote than when Horiuchi had ear­ turbing about the events on Ruby saga of the Branch Davidians. Watch lier believed that the armed male Ridge. The problem is not that a partic- for it in late October. 0 22 Liberty Travelogue HiroshiIl1a by Michael Oakes

All the monuments in the world can't stop war.

The train from Iwakuni was old but well-maintained and clean. It ran mostly along the sea, with the tile roofs of old homes on the mountains' side and the red and white smokestacks of industrial Japan hugging the coast on the other. Not all of the country is organized like this, but most of it is. In the resort town of Beppu, farther south on Kyushu ­ the island the American Sixth Army brows with Mickey Mouse handker­ figuratively, of course - into the would have invaded on November 1, chiefs. The eastern sky lightened world's collective memory. 1945 had Mr. Hirohito not spoken up quickly. We saw an occasional island, On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., a in August - restaurants and hotels cone-shaped and mystic in the morn­ B-29 Superfortress named "Enola along the coast have their interesting ing haze, and fishing boats in the few Gay" dropped a uranium bomb nick­ sides facing the street, not the sea. A areas not fully industrialized. named "Little Boy" on the city. It had McDonald's playgrou~d faces the As the train wound north and east, been delivered aboard the USS street; 50 yards of oceanfront property the sun rose over Miyajima Island on Indianapolis to Tinian Island, about behind it is an ugly parking lot. our right and hung in the dull white 1,700 miles from Hiroshima. Its last Though we left Iwakuni Station at sky in an impressive imitation of the transport was flown by a Lt. Colonel 5:07 in the morning, the air was Japanese flag. It was a red-orange Paul Tibbets, who according to televi­ already hot. I'm told there are places ball, solid, fully round, for a few sion looks like Bobby Ewing. hotter than western Japan during moments unobstructed. There it The blast and subsequent fires summers, but I've never been to any stayed until the train scooted west probably killed as many as 50,000 to of them. Here, it's hot enough for and the taller love hotels and pachinko 70,000, in a matter of a few hours. The young and old women to carry para­ parlor signs shoved it out of sight. numbers are not now and never will sols to block out a few of the sun's We arrived at a fully alert and be exact. Wartime Japan, though piti­ rays. It's hot enough for old men to freshly swept Hiroshima Station a few ful, was a dynamic place. People wear straw hats and hang narrow minutes before six, the morning of moved constantly, from city to city, towels around their necks. Japan is August 6, 50 years after the dropping city to country, country to city. Many hot like movies make Africa and India of the bomb. women and children were evacuated seem hot. Only there are no oxen from the cities; but many of them blocking traffic in dirt streets in Japan. The Bomb came back regularly. Schoolchildren The train passed through tunnels The story of the bomb received a were often away in the mountains; and across bridges and curved slowly good telling this year. Despite the sur­ but they were also often in the middle right. Even this early, there were peo­ rounding controversies, no one really of the cities, supplementing factory ple waiting at each stop - men in disputes the essential facts of the forces and helping the volunteer shirts and ties heading for offices, bombing itself, and within the first corps. Soldiers moved in and out, well-educated women in uniforms hour of a visit to Peace Memorial depending on assignments. Korean heading for the same offices to make Park, in the heart of the city, it's clear slaves were stashed here and there, tea for the men, young couples hold­ that Hiroshima's city government is including as many as 30,000 in ing hands and wiping their sweaty obsessed with burning these facts - Hiroshima on August 6. Liberty 23 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Hiroshima might have had 330,000 and "Fat Man" later fell on Nagasaki. museum and the International people in the city that morning; or it On the evening of August 14, 1945, Conference Center. Odd-shaped pil­ might have had 400,000. Mr. Hirohito recorded his surrender ings support the main hall of the Many of the first victims were announcement. When it was broadcast museum, symbolizing "humanity's killed instantly. The bomb's destruc­ the next day, many Japanese were power to rise from amidst ruin." The tive power was about 20,000 tons of shocked to hear his voice, believing proportions are all wrong, though, and TNT, creating a fireball 180 feet in him divine. Many other Japanese had the result is a heavy, squat structure diameter with an internal temperature thought the divinity story ridiculous, that looks like art deco designed by of 300,000 degrees Celsius. Anyone and continuing to use this good sense someone who wasn't really trying for within 500 meters of the hypocenter had not believed the military's optimis­ art deco. It has a sort of bent, Jetsons was destroyed instantly. People within tic view of the war for the past two look to it. It fits right in with the rest of years; these people weren't surprised Japan's architecture. at all. Still other Japanese couldn't This isn't just pettiness. Peace The memorials themselves understand what their emperor said: Memorial Park is esthetically unap­ he spoke in a traditional dialect pealing. It isn't necessarily flat-out lack passion - which is to say, reserved for the educated and royal ugly - like, say, the Miro thing in perhaps, that they are essen­ classes, which means that he spoke Chicago. It is something more disap­ tially Japanese. rather pompously and that a lot of pointing: it is unexciting, unmoving. hungry, fatherless, barefoot schoolkids The monuments and memorials are had no idea what language he was often concrete, very plain - simple was speaking. probably the desired effect - but at 1,000 and 2,000 meters of the hypocen­ the same time shallow and unemo­ ter were burned by the thermal flash or Peace Memorial Park tional. They lack drama and force. injured by flying debris. Within a A taxi popped open its automatic Despite the park's purpose - to com­ radius of a mile and a half of the hypo­ door and spit us out at the Peace memorate the atomic bombing - the center, all wooden structures were Memorial Post, in front of the memorials themselves lack passion; destroyed and burned either immedi­ Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum which is to say, perhaps, that they are ately or by later spreading fires. and right next to the Peace Tower. essentially Japanese. Nothing remotely A few concrete structures survived, These are just steps from Peace Bridge, on the edge of design, no dramatic, but their interiors were gutted by fire. the Monument in Memory of Marcel passionate expression could have The most notable was the Hiroshima Junod, and the Clock Commemorating maneuvered through Japan and Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall, the Repatriation of Those Who Chose the now familiar A-Bomb Dome. Its to Return to the Democratic People's ruins stand about 50 yards from the Republic of Korea, this latter being a Is it really necessary to have hypocenter. commemoration of the freeing of The rest of Hiroshima was flat, gray Korean slaves, as many as a million of one memorial tower for A­ rubble. Moonscape. whom were brought to Japan during bomb victims and one for A­ By November 30, 1945, Hiroshima the Japanese occupation of the Kqrean bomb-related victims? Must police headquarters listed 78,150 dead peninsula. (Across the park is the and 13,983 missing. By the following Monument in Memory of the Korean there be both a Peace Tower year, August 10, 1946, 118,661 had died Victims of the A-Bomb.) and a Peace Clock Tower? due to the blast or injuries sustained Peace Memorial Park is a triangle­ from the blast; 3,677 were still missing. shaped stretch of land roughly under As of August 6, 1992, a register at the the hypocenter of the bomb's blast and Hiroshima's bureaucratic approval "Cenotaph for A-Bomb Victims" in framed on two sides by brown rivers mazes. Peace Memorial Park contained that merge at the tip. Aioi Bridge at the One of the most popular memorials 176,964 names. This year, the list was tip is T-shaped and often mentioned as is the Children's Peace Monument, updated to 192,220 names. a target for the Enola Gay's bombar­ nicknamed the Tower of a Thousand What all of this means is that Little dier. The park is uncharacteristic for Cranes. It is about 27 feet tall, a smooth Boy was a very good bomb. It killed, it Japan. It has trees and shrubs, except concrete structure open underneath destroyed, it terrified. It did this while for a few more typical wide open and balanced on three narrowing legs. Bobby Ewing and his small crew spaces that are just dirt and gravel. It On top is a bronze statue of a girl

remained airborne 35,000 feet above has benches, too, further distinguish­ /Istretching her arms up in the air and and headed quickly back to safe ing it from other Japanese parks. When holding a crane, conveying hope for a territory. I visited two years earlier, on another peaceful future." The bronze has tar­ Three days later, another B-29, this hot summer day, homeless men nished badly, spreading a green-gray one nicknamed "Bockscar," made napped on the benches. On this anni­ dye on the concrete, and the statue is three passes over the city of Kokura, versary day, a CNN crew used a bench surpriSingly small, like an inexpensive the second target for an atom bombing. to fiddle with their equipment. afterthought. Originally, a bell and Cloud cover was prohibitive, however, At the base of the triangle are the windchime were designed for the 24 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

underside, which might have been mentioned Peace Tower and the Allied bombings, and of these it's esti­ pleasant. These were removed, though, nearby Flower Clock). There is a Statue mated 6,000 died in Hiroshima.) There and placed on display in the museum. of a Prayer for Peace, a Pond of Peace, is also a Statue of a Merciful Mother But the most interesting feature has a Flame of Peace, a Peace Cairn, a and a Statue of a Mother and Child in nothing to do with the planned memo­ Monument of Prayer, a Prayer the Storm. rial itself. Surrounding the base are This isn't yet half of it. The list goes tens of thousands of paper cranes ­ on and on: the Memorial Tower to folded by schoolchildren, mostly, from That there have been "No Console A-Bomb Victims, the all over the world. These lay in mas­ is Memorial Tower for A-Bomb-Related sive colorful piles, some with expres­ More Hiroshimasf" true Victims, the Atomic Bomb Memorial sions of hope and peace and grief merely by a technicality. Mound, and the A-Bombed Grave­ attached. They steal the show. They are stone (which is not a gravestone for the fresh air in an otherwise dull and victims, but rather a ''bombed'' grave­ muted park. They express so much bet­ Monument for Peace, and a Prayer stone of the Asano family, who were ter what the memorial should have Haiku Monument for Peace. lords during the pre-Perry days of feu­ expressed - great sorrow for the thou­ Children are represented not only dal Japan). sands of children who were ·killed by by the Tower of a Thousand Cranes, Walking through the park is at first the bomb - that it's possible to hardly but by the Monument to the A­ a genuinely sober experience. This is, notice the tower and the tiny statue. Bombed Teachers and Students of after all, the site of thousands of The dullness is pervasive because National Elementary Schools, the deaths, of massive destruction from a the monuments and memorials are Hiroshima Second Middle School A­ single bomb the size of a Kawasaki jet pervasive. Near the Children's Peace Bomb Memorial Monument, the ski. This is the Hiroshima of our junior Monument is the Peace Fountain, the Mobilized Students' Merciful Kannon high school textbooks, with their other­ Figure of the Merciful Goddess of Monument, and the Memorial Tower worldly pictures of a desolate, ruined Peace, the Stone Lantern of Peace, the to the Mobilized Students. ("Mo­ landscape. The elderly Japanese who Statue of Peace, the Peace Bell, and the bilized" students were schoolkids who pass us may be survivors of that day. Peace Clock Tower (which is surely worked for the Imperial Army. Over The taxi driver who delivers us from sometimes confused with the afore- 10,000 Japanese students died from the train station may have had parents

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or brothers or sisters who instantly don't. They learn this drill in pre­ Jimmy Olson look, with a walking turned to ash - or worse, who suf­ school. They use it when they go to the stick and a hat that would have been fered later from radiation sickness. post office. expensive in 1955. He was a survivor The first few memorials and monu­ Troops of boy scouts blocked our of the A-bomb, one of the hibakusha ments drive some of this home. way to the museum doors, so we Steve was apparently aligned with, But here are five more. Then waited patiently nearby. I took Sarah's though I didn't see them together. He another eight over there. Twenty after picture while she stood in front of had been a student at a technical col­ that. In all, there are 60 of them, and them. People are interested in Sarah as lege two kilometers from the blast. just as at first the nature of the place much as they are uninterested in me. Because of his technical studies he had itself draws you up straight and sober, The scouts gave us some "Hallos" and not been pressed into service, and he later the weight and persistence of all "Good mornings." I like that. I like seemed happy about that. He seemed these peace things backfires. Is it really hearing everyone speak my language. happy, too, that the Americans had necessary to have one memorial tower Steve from Redondo Beach, dropped the bomb and ended the war. for A-bomb victims and one for A­ California, joined us. He introduced He kept saying "Good, good," with bomb-related· victims? Should there be great emphasis. "America is good both a Peace Tower and a Peace Clock country, good country." Tower? Mightn't the city officials be Nicely, politely, everything Mr. Matsubara showed us many acting a little extra sensitive - or, pictures from his wallet. He had small, frankly, extra silly? in Peace Memorial Park asks cropped photos of himself as a student Silly? In Hiroshima? for peace. But there's no clue as in high school and later as a young, Here is a Hair Monument, spon­ to what's required to achieve quite handsome man. They were natu­ sored by the Hiroshima Barbers' rally old and brown, sepia, remarkably Association. The inscription reads: and maintain it. well cared for. He showed us pictures "We enshrine here hair, cut and gath­ of his sons, and of an American ered in the morn of life." According to woman named Deloris Smith, whom the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foun- himself and wanted to know where we he had loved once (and even now) dation's Hiroshima Peace Reader, the were from. Sarah volunteered this greatly. There was Deloris on the street Hair Monument is "a prayer for the immediately, she being kind, while I in Osaka. There was Deloris on the advancement of the barbering profes- noticed Steve had a message-button roof of a department store. Deloris sion and an expression of gratitude." \ fetish and that the messages had some­ Smith took a fine picture, her smile thing to do with the writer Mr. Karl wide and confident. She had hair like Some People Marx. Here to attend the "International you'd expect of an American woman I traveled with Sarah, a tall, noticea­ Symposium: 50 Years of A-Bombing of in the 1950s, and for a moment I won­ ble woman who is the kindest and Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Steve was a dered if we weren't looking at photos most sensible person on the planet. We delegate of the Socialist Workers Party cut from Life. But then here were watched the crowd gather from near of the U.S.A. I asked him how he liked Deloris and Mr. Matsubara together, the entrance to the Peace Memorial Japan, and he answered quite well, the happy international couple. Sarah Museum in order to be first in line noting that the capitalist world was asked what happened to her, and he after the outdoor memorial service. But falling apart nicely, beginning with the said he didn't know. "She knew I was we held back. All the really good seats 1987 dive at the NYSE and continuing married, of course." for the service were reserved for the through the lies of the Bush adminis­ A group of junior high school stu­ surviving victims, victims' relatives, tration, the "continuing recession in dents moved around us in the politicians, "peace ambassadors" from the West," the bursting of the bubble museum line. Japanese children are other countries, and no doubt some of economy in Japan, of course, and the the happiest, healthiest children in the those barbers, too. French nuclear testing decision. world. They are full of life, pampered So we waited while a steady flow "Things are really coming together for at home and at schools, loved uncondi­ of hundreds passed us. The tour us now," he said, what with the ill tionally, secure in the knowledge that groups arrived in their buses. Neatly treatment of the hibakusha (the victims a parent is always waiting for them. weaving single-file lines of Japanese of the atomic bombing), the falling This is true at least until the last year followed their tour guides everywhere, Japanese stock market, and, well, there of junior high school, when studying many with matching hats or matching was probably no need to explain how for senior high school entrance exams ribbons pinned to matching shirts. badly the dollar was doing. takes priority over everything and the Throughout the park we saw these No there wasn't. kids realize this joy they've experi­ groups walking along paths, stopping Actually, what I'd really wanted to enced until then has nothing to do like a drill team at a monument, know was how he liked Japanese food with the grown-up lives they'll have in observing it, taking pictures, then and did he have any difficulty using Japanese society. At 14 or 15, the ado­ quickly moving on again in neatly chopsticks. lescent Japanese yearns for individual­ weaving single-file lines. Americans Mr. Hiroshi Matsubara, 71, from ity and at the same time realizes that and Europeans may think the Japanese Osaka joined us next. He was dressed bitter old men in the education minis­ travel like this only when abroad. They in an old coat and tie, a sort of 1955 try in Tokyo are determined to deprive 26 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

them of it. ago when atomic weapons were used really alive. Doctors had little idea how But these students around us were for the first time. to treat them and no means to do it 12- and 13-year-olds. They were still The Peace Bell tolled. anyway. Doctors and nurses died, too. fun. They learned our names and Inside the Hiroshima Peace asked Sarah if she was a movie star. The Devastation Memorial Museum is a record of all They wanted to know our favorite When the bomb struck, people in this. There are fingernails of victims. foods and favorite movies and favorite Hiroshima were already weary from There are preserved, alien-looking sports. They knew Michael Jordan was air-raid warnings earlier that morning. growths and blackened ooze pressed from Chicago. I introduced them to a The national volunteer corps in from hands. Eyeglasses, watches, woman from Chicago who was stand­ Hiroshima Prefecture and mobilized lunch boxes; scorched pants, shirts, ing in front of us and told them she students from area middle schools and hats, belts, socks, school uniforms. was Michael Jordan's sister. They girls' high schools were continuing Steel I-beams warped and bent like didn't believe that because she's white work on the sixth phase of dismantling and he's black. "It's an American joke," buildings for fire breaks. According to one of them said. the records at Hiroshima police head­ Who started the war and Yes, it was a silly American joke. quarters, over 10,000 households why it started and what the Though the real joke was that these already had been displaced by the dis­ quite ordinary junior high school stu­ mantling of buildings through phase Japanese did and what the dents were conversing with two for­ five. Americans were trying to do At 8:15 the day was well underway. eigners in a language other than their It was summer. People were outside Hiroshima ignores it. own, and enjoying it, and doing a good doing their chores, getting to places, Instead: here's the bomb, here's job of it. And that millions of talking, gossiping, buying train tickets, Americans don't realize this is the kind what it did. some praising the Emperor, some won­ of people Toyota recruits. dering when the hell the war would One of them, a quiet guy half my finally end. size, kept inching in front of me. He taffy. Concrete littered with tiny Survivors of the initial blast were shards of glass. A white wall streaked seemed not to respond to my tugging pitifully helpless. Flesh dripped or him backward, so I put my foot on his with black rain. hung in strips from their arms and tor­ Stone steps from a bank show the to hold him in place. My foot was a sos. The intense heat seared them, leav­ shadow of the man who was sitting giant's foot on his. I could have ing many alive for minutes, some for there when the bomb struck. A pile of crushed his toes with a tap. He studied hours, with nothing but bodies of pain. dark hair that fell off a woman is the situation for a moment, and then Their heads and limbs swelled and encased in glass. placed his other foot on top of mine, bloated from the heat. Survivors wit­ There are endless pictures of the nessed people limping with hair on devastation - of crumbled temples, of fire, some with hands and arms melt­ derailed streetcars, of a mound that Explosion-devastation. Ex­ ing. Faces were ravaged by flying was once Hiroshima Castle and in debris. Children cried under burnt plosion-devastation. It's like an which 23 Allied POWs were kept, of corpses. exceptionally didactic MTV Many stumbled to the rivers, only survivors at Miyuki Bridge standing in video stuck on replay. to drown from strong currents or line - always the Japanese in lines, beneath the growing flotilla of bodies, even then - awaiting treatment, their which eventually washed out to sea. clothes just burned rags hanging from preventing me from moving forward, Thousands of others lay on river banks shoulders and elbows. too. He looked up at me, his black hair in piles. A group of high school girls There's the constant playing of film thick and shiny and ready for a cut, dragged themselves to one spot along footage of atomic explosions. TV moni­ and smiled. a river. One of the few survivors wrote: tors on pedestals and hanging from the Get rid of the old men in Tokyo and "When I tried to help them, the flabby ceiling repeat brief sequences over and these kids will take this country bodies slipped and fell away. Nothing over. Explosion-devastation. Explo­ someplace. could be done. Shouts surrounded me, sion-devastation. It's like an exception­ Suddenly, the constant flow of peo­ 'Do you want me to die - to die?' And ally didactic MTV video stuck on ple stopped. The kids grew quiet. with these ringing in my ears I fled." replay. Beside us a tour guide held his colorful Later, radiation sickness killed No question: it was a very, very banner and behind him his group thousands more. Hair fell out, eyes good bomb. members halted together like a march­ bled, organs stopped functioning, mas­ ing band. The boy scouts stopped fid­ sive growths and scars appeared, The Peace Message geting and straightened their ranks. sometimes disappeared, often reap­ The museum has been criticized for The chattering hum of thousands peared. For days and weeks, many lay its singular focus on this, the bomb, disappeared. sick on clinic floors, soaked in blood without providing a corresponding It was 8:15, the moment 50 years and vomit and excrement, alive yet not context. Dave Barry has written that Liberty 27 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

the museum presents the bomb as to engage in widespread protests (for victims was not so clear. Gradually, though it were lightning out of the Japan anyway). This fueled a rash of this "new and most cruel bomb" Mr. blue. This complaint has some merit, commemorative services and symposia Hirohito mentioned in his surrender for there is hardly any mention at all of and conferences devoted to ending announcement on August 15 looked the war or of the circumstances of early development of nuclear weapons. The like the answer. August 1945. In 1994, a new entrance prospect of U.S. nuclear arms at bases Americans, too, look for the uncom­ to the museum provided a slightly in Japan, the continuing U.S. military plicated in their analysis of the bomb. broader perspective. There is now a presence itself, gradually increasing The result is outrage over any perspec­ brief history of Hiroshima's role as an attention to Japan's wartime atrocities tive that doesn't hold the bomb as the important military city. There's men­ - these complex issues made it partic­ best solution to a war that had to be tion of the troops stationed in the city, ularly appealing for most Japanese to ended at all costs. A real struggle with some in the homes of civilians, and of focus their attention back to the sim­ the various factors influencing the surrounding Mitsubishi factories. pler beginning, back to Hiroshima and Truman's decision to use the bomb, This then quickly turns into a fuller Nagasaki, to the uncomplicated, awful, and with how one ought to view that discussion of nuclear weapons, ending decision 50 years later, is as difficult with graphic appeals to rid the planet for Americans as the same struggle of them. The bomb is merely an out­ with their own government's acts in The peace movement in Japan the Pacific is to Japanese. developed from the country's physical come, a consequence of what So we are left with two of the most and psychological confrontation with and how people choose to think, intelligent groups of citizens on the what happened here and at Nagasaki. as are all other weapons. planet settling for two painless but The initial sense of outrage, later grief, inadequate and hopelessly opposed and still later resolve to insure "No notions. More Hiroshimas!" is uneasily linked The simple A-bomb-is-evil story is in a complex nexus of events and still no-questions-necessary nature of nu­ what Hiroshima's Peace Memorial unresolved issues. Censorship, first by clear weapons. Museum offers. Who started the war the Japanese government, later by the Surrender also brought the and why it started and what the U.S. Occupation, delayed this confron­ Japanese a difficult realization: they'd Japanese did and what the Americans tation until the 1950s. By then, various been had. On top of adjusting to defeat were trying to do - Hiroshima parties in Japan struggled for control and occupation, ordinary Japanese citi­ ignores it. Instead: here's the bomb, of the political reins, and the Cold War zens faced, at least momentarily, the here's what it did. That's the city's turned hot in Korea. Censorship again treachery of their leaders and the choice, one its people are certainly free blocked from formal education any meaning of their own weaknesses and to make. And as a reminder of what discussion of Japan's wartime behavior gullibility. With much of the truth still happened here 50 years ago, the in Manchuria, in Korea, at Nanking, on concealed by censorship; with an ina­ museum succeeds very well. the Bataan Peninsula. bility to comprehend the nature of the But as a self-chosen symbol of, and The movement, like general peace disasters not just in Hiroshima and platform for, world peace, Hiroshima movements elsewhere, became a mag­ Nagasaki but elsewhere in the Pacific; fails sadly. net for political influences and pro­ with self-defenses kicking in, under­ Everywhere in Hiroshima's plea grams. It was a small but significant standably, at a time when much of for peace, from the Children's Peace battleground for Japan's socialists and their world was revealed a sham; with Monument to the MTV-like videos, the Communists, both groups working these giant, white outsiders now in message sounds hollow. It does so hard to use nuclear weapons, and the control of their precious islands; with because it focuses specifically on the hibakusha, to their own political advan­ obvious hunger, poverty, and devasta­ weapon and not at all on the princi­ tage. In the 1960s, the U.S. and Japan tion everywhere, the Japanese very ples, or lack of principles, behind its renewed their security arrangement, quickly after the war saw themselves use. Nearly 6,000 children were killed prompting students and other groups as victims. Exactly of what they were by Little Boy. Yes, well, that will happen when nations are at war; it will happen when one nation uses its schoolkids to supplement armed forces; it will happen when the other nation decides to bomb civilian targets. The bomb is really trivial. It's merely an. outcome, a consequence of what and how people choose to think, as are all other weapons. It's a cliche few take seriously anymore, but it's nevertheless critical if we're to under­ "Actually, I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky to be here at all." stand anything enduring about 28 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Hiroshima: guns don't kill people, peo­ battle for Guam; 21,000 died fighting the greatest monument here. It's a ple kill people. Really. The atom bomb for Iwo Jima. On Okinawa, only weeks huge structure, though all the pictures itself means hardly anything. Certainly, before Hiroshima, 150,000 Japanese I've seen of it make it appear much it's not necessary for human atrocities. military and civilians died. smaller. There are wonderful shade I headed for the bomb shelter search­ With only muskets and cannon, trees around it and a lot of grass. It's ing for my father and brother, trying 53,000 Americans died at Gettysburg. ironic that this area blasted 50 years hard not to step on the stinking, You don't need atomic bombs to ago by a split atom is one of the green­ charred bodies. Other bodies, many kill an incomprehensibly large number est areas in any Japanese city. of them, were floating down the of human beings. Tour group members rested in the river. I finally reached the shelter Hiroshima fails tragically to estab­ shade, wiping their necks and brows. only to find my father's body, rigid lish an understanding of what kinds of Half the people aimed cameras at and charred black. "Father's dead!" I ideas lead to war and what principles someone else. screamed, but mother just sat there, are required for people to live together I thought of my favorite photo­ saying nothing. Then she murmured in peace. Nicely, politely, everything in graph in the museum. In it, perhaps my brother's name. I saw his body Peace Memorial Park asks for peace. two dozen junior high school boys are about a meter away.... I could tell But there's no clue as to what's sitting in ranks on the ground - some from his clenched fists that he had required to achieve and maintain it. with uniform shorts on, some shirtless. died in agony. One body nearby was "Nuclear weapons are clearly inhu­ They hold their shaved heads at the ghastly; black, congealed blood came from his mouth ... another mane weapons in obvious violation of same slight angle. A teacher stands one had its head split open and international law," claimed Hiroshima under a tree that isn't a tree any more, brain matter was oozing out. Mayor Takashi Hiraoka in his Peace just a black stump with two stubby Declaration for 1995. "So long as such arms reaching up. You have to look at Those are the words of Kikuko weapons exist, it is inevitable that the the picture closely to realize the school Uchida. She's a survivor of Tokyo, not horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will teacher, in a drab teacher's uniform, Hiroshima. be repeated - somewhere, sometime isn't a corpse hanging from one of In March of 1945, U.S. B-29s hit - in an unforgiving affront to human­ those stubby tree arms. Behind the Tokyo with napalm bombs in a mas­ ity itself." Maybe. For what it's worth, teacher is a hill still covered with rub­ sive air raid. First a circle around cen­ they haven't been used again. Despite ble. The hill ends a football field later tral Tokyo was bombed, establishing a the Cold War and the arms race and at the ragged remains of a church. The ring of fire through which few could those warhead stockpiles, the world rubble and wreckage are pale and escape or enter to help. The center of since has been unharmed by nuclear pasty, same as the sky. Moonscape. the ring was then carpet-bombed. A weapons. The dark cropped heads of the school firestorm erupted. Whirlwinds of fire Unfortunately, it hasn't been boys stand out like charcoal moved quickly through the wooden spared the horror or the unforgiving briquettes. residences. It was so hot, people burst affront to humanity. For what's really The picture is at once stirring and into flames. River and canal water ghastly about Hiroshima is that all this frightening. boiled. B-29 crew members - in the effort, all this storytelling - all these It's stirring because with total planes above it all- retched from the calls for peace, the words and symbols, destruction all around them, the smell of burning flesh. More than the Peace Bell and Peace Bridge and Japanese still manage to hold classes, 100,000 died in that air raid, more than Peace Tower - all this did nothing to shave heads, wear pieces of uniforms, the immediate death tolls of either prevent Mr. Stalin's Gulags, or Korea, teach children, listen to teachers. There Hiroshima or Nagasaki. or Vietnam, Cambodia, Argentina, are no texts or chalk or maps. But no A U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, matter. Classes must go on, there are concluded that "probably more per­ Bosnia ... lessons to be learned. The determina­ sons lost their lives by fire at Tokyo in That there have been "No More tion is remarkable. a six-hour period than at any [equiva­ Hiroshimas!" is true merely by a It's frightening, though, because lent] time in the history of man." Brig. technicality. with total destruction all around them, General Bonner Fellers, an aid to the Japanese children are still in uni­ General MacArthur, called the Tokyo Leaving form, still attending classes, still in bombing "one of the most ruthless and We left the museum near noon. The orderly rows, still taking in everyone barbaric killings of noncombatants in chairs from the morning service were of their teacher's words. And there is a all history." being folded and packed away. People chilling sense that nothing has Having no atomic bomb, the still stood in line to lay flowers at the changed. Japanese killed 50,000 at Nanking in Cenotaph and offer prayers for the vic­ Before we turned toward the sta­ China. German records suggest tims. However disappointing and tion, I looked around for some of the 135,000 people died from the Allied sometimes silly, Peace Memorial Park junior high school students who enter­ bombing of Dresden. Approximately is still a place for people to remember tained us in line, but I couldn't find 300,000 Japanese were killed in the bat­ those struck dead on a terrible day. them. I wanted to see them one more tles to take back the Philippines. More There's value in that. time and tell them to kick all old men than 10,000 Japanese died during the We walked past the A-Bomb Dome, in the shin. 0 Liberty 29 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 Journal Travels in Bosnia and Points West by Bryan Alexander

Sunday and Monday, 16-17 July The closer I get to Bosnia, the more I see soldiers. There Split interlaces the historical baklava of Diocletian's were none on the flights leaving Detroit and Cincinnati, but Palace, a Roman gigantism encrusted with and mutated by the airport at Zurich bulks with sullen UNPROFOR, each Venetian, Turkish, Yugoslav accretions. I sip bad tea next to Nordic and obsessed with staring at the floor, smoking, be­ a Coca-Cola sign affixed to fourth-century stonework. I ask lying the bellicose iconography of their ranks and uniforms. forkleb ("bread," according to my Russian and more limited The LIDII to Croatia is crammed with these men, their offi­ Serbo-Croat). The waiter pales, then, returning with a basket cers cold and lonely. From our point of view during our of the stuff, slams it down onto my rickety table, snarling descent, Zagreb is first of all largely horizontal, and second "KRUG!" Evidently I have made a mistake. I withdraw to the overrun with U.N. aircraft, jeeps, APCs, helicopters, humans. seashore, reading Thomas Mann amid smells of salt and And they've renamed the place. The Slavic airport is no aging styrofoam. longer called aerodrom or something like it, but a wholly alien Later, I discover the American delegation: Bob the histo­ two-word term that fails to sink into my brain. This should rian-businessman once more, John the medievalist, Dennis disturb me more than it does. (who sounds exactly and terrifyingly like John Huston) of I wait in the terminal, brooding on Swissair's loss of my more modern times, Marian of tombstones and material cul­ luggage (all of it, save my conference paper, passport, cam­ ture. We sip overpriced beer, watch the sun drown itself in era, and books). A formidable Croat official stolidly refuses the Adriatic behind a troop ship, and talk. I ask about the to offer me hope. A fatalist Slav -I despair when con­ currency, the kuna (I'm an English lit academic, not a fronted with stereotypes. Balkanist). Its name refers to an animal, the marten, whose The next plane, traveling in a direct path, would fly over pelt was apparently medieval Croatian currency. It was also either the battles raging around Bihac or the insurgency of the printed money of the fascist Ustashe regime. Imagine the Krajina, or both. Instead we arc placidly over the Hitler's face on every deutschemark and you'll get an idea of Adriatic, flirting with Italy until we land in the Republic of its diplomatic effect. Croatia once again. I ask about the confusion with the waiter. The vocabulary The city of Split is, in fact, split: the airport and part of the is changing, comes back the answer. Serbo-Croat used to be town are on one side of a bay, the urban center on the other. used uniformly across all of former Yugoslavia. But Tudjman, Exhausted, I stare at half-completed buildings from a vast Croatia's ruler, has started a program of vocabulary reform, bus, the driver of which festoons his perch with rosaries, pic­ redesigning the language to be "truly Croatian." Radio sta­ tures of the Pope, Mary images, crosses, crosses. We arrive tions, newspapers, and TV reporters all receive lists of the safely. new terms. Our waiter knows eight or ten words for the same The Hotel Bellevue glowers at a looming, fascist-like fish. . plaza. One member of our delegation is already present. Bob Marian tells us that our destination, the city of Mostar, is a terrific historian and now a businessman. We talk over has this day come under fire. No one suggests calling off our dinner. trip. Back at the hotel, too tired to think or even read, I fall Still no luggage. I wrest a promise from the sleepy hotel asleep. clerk to forward it to me in Bosnia, should Swissair retrieve it and send it on. The clerk refrains from laughing at me. Tuesday, 18 July I am awakened by loud church bells. This Catholic coun­ Wednesday, 19 July try is enthralled by its services, waging sonic warfare against Bob has talked a European Union rep into getting us a travelers every noon. I stagger into the day. ride. Shortly before noon we clamber into an EU van and are 30 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 driven north, toward the Republic of Bosnia and motion, every attendee, die-hard smokers all, whips out light­ Hercegovina (labeled BiH in graffiti). At the border we pass ers, matches, candles. Later I spot the greatest sign of opti­ a line of 20 or more trucks filled with aid and supplies, all mism in the Balkans: posters for an anti-smoking campaign. pulled over for paperwork checks. Some of the drivers, used We meet with the president of the okrug (a level of gov­ to the routine, have set up tables for marathon card games. ernment between city and republic), who cheerfully assures The region between Mostar and the Croatian border is us that he has no real power at all. Our meeting ends with air occupied by a roving militia. They don't stop us; we don't raid sirens punctuated by shell impacts; we flee to a base­ see them. We pass sharp mountains, sudden valleys, house ment until things seem calm. The genial president treats us after house tiled with red, and chthonic old staring women to an ambitious lunch. in black. In the blast of afternoon I set out on my own to look at Mostar is like Los Angeles in two ways. (1) It has lost mortar craters, ruined buildings, and roving tribes of chil­ thousands of citizens to violent deaths. (2) Surrounded by dren. A gang of lazy drunks accosts me, snarling ". .. chetnik mountains, its air is warm and trapped. Worse yet, the ..." languorously, daring me to sample a mysterious fluid in mountains are bare and reflect the sunlight into the city, bak­ an anonymous bottle. Remembering the bizarre and homici­ ing its atmosphere. We arrive without incident, spiraling dal alcoholic experiments of my Russian friends, I shudder down toward the blindingly white buildings. Arriving on but stomp forward, seize the viridescent bottle, and drink the city's west side, a furious contact man races us over a deeply. The stuff is infernally bad, naturally, but not without tiny military bridge far too quickly for me to make out much, character. Smiling, I praise their abilities and ask for an extra kicks us out on the east side of town, and drives off at top bottle. "Bravo chetnik!" My followers are children and speed in a fog of dust. drunks. Tomorrow: march against Milosevic ... We are met by Professor Bedic, a tall, gloomy, immensely resourceful mathematician and speaker of Friday, 21 July English. He gives us the tour of the city - or, rather, of its As we walk in the last morning breeze to the day's lec­ eastern sector. In 1993, local Croats drove Muslims from ture, we hear explosions, then see NATO planes race by their homes in brutal urban fighting, then kept the west side overhead; it's hard to tell whether the noises are shells or to themselves behind the (extravagantly capitalized) EU/ sonic booms. UNPROFOR DMZ. Croat forces lazily patrol the line, seizing In 1992, a Serb army assaulted the city, killing many, then Muslim men who attempt to cross and shipping them to withdrew under pressure from Bosnian Army units operat­ camps. So today we just see one half of Mostar, which is ing nearby. In 1993, war broke out again with the Croat drive plenty. Bedic leads us through the furious sun, along alley­ to exterminate the Muslims. Things have been largely quiet ways, from building to building, along the green Neretva since then, which is why Mostar seemed a good site for the River, to points near the DMZ, into buildings that still stand, conference. to the former gates of those that do not. Every surface bears Walking along an alleyway on cobblestones old as the bullet holes or grenade gouges or both. I lag behind, reading Ottoman empire, I chat with a street vendor. Among his graffiti: BiH, Clinton Clitoris, Viva Dole, Peace, Victory, usual wares (plates, paintings, colored sticks) stands a dis­ Victory, Peace. play of fallen shells, Cyrillic-labeled Serbian projectiles on Two children peek around a corner behind me, giggling. I one hand, Roman-inscribed Croat items on the other, neatly stare at them. They scream. Old reflexes take effect: I mug, arranged by type and size, all priced in deutschemarks. (DM waggling my mouth. The kids riot, run, come back with is the basic currency here. BiH issues the dinar, but in vain­ friends. It hits me: I'm the only person around with a full a one-dinar notes costs two to print.) The man tries to con­ beard. The Bosnians prefer to be as clean-shaven as possible. vince me that the British police won't mind me smuggling a I relax into children's games, making monster noises, pre­ semi-dud shell through their country. I could see that with tending to chase them. Our group and its guide are amused the Americans, but not the Brits ... but proceed; I tag along; so do the kids. Dennis laughs and calls me a Pied Piper. The children scream "Chetnik!!!" This Saturday, 22 July means enemy Serb. Ha ha, I think, good joke. They're calling Today we cross to West Mostar for the first time. We pass me by the name of a monster, a monster that butchers their by our lecture bunker, then two utterly ruined buildings. families. And they laugh. Baked in the heat, several checkpoints scowl at our displayed We peer in our Open University Conference site - a bun­ American passports. This Croat half of the city is compara­ ker, essentially - and retire to the guest house. A mad tively well-off. It looks like bits of Queens or Detroit: some scholar named Salih mercilessly tells me his life story as damaged cars, run-down buildings - typical urban semi­ Mostar's ur-curator in French, Russian, English, Serbo-Croat, squalor, semi-affluence. Pictures of the Pope follow us every­ stopping only when he realizes I don't speak German and where, beaming, blessing, welcoming us to his friendly have run away. hands. Bob and I go to the Hotel Ero, which is a sort of Casablanca-style interzone. The European Union has its HQ Thursday, 20 July here, as does a mayor. (Mostar has three mayors: one First day of conference. Bob and John discuss their pro­ Muslim, one Croat, one EU. It also has five (5) police forces, BiH book, take questions on politics. Halfway through the all fully and eagerly armed: Muslim, Croat, EU, okrug, and session, the bunker's electricity fails. With one smooth Croat-Bosnia Federation.) Ero has mysterious guests from Liberty 31 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

France, Germany, the Philippines, Argentina, the U.S., and I've had for a week, since my luggage has yet to arrive. points unknown. Once we see the crown prince of Jordan Esme's uncle, a BiH soldier on leave, tells us that Dole will swoop in - or, rather, we see his wake: hotel security fall save them by allowing the Bosnians to arm themselves. I back before Croat cops, Croat army, UNPROFOR, the ubiq­ drink endless cups of Turkish coffee while listening to uitous men in black suits with shades and machine guns and Esme's familial conspiracy theories. attache cases, pressing the "teeming mass ever forward, spill­ Before and after dinner I am followed by my usual ing over chairs, sofas, tables, crushing everything in their entourage of drunks and children. path, shepherding the invisible object of their mission At night, we Americans sit on a terrace, staring at the through the lobby and out again. dark mountains, listening to the crump of shells, whistling The tide of security passes. Bob and I buy Dove bars and rockets, chattering rifles. Troop trucks rumble by, gone eat them blissfully in the IOO-degree heat as we walk back to before we can get a good glimpse of their affiliation ­ the East, apartment buildings and healthy automobiles giv­ NATO? BiH? Croats? We resign ourselves to history. ing way to wall stumps, collapsed roofs, gutted cars. Vietnam vet Bob tells us, "This reminds me of Saigon."

Sunday, 23 July Tuesday, 25 July John has fallen in love with an orphan girl. We are sitting I lecture to a University class on English in the morning, in a cafe, drinking beer and talking about Tito and Thomas then to a select few about America in the afternoon. These Mann. Police forces cruise past, some friendly, others caress­ Mostari, mostly women, are eager to leave Bosnia and ing their rifle stocks. Bloated grasshoppers cling to roofs, become business leaders. They are also concerned with apoc­ walls, rubble; rumor has it they are good luck, since the last alypse and doom. A classful of fatalist Horatio Algers. time such a plague hit was in 1945, when another war ended. Many of them read science fiction; Neuromancer is their Something hits the back of my head. I whirl; I see John laugh, favorite book. My colleagues introduce some science fiction then bullet-riddled walls, then a staggering apartment build­ of their own to the affair, raving about howe-mail will help ing. Some of its balconies and floors are collapsed or missing, Mostar thrive. Bedic snarls back, "Sure! Once we have phone the rest are overcrowded with laundry and ancient women. lines." On one balcony: a giggling little girl, hands filled with hard An evening's entertainment: the University of East red onions. "Brat!" she shouts. "On . .. brat!" Mostar offers youths dancing to old Balkan and Turkish folk "It's your beard, Bryan, she's probably never seen any­ music. Terrific vitality, style, dexterity. Feet stamping, hearts thing like it," counsels John. He calls for her to join us. She pounding, we are interrupted by a counteroffer. The faculty hurtles down to our table: little Esme, eight years old, miss­ at West Mostar U. desires our presence at a gala event, to ing half her family in the war. John is entranced by her include the faculty of the East. We pile into EU vans again, energy, her smile, her audacity. Esme has no thought for every Eastern prof always within one foot of an American. him, lusting after my beard instead, touching it, giggling. They cross the checkpoints calmly, their thoughts hidden. Sated, she demands we join her and her truncated family in Our hosts have prepared a bizarre program at Hotel Ero, their new apartment (more refugees from the west side of where a Swedish choir group regales us with Elizabethan town). We decline, but will visit tomorrow. She responds music in English. The Croats are mad about being Western, with an apocalypse of pouts, but is fobbed off by ginger ale but this is ridiculous. We eat a very late dinner thrown by the friendly presi­ and ice cream. John is smitten. I resolve to be his guide and co-tormentor. dent of the okrug. There is no tangible presence of govern­ ment here, no respect for the state. These Muslims have lived Monday, 24 July in terror too long not to adore immediate community, not to My paper on Romanticism and military discourse is a distrust the distant Republic. I think of the huge gulfs. shambles. The translator, Mirsad the anti-Semite, screws up between the West Mostar Croats, of their chilly demeanor nearly every other word, massacring nuances and whole toward one another, as these Muslims down vodka and wine, feed each other food (grown often by themselves), tell meanings. A deranged and massive veteran demands I tell stories, and refuse to weep. I grow hazy with fatigue, resid­ him about pro-war poetry and how to kill Serbs. I drink more ual heat, too much vodka, the paucity of my Serbo-Croat ­ coffee, and listen to a series of recitations of Bosnian war and am asked by the assembly to resolve the essential diffi­ poems. culties faced by modern states. I stand, weave, my mind a After the conference we meet with the ombudsman of the heaving blank, then ramble about how no elected official can semi-hallucinatory Croat-Bosnian Federation. This agree­ do right by us, how voting for sentient beetles is as useful as ment is largely on paper, since neither side has done much to supporting a Democrat or Republican or Socialist or ... I act on it. The stolid ombudsman tells us that he's not sure it collapse, toasted in every sense. really exists, but that he can use it to do some good for peo­ ple on both sides. No, he wasn't aware the Federation has Wednesday, 26 July police. Who are these guys? Our last day in Bosnia. I walk with limping, Esme-sick Esme finds us afterwards, naturally. We follow her to her John to the last session. John is in many ways insane. Two flat, John grinning and lurching on his ruined.leg, me crush­ days ago, a shell hit a building one block away, throwing ing the good-luck fat grasshoppers that Esme lives in fear of rubble into the air and onto the surrounding area. The rest of with my steel-toed paratrooper boots - the only footwear continued on page 46 32 Liberty Expose

The Money Laundromat by J. Orlin Grabbe

Above ground or below, as paper or electrons, money will always find a way.

It was bright lights and balmy action. Thomas Constantine, the head of the u.s. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), claimed we've entered a "new world order of law enforcement."l He was referring to the cooperation of British, Italian, and Spanish authorities in setting up a fake bank in Anguilla, in the Caribbean. It was a sting to trap money launderers. Like all pirate organizations, the international banking stings like this "To truly defeat money launderers, group calculated success by the one. But it isn't just the pseudo­ banks must know not only their own amount of booty seized. And this bankers you should worry about. customers - by no means an easy cleverly code-named "Operation task - but their customers' custom­ Dinero" added $52 million, nine tons The Banker as Snitch: ers, and in many cases their custom­ of cocaine, and a number of paintings The Brave New World ers' customers' customers." And then, (including works by Reynolds, of Law Enforcement as part of an argument clearing Reuben, and Picasso) to official cof­ In the world of money-laundering, Safra's Republic National Bank of fers. There were also 88 arrests. It was you pay your thankless banker to turn money-laundering charges, Burrough a great scam in classic DEA style: gov­ you in to the government. In 1993, a recounts how he visited the office of ernment officials got to keep the federal judge in Providence, Rhode the Financial Crimes Enforcement goods, while taxpayers got to pay for Island, issued the longest sentence Network (FinCEN) and talked with the incarceration of up to 88 people. ever given for a nonviolent legal one of its top officials. The official said The British Foreign Office - those offense: 600 years in prison for that Republic had made "some solid wacky guys who, you will recall, con­ money-laundering. The launderer had suggestions about new ways the veniently released a barrage of infor­ been fingered by his bankers, who government could track dirty mation about Nazis in Argentina at then cooperated with federal agents money."2 the outbreak of the Falklands in building a case against him, even But most people still have not got­ (Malvinas) war, and who also helped while the same bankers received fees ten the message that their banker is a coordinate Operation Dinero - have for providing him services. spy. They are still stuck in yesterday's since made a propaganda video about American Express was recently world, where the Right to Financial this official foray into fraudulent fined $7 million for failing to detect Privacy Act of 1978 allowed banks to banking. Among others it stars Tony money-laundering, and agreed to for­ monitor their own records and inform Baldry, junior minister. feit to the U.S. Justice Department the government when there were sus­ Be prepared for more of the same. another $7 million. As part of the set­ picious transactions in an account, but The nine tons of coke should enable tlement, the bank will spend a further prohibited them from telling the gov­ the British Foreign Office and the $3 million in employee education, ernment the account number or nosy DEA to burn the midnight oil for teaching them recommended proce­ account's owner. The Privacy Act was months to come, planning other dures for spying on customer effectively gutted by the Annunzio­ booty-gathering raids and video thrill­ transactions. Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act of ers. After all, the Financial Action In his book about banker Edmond 1992, which gives protection from civil Task Force report of 1990 encouraged Safra, author Bryan Burrough notes: liability to any financial institution, Liberty 33 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

director, officer, or employee who Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, the it through the mandatory reporting of makes a suspicious transaction report Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laun­ cash transactions greater than or equal under any federal, state, or locallaw.3 dering Act of 1992, and the Money to a threshold amount of U.S.$10,000. Laundering Suppression Act of 1994. For countries in Europe the figure Money-Laundering International efforts include the U.N. ranges from ECU 7,200 to ECU 16,000. - What Is It, Anyway? Convention Against Illicit Traffic in In the U.S., Section 5313 of the There's a specter haunting the inter­ Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Banking Secrecy Act requires a national financial markets: the specter Substances of 1988; the Basle Currency Transaction Report of cash of crime by nomenclature, by theologi­ Committee on Banking Regulations deposits or transactions of $10,000 or cal semantics. To be sure, the faceless , and Supervisory Practices Statement of more. Section 5316 of the act requires a piece of transaction information that Principles of December 1988; the Currency or Monetary Instrument makes money "money" - a useful Financial Action Task Force Report of Report for transport of $10,000 or more medium of exchange, whereby we April 1990 (with its 40 recommenda­ of currency in or out of the United exchange everything for it, thus avoid­ tions for action); the Council of Europe States. Section 5314(a) requires you to ing the direct bartering of wheel­ Convention on Laundering, Search, report any foreign bank or financial barrows for oranges - has been under Seizure and Confiscation of Proceeds accounts whose value exceeds $10,000 attack before. The '60s brought us of Crime of September 8, 1990; the 61 at any time during the preceding year. recommendations of the Caribbean Section 60501 of the IRS Code requires Drug Money Laundering Conference the reporting of business transactions of June 1990; the agreement on Ee leg­ involving more than $10,000 cash. Like all pirate organizations, islation by the European Community's Suppose you're an arms dealer in the DEA calculates success by Ministers for Economy and Finance of trouble and need a criminal lawyer. December 17, 1990; the Organization of the amount of booty seized. (You've violated those pesky ITAR American States Model Regulations on restrictions because you carried a copy Crimes Related to Laundering of Property and Proceeds Related to Drug of Pretty Good Privacy on your porta­ "Euro"-dollars, and the '70s "petro"­ ble computer when you drove over to dollars. Now we have "narco"-dollars, Trafficking of March 1992; and a tan­ gled bouillabaisse of Mutual Legal Matamoros from Brownsville for the "terror"-dollars, and (who knows?) Assistance Treaties. day, and you forgot to fill out those cus­ maybe "kiddie-porn"-dollars. Today, Anyone who has studied the evolu­ toms forms, and that girl you met said some of the data bits stored in banks' tion of money-laundering statutes real­ she just had to set up a secure channel to computers comprise "clean" money izes that the "crime" boils down to a her cousin who works in Washington, and others IIdirty" money, the latter single, basic prohibited act: Doing some­ D.C., as an undocumented maid for a legalistically smitten with original sin. thing and not telling the government about As Yogi Berra might say, it's digital it. But since the real big-brotherly voodoo all over again. motive is a Thing That Cannot Be In the world of money­ Since the governmental powers­ Named, the laws are bogged down in laundering, you pay your that-be can't do much about drug­ prolix circumlocution, forming a dealing or terrorism - if only because hodge-podge of lawyerly fingers thankless banker to turn you in they themselves are the chief drug inserted here and there into the finan­ to the government. dealers and terrorists - they have cial channels of the monetary system. transferred these and other (often "Most economically motivated alleged) sins to the money supply. And criminals always have wanted to potential Cabinet nominee. .. .) The since every dollar is a potential appear legitimate," says attorney Kirk lawyer charges a modest $200 an hour, "narco"-dollar or "terror"-dollar, they Munroe. "What is new is the criminali­ so the first month you pay him $7,000 4 must track each one as best they can. zation of money laundering. The pro­ in cash. The next month you pay him The fact that monetary monitoring has cess itself now is a crime separate from $4,000 in cash. Under current U.S. law, done nothing to diminish either drug­ the crime that produced the money."s the lawyer is required to report com­ dealing or terrorism is of no im­ The President's Commission on plete information about you, including portance, because it's all part of a Organized Crime has defined money­ the $11,000 total 'cash payment, on IRS larger game. All the players can easily laundering as the "process by which Form 8300, and ship it off to the IRS see that this same financial tracking one conceals the existence, illegal Computing Center in Detroit within 15 yields political side benefits in the form source, or illegal application of income, days of receiving the second payment of social control and government and then disguises that income to (which put the total above the revenue-enhancement. make it appear legitimate" (emphasis reporting threshold). Never mind such The body of U.S. law about money­ added).6 Now, apparently, simply con­ matters as attorney-client privilege, the laundering includes the Bank Secrecy cealing the existence of income is Sixth Amendment right to counsel, or Act of 1970, the Comprehensive Crime money-laundering. the Fifth Amendment right to be free Control Act of 1984, the Money But whatever money-laundering is, from self-incrimination. If your Laundering Control Act of 1986, the in practice U.S. law purports to detect attorney does not make the report, and 34 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

the IRS finds out about it and prose­ off to Customs' San Diego Data Center, and SWIFT. "Historically, law enforce­ cutes him, the courts will probably and it too will eventually show up in ment efforts to curtail money launder­ back up the IRS. 7 TFDB. These and other forms will now ing activities have focused on the The scope and arrogance of the be available on-line in the Treasury identification and documentation of money-laundering statutes knows no Enforcement Communications System. currency-based transactions; however, bounds. The Kerry Amendment to the The TFDB data will also be processed recent investigations have focused on Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 demands through the FinCEN Artificial Intelli­ the use of funds transfer systems," the that foreign nations must also require gence System, which is trained to statement notes. financial institutions to report deposits The focus on funds transfer brings of U.S.$10,000 or greater, and to make in the resources of the National this information available to U.S. law The '60s brought us Security Agency. The NSA has been enforcement. Otherwise the president "Euro"-dollars, and the '70s monitoring civilian communications is directed to impose sanctions against ever since it installed IBM computers non-cooperative countries.8 "petro"-dollars. Now we have at Menwith Hill in the U.K. in the early Having extended the concept of "narco"-dollars, "terror"­ '60s to keep track of international telex evil to cover a vaguely defined practice dollars, and (who knows?) messages. NSA tentacles are now called "money-laundering," and hav­ ensconced not only in transatlantic ing established a system to help detect maybe "kiddie-porn"-dollars. communications, but also in Pacific sat­ it, the laws have proceeded to make ellite transmissions, the regional Bell evasion of the monitoring system evil System offices, the SWIFT messaging also. This tertiary sin may be found in identify suspicious transaction system, the CHIPS clearing computers the practice of "smurfing," or "struc­ patterns. in Manhattan, and Fedwire. In addi­ turing," which basically amounts to So when you deal in cash, expect to tion, a satellite surveillance system any method of spreading cash among give a note to the government, a crumb picks up the high-frequency transmis­ accounts or across time to avoid the to the friendly FinCEN AI System. But sions of specially constructed com­ $10,000 reporting threshold. Struc­ the system has a voracious appetite, so puter chips that are activated by turing is defined in a 1991 amendment the reporting doesn't stop with cash. certain types of transactions-oriented to the Bank Secrecy Act thusly: The heart of any modern monetary sys­ financial software. "Structure (structuring).... [A] person tem is the digital transfer of electronic U.s. agencies are not alone in finan­ structures a transaction if that person, money through the telecommunication cial monitoring: the Council of Europe acting alone, or in conjunction with, or links among bank computers. Inter­ has even recommended Interpol be on behalf of other persons, conducts or nationally, banks are connected by a attempts to conduct one or more given access to SWIFT to assist in computer messaging system operated to transactions in currency in any money-laundering detection. by the Society for WorIdwide amount, at one or more financial insti­ Interbank Financial Telecommuni­ tutions, on one or more days in any The PROMISed Land cation (SWIFT). Domestically, banks manner, for the purpose of evading the When most people hear the term reporting requirements. ... 'In any within a country use equivalents of the "money-laundering," they think of manner' includes, but is not limited to, u.s. clearing systems operated by the Miami, London, Hong Kong, or the breaking down of a single sum of Federal Reserve (Fedwire) and the Panama City. But what about currency exceeding $10,000 into Clearing House Interbank Payments Arkansas? Money Laundering Bulletin smaller sums, including sums at or System (CHIPS). A Federal Reserve reports, in what it calls "The Greatest below $10,000, or the conduct of a Policy Statement of December 23, 1992 Story Never Told," that an "archive of transaction or series of transactions, asks financial institutions to include (if more than 2000 documents ... allege[s] including transactions at or below possible) complete information on the that western Arkansas was a centre of $10,000. The transaction or transactions sender and recipient of large payment international drug smuggling in the need not exceed the $10,000 reporting orders sent through Fedwire, CHIPS, early 1980s - perhaps even the threshold at any single financial insti­ tution on any single day in order to constitute structuring within the mean­ ing of this definition."9 And what does the government do with the information it collects? When your lawyer's report reaches the IRS Computing Center in Detroit, it is entered into the Treasury Financial Data Base (TFDB). Similarly, if you cross a U.S. border with more than $10,000 in cash, you will fill out Customs Form 4790, which will be sent Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

headquarters of the biggest drug traf­ Firstly, anyone wanting to track Joe tary company, Eurame Trading Com­ ficking operation of all time."ll Perhaps Blowup's movements. He was in San pany Ltd., in Nicosia, Cyprus, is said to that is whyitwas in Arkansas thatmod­ Francisco on Monday and in Barstow have sold PROMIS to drug warrior ifications were made to the stolen on Wednesday. The sequence also gen­ agencies in Cyprus, Pakistan, Syria, PROMIS software system to enable it to erates obvious questions for further Kuwait, and Turkey. PROMIS was also spy on banking transactions. For where investigation. Did he meet Pierre in converted for use by the British Navy in there are drugs, there must be Barstow and give him the check there, connection with its nuclear submarine money-laundering, or so one can or did he drive on to Los Angeles? intelligence database.13 suppose.12 What is the check payment for? And There's more here than Ed Meese The PROMIS software was created who did Joe Blowup have lunch with and Hillary Clinton's cronies' simple by the Washington, D.C.-based soft­ in San Francisco? In order to generate desire to make a fast buck. The sale ware company Inslaw for a single pur­ relevant questions like these, federal itself was part of an intelligence opera­ pose: to track people. It was initially agents, spies, and other detectives all tion. As former attorney general Elliot designed to be used by federal prose- want a copy of this neat software. Richardson noted, "One important Secondly, banks and other financial motive for the theft of Enhanced institutions. Notice that, in fact, most PROMIS may have been to use it as a Money-laundering boils of the information is financial. That's means of penetrating the intelligence because financial institutions keep and law enforcement agencies of other down to doing something and carefully detailed transaction records, governments. The first step in this not telling the government and over the years they've become scheme was the sale to the foreign gov­ about it. increasingly sophisticated in doing so. ernment of a computer into which had There is nothing nefarious in this per been inserted a microchip capable of se. 1£ I go to a bank to get a loan, the transmitting to a U.S. surveillance sys­ bank has a right to make an evaluation tem the electronic signals emitted by cutors. Want to know who the judge as to whether I will repay it. They are the computer when in use. Enhanced was on a particular case? Ask PROMIS. principally concerned with (1) ability PROMIS has capabilities that make it Want to know all the similar cases that to pay and (2) willingness to pay ­ ideally suited to tracking the activities same judge has heard? Ask PROMIS and to make this evaluation, they rely of a spy network. Several INSLAW again. How about all the accused on current and historical information. informants formerly affiliated with money-launderers a particular attor... In the example here, none of the items and Israeli intelligence ney has defended? And so on. But after is of interest to banks, unless that acci­ agencies claim that both the United the Justice Department acquired the dent in Barstow created a financiallia­ States and Israel have relied on 'cutout' PROMIS software by "trickery, deceit, bility that would affect Joe Blowup'S and fraud" (to quote a federal bank­ ability to repay other loans. But if the ruptcy judge who tried the case) and (modified) PROMIS software orga­ installed it in most of its regional There is nothing intrinsi­ nizes banking transactions in a nice offices, the system was modified and way, banks too will want a copy of it. cally evil in storing a great sold to foreign intelligence organiza­ Thirdly, tax authorities. Do' Joe deal of information about tions, then modified again and sold to Blowup's financial records indicate a banks. ourselves. pattern of rather more income than he To see the relationship among these has been reporting? Or, in the case of apparently diverse uses, consider the doubt (and this is the fun part), is there following items of information about companies to provide ongoing support a record of assets the IRS can seize in Joe Blowup, who lives in Sacramento: for the PROMIS software."14 Of course, the meantime? The IRS wants a copy of what can be done with foreign intelli­ Item 1: Monday, June 3. Master­ the software so it can better understand Card record of payment by Joe gence computers can also be done with Joe Blowup'S - and your - spending Blowup for lunch at the Cliff House banking computers, and at least one of in San Francisco. patterns, even though present IRS files these "cutout companies" is a major Item 2: Wednesday, June 5. Motor already put private credit bureaus like provider of banking software.15 vehicle records show an automobile TRW and Equifax to shame. registered to Joe Blowup is involved In the 1980s, intelligence organiza­ The Gathering Storm in a minor accident in Barstow. tions around the world salivated over All of these efforts - the legal Item 3: Saturday, June 8. Check for the PROMIS software's ability to track reporting mechanisms, the spying by $3,000 made out to Pierre "C-4" terrorists, spies, political opponents, bankers, and the supplementary activi­ Plastique is deposited in Pierre's and attractive models. Aside from dis­ ties of such organizations as FinCEN, account in Glendale Federal Savings, tribution to almost all the three-letter NSA, and Interpol - fly in the face of and clears against Joe Blowup's First agencies in America, PROMIS was a contrary technological and social Interstate account in Sacramento on allegedly sold to intelligence organiza­ Tuesday, June 11. development: anonymous digital cash tions in Canada, Israel, Singapore, Iraq, made possible by advances in Who might be interested in this Egypt, and Jordan, among others. In cryptology. computer-sorted chronology? addition, the DEA, through its proprie- continued after advertising supplement 36 Liberty aeJvertising supplement aeJvertising surJrJlement Voices of Dissent

aeJvertising SLq)f)lement aeJvertising su~)plement ~1clvertising sur)r)lement aclvertising surJrJlement aeJverti si ng SLqJfJlement Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 The principal opponent of any that the existing laundering statutes tern is already on an electronic basis, contemplated system of encrypted have little or no effect on terrorism or and has been so for years. digital cash is the Leviathan that feeds drug-dealing, but instead are related To see why, consider the foreign off money-laundering laws. The edicts to an upswing in government­ exchange market.l9 This is a largely against money-laundering are attempts sponsored harassment of targeted interbank market for trading the cur­ to make all financial transactions visi­ political groups. rency of one country for the currency ble, while the aim of anonymous of another: dollars for pounds, dollars digital cash is to keep financial activi­ Electronic Finance 101 for yen, and so on. But if I, as an inter­ ties private. People-monitoring sys­ Many of the basic features of elec­ bank trader, sell U.s. dollars for British tems such as those utilizing PROMI5 tronic cash - variously referred to as pounds, what are the actual logistics of track individuals by the electronic "e-cash," "digital cash," "digital the transfer? Consider the problems trails they leave throughout the finan­ money," and so on - may sound novel that would be imposed by a cash­ cial system. But anonymous digital to those unfamiliar with the financial based market. The standard transac­ cash is specifically designed to make markets. But much of the financial sys- tion size in the foreign exchange mar- such tracks virtually invisible. Money-laundering, as Barry A.K. Modern Editions of Classic Works Rider has frankly observed, "amounts to a process which obscures the origin for Todag's Readers of money and its source."16 On that basis, the pursuit of anonymity in financial transactions is money­ laundering. At the beginning of the '90s, money laundering was an offense in only four of the (then) twelve members of the European Union. Now all twelve have made it a crime. In a scramble to jus­ tify continued large budgets, intelli­ gence organizations have hopped on the anti-money-Iaundering bandwa­ gon. The U.K. intelligence service MIS, in an attempt "to justify its existence after reviewing its future in the light of a probable reduction in counter­ terrorist operations in Northern Ireland," has been "pressing for a change in the law which would see it involved in countering drug­ trafficking, money laundering, com­ puter hacking, nuclear proliferation and animal rights groups - a far cry, say police, from its original remit to 'protect national security.'''17 Even accountants are getting in on the act. Australia's Institute of Chartered Accountants has issued "a set of guidelines on money laundering, Originally published in 1605, Politica is now recognized as an extraordinary including a recommendation that contribution to the intellectual history of the West. It combines ancient and client confidentiality take second place medieval political philosophy with Reformation theory and is .considered a to public interest if an accountant sus­ bridge between the political wisdom of the ancients and the modems. pects laundering is occurring."18 Hardcover $19.50 0-86597-114-5 So the coming battle over financial Paperback $ 7.50 0-86597-115-5 footprints is inevitable, and perhaps inevitably bloody. But in the end it is the money-laundering regulations that 1b place your order call We pay book rate postage on will have to go. For one thing, or send us a fax. prepaid orders. advances in the technology of ano­ (800) 955-8335 Please allow approximately fOUf fax: (317) 579-6060 weeks for delivery. nymity are putting financial privacy within the reach of everyone. For another, there is a growing awareness 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300, Dept. Y506, Indianapolis, IN 46250-1687 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

ket is an amount of currency equiv­ received was not the same as the cash turn over a dollar deposit in New York alent to U.S.$l million. A $20 bill sent. All that was sent was a message. to the London bank, while the London weighs about one gram. So, if trans­ But no one cared, because cash itself is bank will turn over a deutschemark acted in cash, the $1,000,000 - 50,000 fungible: the dollar that is taken out is deposit in Frankfurt to the New York bills - would weigh 110 pounds. interchangeable with, but not the same bank. The Frankfurt bank simply Imagine the cost of such a transaction: as, the dollar that was put in. The bills switches the name of the owner of the I'd have to fill up a suitcase with $20 are also unregistered: no particular deutschemarks from the London bank bills, lug the 110-pound suitcase to a name is associated with any particular to the New York bank. The New York Manhattan taxi, take a long ride to serial number. bank now owns X-number of fungible, Kennedy Airport, fill out a Currency or In this example, bills were put into unregistered (but completely trace­ Monetary Instrument Report, check the safe at one end of the transaction, able) deutschemarks at the Frankfurt my baggage, arrive at Heathrow seven and different bills were taken out at bank. hours later, retrieve my baggage, go the other. Consider now a slight modi­ "I remember my shock when I through customs, and catch a cab to fication to this scenario: Eurobond learned that the fastest way for two the appropriate British bank in central banks in Hong Kong to settle a dollar London. Once there, I would pick up transaction was to wire the money the equivalent in pounds sterling and from Hong Kong to New York and reverse the whole process. Anyone try­ People-monitoring systems back again," said Manhattan Assistant ing to change dollars into pounds will track individuals by the. elec­ District Attorney John Moscow. 21 He go to some other bank where he t ron i c trai Is they Ieav e was shocked because he didn't under­ doesn't have to pay for my plane tick­ throughout the financial sys­ stand how the process works. The ets and cab fares, not to mention my "wired" dollars were sitting in New courier salary and that lunch I had at tem. But anonymous digital York all along as numbers in a bank the Savoy before I headed back to New cash is specifically designed to computer, originally labeled as owned York. make such tracks virtually by the first Hong Kong bank. After the Transaction costs are too great for transaction is completed, they are still the market to be organized on a cash invisible. in the same place, but labeled as basis. owned by the second Hong Kong In the present markets for cocaine bank. There is nothing mysterious and heroin, the weight of the drugs is trading. Eurobonds are generally about this at all. less than the weight of the cash pro­ placed in the depository systems oper­ Now let's modify the basic scenario ceeds. In the early '80s, drug transac­ ated by Euroclear in Brussels or Cedel again: Yankee bond trading. Yankee tions were often settled for cash. Paper in Luxembourg. Once bonds enter the bonds are dollar-denominated bonds money was actually loaded into suit­ vault, they generally stay there, issued by non-U.S. citizens in the U.S. cases and moved around. To save time, because of transactions costs. If a bond market. Yankee bonds are regis­ however, the cash wasn't counted. trader in Frankfurt sells a GM tered. If you buy a bond, your name is 1 After a spot check of bills for denomi­ Eurobond with a coupon of 7 / 8% and attached to a particular bond with a nation and authenticity, the suitcases maturing in 2012 to a trader in particular serial number. If someone were simply weighed to determined the London, they both send messages to steals the bond, he will not be able to total value. This measurement was Euroclear. Euroclear compares the two receive interest or principal, because accurate enough. But foreign exchange set of instructions, checks the cash bal­ his name is not attached to the bond trading does not suffer from the bur­ ance of the London trader, then serial number. So when Yankee bonds dens of illegal drug trading, and has switches the computer label of owner­ are traded, the seller's name is evolved to a more efficient standard. ship of the bond to the London trader, removed from the serial number of the To see how international money and the ownership of the requisite cash bond being sold, and the buyer's name transfers really work, consider the case to the Frankfurt trader. Again, how­ is attached. of a Greek immigrant who has opened ever, the bonds are not registered, and To this point we have talked about a restaurant in Boston, has made a little are fungible within the parameters of a things that potentially exist in physical money, and wants to send some cash particular issue. There may be several form. I can take a bond out of the to the folks back home. In earlier days thousand GM Eurobonds with a cou­ vault, or I can cash in my electronic 1 he probably would have gone down to pon of 7 / 8% and maturing in 2012, and deutschemarks for printed bills. The the Western Union office and handed the London trader owns one of them, final modification to these various sce­ the attendant cash to "wire" to his but his ownership is not attached to a narios is to get rid of the physical mother in Athens. The Western Union particular bond serial number.20 paper entirely. Such purely electronic office in Boston would put the cash in This is pretty much the way the for­ creatures already exist: U.S. Treasury its safe, or perhaps deposit it in a eign exchange market works. If a New bills - short-term debt instruments Boston bank, and would meanwhile York bank deals dollars for deutsche­ issued by the U.S. government. You send a message to the Athens office: marks with a London bank, they send buy, for example, a $10,000 T-bill at a "Give so,;"and-so X dollars" (or, more each other confirmations through discount, and it pays $10,000 at matur­ likely, "Y drachmas"). That is, the cash SWIFT. Then the New York bank will ity. But you don't see aT-bill certifi- 38 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

cate, because there isn't one. T-bills are atively expensive). They're really com­ There are three tracks, the first of electronic entries in the books of the puters, minus a keyboard, video which is reserved for airline ticket­ Federal Reserve System. You can trade screen, and power supply. Others, ing.22 This track holds up to 79 alpha­ your T-bill to someone else by having such as laser optical cards and mag­ numeric characters, including your the Fed change the name of the owner, netic stripe cards, are chipless and only name and personal account number but you can't stuff one in your pocket. semi-smart. (PAN). The ATM doesn't actually use You can "wire" your T-bill from one Laser optical cards are popular in the first track for transactions, but it bank to another, because the "wire" is Japan, and can hold up to four mega­ may read off your name, as when it just a message that tells the Federal bytes of data - enough for your tax says, "Thank you, Joe Blowup, for Reserve bank to switch the name of the and medical files and extensive genea­ allowing me to serve you." The second owner from one commercial bank to logical information besides. The cards track contains up to 40 numerical dig­ another. are a sandwich, usually a highly reflec­ its, of which the first 19 are reserved tive layer on top of a nonreflective for your PAN, which is followed by Smart and Not-So-Smart Cards layer. A laser beam is used to punch the expiration date and other informa­ So most of the financial system is holes through the reflective layer, tion. The third track will hold 107 already electronic, and "wiring" exposing the nonreflective layer under­ numerical digits, starting again with money doesn't correspond to the men­ neath. The presence or absence of holes your PAN, and perhaps information tal image of stuffing bills down a represents bits of information. A much related to your PIN (personal identifi­ phone line. To bring this story Closer to weaker laser beam is then used to read cation number, or "secret password"), home, let's consider how most of us the card data. You can later mark a file along with other information, all of use a computer and a modem on a of information as deleted, or turn it which potentially gets rewritten every daily basis to make financial trans­ into gibberish, but you can't reuse the time the track is used. actions. Even if we don't own a area on the card. The ATM machine into which you modem. Or a computer. Let's talk Magnetic stripe cards, popular insert your card is itself a computer. about smart and dumb cards - ATM everywhere, don't hold much informa­ The ATM typically has both hard and cards, credit cards, phone cards, and tion. An ATM card is one example. floppy drives, a PC mother-board that the like. Data is recorded on the magnetic contains the microprocessor, and a Some "smart cards" have micropro­ stripe on the back of the card similar power supply - as well as drawers for cessors and are actually smart (and rel- to the wayan audio tape is recorded. deposits, cash, and swallowed cards. If "This Book Should Be in the Hands of Every Teacher

and Every Parent" - Professor Emeritus of Philosophy University of Southern California

Laissez Faire Books, the world's largest source of books on liberty, says this about Separating School and State: "This is a thrilling book! It goes where no one has dared go before. This book mounts the most fundamental challenge to the government school monopoly and provides an exhilarating vision of how much better off everyone will be with 100% private, voluntary schools." John Taylor Gatto (New York Teacher of the Year) says: "Mr. Richman is right-state schooling doesn't work because it can't work." And Dr. Walter E. Williams Gohn M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University) calls this book "a powerful contribution." You'll call it an essential addition to your bookshelf. Separating School and State by Sheldon Richman Future of Freedom Foundation VISA/MasterCard accepted 11350 Random Hills Road, Ste. 800 $14.95 paper' $22.95 cloth Fairfax, Virginia 22030 (includes shipping) Tel.: (703) 934-6101 Full money-back guarantee. Fax: (703) 803-1480 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

the ATM is "on-line" (i.e., connected to reads off your card. The result of the (COMKEY), and then passed from the a distant central bank computer, which encryption is a 16-digit hexadecimal ATM to the ATM controller. Next, the makes all the real decisions), then it (base 16) number. Hexadecimal num­ account number and PIN will be also has a modem to communicate bers use the digits 0 to 9 and also the decrypted at the controller, and then re­ over phone lines with the central com­ letters A to F (the latter standing for encrypted with a network key puter. When you make a request for the decimal numbers 10 to 15). Next, a (NETKEY) and sent on to the proper cash, the ATM machine compares your table is used to turn the 16-digit hexa­ bank. password to the one you entered. If decimal number back into a 16-digit Foreign PINs give the evil program­ they are the same, it then takes your decimal number.23 The first four digits mer three additional possibilities for request and your PAN, encrypts the of the resulting 16-digit number are defeating security. The first way is to information, and sends it on to the cen­ the "natural PIN." (If you are allowed get hold of the COMKEY. He then taps tral computer. The central computer to choose your own PIN, a four-digit the line between the ATM and the con­ decrypts the message, looks at your "offset" number is created, and stored troller, and siphons off account num­ account information, and sends an on the third track of your ATM card. ber/PIN pairs. A second possibility is encrypted message back to the ATM, This offset will be added to the to get access to the controller, because telling it to dispense money, refuse the the account number/PIN pairs may be transaction, or eat your card. temporarily in the clear between Somewhere between the ATM and It is not clear how replenish­ encryptions. The third possibility is to the authorizing bank, there is usually a obtain the NETKEY, and tap the line "controller," which services several ing one's card balance at an between the controller and the foreign ATMs. The controller monitors the ATM is any more convenient network.24 transaction, and routes the message to for the user than getting cash The COMKEY and NETKEY are the correct authorization processor generally transmitted over phone lines, (bank computer). Some transactions, at an ATM. so the chances of acquiring them are for example, will involve banks in dif­ pretty good. These two encryption ferent ATM networks, and the keys are themselves usually transmit­ transaction will have to be transferred natural PIN before it is compared to ted in an encrypted form, but the keys to a different network for approval. The the one you entered at the ATM key­ used to encrypt them are sometimes sent in controller would also generally moni­ board.) the clear. Thus, while banks are gener­ tor the status of the different physical Since this comparison between the ally somewhat careful with their own devices in the ATM - to see that they natural and entered PIN is done locally customers, they are often quite helpful are operating properly and that the in the ATM hardware, the customer's in giving rip-off artists access to the machine is notbeing burglarized. PIN is not transmitted over phone customers of other banks. The evil pro­ Consider some of the security prob­ lines. This makes the process relatively grammer simply reads off the encryp­ lems in this framework. The first duty more secure, assuming no one knows tion keys and uses them to decrypt the of the local ATM is to verify you've the PKEY. But if an evil programmer COMKEY and NETKEY, which are in entered the correct PIN. A typical way knows the PKEY, he can create a valid turn used to decrypt account numbers of doing this is to recreate your PIN PIN from any customer's account num­ and PINs. from your card information and com­ ber. (Customer account numbers can The way to solve these security pare it to the one you entered. be found by the hundreds on dis­ problems is to use smart cards and Here is a general example of how carded transaction slips in the trash public-key cryptography. That way, PINs are created (there are many vari­ bin.) He can easily and quickly loot the banks could transmit their public'keys ations). The bank first chooses a secret ATM of its cash contents. in the open without worrying about 16-digit "PIN key" (PKEY). This key The security problems worsen when evil wire-tapping programmers. will be stored in the ATM's hardware. the ATM gets a "foreign" card. A for­ Customer messages encrypted with a The PKEY is then used as a DES­ eign card is essentially any card from bank's public key could only be encryption key to encrypt 16 digits of any bank other than the one that runs decrypted with the bank's private your account number, which the ATM the ATM. The local ATM does not know (secret) key. Digital cash issued by the the PKEYs of these bank could be signed with the bank's other banks, so the private key, and anyone would be able PIN that is entered to check that the cash is authentic by at the ATM must be using the bank's public key. In addi­ passed on to a bank tion, the bank would not be able to that can authorize repudiate cash signed in this way, the transaction. In because only the bank had access to its this process, the own secret key. Communications account number and between ATM machines and bank PIN will be en­ computers could also take place with crypted with a com­ randomly-generated encryption keys "I feel so manipulated!" m unication key that can be determined by each of the 40 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

two parties, but which could not be trol at the V.S. Department of Energy computers once seemed destined to discovered by someone who listens in Hanford Site requires smart card turn the average citizen into Organ­ on both sides of the traffic. 2S badges that store the cardholder's ization Man, a creature to be folded, hand geometry. Security access spindled, and mutilated in lieu of Are Smart Cards the through retinal scan patterns stored in IBM's punched cards. The advent of Mark of the Beast? smart card memory have been tested at the personal computer, however, Besides optical and magnetic stripe the Sandia National Laboratory. showed that the same technology cards, there are two types of IIchip" Visa recently announced plans for could be a tool of individual freedom cards. Chip cards are basically any creating an IIelectronic purse." The and creativity. cards with electronic circuits embed­ purse would be a reloadable spending There is nothing intrinsically evil in ded in the plastic. One type of chip card. You would charge the card up at storing a great deal of information card, called a memory (or IIwired an ATM machine, where it would suck about ourselves, our finances, and our logic") card, doesn't have a micropro­ some cash value out of your account current and future plans. That is, after cessor and isn't any smarter than the and store it in memory. You would all, exactly why some of us carry cards we discussed previously. then use the card instead of cash to around portable computers. But in this Prepaid phone cards are of this type. make small purchases. Visa is case the use of the computer is volun- They may have about 1K of memory, attracted by the estimate that consu­ and can execute a set of instructions, mer cash transactions in the V.S. are about five times the size of bank­ but can't be reprogrammed. Digital cash transactions assisted transactions (those that use Then there are the truly smart checks, credit cards, and debit cards). should be untraceable yet at the cards, which have a microprocessor Visa has been joined in this endeavor same time enable you to prove and several kilobytes of rewriteable by a consortium that includes memory. Smart cards allow for greatly unequivocally whether you VeriFone, the leading supplier of increased security, since access to their point-of-sale transaction systems, and made a particular payment. data is controlled by the internal Gemplus, the leading manufacturer of microprocessor. And there can be smart cards. built-in encryption algorithms. This There may be increased security in tary, and we ourselves control both versatility has made smart cards the use of an electronic purse, but it is access to and the content of the infor­ controversial. not clear how replenishing one's card mation. The same may apply to smart The negative reputation arises from balance at an ATM is any more conven­ cards. It is smart cards more than any certain cases where smart cards were ient for the user than getting cash at an other aspect of banking technology, I imposed by force, as well as from ATM. Since Visa is not advertising the believe, that will allow for financial smart-card storage of biometric data. privacy aspects of electronic purse pay­ privacy through cryptology, for anony­ The use of smart cards became a pre­ ments, one must assume this feature mous and secure digital cash transac­ requisite for Marines to receive pay- was omitted in the planning. Hence a tions. It's simply a matter of taking cynic could conclude that the lIelec­ control of the technology and using it tronic purse" is little more than a Rube to enhance personal freedom. It is smart cards more than Goldberg device which, by substituting for cash, will create a better set of Electronic Cash the any other aspect of banking PROMIS-type transaction records. Way It Ought to Be technology that will allow for These and other examples suggest Suppose we had it our way. financial privacy. It's simply a possible uses of smart cards for more Suppose we sat down to create digital general surveillance and social control. cash that had all the right properties. matter of taking control of the The truly paranoid envision the use of What would these be? Think of the technology. a single smart card for every financial attractive properties of currency -­ 27 transaction, medical visit, and tele­ physical cash. phone call. This information would be (1) Physical cash is a portable medium checks at Parris Island. Fingerprint­ sent directly to a common PROMIS­ of exchange. You carry it in your based smart card ID systems were like database, which would constitute pocket to give to people when you implemented by the Los Angeles a record of all your activities. In addi­ make purchases. The digital equiv­ Department of Public Social Services tion, they suggest, u your card could be alent of this process could be pro­ and the U.S. Immigration and Natural­ programmed to transmit its identifica­ vided by smart cards, which would ization Service. The IIchildhood immu­ tion code whenever you use it. So you actually improve on the mobility of nization bill" introduced by Sen. Ted (or your card, anyway) could be physical cash: the weight of Kennedy (D-Mass.) would have used instantly located anywhere on earth $1,000,000 in digital money is the smart cards to track vaccinations of all via the satellite-based Global Position­ same as the weight of $l. children under six years of age, ing System."26 (2) You would want the ability to together with at least one parent, But smart cards don't have to be make digital cash payments off­ across geographical areas. Access con- used this way. Recall that mainframe line, just like you can with Liberty 41 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

physical cash. A communication the preeminent cryptological up a bank to issue accounts and smart link between every store you shop researcher in the field of digital cards in a legal jurisdiction where the at and your bank's authorization cash.28 In his framework for off­ service won't run afoul of the local computer shouldn't be required. line systems, one can double­ banking and money-laundering laws. Moreover, if digital cash is to have spend the same piece of digital Of course, in many other countries the all the desirable qualities of physi­ cash only by losing one's anonym­ money-laundering statutes will be cal cash, you should be able to ity. This has considerable value, quickly amended in an attempt to transfer it directly to another because the bank or person, know­ apply the same reporting requirements smart-card-carrying individual. ing the identity of the devious to anonymous digital cash transactions Smart cards that co~ld connect double-spender, can send out a as currently apply to currency transac­ directly to other smart cards collection agent. tions. Such laws will probably generate would be ideal in this respect, and But I consider this wayof enforc­ little compliance.30 Since the transac­ would represent an improvement ing the "nodouble-spending" rule tions in question are unconditionally over physical cash. Even if every­ a serious flaw inChaum'sframe­ untraceable, there won't be any evi­ one observed two smart cards work. Catching thieves and rip-off dence of wrongdoing. communicating, they would have artists is notthe comparative Anonymous digital cash will arise no way of knowing whether the advantage of eitherbanks or the as a parallel system to the existing one transaction involved $5 or $50,000. average citizen. (Banks are usually of ordinary money. Therefore, there There would be no need to slide only good atproviding transac­ will be a record of the initial entry into money under the table. tions services, and charging inter­ the anonymous system. For example, (3) Digital cash should be indepen­ estand fees.) Would you really you might write a $10,000 check drawn dent of physical location - availa­ want to see, say, The First on Citibank to The First Subterranean ble everywhere and capable of Subterranean Bank ofAnonymous Bank of Anonymous Digital Cash. This being transferred through com­ Digital Cashmerge with the check will be recorded, but no subse­ puter and other telecommunica­ WackenhutCorporation? Luckily, quent transactions will be traceable, tion channels. So we want a smart however, there are alternative unless you make transfers back out card that can jack into the commu­ approaches that will prevent into the ordinary banking world. Over nication nodes of the global infor­ double-spending from ever taking time, as more people begin to use the mation network. One should be place.29 anonymous cash system, some wages able to pop into a phone booth to (6) The most important requirement will be paid in anonymous digital cash. make or receive payments. for individual freedom and pri­ This will enable all income transac­ (4) Got change for a dollar for the vacy is that digital cash transac­ tions, as well as expenditures, to take quarter slots in the pool table? Just tions should be untraceable yet at place entirely outside the ordinary as we "make change" or divide the same time enable you to prove monetary system. physical currency into subunits, so unequivocally whether you made Since the anonymous cash system should electronic cash be divisible. a particular payment. Untraceable will exist parallel to the existing system, Electronic calculators can perform transactions would make impossi­ a floating exchange rate will be created an operation known as division, ble a PROMIS-type data-sorting of by market transactions between ordi­ and so can third-graders. So smart all your financial activities. InJoe nary money and anonymous money. cards ought to be able to handle Blowup's financial chronology, Think, by analogy, of a currency board. this also, even if it presents a few discussed previously, you Such a board issues domestic currency difficulties for theoretical wouldn't be able to connect Joe through the purchase of foreign "hard" cryptology. Blowup's name to any of his pur­ currencies. In the same way, anony­ (5) To be secure against crooks and chases. Similarly, no one would mous digital cash will be issued rip-off artists, digital cash should know about the money you wired through the purchase of ordinary cash be designed insuch a way that it to Liechtenstein, your purchase of or bank deposits. That is, when you can'tbe forged or reused. We Scientology e-meters and the make a deposit at The First wouldn't want people spending banned works of Maimonides, or Subterranean Bank of Anonymous the same money twice, or acting as your visits to the Mustang Ranch. Digital Cash, First Subterranean will their ownminiature Federal Privacy-protected off-line cash sys­ issue you an anonymous digital cash Reserve System, creating money tems can be made nearly as effi­ account, and will in turn acquire owner­ from nothing. This cryptological cient as similar systems that don't ship of the ordinary money. The problem is different between on­ offer privacy. exchange ratio will not necessarily be line and off-line cash systems. In one-for-one: anonymous digital cash on-line systems the bank simply Parallel Money Systems that does not meet some of the ease-of­ checks whether a piece of cash has To set up a digital cash service use requirements listed previously may beenspentbefore. meeting these requirements, you exchange for less than one ordinary dol­ Proposed off-line systems rely would need to buy the rights to use lar. On the other hand, digital cash that on a framework developed by patents held by David Chaum and meets all those requirements will trade David Chaum. Chaum has been RSA, or equivalent rights, and then set at a premium, because anonymous digi- 42 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

tal cash has enhanced privacy aspects. ber of the Council of Economic Eurodollar market may be viewed as a Money-launderers, for example, cur­ Advisors named Hendrik Houthakker classic example of free-market forces at rently get about 20% of the value of discovered the Eurodollar market's work, overcoming obstacles created by money that is made anonymous. That existence, he thought it was an impor­ regulations, and responding to market represents an exchange rate of 1.25 tant development, and recommended incentives to accommodate various "dirty" dollars for one "clean" dollar. that some discussion of itbe included in needs."32 The market will similarly determine the the annual Economic Report of the In a similar way, some future exchange ratio between ordinary and President. "No, we don't want to draw report will say that "the emergence anonymous digital money. attention to it," he was told. When and growth of anonymous digital cash In the 1960s, various tax and regula­ Houthakker himself later became a may be viewed as a classic example of toryburdens and political risk consider­ member of the Council under Nixon, he free-market forces at work, overcom­ ations gave rise to a new international madesure the Report included a discus­ ing obstacles created by surveillance money market, the Eurodollar market, sion of the Euromarkets. But it was only technologies and money-laundering which was created specifically to get much later, in the mid-'70s, that the regulations, and responding to market around these regulatory and political Report said, in a burst of honesty: "The incentives to accommodate the public's roadblocks.31 When a junior staff mem- emergence and growth of the need for financial privacy." 0

Notes: 1. Quoted in Money Laundering Bulletin, dering transaction crime for any person of specified unlawful activity, or (b) con­ January 1995, p. 3. to conduct, or to attempt to conduct, a ceal or disguise the nature, location, 2. Bryan Burrough, Vendetta: American financial transaction which, in fact, source, ownership, or control of the prop­ Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra involves the proceeds of specified unlaw­ erty believed to be the proceeds of speci­ (HarperCollins, 1992), pp. x, xi. ful activity, knowing that the property fied unlawful activity, or (c) avoid a cash 3. Sec. 1517 (c) states: "Any financial institu­ involved in the transaction represents the reporting requirement. proceeds of some crime, and, while tion that makes a disclosure of any possi­ 7. See Samuel J. Rabin, Jr., "A Survey of the ble violation of law or regulation or a engaging in the transaction, with either Statute and Case Law Pertaining to 26 (a) the intent to promote the carrying on disclosure pursuant to this subsection or U.S.C. 60501 (Forms 8300)," in Fletcher N. of the specified unlawful activity, or (b) any other authority, and any director, Baldwin, Jr. and Robert J. Munro, Money the intent to commit certain tax crimes, or officer, employee, or agent of such institu­ Laundering, Asset Forfeiture and with the knowledge that the transaction is tion, shall not be liable to any person International Financial Crimes (Oceana under any law or regulation of the United designed at least in part (a) to conceal or Publications, 1994, three volumes). disguise the nature, location, source, own­ States or any constitution, law, or regula­ 8. Section 4702 of P.L. 100-690. ership, or control of the proceeds, or (b) to tion of any State or political subdivision 9. 31 C.F.R. 103.11(p) (1991). avoid a cash reporting requirement. thereof, for such disclosure or for any fail­ 10. "The means should, in fact, include access ure to notify the person involved in the Transportation Offenses: It is a money laun­ dering transportation crime for any per­ by Interpol to the telecommunications transaction or any other person of such system SWIFT," Draft Explanatory Report son to transport, transmit, or transfer, or disclosure." on the Convention on Laundering, Search, to attempt to transport, transmit, or trans­ 4. "A completely cashless economy where all fer, a monetary instrument or funds into Seizure and Confiscation ofthe Proceeds from transactions were registered would create Crime, September 8,1990. or out of the U.S., and, while engaging in enormous problems for the money laun­ the act, with either (a) the intent to pro­ 11. Money Laundering Bulletin, March 1995, p. derers" (emphasis added), Report ofthe mote the carrying on of specified unlaw­ 3. Financial Action Task Force on Money ful activity, or (b) the knowledge that the 12. Curiously, however, some of the same set Laundering, February 7, 1990. monetary instrument or funds represent of characters were apparently involved 5. Kirk W. Munroe, "Money Laundering: the proceeds of some crime, and the on all sides: in drug-running, money­ The Latest Darling of the Prosecutor's knowledge that the transportation, etc., is laundering, and the theft and modifica­ Nursery," law firm of Richey, Munroe & designed, at least in part, (i) to conceal or tion of the PROMIS system. I will leave it Rodriguez, P.A., Miami, Florida, 1994. disguise the nature, location, source, own­ to someone with more lawyers, guns, and 6. President's Commission on Organized ership, or control of the proceeds, or (ii) money than I have to bring that part of Crime, The Cash Connection: Organized to avoid a cash reporting requirement. the story to light. Crime, Financial Institutions, and Money "Sting" Offenses: It is a money laundering 13. U.S. Congress, Committee on the Laundering (U.S. Government Printing crime for any person to conduct, or to Judiciary, The Inslaw Affair, House Report Office, October 1984). This definition is attempt to conduct, a financial transaction 102-857, September 10, 1992. certainly more coherent than Michael which involves property represented to 14. Memorandum to Judge Nicholas Bua Sindona's circular statement that "laun­ be the proceeds of specified unlawful from Elliot Richardson, p. 34. The NSA, dering money is to switch the black money activity, or property used to conduct or to naturally, does not acknowledge the W'is­ or dirty money ... to clean money." The facilitate specified unlawful activity, said tence of such a chip, much less provide U.S. definition of money-laundering is repre~entation being made by a law technical information. But ill order to found in 18 U.S.C. 1956, whichwas enforcement officer or by another person avoid detection of the chip's transmission enacted in 1986, and strengthened in 1988, at the direction of, or with the approval signal by the organization being spied 1990, and 1992. Itsets out three categories of, a federal officer authorized to investi­ upon, the chip would be designed so its of offenses: transaction offenses, transpor­ gate or to prosecute §1956 crimes, and, broadcast would be masked by the gen­ tation offenses, and"sting" offenses: while engaging in the transaction, with eral - or some characteristic - electronic Transaction Offenses: It is a money laun- the intent to (a) promote the carrying on noise of the computer. This could imply a Liberty 43 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

low-probability-of-interception digital - the Pursuit of Flying Money," in systems to secure financial transactions. spread spectrum (SS) communication sys­ Money Laundering, Asset Forfeiture and The communication link would involve tem with a broad bandwidth, perhaps International Financial Crimes. two-way authentication using Diffie­ with a transmission frequency in the 17. Money Laundering Bulletin, April 1995, Hellman key exchange. range of 1-10 gigahertz. As a related p.2. 26. From Clark Matthews, IITomorrow's example of this technique, a IIlow level 18. Ibid, p. 4. 'Smart Cards': Technical Marvels That wideband SS signal, can easily be hidden 19. Details of the foreign exchange, Give Government Fearful Power," within the same spectrum as a high reprinted from The Spotlight, undated. power television signal where each signal Eurocurrency, and Eurobond markets are appears to be noise to the other." Quoted covered at length in J. Orlin Grabbe, 27. Some of the following points were from IISpread Spectrum Techniques," in International Financial Markets (Simon & broached in a different way by T. Geoff Lewis, Newnes Communications Schuster, 1995, third edition). Okamoto and K. Ohta, IIUniversal Technology Handbook (Oxford, 1994). The 20. Eurobonds are bearer bonds. So if you Electronic Cash," Advances in Cryptology broadcast power requirements of such a have the bond in your pocket, you own it, - Crypto 91 (Springer-Verlag, 1992).

chip would not be large, but rather simi­ in the same way you own the dollar in 28. See David Chaum, IIAchieving Electronic lar to a walkie-talkie's. The information your pocket. The same goes for interest Privacy," Scientific American, August 1992; broadcast by the chip could then either coupons - they are to be paid to bearer. IIBlind Signatures for Untraceable be monitored locally and re-transmitted Most Eurobond-issuing companies pay Payments," in D. Chaum, R.L. Rivest, and to satellite, or transmitted directly to a interest to Euroclear, which distributes A.T. Sherman (eds.), Advances in geosynchronous signals-collection satel­ the payments to the owners of the bonds Cryptology - Crypto '82 (Plenum, 1983); lite such as Magnum. The Magnum and stored in its depository vaults. But the IIOnline Cash Checks," in J.J. Quisquater other U.S. spy satellites are operated by companies are afraid that if the bonds are and J. Vandewalle (eds.), Advances in the Air Force on behalf of the National stolen, they will have to pay the same Cryptology - Eurocrypt '89 (Springer­ Reconnaissance Office, while NSA does coupons again. Hence they insist coupons Verlag, 1990); IIEfficient Offline Electronic the signal processing. (I am grateful to be clipped and destroyed as they are Checks," with B. den Boer, E. van Heyst, John Pike, Director ofSpace Policy & paid. When I visited Morgan Guaranty S. Mjxlsnes, and A. Steenbeek, in CyberStrategy Projects, Federation of (which operates Euroclear) in Brussels in Advances in Cryptology - Eurocrypt '89; American Scientists, for advice on the 1982, there were 20 employees whose IICryptographically Strong Undeniable information in this footnote. He is not full-time job was clipping coupons. Signatures, Unconditionally Secure for responsible for any errors or the specific 21. John W. Moscow, liThe Collapse of the Signer" with E. van Heijst and B. content of any statement.) BCCI," in Money Laundering, Asset Pfitzmann, in J. Feigenbaum (ed.), 15. I have in mind an NSA operation. But Forfeiture and International Financial Advances in Cryptology - Crypto '91 recently, the CIA approached my own Crimes. (Springer-Verlag, 1992); IINumbers Can Be a Better Form of Cash than Paper," in former company (which sells banking 22. Details of the card size, layout, coding, D. Chaum, Smart Card 2000 (North software) and proposed that it provide and recording are laid out in ISO stan­ Holland, 1991); IIPrivacy Protected cover for their agents to enter foreign dards 7810 to 7813. The first track is Payments: Unconditional Payer and/or banks. The CIA also separately offered to sometimes called the International Air Payee Untraceability," in D. Chaum and pay $100,000 for the customer list of a Transport Association track, the second I. Schaumuller-Bichl (eds.), Smart Card particular bank among the Swiss big the American Bankers Association track, 2000 (North Holland, 1989); IlSecurity four. and the third the Mutual Institutions Without Identification: Transaction 16. Barry A. K. Rider, "Fei Ch'ien Laundries National Transfer System track. Systems to Make Big Brother Obsolete," 23. This may be as simple as assigning the Communications ofthe ACM 28:10, October numbers 0 to 5 to the letters A to F. Ifthis 1985; IISmart Cash: A Practical Electronic Attention assignment is made, the probability is Payment System," in J. Bos and D. three-fourths that a digit in the resulting Chaum, CWI-Report CS-R9035, August Liberty decimal number is one of 0 to 5, while 1990; IIUntraceable Electronic Cash,'! with there is only one-fourth probability that a A. Fiat and M. Naor, in S. Goldwasser Subscribers: digit is 6 to 9. (ed.), Advances in Cryptology - Crypto '88 There is an easy way to find out when 24. Computer logs are often kept for each (Springer-Verlag 1989). part of a transaction. So the evil program­ your subscription ends: 29. "[P]rior restraint ofdouble-spending can mer doesn't have to tap lines if he can get be achievedby using a tamper-resistant (l) Ifyour subscription runs out with hold of the logs instead. the current issue or the next issue, we will computing device that is capable ofmerely 25. Public-key encryption is implemented in enclose a renewal notice with your copy. performinga signature scheme ofthe Fiat­ the Datakey smart card of the National Shamir type (of one's own choice), suchas If (2) you do not have an enclosed Institute of Standards and Technology. the Schnorr signature scheme" (Stefan renewal notice, take a look at the address This card uses the Hitachi H8/310 proces­ Brands, UHighly Efficient Electronic Cash label on your magazine. To the right of sor. Atmel and Phillips chips also include Systems," March 17, 1994). your name should be the issues left in public-key encryption hardware, and 30. I highly recommend Henry David your subscription, followed by the word allow algorithms to be implemented by Thoreau's essay IICivil Disobedience." "left," as in "3 left." the card's application designer. Smart 31. These included the interest ceilings set by Any questions about your subscription and other chip card standards are laid out the Federal Reserve's Regulation Q, should be directed to: in ISO 7816. More on smart cards can be .found in Jose Luis Zoreda and Jose Kennedy's Interest Equalization Tax, and Liberty Circulation Manuel Oton, Smart Cards (Artech House, the Foreign Credit Restraint Program. See P.o. Box 1181 1994). The recent ANSI X9F standards Grabbe, op. cit., chapter 1. Port Townsend, WA 98368 include those for using public key 32. Economic Report ofthe President, 1975. Critique Mediocrity Bites by Richard Kostelanetz

The NEA: the final insult.

An insider at the National Endowment for the Arts has finally revealed the ma­ jor deficiency of that well-intentioned institution. The secret is not the NEA's slight support of putative (which is no crime), nor its purported bias toward the esthetic avant garde (which isn't true). According to Joseph Epstein, a consummate insider - for over two decades editor of the Washington­ what hocus-pocus these people, rather "proves" mediocrity by citing famil­ based American Scholar, and for six than others, were chosen. After all, iar, overly publicized examples that years a councilor (trustee) of the NEA you don't get any sense of rampant he thinks Commentary conservatives - its principal failure is its support of anonymity from looking at the benefi­ would find offensive. But these, nec­ mediocrity, its preference for people ciaries lists from the Guggenheim or essarily, are not unknowns. Nor are who have done little and are not MacArthur Foundations. all of them mediocre. likely to do much more. "Mediocrity, The problem at the NEA/H is not To get a surer sense of this sweet the question of what might be called that the best don't apply but that they tooth for mediocrity, look at cultural quality control, was rarely discussed are so rarely rewarded. In this respect, funding in other countries. At the during my time at the NEA," Epstein the NEH is probably worse than the Canada Council there is a stronger concludes in a recent Commentary arti­ NEA, if only for the former's persis­ obligation to support the best, if only cle (Apri11995). "It could not be." tent favoring of academic apparatchiks because the Council's purpose is As I have noted in these pages over independents who necessarily insuring the survival of Canadian cul­ before ("Subsidized mediocrity," May survive more competitive circum­ ture. Everyone involved there knows 1990), the dominant characteristic of stances. Indeed, Epstein's failure to this won't happen by distributing the annual lists of winners of, say, examine the NEH, which works out of purses to anonymities. (The Canadian writing fellowships from the NEA, the same Washington building as the independent filmmaker R. Bruce Elder both now and in the past, is that NEA, makes one wonder about his recently expressed surprise that a near!y all the names are unfamiliar. motives and integrity. (What is also widely published American writer we The recipients are neither commercial lacking from his memoir is what he both knew, honored both here and writers nor small-press celebrities, did as an insider to combat the medi­ abroad, had never received support neither widely loved nor widely ocrity. I know of at least one example from the NEA. "It could not be," I had despised. You can get a similar where he behaved otherwise, and to tell my friend - this writer's publi­ impression of unfamiliarity by look- . thus suspect more.) cation record counted for nothing at ing at the lists of winning visual art­ The initial difficulty with this cri­ the NEA and indeed might be held ists or composers in NEA com­ tique is that mediocrity is a hard against him. Someone like him would petitions or winning scholars in com­ charge to prove. You need to know have been regarded differently in petitions at the companion National more about culture and excellence Canada, Elder assured me.) Endowment for the Humanities. than most newspaper reporters have, In my observation, German cultu­ This is not a new phenomenon; it not to mention their editors, to iden­ ral authorities operate under the has characterized grantwinners for tify a list of nonentities. A major prob­ assumption that they must support the decades. You may rightly wonder by lem with Epstein's essay is that he best, the very best, if they are to Liberty 45 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

respect not only themselves but taxpay­ ill-chosen members see a once-in-a­ figures, especially of an avant-garde ers' money. To do anything less would lifetime opportunity to reward friends, orientation, continue to earn more of sabotage the reputation of enlightened lovers, and debtors, in addition to their incomes abroad than here, to our patronage that marks a great country. learning from the inside about embarrassment. The worst thing to be It's easy for a skeptical outsider to mock Endowment chicanery, before beating said about the National Endowments is German smugness about cultural dis­ it safely home. (That explains why the that the KGB couldn't have done a criminations but less easy to dismiss the current list of winners, particularly at more subversive job if it tried. quality of the results. (Ask many the NEH, includes a disproportionate Whether the Endowments self­ Germans why Germany is a superior number of previous panelists.) destruct of their own incompetence or country and they will cite as a reason A principal failure of the Endow­ are terminated for weaker reasons, one such cultural support, particularly of ments has been their inability, or shouldn't fear the end of American cul­ opera and theater. No sane American unwillingness, to improve the economy ture. A truth kept secret by the NEA's could make that claim.) of American culture and thus eliminate defenders is that so much has hap­ One gets the unfortunate impres­ our traditional reputation for cultural pened - and will continue to happen sion, first, that the folks at the Endow­ philistinism. Anyone familiar with any - in America wholly without them. ments have so little respect for Amer­ art can identify major figures who never The reason is not merely that the prefer­ ican possibilities that they would prefer received much, if any, NEA/H support, ence for mediocrity, sort of known to to make other First World countries who are still economically struggling, everyone, has not bestowed persuasive look better, and second, that they whose productive future as artists/ cultural authority on NEA/H benefici­ couldn't smell the best even if it were scholars is threatened. I'm talking not of aries, but that this support has finally passed directly under their noses. One people I think important, but of individ­ been so slight. Epstein cites these statis­ truth that Epstein dares not utter, writ­ uals recognized by many, whose names tics: "Federal support for the arts costs ing in the editorially authoritarian and often appear in the histories of their the taxpayer only 64 cents a year, self-consciously neoconservative Com­ respective arts. Discriminating critics in whereas the figure in Germany is $27 mentary, is that such mismanagement the future will inevitably use these indi­ and in France and Canada it is $32." has been worse during Republican viduals as a measure for the failure of That means the NEA/H bureaucrats regimes. American governmental patronage, could not become cultural czars com­ When Epstein blames the NEA much as earlier generations of under­ parable to those in the old Stalinist mediocrity partly on a lack of leader­ supported major American figures countries even ifthey tried. ship, one implicit conclusion of his cri­ (Walt Whitman, Thorstein Veblen) have To some, this discrepancy means tique is that the most persuasive been used to indict private patronage in that America has been self-consciously reason for dismantling the Endow­ their times. bush league. To others, it means that ments has simply been administrative Anyone familiar with the culture of Americans have been justifiably dubi­ insufficiency. My opinion is that the applications can remember many ous about the benefits of government lack of leadership complements the promising projects that never hap­ cultural largess. You don't pay your nature of annual ad hoc panels whose pened for lack of support. Other major money and you get your choice. CJ

AlexanderI "Travels in Bosnia and Points West," continued from page 32

us flinched and hid, but John simply men pounce, joined by others who sively Western. The Ustashe graffiti is sat and grinned. "Nothing bad can leap across chairs. The mumbling now unbearably obscene. Croat Army happen to me in my Bosnia," he told Austrian stares. soldiers roam the streets - more of us. He loves this country to madness. The EU threatens to leave us in them than usual. We do not know The last lecture is awful. The Mostar, then sends a van at the last about Operation Blitz yet. Pictures of speaker is a slow, agonizingly cheerful possible moment. Our driver (dazzling the Pope and Tudjman are Austrian named Stoyan, who tells the in all-white EU uniform) guides us everywhere. audience at length that they should along the yard-wide labyrinthine The hotel has a new clerk, a forgive their enemies, turn the other death-trap blind-curve shell-pocked demented Croat who thinks he's a cheek to the Serbs, sit down with the roads. We cross mountains, valleys, Scotsman. "We arre going to hunt the Croats once more. The audience of sinkholes, and lakes, then descend into monsterrr," he says, then quotes Burns. veterans, widows, widowers, and Split. John buys an issue of the Feral wound-sporting survivors is polite in I take the bus to the airport and at Tribune, Croatia's only dissident paper. a tight-lipped way. As Stoyan ram­ last find my damn suitcase. For the rest The masthead describes the journal as bles, I doze in the heat, hoping some of my trip I revel in the luxury of a anarchist and Satanist. Much better. poor local would off the man. hairbrush, changing shirts three times Suddenly a quiet economics professor a day. Friday, 28 July leaps to his feet and pounces on a fat We fly out of Split, then Zagreb. grasshopper, flinging the creature Thursday, 27 July More UNPROFOR troops, tanks, and across the audience, where it lands at It's hard to enjoy Split. The natives aircraft. The airport is still not called the feet of another scholar. The two are arrogant, very well-dressed, obses- aerodrom. CJ 46 Liberty Legal Report High Noon for the Feds? by David J. Owsiany

Has the federal government's authority reached its peak?

Since the adoption of the Constitution, the federal government has grown from an institution with limited, enumerated powers to one of practically limitless scope and authority. In late April, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion, in the case of U.S. v. Lopez, that may signal, finally, a limit on this ever-expanding set of powers. The founding fathers' view of the On March 3, 1817, President power remained limited until the late federal government seems radical to Madison vetoed a bill that pledged 1930s. In the early years of the New the political elite of today. In Federalist funds for "constructing roads and Deal, the Supreme Court found sev­ #45, James Madison wrote: canals, and improving the navigation eral new, far-reaching federal laws ­ The powers delegated by the pro­ of water courses, in order to facilitate, such as the Bituminous Coal posed Constitution to the federal promote, and give security to internal Conservation Act of 1935, which set government are few and defined. commerce among the several States, maximum hours and minimum Those which are to remain in the and to render more easy and less wages for workers in coal mines - to state governments are numerous expensive the means and provisions be unconstitutional on the grounds and indefinite. The former will be for the common defense." In his veto that they were invalid uses of the exercised principally on external message Madison wrote that the commerce power. Franklin Delano objects, as war, peace, negotiation, power to regulate commerce among Roosevelt eventually had the opportu­ and foreign commerce; with which the several states "can not include a nity to change the character of the last the power of taxation will, for power to construct roads and canals, court by nominating justices who took the most part, be connected. The and to improve the navigation of a broad, expansive view of the author­ powers reserved to the several water courses." ity of the federal government. By States will extend to all the objects Madison conceded that he was 1937, the Court found the National which, in the ordinary course of "not unaware of the great importance Labor .Relations Act, which signifi­ affairs, concern the lives, liberties, of roads and canals and the improved cantly redrew the relationship and properties of the people, and navigation of water courses, and that between employers and unions, to be the internal order, improvement, a power in the National Legislature to a valid use of the commerce power and prosperity of the State. provide for them might be exercised because labor disruptions could affect Article I, Section 8 of the with signal advantage to the general commerce. Constitution enumerates the powers prosperity." However, he concluded, In the 1943 case Wickard v. Filburn, of Congress, including the power to such a -power was "not expressly the Supreme Court upheld the "regulate Commerce" among the sev­ given by the Constitution" and could Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, eral states. It is this commerce power "not be deduced from any part of the which permitted the secretary of agri­ that has been the principal vehicle for Constitution without an inadmissible culture to set quotas for the raising of the federal government's expansion of latitude of construction." wheat on every farm in the country. authority. For the most part, the commerce The court held that a farmer who Liberty 47 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

raised wheat for consumption on his commerce power. In Lopez, the court Commerce Clause. own farm could be penalized by the struck down the portion of the Gun­ Following Lopez, the Clinton secretary of agriculture if the farmer's Free Zones Act of 1990 that made it a administration reacted as one might wheat production exceeded his quota. federal offense "for any individual expect the federal government to do Even though the wheat was consumed knowingly to possess a firearm at a when it is told it cannot do something: domestically on the farm, the court place that the individual knows, or has it vowed to do something. Clinton concluded that the farmer's activities reasonable cause to believe, is a school asked Attorney General Janet Reno to could be regulated by the feds. The zone." Writing for the majority, Chief find a way around the ruling. Justice William Rehnquist commented Apparently, Clinton believes only the that while Congress has broad author­ federal government can protect chil­ Apparently, Clinton believes ity under the Commerce Clause to reg­ dren. It does not matter to him that ulate "numerous commercial activities more than 40 states already have laws only the federal government that substantially affect interstate com­ criminalizing gun possession near can protect children. merce," it cannot regulate each and schools similar to the federal law every aspect of local schools. struck down in Lopez. Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent The founding fathers' approach to the commerce power is supported by Court had opened the floodgates. As joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, at least one member of the court, Robert Bork has observed, the Wickard David Souter, and Ruth Bader Justice Clarence Thomas, who in a con­ case "meant that the most trivial and Ginsburg, indicated he would have curring opinion in Lopez, called for local activities could be regulated by upheld the Act. According to Breyer, the federal government." Congress could have found that guns This broad reading of Congress' in schools "significantly undermine commerce power has been extended to the quality of education in our The founding fathers' view criminal statutes in order to uphold Nation's classrooms." Breyer con­ of the federal government federal laws that criminalize local cluded that poor education caused by activity. In the 1971 Perez v. U.S. case, guns in our schools affects commerce seems radical to the political the court upheld Title II of the because (1) inadequately educated elite oftoday. Consumer Credit Protection Act, graduates "must endure low paying which made "loansharking" a federal jobs" and (2) communities and busi­ crime. Justice Potter Stewart, the lone nesses must endure an inadequately Commerce Clause jurisprudence that dissenter in Perez, pointed out that trained workforce. "is more faithful to the original under­ loansharking has no clear connection As Rehnquist pointed out, under standing" of the Commerce Clause. to interstate commerce and that local Breyer's theory of the commerce But the question remains whether the crime is the responsibility of the states. power, Congress could mandate a fed­ Lopez case marks a return to the found­ No other member of the court in 1971 eral curriculum for all elementary and ers' intent or merely an outer limit on recognized any limitation on the fed­ secondary schools, since the curricu­ the reach of federal power. Either eral government to criminalize local lum relates to the adequacy of educa­ would be welcome, but the former activity. tion, and that certainly has enough might indicate a shift in power away But now - finally - in the Lopez effect on commerce to confer congres­ from the federal government to the case, the court has found a limit on the sional authority to act under the states. Cl

"Reflections," continued from page 14

Potatoes are uncontrollable! You can first experience with the science of decrees can arrest its progress. If you do anything with a potato. You can growth. Potatoes have eyes, about can't grow enough other food to keep bake it, boil it, fry it, mash it, stuff it. which much can be learned. And that's you alive, potatoes will do the job. You can cover it with butter, marga­ not all. Any science fair will demon­ Potato culture was one of the first rine, sour cream, chives, or gravy. You strate that a potato battery can actually large-scale efforts of scientific agricul­ can have , German fries, be used to run a clock. And for ture, and it was its greatest success. American fries, . You can younger children, there's Mr. Potato Since the eighteenth century, potatoes make hash-brown potatoes! You can Head! He may not literally be a potato; have supported the immense go to a yuppie restaurant and order he's some kind of plastic,of course; but population of the northern hemi­ 'new potatoes' or just stay in your liv­ his form is an hom~ge to potatoes. sphere. ing room with a big old bag of potato "The potato started off in the jun­ "The potato: how easy to buy! how chips. You can start a meal with potato gles of Brazil, it ruled as queen in the delightful to eat! how simple to spell! soup, move on to , and cli­ Andes, and it ended up on fancy tables Can anyone who trifles with the potato max with potato pancakes. by the rue Saint-Honore. The potato is have good intentions?" "Potatoes, inserted in a glass and welcome everywhere. No tariffs, quo­ Think about this, Mr. Gingrich. propped up on toothpicks, are a child's tas, or agricultural-management -SC 48 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

~horisms

T he Political Dialectic of Twentieth-Century America: The Conservative believes the government should run education, T he value of safeguarding a man's right to life against place a check on vice, fine-tune the economy, promote unjust force divided by the value of his life itself equals, on democracy abroad, and be led by a man in pin stripes. His average, three hundred thousand. opponent the Liberal believes the government should run education, place a check on vice, fine-tune the economy, pro­ T 0 work its wonders the principle of individual liberty mote democracy abroad, and be led by a man in plaid. need not be mythologized, but only upheld. But to be upheld it must be mythologized. W hen the anti-capitalist holds profit-hungry business in contempt, he conveniently neglects the fact that business is The battle is not one between power and justice, nor the paid servant of customers and the served payer of between unjust power and just power. The battle is between employees. unjust power and less just power.

T he democratic faith comes in two varieties, the naIve and Clever leftists miss the point when they contend that indi­ the sophisticated. The naIve democrat believes that if every­ vidual liberty is "mere" mythology. The point is that it is one would just be nice and participate, as in a town meeting, mythology worth consecrating. we can make it all work out. The sophisticated democrat rec­ ognizes the tender-minded folly of this view and is ready to T he government's war on smoking is getting so outra­ face the tough truth: we must enlist qualified experts to geous, it is turning smokers into libertarians and libertarians make it all work out. into smokers.

T he dirigiste intellectual takes experience with scribblings Good taste favors laissezjaire even for personal activities about a subject for experience with the subject itself. that show bad taste.

Is it the will to control that gives birth to the pretense of Laws that prevent the choosing of sin also prevent the knowing, or is it the will to know that gives birth to the choosing of virtue. impulse to control? If we hold groups rather than individuals accountable, we Wisdom in economics: refined knowledge of the unknow­ all end up criminals. ableness of the economy. May the socialist enter private industry, and the libertar­ T he dispute between two economists over whether or not ian, government. Liberty 49 Examination Undercover Economist by Matt Asher

The Chicago school of economics they don't teach you about.

It's 2 a.m., and we're sneaking through the dark hallways of Robert Taylor Homes, one of the nation's poorest housing projects. Cold air rushes through the chain link fence that serves as an outer wall. Barely muffled sounds echo from behind the painted cinder blocks. Karen tugs at my arm, and we duck into a smoke- filled room. She lives here, on Chicago's South Side. I live on the But even the greenest dealer I spoke do, Karen started young. She sold her North Side. Karen is black. I am with had some idea as to how much first nickel bag when she was 15. Now white. She is here to sell bags of pot. I profit justifies how much risk. 2 19, she has carved a small business am here to solve a mystery. Demand for pot is generally not out of Chicago's South Side. Taking the expressways, it's a ten­ very price-sensitive. For a typical cus­ "Business is good," she tells me. "Just minute drive from Robert Taylor tomer paying a typical price, the cost last week I added another worker. Homes to Lincoln Park. If you had a of getting high is about $2, less than That makes three." nickel bag! of marijuana on the seat the cost of a fast-food meal. Someone Karen earns approximately next to you, its selling value would who's developed a tolerance for the $50,000 a year, tax-free. For that double during the short trip, from $5 weed would need about $6 worth ­ money she works hard, often 40 or 50 to $10. This could never happen on but that's still cheaper than a movie. hours a week. Each week she pur­ the open market. What economists As a result, the limits of what a dealer chases one pound of marijuana, call arbitrage would quickly set in, as can charge are set by his competition, which costs her about $1,000. She (or people bought massive quantities on not his customers. And because the her employees) breaks it into 500 the South Side to sell on the North. wholesale price of marijuana tends to "nickel-bags,"3 ,vhich sell for $5 each. But this is the black market, with be about the same throughout This makes Karen's gross weekly rev­ peculiar rules stemming from its own Chicago, retail price differences tend enue $2,500. Subtracting the $1,000 peculiar nature. to be a function of transaction costs. she pays for product and another $500 For starters, there is no official One might expect such costs to be rel­ for workers and miscellaneous expen­ contract enforcement on the black atively uniform throughout the city. ses, and she is left with $1,000 profit market. With the government out of Yet the price of marijuana is approxi­ per week. the picture, disputes are often mately 60% higher, gram for gram, on Each of Karen's three salespeople resolved by private force. So dealers the North Side. deliver about 170 bags, for which they and buyers take precautions to mini­ To investigate why this substantial receive $150 per week. A good worker mize disputes. Buyers go to dealers price difference exists, I spoke to a can make 15 deliveries per hour, with a good reputation, and dealers number of dealers from different which puts his salary at $12 to $14 an try to feel out new customers to make parts of the city. Two were typical: hour. This is significantly more than sure they aren't dangerous, or cops. It "Karen" from the South Side and could be made flipping burgers, but is the risks of dealing that push black­ "John" from the North Side. these street-level dealers are the ones market prices higher than their open­ most often exposed to cops and ran­ market counterparts. Dealers factor in Karen dom violence. the risks of their business tacitly, It is rare, but not unheard-of, for Karen has little first-hand contact without formal T-balance accounting. women to deal pot. Like most who with her customers. Each link in the 50 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

selling chain knows only the person diploma, unlike most of her peers. But a of perceived risk. He figures his directly above or below him. This way, diploma from a Chicago public school, chances of spending a year in jail at if one link gets busted the others are especially one on the South Side, is only one in a thousand for every year he insulated. But despite subordinating worth so much. Ifshe put all the energy deals. At first John insists that "no the riskier aspects of the operation to she now gives dealing to "goin' legit," amount of money" could compensate her employees, Karen has had her Karen figures she could make $20,000 a him for spending a year in jail - "I've scrapes with the law. On several occa­ year - and that's only if she's "lucky" heard stories, man. ...I don't know if sions, police officers have taken money enough to land a factory job. So, includ­ they're true, but I don't want to find from her during random searches. ing these opportunity costs, the total out." So I bargain with him. "They ain't never found product," she price of dealing is $44,000 per annum.5 "Would you spend a year in jail for says. "I'm smarter than that. But once Since she makes $50,000 a year dealing, a million dollars?" I ask. He shakes his they took near two grand from me. Karen realizes a $6,000 surplus for sell­ head. But when I get to $2 million, That was stupid. Should never have ing pot. Economically speaking, selling John says that might make a year in jail been carrying around that much." on the black market is her most rational worth his while. This puts his legal risk Karen figures her odds of spending choice. at $2,000 a year. a year in jail are one in ten for every Karen opposes legalization. "Hell, John sees the risk of drug-related year she deals. How bad would spend­ no!" she explains. "That would put me violence as small. He estimates it at ing a year in jail be? Having .spent a out of business!" few days in jail before charges were dropped, Karen figures $200,000 John Clearly, if John has the would be enough compensation. John deals pot on Chicago's North Multiplying her perceived odds of Side, primarily in the yuppie­ stomach for it, dealing IS his spending a year in jail with her dominated neighborhood of Lincoln best economic choice. required compensation gives her a Park and the artsier Wicker Park. A legal risk of $20,000. 4 college friend turned him on to mari­ Karen also faces the threat of deal­ juana, then turned him on to dealing. one in a thousand per year as well. ing-related violence. She downplays For John, this is strictly a part-time job: However, since John has less tolerance this: "No, man, selling pot ain't like a way to pay the bills, pay some of his for pain (or death) than Karen, an aver­ that. Nothing's ever happened to me. college tuition, and fill his CD racks. age attack might hurt him $500,000 "If things get dangerous, I'll just worth. So it takes $500 a year to com­ quit," he says. "But unless they do, it's pensate John for the physical risk he Karen opposes legalization. like, why not? Easy money." takes. "Hell, no!" she explains. "That Every two weeks, John buys a quar­ Finally, consider the opportunity ter pound of marijuana. This costs him costs of dealing. With his current level would put me out ofbusiness I" $300, or $200 more per pound than of education, John thinks he could get Karen pays. Most dealers offer strong a part-time job making $8 an hour. If financial incentives to buy in mass he spent 16 hours a week at a job My brother, he was into some serious quantities, because, as one dealer put instead of dealing, he would make shit. They gave him pumpkin head." it, "The fewer deals you need to $128 a week, or about $100 take-home. Pumpkin head? "That's where they unload your stash, the fewer chances At the same 40-week-per-year rate, punch you and kick you in the head for things to get fucked up." dealing has an opportunity cost of until it swells all up. Like you got this From the quarter pound that John $4,000 in lost wages per year. Of big melon on your shoulders." Karen gets, he makes 100 nickel bags. 6 This is course, if John gets caught, that might laughs and shakes her head. "Man, fewer bags per pound than Karen. But reduce his future earnings. But even if they fucked him up. But I stay away then, John sells his bags for twice as his future wages dropped $1 million from that shit." much - $10 apiece. John has no work­ upon conviction, that only adds Accordingly, Karen sees her odds ers to deliver the goods; he does all the another $1,000 to the opportunity costs of falling prey to dealer-related vio­ selling himself. of dealing.8 So the total cost to John of lence as "only" one in 250 per year of John's customers are drawn from dealing is $7,500 - or $6,500 less then selling. It is hard to get her to estimate his 'circle of friends. Most of the trans­ the amount he makes dealing.9 Clearly, what might be fair compensation for actions take place over the weekends, if he has the stomach for it, dealing is such an attack, considering the result many of them at parties. Word gets his best economic choice. could be anything from a black eye to a around that John is the man to go to, so bullet in the head. Karen says $100,000 he has little trouble unloading 50 bags Accounting for Differences might be enough for an "average" a week.-This gives him a total revenue We have seen how it is advanta­ attack. Given this figure, her required of $500 a week, or $350 in net profits. 7 geous for John to sell nickel bags at $10 compensation for physical risk is Since John deals 40 weeks a year, his a pop, and also worthwhile for Karen $4,000 a year. business brings in $14,000 a year. Tax­ to sell them at $5 each. But this still Finally, consider Karen's opportu­ free. doesn't fully account for why the nity costs. She has a high school Now consider John's costs in terms prices are different. After all, if Liberty 51 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Chicago were all one market, everyone Northsiders are inclined to stick to deal­ This still doesn't explain why would get the same price for an equal­ ers they know, even if the price is a little Northsiders don't carpetbag their way sized quantity of marijuana. steep, because they fear the police more south for cheap bags of pot, or why But Chicago isn't one great big mar­ than they fear running out of cash. Southside dealers don't head north for ket. It is one of the most segregated cit­ There is also a difference in the higher profit margins. The reason for ies in America, both racially and social status of dealing. On the North the former is that most whites have no economically. Even though Karen and Side, few are impressed by one's will­ desire to visit the projects. This may be John live only miles apart, they live in ingness to skirt the law. On the South just as well, as their chances of being very different worlds. In some North Side, many are. Because merely surviv­ mistaken for police or getting shot are Chicago areas, the average annual ing in the projects is hard, those will­ high. income approaches $90,000. In the ing to "do whatever it takes" to get by Southsiders remain so because that Southside area where Karen operates are viewed more positively. It is hard is their world. Selling pot on the North her business, it is less than $2,000. 10 for those who see police as oppressors Side is done through friends and con­ Continuous poverty tends to cheapen to be upset with nonviolent criminals. nections; you have to know people to the value put on life. For many who Other factors help keep prices on do it. It would be hard for a black spend their lives "trapped" in the the South Side low. Over 100,000 Southsider to set up shop in the North. ghetto, opportunities to earn $50,000 Even if he could make the necessary per year are few. Dealing drugs offers, connections, he would be regarded by to those willing to take the risks, imme­ In sorrle North Chicago police as an automatic suspect. diate and tangible benefits. Still, where there are profits to be Economists would call dealers like areas, the average annual made, there are bound to be profiteers. Karen "risk-loving," because it income approaches $90,000. In I met one such man: "Eric." He lives on requires little (monetarily) to get her to the Southside area where the North Side, but has Southside risk her life. Likewise, John would be friends who are black. Some of these considered "risk-averse," since he Karen operates her business, it friends deal. Eric purchases bags from would quit dealing if it weren't twice is less than $2,000. them, already packaged and ready to as profitable as his next best alterna­ sell, then makes the ten-minute drive tive. It is these disparate risk profiles back up to Lincoln Park. He even has a - and, hence, varying transaction people live in Robert Taylor Homes, a section of his car removed for hiding costs - that contribute most to the dif­ series of concentrated high-rises. It is a the goods. The result: quick profits, lit­ ference in prices. highly compressed market, so econo­ tle work, and very little risk. Additionally, competition on the mies of scale can take effect. And There aren't enough Erics out there South Side is fierce. Customers are Southside dealers form stronger attach­ to induce arbitrage and cut the price dif­ more likely to shop around because ments to their jobs. They are less ferential between the two markets. So they aren't buying from friends, and inclined to quit, even if profits fall or for now, those willing to be color-blind because the marginal cost of money is risks increase. For John, dealing is a will find there are definite economic high to them. An extra dollar means a way to make extra cash; for Karen it is advantages to dealing on the black mar­ lot to someone making $40 a week. a way of life. ket, as well as the white. 0

Notes:

1. A "nickel" bag of pot is supposedly equal 3. This is equivalent to one-thirtieth of an 1.14 grams of pot, or 13% less than a true to one-twentieth of an ounce, or 1.4 ounce, or one-third less than a "real" "nickel." grams. Similarly, a "dime" bag is one­ nickel bag would weigh. Karen tells me 7. Fifty bags at $10 is $500 profit per week, tenth of an ounce, or 2.8 grams; and a she can get away with this because her minus the $300 he spends on supply per "quarter" is one-fourth of an ounce, or brand is very fluffy, and so the bags look two weeks, and you have $700 profit per packed even when significantly seven grams. However, all these weights two weeks, or $350 a week. are theoretical. Most dealers understuff understuffed. 8. This figure is from the previously men­ their bags, especially after they have 4. To figure out risk compensation in mone­ tioned one in1,000 chance ofconviction established a firm marketplace. tary terms, multiply the odds of a bad multiplied with the $1 million in opportu­ 2. It is important to note that dealer com­ event happening with the cost, to that nity costs such a conviction would impose. pensations are based on perceived, not person, of such a bad thing happening. In actual, risks. Ifdealers underestimate the this case, the legal risk equals one-tenth 9. This figure is obtained by adding $2,000 risks associated with selling, prices will (the odds of imprisonment) times in legal risk plus $500 in physical risk be "artificially" low. If they overestimate $200,000 (the amount of money needed to plus a total of $5,000 in opportunity costs. the risks involved, costs will be "artifi­ make Karen indifferent to spending a 10. These data can be found in a study of the cially" high. This is similar to a construc­ year in jail), or $20,000. 1990 census data done by Pierre DiVise, tion worker who under- or overestimates 5.. This figure is obtained by adding $20,000 Director of Demographics at the Institute the physical risks of his trade. Either way, legal risk plus $4000 physical risk plus for Metropolitan Affairs, a research insti­ the compensation they require will $20,000 in opportunity costs. tute associated with Chicago's Roosevelt depend on perceived risks. 6. This means John's nickel bags contain University. 52 Liberty Quibble When Will It All End? by David Ramsay Steele

This is not the end, my naive friend.

You might suppose - but you would be wrong - that the following is the least controversial statement in The Bell Curve: "The factory worker seldom lives next door to the executive, and this was as true in 1900 as in the last years of the century." The authors evidently believe that there is a "century" which began in 1900 and is currently in its final few with his admonition to "party like tracked into questions of the origin of years. Now, since any consecutive 100 it's 1999." the calendar: how, when, and by years may legitimately be called a The present decade, the twentieth whom the years were fixed, whether "century," there can be no objection to century, and the second millennium Christ was really born in year 1, and a century beginning with 1900 and do indeed end at the same moment ­ so forth. All this history is completely finishing with 1999. But, contrary to but that moment is midnight on immaterial. It would make no differ­ what most people think, that century December 31, 2000, a year later than ence if the calendar had been com­ is not the twentieth of our era. most people imagine. The first day of posed yesterday or if Jesus Christ had In truth, the twentieth century the new century and of the new mil­ never existed as a historical personage began with the year 1901 and will lennium is January 1, 2001. If you (as has been argued ably and at length expire at the end of the year 2000. don't quite see this immediately, by G.A. Wells). What matters is how 1900 was precisely the last year of the please pay attention. the years are calculated now, and by nineteenth century. Yet a few months There is no Year Zero in our calen­ that reckoning the twentieth century ago, in 1994, I heard a speaker dar - the ancient Romans and finishes at the end of 2000 A.D. address a large gathering with the Greeks, unlike the Aztecs and the There is, however, one interesting words: "There are now less than six Hindus, never discovered Zero, offshoot of that question. IfJesus actu­ years to the end of the century." though there is no reason to suppose ally was born on December 25, then There was no murmur of dissent that they would have named a year one might expect the calendar year to from the audience, except me, so it is Zero even if they had hit upon the begin and end on that date. Since this safe to infer that the listeners concept, for Zero is not a counting isn't so, the nearest approximation accepted the speaker's supposition number; counting starts with One. would be to count the January­ that 1999 would be the final year of The year 1 B.C. was immediately December year after the birth, the year the present century. succeeded by the year A.D. 1. If the 2 A.D., as the "truest" year 1. In that An informal poll of my acquain­ first year of our epoch (the supposed case, the twentieth century and sec­ tances corroborates my impression year of the birth of Christ) was year 1, ond millennium of our epoch would that most people think the decade, then the first decade ends at the end end on December 31, 2001, and the the century, and the millennium end of year 10, the first century at the end first day of the new century and mil­ at midnight on December 31, 1999. I of year 100, the first millennium at the lennium would be January I, 2002. have even heard that some folk have end of year 1000 ... , and so on. Counting Christ's fetal life would already begun preparations for rio­ Two factors often muddle people's make the approximation to 1 A.D tous carousing culminating at that thinking on this topic. The first is that more accurate, however, so some pro­ time, as recommended by Prince they easily tend to become side- lifers might care to use the calendar as Liberty 53 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

evidence for their position - though sand miles have been completed ­ sects, eventuating in dotty, and occa­ very few Christians would now care to that's true. But during the first mile the sionally atrocious, public gestures. It defend December 25 as the historical reading was zero-point-something. If will be sadly fascinating to see how date of Jesus's birth (according to the fractions of a mile were omitted, and many of these enthusiasts get the date story, the shepherds were out on the the first mile was designated "Mile wrong, along with everything else. hillside at night, which seems unlikely One," or 00001, then two thousand There is one apparent loose end. in mid-winter). miles would be completed at the point Decades are never referred to in a way The other confusing factor is to when "02000" flipped to "02001." This analogous to the correct usage for cen­ think of years by analogy with a per­ is the way that calendar years are turies and millennia. I have never son's age. Somebody who has just reckoned. found anyone willing to include 1930 passed his fortieth birthday is said to What can we expect as we in the Roaring Twenties, for instance, be "40 years old." The fact that the cur­ approach the end of the year 1999, or to exclude 1920, and it doesn't seem rent year has the name "1995" may be which so many people wrongheadedly right to recommend such a locution. thought to mean that the era is 1,995 believe to be the conclusion of the dec­ Although this may look incongru­ years old, in which case it would be in ade, the century, and the millennium? ous, it is easy to reconcile with correct its 1,996th year. Then the twentieth cen­ There will no doubt be an ideological usage. Remember that "a decade" or tury would indeed conclude at the end battle between a discerning elite, who "a century" or "a millennium" can of 1999. understand that the end arrives at the begin at any time, depending on the The key point here is that it is completion of 2000, or will soon purpose of the reference. Thus, the dec­ merely a fortuitous aspect of our lan­ acquire such an understanding ade from January 1920 to December guage that a person who has just had through little communications like this 1929 is just that - a decade. There is his fortieth birthday is said to be "40." one, and a benighted mass, who cling nothing wrong with labelling such a He has completed 40 years, and he is in to the theory that century's end occurs decade by reference to the fact that his forty-first. The language could just at the close of 1999. each of the years has the phonic com­ as easily have evolved to refer to his The unreflective take this position ponent "twenty" in its name. It's no age as "41," because he is in year 41 of because they are easily impressed by more a mistake than employing the his life. Some languages, I am assured superficial appearances. They have expression "the teens" to refer to those by a linguist of my acquaintance aim spent their lives denominating the years in an individual's life which have McCawley), actually do this. Dr. years with a "19"; suddenly, there's a the component "teen" in their names, a Samuel Johnson somewhere refers to switch to "20." Pow! This must be the fortuitous usage which could have no the newfangled locution of "40 years beginning of something truly counterpart in most languages. old," as replacing the formerly preva­ momentous! But when we talk about the twenti­ lent "in his forty-first year." As 1999 approaches, I expect that eth century, we go along with the view The question, then, is: Does the organs of extraordinary percipience that the century in question is twenti­ year 1995 A.D. mean that the era is like Liberty will try to explain the true eth in a series of centuries, and what could this mean other than that it is the 1,995 years old, or does it mean that state of affairs, while The National the era is in its 1,995th year? The cor­ Enquirer will take no notice, and twentieth century of the conventional calendar? And surely the same impli­ rect answer is the latter. The designa­ blithely "celebrate" the beginning of cation is conveyed by referring, as tion "1995" does not mean that 1,995 something or other at the end of 1999. Herrnstein and Murray do in The Bell years have been completed and we are In between, there is a range of levels of Curve, simply to "the century." now on the 1,996th. It means that 1,994 sophistication, encompassing the New It's perfectly okay, on the other have been completed and we are now York Times and Harper's, and it's diffi­ hand, to refer to the decade 1920-29 as on the 1,995th. This is even suggested cult to say how the battle will play "The Twenties." But we should bear in in the traditional Latin form: Anno itself out. mind that The Twenties are not the Domini, the year of the Lord, not the Humankind being the way it is, the .third decade of the twentieth century rounded-down age of the Lord. end of the millennium will doubtless - that decade began at the end of 1920, Consider a car odometer reading. be heralded by chiliastic excitement when the decade known as The When "02000" appears, then two thou- among various religious and political Twenties was exactly one year old. In just the same way, Y9u may want s:;+. to celebrate the end of the "nineteen " hundreds" as we move from 1999 into 2000. But the tenth decade of the twen­ tieth century, the twentieth century itself, and the second millennium will all pass into history at midnight on December 31, 2000. Against that moment, save the costliest wine, the wettest kisses, and the brightest fireworks. 0 54 Liberty Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall ofOld Mexico by and to offer his blood to them. He Hugh Thomas. Simon and Schuster, 1993, 834 pp., $30.00. ' saw innumerable suitors, and nomi­ nated judges, taking care that "they were not drunkards, nor likely to be bribed, nor to be influenced by per­ sonal considerations, nor impas­ sioned in their judgements." ... Jesters continued to tell Montezuma I Left Heart jokes, "laugh-giving and marvellous My jugglers" made logs dance on the soles of their feet, maimed dwarfs leapt and danced, while singers per­ formed to the accompaniment of in Tenochtitlan flutes, drums, rattles and bells. Sometimes Montezuma would visit his zoo, and see the jaguars, the oce­ lots, and the deformed humans. (pp. The interest of the Aztecs can never 310-11) Stephen Cox fade; the story of their conquest by the Thomas loves the Aztec poetry, incredible strangers who came from which is one of the world's artistic On November 8, 1519, Hernan beyond the sea can never lose its treasures. "Ponder this, eagle and jag­ Cortes and his Spanish expeditionary romantic power. The highest recom­ uar knights," wrote King Nezahual­ force arrived at the Aztec capital of mendation of Hugh Thomas, author of coyot!: Tenochtitlan. They were greeted by the the latest recounting of this story, is Though you are carved in jade, you Aztec nobility at a place on the out­ that he understands this power and will break; skirts of the city called Malcuitlapilco, communicates it vividly, never letting Though you are made of gold, you will which means "the end of the file of the main features of the story be crack; prisoners." In 1487, when the Aztecs obscured by his exhaustive research, Even though you are a quetzal feather, you will wither. inaugurated the Great Temple in his judicious weighing and balancing of rival interpretations, or his knowledge We are not forever on this earth, Tenochtitlan, a line of prisoners waiting Only for a time are we here. (30) to be sacrificed on the city's pyramids of how the story might be viewed from the standpoint of modern moralists. The Spanish, greedy and cruel, dirty had reached this point. It was two It's not that Thomas relaxes into and stinking in every respect, are not miles to the Great Temple, and there amorality. He leaves no doubt that both nearly so picturesque as the Aztecs. But were four such lines of victims. the Aztecs and their Spanish conquer­ Thomas lets them live, too. He sees the You can see them there, young men ors were morally vile beyond the vilest ~panish both from the Aztecs' perspec­ standing in the sunlight in the great imagination. He spends no time trying tIve and from their own, conditioned as city built on an island in the great lake to make a relativistic "case" for any of ~t was by strange legends and legal­ of Mexico, a name that means "in the them. But he succeeds, somehow, in Isms, complex family and community navel of the moon." The sky was blue preserving whatever was beautiful, relationships, odd results of Spain's above them, and the two lofty volca­ courageous, or simply curious about recent assimilation to something called noes, Iztaccihautl and Popocatepetl, them. Even after the Emperor the Holy Roman Empire, memories of rose in the distance. Throughout the Montezuma had been taken into cus­ Spain's recent struggles against Islam. day, the young men waited in line for tody by the Spanish, Thomas explains, Thomas also illustrates some effects of the blood-caked priests of Huitzilo­ the captive the weird and imperfect merging of the pochtli, god of the sun and the chase, to Aztec world with the Spanish. rip their hearts out and roll their bodies continued to seem to rule. He had his baths, his elaborate meals, the con­ Tecuichpo, a daughter of the sixth down the sides of the pyramid so that stanf presence of his superior chiefs, Aztec emperor, married in succession they could be dismembered and eaten. his discreet meetings with his special the seventh and eighth emperors and At the foot of the Great Temple, a women. He as usual rose at midnight three Spaniards. Of her a sarcastic poet carved stone was set in the pavement; to observe from the roof of the palace sang, this stone was called "Huitzilopochtli's the North Star and the Great Bear Who are you, sitting beside the dining table." the Pleiades and other constellations: captain-general? Liberty 55 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Ah, it is Dona Isabel, my little niece! tion of all their records, so that hence­ any particularly new or startling theory Ah, it is true, the kings are captives. (542) forth he could make things up to suit is regrettable, it will provoke few read­ It is interesting to reflect on the fact that himself. ers to paroxysms of grief. Most people noble descendants of Montezuma After the Aztecs had subjugated or are sick and tired of "theory" in the ended up in Spain, where "the family terrorized almost all their neighbors, humanities; they are willing to take the of the counts of Moctezuma survived opportunities of acquiring prisoners of facts and let the theory go. Thomas has many generations" (594). In Mexico, war to be used for sacrifice greatly a wealth of facts and a becomingly pork became a favorite dish of the for­ diminished. With his characteristic modest theory. He attributes the mer Aztec nobility, "since it had a directness, Tlacaelel therefore arranged Spanish success to a number of predict­ slight taste of human flesh" (578). Thus the so-called Wars of Flowers~ mock able causes. Thomas twitches the curtain and allows battles in which the Aztec army Compared to the Spanish, the a glimpse of the conquest's strange "fought" neighboring states for the sole Aztecs were pitifully limited in technol­ afterlife in the two countries that before purpose of taking captives to be sacri­ ogy: no wheeled vehicles, no draught 1519 had never dreamed of each other's ficed. This strategy had the effect of animals to pull those vehicles even if existence. Speculative fiction could they had existed, no steel, no guns, no hardly improve on history. candles, no pulleys, no nails, no ships of Even more interesting are the The Spanish, greedy and war. (Few people realize that one of the glimpses that Thomas provides of the greatest feats of the Spanish invaders history that preceded the conquest. cruel, dirty and stinking in was the building of ships with which to One wishes, indeed, that he had pro­ every respect, are not nearly so attack the Aztec capital on its lake.) vided more than glimpses of the forma­ picturesque as the Aztecs. Huitzilopochtli was not the God of the tive period of the mighty yet strangely Machine. Another thing the Aztecs brittle Aztec empire, which was not lacked was smallpox and other nearly so old and venerable as one usu­ rationalizing what Tlacaelel pictured as European diseases; Thomas claims that ally imagines an "empire" to be. Only a market for sacrifice, a market in they had never encountered a viral dis­ ease (444). Biology exacted a terrible as recently as 1428 had the Aztecs which prices had ordinarily been high: become independent of the Tepanecs, toll on native people. one of those nearly indistinguishable Just as men go to the market to find The Aztecs were even more their warm tortillas ... our god neighboring peoples who never severely damaged by their social and come[s] to market with his army, to achieved a rendezvous with destiny. buy sacrifices and human beings, intellectual system. They had difficulty Having won independence, the Aztecs which he can eat; our people and our escaping their belief that battles should conceived the idea, as Thomas puts it, armies must reach this market in be fought, not to kill people right away, that they were I"Ua chosen people,' with order to buy with their blood, their but to take captives who could later be a mission, whose purpose was to give hearts, their heads and lives the jew­ sacrificed. The Spanish went to work to all humanity the benefits of their ellery, the precious stones, and the more efficiently; they meant to elimi­ own victory" (10). In other respects beautiful feathers required for the nate their enemies, and they did. They besides their cruelty, the Aztecs were service of Humming-bird on the Left also found willing allies. The Aztecs' not so different from the Spanish. the wonderful. high-handed imperialism raised in­ Chief among the benefits that the The Wars of Flowers made it possi­ tense resentments among their neigh­ Aztecs wished to confer on humanity ble for Hummingbird on the Left to get bors, some of whom were very happy was the imperial religion, centering on "warm food which has only just left the to help Cortes with the dirty work. Huitzilopochtli, "Hummingbird on the oven" and to get it "whenever [he] Cortes enjoyed certain fr~edoms Left" (or south, where the sun is). might desire to eat and to enjoy that the Aztecs lacked. He had a way of Human sacrifices were traditional in himself." wiggling out of the restrictions that his Mexico, but mass human sacrifice Thomas' main object, of course, is to home government liked to impose. He seems to have been an Aztec innova­ describe what happened when the and his followers were the kind of peo­ tion. In fact, it may have been the Spanish finally showed up; he hasn't pIe who exercised a good deal of per­ invention of one man, the evil genius of space, even in this long book, to pro­ sonal initiative, or they would never Aztec history, Tlacaelel, a general and vide a full account of the Aztecs' have found themselves in Mexico in the member of the royal house. For five instructive past. (In fact, the remarks of first place. Once there, they needed ini­ decades (c. 143Q-c. 1480) Tlacaelel was Tlacaelel that I just quoted can be tiative and innovation in order to sur­ the chief political force in Mexico. found in the work of another author, vive. But the Aztecs' addiction to When a movement arose to elect him Friedrich Katz, The Ancient American traditional customs and formal and emperor, he responded contemptu­ Civilizations, trans. K.M. Lois Simpson centralized authority rendered them ously, "I am the ruler and you have [New York: Praeger, 1972]: 175, 164, the victims of any unprecedented regarded me as such. How can I be still 169.) If space permitted, Thomas might event. They were used to fighting wars more of a ruler?" One of Tlacaelel's also have provided more theoretical of only a few days, and to fighting only methods of consolidating his rule was reflections about what happens when in the daytime. They were slow to orga­ to take the Aztecs' pliable history into political systems collide, as they did in nize a popular resistance movement his own hands. He ordered the destruc- Mexico in 1519. But while the lack of when the Spanish boldly insulted their 56 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 gods, liquidated their important citi­ ductive and flexible than the Aztec worth remembering as individuals. zens, and kidnapped their emperor for empire. Thomas' book contains too many lists use as a puppet. Thomas observes that Thomas' speculations remain pro­ of names that remain just lists of although such events discredited vocative. For the most part, however, he names, and he sometimes builds up a Montezuma in the eyes of his people, sticks to his story - thus offering an character without providing adequate the result was that there was a vac­ example of soldierlike good conduct to (or any) information about what finally uum of power among the Mexica. his fellow historians, many of whom, happened to him. Thomas' prose is Most of the alternative leaders of the oddly enough, make careers out of often colorful, sometimes eloquent, and people had been killed. No one could sneering at historical narration. They always accessible, but it is too fre­ take the initiative to find a new ruler. apparently believe that a concern with quently marred by petty syntactical The tradition, in a rule-bound soci­ human action (as opposed to "theory" errors and editorial lapses. His maps ety, did not exist for improvisation. or social statistics) is the mark of an offer much less help than the reader (397) unscientific mind. But if you have a has a right to expect. When the remains of the Aztec story as good as the Conquest, all you But Thomas knows what is interest­ nobility finally woke up and started to really need to do is to get the story right; ing, what is important, what is magnifi­ reorganize, Cortes was in serious trou­ and Thomas seems to have done that. cently worth wondering at in his central ble. He had to fight long and hard, first His book is not without its annoy­ story. His book will undoubtedly be to escape from the Aztec capital and ances. He has not found a way of mak­ superseded one day, but that day will then to retake it. Thomas' careful ing most. of Cortes' comrades seem probably be a long time coming. 0 account of this struggle indicates that Cortes and all his followers might eas­ ily have wound up on Huitzilopochtli's A Second Mencken Chrestomathy, by H.L. Mencken, edited by Terry dining table; some of them did wind up Teachout. Knopf, 1995,491 pp., $30.00. there. But the vastly outnumbered Spanish invaders would have had no chance at all of conquering the Aztec empire if the technical, intellectual, and political structure of the empire had not been terribly weak. Many generalizations might be The Libertarian drawn from this fact, and many politi­ cal and sociological sermons might be preached about it. Thomas is slow to generalize and has no tendency at all to Iconoclast preach. He indulges a few interesting speculations. He suggests, for instance, that if the Aztecs had succeeded, as they might have, in killing off the first the lost manuscript. He whipped it into invading force, they might have been Max Schulz shape, paring here and trimming there; able to adapt enough European tech­ the result is A Second Mencken nology to resist succeeding forces. They Henry Louis Mencken cemented his Chrestomathy. The publication of the might have anticipated the adaptive status as a national icon in 1949 with book comes, ironically, just as strategies of the Meiji regime that main­ the publication of A Mencken Chresto­ Baltimore's Evening Sun, Mencken's tained Japanese independence in the mathy, a collection of writings over the home for four decades and our last nineteenth century (601). After all, the institutional link to him, announces its course of a half-century. The Chresto­ plains Indians would later learn to use plans to close. mathy (a fancy word for anthology guns and horses well enough to pose a For those too young to remember Mencken insisted upon) inhabited the considerable problem for the U.S. him: Mencken was a swashbuckling bestseller list for a long time, and the Army. journalist who can legitimately lay It should be noted, however, that Sage of Baltimore, having much capital claim to the title of America's greatest they didn't win. Effective use of tech­ material left over, decided a sequel was newsman. As editor of The American nology depends on the existence of a in order. But the debilitating effects of a Mercury and The Smart Set, author of social and political system that can give stroke he suffered in late 1948 derailed numerous books, and anchor of the it good material support and allow it to the project. When death called in 1956, Evening Sun, Mencken penned essays, be directed with appropriate flexibility. H.L. Mencken went to his just reward, criticisms, reports, and reviews that The best support is a free and produc­ while his unfinished manuscript went helped shape America's opinions tive political and economic system. to oblivion. throughout the first half of this century. Sixteenth-century Spain was certainly Enter journalist and scholar Terry To a large degree, they still do. no miracle of free enterprise, but it Teachout. While working on his biogra­ The virtue of the new book lies in appears to have been much more pro- phy of Mencken, Teachout stumbled on the intellectual legacy it exposes to new Liberty 57 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 generations of readers. Though Mencken. "The burden of proof, as I omy did not translate into a faith that Mencken is known today chiefly for his see it, is always on the policeman, autonomous individuals would always acerbic wit - and there is wit aplenty which is to say upon the lawmaker, the choose wisely. Mencken despised in these pages, as when he dismisses theologian, the right-thinker." Such democracy, along with the politicians the Zeppelin as "a floating sausage" ­ statements are remarkable considering who would buy votes out of the public he also displays here a distinctively the period in which he wrote, the first till. A blowhard and an incorrigible libertarian philosophy. The reader pick­ half of a century of statism. Mencken elitist, he was contemptuous of the ing up Mencken for the first time will bravely fought the collectivist nostrums masses and highly suspicious of man's be amazed at the substance of his argu­ of his day, adroitly pointing out the, ability to govern himself. Americans, ments, and at a facility with ideas that inconsistencies that tatter the fabric of he felt, do not adequately appreciate matches his mastery of words. socialism. their liberty. They will happily endorse To the iconoclast - and H.L. When began actions to restrict other people's free­ Mencken ranks as perhaps the most writing for English-speaking audi­ doms, "especially the Liberals, who effective iconoclast of the twentieth ences, following his 1940 flight from pretend - and often honestly believe the Panzers overrunning his native - that they are hot for liberty. They Austria, he made a compelling argu­ never really are.... [They] advocate UThe only way to make a ment about why so many people dis­ only certain narrow kinds of liberty ­ like capitalism. "Everybody knows full liberty, that is, for the persons they government tolerant, and well that there are people like himself happen to favor....The liberty to have hence genuinely free," who succeeded where he himself and hold property is not one that they failed," he wrote in The Anti-Capitalist recognize. They believe only in the lib­ Mencken wrote, "is to keep it Mentality. "Much worse, he knows that erty to envy, hate, and loot the man weak." all other people know it, too." Writing who has it." decades earlier, Mencken sounded sim­ The Second Chrestomathy is full of ilar themes. "The central belief of every cynical wit, and not always about polit­ moron is that he is the victim of a century - few targets loom as large as ical matters. "One hears that 'the government. Where many would have mysterious conspiracy against his women of the United States' are up in settled for merely criticizing the latest common rights and true deserts." arms about this or that," Mencken government boondoggle or misappro­ Elsewhere he added, "I do not pity [the wrote, "[but] the plain fact is that eight priation of taxpayer funds, Mencken poor], and do not believe in their fat women, meeting in a hotel parlor, was far more radical. "The only way to common plaint that they are the vic­ have decided to kick up some dust." In make a government tolerant, and hence tims of cruel and inexplicable circum­ genuinely free," he wrote, "is to keep it stances. I have yet to meet one who did an essay titled "The Commonwealth of weak." Mencken never shied from not show plain evidence that external engaging the reader in thoughtful spar­ circumstance had little, if anything, to ring over government's roles, responsi­ do with his condition. The blame, so Mencken despised democ­ bilities, and limits. far as my experience runs, always lies racy, along with the politicians Mencken was against many things within.... His poverty, nine times out who would buy votes out ofthe and many people - moralists, uplift­ of ten, is not due to a lack of ers, proselytizers, golfers, politicians, opportunity, but to a shirking of public till. imbeciles, socialists, and clergy, and opportunity." their varied and sundry causes. But Mencken didn't exactly presage the more important, and instructive, than arrival of Austrian economics in the Morons," he asserts that the American any of his attacks is the idea in which U.S. Many of his writings gave no hope stock was so low that any man who he invested his faith. What was for capitalism, and he refused to credit knows his trade, has read fifty good Mencken for? the with an ability to create books, and isn't afraid of ghosts ought "I believe in liberty," he wrote. and distribute wealth. His endorsement to make a fine living. "When I say liberty I mean the thing in of freedom arose from his belief that In Mencken's compositions, there is its widest imaginable sense - liberty liberty is something with intrinsic something for everybody - to be up to the extreme limits of the feasible value, to be cherished for itself and not offended by, at least. "At Sing-Sing, and tolerable. I am against forbidding as the means to creating a better world. forty head of Italians are waiting to be anybody to do anything, or say any­ Liberty, then, is everything and the executed," he off-handedly writes. thing, or think anything, so long as it is only thing. Mencken lampooned the Suspicious of U.S. attempts to horn in at all possible to imagine a habitable Comstockians and Prohibitionists who on World War II during the early part world in which he would be free to do, would use the state to enforce their sen­ of 1940, he mocks FDR's "heroic say and think it." timents on others. He stood fast for the attempt to rescue England from the He proudly believed in no causes, notion that each person should be free law of natural selection." Sentiments no religions, no fads, no ideas - except to make those decisions which affect like the latter drew rebuke and censor­ liberty. Few have been as eloquent in himself. ship from his editors, leading to a less­ championing freedom as H.L. This respect for individual auton- than-amicable divorce from the 58 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2

Evening Sun editorial page. men's ideas. Other outrages seem, on reflection, A nastiness, or at least a benign con­ eminently reasonable. To prevent war, tempt, infects the writings of the man How to he wrote in 1927, let the U.S. assemble a who saw life as a circus, populated by cache of horrible armaments. "Then let clowns too blind to see themselves for it launch them against France, or some what they really are - third-rate huck­ Subscribe other chronic troublemaker, and pro­ sters, morons, and knaves. Consider ceed to give the victim a sound beating. the perspective Mencken brought to to And then let it announce that war is Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath ("a adjourned." I'll second that. sugar-teat for the intellectually under­ Presidents, artists, professors, suf­ privileged"). The family of sharecrop­ Liberty fragettes, police, prohibitionists - none pers, he writes, "having afflicted the escape the barbs of one who so soil for years and gone further and fur­ despised the self-seriousness of so ther into debt, is finally chased off its Liberty takes individual many. The theologian makes a mess of so-called farm by its owner, who puts everything he touches, especially relig­ in tractor crews in an effort to get at freedom seriously ... and ion. The lawyer teaches people how to least a part of his money back." With the status quo with more swindle without risk. The doctor pro­ one sentence he successfully undoes than one grain of salt! longs the lives of people whose deaths the work of thousands of glassy-eyed would be a social boon. Actors and high school lit teachers. What could be Liberty tackles the tough problems. singers are merely retailers of better more valuable? 0 Every issue of Liberty presents essays studying current trends in political and social thought, discus­ sions of the strategy and tactics of Radical Surgery: What's Nextfor America's Health Care, by social change, analyses of current Joseph A. Califano, Jr. Times Books, 1994, 316 pp., $25.00. events, and challenges to popular beliefs. Liberty also offers lively book reviews, fiction, and humor. You won't want to miss a single issue! Act Today! Cosmetic Liberty offers you the best in liber­ tarian thinking and writing. So don't hesitate. You have nothing to lose, and the fruits of Liberty to Surgery gain! Use the coupon below or call:

Mark Rembert tice." He goes so far as to suggest that 1-800-854-6991 the L.A. riots were caused by alcohol. (Subscription orders only; no inquiries please.) And yet, like many a New Democrat of Former LBJ aide Joe Califano had recent vintage, he is unrelenting in his ~------,' Please enter my subscription considerable influence on the establish­ calls for "personal responsibility." I·YeS to Liberty immediately! I ment of Medicare and Medicaid, and It is here that Califano misses his o Six issues (One Full Year) $19.50 later served as Jimmy Carter's secretary greatest opportunity for genuinely radi­ I 0 Twelve issues (Two Full Years) $37.00 I of health, education, and welfare. One cal thinking. His baby, Medicare, the I Add $5 per year for foreign subscriptions. I might therefore expect his new book, crown jewel of the Great Society, is a Radical Surgery: What's Next For superb example of the defeat of indi­ America's Health Care, to be a work full vidual initiative by collectivist govern­ I of bold and original ideas from a crea­ ment. And while Califano does concede tive thinker. But one would be wrong. some of its faults - its arbitrary and I Indeed, it is difficult to put into below-market fee schedules, its byzan­ words just how orthodox Califano's tine rules, its stifling paperwork thinking is. Few left-liberal causes go requirements - he ignores its most sig­ unchampioned. Cigarette companies nificant flaw. If anyone expected the I signature are "sinister," gun control is a "health author to pull a Robert McNamara care concern," and "universal health here, I'm sorry: there is no mea culpa. insurance is an imperative of social jus- Califano still thinks the basic concept of Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 nationalizing the health insurance of this problem, he would exacerbate it by Medicare costs, which opponents argue the population over 65 years of age is "[t]urning the potent incentives of the would damage the system and threaten sound. He simply cannot grasp that malpractice system and professional current beneficiaries, the core of the Medicare is structured to destroy indi­ decertification toward providing pre­ program would remain - indeed, no vidual responsibility. ventative care." In other words, politician has questioned the idea that The government's program under­ "Doctors who do not provide preventa­ the state should provide health insu­ mines responsible behavior in exactly tive services and counseling should be rance for the elderly. The Republicans' the same way the private insurance held accountable for malpractice when main change would be to save money market does. Both feature low deducti­ patients get preventable diseases." by contracting out to HMOs. As anyone bles, subsidized premiums, and few Imagine a system in which a stroke vic­ who has dealt with an HMO knows, incentives for patients not to seek treat­ tim could sue his doctor for failing to managed care and individual choice ment for anything. Just as Medicare persuade him to exercise and eat less verge on being mutually exclusive. So patients can and do receive extremely fat. Could this possibly restrain medical turning Medicare into a giant man­ expensive treatment in the final months aged-care program simply means trad­ of life for terminal conditions, so too ing a system of government rules for are the privately insured more likely to Incorporating routine care one of HMO dictates. True, consumers seek expensive treatment - say, elec­ would most likely be able to choose tive surgery - in a year when a into the insurance system has between competing HMOs, which deductible has been met. Just as the all the same efficiencies as would certainly be preferable to the Medicare patient receives a premium using homeowner's insurance single-payer arrangement that now subsidy in the form of the taxes paid by exists, but the fundamental culture of everyone else, so too does the private to pay the electric bill. insurance, with the state as paymaster, worker receive a similar subsidy in the would remain intact. form of the federal tax deduction The real shame of Radical Surgery is allowed his employer. And just as costs? Incredibly, Califano proposes what isn't in it. The liberal Califano Medicaid patients commonly queue up this in the name of greater individual might have proposed that government at the emergency room for runny noses responsibility. require citizens to buy new health poli­ and headaches, so too will a private Califano may speak often of cies with a cash value, similar to whole­ customer with "good" insurance (low patients' obligation to manage their life insurance, so that consumers could deductible, maximum discretion) self­ own health wisely, but he doesn't seem tap into the accumulated dollars to pay diagnose and seek out a specialist for to trust their ability to do so. Nowhere for more expensive care later in life. care that may be entirely inappropriate does he advocate that routine care be More conservative characters might - something a less expensive internist shopped and paid for by the patient, push for using the carrots and sticks of could have easily determined. In each thus allowing consumer choice to the tax code to nudge patients into so­ impose market discipline on health case, the disconnection of the customer called II w hole-health" insurance, from the cost of the commodity results care. Instead, he discusses cost choices Medical Savings Accounts, lifetime in a perverted market. in terms of expensive care for terminal HMO contracts, or a similar alternative. Yet Califano sees no inconsistency patients. Let the patients and their rela­ These are not libertarian approaches, in expecting a patient whose bills are tives choose the amount of aggressive but they would at least lead to an hon­ paid by a third party to act as though treatment they wish, he argues, mind­ est discussion about the future of the he pays them himself. Calling his pro­ ful of cost and quality of life. This is health care market and state interven­ posals a "cultural revolution" (with no fine, as far as it goes, but in the context tion in it. discernible irony), Califano would of our insured society, he's got it In any case, there is no hope of propagate the perverse culture of insu­ exactly backwards. What should be tak­ experiencing the increased productiv­ rance by mandating that all coverage, ing place is a return to true insurance, ity, enhanced efficiency, and cost defla­ public and private, pay for primary and where only catastrophic expenses out tion that accompanies spreading preventative care - with doctors, of the normal range of expectation are technology until the medical market is patients, and taxpayers already bearing covered. Incorporating routine care removed from government interfer­ the immense administrative costs of fil­ into the insurance system has all the ence. This would involve nothing less ings for routine treatment. And he pro­ same efficiencies as using homeowner's than dismantling Medicaid and poses this in the name of cost insurance to pay the electric bill. Medicare, privatizing the VA, and containment! Some Republicans have picked up allowing individuals to buy and sell As one progresses through the on this theme, as evidenced by the health care freely, as they do most book, the novelty of this goofy sort of recent discussion of Medical Savings other services. It is no real surprise that thinking fades, for Califano employs it Accounts, which would allow individu­ Califano considers his statist nibblings over and over. He observes that the als to save for and purchase routine "radical," but it is a pity that, in this threat of malpractice judgments esca­ care. But far too many members of the supposed day of profound change, so lates costs by giving doctors an incen­ new Congress are willing to settle for a few ideas have been put forth that tive to overtreat. But then, rather than statist system. For though the GOP has really would profoundly change the suggesting steps that might mitigate drawn fire for its proposals to rein in government's role in health care. 0 60 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle protect nonprofit broadcasting, and for the Control ofu.s. Broadcasting, 1928-1935, by Robert W. many endorsed (though often only pri­ McChesney. Oxford, 1993, 393 pp., $17.95. vately) outright nationalization of the industry. Of the reformers, only the ACLU recognized "public interest" reg­ ulation as a potential infringement of the First Amendment, and this only after lengthy public soul-searching. How the Ether J\1cChesney shies away from endorsing any particular reform plan, but he lmakes it clear that he cannot under­ stand why anyone would link private Was Won property to freedom of speech. And he identifies "" with the lacy to rest in 1990, with his Journal of .American system, thus taking the net­ Jesse Walker Law and Economics article, "The 'works' free-market rhetoric at face Rationality of U.S. Regulation of the value - even though he knows the Today's cyberspace wars have a his­ Broadcast Spectrum." There, he demon­ feds expropriated their competitors in torical precedent. In the 1920s and strated that the unregulated ether was 1928, hardly a propertarian policy. 1930s, a similar series of battles was generally orderly before the secretary Indeed, he takes several commercial waged over the future of radio broad­ of commerce deliberately induced a broadcasters to task for discovering the casting. The anarchic give-and-take of breakdown in 1926. And in Freedom, rhetoric of free speech and deregulation the Internet, the more controlled corpo­ Technology, and the First Amendment, only after they had reaped the benefits rate ethos of Prodigy and CompuServe Jonathan Emord, building on Hazlett's of statism. Somehow, in his hands, this and America Online, the ever-present work, sketched a convincing theory of becomes an argument against deregula­ specter of government control ... all competition-fearing broadcasters and tion itself. these had their analogs in the early days power-hungry government officials This leads him to dismiss more of radio. Those with hopes for a more combining to create the Federal Radio recent arguments for less government open, less regulated electronic media Commission. control of the airwaves: would do well to study these earlier pol­ Hazlett is mentioned nowhere in The contemporary deregulation icy wars, if only to see where aIid how McChesney's book, while Emord's movement uses history selectively to their predecessors succeeded and failed. volume is only briefly cited in a foot- illustrate the only relationship it Unfortunately, while Robert deems significant: the commercial McChesney's Telecommunications, Mass broadcaster, who by definition Media, and Democracy adds a lot to our should rule the ether to make as Reliance on government is much money as humanly possible, understanding of that period, it suffers what did the broadcast reform­ and the government regulator, who, from many painful flaws. This is all the regardless of intent, can only portend more disappointing considering the ers in, and those fighting evil. All other aspects of U.S. broad­ length and breadth of the author's today's cyberspace battles are casting history are relegated to the investigations. McChesney has been margins, which is necessary to main­ diligently studying his subject since the in danger of making the same tain the untenable "immaculate con­ 1980s, when it was his Ph.D. disserta­ error. ception" notion of the origins of tion topic, and has already published commercial broadcasting. This is an many of his findings in a variety of extraordinary bias that p~ovides a scholarly journals. Furthermore, as a note; it's unclear from the context dubious foundation for the entire revisionist, he is especially interested in whether McChesney has actually read deregulation argument. (p. 259) recovering fragments of this history the book or merely knows it by reputa­ This is a caricature of the libertarian that have escaped his colleagues' atten­ tion. Either way, he never betrays any position. I cannot speak for everyone tion. Yet he takes for granted historical knowledge of either writer's work on who advocates deregulation, of course, myths that scholars in other disciplines the 1920s. but none of the writers I have cited in have exploded. All this amounts to more than just this review hold to any immaculate­ Specifically: McChesney accepts an omission; it radically alters the con­ conception theories. The difference is without question the traditional ratio­ clusions the author draws from the that they see the networks' power as a nale for government regulation of facts he has gathered. McChesney sees consequence of their political clout, broadcasting - that without federal corporate domination of the spectrum while McChesney attributes it to "capi­ direction, the airwaves of the 19205 as a necessary corollary of free markets. talism." Indeed, he argues that the were a mass of competing signals, each The "broadcast reformers" he discusses Radio Act of 1927 (which established station interfering with another. But who fought the emerging system all the Federal Radio Commission) was economist Thomas Hazlett laid this fal- favored some level of intervention to relatively unimportant in birthing the Liberty 61 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 corporate system; the real culprit, he McChesney's view of contemporary have been assured either that they had argues, was General Order 40 (the media debates: in fact devoted time to religious broad­ FRC's program for reorganizing the Deregulationists argue that [new casts, or that they would do so in the spectrum, which drove so many non­ communications] technologies have future." Or consider any of the subse­ profit stations off the air). But without reduced the power of the broadcast quent occasions in which politicians the Radio Act, there could have been networks over their audiences and silenced their critics via the misnamed no General Order 40! have permitted a wave of vigorous Fairness Doctrine. In short, the concept of a top-down competition to enter previously None of this should be taken as a reorganization of the broadcasting uncompetitive markets ... rendering criticism of McChesney's always inter­ industry seems to be all right with moot traditional concerns, like those esting (though often dry) historical nar­ McChesney. It's just that a more "dem­ held by the 1930s broadcast reform­ rative. His broadcast reformers were a ocratic" government could have done ers, about corporate domination of fascinating collection of characters, better. communications media.... [But] the from the respectable critics financed by These ideological glasses distort ability of consumers to benefit by the the Payne Fund to the ever-cranky new communications marketplace is Harris K. Randall. With a few excep­ strictly determined by how much tions (the labor-run station WCFL, the money they have. Hence, the market ACLU), these activists were elitists, not Learn at Liberty will be skewed toward providing numerous choices to those with populists, interested not so much in Are you interested in working as a larger incomes and neglect those popular access to the airwaves as in journalist? Would you like to improve who are poor. (258-259) ensuring properly enlightened pro­ your writing and editing skills? McChesney has it precisely back­ gramming. Many held up the BBC as Liberty offers full-time, paid their model. wards: it is deregulation that is allow­ internships at all times of the year: Six decades later, a new generation Interns are involved in all aspects of edit­ ing new technologies finally to enter of critics has resurrected the call for a ing and publishing Liberty. the marketplace, not new technologies democratic media. But some widely dif­ For information, write: that are allowing deregulation. ferent platforms lie behind that com­ R.W. Bradford, Editor Powerful governments - even "demo­ mon slogan. Some are calling for open Liberty cratic" ones - are beholden to power­ access - deregulation of micro radio, P.O. Box 1181 ful private interests. That's why ta~k radio, low-power television, the Port Townsend, WA 98368 regulators held up some of these "new" Internet, and every other medium that technologies for decades: because of offers the little guy a voice. These critics political pressure from the communica­ have lost faith in the state's ability to )ournafists tions industry. Under McChesney's enact meaningful reform. As Peter pomng model, AT&T and the networks would Franck and Alan Korn of the National have spent this period arguing for lais­ Lawyers Guild recently wrote, media sez faire. Obviously, there's something activists "cannot rely on the power of wrong with McChesney's model. the state to get it right. This is because But McChesney is willing to ignore powerful institutions contain the built­ historical evidence that does not con­ in contradictions of centralization and form to his theory. "License revocation," bureaucracy." They went on to argue he writes, "has been disregarded as a that this reliance on government is legitimate policy option.... In effect, what did McChesney's broadcast there has been a de facto privatization of reformers in, and that those fighting the airwaves" (249). Does McChesney today's cyberspace battles are in danger really believe this? Politically connected of making the same error. interest groups have always used the But other media democrats (e.g., Pat threat of losing one's license to ensure Aufderheide, the gang at FAIR) want a that broadcasters conform to their pro­ return to the Fairness Doctrine and gramming preferences. Take this exam­ other content controls, tighter regula­ ple from 1952, as described by then-FCC tion of the Internet, and a well­ Commissioner Paul Walker: "[T]he endowed (and more left-wing) Cor­ Commission surveyed the program­ poration for Public Broadcasting. They ming of some of the television stations hate talk radio. They don't object to then in operation, and found that some political correctness. What they advo­ of them had reported no time devoted to cate may, in some sense, be "democ­ broadcasts of a religious nature. We felt racy," but it is not freedom. in view of this fact that regular renewal (Interestingly, it is this group's stran­ of their licenses would notbe in the pub­ glehold on public broadcasting in this lk interest. ... All of these stations have country - and, more and more, on since been granted renewal because we "community" broadcasting like the Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Pacifica Network, once free of both low-power pirate radio.) Clocks," that appeared in Discordant governmental and corporate largess Robert McChesney, alas, seems Encounters (1926). There is no acknowl­ but now increasingly reliant on both­ closer· to the second position. But edgement of such deviant work in The that has driven so many of the first there's a lot in his book that supports Portable Edmund Wilson (1983). group into such alternative media as the first. Does he know it's there? 0 Meyers' book is another of those fat literary biographies - over 550 pages in length, with photographs that are Edmund Wilson: A Biography, by Jeffrey Meyers. Houghton Mifflin, mostly familiar and footnotes that are 1995, 554 pp., $35.00 not. I've raised this question before: Who the hell reads these grand pianos and how? My sense is that they were written to be published, within some convention of "This is the sort of book we can sell." Noone expects them to be Triumph of read. I find myself able to look at them only during long train/bus/plane trips (not even a day at the beach is tedious enough), always skipping ahead to the Image parts that might be more interesting. I notice that most reviewers of such biog­ raphies focus more upon the subject than the book (as I'm doing now). Richard Kostelanetz respect for their own careers than for Much has been made about whatever models they espouse. Wilson's failure to file tax returns Given the lack of support, it is not between 1946 and 1955. Since I'm The prolific biographer Jeffrey surprising that some of these younger reviewing a biography, I must tell a per­ Meyers reports in the preface to literary critics turned elsewhere ­ sonal story. I've long known an attor­ Edmund Wilson that, when he began the think of Hugh Kenner, Hugh Fox, or ney specializing in tax default. Around book, "a learned friend" commented on John Leonard. Others became self­ the time Wilson's The Cold War and the his subject's fading star: "He terrified consciously modest academics (too Income Tax (1963) was published, a everyone [sic] and today his books are many to list) or retired altogether (too client with a similar problem gave my unread." While this biography is forgotten to enumerate). I should add friend a copy. Unfamiliar with Wilson's impressively thick and thus the most that Wilson was a hero for me when I name, my friend asked me if I knew complete so far, what Meyers doesn't first began 30 years ago -I owned him or knew about him. Only the sec­ confront is the question of why the nearly all his books, and the profiles of ond, I replied. "He drinks too much, Wilson reputation has faded. Why are major American artists and intellectuals doesn't he?" I've heard that, but how do institutions like the New York Public that I collected in Master Minds reflect you know if you've not heard of him Library forever sponsoring symposia his biographical approach. But I soon before? "I've been in the business for a on why Wilson had no successors? turned to writing about music and the long time. Ninety-nine percent of the For answers, look no further than intermedial arts because it was hard at time when a man forgets to file several the efforts of those who promoted that time to function as an independent returns and honestly thinks he forgot, Wilson, who were forever touting him literary critic. (It still is.) he drinks too much." Explaining away as "the greatest mind," the greatest lit­ Wilson's enthusiasts were so eager Wilson's book was for him that easy. erary critic, known for his indepen­ to repackage him in the 1950s that cer­ What this "unauthorized" biogra­ dence and interdisciplinary literacy. tain radical activities were neglected. phy succeeds in portraying is the messy I'm thinking of Alfred Kazin, Irving Leslie A. Fiedler pointed out long ago life behind such neat prose - the con­ Howe, Gore Vidal, and Wilson's loyal that the 1958 reprint called American stant moving, the infidelities, the drink­ publishers Roger Straus and Jason Earthquake omitted several "Commun­ ing, etc. The man portrayed as highly Epstein, among others. What they share ist" essays from the earlier American rational and formal actually had low is a disinterest in critics younger than Jitters (1933) on which it was based. indulgences and unforgivable sins. themselves (other than servile epigone). Night Thoughts (1961), which collects his Implicitly echoing a principal theme of While they saw themselves as perpetu­ shorter imaginative work, omits "The Thomas Mann, the book finally sug­ ating Wilson, they didn't have enough Three Limperary Cripples" (1930), a gests the heresy that the style might not respect for Wilson's example to recog­ piece ofJames Joycean prose that would be a reflection of the man, but some nize (let alone encourage) younger undermine Wilson's image as conserva­ concoction, an artifice, that is somehow writers who likewise thought that tive about the avant-garde. (It can be mastered and sustained in spite of all example persuasive. Beware of any found in Note-Books of Night, published personal evidence to the contrary. This group of writers, whether literary or in San Francisco by the Colt Press in illusion, realized in collaboration with political, who do not encourage succes­ 1942.) Wilson's Five Plays (1954) omits publicists, may be Wilson's principal sors; they are finally showing more an experimental ballet, "Cronkhite's achievement. 0 Liberty 63 November 1995 Booknotes Short Cuts - A famous libertarian once told me a story, which he swore Classified Advertising is available for 50¢ per word, with a ten-word minimum. 10% was true. It seemed that an economist, discount for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please suggest a historian, and a philosopher were classification. talking about , all Buslness/EDlploYDlent Hills, MI 48302-7626. expressing great admiration for the New - Freedom Technology! Become self­ Periodicals great libertarian. The historian said, "The breadth and genius of his work is sufficient doing the easiest thing ever invented Living Free newsletter, practical methods for to make huge $'s seven ways! Full details ... increasing personal freedom, for libertarians, truly mind-boggling. Except, of course, write to: Academic Investigators, 11684 Ventura survivalists, anarchists, outlaws, since 1979. for his history, which is fraught with Blvd., Suite 758-E, Studio City, CA 91604 Lively, unique. $12 for six issues, sample $2.00. error." Literature Box 29-LB, Hiler Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223. The philosopher responded, "Surely Abortion and Rights: Applying Libertarian Now unreduced print in The (Libertarian) you are mistaken. I have nearly read all Principles Correctly, by Doris Gordon. $2.00. Connection, open-forum since 1968. Subscribers of Rothbard's works, and found them may insert two pages/issue free, unedited. Lots Libertarians for Life, 13424 Hathaway Drive, invaluable - except for his philosophy, #22, Wheaton, MD 20906.301/460-4141. of stimulating conversation. Eight issues (year) $20. 101 South Whiting #7002 , Alexandria, VA which is puerile and nugatory. But his Directory of Libertarian Periodicals, updated 22304. history and his economics are simply latest edition, lists about 150 titles, with addresses, other information. All believed to be The only publication that takes libertarian brilliant." presently publishing. $3.00 postpaid, $4.00 ideas seriously enough to debate them and test They turned to the economist. overseas. Jim Stumm, Box 29-LB, Hiler Branch, their limits. In Critical RevieuJ, the best free­ "Well, I agree with both of you, up to a Buffalo, NY 14223. market scholars in the world debate eminent point. Rothbard certainly was a genius writers of other persuasions in every social sci­ God yes; religion no! The ultimate ethic for ence. Forthcoming and recent authors: James whose work is tremendously admira­ human behavior is here. Satisfaction guaran­ Buchanan, Harold Demsetz, Roger Garrison, ble. Indeed, it is hard to believe that teed. Send $10 to IFIT, P.O. Box 555, Coalinga, Nathan Glazer, John Gray, Robert Higgs, one man could accomplish so much. CA 93210. Charles Kindleberger, Israel Kirzner, Leszek But you have misidentified his Achilles My God! You still believe the Morality of Kolakowski, Donald McCloskey, Charles heel. His philosophy and history are Altruism is the root of our problems!? That's Murray, Jan Narveson, Richard Posner, Anna nothing short of brilliant. But his the awkward theory I believed, too, until I dis­ Schwartz, David Ramsay Steele, James Q. covered the much more compelling truth. 60­ Wilson. Four 160-pp. issues/year. $15 students economics ..." page bound and illustrated essay available for with copy of ID; nonstudents: $29 U.S., $35 for­ I was reminded of this story when I $10.00 from R.T. Graphics, Box 778, eign, $50 foreign air. P.O. Box 25068, Dept. L, read From Here to Economy: A Washington, LA 70589. Chicago, IL 60625. Shortcut to Economic Literacy (Dutton, New report reveals ... "How to Earn $3000/ The Ultimate Unknown, the new, quarterly 1995, 259 pp., $21.95), by Todd G. Week Anywhere in the World!" Call 602/661­ Science Fiction, Future, and Horror magazine Buchholz. Although I am not a profes­ 8148 for free info kit. from Combs Press. Sample $4.00, four-issue sional economist, I am reasonably well­ Philosophy meets Science Fiction as an subscription $14.00. Combs Press, P.O. Box 219, Artificial Intelligence grapples with morality Streamwood, IL 60107-0219. read in the field. As I read this primer, I and survival in Liberated Stories. $8 to The Voluntaryist - sample copy for two first­ marveled at how concisely Buccholz UberPublishing, P.O. Box 7626, Bloomfield class stamps. Box 1275, Gramling, SC 29348. explained complex economic concepts and economic history, and the .liveli­ ness of his prose. Further, he shows SPECIAL OFFER considerable respect for Austrian eco­ Rare Video nomics - a respect not often in evi­ Phil Donahue dence among mainline economists or Interviews their popularizers - and an admira­ tion for the Chicago School. Surely, I AYN RAND and MILTON FRIEDMAN thought, this is a book of great merit, Two fascinating original 49 minute interviews filled with wit, chann, and verbal barbs. making matters economic understanda­ Both on one delightful VHS video. ble to those unwilling to devote the PRE-RELEASE SALE study to the field that I have. I was already planning to buy cop­ $24.95 (with this ad) regular price $29.95 ies as gifts for fhe economically under­ Shipping, handling, aD taxes included endowed when I encountered the Send Name, Address, and Payments to: following two paragraphs: F~EE DI~~(glflO~ NO LlINC?J/ The U.S. moved to a de facto gold 2219 W. Olive Ave.~ Suite 218 standard in the 1830s and adopted it Burbank, CA 91506 formally in 1900. Tourists who vis­ ( Allow 4 weeks for delivery ) ited Washington could walk up to Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

the Treasury Department building on quantity of either gold or silver; in changed, this time in favor of gold. Fifteenth Street and swap their bills effect, there were two dollars in circula­ (That is to say, the ratio soon overval­ for gold. Every bill was inscribed tion, one .7734 troy ounces of silver, the ued gold.) Silver coins were driven with the following promise: UThe other .04837 troy ounces of gold. from circulation. Between 1849 and United States of America Will Pay to Needless to say, this bi-metallic stan­ 1873, the coinage system was an utter the Bearer on Demand One Dollar in dard was an utter failure, as in the mar­ mess, thanks to this problem and to the Gold." ketplace the values of both gold and paper-money inflation of the Civil War (In the 1930s the U.S. dropped this pledge and replaced the inscription silver fluctuated. Prior to the Coinage years. with a promise to UPay to the Bearer Act of 1834, the laws of the United In 1873, Congress repealed authori­ on Demand One Dollar in Lawful States decreed that one ounce of gold zation for striking a silver dollar, in Money." A puckish man from was worth 15 ounces of silver, the mar­ effect, reducing the status of silver Cleveland who decided to test the ket ratio that prevailed (more or less) at coins from standard to subsidiary coin­ government then mailed a ten-dollar the time of the creation of the U.S. mon­ age and demonetizing silver. Finally, bill to Washington asking to swap it etary system in the 1790s. the U.S. was on a de facto gold standard. for ulawful money." The wits at the Unfortunately, by the early 1800s, (2) There was no government­ Treasury Department mailed him this arbitrary valuation was out of issued paper money at all until the back two fives!) whack with the prices of gold and sil­ Demand Notes of 1862 and the Legal As it happens, this passage dis­ ver in the market. It overvalued silver; Tender Notes of 1863. These notes were cusses the one aspect of economic his­ that is to say, $100 in silver coin had not legally redeemable in gold or in sil­ tory where my knowledge is systematic less value as metal than did $100 in ver and, in fact, were routinely refused and arguably expert. And I immedi­ gold coin. At the time, Congress had no by the federal government when ten­ ately recognized several errors: authority to repeal Gresham's Law, so dered in payment of tariffs. Needless to (1) The United States more or less the result was predictable: gold coins say, they never included any language adopted the gold standard de facto in were driven from circulation. guaranteeing that they could be 1873 and de jure in 1900, more or less The Coinage Act of 1834 changed redeemed upon demand in gold. abandoned it in 1934, and completely the gold-silver ratio to 16-to-l, which (3) Between 1862 and 1933, the U.s. abandoned it in 1971. Prior to 1873, the was by then, more or less, the market government issued, at one time or U.S. was on a bimetallic standard; that ratio. As before, this new ratio worked another, thirteen different types of is, the U.S. dollar was defined as a fixed for a while, but soon the market ratio paper money: Demand Notes, Legal

CRIMINAL JUSTICE?

The Legal System Vs. Individual Responsibility edited by Robert James Bidinotto

"This book is a must read for "...the most brilliantly infor­ anyone who knows the sys­ mative book on the subject tem is broken, and wants to of crime I have ever read.. .1 change it." cannot recommend it high­ -JOHN WALSH, Host, ly enough." "America's Most Wanted" -DR. (From the Foreword) psychologist and author

Ed!ledby Robert James Bidinotto foreword by John Walsh Criminal Justice? is easily the most controversial book on crime and punishment to appear in years, and perhaps the most Published by The Foundation for important. It is must reading for law enforcement officials, Economic Education crime victims, politicians-and for every citizen who values jus- tice. ISBN 1-57246-016-4 $24.95 hardcover Available in bookstores nationally, or order your copy from The Foundation for Economic Education, 30 South Broadway, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. Phone: (800) 452-3518; fax: (914) 591-8910. Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995

Tender Notes (also known as United National Gold Bank, not the federal going to a mail drop that was visited States Notes), Compound Interest government. only when necessary." If this book Treasury Notes, Interest Bearing Notes, So I don't know how much I ought offers as much strategic advantage as I Refunding Certificates, Silver Certi­ to recommend From Here to Economy. imagine, then its readers would prefer ficates, Treasury Notes (also known as Its discussion of the one area where I that it not be available in the local book­ Coin Notes), National Bank Notes, might be considered an expert is store or, need I say, reviewed in the Federal Reserve Bank Notes, Federal fraught with errors. New York Times. -Richard Kostelanetz Reserve Notes, National Gold Bank The frustrations of a book-reviewer! Notes, Gold Certificates, and Fractional -R.W. Bradford Just Because You're Paranoid Currency. • •• If spreading paranoia about the These pieces of paper money had a Secret Agent Man - The editor government becomes a crime, Clinton wide variety of redemption clauses, of The New York Times Book Review once will have to prosecute Dean Koontz for some of which were changed from time told me that the principal purpose of his chilling novel Dark Rivers of the to time. The only ones the federal gov­ his medium was not acknowledging Heart (Knopf, 1994, 464 pp., $24.00). In ernment promised to redeem in gold cultural excellence, or even diversity, one of the book's most riveting sec­ were Gold Certificates and Federal but simply reviewing the books most tions, Koontz shows what it is like to be Reserve Notes (Series 1928 only). None visible in his readers' favorite stores. If subjected to civil asset forfeiture, of these were issued in denominations that be true, then a principal purpose of describing how these statutes can be of $1.00. the review pages in Liberty should be used to destroy the lives of innocent The Treasury Notes (Series lS90 and identifying important books that can people by taking their property with­ 1891) promised redemption in "coin," not be found in local outlets. out trial or due process. In his after­ which in fact meant the bearers choice Of those to come my way recently, I word, Koontz drives the point home: of gold or silver coin, but this is was most charmed by The Whole Spy "The type of criminal behavior by gov­ nowhere stated on the note. The Catalog (Intelligence Inc., 1995, 426 pp., ernment agencies depicted in this novel National Gold Bank Notes (co-issued $44.95), a highly informative large­ does not spring entirely from my imag­ by the federal government and certain format compendium in the distin­ ination. Paramilitary assaults against federally-chartered National Gold guished tradition of books that have private citizens are a reality of our Banks during the 1870s) promised the words "whole" and "catalog" in time." redemption in gold, but by the their titles. Indeed, I found it a better Dark Rivers of the Heart introduces a read than the recent Millennium Whole super-secret federal agency "with no Earth Catalog, the latest effort of Stewart name" and almost unlimited resources. RENAISSANCE Brand's formula-conscious collabora­ This agency specializes in covering up tors. Author Lee Lapin offers a wealth the failures of other agencies - FBI, BOOKSERVICE of advice about uncovering information DEA, ATF, etc. - and leaves no trail. via data banks, electronic surveillance, Its secrets are known to a woman Books by Murray Rothbard Internet-based services, aerial photog­ whose husband programmed its central raphy, and the like. In the tradition of & computer. Now they want her dead. o Man Economy State expanding out, rather than narrowing The pursuit is led by a terrifying Treatise on economics, includes down, this book even has capsule government agent named Roy Miro. critique ofstate intervention. reviews of other books about the sub­ Behind his pleasant smile, Miro holds Hardback, 2 volumes, out ofprint jects covered here. It is better, as well as to a psychopathic form of political edition, scuffed dustcover $50/set truer, than science fiction. correctness that permits murdering o Power & Market $9.95 The author, previously unknown to people for their own good. ("Sleep, me, offers only the credit of authoring dear lady.... No more worrying about Point by point attack on state How to Get Anything on Anybody, which finances, no more working late, no interference in the economy. is a reference of sorts. His name, which more stress and strife. You were too o means bunny in French, is another good for this world.") Miro is the arche­ Applies libertarian doctrine to favorable reference. The bad writing typal utopian statist, convinced that public policy issues $12.95 and inadequate proofreading suggest any atrocity can be justified if the he might be an enthusiastic beginner. motive is "compassion." Naturally, he Sendorder with payment to: What gives Lapin authority, at least to hates individualists. ("Civil order was this reader, are his anecdotes about RENAISSANCE BOOKSERVICE not sustainable in a society populated P.O. Box 2451 Riverside, CA 92516 such things as an international spies' by rugged individualists. The depen­ (add $1.00 per book for shipping, convention in Bulgaria and how the dency of the people was the source of Calif residents add 7.25% tax) Israeli Mossad had more success than the state's power, and if the state didn't Write for free catalog our FBI in telephoning him at home "at have enormous power, progress could Over 200 titles on a time I was living with a roommate, not be achieved or peace sustained in economics, history etc taking the normal security precautions the streets.") or call (909) 369·8843 - phone listed in someone else's name, An exaggerated caricature? Maybe. utility bills in a fictional name, real mail But Dark Rivers of the Heart was written Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 before the House of Representatives timony surrounding the case, evaluat­ had been in the area for some time ­ passed H.R. 666, before the president ing it, and trying to figure out what despite the numerous contradictions devised his "anti-terrorism" bill. Its happened. Bock is a libertarian, so it between Horiuchi's statement and the conclusions may seem paranoid, but should not be surprising that he is often testimony of other FBI snipers. that doesn't mean they aren't true. dubious about the testimony of law In Fght of this peculiar methodolog­ -George L. O'Brien enforcement officers. His dubiousness ical approach, what is most interesting is borne out by the fact that the officers' is that the Report concludes that the sec­ Rashomon Ridge - Alan Bock's stories have changed considerably over ond shot was unconstitutional, and rec­ Ambush at Ruby Ridge (Dickens Books, time and often contradict one another, ommends "referral of the matter of the 1995, 273 pp., $22.00) and the while the Weavers' account has never second shot to the appropriate compo­ Department of Justice Report on varied. Not surprisingly, Bock con­ nent of the Department of Justice for a Internal Review Regarding the Ruby cludes that the lawmen acted improp­ determination of whether federal crimi­ Ridge Hostage Situation and Shootings erly and illegally, and calls for nal prosecutive merit exists." by Law Enforcement Personnel (Lexis restrictions on federal power and a There are other significant differ­ Counsel Connect, digital, available on reinvigoration of the American tradi­ ences: Bock's book is well-written and Internet at http://www.counsel.com/ tion of respect for individual rights. engaging; the Justice Department tome ruby/ ruby1) both summarize and try to The anonymous Justice Department is written in semi-readable bureaucrat­ evaluate the events at Ruby Ridge, chroniclers take a very different ise. Also, the Justice Department report Idaho, in August 1992, when a gun bat­ approach. They work from the assump­ is missing several integral parts that tle occurred between federal marshals tion that the statements of law enforce­ were not released by the Justice and the family of Randy Weaver, result­ ment officers are truthful and accurate. Department. The most intriguing of ing in the death of one marshal and This is quite an act of faith, to say the these is the entire chapter entitled "FBI Weaver's son; and the subsequentattack least. For example, they conclude that Internal Review of HRT Shots Taken on on the family by FBI agents, which FBI agent Lon Horiuchi's shooting of August 22, 1992." A note in the text resulted in the death of Weaver's wife Randy Weaver in the back from explains that this chapter was "omitted But they are as different as night ambush without \i\Tarning was justified, by Department of Justice editors." and day. Bock makes a serious attempt based on Horiuchi's statement that Bock's book includes some at sorting through the evidence and tes- Weaver was a threat to a helicopter that extremely helpful features: a list of

America needs the Sepamtion of School and State! Be a partofhistDry..•eome to the First Annual Conventfon ofthe ''SeparatiDn Alliance" Gain a deep understanding ofwhy Separation ofSchool & State is necessary for the sutvival of American society. Leam how victory is possible, even in the face ofawesome resistance by the status quo. Interact with experts and like-minded people from around the country. Be a part of the launching of the Separation Movement! Topics Include... • Why the Poor Will Have Better Schools • How Irresponsible Parents Will be Helped • Character Education: Key to Schooling, Reason for Separation • How School Diversity Will Help Civic Harmony, Race Relations and Tolerance • Are Vouchers a Good Idea? Charter Schools? Private Vouchers? Speakers Include... CANDACE ALLEN Charter School teacher STEPHEN ARONS author, Compelling BeliefJOSEPH BAST President, Heartland Institute ALLAN CARLSON President, Rockford Institute PAUL CLEVELAND Professor, Binningham-Southem College DOUGLAS DEWEY President, National Scholarship Center CATHY DUFFY Author, Government Nannies ERIC EBELING Executive Director, Live & Learn MARK FRAZIER Courseware Designer MARSHALL FRITZ Director, The Separation Alliance JOHN TAYLOR GATTO Author, Dumbing Us Down DAVID HARMER Author, School Choice RICK HENDERSON Reason Magazine DWIGHT LEE Professor, Univ. of Georgia RICHARD MITCHELL Publisher, The Underground Grammarian LEWIS PERELMAN, Author, School's Out SHELDON RICHMAN Author, Separating School & State MICHAEL SCHWARTZ Progress & Freedom Foundation DAVID WAGNER House Subcommittee for Human Rights JOSEPH SOBRAN Nationally syndicated columnist and Special Appearance by E.G. WEST --the-- Friday-Sunday, Nov. 10-12, 1995 Washington, D.C. SEPARATION --of-- Five meals, All speakers and events $295 (by Sept. 30), then $335; $355 at door SCHOOL 4578 N. First Street #310d Call (209) 292-1776 for conference reseIVations --&-- Fresno, California 93726 DoubleTree Hotel National Airport STATE (209) 292-1776 Single/Double $89 Mini suite $99 (703) 416-4100 -Alliance- Fax (209)292-7582 Volume 9, Number 2 November 1995 characters, a map of the Weavers' and entire first edition, with editorial be vulnerable without unloading his adjacent property at' Ruby Ridge, a changes marked in Rand's own hand. feelings on everybody. Then director bibliography, and an index. It might This is certainly valuable to the Rand Tim Burton started listening to the crit­ have benefitted from a little more edit­ scholar, since the first edition has long ics about how Nicholson's tubby ing - he sometimes repeats himself, been scarce and difficult to obtain. "Joker" stole the show and the movie and could have pared down his lengthy Rand's extensive edits are interesting, was "too dark" (especially for kiddies, introduction about the government war of course, if only because the show the for whom every movie must be made against Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce ­ development of her craft. Unfor­ these days, with a couple glances over but here I nitpick. It is altogether a fine tunately, in striking out words and pas­ the shoulder at the Political Correctness piece of writing and an extraordinarily sages, she sometimes obscured them so Ministry). So the villain quotient was handsome book. -R.W. Bradford completely that the original words can­ doubled for the second movie, the plot not be read. was even more scatterbrained, and all The Curse of the Thick Black This edition also includes a new the dark and forbidding, artistically Ink - The new edition of Ayn Rand's introduction by Leonard Peikoff that is ambitious elements were scrubbed (Penguin, 1995, 253 pp., $21.95) worth reading. away with a wire brush. All that was left appends a facsimile of the novelette's -R.W. Bradford was an army of penguins with bombs strapped to their back ("the penguins are heading south," Alfred tells Batman at one point, via bat-radio). But at least Keaton still delivered a serious, laconic Batman when he was allowed to bat land on stage. Filmnotes Now, forget it. In Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, dir.; 1995), Burton's sensibility has vanished - he exec­ produced the thing during coffee Mr. Natural - Any reviewer of observes and renders, and in the breaks from Ed Wood, apparently ­ Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, dir.; 1995), the hatched contrasts and contradictions of and the new Kilmer "Batman" directed recent documentary about the cartoon­ his life and work we are thrown not by somebody-or-other utterly lacks the ist R. Crumb, is faced with two difficul­ into a jumble of confusion, but forced grim, driven quality of the Keaton cru­ ties. First: which of the holy trinity toward our own resolutions. sader. (The new one announces that should you review - the man, his Crumb is a mesmerizing, self-hating he's "driven," as if verbal articulation work, or the film? Second: how do you misanthrope (and, some would say, an were the same as acting.) Plus he has to avoid sounding like one of the pathetic irredeemable racist and sexist). Director deliver cutsie unbatmanlike lines, and critics interviewed in the movie? Terry Zwigoff is an old friend of grin like a goof at the prospect that Any cartoonist or connoisseur of Crumb's, and he knows his subject Bruce Wayne's love life might be in for cartoons will tell you that Crumb is a well. He treats Crumb's life as a work a big improvement. Kilmer is stolid master of his art. In gritty tones ren­ of art, which may seem unfair.. But and monotonic enough in the role, and dered in nervous, scratchy lines he Crumb has invited this by speaking of anybody would look fab in that cos­ evokes images of profoundly disturb­ the "Crumb persona" and by featuring tume, but cripes - where's Batman? ing beauty and wit. His genius as a himself as the lead character in many of At least the plot is a little more intel­ cynic lies in his lovingly crafted use of his stories. ligible than in number two. Though, the cartoon - the artful manipulation The documentary includes a couple once again, we have Alfred idiotically of visual cliche - to express his bound­ of ludicrous episodes with men who allowing somebody to slip into the Bat less contempt for most of the presump­ fancy themselves connoisseurs of the Cave - this time Dick Grayson. tions of our culture. arts. Crumb himself invites us to laugh The new movie has lots of fun in it, Crumb speaks of himself as a com­ at a particularly gushy art gallery especially moments with Jim Carrey as pletely intuitive creator. Many lesser patron as he stands in conversation the Riddler. But Batman was always artists have offered this self-description with hin1., and I've yet to talk to anyone about darkness and mystery. The origi­ as an excuse for the most appalling who wasn't slightly embarrassed by the nal movie, I mean the one that hit thea­ dreck. In Crumb's case, however, his pompous meanderings of art critic tres in 1989, is more memorable and intuition is matched with an almost Robert Hughes. Still, these scenes true to the character than what is being clinically obsessive craftsmanship and belong in the picture, if only because served up now. Even the music has a ruthless honesty. The result: a marvel. they represent the very sort of preten­ been sanitized in the new movie. It His art poses questions about tolerance, tiousness for which R. Crumb is the sounds more like the damn TV show. the limits of speech, the limits of indi­ antidote. -James Gill Here's what I want: I want them to vidualism, capitalism, and the often take one half of the money they spent dubious quality of the mass culture that You and Your Batman - The on special effects this time around and capitalism encourages. Crumb rarely first Batman movie had the real Batman, spend it on finding an appropriate offers clearly convincing answers. He a mysterious, dark avenger who could writer. Finding, not paying. The right 68 Liberty Volume 9, Number 2 writer would come up with the right script even if he were being paid a pal­ try couple million. (Harlan Ellison could do it. Read his review of the first Batman, which appeared in Fantasy & Bryan Alexander is a graduate Dan Miller (R-Flor.). The opinions Science Fiction.) Then they should beg student in English at the expressed in his essay are his own, Keaton to come back, like they begged University of Michigan. and are not intended to reflect the Sean Connery to return to the James Chester Alan Arthur is Liberty's views of Rep. Miller or the U.S. Bond films. Then they should rehire the political correspondent. Congress. guy who did the sets for the first Matt Asher is Liberty's editorial Daniel Klein is Assistant Professor movie. Also the guy who did the intern. of Economics at DC-Irvine. music. (I don't keep track of the credits. If it's the same composers and design­ "'Baloo" is the alter ego of cartoon­ Richard Kostelanetz has written ers doing the latest movie that did the ist Rex F. May. many books, most recently Crimes first one, all is lost.) -David M. Brown John Bergstrom is a Californian ofCulture (Autonomedia). cartoonist and animator. Wendy McElroy is author of XXX: A Feel-Good Thriller of the Year R. W. Bradford is editor and Woman's Right to Pornography (St. - Seeing Crimson Tide (Tony Scott, publisher of Liberty. Martin's). dir.; 1995) the first time is much like David M. Brown is a writer living Michael Oakes has lived in Japan seeing it the second time: there is never since 1993. a moment's doubt how it will end. in New York. Denzel Washington plays a brand new StephenCox is Professor of George L. O'Brien is a writer and first officer on a U.S. submarine com­ Literature at UC-San Diego and activist in Arizona. manded by an eccentric captain, played author of the biographical intro­ Randal O'Toole is editor of Different with the usual aplomb by Gene duction to 's The Drummer. Hackman. They set out to sea knowing God ofthe Machine (Transaction). David J. Owsiany is an attorney in that they may be required to fire their James Gill is Liberty's staff artist. Columbus, Ohio. missiles: Russia has gone into civil war, Mark Rembert is a Tennessee-based and "right-wingers" have taken over J. Orlin Grabbe is author of the eastern Siberia and its missiles. textbook International Financial freelance writer. A third of the way into the film, Markets (Simon & Schuster), now Max Schulz is managing editor of Washington and Hackman are ordered in its third edition. Forbes MediaCritic. to fire on the enemy, thus ushering in a Robert Higgs' most recent book is Clark Stooksbury is assistant pub­ nuclear war. Immediately they encoun­ Hazardous to Our Health? lisher of Liberty. ter a Russian sub, and, amidst the fight­ (Independent Institute). Timothy Virkkala is managing editor ing, a second communication gets Bill Kauffman is author of America of Liberty. interrupted. Since the second commu­ nication could have countermanded the First! (Prometheus). Jesse Walker is assistant editor of first, the first officer refuses to author­ Matt Kibbe is Chief of Staff for Rep. Liberty. ize the missile launch. Conflict ensues. The captain is relieved of command. A mutiny (or putative counter-mutiny) occurs. And in the end ... It is never in doubt that nuclear war would be averted. 1 mean, how could any respectable Hollywood writer have written it any differently? I knew how the movie would end when I walked into the theater, just from seeing the trailers. The film's concern with moral responsibility in a military chain of com­ mand is tailor-made for Holly-wood moralism. And that's just fine. I agree this thriller conclude "irresponsibly," total destruction in art sticks with you, with this morality. I do not believe that with the end of the world. The film and leaves you thinking long after. And soldiers (or sailors, or electric boatmen) would not have suffered if Quentin you begin the second viewing (or read­ should be automatons to authority. And Tarantino, who contributed the film's ing) of such work with a whole differ­ I think people capable of starting a most amusing dialogue, had taken up ent attitude than you started the first nuclear war should be extra careful. the whole project. As demonstrated by run through. The spine tingles. Death is There is nothing controversial here. Thomas Disch's novel The Genocides and in the air. Time and crimson tide wait But it would have been fun to see Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove, for no man. -Timothy Virkkala Liberty 69 Washington State Virginia The limits of property rights, explained in a notice Career preparation techniques in the Old Dominion, as mailed to residents of The Evergreen State: described by The Key Reporter: "If you're planning any activity that requires digging down a Andrea Ballengee was dethroned from her position as Miss Vir­ foot or more - even on your own property - remember that ginia after pageant officials discovered she had falsely claimed to Washington State law requires that you call 1-800-424-5555 at be a member of Phi Beta Kappa and to have been graduated from least two business days before you dig." high school with "highest honors," and that she misrepresented her high school "Most Outstanding Cheerleader" award as "Most Out­ Washington, D.C. standing Female Athlete." Ballengee intends to attend law school and eventually to run for The state of public opinion, as reported by the Des Congress. Moines Register: A new poll shows that 76% of Americans distrust the govern­ ment, but 59% approve of the job being done by the United Walworth County, Wise. Nations. Hindering hate in the Badger State, as reported byThe New Republic: Tarrant County, Tex. In drafting an anti-bigotry resolution, the Walworth County Board changed a reference to white supremacist organizations Respect in the modern church, reported in the San from "hate groups" to "unhappy groups." Antonio Express-News: Rev. William Hoover resigned after admitting he had molested a twelve-year-old, but he retains the support of some parishioners. Sonora, Calif. "He is very well-liked and very well-respected here," said Fern The perils of visual impairment, as reported in the Bombadier, "and he has touched a great many people." Associated Press: A former Forest Service worker tried to escape punishment for Los Angeles stealing truckloads of government property, claiming that his eye­ "Dynamic budgeting" in action, as reported in the San sight was so bad, he couldn't see how much he'd taken. Diego Union-Tribune: "Facing the worst fiscal crisis in its history, the Los Angeles Washington Island, Wise. County Board of Supervisors passed an estimated $11.2 billion Careful planning in the public sector, as reported by budget late yesterday, reducing a massive layoff with unexpected the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: revenue that has yet to materialize." In May, federal officials proposed a $400,000 plan to double the size of the Washington Island Coast Guard station - even The Netherlands though it was scheduled to be closed in September. The latest consumer protection legislation in this pro­ gressive European nation, as reported by the London Times: Italy Government regulations require S&M prostitutes' clients to be A social note in the International Herald-Tribune: bound and gagged in such a way that they can work themselves "Alessandra Mussolini, 32, the granddaughter ofBenito Musso­ free in an emergency in a maximum of 30 seconds. lini, is expecting her first child in July. Mussolini, a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the neofascist National Alliance Party, Tavares, Fla. said she planned to keep working. 'It may slow me down some, Expanding the War on Drugs, as reported by the Sara­ but I really want to deal with it as if I were a man,' she said. She is married to Mauro Floriani, an officer of Italy's tax police." sota Herald-Tribune: Bonnie Turner was suspended from Tavares Middle School for having Tylenol in her backpack, and will not be allowed to Crystal Lake, Ill. take classes this fall until she completes a "substance-abuse Politically correct headline in the Crystal Lake Northwest awareness" course. Herald: Jay Marshall, supervisor of student services, defended the poli­ cy. "A student is not to have any kind of medication on their per­ "Atomic Bombers Criticize Enola Homosexual Exhibit" son ... because they are potentially dangerous to students that (Readers are invited to forward newsc1ippings or other items for would ingest them. People commit suicide by taking Tylenol." publication in Terra Incognita.) 70 Liberty • "My Dinner With Slick Willie," by Douglas Casey Liberty Back Issues Plus articles and reviews by Wendy McElroy, Ross Overbeek, Jesse (continued from back cover) Walker, Todd Seavey, RW. Bradford, and others. (72 pages) January 1992 March 1994 • "The National Park Disgrace," by RW. Bradford and , Jr. • "Chaos and Liberty," by J. Orlin Grabbe and Pierre Lemieux • "How To Think About Pollution," by David Friedman • "Secession as a First Amendment Right," by Robert Nelson Plus articles and reviews by Michael Rothschild, Bill Kauffman, Henry • "Partial Recall: Manufacturing Child Abuse," by David Ramsay Steele Veatch, Jane Shaw, Richard Kostelanetz, and others. (80 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Victor Niederhoffer, John Hospers, and others; and a short story by Richard Kostelanetz. (72 pages) March 1992 • ": Prophet of ?" by Stephen Cox May 1994 • "The Ghost in the Little House," by William Holtz • "The Aristocratic Menace," by David Brin Plus articles and reviews by Karl Hess, Jane Shaw, Edward C. Krug, • "Trafficking in Numbers: The Seat Belt Scam," by Gwynne Nettler and others; and an interview with Pat Buchanan. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by RW. 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(72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Bart Kosko, Jesse Walker, Leland Yeager, Todd Seavey, Bill Kauffman, and others. (72 pages) Volume 6 Volume 8 September 1992 • "War on Drugs, War on Progress," by James Ostrowski November 1994 • "Five Years of Liberty," by RW. Bradford • "Deep Ecology Meets the Market," by Gus diZerega Plus articles and reviews by J. Neil Schulman, Murray Rothbard, Martin • "The WTO: Trading Away ," by Fred 1. Smith, Jr. Morse Wooster, and others; and an index to back issues. (80 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Wendy McElroy, Bart Kosko, and others; a short story by Greg Jenkins; and an index to Volume 7. (72 pages) November 1992 • "The First Time: I Run for the Presidency," by John Hospers December 1994 • "At the Margins of the Republican Convention," by Thomas D. Walls • "The War Against Cuban Refugees," by Grover Joseph Rees Plus articles and reviews by David Kelley, Richard Kostelanetz, Loren • "Truth and Lies in the Balkan War," by George Manolovich Lomasky, Ben Best, Gregory Johnson, and others. (80 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Seth Farber, David Ramsay Steele, Susan Rutter, Stephen Cox, Wendy McElroy, and others. (72 pages) February 1993 • "Perot's 200-Proof Populism," by Bill Kauffman January 1995 • "How to Secede in Politics," by Scott Reid • "Sliding Down the Bell Curve," by Jane Shaw and Leland Yeager Plus election coverage, and articles and reviews by John Hospers, • "Memoirs of a Soviet Dissident in Canada," by Pierre Lemieux James Ostrowski, Jesse Walker, Ron Lipp, and others. (80 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Loren Lomasky, Brian Taylor, Phil Leggiere, and others; and an interview with Aaron Russo. (72 pages) April 1993 • "How to Cut Your Taxes by 75%," by RW. Bradford March 1995 • "Clinton and the New Class," by Douglas Casey • "What, Me Vote?" by John Pugsley, Bob Prechter, and Douglas Casey Plus articles and reviews by John Hospers, Mark Skousen, Stephen • "Welcome to the Revolution," by Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw Cox, and others; and an interview with Roy Childs. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Brian Doherty, Bill Kauffman, RW. Brad- ford, and others; and a tribute to Murray Rothbard. (72 pages) June 1993 • "Holocaust in Waco," by RW. Bradford and Stephen Cox May 1995 • "Understanding the State," by Albert Jay Nock • "Blunder on the Right," by Paul Piccone Plus articles and reviews by Leland Yeager, Randal O'Toole, Bart • "A World Partly Free," by Bruce Ramsey Kosko, Harry Browne, C.A. Arthur, and others. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Martin Morse Wooster, Caroline Baum, and others; and a short story by J. Orlin Grabbe. (72 pages) August 1993 • "How Do I Hate NPR? Let Me Count the Ways," by Glenn Garvin July 1995 • "What Happened in Waco?" by Loren Lomasky and :R'W, Bradford • "Oklahoma City and Waco," by Stephen Cox, RW. Bradford, David Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, Jane Shaw, and others; poet- Ramsay Steele, Loren Lomasky, and Jesse Walker ry by Marc Ponomareff; and fiction by J. Orlin Grabbe. (72 pages) • "The End of Ordinary Money," by J. Orlin Grabbe • "De-Inventing Government," by Ed Crane Volume 7 Plus articles and reviews by Pierre Lemieux, , Richard Kostelanetz, Wendy McElroy, and others. (72 pages) October 1993 • "The Real Health Care Crisis," by R W. Bradford Volume 9 • "White Liberals Can Jump," by William Moulton Plus articles and reviews by Greg Kaza, Stephen Cox,' and others; September 1995 aphorisms by Isabel Paterson; and an index to Volume 6. (72 pages) • "The Myths of Schooling," by John Taylor Gatto • "Rand: Behind the Self-Mythology," by RW. Bradford January 1994 Plus articles and reviews by Randal O'Toole, Lester Hunt, John Den­ • "First They Came for the Fascists ..." by Gerry Spence tinger, Scott Reid, and others; and an index to Volume 8. (72 pages) Stimulate Your Mind! There's a world of good reading in Liberty! Whether you want to catch up on what you missed, provide in­ tellectual relief to your friends (or enemies!), or complete your collection, now is a good time to buy. Enjoy! Volume 3 May 1990 • "Killing as Therapy," by Thomas Szasz September 1989 • "A Population Crisis?" by Jane Shaw • "Abortion Without Absurdity," by R.W.-Bradford Plus articles and reviews by Bill Kauffman, Richard Kostelanetz, Robert • "The Theology of Ecology," by Robert Formaini Higgs, Bart Kosko, Karl Hess, and others. (72 pages) • "Holocausts and Historians," by July 1990 Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Murray Rothbard, Rich­ • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part I)," by John Hospers ard Kostelanetz, Gary North, Jeffrey Tucker, and others. (72 pages) • "If You Believe in Dentistry, Why Should You Mind Having Your November 1989 Teeth Knocked Out?" by William Moulton Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Bill Kauffman, James • "Loathing the Fear in New York," by Murray Rothbard Robbins, Mark Skousen, John Baden, and others. (72 pages) • ", Ex-Libertarian," by Loren Lomasky Plus articles and reviews by Richard Kostelanetz, Tibor R Machan, and others; and an interview with Russell Means. (72 pages) Volume 4 September 1990 January 1990 • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 2)," by John Hospers • "The Case for ," by Llewelyn Rockwell • "Fighting the Draft in World War II," by Jim Bristol • "The Greenhouse Effect: Myth or Danger?" by Patrick J. Michaels Plus articles and reviews by Jane Shaw, , Richard Kostelanetz, Plus articles and reviews by Karl Hess, Murray Rothbard, David Gor- and others; and a ficci6n by Harvey Segal. (72 pages) don, and others; and an interview with Barbara Branden. (80 pages) March 1990 November 1990 • "Why We Should Leave the Middle East," by Sheldon Richman • "H.L. Mencken: Anti-Semite?" by R.W. Bradford • "Searching for the Home of Truth," by RW. Bradford • "The Case Against Isolationism," by Stephen Cox Plus articles and reviews by Richard Kostelanetz, David Friedman, and Plus articles and reviews by Sheldon Richman, John Hospers, George others; and an interview with Ed Crane. (80 pages) Smith, Loren Lomasky, Richarc.l Kostelanetz, and others. (80 pages) January 1991 • "Gordon Gekko, Mike Milken, and Me," by Douglas Casey send me the back issues of Liberty • "Skatepunks, UFOs, and Anarchy for Fun," by Lawrence Person r------,PIease I have marked. 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