Child Torture

June 2000 $4.00 in America

"It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose Liberty." - Francis Bacon Modern Editions ofClassic Works for Readers Today

DAVID HUME Prophet ofthe Counter-revolution Second Edition By Laurence L. Bongie Foreword by Donald Livingston

hough usually Edmund .Burke is identified as the first to articulate the principles of a T modern conservative political tradition, arguably he was preceded by a Scotsman who is better known for espousing a brilliant concept of skepticism. As Laurence Bongie notes, lIDavid Hume was undoubtedly the eighteenth-century British writer whose works were mostwidely known and acclaimed on the Continent during the later Enlightenment period. Hume's impact [in France] was of undeniable importance, greater even for a time than the related influence of Burke, although it represents a contribution to French counter-revolutionary thought which, unlike that of Burke, has been almost totally ignored by historians to this day." The bulk of Bongie's work consists of the writings of French readers of Hume who were confronted, first, by the ideology of human perfection and, finally, by the actual terrors of the French Revolution. Offered in French in the original edition of David Hume published by Oxford University Press in 1965, these vitally important writings have been translated by the author into English for the Liberty Fund second edition. In his foreword, Donald Livingston observes that IIlf conservatism is taken to be an intellectual critique of the first attempt at modern total revolution, then the first such event was not the French but the Puritan revolution, and the first systematic critique of this sort of act was given by Hume."

Hardcover $18.00 0-86597-208-7 Paperback $10.00 0-86597-209-5 (Indiana residents add 5% sales tax)

HISTORY AS THE STORY OF LIBERTY By Benedetto Croce Translated by Sylvia Sprigge Foreword by Claes G. Ryn

enedetto Croce (1866-1952) is perhaps best known as the author, in 1902, ofAesthetics, Ba work of enduring influence. History as the Story ofLiberty was written in 1938 when the Western world had succumbed to the notion that history is a creature of blind force. A reviewer at the time noted the importance of Croce's belief that lithe central trend in the evolution of man is the unfolding of new potentialities, and that the task of the historian is to discover and emphasize this trend: the story of liberty." As Croce himself writes, IIEven in the darkest and crassest times liberty trembles in the lines of poets and affirms itself in the pages of thinkers and burns, solitary and magnificent, in some men who cannot be assimilated by the world around them." The first edition in English of History as the Story ofLiberty appeared in London in 1941. The new Liberty Fund edition includes modest improvements to the translation by Folke Leander and arranged by Claes Ryn. Preface, foreword, index. Hardcover $17.00 0-86597-268-0 Paperback $ 9.00 0-86597-269-9 (Indiana residents add 5% sales tax)

Call 800-955-8335· LibertY Funma. We pay Fax 317-579-6060 -- shipping on or write: prepaid orders. 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite #300, Dept. S42K, Indianapolis, IN 46250-1684 Explore Liberty Fund's catalogue on the World Wide Web at www.libertyfund.org June 2000 Liberty Inside Liberty Volume 14, Number 6

R.W. Bradford 4 Letters A bully pulpit indeed. StephenCox 7 Reflections Liberty's editors take stock in hysteria, take note of good John Hospers and evil in England, take aim at mis-named "liberals," take a look at JaneS.Shaw Al Gore's grades ... senior editors Brien Bartels David Boaz Features Alan Bock Douglas Casey 17 A Sage at Eighty R. W. Bradford celebrates the ninth decade of Eric D. Dixon Thomas Szasz. Brian Doherty David Friedman 19 Hillary, Newt, and Elian Gene Healy explains why children rights' J. Orlin Grabbe activist Hillary Clinton wants to send little Elian back to his father and Bettina Bien Greaves parents' rights advocate Newt Gingrich does not ... and why the case Leon T.Hadar is such a difficult one. Gene Healy Robert Higgs 23 The Drug Czar Takes a Hit Paul Rako takes a close look at Drug Bill Kauffman War Chief Barry McCaffrey's case against drug legalization. David Kopel Bart Kosko 29 The Messy Business of Rating Congress In baseball, you can't Richard Kostelanetz tell the players without a scorecard. In Congress, J. Bishop Grewell Loren E. Lomasky explains, you can't tell the players with a scorecard. Sarah McCarthy Wendy McElroy 32 Plagiarism on the Nile George Hollenback examines the Peter McWilliams Afrocentrist claim that the Greeks stole their mathematics from black Robert H. Nelson Egyptians. Randal O'Toole RossOverbeek 35 Childhood Isn't a Bowl of Cherries Psychologist Dolores Durk Pearson Puterbaugh observes parents tying up their kids, force-feeding them, Dyanne Petersen and drugging them, and wonders: what will these kids be like when Ralph.Raico they grow up? Bruce Ramsey Scott J. Reid 37 Back Where You Came From A bureaucrat learns how the other Sheldon Richman half lives. A short story by Scott Gossard. Sandy Shaw Fred L. Smith, Jr. Thomas S. Szasz Reviews Leland B. Yeager contributing editor$ 41 A Dumber Shade of Green? Jane Shaw examines a conservative Kathleen Bradford manifesto on environmentalism. copy editor 43 The Origin and Consequences of the First World War S.H. Chambers Martin Tyrrell takes a close look at a new book on the war that gave us RexF.May cartoonists/illustrators the triumph of communism and naziism. Martin M. Solomon 46 Straight Shooting Reference This new gun encyclopedia isn't Clark Stooksbury perfect, but it's full of useful information, opines Brien Bartels. assistant editors Jon Kalb 47 Thieves Take, Minds Make Bettina Bien Greaves looks at a new Jim Switz book on the relationship of ideas to rights. computer consultants Peter Gillen editorial intern Sandra White 54 Notes on Contributors Who we are. circulation 54 The real world, really. Caroline Evanger Terra Incognita circulation ~======:::] How to [-======Le======tt======er======s Subscribe A Simple Explanation but by the moral and political I hate to disappoint Jerome Tuccille, meltdown of Imperial Rome). but I don't have a candlelit shrine to Christianity affirms the basic postulates to Ronald Reagan in my house. Like most whichmake scientific inquiry possible, libertarians, I have a healthy skepticism such as the existence of a rational, towards politicians. In fact, one joke I objective reality and the possibility of II LibertYJl like to tell is that my favorite spectator human understanding of it (many, if sport is "Pile on the president! Pile on not most, pioneers of science were the president!" But I am very careful believers). And Christianity promotes Liberty takes individual not to specify which president. liberty in theory (and led to it in Nor were my motives for reviewing practice) by insisting on a higher freedom seriously ... and It Still Begins With Ayn Rand "diaboli­ God-given basis for the unalienable the status quo with more cal." I have a deep interest in libertarian rights of man. Indeed, in the final than one grain of salt! history and greatly enjoyed It Usually analysis, I believe this is the only sure Begins With Ayn Rand when I read it a bulwark for liberty. Every issue of Liberty brings few years ago. So when I heard about a It is, of course, true that many you news you can't miss, sequel, I asked to review it. I bear no medieval Christians, like modern ones opinions you won't find personal animus towards Tuccille and people generally, committed acts of anywhere else, and the best (whom I have never met). My goal in stupidity and cruelty, especially those libertarian writing in the world. the review was simply to tell Liberty'S who held positions of power and readers that a writer who has written so authority. Along with Markley, I'd You won't want to many good books came out with a affirm that any version of religion that pretty awful one. , rejects science, the Enlightenment and miss a single issue! Martin Morse'Wooster liberty is wrong and that organized Silver Spring, Md. religion, like the state, must be viewed Act Today! with Actonian suspicion. However, I The Author of Liberty reject his claim that all religion is, by Liberty offers you the best in I agree with the two lessons that R. definition, antithetical to these values. individualist thinking and writ­ W. Bradford found in the Hillsdale In fact, one good test for religion is how ing. So don't hesitate. You have scandal ("Learning from Hillsdale," well it upholds these human needs. I'd nothing to lose, and the fruits May). I'd like to add a third; The moral of Liberty to gain! assert that Christianity properly or other failure of Christian or understood passes this test, to say the Use the coupon below or call: libertarian individuals does not least. constitute proof of the incorrectness of As a Christian who is also a 1-800-854-6991 their views, but only of the weakness of libertarian sympathizer, I have both a their characters. warning and a promise to offer. If Unfortunately, just as some libertarians leave God out of the r------,Please enter my subscription Christians paint this tragedy as picture, they will fail to secure liberty I to Liberty immediately! I evidence that libertarianism doesn't fit for themselves and those they love. o 12 issues (One Full Year) $29.50 well with Christianity, some libertarians And there is a very large audience for I 0 24 issues (Two Full Years) $56.00 I see it as evidence that Christianity is the message that God is the author of I Add $5 per year for foreign SUbSCriptions'1 incompatible with liberty. liberty and not only wants us to be free, In his letter (May), Robert Markley but has designed reality in such a way portrays Christianity as an enemy of that freedom works best. I name I science, enlightenment and liberty. He's Steve Sawyer wrong on all three points. Christianity Fountain Hills, Ari~. I address I places a very high value on kilowledge, as witnessed by its preservation of In Defense of Homeschooling I city state zip I much of ancient knowledge during the Liberty has published one of the Dark Ages (caused not by Christianity, most amazing - even preposterous - I 0 I enclose my check (payable to Liberty) I I D Charge my U VISA 0 MasterCard I I signature I account # expires I Send to: Liberty, Dept. L86, I L P.o,------_Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368... June 2000 and cowardly (because anonymous) and are perfectly bilingual (English and especially do not find much need to dis­ swipes at home-schoolers. Spanish) and are learning French to cuss different theories of cursive writing Pages 31-32 of the February 2000 boot. Our two oldest boys read for or whether 3 + 3 is really 6, and we do Liberty say: pleasure for 2 or 3 hours a day (we do not encourage such debate. This points to another problem not have a television). The kids do I know some home-schooling fami­ Hillsdale faces: its student body. receive strong "tradition" in their edu­ lies who are less successful than ours, Hillsdale may manipulate the cation but they are not isolated from but I see a general tendency towards students' lives, but many of the opposing or a liberal dose of different betterment and success in all of them. students like it that way. An views. Of course, I must admit that my One young lady we know well has been active recruiter of children are ages 3 to 11 and the oldest a straight A student at a secular Texas home-schoolers, Hillsdale attracts is only in 9th grade. Thus, there is not as college for two years and has received a the sort of students who have led much discussion of conflicting premises full scholarship. She was home­ intellectually cloistered lives, as there will be later. The younger ones schooled by Genesis-believing, Baptist being taught comfortable traditions rather than challenging ideas. Many of these students From the Editor .. arrive believing, for instance, that Editing each issue ofLiberty is a bit like preparing the menu at a fine restau­ Genesis is the literal truth, and rant. You see what's in season, find fine chefs to prepare it, present it in the most that evolution is a hoax. Roche attractive way you can and hope it satisfies the tastes and pleases the intellectual himself wrote an entire chapter in palates ofyour patrons. his book A World Without Heroes This month we had hoped have as our featured entree an investigation into the attacking Darwin's theory of charges that Jacob Hornberger ofthe Future ofFreedom Foundation has leveled evolution. against Harry Browne and the leadership ofthe Libertarian Party. Martin He goes on to say: Solomon, Peter Gillen and I have examined thousands ofpages ofdocuments, ... tradition, dogma, interviewed dozens ofpeople, and assembled a huge amount ofinformation. But as authoritarianism, are central to deadline loomed, gaps in the story remained and our conclusions remained tenta­ Hillsdale College. And the tive. We decided. the story would not be ready in time for publication in this issue. students who are willing to Happily, our editors and contributors were more successful in preparing their accept that are intellectually entrees than were we, resulting in a Liberty with something to satisfy every appetite docile, much like medieval for fine intellectual cuisine. Consider the following ... peasants. And this is why so The cas~ of Elia~ Gonzalez has had some genuinely weird effects. Child rights many Hillsdale professors praise ~dvocate HIllary Chnton, who normally is happy to snatch kids from their parents, the Middle Ages, as a time when IS strangely silent. Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich, normally an advocate ofparents' people "knew their place." rights, calls for keeping the little boy away from his father. Gene Healy sorts Hillsdale education stops before through the issues, where he discovers some important truths for libertarians. the nineteenth century begins ­ Somehow, Paul Rako got hold ofGen. Barry McCaffrey's case against drug read Aristotle, Augustine, ~egaliz~tion. He got offhis motorcycle long enough to examine the Drug Warrior­ Aquinas and Adam Smith - but In-ChIef's argument. This is Paul's first contribution to our pages since his cele­ no Foucault, no Derrida, and no brated "Letter to the President." Darwin. Last month, we offered David Boaz's Congressional scorecard; this month we I think that I have hardly ever read anything so uninformed and outright offer Bishop Grewell's case against Congressional scorecards. George Hollenback inane. Even though I read a lot of checks out claims that the Greeks stole their math from the black Egyptians. things about home-schooling from var­ Dolores Puterbaugh takes a look at the consequences ofthe sad fact Americans are ious political views, including the hard so busy these days that they tie their children up for hours at a time. Scott Gossard left at times, I scarcely find such bald tells the story ofa bureaucrat getting his just desserts. and baseless insinuations or attacks. Of In our book review section, Jane Shaw takes a close look at a conservative mani­ course there are exceptions, but home­ festo about the environment. Martin Tyrrell examines a new book about World schoolers are widely recognized for War 1, the great war that led to communism, naziism, and massive growth ofthe having exceptional academic achieve­ state even in the countries that managed to avoid totalitarianism. Bettina Bien ment and ability. Greaves reviews a new book on how the world works, Brien Bartels examines an My wife and I have home-schooled encyclopedia on guns and gun rights, and Richard Kostelanetz trolls the net for our children for over eight years with rare books. considerable success. None of them . And as always, ,:e lead with an appetizer cart full of Reflections, from regulars has ever attended a public or private lIke Steve Cox,·DavId Boaz, Bart Kosko, Tim Slagle, Alan Bock ... to amuse, school. Yet they are all socially adroit, inform and stimulate your intellectual appetite! enjoy neighborhood sports, skiing, swimming, and chess, and are com­ puter~competent for their ages. Our kids also excel academically, parents with little more than high students was that Hillsdale College is school diplomas. an "active recruiter" of them, before About Moreover, not believing Darwin going on to say that "Hillsdale attracts hardly makes one cloistered intellectu­ the sort of students who have led intel­ ally. After all, many academics and sci­ lectually cloistered lives, being taught Your entists - some of whom do not accept comfortable traditions rather than chal­ Genesis as"literal truth" - also reject lenging ideas." Darwin. Think of Berkeley's Paul Where is the "swipe" here? It seems Subscription Johnson or Lehigh's Michael Behe, to to me to be a pretty plain statement of name just two of the more prominent two different facts: (a) that Hillsdale ones. Roche (despite his sins) is neither recruits home-schooled students; and Q: When does my subscription expire? singular nor academically loony on (b) that Hillsdale"attracts" students A: Please look to the right ofyour account of his views on Darwin. So far who've had "intellectuallY-cloistered" name on your mailing label. There as I know, no one has refuted biochem­ lives. you will find (unless you are getting a renewal notice) the number of ist Behe's claim that "irreducible com­ Both propositions are patently true. issues left in your subscription, fol­ plexity" makes it impossible for a Hillsdale in its appeal to politically con­ lowed by the word "left," as in "3 Darwinian scheme to explain the devel­ servative students does in fact recruit LEFT." opment of the eye or certain specialized the home-schooled. And it does tend to attract the "intellectually-cloistered." Q: I've moved. Where do I send my cells. change ofaddress information? Maybe Darwin is not read as much Cobin goes on to assume that my A: Liberty, P.O. Box 1181, Port any more because he is simply not general observations about Hillsdale Townsend, WA 98368. Please believable anymore, just like so many students are aimed primarily at the include your previous address (it's other forgotten giants of the past. No home-schooled, and further, that I best to send us your label from your one in my family devours Pelagius, believe that these observations are true magazine) and telephone number. Anselm, Newton, or Semmelweiss of all home-schooled students, not just Allow us six weeks to receive and nearly as much as people once did. those that choose Hillsdale. I cannot process your address notification. Does that mean we are akin to "intellec­ find a scintilla of evidence to support Q: .I'm receiving duplicate copies; what tually cloistered" and unchallenged either. should I do? "peasants"? I generally do not care to speculate A: Take a look at both mailing labels, By the way, in spite of being in uni­ about other people's motives, but I clip'em out and send'em to us. versities for 10 years and having 5 wonder why an intelligent man would We'll make sure that you receive all earned degrees - and I didn't go to attack a straw man at such length. I sur­ the issues you've paid for. Hillsdale -I have no idea who mise that perhaps Mr. Cobin is, well, I Q: I think you've charged my credit Foucault and Derrida are. Should I hate to say it, a little paranoid about card incorrecdy; what can I do? care? I did have the misfortune of criticism of home-schooling. He seems A: Call us at 800-854-6991 (during attending public schools. Perhaps I to go overboard very quickly. I mean, normal business hours on the West missed Foucault and Derrida there, does he really believe that any piece Coast) or email us at whereas I would have got them if I written anonymously is "cowardly"? [email protected] were homeschooled or at a private Would he apply this rule to The We'll take down your information (even cloistered) school. Federalist Papers? and then try to solve your problem If the writer of this piece really as soon as possible; Hillsdale's Reign of Error wants to blame a primary and secon­ The more I reread Gary Wolfram's Q: Can I change my address on your dary system of education for producing "The Truth About Hillsdale"(April) and toll-free number, too? "intellectually cloistered lives, being Anonymous' "Is ItTrue What They Say A: No. We must get your address cor­ taught comfortable traditions rather About Hillsdale?,"(February) the more I rections in writing, either by U.S. than challenging ideas," and for causing am inclined to agree with Anonymous. mail or by email. pupils to miss out on intellectual greats That's not to say that I don't find some Q: Can I communicate with your ful­ like Foucault and Derrida, perhaps he things missing or shaded in fillment department by email? should find another whipping boy Anonymous' account, but those are far A: Yes; send your communications and besides home-schooling. queries to us at less glaring than those in Mr. Wolfram's John Cobin essay. [email protected] Santiago, Chile For instance, on the subject of ran- We'll try to get back to you as soon Anonymous responds: Good grief. The continued on page 22 as possible. only thing I said about home-schooled The editorial offices can be reached at 360-379-0242. We invite readers to comment on articles that have appeared in the pages of Liberty. We reserve the right to ] Our sales and subscription fulfillment edit for length and clarity. All letters are assumed to be intended for publication unless otherwise stated. office can be reached at 800-854-6991 Succinct, typewritten letters are preferred. Please include your phone number so that we can verify your identity. Send letters to: Liberty, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Or use the internet: letterstoedi­ (foreign callers call 360/379-8421). [email protected]. Mr. Rearden meets Mr. Thompson selves in the streets of Havana by playing eat's cradle with Perhaps it is a sign of a civil society that the richest man in rat entrails, will never believe his fantastic tales about Toys R the world can sit down and politely chat with the President Us and Disney World. I'm sure eventually even he'll doubt of the United States, even though the President is trying to some of the things he witnessed, like air conditioned build­ destroy his company and in fact has just succeeded in reduc­ ings and cars. The only evidence of his trip, his new puppy, ing his net worth by $11 billion. The April 5th conference on will be lucky to make it past Christmas Dinner. The State the "new economy" in which Bill Clinton and Bill Gates Department has its hands tied here though. If they didn't shared a panel was full of praise for the technological mar­ send him and his father back, parents in Cuba would start vels that Bill Gates has helped bring to billions of people, but stuffing their children into inner tubes and heaving them out all the praise Bill Clinton could muster was to compliment to sea like Frisbees®. -Tim Slagle Gates for giving $750 million to charity. Charity is good, but the achievements of Bill Gates, market entrepreneur, have The torch is passed - Keep an eye on Robert changed our world in ways that his philanthropy can never Kennedy's eldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, hope to mimic. Too bad Bill Clinton declines to acknowledge presently lieutenant governor of Maryland, longshot pros­ that. -Jane S. Shaw pect for vice president, likely the next governor, and - who knows - someday maybe the first female president. She's a Gentlemen's D- As the walls of privacy continue Democrat's dream -a Kennedy who's never raped or killed to crumble around the seekers of power, the Washington Post anyone. -David Boaz recently obtained Al Gore's high school and college tran­ scripts. While the relevance of 30-year-old college grades is Teach your children good - Presidential can­ certainly doubtful, there are some interesting tidbits. The didate Bush has proposed a multibillion-dollar program environmentalist author of Earth in the Balance, for instance, designed to combat illiteracy in the public schools. It's a rev­ got a D in Natural Sciences 6 (Man's Place in Nature) and a olutionary idea, designed to meet the revolutionary condi­ C-plus in Natural Sciences 118. As the Post put it, "the self­ tions of our time. proclaimed inventor of the Internet avoided all courses in Unfortunately, however, more than a few billion dollars mathematics and logic," but you knew that. He got a C­ will be required if we want to deal with the problems of illit­ minus in economics, a tad better than he would deserve erate schoolteachers. -Stephen Cox today. He got a C and a C-minus in his first two government Take stock in hysteria - As we prepare this courses, but he soon took to the study of power, rising to a B, issue of Liberty for the printer, the stock market is falling a B-plus, and A-minus in his junior year, "and he aced his sharply. This week alone, the NASDAQ fell 25% and the senior government thesis on the impact of television on the aggregate value of stocks fell an amazing $2 trillion. These presidency." (Somehow you can get all Cs your first two are astonishing numbers, but what's more astonishing is that years at Harvard and still graduate cum laude.) Sadly, as a practically no one seems worried. Those few who do graduate of Vanderbilt University, I am embarrassed to proclaim their distress mostly seem to be partisan opponents report that Gore briefly enrolled in the Divinity School there, of Bill Clinton, anxious to blame any crash on his decision to where he received an A-minus in Ethics. As I said, the rele­ extort a few billion from Microsoft Corp. by means of an vance of old college grades is dubious. Since I never took an anti-trust suit. ethics course, maybe I should just conclude that Al Gore's There's a scintilla of logic to their case: the crash was forgotten more about ethics than I ever knew. -David Boaz touched off by a court decision against Microsoft, instigated Microfallout - Far be it from me to suggest new by Clinton's administration. But blaming the crash on that ways for trial lawyers to make money, but it seems to me decision is like blaming the Civil War on the Confederate some sharp lawyer could devise a class-action lawsuit for officer who fired on Fort Sumter. Does anyone doubt that the shareholders of Sun, Oracle, Novell and other high-tech com­ Civil War would have occurred if the Confederacy had panies that urged the Justice Department to go after decided to allow Union forces to continue to occupy an Microsoft. The grounds? Most of those companies' stock island in Charleston's harbor? prices went down and therefore lost shareholder value in the Trees don't grow to the sky, and stock prices cannot rise stock-market debacle that followed Judge Jackson's rapidly forever. If the sharp declines of this week portend a announcement that Microsoft was Guilty-Guilty-Guilty. genuine crash, on the magnitude of 1929 - and it's not -Alan Bock evident to me that they do - it won't be the result of Clinton's ridiculous persecution of Microsoft. If and when Tubin' Cubans? - Little Elian Gonzalez looks the crash comes it will happen for the same reason that every bound for Cuba, and he probably will be an outcast the rest other crash has happened: because assets got ridiculously of his childhood. Other Cuban boys, who entertain them- overvalued, and fear overcame greed. In a market inflated by Liberty 7 June 2000

speculation, collapse is inevitable. I lived through the silver boom and collapse of 1979-80. At the time, I was a major dealer and a substantial Liberty Live ... speculator in the white metal, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of Intellectual sparks flew in Port Townsend at Liberty's 1999 Ed­ business each week. I was well aware itor's Conference. The best individualist minds of our time met that prices were crazy and that the price there to debate the future of liberty and society - and have a ton of silver could not sustain itself. But of fun in the process. knowing that doesn't help you much in Now you can witness the proceedings for yourself! A complete the real world: if you liquidate your position at $20, you missed a lot of the set of 23 audio-tapes is just $119.00. You can also order sessions in­ profit you'd have made if you held on dividually: $19.95 per videotape, $6.95 per audiotape to $30, at which point the price was Join the excitement of the 1999 Liberty Editors' conference. With even crazier and less sustainable. If you these tapes, you can experience it all year! sold at $30, you kicked yourself when it The 1999 Liberty Group - Join Bill Bradford, Tim Slagle, Fred Smith, got to $35, etc, etc. Durk Pearson and Alan Bock as they presciently analyze the current political I 'Survived by keeping my position madhouse and slaughter sacred cows with abandon. This is.a fast-paced journey relatively stable, playing spreads of libertarian commentary that explores the issues of the day and predicts out­ between different forms of silver and comes for the elections of tomorrow. (audio: A401i no video available) making good profits as a broker. When the inevitable crash came, I lost a lotof How Environmental Regulation Prevents People From Pro­ money, but far less than I made on the tecting the Environment - Environmental economist Rick Stroup ex­ way up. To tell the truth, it was a relief. plains how iron-fisted regulators provide powerful incentives against pri­ I think the stock market today is in vate landowners caring for the environment. (audio: A402; video: V402) the same kind of situation. The fact that otherwise rational people think it makes The U.S. Forest Service: America's Experiment in Soviet So­ perfect sense for a stock like cialism - The country's premier expert on the U.S. Forest Service, Randal Amazon.com to rise higher and higher O'Toole, tells a sad tale of excessive road building, clearcutting and the stran­ as its firm's losses become greater and gling effects of Soviet-style centralized decision-making. (audio: A403; video: greater is just as loony as the claims in V403) January 1980 that silver would soon be Environmental Religion in the Schools -Author Jane Shaw ex­ trading at $1,000 per ounce. But people plores how schools indoctrinate children in the New Religion of Mother who bought silver at the ridiculous Earth. In this religion, wealth and production are among the deadly sins. (au­ price of $25 doubled their money if they dio: A404i video: V404) liquidated at $50, just as people who paid absurd prices for shares of The Liberty Privacy Panel-R.W. Bradford, Fred Smith, David Fried­ Amazon.com a few months ago made man and Doug Casey explore the privacy issues of the 21st century. (audio: ridiculous priofits if they sold out at the A405; video: V405) right time. Advancing Liberty in the Courts - Washington Supreme Court The problem is that I don't know Justice Richard Sanders explains howlibertarians get more bang for their where the top will come or whether buck by supporting judicial candidates. You'll hear how one libertarian we've already seen the top, just as I justice can make a huge difference! (audio: A406i video: V406) didn't know where the top would come in silver prices in 1980. For all I know, A Libertarian in Congress -The sole libertarian in Congress, Ron we've already seen the top and the Dow Paul, on the art of building coalitions and on how he led the effort to slay the will fall to 4,000 and the NASDAQ to privacy-invading Know Your Customer regulations. Hear him recount the 400 in the next month - or maybe this history of the Social Security number as an identifier, and learn how laws on is just a temporary correction and the immigration, welfare reform, and health care are shredding your privacy. Dow will top 15000 and the NASDAQ (audio: A407; video: V407) top 10000 by the end of the year. Sorry, Does the Libertarian Party Have a Future? -R.W. Bradford I'm not running seances here. makes a powerful case that the LP is failing to advance freedom, and \Sug­ One of the things that helped me gests a controversial new approach that could lead to a political break­ live through the silver boom and bust through. Judge for yourself whether the provocative strategy he outlines will was my conviction that prices are propel the LP into the big leagues. (audio: A408i video: V408) ultimately subjective, the product of expectations that can change very Al Gore's War on Freedom and Mobility -AI Gore hates the inter­ quickly and unpredictably. It's basic nal combustion engine. Ifhe gets his way, America's cities will look a lot more Austrian economics, though a great like the cities of communist Europe, so says Randal O'Toole. (audio: A409i vid­ many people who claim familiarity with eo: V409) 8 Liberty Share the Excitement!

Selling Liberty in an Illiberal World -Fred Making Terror Your Friend -In a world overrun Smith offers a revolutionary approach to spreading libertar­ with authoritarian creeps, Doug Casey highlights the at­ ian ideas, and explains how to frame issues for maximum titudes and techniques that set him apart from the controlled appeal. (audio: A410; video: V410) masses. (audio: A418; video: V418) Contracts and the Net - The Internet will re­ End the Drug War or Forget About Freedom­ shape contract law, argues David Friedman, at the ex­ Alan Bock journeys to the heart of darkness in America's pense of judicial power. Learn how netizens are de­ failed effort at drug prohibition.The casualties of the war, veloping institutions to allow for private litigation, and says Bock, are a lot of harmless people and your civil rights. hear how arbitration and reputation loss are actually more (audio: A419; video: V419) potent on the Net than in real space. (audio: A411; video: Juries, Justice and the Law -Ful­ V411) ly informed jury activist Larry Dodge ex­ plains the history and the importance of How to Write Op-Eds and jury nullification, including efforts under­ Get Them Published -Join way to increase the power of juries. (au­ former Business Week editor Jane dio: A420; video: V420) Shaw, Orange County Register senior columnist Alan Bock and Seattle Post-Intelligencer business reporter Bruce Ramsey for a workshop on how you can air your opinions in the newspaper. Learn Jane's six points that will send you on your way to publication, and hear the one phrase which Ram­ sey says is taboo at his paper. (audio: A412; video: V412) What Does Economics Have to Do With the Law, and What Do Both Have to Do With Libertarianism? - David Friedman explores how economics and law relate to each other and to libertar­ ianism. (audio: A413; video V413) Urban Sprawl, Liberty and the State -Urban sprawl may turn out to be one of the hot-button issues of the next election. Learn why environmentalists want you caged in cities, and how they plan to do it, with Jane Shaw, Richard Stroup, Fred Smith, and Randal O'Toole. (audio: A414; video: V414) My Dinner With James Madison - Scott Reid views modern America through the eyes of a Found­ ing Father. Our Madison discusses some little known alternatives considered at the Constitutional Conven­ tion, and why they would have been better for free­ dom. (audio: A415; video: V415) The New Liberty and the Old -R.W. Bradford explains how fundamental changes are reshaping the li­ bertarian movement, and forthrightly takes on the ad­ vocates of the non-aggression imperative. (audio: A416; video: V416) Using the First Amendment to Smash the State - Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw tell how they've used the First Amendment to wage total war against the government. Learn how they brought the FDA to its knees, and share their secrets for successful litigation. (audio: A417; video: V417) June 2000

Austrian economics seem to have missed out on this insight. change what it means to be human and certainly any sensi­ For a good explanation of the uselessness of economics (or ble person will think carefully before making use of such any other rational discipline) as a means of predicting stock technologies. But these technologies offer us wonderful or· commodity prices, see Mises' Human Action, especially opportunities, among them longer life, greater intelligence, chapter 30, "The Place of Economics in Learning," especially and more happiness. I don't see how Microsoft or·Monsanto the subsection "Forecasting as a Profession.) -R. W. Bradford or Genentech dictate the future any more·· than Ford or General Electric or AT&T do. Capital punishment - The Clinton administra­ The idea that the existence of choices forces you to make tion, in its usual manner, spent one day shedding crocodile choices in order to keep up with other people strikes me as tears over the fact that Americans are saving less of their peculiar. You could get along without cars or airplanes if money than ever before, then moved on to the next sound you really felt that was important, but it is. undeniably true bite. Nobody suggested the obvious: eliminating taxes on that people who did use cars and airplanes would be able to savings. -Alan Bock travel a lot faster and a lot farther than you ever could. You Genetic fallacy - Get your hands off of my genes! could even live in a remote place without electricity and tele­ That's what I felt like saying as I read "Better Living phones, to avoid being "forced" to make choices about elec­ Through Genetics" (April) by James Wood. It was a surreal tricity and telephones. What it really comes down to, it experience to find this article in Liberty and definitely rubbed seems to me, is that Mr. Wood doesn't like other people's my libertarian nature and my scientific sensibilities the choices, such as buying high tech products by Microsoft or wrong way. Monsanto or Genentech. Woods starts off by·telling us that learning how genes "In sum," says Mr. Wood, "the new technologies invite work and then altering· them is a utopia promised by conceptualizing future humans as information-processing Science. He then suggests (by asking the rhetorical question: systems genetically pre-set to fit narrowly defined ranges of "What could possibly go wrong?") that something terrible is acceptable normalcy." Really? I think most people today about to happen as a result. He describes in chilling detail have a rather narrowly defined· range of acceptable nor­ the awful things that could happen when people make the malcy. Provided central authority does not prohibit market wrong choices with a powerful new technology. People choices beyond that narrow range, the new choices should might try to change their kids-to-be's genes so that they'll be increase diversity, not decrease it. (For example, it has smarter, prettier, taller, healthier, or even (gasp) have green recently been discovered that hair follicles are immune­ eyes. People might try to alter presumed weaknesses of char­ privileged sites, that is, are not attacked by the immune sys­ acter by genetic modifications. "A little more research, and tem; hence, it will be possible in the fairly near future to we will know how to tweak the genetic makeup to cure or grow a full head of hair with follicles from somebody else or avoid such problems," the author warns (or perhaps just perhaps even a full coat of fur from mink hair follicles. Just scoffs). think of what a new generation of biopunks could do with As a result of the existence of these new technologies, we this!) are forced to make choices we really don't want to make I don't believe that many scientists or people in general since, if we don't, somebody else is likely to get a competi­ think that human behavior is "genetically set." Genes inter­ tive edge on us or our kids. He finds this alarming: act with environmental factors. I suspect that those people "Microsoft or Monsanto or Genentech has no more right to who actually believe human behavior is genetically set· will dictate our futures than does a federal government." eventually learn better the same way people usually learn Wow. This is a far cry from how I see things. I expect better: by observingthe results of genetic tinkering. people to make lots of mistakes, especially with powerful Wood's article reminds me of people who hate the mar­ new technologies, but I expect that people will eventually ketplace because it leads to· choices of which they disap­ learn as a result of these mistakes. One does one's best to prove, just as FDA Commissioners believe people are too keep out of the way of other people's idiocies. Unless the dumb to make their own choices of prescription drugs, med­ government forces us all to make the same stupid decisions, ical devices, dietary supplements, and foods, or too dumb to only those who make stupid choices will suffer the conse­ understand complex information about biochemical mecha­ quences of doing so. nisms. The FDA's "solution" to this problem is to stick guns Of course, it is an awesome thing for people to be gaining in people's faces to protect them from their own mistakes. In access to technologies that allow them to fundamentally so doing, the FDA has become a major threat to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is not clear from Woods' arti­ cle what "solution" he proposes as to the availability of genetic engineering to people who make choices other than those he approves. As for me, I welcome the new opportunities - even if it means that a few biopunks will be growing glow-in-the-dark green feathers. -SandyShaw The wages of perjury - So there's a chance the Arkansas Bar will actually suspend. President Clinton's license to practice law because of his propensity for perjury. "Hey, Pop - how about a people-back ride?" What a tragedy that would be. I really expected Our Boy Bill 10 Liberty June 2000 to open a storefront law office in Hope and focus on making pened to some degree with "drug prohibition." And no one legal services available to the poor and disenfranchised at speaks of "gun freedom." Yet gun freedom is just the issue cut rates, didn't you? -Alan Bock we debate under the loaded label "gun control." Definition is destiny in modem politics. The digital You don't find the word "siege" in news Siege heil! - sound-bite era favors one-line arguments and one-word stories about peaceful countries very often. But one day pigeonholes. So we should choose our labels as we would recently (March 18), the front page of The New York Times choose our dueling weapons. Why keep saying "liberal" if used the word twice above the fold, in headlines reading we don't mean it? Why not say"controller" or something else "Under Legal Siege, Gun Maker Agrees To Accept Curbs" and "Seeking Clues By Simulating Davidian Siege." The if we do mean it? To repeat a label is both to reinforce it and striking thing is that both these stories involved a siege by to accept it. It is politics through other means - through defi­ the United States government of some of its citizens. It's a nition. -Bart Kosko good thing we live in a free country or we'd really be in Smoking on the Thames - Britain's Labour trouble. -David Boaz government now plans to legalize cannabis (or marijuana) for What's in a name? - Libertarians often complain medical uses, according to a March 24 report from Reuters. that American liberals have no right to a label based on the The move surprises some, but is said to be a compromise word "liberty." American liberals base their ideas and poli­ between Mo Mowlam, the cabinet minister in charge of anti­ cies on government control. And the old "classical liberals" drug strategies, who wanted a study on full decriminaliza­ pretty much were libertarians. The Economist still calls itself tion of marijuana, and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who pre­ liberal in that sense as it calls for an end to drug prohibition ferred no change. The move may have been prodded also by and calls for less government control in most cases. a report from the Police Foundation, headed by Prince So let's give liberals a name we can live with. American Charles, which recommended that marijuana use be "depen­ liberals won't accept anything with "socialist" in it and that alized." Meanwhile, in California, the people voted for medi­ term can provoke too many debates about definitions and calization of marijuana in 1996 and patients still have trouble history. The name "socialist" would also not be fair because getting authorities to recognize their rights instead of throw­ we could just as well apply it to their conservative oppo­ ing them in the calaboose. -Alan Bock nents. Both groups favor a double-digit state in terms of Scientists now claim that unusual how much of gross domestic product the state consumes. The hole truth - I suggest we call American liberals "controllers." They cold in the Arctic stratosphere over the last winter might want to control the economy through taxes and regulations delay recovery of the ozone layer. Oh,. that's why eliminating and lawsuits. They want to control guns and tobacco and Freon from air conditioners has had no effect upon the ozone toys. They want to control speech and education and sexual hole. The extra energy required for them to run on Freon sub­ conduct. They want to control the environment and even stitutes has increased carbon dioxide, and accelerated Global outer space. Government is just their preferred means to Warming, which in turn causes Global Cooling, which inhib­ their end of control. So let's give them their logical due and its ozone production. Does anyone still doubt that the envi- call them as they act and not as they describe themselves. Calling them "controllers" also makes it easier to describe their policy goals in the more accurate terms of control: gun control, speech control, education control, sex control, health control, corporate control, etc. The clear problem with this idea is that in some cases we could call conservatives "controllers" with equal merit. Conservatives want to control drugs and abortions. They want to control the content of films and TV and the Internet. These control points are defining issues for many conserva­ tives. But conservatives on the whole do not want to control guns or the economy. Many conservatives have fought hard for economic freedom and can take credit for at least slow­ ing the advance of "liberal" economic control in the last seven or so decades. American liberals will surely call for more economic control in the years ahead as Baby Boomers age and demand more state subsidies and as more debate focuses on how humans affect the environment. So the"con­ troller" label favors liberals on net - on matters of money. And a strategic point is that conservatives are a minority in the intellectual trades. Real progress comes when you bloody the bully's nose. Recent history shows that you can give birth to a label through sheer repetition. That happened with "sexual harassment" and "political correctness." It has even hap- Liberty 11 June 2000 ronmental movement is being led by Witch Doctors? kindergarten teacher, and he will certainly say many things -Tim Slagle that Barney the Dinosaur would never permit to escape his purple jaws. Whether people will notice, or care, or even The generosity tax - Let's see, the federal gov­ enjoy being talked to in that way - that is another question. ernment is wallowing in multibillion dollar surpluses, yet They wouldn't take it from Ogden L. Mills, but that was a some flack in the IRS gets newspapers to run stories about long time ago. They've been taking it from the Kennedys for how evasion of gift taxes is "costing" the federal government almost 40 years. -Stephen Cox all of $275 million a year? Why not just get rid of the gift tax? Or is penalizing generosity what the government is really all The Fabian approach - For the first time in my about? -Alan Bock lifetime, people have become suspicious of the United States census. The recent report that the Census Bureau provided This little Al had to work, that little Al information to help authorities round up and incarcerate got to play - In 1926, the redoubtable Al Smith was Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II cer­ running for reelection as governor of· New York; his oppo­ tainly did not help its case. nent was one Ogden L. Mills. Smith had been reared in pov­ In some cities, up to sixty percent of the people flat out erty. His mother worked in an umbrella factory; his father refused to fill out the form. On April 6, Census director was a wagon driver. Mills, on the other hand, was a wealthy Kenneth Prewitt agreed to limit the intrusiveness of the long socialite. But there was one delightful thing about him - his form, by mailing it continuously to 250,000 households a final campaign slogan, which was probably the worst cam­ month, rather than 2 million once every 10 years. That paign slogan ever invented. Trying to capitalize .on the would ensure that 30 million households will have to fill it notion that poor people are just into politics for the money, during each decade, rather than the 20 million that are while rich people can give the public the benefit of truly dis­ required presently. When all else fails, resort to gradualism, interested service, one of Mills's p.r. guys came up with this and make it bigger. -Tim Slagle battle cry: "AI Had to Work or Starve; Mills Never Had to Work." Limeys, lorries and levies - In the February That did it. Smith won with a margin of 257,000 votes. Liberty, R. W. Bradford reported how the citizens of Unfortunately, we will probably not hear any Mills-like Washington state rebelled against rising road license fees slogans in this year's presidential election, because neither of and voted themselves a substantial cut. I wish the citizens of the major-party candidates ever Had to Work. They are both the U.K. had the means to do the same. rich boys, and they both act like it. On the great scale of priv­ Bradford recorded his own dismay when the license fee ilege, however, Gore ranks somewhat ahead of Bush. hit $100. In the U.K. it is now £150, or about U.S. $237. But Gore was born to power as well as wealth. He was that is just the beginning. Fuel averages over 70 pence per reared, not as a tobacco farmer, as once he claimed (to an litre, or (with the pound at $1.58) about $5.00 per Imperial audience of tobacco farmers), but as a Little Prince Charming gallon, and can be as high as $5.57 (if my math is right). of the Washington elite - the elite that Bush's daddy eventu­ What is that in U.S. measures? $6.60 a gallon? ally entered, only to be expelled by the machinations of, Of that sum, approximately 80 percent is tax, levied in among o~ers, Little Prince Charming. cunning ways. Part is a landing tax on the crude, which is Gore constantly proves that he sees the world from the extracted from beneath international waters in the North Ogden L. Mills perspective. He never entertains the slightest Sea. There follows a hefty excise tax on the refined fuel. After doubt that he who Never Had to Work is best qualified to fuel company and dealer have added their costs and shape the lives of everybody else. That shaping, of course, markup, a 17.5 percent sales tax (VAT) is levied to produce requires no actual, socially demeaning, mentally debilitating the retail price. The poor U.K. motorist ends up paying more effort from him. After all, he invented the Internet simply by for fuel than any other driver in Europe, the bulk of the bill Congressional decree. being made up by a tax, upon a tax, upon a tax. Gore has a terrible case of rich-boy political myopia, and Furthermore, Britain has the most congested roads in Europe we can confidently expect him to stumble over quite a few - by actual study - while some 30 percent of road acci­ sofas as a result. The man who claimed to have invented the dents are due to poorly designed or poorly maintained Internet will certainly continue to lecture the country like a roads. Yet, of the £30 odd billion raised directly from motor­ ists in taxes each year, only one sixth is spent on roads (in some years, less). The most frustrating thing is foreign travel. In France and Spain, which have superb highway networks, the fuel tax is vastly lower. One can fill a small diesel car for about $20.00. In the U.K., it costs $60.00. If traditionally statist nations can build far better roads while charging much less tax, why do the citizens of a traditionally free country have to pay three times more for a road system consisting largely of upgraded medieval cart tracks? It's even worse if you're in the trucking business. The "You told me to be fruitful and multiply? - But European average license fee for a tractor/ trailer is about what about geometric progression? £1,100. In the U.K., it is about £4,500. That, added to the high 12 Liberty June 2000 price of fuel, has driven many small firms out of business, eye dog? Since cows aren't as smart as dogs, isn't it less cruel while others are being forced to move, or consider moving, to eat a cow than to exploit a dog? -Tim Slagle across the Channel. Bravo, the citizens of Washington! But spare a thought for Back to the place from which he came - the poor Brits, bled white by their government, and with no I note with sadness that, as we go to press, the Clinton constitutional means to stop the torment. -Nicholas Dykes administration is about to succeed in its attempt to force six-year-old Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba. Yes, I know. As a The limits ofthe Bill ofRights - I grow so general rule, a child belongs with his parent. But general weary of hearing Liberal Urban Professionals (Lippies), rules do not apply in every case - that's why they're general claim that the Constitution was never meant to be taken seri­ rules. There are cases when a child does not belong with his ously; that our founders left loopholes so that modern socie­ parent. No humane person, for example, would insist that a ties could reinterpret the document. Usually the Second child belongs with a parent who seriously abuses him. Amendment falls victim to this "Organic, Living, Breathing" I believe the hurdle that must be exceeded for the state to argument. intervene is an extraordinarily high one. I don't want the I would suggest that the Founding Fathers could never courts to take a child from his parents unless the harm to the have envisioned that the First Amendment would be misin­ child is real and very serious. This isn't because I have even terpreted by modem civilizations, and give people a right to utter such nonsense. Along with not having a right to yell the slightest sympathy for those who abuse children. It's fire in a crowded theater, I think that no person should have because I believe that, in general, the risk that the state will the right to endanger my liberty by saying something so abuse a child is much greater than the risk that his parents ignorant and' uninformed. Let's rewrite the First will. The justice provided by the state is very rough on all Amendment, to get stupid remarks out of the mouths of concerned, and especially rough when the state gets imbeciles and make our streets safer. -Tim Slagle involved with families. A family has to subject a child to terrible abuse before I'd countenance state interference. It's not yourfather's census - Some libertar­ I think the prospects are plain in Elian's case. Far more ians sound as if the census only got objectionable after the and far worse abuse will await the little boy in Cuba than feds started asking about race, income and home ownership. could possibly occur to him in the custody of his relatives in I think they're nuts. Miami. The problem is not that Cuba is a poor country. The The Constitution clearly authorizes an actual enumera­ tion. Does it follow that every resident must identify herself? Applying the doctrine of con­ temporaneous construction, the answer is a resounding NO. The first census, administered by people most familiar with the deliberations of Coming in Liberty the Constitutional Convention on the census, gives the best guidance. The first census did not mandate self-identification: In the census of 1790, the federal marshalls were White Paper simply instructed to count the population and were told what items of information to secure. on the The marshals then posted the information which they had assembled in a public place for all to see, and to give persons who had not yet been included the opportunity to have their information Browne added to the returns for the appropriate district. . . (Population: The Vital Revolution, ed. Ronald Freedman, pp 86-87, emphasis added) Let's go back to the censual ways of our Regime (Founding) Fathers. -Martin Solomon In early March, Jacob Hornberger ofthe Future ofFreedom Blinded by ideology - On March 23, Foundation issued a lengthy indictment ofthe Harry Browne the New England Journal of Medicine reported a presidential campaign and the leadership ofthe national case where a vegan went blind due to a vitamin Libertarian Party, charging them with serious conflicts ofinter­ B-12 deficiency. This should serve as ample warning to any PETA members trying to get est and wasting $1,000,000 ofdonors' money. state legislatures to legislate against meat. Liberty's staff is conducting a thorough and independent Thirty-three years old and 100% blind! I bet he investigation ofthe charges. We've already examined hundreds doesn't hang out with his PETA buddies much ofdocuments and interviewed dozens ofpeople. anymore. Kind of hard to swallow that, The cases for and against the charges, the evidence and our "Humans were meant to be vegetarians" crap conclusions will be presented in a special "White Paper," in our when you're bumping into walls. I wonder: Is it July issue, available on newsstands and mailed to subscribers in wrong for a blinded vegan to exploit a seeing late May. June 2000 problem is that it is a totalitarian country. It abuses people in have had as dividends, sending one little boy into Hell may ways that mere poverty cannot: it denies them freedom of not seem like much of an opportunity. Still, you take what speech, freedom of belief, freedom of movement ... freedom you can get. With international communism a spent force (no of just about everything. Cuba's poverty is a consequence of thanks to the mainline churches), you have to be satisfied its totalitarianism, but it is far from the worst consequence. with less bang for your buck. -R. W. Bradford I believe I've read or heard a thousand commentaries about what should be done about Elicin. And I can only think For a few dollars more - Congress and the of two - one in The Wall St Journal and one in Liberty - that administration seem bound and determined to send more of give any reasonable consideration to the question: what's our money to Colombia to help fight the misbegotten drug best for him? The others talk, about the law, about the war. Let's see, Colombia is now home to the most aggressive importance of family, about the way in which the Cuban herbicide spraying program in the world and the recipient of community in Miami is exploiting the case, about how the more U.S. military aid than any country outside the Middle Castro regime is exploiting the case ... but virtually no one East. The program hasn't worked, but enlarging it will do the cares about the six-year-old child who is about to be sent trick? Spending $250 billion since 1980 has done almost noth­ back to the same totalitarian hellhole from which his Mother ing to affect the propensity of Americans to do drugs, but gave her life for his escape. $1.7 billion for helicopters for Colombia will finally get it Republican conservatives are critical of Clinton's desire to done? Sure. -Alan Bock help the abusers. They say they support Elicin's right to stay The man here but haven't even introduced the citizenship legislation Charity, forced and unforced - who gave his country the Internet and a robust economy has that would prevent Clinton from sending him back to Cuba. been laying plans in his campaign speeches ·to extend this Their reason? The Democrats would filibuster. But since when is fear of filibuster sufficient reason to countenance Gore-given period of unparalleled prosperity. He's con­ cerned "that too many will be left behind" as the vast major­ evil? And who knows whether there would be enough votes in the Senate to kill a filibuster? There's always a chance that ity of Americans enjoy the benefits of advanced technologies senators would somehow find enough sympathy in their and their increasing wealth. Al Gore fears that we as individ­ hearts for this unfortunate little boy to give him something uals and as a nation will "squander our prosperity." And he that all their children should get for free, something that has a pocketful of proposals to prevent us from robbing the costs them nothing at all. future of its potential. Meanwhile, Elicin's father has the best lawyer money can What is Gore's evidence that Americans' prosperity will buy, the repulsive Gregory Craig, erstwhile mouthpiece of be squandered? He should log on to the World Wide Web to Bill Clinton. who, according to his own sworn testimony, see how charities are reaping record contributions online explained to his children that his client had "misled the from individuals who wish to exercise their social con­ American people, misled his family, and misled his sciences and match their charitable giving to their personal colleagues and that is wrong and the president should have concerns and interests. made full disclosure earlier," thereby distinguishing himself Most well-known charities now maintain Web sites. One as a mouthpiece who will even spin-doctor to his own kids. site, guidestar.org provides information on more than What better person to take a small child from his loving 620,000 different charitable groups, with a sophisticated family and send him back to a totalitarian nightmare from search engine to locate areas of interest - and with financial which his mother gave her life for his escape? data, online profiles and 501(c)(3) status. And how did Elian's father come up with the money for a The levels of giving in recent years are as impressive as high-priced attorney like Craig? Well, he didn't. The United the variety of funded causes, online and off, suggesting that Methodist Board of Church and Society is paying for his services. There's no surprise here. The Methodists, I recall, ITHf ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE :AUCTION 2000 I funded the revolutionary activities of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Just last week, their friend confiscated all land in his country that is owned by white people in order to help finance his dispatch of troops to the Congo to support yet another dictator, in hopes of getting part ownership of the Congolese mining operations. These will be immensely profitable as soon as the Congolese dictator gets the popular rebellions in his country under control and his slaves back into the mines - but don't bother fashionable churchmen with complicated things like that. Compared to the human tragedy that their investments in Mugabe SHCHAM.8ERS 14 Liberty June 2000 Al Gore's fears and concerns are irrational or disingenuous. government redistributions of wealth, are not only ineffec­ According to The NonProfit Times, the top five U.S. charities, tive but too often are counterproductive. According to Doug ranked by total income, fall into the human services Bandow of the Cato Institute, "aid to such nations as category: Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Zaire subsidized the very 1. National Council of YMCAs: $3,248,700,000. worst autocratic and corrupt dictators. This made chaos and 2. Catholic Charities USA: 2,309,000,000. war more, not less, likely." 3. Salvation Army: 2,078,200,000. Since World War II American taxpayers have had more 4. American Red Cross: 2,057,800,000. than $1 trillion "contributed" to foreign assistance. But a 5. Goodwill Industries International: 1,503,700,000. United Nations report in 1996 showed that 70 of the recipient All rank between 88.6 percent and 73.1 percent in total countries were poorer than they were in 1980; 43 were in sad­ revenue devoted to programs - higher percentages than any der shape than in 1970. government give-away program ever. The decision to squander or not to squander prosperity The next 45 organizations listed include health, conserva­ should be left to the prosperity producers, Mr. Gore. It might tion, civic/cultural, religious, relief/development and many be an interesting experiment for your poll-driven administra­ more human services groups. Number 50 on the list is Father tion and campaign to set up its own Web site - death­ Flanagan's Boy's Home with $138.3 million. Fascinating to star.org? - and offer all giveaway programs to gauge me are the off-list causes able to attract substantial funding support from the potential givers rather than the takers that support, including over $110,000 committed to the Leo are already speaking loudly and clearly to you. I wouldn't be Reward Fund, established to catch the man who hurled a 10­ a bit surprised if dead-dog Leo and Father Flanagan were year old dog named Leo to its death after a minor traffic voted more dollars than Colombia's President Pastrana. accident. -Dyanne M. Petersen And over $500,000 has been raised for a private effort to bring down an estimated three tons of garbage from the Wouldn't that be heartless? - The House slopes of Mt. Everest. An eight-man team of climbers with a voted to rescind new rules on organ transplants, promul­ larger team of Sherpas will haul out the debris over a two gated by the Department of Health and Human Services, month period this year. If you check guidestar.org, you'll that would have sent more organs across state lines. The find 27 Celtic culture organizations competing for donation issue was whether the "sickest" anyplace in the country dollars. should be moved up in the queue or whether most organs Total giving for 1999 should come in at over $180 billion, should be used in the state in which they were donated. up from $175 billion in 1998, reported Daniel Borochoff, pres­ Unfortunately, nobody proposed the single step that would ident of the American Institute of Philanthropy. "When times do most to alleviate the chronic shortage of transplantable are good, such as now, people tend to give more," said Ann organs: allowing them to be bought and sold. Nobody Kaplan, editor of Giving USA. In October 1999, the White expects the surgeon who does a transplant to work for free; House held a conference on philanthropy, its first such "offi­ why should the person providing the organ? -Alan Bock cial" conference ever held. The "recommendation" was made that individuals should give up to 5 percent of their asset Joy in Mudville - The stock market downturn of value, as philanthropic organizations do. "Charitable contri­ April 14 (which was, by coincidence, the anniversary of the butions would quickly reach 9 percent of GDP, instead of the "Titanic's" sinking) prompted a lot of thoughts, real or current range of around 2 percent," Ann Kaplan predicted. alleged, in a lot of craniums. I know someone who must I've not heard recommendations or proposals coming have lost, given what I know about his portfolio, over 100 from Mr. Gore nor from his tax-and-spend Congressional million dollars. Probably he did not have cheerful thoughts comrades for returning tax dollars to their producer victims on April 14, although he should have: during the past year, so that charitable giving goals can be achieved. All the the market had given him over twice that amount. But I benevolence and generosity expressed in $180 billion of char­ haven't heard from him yet. itable contributions last year came from a tax-burdened I did hear from Fox News, by far the best of the news American population with relatively little tax benefit for channels, though not a distinguished source of opinion in their donations. regard to this particular event. Fox pronounced April 14 Mr. Gore, like politicians and policymakers on the left "Wall Street's worst day ever"- a patently ridiculous thing and the right, doesn't really want more privately-made con­ to say. The Dow's decline of 617 points may be the worst in tributions because that kind of giving is controlled and its history, but its percentage of decline, 5.66, is not at all on directed by the donor rather than caterers to special interests the historic scale. and recipient constituencies. The proposals I hear from Gore Oddly, Fox went on to present a feature about someone and his cronies are for more spending of tax funds, like the who analyzes the traumas of people who have recently made $2 billion in foreign aid to escalate the War on Drugs and to enormous profits on Silicon Valley stocks. This man claims prop up Pastrana's government in Colombia. that such people suffer from "sudden wealth syndrome," a As strange as the Leo Reward Fund may seem to some, curious collection of symptoms that include tasteless spend­ the $100,000 contributed by pet-loving, cruelty-curbing citi­ ing, suspicion of other people's designs and approaches, and zens may actually produce and punish the dog killer. And a besetting fear of losing one's money as easily as one achieving that goal is obviously very important to those con­ acquired it. tributing voluntarily to the fund with their hard-earned and I take this particular symptom, not as a sign of sickness, hard-taxed dollars. Foreign aid, however, and most other but as a sign of robust health. It reflects an instinct for the Liberty 15 June 2000 economic truth, an instinct that Americans have often nota­ money was lost last week in tech stocks than anywhere else bly lacked. During the depression of the 1930s, pioneer liber­ in the world, except the San Francisco Bay area. But looking tarian Isabel Paterson found herself constantly listening to out my window today, I see only sunshine and happy peo­ the complaints of people who simply could not fathom the ple. There is still joy in Mudville, even though mighty idea that their investments had turned sour. To them, it Qua1comm has struck out. -Stephen Cox seemed somehow unnatural, inconceivable in the literal sense of that word. They insisted that there must be a way to Don't trust any law over 30 - Defenders of keep anything. like that from happening. To these people, Al Gore dismiss his illegal fundraising phone calls from the Paterson replied in the following immortal words: White House as merely violations of "an obscure 1883 law." Let us begin with the elementary fact that in any economic Now, the fact is that everyone involved in politics in system by which one can make a couple of million dollars, one Washington knows that you can't raise campaign funds on can LOSE the same amount. The two possibilities, dear chil­ federal property. That's why the two parties maintain office dren, are equally inherent. You can't have one without the suites near the Capitol so that members of Congress can other, sad as this may seem. dash over there and make fundraising calls. And every few Paterson herself lost money, a lot of money, in the mar­ years the Washington Post runs a story about a senator being ket. But she knew what to do with that fact. She could.take accused of accepting a campaign contribution in his office ­ her loss without becoming cosmic about it. no doubt a situation that frequently arises, since members of The important thing, as it seemed to her, was to scotch Congress meet most of their constituents, lobbyists, and this idea that Something Ought To Be Done to Prevent These other visitors in their official offices. But they're not sup­ Things. It's true, of course, that people can improve their posed to solicit and accept funds there, and everybody odds by putting their money into companies that actually knows it. Certainly a man who was a son of a senator, a make a profit, as opposed to companies that just put "dot House member for eight years, and a senator for eight years com" in their names and let it go at that, or by pulling the knows this law. money out a minute before all the other suckers and gam­ But what is perhaps most interesting about this way of blers do. But sooner or later, there's going to be a downturn. dismissing Gore's transgression is the implication that the Bad investments - including unpredictably bad invest­ law's great age makes it an obscure anachronism. It's a law ments - are going to be cleared out. from 1883; who could be expected to take it seriously? In If you think that this can be Prevented, you will have to fact, of course, laws should probably be taken more seriously turn to government to do it. Government won't be able to, of the older they are. Sure, there are the laws that have become course, short of abolishing markets altogether, but it can an embarrassment, like the remaining laws against sodomy. make a pretty good show of screwing things up while it And there are the merely ridiculous laws, like the law tries. Watch out, then. If the market stays down the rest of against painting birds in Harper Woods, Michigan. But this year, you may see some scary proposals coming out of many old laws are those that have stood the test of time, per­ the political candidates. haps because they are just obvious. Indeed, the origins of the It is possible, though - wait a minute, I'm not saying it's oldest laws are lost in the mists of history. When was the law true, I'm just saying it's possible - that we as a people may against murder passed, for instance? But to Gore's defend­ slowly be learning something about markets. We may be ers, perhaps the law against murder is "an obscure pre­ reaching the point where a big downturn can happen and modern law." Serious laws, laws you could expect people to the neighbors will not all leap to embrace the first New follow, are new laws - the Clean Air Act, the Americans Dealish plan that comes down the pike. We may be reaching with Disabilities Act, the Violence Against Women Act. I that moment of zenlike serenity in which people who lose guess that's why Gore pledges to pass new and oppressive (and most people lose something in a big market decline) campaign-finance laws even as he violates the existing laws can still keep smiling. In San Diego, where I live, more with impunity. -David Boaz The Borking of Science - Those who can recall the Bork debacle will remember how the nominee tried to Learn at Liberty! scurry away from his 1971 Indiana Law Journal essay's view of the First Amendment (viz., that the freedom of speech clause protects only political speech) by insisting that he Liberty offers full-time, paid internships at all times of now believed that all speech (somehow) contributed in some the year. Interns at work closely with the Liberty measure to political discourse - except pornography. Why editors. Responsibilities include fact-checking, was that the sole exception? No doubt because it was the researching, circulation and advertising work. only thing he could get away with claiming was subject to Liberty interns have gone on to become editors at censorship. Liberty, Reason and Regulation, authors of articles in It might seem strange to look back upon 1987 as some major magazines and newspapers, researchers at kind of platinum age for free speech, but apparently that's think tanks, and to win major fellowships and exactly what it was. Since then, the proposed candidates for scholarships. the censor's ax have come to include everything from "com­ For information, write: R.W. Bradford, Editor, Liberty mercial speech" (advertising? all persuasive rhetoric?) to the "falsification of history" (e.g., Holocaust denial) to the much- P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 email: [email protected] continued on page 18 Tholllas Szasz: A Sage at 80

Thomas Szasz is one of the greatest libertarians of the 20th century. He is one of a handful of libertarians who have risen to positions of intellectual prominence in the world at large, thanks to his pathbreaking work in psychiatry, and perhaps the only libertarian intellectual who is better known to non-libertarians than to those in the movement. His reputation in the world at large has been achieved by his brilliant criticism of his own profession - a criticism that is so vigorous that I wonder whether Szasz himself considers psychiatry to be a valid scientific discipline. Most libertarians who achieve acclaim in the world at large soft-pedal their beliefs to one extent or another; Szasz But he has done far more than fight against the never has. His books bristle with trenchant logic and incarceration of innocent people. Just as fearlessly as he positions so radical that they make Murray Rothbard and took on his own profession, he has taken on those who Ayn Rand seem like moderates. claim that ingesting drugs is a crime or a disease. Yet Szasz has never received the acclaim he merits Ceremonial Chemistry (1974) was a potent attack on the among libertarians. The reason for this, I think, is that his prohibitionists. He hasn't won this battle yet. But I field is far from the center of most libertarians' interest. wouldn't bet against him. Similarly, he has fought the The simple fact is most libertarians are far more interested notion that people who are overweight, alcoholic, or in matters politic or economic than in matters psychologic. otherwise not meeting some puritan's standards suffer And those who do find psychology interesting seem from a disease. mostly to be interested in feel-good pop psychology of the Sometime in the 1950s, Ty Cobb is said to have given an sort found in the self-help books that make their way onto after-dinner speech to a group of sportswriters. At the time, best-seller lists. There's an irony here: Szasz's interest in Cobb was pretty much universally acclaimed as the psychiatry focuses on an aspect that is far more relevant to greatest hitter baseball· had ever known. His talk, as those libertarian thinking than is the psychology of, say, of old-timers so often are, was a litany of complaints about Nathaniel Branden. present-day players: they didn't work as hard, they hadn't The publication of Szasz's The Myth of Mental Illness in honed their skills, etc., etc. Afterwards, he was approached 1960 was a turning point in American psychiatry. At the by a sportswriter who asked him what he thought his time, psychiatry in the United States hardly differed from batting average would be if he played in the 1950s rather that in Soviet Russia: It was a pseudo-science that enabled than between 1905 and 1928. Cobb responded, "Oh, the political and economic elite to segregate people with somewhere around .320." "What!?!" the sportswriter said. "You, the greatest hitter of all time, the man who hit over unpopular or eccentric views or behavior into special 0400 three times, who retired with a batting average of .367 "hospitals." Szasz identified these hospitals as prisons for ... you could only hit .320 against today's pitchers?" holding people who had committed no crime, and their "Well," Cobb responded, "you have to remember, I'm over inmates as innocent victims. For Szasz, imprisoning 70 years old." someone who had committed no crime is such an When I learned that Tom Szasz turned 80 on April 15, I egregious violation of rights that it cannot be tolerated in thought of that anecdote. In a movement full of brilliant any civil society. people, his brilliance stands out. If I were asked to choose This was not a popular belief. But it was one that Szasz someone to defend just about any aspect of libertarianism stated boldly and defended ferociously. He was always in public debate, I'd pick him. The last time I saw him give ready to grapple with the rationales of those who a lecture, it was in front of a libertarian group, but he disagreed with him, always willing to point out the errors managed to make an argument or two that was so radical in their arguments. His responses to the arguments of his that several people in the audience posed hostile, critics were as devastating as any I've ever heard. His argumentative questions. He instantly analyzed each battle against psychiatric tyranny was often a lonely one, argument put to him, ripped it into its components, but he has never tired, never lost his good humor. identified its flaws and politely devastated it. Somehow, he And he made substantial inroads against tyranny. did this with neither acrimony nor anger. Eccentric people in America are no longer routinely locked He's always a gentleman, always polite, without a up for the convenience of their families or communities. mean bone in his body. If a young person came to me and Were it not for Tom Szasz, they would be. In this alone, he asked me what libertarian I'd recommend as a moral and has accomplished more actual good than any other intellectual exemplar, Thomas Szasz would be the person. libertarian I can think of. -R. W. Bradford Liberty 17 June 2000 discussed "hate speech" (i.e., speech the Left hates). Now it along with people. I imagine that when he was a child grow­ seems that the latest victim could be scientific dissent. At a ing up in Traverse City, Michigan, his grade school teachers recent conference in Washington, the president of the wrote "doesn't play well with other 'children" on his report International AIDS Societies, Canadian Dr. Mark Wainberg, cards. He was expelled from one high school and one univer­ pointedly denounced Peter Duesberg (Inventing the AIDS sity, and had trouble getting along wherever he went. Virus) and his fellow HIV skeptics (a group that includes His National Merit scores were so high that he could such reprobates as Nobel laureates Kary Mullis and Walter choose nearly any college in America. He chose a conserva­ Gilbert) and suggested that their heterodox advocacy is wor­ tive Roman Catholic school, the University of Dallas. Once thy of criminal prosecution. there, he fell hopelessly in love and was spurned. The experi­ Consider instead the precedent this would set. Soon we ence left him so depressed that he committed some acts of may thrill at the sight of environmentalists calling for the minor vandalism sufficient to get him expelled. He was heads of tho~e scientists who don't toe the (current) green admitted briefly to Michigan State University, but was asked line, not to mention those of evolutionists and creationists to leave the school after they heard from Dallas. Northern struggling to decapitate one another. Those, of course, are Michigan University wasn't so fussy, and he enjoyed a only some of the wonderful possibilities. semester there, successful enough that the University of There are those who might suggest that we cut the good Michigan offered him a full scholarship. But a few days after he began classes, he suffered an anxiety attack and returned doctor some slack, since there is no First Amendment in to his home in northern Michigan without bothering to Mark Wainberg's Canada, which, quite amazingly, has the inform the university. There would be no more scholarships. ability to inspire a certain nostalgia for Robert Bork's He was, however, admitted to a couple more colleges. At America. -Barry Loberfeld one of them his career ended in spectacular fashion. During a Federalism inverted - The Supreme Court lecture in medieval history, he was so visibly bored that his recently considered whether the state of Massachusetts can professor interrupted himself to say, "Mr. Moulton, are we impose economic sanctions on Burma, by refusing to pur­ boring you? I suppose you have such mastery of the subject chase goods from companies that do business in Burma. The that you could give this lecture ... would you like to come National Foreign Trade Council argued that the up here and lecture the.class?" Bill replied that the professor Massachusetts government was usurping the foreign policy­ had surmised correctly and proceeded to deliver a superb making powers of the federal government. (A Cato Institute lecture on the day's subject. After the class, the professor took study issued in 1998 made thesame claim.) Sen. Edward M. him aside and advised him that so long as he was head of the college's history department, Bill would never graduate with Kennedy joined an amicus curiae brief urging the Court to a history major. uphold the Massachusetts law. As the Washington Post put it, His magnificent intellect took some strange turns. I "Although Kennedy usually doesn'tfavor states' rights as a remember he took an interest in Albanian numismatics. guideline in other areas, the group he joined argued that the When he discovered that an important book on the subject Massachusetts Burma law was within the state's powers was available only in Albanian, he bought an Albanian gram­ under the federal system." So Kennedy doesn't think states mar book and dictionary and learned enough of the language should be able to make their own rules about minimum to read the book. He learned to read a dozen languages by wage, church burning, hate crimes, welfare, health care, or this method, though he never bothered to learn how to pro­ virtually anything else - buthe does think a state should be nounce a word in any of them. His studies of ancient able to have its own foreign policy. It's hard to imagine that Assyrian worn him repute among experts in the field. that's what the Founders intended when they wrote the From high school on, he interested himself in politics, Constitution and the Tenth Amendment. Indeed, it's hard to usually in feckless ways. In 1968, for some bizarre reason, he conceive even a theoretical case for such a division of volunteered to work in the campaign to elect as president the powers. southern bigot George Wallace, who he thought was in some But don't think that Republicans understand the federal way libertarian. He was well-liked by his fellow volunteers system any better. On the same day that the Post reported (though they were puzzled by his long hippie-like hair) and Kennedy's constitutional theorizing, it also reported that by all accounts was a very successful campaign worker. He House Republican leaders were proposing to provide finan­ happily accepted an invitation to attend a reception for cial incentives for states that agree to strengthen their gun­ Wallace. But even dressed in his best suit, his long hair made law enforcement policies, as if the people of the several states him look countercultural. The local police and Secret Service were not in a better position than the distant federal govern­ protecting Wallace challenged his right to attend the recep­ ment to decide what sorts of gun control and law enforce­ tion. He made a remark sufficiently sarcastic that the polizei ment policies they needed. -David Boaz beat him up, smashed his watch, ruined his $300 suit and bruised him badly. The local sheriff, informed by a Wallace William P. Moulton, RIP - On April 11, campaign co-ordinator that Bill's invitation was indeed genu­ William P. Moulton was found dead in his room at the ine and that he was not a hippie intent on assassinating· the Lincoln Lawns Motel in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the victim candidate, got him to agree not to sue, .and returned to him of an apparent heart attack. He was 52 years old. Bill was a the broken pieces of his expensive watch. I asked him contributing editor of Liberty from 1987 to 1995, during which whether this experience had changed any of the idiosyncratic time he wrote several fine articles. right-wing beliefs he had at the time. "Well, I did remove the Like many libertarians, Bill was extremely intelligent but 'Support Your Local Police' bumper sticker from my car." never lived up to his potential. He always had trouble getting continued on page 52 18 Liberty ~Ianation

HillaryI Newt and Elian by Gene Healy

Why is a children's rights advocate trumpeting parental authority while pro-family conservatives advocate having the federal government come between father and son?

One of the luxuries of being a reflexive antistatist is that you can usually figure out what you think about any given political issue in the time it takes your knee to jerk. But the Elian Gonzalez case has proven, for me at least, to be an exception to the rule. On one side, you have communist tyranny and the Clinton Justice Department. On the other, you have a father seeking reunion with his son, obstructed by a gaggle of politicians Harvard Educational Review article, IIChildren and the Law"; it who claim to know better than he does what's best for his is written in a style rather more bloated and turgid than you kid. What's a libertarian to think? are accustomed to read in these pages: As tough a time as I've had deciding what I think about The basic rationale for depriving people of rights in a the case, I've had an even tougher time figuring out why dependency relationship is that certain individuals are inca­ Hillary Clinton thinks what she thinks about it. I don't nor­ pable or undeserving of the right to take care of themselves mally concern myself with what's inside Ms. Clinton's head. and consequently need social institutions specifically As a general matter, I suspect that the answer is: (1) a rave­ designed to safeguard their position. It is presumed that nous appetite for power, (2) smoldering resentment, and (3) under the circumstances society is doing what is best for the a collection of liberal platitudes that would embarrass a fifth­ individuals. Along with the family, past and present exam­ grade social studies teacher. But given that the case of Elian ples of such arrangements include marriage, slavery, and the Gonzalez is intertwined with the question of children's Indian reservation system. The relative powerlessness of chil­ rights - on which Ms. Clinton has spilled so much ink over dren makes them uniquely vulnerable to this rationale. the years - it's worth exploring why the First Lady hasn't Except for the institutionalized, who live in a state of spoken up forcefully for allowing the child to stay in the enforced childishness, no other group is so totally dependent United States. for its well-being on choices made by others. Obviously this We know from the events of the past year that Ms. dependency can be explained to a significant degree by the physical, intellectual and psychological incapacities of (some) Clinton has enough influence with her husband to get him to children which render them weaker than (some) older per­ free Puerto Rican terrorists and bomb the Serbs. But in the sons. But the phenomenon must also be seen as part of the Elian Gonzalez case, she's chosen not to exercise that influ­ organization and ideology of the political system itself. ence. Asked by a reporter about her views of the situation, Lacking even the basic power to vote, children are not able to she responded tepidly: "I would like to have this case with exercise normal constituency powers, articulating self­ good testimony being presented in court so whatever deci­ interests to politicians and working toward specific goals. sion is made, it can be made as soon as possible." This is Young children in particular are probably not capable of passing strange, given Hillary Clinton's background as a organizing themselves into a political group; they must IIchildren's advocate." In her early writing on children's always be represented either by their parents or by estab­ issues, Ms. Clinton argued that children's interests often con­ lished governmental or community groups organized to flicted with the interests of their parents, and that in some lobby, litigate, and exhort on their behalf. cases, the state might legitimately override parental rights. Thus, as with slaves, Indians and women in the bad old Bear with me, dear reader, as I quote at length from her 1973 days, children today have their interests subordinated in a Liberty 19 June 2000 dependency relationship protected by the state. And, as with still lingers. How else to explain the "send him back" stri­ slaves, Indians, and women, progress demands erosion of dency of some of Congress's hardest leftists, such as Maxine that dependency relationship. Accordingly, Ms. Clinton Waters (D.-Calif.) and Jose Serrano (D.-N.Y.)? It seems to me argued for reversing the legal presumption of incompetence that sympathy for the devil lies at the heart of Ms. Clinton's under which minors labor, and, in some cases, allowing chil­ inconsistency on this most prominent of children's issues. dren's advocates to obstruct the wishes of parents in impor­ Somewhere in the back of her mind, no doubt, she's thinking tant decisions bearing on the welfare of the child. "At least little Elian will have guaranteed health care." One would think. that Elian Gonzalez, then, would have But if Ms. Clinton has dropped her child-advocate princi­ been a perfect test case for Ms. Clinton's view of children's ples in this case, some of the most unlikely characters have rights. Young Elian, by all accounts, wants to stay in the been eager to pick them up. On Fox News's "O'Reilly Factor," former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich main­ tained that, even if Juan Miguel Gonzalez's honest and uncoerced wish is to raise his son in Cuba, he should not be Ms. Clinton's refusal to embrace her child­ permitted to do so. I Gingrich argued that upon his return to Cuba, Elian advocate principles, suspect, stems from a Gonzalez will be subjected to indoctrination and denied a latent affinity for Cuban socialism. Ms. Clinton myriad of opportunities that would be available to him in a is a child ofthe New Left, and thus inherits the free society. In this, Gingrich is surely right. But if that's New Left's romantic fascination with Castro. what Juan Miguel Gonzalez honestly wants for his son, then is it really any of Newt Gingrich's business? The idea that the state should be empowered to second­ guess competent and nonabusive parents in parental deci­ sions has disturbing implications. Suppose a zealous, United States. He told Diane Sawyer as much himself. American-born commie wants to emigrate to Cuba, and take Moreover, there is little doubt that he'd be better off staying his young son with him? Should a court have the power to here. Here, he would grow up in a society where free expres­ stop him? Suppose another father wants to. move out to sion is allowed, and the government is constrained by law. Idaho, join a white separatist cult, and have his child indoc­ There, he'd be a possession of the total state, and grow up trinated into the Christian Identity philosophy? Should the materially poor and spiritually impoverished. "best interests of the child" test trump the father's wishes Why then does Ms. Clinton consider it an open question where he is the sole surviving parent? as to whether the child can stay here? Given what she's writ­ How odd that a nominally right-of-center public figure ten in the past, it's a little late in the day for her to claim that like Gingrich should embrace the doctrine that the state can she's motivated by solicitude for the rights of the father. Nor interpose itself between a child and his father, in order to can her ambivalence toward Elian Gonzalez's fate easily be guarantee the child opportunities his father may not want explained by.political calculation. Even if she couldn't con­ him to have. The doctrine that Gingrich espouses in the case vince her husband to reverse course, she'd likely benefit by of Elian Gonzalez was perhaps best expressed by Justice dissociating herself from his decision - particularly if fed­ William O. Douglas, the most liberal member of the Warren eral officials go in with force and violence ensues. Instead, I'd suggest, her ambivalence has a simpler explanation. She's a communist sympathizer. Ms. Clinton's refusal to embrace her child-advocate prin­ The idea that the state should be empowered ciples, I suspect, stems from a latent affinity for· Cuban to second-guess competent and nonabusive par­ socialism. Ms. Clinton is a child of the New Left, and thus inherits the New Left's romantic fascination with Castro. ents in parental decisions has disturbing Norman Mailer ·captured the tone in an "Open Letter" to implications. Castro in the early '60s: "You [Fidel] belong not to the United States nor to the Russians but to We [sic] of the Third Force. So long as you exist ... you give a bit of life to the best and Burger Courts, in his dissent in Wisconsin v. Yoder. In and most passionate men and women all over the earth ... that 1972 case, the Supreme Court held that the First You are the one who can show the world that a revolution­ Amendment's free exercise clause protected an Amish citi­ ary belongs to no one, that his actions cannot be predicted zen's right to remove his children from school after the because he is possessed by a vision: he knows the world eighth grade. Justice Douglas argued in his dissent that there must grow better at a breathless rate or there will be no man­ was a potential conflict of interest between Amish parents kind." Crazed Yippie Abbie Hoffman did Norman one bet­ and their children: "While the parents, absent dissent, nor­ ter, declaring that when Castro stood erect "he is like a mally speak for the entire family, the education of the child mighty penis coming to life, and when he is tall and straight is a matter on which the child will often have decided views. the crowd immediately is transformed." He may want to be a pianist or an astronaut or an oceanogra­ The new century finds Fidel flaccid and withered, a pher. To do so he will have to break from the Amish tradi­ decrepit and decidedly unromantic despot, presiding over a tion. It is the future of the student, not the future of the prison-state with no higher end thanthe preservation of his parents, that is imperiled by today's decision. If a parent own power. But for some, Fidel's revolutionary afterglow keeps his child out of school beyond the grade school, then 20 Liberty "We need Regulation magazine: solid analysis, current relevance, and new knowledge.~ -Janles M. Buchanan

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L Please mail or fax to: 202-842-3490 ~ June 2000 the child will be forever barred from entry into the new and actually wants his son to stay in the United States, then with­ amazing world of diversity that we have today. The child out question Elian Gonzalez should stay. may decide that that is the preferred course, or he may rebel. But it's less likely that the answer to the second question It is the student's judgment, not his parents', that is essential - does the regime meet the standard for child abuse? - is if we are to give full meaning to what we have said about the yes. Cuba is a repulsive and despotic state, but it is not Bill of Rights and of the right of students to be masters of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. It's unlikely that the their own destiny." Cuban government will torture or murder Elicin Gonzalez. If children are to be masters of their own destiny in the sense that Justice Douglas intended, they'll need help from the state. When their desires conflict with those of their par­ The image' of that six-year-olq boy being ents in important matters, they'll need to turn to Ms. Clinton's "established governmental or community groups shuttled off to Castro's police state is a horribly organized to lobby, litigate, and exhort on their behalf." The sad one. And it must be a cold principle that doctrine of children's rights is thus a stalking horse for the demands it. But principles are cold and dispas­ empowerment of Ms. Clinton and her ilk. Libertarians and sionate, and heart-rending cases make bad law. conservatives who argue for Elian's freedom ought to be careful about flirting with the doctrine of children's rights. They might wind up kissing the very beast herself. What then was the right thing to do in the case of Elian He will have adequate food, clothing, and shelter. And - no Gonzalez? As everyone from Newt Gingrich to Hillary small matter - he will be with his father. Clinton agreed, the matter ought to have been decided in Nonetheless, the image of that six-year-old boy being family court. But the inquiry there should have been a nar­ shuttled off to Castro's police state is a horribly sad one. And row one, focusing on two issues: (1) is it Juan Miguel it must be a cold principle that demands it. But principles are Gonzalez's uncoerced wish to take his son back to Cuba? (2) cold and dispassionate, and heart-rending cases make bad does life in Cuba meet the standard for child abuse under law. The idea that the state can, in cases that fall short of the Florida law? It's quite possible that the answer to the first standard of child abuse, trump parental rights, is exceed­ question is no. There's some evidence that Mr. Gonzalez ingly bad law. If Juan Miguel Gonzalez honestly wants his acquiesced in his ex-wife's decision to take their son to son to grow up in communist Cuba, then he's a lousy parent America. And it's hard to believe. that he can speak freely, and a poor excuse for a human being. But he's within his surrounded ,by Cuban officials and with his mother a hos­ rights as a father. tage back in Castro's island prison. If in fact Mr. Gonzalez is That's my view as of this afternoon, anyway. Tomorrow not speaking freely, and there is good reason to believe he it may be different. 0

Letters, continued from page 6 dom searches, Wolfram writes, "I have Spectator that caused him to be expelled business has to keep its reputation, not never heard one student complain of - but then, how could he verify it, with Rotarian smokescreens or the sup­ his room being searched." This evasion given that Nehls was forced to sign an pression of its unhappy clients, but by is worthy of Bill Clinton! Do students NDA? And what exactly does Wolfram honest dealing when the unfortunate not complain because random searches mean when he says Nehls was "more does happen. are the Hillsdale Way, and all right­ interested in making noise than he was Rob McMillin thinkers have nothing to hide? I agree about solving problems"? What "prob­ Garden Grove, Calif. that it would be good if Anonymous lem" had to be "solved" here? Keep the Faith could provide specific cases, but con­ Wolfram writes a great deal about In his May 2000 essay, "Learning sidering that the faculty expelled Mark censorship or the lack thereof in from Hillsdale," R. W. Bradford wrote, Nehls for writing and publishing a Hillsdale's Collegian, but this misses the "Private power can be just as newspaper off-campus, then making larger point that if, as Wolfram repeat­ corrupting as state power." With that him sign a non-disclosure agreement, I edly claims, Hillsdale is a business, then insight he undermined the libertarian can understand why no student would its students are customers, yet they faith. A libertarian society would have actually raise his hand and say, "Yes, apparently are not treated thus. Hence, far greater economic inequality than we Prof. Wolfram. My room was searched Nehls' expulsion. Hence, the school's currently have. Consequently, the rich for no apparent reason and I didn't like appalling "no comment" regarding would have considerably more power it." Lissa Roche's suicide and Dr. Roche's over the rest of us than they presently Mr. Wolfram apparently thinks resignation. Wolfram wants it one way do. Nehls' expulsion acceptable, for he only, that is, he wants the flexibility of a As one who was hectored by a bully makes no attempt to defend the admin­ business in its dealings with the world whenever the teacher left the room, I istration's action. On the other hand, without any of the same culpability a have learned to appreciate the presence Anonymous doesn't say whether it was business faces when it fails to satisfy its of a power capable of restraining the Nehls' publishing of The Hillsdale customers. He fails to realize that a continued on page 39 22 Liberty Refutation McCaffrey's Brain on Drugs by Paul Rako

A vivisection of the drug warrior in chief.

With regard to the position taken by Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey opposing the legalization of drugs, there are a few concepts that need clarifying. The first and foremost is what Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey means by the word IIdrugs." It may be assumed from context and inductive reasoning that what he is referring to are not drugs in general such as aspirin, or even prescription drugs that enjoy quasi-legal status in that one need only find a doc­ having an erection but it's not OK to take marijuana and get tor to write a prescription for them. What Mr. Barry R. happy whether your member becomes tumescent or not. So I McCaffrey means when he says "drugs" are psychotropic can't see exactly what Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey means by substances such as marijuana and cocaine. "drugs," other than things which he objects to for reasons To state that these two drugs should be illegal is even a that are inconsistent with reality and human nature. Well, so little misleading since there is no better bronchodilator much for trying to make sense out of what Mr. Barry R. known to man than THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. McCaffrey considers to be "drugs." Cocaine is of value as a topical anesthetic and was often pre­ Let's look at his first paragraph: scribed by dentists and physicians until recently. Would Mr. The so-called harm-reduction approach to drugs confuses Barry R. McCaffrey object if the child unfortunate enough to people with terminology. All drug policies claim to reduce have him as a father was choking to death from asthma and harm. No reasonable person advocates a position consciously somebody gave the kid a hit of marijuana? What if the kid designed to be harmful. The real question is which policies was screaming in agony from poison oak or shingles or bee actually decrease harm and increase good. The approach advo­ stings and someone had the presence of mind to whip up a cated by people who say they favor harm reduction would in cocaine poultice and apply it topically to the affected areas? fact harm Americans. No, I think not. - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey What Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey objects to is that someone We can see a glaring need for another definition at this would give his unfortunate offspring marijuana or cocaine point: It's the definition of the word "harm." Mr. Barry R. for the psychotropic effects these substances have. I assume McCaffrey's definition of the word harm is: "Causing any­ that this is because his children will need a lot of psycho­ thing I don't approve of." I think a better definition of the tropic substances to ease the pain of knowing that their word harm is: "Causing suffering." Like the suffering caused father is a bigoted jerk who likes to see people suffer for no by the knowledge that your dad is a bigoted jerk and that reason and that Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey does not want his you can't even take a puff or a toot or a couple of pills to ease children hitting him up for cash all the time in order to try the pain until he gets out of the public eye and stops bring­ different drugs to see if the emotional pain and embarrass­ ing disgrace to the family name. So we immediately see a ment will go away. simple contradiction caused by Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey's My dictionary defines "psychoactive" as "influencing the prejudiced view of what constitutes harm. He thinks psycho­ mind or mental processes." Thorazine, Valium and Viagra active drugs would harm his children. I think his children are such drugs, but they are legal. Apparently Mr. Barry R. should have an IV installed and try the whole pharmaco­ McCaffrey thinks it's OK to take Viagra and get happy for poeia until Dad stops being an jerk. It won't keep Dad from Liberty 23 June 2000 being a jerk but it might make the emotional distress beara­ People who advocate legalization can call themselves any­ ble. Yes, psychoactive drugs are indicated for the treatment thing they like, but deceptive terms should not obscure a posi­ of mental illness and people like Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey tion so that it can't be debated coherently. Changing the name make us sick. ofa plan doesn't constitute a new solution or alter the nature The second paragraph goes on to say: ofthe problem. - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey The theory behind what they call harm reduction is that illegal drugs cannot be controlled by law enforcement, educa­ Hang on, I'm still laughing. OK, OK, no, no, wait, I'm los­ tion and other methods; therefore, proponents say, harm ing it again, hold on, wait, I need a drink. OK, OK, now I'm should be reduced by needle exchange, decriminalization of better. Well, Barry is still slinging conclusions without any drugs, heroin maintenance and other measures. But the real facts to support them. Can you say "pedantic semantics" intent ofmany harm reduction advocates is the legalization of Barry? I bet you can. I guess Aristotle would call this an inferred ad hominem argument. Kind of imply the other drugs, which would be a mistake. M B RMC iffr - r. arry . c a ey guy's choice of words are somehow sneaky or deceptive and To which my reply to this arrogant assertion is: therefore everything the guy says is false. Aristotle saw Intelligent people present the facts and then draw conclu­ through this sort of stuff two thousand years ago, while the sions from those facts. Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey states a con­ McCaffreys were just learning to sodomize sheep in the Irish clusion after citing a series of facts that refutes his Highlands. The Evils of Drugs The fifth paragraph: Yup, abuse does wreck lives. That is the defi­ The plain fact is that drug abuse wrecks lives. It is crimi­ nition of abuse whether it's drug abuse, car nal that more money is spent on illegal drugs than on art or abuse, child abuse or abuse of power, which is a higher education, that crack babies are born addicted and in pain and that thousands of adolescents lose their health and specialty ofBarry R. McCaffrey and his gang of future to drugs. MBRMC iffr jackbooted henchmen. - r. arry . c a ey Wow, what a pillar of cogent reasoning. Yup, abuse does wreck lives. That is the definition of abuse whether it's drug abuse, car abuse, child abuse or abuse of power, which is a conclusion. What does that say about Mr. Barry R. specialty of Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey and his gang of jack­ McCaffrey? booted henchmen. Notice how Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey goes The third paragraph: from arguing about drug use to making a rhetorical state­ Lest anyone' question whether harm reductionists favor ment that abuse is bad. So is logic abuse Barry, and you drug legalization, let me quote some articles written by sup­ should be incarcerated for it. But wait, no kids, we're not porters. of this position. Ethan Nadelmann, director of the done yet. After pretty much saying Bad = Bad as a causative Lindesmith Center, a Manhattan-based drug research insti­ position, Barry goes on to say that it's criminal that people tute, wrote in American Heritage (March, 1993): "Should spend more money on drugs he doesn't approve of than on we legalize drugs? History answers i yes.'" In Issues in art or college. Science and, Technology (June, 1990), Nadelmann aligns No, Barry, it's not criminal, it's human nature. People his own opinion with history's supposed verdict: "Personally, have different values than you and even if you make us all when I talk about legalization, I mean three things: The first is pray in school and all go to your church, people will still to make drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin legal." have different opinions as to what is worthwhile. After see­ With regard to labels, Nadelmann wrote: "I much prefer the ing.the Phish concert last week I can assure you that drug term 'decriminalization' or 'normalization.'" use is often done to greater appreciate the arts; the fact that - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey drugs are more valuable to our society than college shows If Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey's confusion weren't self­ how useless our academic infrastructure has become now evident from the previous paragraphs, he goes on to cite that the government is running so many schools. highly intelligent and respected professionals whose position As to Barry's heart-tugging bleatings about crack babies, directly contradicts his fantasy world conclusion. Hey now. well, we're back to that use/ ~buse dichotomy again and The fourth paragraph: anyway, studies have shown that the low birthweights and other health problems of crack babies are overcome as early as 18 months after birth. 1 As to teenagers: oak trees and cars claim a lot more than do drugs. 2 Is Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey going to outlaw '57 Chevys and bridge embankments too? The sixth paragraph states: Addictive drugs were criminalized because they are harm- ful; they are not harmful because they were criminalized. The more a product is available and legitimized, the greater will be its use. Ifdrugs were legalized in the U.S., the cost to the indi­ vidual and society would grow astronomically. In the "Oh, there's nothing wrong with your memory - that's a completely new 'Star Trek' with all different characters." Netherlands when coffee shops started selling marijuana in 24 Liberty June 2000

small quantities, use of this drug doubled between 1984 and numbers so close as to be statistically insignificant? Pass me 1992. A 1997 study by Robert MacCoun and Peter Reuter a doughnut. from the University of Maryland notes that the percentage of Paragraph seven goes on to say: Dutch 18-year-olds who tried pot rose from 15% to 34% from Many advocates of harm reduction consider drug use a 1984 to 1992, a time when the numbers weren't climbing in part of the human condition that will always be with us. other European nations. By contrast, in 1992 teenage use of While we agree that murder, pedophilia and child prostitution marijuana in the United States was estimated at 10.6%. can never be eliminated entirely, no one is arguing that we - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey legalize these activities. - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey Here's that pedantic semantic guy again. OK, so maybe I was wrong about Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey's ancestors sodom­ Back to Aristotle again, but this time its guilt by syntactic izing sheep in the Irish Highlands. Maybe they were in association. If murder, pedophilia and child prostitution are Salem, Massachusetts unleashing little gems like: "Witches bad, so is anything else mentioned in the same sentence. were criminalized because they are harmful; they are not harmful because they were criminalized." Then another dose of rhetorical observation: this time his brilliant assertion is There would be no HIV risk from needles if Good = Good. Yup Barry, availability and legitimacy are do-gooder slime like you would mind your own driven by demand and demand is caused by people thinking something is good. Then another burst of the good old business and let people get a clean rig at the semantic pedantic Barry with the bald-faced assertion that store without filling out a lot ofpaperwork. drug legalization will increase costs. Sorry Barry, it's Economics 101. You must have gone to a government­ supported school. You see, fines and jail are real costs of using the drugs your gang doesn't approve of. When you remove those costs, Yes, Barry, love, marriage and baseball cards will always be with us too and guess what? No one is arguing that we crim­ net costs go down Barry, not up. In addition, when you inalize these activities. remove the enforcement costs and the price of those expen­ sive jackboots for you and your cronies, social costs are Heroin Maintenance reduced even further. And yes, Barry, you are right that use Oh boy, let's jump right into paragraph eight: will go up. It's that Econ thing again. But when you say costs Some measures proposed by activist harm reductionists, will rise and so will use, you are violating a fundamental law like heroin maintenance, veer toward the absurd. The of economics. Oh well, you are a few sandwiches short of a Lindesmith Center convened a meeting in June to discuss a picnic, so I guess I can understand. What I really like about multi-city heroin maintenance study, and a test program for this paragraph is that you trot out some real life, albeit heroin maintenance may be launched in Baltimore. Arnold unsupported, statistics to make a slam dunk case for your Trebach argues for heroin maintenance in his book Legalize idiot position. You seem to have confused us with Homer It? Debating American Drug Policy. "Under the legaliza­ Simpson: "Ohhhh! ... Statistics! ... This guy must really tion plan I propose here, addicts ... would be able to purchase the heroin and needles they need at reasonable prices from a nonmedical drugstore." - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey The new generation is at risk for drugs There you go again Barry, slinging conclusions first and then no facts to back them up. Who died and made you because their older brothers and sisters have King, Barry? Which is worse in your twisted worldview, realized that most ofwhat you say is a lie. Barry, veering toward the absurd or slouching toward Gomorrah or what? If veering toward the absurd is so bad in your book, it's a good thing you didn't go to The Other Ones concert with us last weekend. I noticed you didn't know what he's talking about! ... Pass me a doughnut." mention that individuals such as William F. Buckley and Unfortunately your examples are so pathetic they self­ Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman have come out for legaliza­ destruct upon the most cursory inspection. I won't argue tion, as well as the refusal of many federal judges to take legalization won't increase consumption. This is because drug cases because the mandatory minimum sentencing drugs are good when used according to valid medical needs. laws end up destroying lives for no reason, especially We need a lot of drugs in a world full of people like you. African American and Hispanic lives. 3 What nauseates me is your implication that teen use will sky­ On to paragraph nine: rocket. Sorry Barry, I read the examples and I've got a few Why would anyone choose to maintain addicts on heroin problems right off the bat. You compare teen drug use in the as opposed to oral methadone, which eliminates the injection U.s. to that of 18-year-olds in the Netherlands. Well Barry, route associated with HIV and other diseases? Research from guess what? The statistics for 18-year-olds and the statistics the National Institute for Drug Abuse shows that untreated for 13 to 18-year-olds are sure to be different no matter what. addicts die at a rate seven to eight times higher than similar And there's a difference between "use" and "just trying." patients in methadone-based treatment programs. Are you too stupid to make a valid comparison or are the - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey Liberty 25 June 2000

I'll give you one good reason, you know-it-all, Barry, As a society, we are successfully addressing drug use and because kicking methadone is brutal compared to kicking its consequences. In the past 20 years, drug use in the United heroin, and that comes from my pal Doug, who has the San States decreased by halfand casual cocaine use by 70%. Drug­ Quentin degree and the experience to state a simple fact. related murders and spending on drugs decreased by more There would be no HIV risk from needles if do-gooder slime than 30% as the illegal drug market shrunk. like you would mind your own business and let people get a - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey clean rig at the store without filling out a lot of paperwork. These numbers are patently false,6 Barry. And I just love your statistics. Statistics used to show that Paragraph thirteen: a lot of people died of tuberculosis in Arizona, so you Still, we are faced with many challenges, including educat­ ing a new generation of children who may have little experi­ ence with the negative consequences ofdrug abuse, increasing access to treatment for 4 million addicted Americans and Intelligent people present the facts and then breaking the cycle of drugs and crime that has caused a mas­ draw conclusions from those facts. McCaffrey sive increase in the number of people incarcerated. We need states a conclusion after citing a series offacts prevention programs, treatment and alternatives to incarcera­ tion for nonviolent drug offenders. Drug legalization is not a that refutes his conclusion. What does that say viable policy alternative because excusing harmful practices about McCaffrey? only encourages them. - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey Yeah, Barry, and I bet if we peons just send you all our money you'll institute a whole host of programs just as use­ wouldn't want to take the advice of your doctor to move less as the ones in place now, but at least all your pals and there, since figures don't lie. (But liars do figure, hey Barry?) relatives will have lifetime jobs pursuing a goal that can Paragraph ten: never be reached. The new generation is at risk for drugs Dr. Avram Goldstein, in his book Addiction: From because its older brothers and sisters have realized that most Biology to Drug Policy, explains that when individuals of what you say is a lie. Drugs and crime are a cycle only switch from heroin to methadone, general health improves and because your billions of dollars of criminalization programs abnormalities ofbody systems (such as the hormones) normal­ raise the cost of drugs to the point where crime is the only ize. Unlike heroin maintenance, methadone maintenance has income option for many people. I love when you want more no adverse effects on cognitive or psychomotor function, per­ of my money to try and fix a problem caused by your stupid formance of skilled tasks or memory, he said. This research policies to begin with. indicates that the choice of heroin maintenance over metha- Why is using some drugs so bad to you Barry, but alcohol done maintenance doesn't even meet the criteria of harm and Valium and Xanax are just A-OK? Why do you insist reduction that advocates claim to apply. that casual non-abusive drug use is harmful? Why must you - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey Ohhhf ... A Jewish doctorf ... You must be telling the truthf Pass me a doughnut. Sorry Barry, Doctor Goldstein is You seem to have confused us with Homer full of it. I can say this with authority since after Dave's mom died of cancer he gave me one of her methadone pills. I was Simpson: "Ohhhh! ... Statistics! ... This guy nodding so hard I almost knocked myself out against the must really know what he's talking about! wall. This Goldstein is on somebody's payroll, probably the Pass me a doughnut. 1/ company that makes methadone.4 The patents for heroin have expired so there isn't as much juicy corporate money in peddling it as there is in banning it. 5 How We Won/Will Win the Drug War weave this tissue of fallacies around your unfounded positions? Oh golly Paw, let's peruse paragraph eleven: Paragraph fourteen: Treatment must differ significantly from the disease it At best, harm reduction is a half-way measure, a half­ seeks to cure. Otherwise, the solution resembles the circular hearted approach that would accept defeat. Increasing help is reasoning spOOfed in Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince by better than decreasing harm. The 1998 National Drug the character who drinks because he has a terrible problem, Control Strategy - a publication of the Office of National namely, that he is a drunk. Just as alcohol is no help for alco­ Drug Control Policy that presents a balanced mix of preven­ holism, heroin is no cure for heroin addiction. tion, treatment, stiff law enforcement, interdiction and inter­ - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey national cooperation - is a blueprint for reducing drug abuse And just as circular logic is circular logic so is circular and its consequences by halfover the coming decade. With sci­ logic circular logic. Heroin use is not a disease Barry. Mental ence as our guide and grass-roots organizations at the fore­ illness is a disease and heroin use can help people with men­ front, we will succeed in controlling this problem. tal illness. You say addiction. I say maintenance. Ohhhhf ... - Mr. Barry R. McCaffrey Saint Exuperyf ... Pass me a doughnut. Well, Barry, I was getting worried that I would run out of Let usnot ignore paragraph twelve: brilliantly reasoned trenchant analysis, but I can see now my

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Charter subscriptions still available! City state Zip ~ L -----~~ June 2000 concerns were unfounded. Actually I still am a little con­ Weinstein and Whitman Knapp of New York, had exercised their cerned because the second sentence, you know, the one after prerogative and refused to hear drug cases. Federal District Judge the stupid bald-faced assertion that has no basis in fact, yeah, Stanley Marshall remarked, "I've always been considered a fairly Barry, that second sentence has struck me speechless. Let's harsh sentencer, but it's killing me that I'm sending so many low­ savor it one more time: level offenders away for all this time." A Gallup poll of 350 state and 49 federal judges who belong to the American Bar Association found "Increasing help is better than decreasing harm." 8 percent in favor of and 90 percent opposed to the federal manda­ So I guess when your spiritual brethren nailed Jesus to tory minimums for drug offenses. http://www.famm.org/ the cross you would be up there dabbing mercurochrome on history9.html His palms, right, Barry? I want everybody to read Barry's 4. A little research shows the doctor to have started the first second sentence again. Now, again. OK, one more time. Now methadone program in California, so this also explains his preju­ say aloud the word "Evil." Thank you, folks. This is it, folks; dices. A choice quote: "Consumers of medicines have no expertise to there you have it; the crux of the entire government biscuit, evaluate claims." http://nytsyn.com/live/Alcohol! AND GET THIS as Zappa used to say. Take our money and harm us. Then get KIDS: For Dr. Goldstein's views on marijuana refer to: Quotes from more of our money to help us. Repeat until no money. Next the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Workshop on the Medical Utility of Marijuana - Roundtable Discussion, February 20, 1997 chump, please. Natcher Conference Center - NIH Campus, Bethesda, Maryland. But wait, this paragraph goes on to detail how some big "[I]f someone is seriously ill and is not·feeling well, and mari­ important sounding Office has devised a solution. Ohhhh! juana makes them feel better, who is to say that that's a bad thing?" ... An Office! ... Pass me a doughnut please. The solution is (page 83, Avram Goldstein, M.D.) "[W]e know that there are no so good it will be the final solution. Yes, Barry, it sure will be. extreme immediate toxicity issues. It's a very safe drug, and therefore The big important sounding Office had such a familiar name it would be perfectly safe medically to let the patient determine their but I just couldn't place it until I scrolled up to the beginning own dose by the smoking route." (p 82) http://www.mpp.org/ of this letter and saw that the Office of National Drug nihquote.html Control Policy is the selfsame office of which you are the 5. Another leading authority on drug pharmacology, Dr. E. Leong Way, comments that - despite its fearful public image ­ Director. Wow Barry, some coincidence that it was your "heroin does not have major effects on the motor and cardiovascular 7 office that came up with the solution and not Harvard or system and hence, the user can function effectively if access to the 8 Hoover Institute or all those other places that think legaliza­ drug is not prevented." E. Leong Way, "Pharmacologic Assessment tion is the solution. How about you just let us all keep our of Dependence Risks," in Krauss and Lazear. (p 394) http:/ / money and let us decide which drugs to do and then when www.rahul.net/liberty/ liberty/ features / 53nelson.html we get addicted we can go to Betty Ford Center and hang out 6. "Back to the '70s: The MTV Generation Inhales", by Robert L. with all the movie stars and politicians? Your advocacy of Maginnis. Drug abuse among teenagers has risen significantly in this study wouldn't be a tiny bit self-serving, would it Barry? recent years. A nationwide survey by the National Institute on Drug Science and grass roots? You pig, how about vengeance and Abuse (NIDA) in 1994 found that annual marijuana use among eighth graders rose from 6.2 percent in 1991 to 13 percent in 1994. tyranny? That's what really drives you Barry. May your head The trend is also evident among tenth (16.5 percent to 30.4 percent) be carried on a pike through the streets while the screams of and twelfth (36.7 percent to 38.2 percent) graders. And cocaine, crack, your loved ones echo from the burning buildings of your heroin, and LSD use among teenagers is also rising and may soon crumbling institutions. You pig. You dirty pig. rival the high rates of the 1970s. [1] http://townhall.com/frc/ The pig's paragraph fifteen: insight/ is95b3dr.html Pretending that harmful activity will be reduced if we con­ 7. Son, Avery, Legalize It: Optimality Conditions Under a Taxed done it under the law is foolhardy and irresponsible. Legalization Policy, Mimeo, Harvard University (1994) http:/ / icg.fas.harvard.edu/ ..... ec970 / olson.html R. - Mr. Barry McCaffrey 8. Stop the War: A Former Police Chief'S Plea to Clinton's New Drug Huh? Barry? BARRY? It's the not condoning it that is Czar, by Joseph D. McNamara (Hoover Institute) // doing all the harm. Harming people so you can help them is www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/ debate/ mcn/mcn1.html the sign of a psychopath. You know Barry, maybe I was all wrong about you. Maybe you're not a pig. Maybe you are a psychopath. You know, crazy. You know, mentally ill. Maybe you should take some psy­ choactive drugs, Barry. They help treat mental illness. It beats a strailjacket or prison anyday. 0 (Mr. McCaffrey's remarks Copyright 1998, Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved, although I wouldn't be too proud ofthem if I was a prestigious West Coast Daily.)

Notes: 1. '''Crack babies' catch up", by Dana Kennedy, The Associated Press, 12/6/92, http:// www.druglibrary.org/ schaffer/cocaine/crackbb.html 2. Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for every age from five through twenty-seven. Almost half of these crashes are alcohol-related. (NHTSA, 1996) http:/ / www.madd.org/stats/stat_gen.html 3. By May 1993, 50 senior federal judges, including Jack B. "Armed or unarmed?" 28 Liberty Analysis The Pseudo-Science of Rating Congress by J. Bishop Grewell

Voting records don't tell the whole story.

As the political season heats up, one of the best indicators of what a candidate will do in the future is what he or she has done in the past. That means deeds, not words; and voting records are the clearest deeds of a candidate. Recognizing this, political groups and non-partisan research institutes often devise scorecards that measure the voting records of elected offi­ learn from your mistakes. cials. Americans for Democratic Action, the American Conservative Union, the League of Conservation Voters, the 1. Bills are messy. Chamber of Commerce, the National Tax Limitation Free market environmentalists have long heralded the Committee, The American Civil Liberties Union, the value of the CAMPFIRE Program in Zimbabwe, which turns Christian· Coalition and countless others play the scorecard over the management of African wildlife to the local commu­ game. In last month's Liberty, David Boaz of the Cato nities who then conserve habitat in return for trophy fees Institute took a turn at bat with a scorecard designed to show from the sustainable hunting of big game. The involvement whether there was a libertarian residing in the 1999 U.S. of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in House of Representatives. Creating these scorecards, though, helping to fund the program, however, has been a point of is often more art than science. much skepticism. Some biologists on the ground in Africa Two summers ago, I undertook a scorecard project for the have accused USAID funds of hurting CAMPFIRE by creat­ ing perverse incentives and bureaucratic webs that lessen the Political Economy Research Center (PERC). The plan was to community's direct ties to the wildlife. So when a vote arose measure the affinity of each congressperson for FME (free in the House to prohibit USAID funding from being "used to market environmentalism), with an ultimate goal of creating directly support or promote trophy hunting or the interna­ a little press for PERC upon release of the card and an award tional commercial trade in elephant ivory, elephant hides, or for the highest scoring member of Congress. Scorecards, after rhinoceros horns," the FME position on the issue was not all, are generally useful to three specific entities: Political can­ clear. While FME'rs may oppose government funding in gen­ didates who score highly, the group sponsoring the card, eral, they did not oppose it on the grounds that others did ­ which enjoys press coverage while getting the candidates to those who found trophy hunting immoral or thought that it consider its viewpoints, and finally, professors of political would hurt wild game populations. PERC was forced to science, who find the cards useful for attempting to quantify exclude the vote from inclusion so as not to sully the scores. ideology as a statistical variable in research projects. Another roll call vote dealt with releasing funds for inter­ The result of the project was a lot of wasted time on my national family planning early. PERC does not believe that part and on the part of my colleagues: time spent poring family planning programs need government subsidies. For over votes recorded by Congressional Quarterly - and trying one, private institutions can fund such measures through to determine whether each vote earned a positive or negative voluntary donations. Secondly, population growth is taper­ mark. We failed to come up with a rating system that we ing off on its own with the United Nations projecting no thought was valid. But our experience did provide a few growth after 2050. Hence, this vote would seem to deserve a clear lessons. And as my teachers always said, you should "nay" from the free market position. From testimony in 29 Liberty June 2000 Congress, however, it was clear the vote was really about do so for free-market reasons: the only reason they opposed abortion. With no free market environmental position on the bill was because their own states were not getting abortion, the vote was scrapped from the scorecard. enough pork. Bad intentions don't warrant a pat on the back; David Boaz attempted to avoid such issues by carefully we decided against including the vote in our scorecard. picking the votes in his libertarian scorecard, but the com­ 3. Even when votes are clean, they are messy. plexity of bills even managed to trip him up on at least one The content of bills and the intent of the member·of vote. Boaz listed the eleventh roll call vote in his card as a Congress were not the only problems. There were also pro­ vote to restore Selective Service Agency Funding. On the sur­ cedural difficulties in choosing which votes to include. In the face, this vote is clearly something libertarians would oppose Senate in 1997, PERC considered eighteen roll call votes to be and Boaz gave credit accordingly. If, however, one looks environmental in nature. Of those, only six merited inclusion more closely at the vote and its surrounding debate, many of in our scorecard. One reason was that of the entire eighteen, those who voted against restoring the funding did so because seven were related to disposal of nuclear waste. Not wanting it would have resulted in $17 million worth of cuts from to overweigh an issue, we included only two of those dispo­ FEMA and the EPA. When asked about the vote, Republican sal votes for our project: Our purpose, after all, was to create Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia didn't talk about the free­ doms Selective Service violates, rather he said, UNobody likes these cuts." Do protectors of the EPA deserve libertarian credit? Rating Congress is like trying to tell time at 2. The voting process is messy. night with a sundial. One may know that the One of the best arguments any libertarian can make for hour is nearer to sunrise than sunset, but it is the cause is simply displaying the kind of votes that regu­ larly take place in Congress. Consider the following vote still an educated guess as to exactly when the description from the Congressional Quarterly: cock will crow. Senate Vote 131. S 949. Fiscal 1998 Budget Reconciliation ­ Revenue/Mining. Gregg, R-N.H., motion to waive the Budget Act with respect to the Murkowski, R-Alaska, point of order against the Bumpers, D-Ark., amendment to revise the Internal

Revenue Code and repeal the U depletions allowance" tax break a scorecard of ufree market environmentalism," not a score­ available to hardrock mining companies. Motion rejected 36-63: card of candidates' views on nuclear waste. R 7-47; D 29-16(ND 26-11, SD 3-5), June 26, 1997. A three-fifths Another procedural question that arose was whether majority vote (60) of the total Senate is required to waive the unanimous votes or votes where only a few members of a Budget Act. (Subsequently, the chair upheld the Murkowski congressional body were opposed should be included. point of order and the amendment failed.) Senate Vote 207 dealt with a bill to end the embargo on Latin What in the world does this mean? Short of using the American tuna and redefine the U dolphin safe" label. Thebill Rosetta stone, the average u.S. citizen would have a difficult passed unanimously. By including the vote, the entire time deciphering what legislators were actually voting on. As Senate's score would shift in one direction. This is useful in best as I was able to interpret from the Congressional Record: that it helps demonstrate the body's changing attitude. But Senator Murkowski raised a point of order that the Bumpers including unanimous votes or overwhelmingly one-sided amendment was not germane under an obscure section of votes dampens the differences between individual members the Budget Act. Senator Gregg, in response, proposed waiv­ within a congressional body, thereby undermining the main ing the Budget Act in order to allow the Bumpers amend­ purpose of the scorecards. ment to stand. Hence, a vote for Senator Gregg's waiver is a vote for the Bumpers Amendment. 4. Scorecards - based on messy bills and messy Or consider a measure to authorize spending on transpor­ votes - are messy. tation programs, including mass transit, which passed the In the 105th Congress (which included the years 1997 and Senate 96 to 4. It's pretty plain that free-market proponents 1998), we were able to find 30 votes in the U.S. House that we would oppose this measure. But the Congressional Record felt were environmental in nature, had a clear FME position, made it clear that those who took the FME position did not and had no strikes against them that would warrant exclu­ sion. In the Senate, however, we could only find eleven roll call votes that matched all of these criteria. (Five votes from 1998 were added to the six votes from 1997 already men­ tioned.) With so few votes qualifying, the differences in scores between legislators lacked nuance. For instance, two senators who only voted differently on one issue would find themselves separated by nine points. In addition, twenty-one members of the Senate, or over 1/5 of the body, received an identical score. The same happened in David Boaz's score­ card, with 21% of the House receiving a score of 42. Lack of a substantial number of votes lessens the impact of the score­ / / 'BJ.f"t'J card because senators and representatives may seem much "School is okay in some ways, but it sure cuts into my day." further apart or much closer together in philosophy than 30 Liberty June 2000 they really are. likes, but who did poorly? The more items included in a An interesting point made by my PERC colleague scorecard, the more they need justification. Matthew Brown is that Boaz actually has an option to add More often than not, I think the organizations that score nuance to his card that many scorecards don't. At the end of Congress solve the problems by simply ignoring that they Libertarianism: A Primer, Boaz notes that there are two planes exist and plowing forward, arguing that the benefits of rank­ for defining the political ideology of libertarianism: eco­ ing Congress outweigh any troubles with the process itself. nomic freedoms and personal freedoms. Boaz could separate Disclaimers and detailed description of methodology are the roll call votes along these lines and give three scores for used to sidestep questions of effectiveness. the representatives and senators: overall libertarian, libertar­ Remember the family planning vote that PERC chose to ian on economic issues, and libertarian on personal issues. eliminate from its scorecard because debate had framed the That way socially liberal but economically conservative rep­ issue as one of abortion? The League of Conservation Voters resentatives who score the same as socially conservative but did not feel the same twinges of doubt. It included the vote, economic liberals would be demarcated into different essentially labeling those who voted against the funding groups. While it may be messier, it would help add more detail. So How Do They All Do It? With all of these problems in creating a scorecard, how No scorecard takes into account the inten­ do other organizations accomplish the feat? tions of a congressional member's vote. Votes For one, broadening the scope of the scorecard solves sev­ are designated as black or white and ifa member eral problems. Trying to pin down the philosophy of ofcongress votes incorrectly despite doing so for Congress on environmental issues alone is much more diffi­ cult than labeling senators and representatives as conserva­ reasons that match that of the organization rat­ tive, liberal, or libertarian. By including more votes, the ing Congress, he or she is still punished. differences between members of Congress become clearer and there is less lumping of legislators. Oddly though, scorecard groups that measure these larger philosophies often limit the number of votes in their card for purposes of space, not wanting to scare off potential because they were pro-life as also anti-environment. While readers. For instance, Americans for Democratic Action, the two camps may indeed overlap, no doubt several con­ which has measured the liberal leanings of Congress since gressmen were unfairly categorized. 1947, only uses twenty votes in each of the House and the The basic problem with scorecards is that they they give a Senate. This is despite the availability of many more votes false impression of accuracy and precision. When a legislator every year meeting the organization's ideological criteria. is assigned a number, the reader of a scorecard more or less assumes that the congressman's philosophy has been accu­ rately quantified, and this is simply not true. No scorecard organization takes into account the intentions of a congres­ sional member's vote. Rather, votes are designated as black The basic problem with scorecards is that or white and if a member of congress votes incorrectly they give a false impression of accuracy and despite doing so for reasons that match that of the scorecard precIsIon. organization, he or she is still punished. Rating Congress is like trying to tell time at night with a sundial. One may know that the hour is nearer to sunrise than sunset, but it is still an educated guess as to exactly when the cock will crow. As Boaz wrote, "In the end, no rat­ Boaz offers one legitimate reason for limiting the spectrum. ings system is perfect. Any interested voter should watch the His scorecard attempted to eliminate votes that fell into the actual votes of his own representatives in Congress, not rely messy category, votes that - like the one on CAMPFIRE ­ on a selective rating." clearly have several possible interpretations, though, as I While there may be some merit to creating a general spec­ mentioned, not even all of Boaz's votes were squeaky clean. trum of where congressional members lie philosophically, Scorecards that are short on the vote tally, not by their the real value of a scorecard lies in explanations of each vote. own choosing but because their narrow interests limit the This includes the underpinnings behind why it was or was spectrum (as ours did), occasionally try to compensate by not included and why each yea or nay vote is considered including indicators of congressional philosophy other than positive or negative by the organization. (Political scientists votes in their scorecard, but that leads to problems, too. For using the scores in their statistical analysis could use the example, in 1997, the League of Conservation Voters, an explanations to adjust scores according to whatever it is they environmental group, gave credit to congressmen who are trying to measure.) As it is unlikely, however, that the signed on to cosponsor a bill shifting air quality standards casual reader will take the time to read these explanations, from Congress's jurisdiction to the EPA's jurisdiction. This scorecards generally lack value beyond that of lobbying tool, begs the question: Why are some cosponsorships included campaign pinup, and publicity stunt for the political fodder and not others? Is it to help a candidate that the organization of slow news days. Perhaps that's enough. 0 Liberty 31 June 2000 Historiography Adding up Afrocentrism by George M. Hollenback

It was the Egyptians who stole mathematical ideas and called them their own, not the Greeks.

In 1972, Richard A. Parker, an eminent professor of Egyptology, published a collection of Egyptian mathematical texts called the Demotic Mathematical Papyri. Dating from the third century BeE to the second century eE, the five texts are arranged in chronological order, their combined problems consecutively numbered 1-72.1 Little does the good professor realize, however, that his scholarly tome is actually an intellectual this article. Afrocentrist views were given a boost when time bomb, ticking away, waiting to explode nearly three Martin Bernal - a white scholar - published the first two decades l~ter amidst the culture wars being waged between volumes of his provocative Black Athena series in 1987 and extreme Afrocentrists and their critics. 1991, arguing that Greek civilization was indeed profoundly The major tenet of extreme Afrocentrism is that the civili- influenced by Egyptian civilization. zation of ancient Greece - the cradle of Western civilization In 1991 Mary Lefkowitz, professor of classics at Wellesley - was based on the much older civilization of "black" College, was asked to write a review article of Black Athena Egypt. GeorgeG. M. James articulated these views in Stolen and its relation to the Afrocentrist movement for The New Legacy (1954), arguing that the Greek philosophers were ini- Republic. 2 Because she dared point out the wrongheadedness tiated into an Egyptian "mystery system" where they of certain Afrocentric claims, Lefkowitz found herself bear- learned the secrets of Egyptian wisdom. Aristotle, however, ing the brunt of hostile responses that went far beyond the took a shortcut. Accompanying Alexander the Great when pale of normal scholarly disagreement. Then in 1993 the the latter occupied Egypt in 332 BCE, Aristotle ransacked the aforementioned Yosef A. A. benJochannan - billed as a "dis- great library at Alexandria, plagiarizing Egyptian works and tinguished Egyptologist" - was invited to Wellesley to give claiming them as his own or assigning them to his cronies. the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial lecture. During the lec- There are a number of problems with James' account, not ture, he once again parroted the claims made nearly four least that the great library of Alexandria was actually a decades earlier by James that Aristotle had stolen his philos- Greek library built only after Alexander and Aristotle were ophy from the great library of Alexandria. During the ques- both dead. Apparently unaware of this little problem, tion and answer period, Lefkowitz asked how Aristotle Afrocentrist Yosef A. A. benJochannan later reiterated the could have stolen from a library that hadn't been built until same views in works such as Africa: Mother of Western after his death. Obviously unable to answer the question, Civilization (1971). Other Afrocentrists, such as the late benJochannan responded that he resented its tone. Cheikh Anta Diop, have also espoused the stolen legacy the- Afterwards several of Wellesley's best and brightest sis, albeit not in as reckless a fashion. According to the ver- approached Lefkowitz, accusing her of racism and suggest- sion of the argument found in Diop's Civilization or ing that she had been brainwashed by white historians. Not Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (1991), the Greek invad- one to take this kind of nonsense lightly, Lefkowitz ers looted the accumulated knowledge of ancient Egypt from responded by writing Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism existing temple libraries. Diop writes at length about the Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History ( 1996). In the pro- mathematical knowledge that was supposedly plundered cess of debunking a number of blatant Afrocentrist false- from the Egyptians, the very claim that will be explored in hoods, Lefkowitz was also able to demonstrate through 32 Liberty June 2000

scholarly detective work that the whole "Egyptian mystery angle whose sides are given and from which information the system" embraced by James, benJochannan, Diop, and oth­ height of the triangle and the radius of the circle were calcu­ ers was largely based upon eighteenth-century European fic­ lated. 7 Given triangle height and circle radius, the areas of tion and Masonic myth. As the battle lines in the .culture the triangle and segments could then also be calculated. wars now stand, Afrocentrists rally around Bernal and Black Volume ofa truncated cone - Problems 42-45 calculate the Athena, while their critics rally around Lefkowitz and Not capacity of copper sheaths used to cover enormous, taper­ Out of Africa. Both titles have sold surprisingly well .for ing, round ma~ts, objects that in geometric terminology works dealing with ancient history, and both continue to would be described as elongated truncated cones. The not­ attract media attention. so-accurate method employed averages the circular areas of The Demotic Mathematical Papyri are vitally important the ends, or bases, of the sheaths and then multiplies this to the ongoing debate because the first two (comprising average circular area by the length of the sheath. The Old Babylonian text Haddad 104 (ii) employs the same basic method in calculating the capacity of a container having the shape of a truncated cone. 8 The major tenet of extreme Afrocentrism is Pi value of 3 - Finally, and most notably, problems 32­ that the civilization of ancient Greece - the 33, 36, and 38 explicitly make use of the Old Babylonian pi value of 3, and problems 37 and 42-45 implicitly reflect the cradle of Western civilization - was based on same value. This is most unusual because the older classical the much older civilization of"black" Egypt. Egyptian method for finding circle area - squaring 8/9 of the diameter - actually implies a much more accurate pi value of approximately 3.16. Because classical Egyptian mathematics did not deal with circumferential measure­ problems 1-40 and 41-52) date from the Greek Period (332­ ment, how"ever, the Egyptians were never able to link their 30 BCE) and therefore reflect the state of native Egyptian circle area/ diameter relationship with circumference in mathematics during the time the Greeks controlled Egypt. If order to come up with an explicit circumference to diameter the Greeks had indeed made a practice of pillaging texts ratio, i.e., pi. The Babylonian system, on the other hand, was from Egyptian temples as suggested by Diop, papyri like able to link diameter, circumference, and circle area with an these would have been representative of their booty. explicit pi value. Although the Babylonian pi value of 3 Conspicuously absent from these Egyptian texts, however, wasn't that accurate, it was nonetheless part of a fully inte­ are the axiomatic proofs and theorems associated with Greek grated system of circle measurement. Because classical mathematics. What is found in the texts are simply practical Egyptian mathematics had no such integrated system, the examples of how to work specific problems. Most curious, Egyptians ended up appropriating the Babylonian system, though, is that a number of these problems are based on spe­ never managing to improve upon the accuracy of its circum­ cific antecedents from much older problems in Babylonian ference to diameter ratio. 9 mathematics that date from the Old Babylonian Period (ca. Just how did Old Babylonian mathematics come to sup­ 2000-1600 BCE). The same kinds of problems do not appear plant classical Egyptian mathematics in the first place? in the older "classical" Egyptian papyri that date from the same time period as the Old Babylonian texts. 3 What follows below is a summary of the relevant prob­ lem categories (some overlapping) of the Demotic Conspicuously absent from these Egyptian Mathematical Papyri and their Old Babylonian antecedents: 4 texts, however, are the axiomatic.proofs and the­ PoZe against a wall - Problems 24-29 all involve a pole of a given length standing vertically against a wall, the top of orems associated with Greek mathematics. the pole then sliding down the wall a certain distance as the bottom of the pole slides out from the wall a certain distance. Given the necessary information, one is to calculate either how far down the pole slid or how far out it slid. A problem Parker himself believed that Babylonian mathematics was set up in exactly the same format appears in the Old transmitted to Egypt via the Persian invasions that began in Babylonian text BM 85196 (ix).5 the latter part of the sixth century BCE. 10 Diagonal of a rectangle - Problems 34-35 give the length This scenario is not without its problems, however. For of the diagonal of a rectangle together with the area of the example, it is highly unlikely that Babylonian mathematics rectangle and ask for the dimensions of the rectangle. The could have existed in complete isolation from Egyptian illustrated Old Babylonian text Db2-146 sets up and solves mathematics for a millennium and a half, only to be sud­ 6 the same kind of problem. denly injected into Egypt during the Persian invasions. Triangle in a circle - Problems 36 and 38 involve circles Furthermore, there was a much earlier foreign invasion and inscribed with equilateral triangles whose sides are given occupation of Egypt that set a much better stage for the trans­ and ask for the areas of the triangles and the segments of the mission of Babylonian mathematics into Egypt: the Hyksos circles cut off by the sides of the triangles. These problems Period (Fifteenth Dynasty, mid-seventeenth to mid-sixteenth very closely resemble the illustrated Old Babylonian text centuries BCE). TMS 1 which depicts a circle inscribed with an isosceles tri- The Hyksos were a predominantly Semitic people who Liberty 33 June 2000 had been migrating into northern Egypt from Canaan and Mathematical Papyri featuring proofs and theorems similar settling there in numbers great enough that they were even­ to what appear in the Greek texts?· At approximately the tually able to take control of the country. Many innovations same time the second of the Demotic Mathematical Papyri appeared in Egypt in the wake of the Hyksos Period: horse, was being produced - with its implied pi value of 3 in prob­ chariot, spoked wheel, composite bow and other small arms, lems 42-45 - Archimedes (287-212 BCE) was busy proving helmet and armor, the shaduf (an irrigation device), vertical that pi had a value of approximately 3.14. This value is not loom, advanced metallurgy, new fortification techniques, only more accurate than 3, but also more accurate than the and certain musical instruments, just to name a few. It is 3.16 value inferred from the classical Egyptian texts. If only reasonable that this list of innovations that forever changed Egyptian culture probably included Babylonian mathematics as well. The recent discovery of a cuneiform multiplication table at Hazor in northern Israel confirms the The whole 'IEgyptian mystery system" existence of a Babylonian mathematical tradition in· Canaan embraced by James/ benJochannan/ Diop/ and as early as the Middle Bronze Age, which coincides with the others was largely based upon eighteenth­ Old Babylonian Period. 11 Babylonian mathematics therefore could have already been well established in Canaan by the century European fiction and Masonic myth. time the Hyksos moved from Canaan into Egypt. When Afrocentrists gloat that Greek tradition venerates Egyptian mathematics and has early philosophers such as Archimedes had stolen his pi value and the proofs behind it Thales and Pythagoras (who both flourished in the sixth cen­ from the Egyptians, why weren't the Egyptians using it in tury BeE) studying mathematics in Egypt, they don't realize their own texts? Why were they using the Old Babylonian that those visiting sages probably would have been studying value of 3 instead? Babylonian mathematics that had made its way into Egypt The inescapable conclusion is that it was the Egyptians, perhaps a millennium earlier. To those early Greek visitors, not the Greeks, who IIstole" someone else's mathematical the long-established, transplanted Babylonian mathematical tradition and tenaciously clung to it as their very own. The tradition would have seemed as impressively Egyptian as Demotic Mathematical Papyri indisputably substantiate that the pyramids themselves. When Afrocentrists angrily conclusion. 0 denounce later Greeks for supposedly plundering mathe­ matical texts from Egyptian temples, they don't realize that Notes those supposedly plundered texts would have been replete 1. Richard A. Parker, Demotic Mathematical Papyri (Providence, RI: with the same kind of Babylonian mathematics - shortcom­ Brown University, 1972; reprint, Ann Arbor, MI: University of ings and all - as found in the Demotic Mathematical Michigan Press, 1997). Papyri. Afrocentrist accusations thus amount to the claim 2. Mary Lefkowitz, "Not Out of Africa," The New Republic, February 1992, 29-36; revised and reprinted as "Ancient History, that the Greeks stole the Egyptians' Babylonian Modern Myths," in Mary R. Lefkowitz and Guy MacLean Rogers, eds. mathematics! Black Athena Revisited (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, This presents Afrocentrists with a conundrum: If the 1996),3-23. invading Greeks had stolen texts similar to the Demotic. 3. See Lucas N. H. Bunt, Phillip S. Jones, and Jack D. Bedient, The Mathematical Papyri from Egyptian temples, how could Historical Roots ofElementary Mathematics, rev. ed. (New York: Dover, they have then produced their axiomatic proofs and theo­ 1988) for a concise treatment of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek rems, a distinctive brand of mathematics not found in the mathematical traditions. Demotic Mathematical Papyri? And if the Greeks had stolen 4. The abbreviated references to the Old Babylonian texts are stan­ dard in the literature; see, e.g., the "Index of Texts Discussed" in their proofs and theorems from the Egyptians, what were Eleanor Robson, Mesopotamian Mathematics 2100-1600 Be: Technical the Egyptians doing producing the likes of the Demotic Constants in Bureaucracy and Education, Oxford Editions ofCuneiform Mathematical Papyri that are totally devoid of axiomatic Texts, vol. 14 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999),307-324. mathematics, even the later papyri from the Roman period? 5. Joran Friberg, "Methods and Traditions of Babylonian Why couldn't the Egyptians simply have copied back what Mathematics: Plimpton 322, Pythagorean Triples, and the Babylonian had been plagiarized from them, producing Demotic Triangle Parameter Equations," Historia Mathematica 8 (1981): 307-308. 6. T. Baqir, "Tell Dhibati: New mathematical texts," Sumer 18 (1962): 11-14; pI. 1-3. 7. E. M. Bruins and M. Rutten, Textes mathematiques de Suse, Memoires de la mission archeologique en Iran, vol. 34 (Paris: Libraire Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1961),22-23; pI. 1. 8. Farouk N. H. Al-Rawi and Michael Roaf, "Ten Old Babylonian Mathematical Problems from Tell Haddad, Himrin," Sumer 43 (1984): 186-188. 9. See George M. Hollenback, "The Myth of Egyptian Pi," Skeptic 5/4 (1997): 58-62 for a more detailed treatment of this subject. It should also be noted that certain Old Babylonian texts implicitly reflect a pi value of 3.125, even more accurate than the implied classi­ cal Egyptian value of 3.16. 10. Parker, 6. "Had this been an actual emergency, you'd have been 11. W. Horowitz, "A Combined Multiplication Table on a Prism instructed to call your mother. .." Fragment from Hazor," Israel Exploration Journal 47 (1997): 190-197. 34 Liberty Accusation Suffer the Little Children by Dolores Puterbaugh

Sit down. Shut up. Be still. Welcome to the New World Order for children.

Imagine yourself in a wingback chair. The sides are so deep you can only see what is directly in front of you. You are tilted slightly backwards. Your movements are restricted by heavy shoulder straps, which converge and buckle between your thighs. You will be in this position as long as eight hours each day. If you protest you will be gagged or forcefed. Torture in some backward nation? The means to control often with permanent effects. It is documented that isolation violent psychotic patients? No, sadly, this is daily life for has a similar devastating effect on human children many Americans, namely, babies. . In primitive societies, children are carried on their moth­ Humans evolved with rotating shoulders to reach and ers' bodies (recall the drawings of "squaws" with "papooses" carry. Adult females have wide-set hips for carrying children, in mid-20th century history books) or allowed to roam free both in the womb and the arms. Technology renders these under the watchful eye of adults or older children. When attributes obsolete, as infants now come in convenient carry­ exploring, these infants are free to use their senses to learn ing cases. about their world; when held securely against the body of a These padded plastic carriers have an array of features; loving adult they gain security, trust and the sheer pleasure of they can be put in a shopping cart or a minivan without the physical contact. parent having to remove - and actually hold - the baby. A Parents deny their children these benefits when they rely on baby carriers to transport and imprison their young. After child can be put in the family car for a Saturday outing, go to a busy day, it is easier to have your little one safely strapped a restaurant for breakfast, off to the mall, stop for a light lunch in one place than prepare a meal and attend to a baby at the and a drive home, and never leave the confines of the carrier. same time. At least, it is easier for the adult. This frees parents from having the burden of the everyday It is hell for the baby. banalities of childcare. But the level of entrapment carriers For older children,· electronic media can provide similar impose would be considered cruel and unusual punishment restraint. Why read or speak with your child when you can for any but the most violent adults. Yet children may spend do chores undisturbed while they play computer games or up to eight hours a day tied into a tilted chair, with limited watch television? The problems of unsupervised viewing of mobility, view and access to tactile stimulation - including violence are well documented; here the concern is the use of the essential touch, breath and heartbeat of another human such media to avoid parental responsibilities for listening, being. loving and laughing with your child. Portable computer From experiments with lower primates we know what a games bring the same benefits to the family car; there's no lack of physical affection does to the psychological and physi­ need to discuss the day at school or sing together when the cal well-being of infant monkeys. Harlow's experiments in grownups can focus on the radio or one another while the isolating infant monkeys produced monkeys which were kids are hypnotized by the glories of "Game Boy." Some new extremely withdrawn, self-isolating, unable to attach or relate minivans and SUVs feature separate stereo and headsets for normally to others. In psychiatric terms, they were autistic. front and back listening. Parents and children need no longer Some of them physically suffered with what is termed "fail­ share a musical culture. ure to thrive" in humans: retarded growth and development, Twenty years ago, I received a baby seat as a shower gift; Liberty 35 June 2000 flimsy by modem standards, it was meant only as a tempo­ around and shout and play every couple of hours. Today chil­ rary convenience. It had no handles to carry; it could only be dren have tedious bus rides, long sedentary school days, propped into an approximate sitting position. I recall my restrictive after-school programs, and parents too busy to play daughter Kristen sitting in it on the kitchen table where I - or even to pay attention. could have her at eye level, while preparing food or paying "What do you do for fun?" I will ask a child during the bills, talking or singing to her throughout my chores. It never initial family interview for counseling. Typical responses are, occurred to me to strap her into the chair and set it aside, out "I play computer games," or "Television." "What do you do of my way, so I could get through my tasks without with your mom or dad?" I wonder, and the response is often, interference. "We watch wrestling," or, "Umm, nothing really. I guess we A generation later, I rarely see a parent holding a child in talk sometimes." The parent looks uncomfortable during this a restaurant or waiting room; usually they tote the baby in the carrier like groceries in a handy basket. There are toys, a paci­ fier and a bottle ready to thrust at the baby if it darES express When children have no freedom to move or a desire to befreed from inhumane restraints. speak, they have no freedom to learn and grow. If an adult criminal were treated this way while impris­ oned, the ACLU would be on the scene with high-priced They are hostages ofa strange and hostile adult attorneys, providing brilliant essays on the op-ed page and a world. national news conference. Baby Carriers, Ritalin and Absentee Parents It is intriguing that as the use of baby carriers has grown, exchange. If a very young child is present, they are being cor­ there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children rected in an ongoing monologue ("Be quiet," "sit down," "be diagnosed with various mental or behavioral disorders. still," "stop fidgeting") or else they are strapped into a carrier. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Plastic keys are shaken in their face, or pacifiers pushed in Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, various adjustment dis­ their mouth like a cork if they dare to cry or make their own orders and attachment disorders, are diagnosed more fre­ noises to join to our conversation. quently with each passing year. Parents and professionals Many adults have ignorant and unrealistic expectations bemoan the lack of conscience and empathy in today's chil­ for children. "She has no attention span -I mean, maybe ten dren - and not only schoolyard shooters. minutes," a parent will complain. The child in question is Many of these children have spent time strapped into only four. Ten minutes beats most adults holding a television baby carriers and then alone glued to the "tube" or hypno­ remote control. Parents expect children to be able to switch tized by computer games for the convenience of adult caretak­ gears to match their own crazy schedules, and want counsel­ ers. These caretakers are now seeking drugs to induce ing or drugs for the child when it is the parent whose world­ compliance and sedate behaviors, since a ten-year-old boy view and expectations are dysfunctional. cannot legally be strapped into a chair for the convenience of When children have no freedom to move or speak, they parents. Ritalin has become an emotional convenient carrying have no freedom to learn and grow. They are hostages of a case. strange and hostile adult world. As with any· hostage, their Despite the ease with which experts at the White House combined rage and helplessness leads to incredible frustra­ Conference on Mental Health quote statistics on children's tion and low thresholds for "acting out," the detached adult mental illnesses in order to lobby for treatment money, the description of the child's reaction to abuse and neglect. National Institute of Mental Health has been unable to pro­ Here is a challenge to parents: accept that children are chil­ dren. Expect them to cry a lot. They will "get into" things; they vide me with such simple data as the approximate number of will shout and yell and cry and challenge you no matter what diagnoses of various categories of mental illness in the United kind of day you've had. They will want to sleep with you States per year. My hypothesis that the increased rate of diag­ when they are scared or sick or just insecure; young have slept noses correlates to a similar increase, several years earlier, in with their parents across species for millennia. If you tie them the use of infant carriers, has gone untested because no data up and strap them down, turn them over to the care of strang­ are available. ers via electronic media or extensive babysitting, ignore them Currently more children are diagnosed and drugged for and fail to involve them in your daily tasks, they will suffer behavior problems than at any time in our past. Many of these terribly. They will not switch gears, moods and energy levels diagnoses are dubious. They are diagnosed by checklists: if on your schedule. They need to move and use all their senses enough problem behaviors occur (fidgeting, not waiting to explore this amazing world. They need to be loved. 0 one's tum, interrupting others), a child is diagnosed as suf­ fering from behavior problems. Children today do not sig­ nificantly differ from children of the past: they have fidgeted, interrupted and had difficulty waiting their turn since Eden. Our culture of convenience is hostile toward children, who are, by their nature, inconvenient. For example, many schools no longer have recess. Re­ read the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder; the one-room schoolhouse had recess twice a day. In the unin­ formed, pre-psychology days, schoolmarms knew that chil­ "She hasn't responded to any stimulae, Dr. Pavlov - maybe we dren needed a long walk. to school and a chance to run should switch to a dog." 36 Liberty Fiction Back Where You Came From by Scott Gossard

Justice comes to a bureaucrat.

lem. But right now I'm going to see..." Roger glanced back "Yau haven't filled these forms out prop­ at his desktop, "Mr. Vincente. He has problems, too. You erly. You'll have to fill them out properly don't want to take up Mr. Vincente's time, do you?" before I can see you." Roger Cutner handed the old The old woman - now suddenly older - glanced down woman the three pink sheets of paper she had given him at the three pink sheets. She slowly lifted a hand to them. a moment before. His chair creaked loudly as his formidable "That's good, Mrs. Winters. Mr. Vincente will be very mass changed its distribution on its surface. happy." "But, sir. I've already stood in line for two hours. I'll lose "Well, Mr. Vincente, I see you've finally filled the forms myplace-" out properly. If you'd have asked me for the B forms earlier "Sorry. You'll have to fill out these forms properly before we could have been done with this many months ago. But I can see you," Roger repeated. "We need to be precise ..." Roger shrugged. about our services. We must monitor our costs, and we best Mr. Vincente sat stiffly in his chair, his eyes wide and do this by filling out these forms properly. It would take me apprehensive. His hands gripped a chipped and scratched - Health Services, that is - an inordinate amount of time if cane in his lap. I- we - had to help every person through all the little Roger looked at the sheets again, his expression blank. steps of information processing." Suddenly his head cocked slightly as his eyes lit up. "Oh, A quiver started on the woman's lower lip. "But, sir. I no. This won't do." Roger shook his head. really need to speak with you today about my health plan. Mr. Vincente had the look of a man seeing an ambulance My arthritis has been so terrible lately. I don't want to take pull up in front of his house. up your time, but ..." She still had not reached for the "Mr. Vincente. I hate to tell you this. I really do," Roger sheets which Roger held out to her. sighed. "Our department doesn't handle these types of "Sorry, no." Roger put the sheets down on the desk in cases. No, no. You should have seen -" front of her. "Go fill these forms out properly." Roger Suddenly Roger Cutner grabbed his chest. His eyes wid­ slowly stood up, helping to lift his mass with one hand on ened, he sucked in his breath. And then his upper torso fell the arm of his chair, the other hand flat on his desk. The forward onto the desk with a loud thump. chair creaked a sigh as his weight came off it. Roger paused Mr. Vincente looked on aghast. "Mr. Cutner? Mr. a moment, catching his breath. He wiped a small sheen of Cutner! What's wrong?" sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Finally, he Mr. Vincente stood up from his seat, backing away from slid the chair away from the desk and slowly, laboriously, the unmoving bulk collapsed on the desktop, his cane rat­ made his way toward the woman. tling to the floor. His right hand reached behind him, grop­ "Mrs. Winters. I'm sure we can take care of your prob- ing for the doorknob, as his left hand fluttered near his Liberty 37 June 2000

throat. His voice was hoarse at first, but soon it was clear two yellow sheets of paper and the pen lying on the desk. enough to carry loudly through the halls of Health He noted amusingly that the pen wasn't chained to the Services. desk. Roger cleared his throat. The clerk lookedup. "Yes?" Roger Cutner walked lightly through the huge hall. It "I -I filled out my forms. I was here ... just a minute was soothingly lit by dim lights set in low-hanging lamps. ago." The white marble walls gently reflected the illumination, "Really, sir. I can't remember everyone I see. Well, let while the ceiling and far corners of the room were in light me see your papers." The clerk took them from Roger, shadows. He noticed his footsteps made no sound, and scanning both sheets briefly. He handed them back to looking down saw that he wasn't wearing shoes. He was Roger. draped in a loose robe which flowed lightly over his bulk. "You've filled out the wrong forms. You need to go to the desk on your left, not your right. Two copies of the yel­ low forms, please." Roger tried to interrupt but was met by the imperious "It would take me - Health Services, that is finger. - an inordinate amount oftime if I- we ­ "Next!" "Okay. Here's the forms you asked for. Left desk. had to help every person through all the little Yellow forms. Two copies." steps ofinformation processing. /I The clerk quickly glanced at the papers. "You've filled the forms outimproperly." The clerk crumpled the yellow sheets in his hand. "You'll have to fill out the forms properly." He wasn't cold, however; the temperature was "But-" comfortable. "Next!" There was no shock or mystery. Roger knew where he Roger was sure he had followed instructions properly. was. He knew he had died of a heart attack. The only sur­ But still, a nervous lump had formed in his stomach ... prise was how unsurprised he was by the whole situation. next to the angry lump. The clerk's expression was inscru­ He noted with pleasure how smooth the transition was table as he leafed through the sheets. Roger's heart skipped from life on earth to life - if that was the word - here. A phrase came to him that summed up the situation: But of course. But of course it would be like this. But of course it "Our department doesn't handle these types would look like this. But of course it would feel like this. ofcases. No, no. You should have seen - /I They - or should he say He - would make it a smooth transition. Why would you be shocked when you first Suddenly Roger Cutner grabbed his chest. His came to ... this place. Roger nodded, smiling. eyes widened, he sucked in his breath. And then He was alone in the great white room but for the lone his upper torso fell forward onto the desk with a figure who stood behind a light blue stone partition. The loud thump. man, visible from the waist up, wore - a white coat. He looked up as Roger approached. "And how are you doing today, sir?" Roger said, lay­ ing his hands on the top of the partition. Roger stood a when the clerk abruptly flipped the first page on top of the moment smiling, but his smile faltered as the other man second. He looked up at Roger. stood there immobile and silent, his expression blank. "You're at the wrong department. You need to see Mr. Roger cleared his throat and attempted to smile again. The Hawkins. Down the hall to your right. Room 312." smile lapsed in the continued silence. Mr. Hawkins smiled wanly at Roger. "No, no. You "Well, sir?" the clerk asked. need to see Mr. Townsend. Up the stairs on your left. "Well? Well, what?" Second door on your right. Room 410." "Have you filled out your papers?" The clerk noted "You need to see Mr. Hawkins. Down the -" Roger's expression and sighed. "You need to go to the "I know, I know. Down the stairs on my right. Room desk at the back of the room to your left and fill out the 312. Look. He sent me to you." Roger put his hands on the yellow forms twice." two sheets of yellow paper on the desk. The edges were Roger started to speak, but the clerk pointed an imperi­ curled, one corner dark and damp with sweat. ous finger to the back of the room. "Nextf" "I'm sure it was a simple misunderstanding." Mr. Roger turned, only half aware that there was no Next Townsend removed his glasses and set them on the desk. behind him. Roger stumbled to the first desk he saw and "We used to handle these forms until three weeks ago. Mr. sat down heavily in the stiff-backed plastic chair. Papers? Hawkins is new to the job. I'm sure he'll see his error when Forms? Roger shook his head. Oh, well. A small price to you go down there. He's probably already aware of it." pay for entrance into the fabled domain. Roger grabbed Mr. Hawkins looked at him. "Well, I didn't make a mis- 38 Liberty June 2000 take. The office forgot to notify me of the change. I'm sure I Roger took several deep breaths as he made his way never would have -" toward the familiar clerk in the large hall. The clerk with Roger waved his hand in the air between them. His the left eyebrow lower than the right; with the crooked and other hand reached back from his forehead through his yellowed lower teeth; with the mole on his right earlobe... damp hair. "I don't care. I just want to take care of all this "Here. I've filled them out correctly. They've been right now." stamped in triplicate. They are from the right department ..." "Of course, of course. Well, just let me stamp this ..." The clerk handed them back. "But they are not to the Mr. Hawkins reached for his stamp and pad, pulling the right department. You need to go to -" yellow papers toward him. Roger had had enough. "Why are you making it so dif­ Roger sighed. "And now I can ... go in?" ficult for me? You know how I've conducted my life. You know everything about me that you need to know. You know things about me that you don't need to know. So

/IAnd how are you doing today, sir? /I Roger why all this paperwork?" Roger repeatedly hammered his fist on the counter, under the stony gaze of the clerk. "I said, laying his hands on the top ofthe partition. should be in there already. Having fun. I should already be Roger stood a moment smiling, but his smile fal­ in Heaven!" tered as the other man stood there immobile and Roger's hand paused in midair, hovering over the coun­ silent, his expression blank. ter. The last word he had spoken seemed to jar something in his memory. Stories from when he was a child. Roger stepped back from the clerk, his eyes widening. "Oh, my Lord. Now I understand. I'm not in the outskirts "You are already where you should be, Mr. Cumer." He of Heaven, waiting to get in. I'm " Roger gasped, one fat waved a hand over the papers on the desk. "This is only a hand going to his chest. "I'm in Oh, God!" formality. We get this done and you can enjoy yourself. Roger almost stumbled as he took another step back, Just take these to the clerk out front." He smiled at Roger. warily watching the stone-faced clerk. "I'm trapped in the This was getting ridiculous, Roger thought as he made very situation I put others in. I see it now. God, yes, I see it. his way back down the hall. They should know all this I was wrong! But this is so much worse. Oh, my Lord! It's stuff here of all places. Why would anyone need to fill out not fair." papers? He was beginning to notice the tiny features and Roger fell to his knees, clasping his hands, tears welling nuances of the hallway that the less well-traveled would in his eyes. "Oh, God. I see the error of my ways. Please, easily miss: the small break in the light blue door trim please, forgive me." Roger looked up toward the dim ceil­ across from the room he had just exited; the small chip in ing. "Please, Lord. Have mercy on me." the marble wall above the door to Room 309; the scratch on The clerk looked down at him, annoyed. "Please, Mr. the lamp hanging in the middle of the hall, 21 steps away Cumer. Get up, please. The Lord has had mercy on you. from.... What makes you think you're in Hell?" 0

Letters, from page 22 power of the person who is my Arts" (May) is too cerebral. My mother come from Russia or China, or any immediate problem. More recently, I got there more quickly. She lived with other nation of similar size or strength, have had many more occasions to feel her parents on a small farm in Bavaria he would have been returned and resent the power of whoever was and left in 1935 when Hitler had been in immediately to his homeland. my immediate supervisor than the power for two years. Jay Higginbotham combined power of my local, state, and They had a crystal radio. The only Mobile, Ala. federal governments. The second of thing heard on that state-supported Bias? What Bias? these personal realities is probably true medium was praise of the government In Media Bias: A User's Guide, Bruce for most Americans. It explains why and of the "party." She thought it Bartlett, a high-level official in the libertarianism is and shall remain a dangerous, and exited before things Reagan and Bush era, seeks to minority perspective. Libertarianism went to hell. And I learned early that perpetuate a Republican myth about assumes that most Americans have the Joseph Goebbels, minister of education how left-liberal the American media is. same economic interests as Bill Gates. and culture, was the father of National The truth is more complicated, and Most Americans know that this is not Public Radio. more troubling: The media too often true. Erwin J. Haas defends the state, even at the expense of John Engelman Grand Rapids, Mich. the public's right, and need, to know Walnut Creek, Calif. It Takes a Bully the truth. Joseph Goebbels, Meet Linda Once again, U.S. policy toward Cuba In The Captive Press, Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute recounts Wertheimer seems based on a cardinal Hitlerian how, though The New York Times knew Alan Bock's article, "The State of the principle: might is right. If Elian had Liberty 39 June 2000 the administration's disavowal of The government rewards light-years ahead of present U.S. gov­ responsibility for the U-2 spy incident "cooperative" media members with ernlnent policy. in 1960 was a lie, to please CIA chief privileged access to much of the Dale Gieringer Allen Dulles, Times' publisher Arthur information the media"sells" the public Berkeley, Calif. Ochs Sulzberger killed a story telling as news. This arrangement provides a the truth. The "Newspaper of Record" greater threat to the public than any left Include Me Out then published an editorial supporting media bias. Hard work. Planning. Fair play. the government's lie, aftdso joined the Gary L. Aguilar Team effort. Once upon a time, it was U.S. government's disinformation San Francisco, Calif. understood that these paved the road to campaign that fooled no one but a better life in this country. Credit for Campbell Americans. And up until the moment Not any more. Now if you want to Rep. Tom Campbell deserves credit, the lie was exposed, most U.S. media get your piece of the American pie, not the blame cast upon him by Gene outlets presented Washington's story make sure that you get in line with your Healy, for his courageous, anti­ without a hint of skepticism. Is this hand stretched out. As R. W. Bradford prohibitionist stance on drug policy "left-liberal bias"? pointed out (Reflections, May), that is (Reflections, April). When the New York Times' Harrison the underlying message of the propa­ In Congress, Campbell has distin­ Salisbury began reporting accurately ganda currently running on television guished himself as a leading opponent on the civilian casualties in North and radio to promote the 2000 Census. of the drug war, voting against costly Vietnam from U.S. bombing, his Your government has pillaged your and draconian sentences, opposing patriotism was challenged by meddlesome anti-drug mandates, spon­ fellow citizens and now it is time for "establishment journalists who you to partake in the plunder. soring legislation to legalize medical Everybody else will be grabbing all they immediately came to the government's marijuana, supporting reform of the for­ can, so don't miss out on your share of rescue," as Carpenter put it. Is this feiture laws, and opposing military the booty. Come suckle upon the great, "left-liberal bias"? anti-drug aid to Latin America. benevolent, bottomless teat that is the On January 27, 1982, correspondent By contrast, his opponent, Sen. federal government. The message of the Ray Bonner reported in the New York Feinstein; has been one of the Senate's ad campaign is clear: without materna­ Times the massacre in El Salvador of foremost drug warriors, voting for listic government providing for you, 800 unarmed civilians, including many tougher penalties against both users your lives can and will descend into women and children, by the U.S. armed and traffickers, opposing California's unchecked squalor. and U.S. trained Atlacatl battalion. He medical marijuana law, calling for anti­ was vehemently rebuked by the U.S. drug trade sanctions against Mexico, These shameless ads perpetuate the State Department, and ridiculed as a supporting confiscatory civil forfeiture fiction that through the glory of govern­ communist dupe in the Wall Street laws, and sponsoring censorship of ment, I have the right to live at some­ Journal. The Times yanked Bonner from drug information on the Internet. body else's expense. The ads pander to El Salvador and demoted him to a desk Disregarding this dramatic contrast, our most base instincts: fear, envy and job. It took 10 years, and a Healy complains that Campbell has pro­ sibling rivalry on a national scale. U.N.-brokered peace agreement, for the posed government distribution of drugs Fifty-six years ago Friederich Hayek truth to come out that Bonner was right to addicts. To be sure, this is not a liber­ wrote a book entitled The Road to in virtually every detail. Left-liberal tarian policy, but it is far less costly than Serfdom. I can't think of a more appro­ bias? prohibition. In particular, what priate image for the state of affairs in When Senator John Kerry's Campbell has in mind is Switzerland's America today. While we are still the committee determined that some U.S. experimental program of heroin distri­ freest society on earth, our individual agencies knew about, and did not stop, bution to addicts, the impressiveresults freedoms are decreasing on a daily right-wing Contra supporters who of which make it an apt model for pub­ basis. Little by little, we have been abdi­ were importing cocaine during the lic debate. As for the alternative of free cating our rights and responsibilities to U.S.-supported anti-Sandinista war in market legalization, this, alas, is still those who would govern us. If the ide­ Nicaragua, the major dailies buried the beyond the political pale, being in con­ ology at the heart of these ads prevails, explosive findings in short, back-page flict with current international treaties we will all become dependent - not stories. And they then never followed that forbid commercial trade in upon our own desires and abilities ­ up. Later, the Reagan administration, narcotics. but upon the whims of the mighty lords citing Drug Enforcement Given this limitation, what and their chosen vassals. We are on the Administration evidence, publicly Campbell is proposing is that local gov­ road to serfdom. accused the leftist Sandinista ernments be permitted to establish nar­ It is time to put a stop to ever­ government of complicity in the drug cotics distribution programs on their encroaching, arrogant government. It is trade. That story got wide coverage. But own. That is, Campbell is advocating time to reclaim our lives as our own. then when high-level DEA officials reduced federal restrictions and The 2000 Census is upon us. While oth­ subsequently denied there was any increased local control. Perhaps this is ers may stand to be counted, I am going such evidence against the Sandinistas, not a 100% libertarian solution, but it is to sit down and get back to work. the mainstream media virtually certainly in line with constitutionalist Jack VanNoord ignored the refutation. Left-liberal bias? principles of limited government, and West Dundee, IL 40 Liberty Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the the earth's surface with solar panels Environmentalists: A Conservative Manifesto, by Peter Huber. and gigantic windmills. UWe should dig up our energy, bury our wastes, fly Basic Books, 2000, 224 pages. high, tunnel deep, and leave more of the surface alone," says Huber. Huber understands what was wrong with the 1972 book Limits to Growth, which claimed that the world would run out of resources. It was based on a computer model designed A Darker Shade by Jay Forrester. The model was bril­ liant in its way; it reflected "the meth­ ods of people who successfully design jets and coordinate our national ofGreen defense," says Huber. Where Forrester went wrong was to assume that the "basic constraints defined by existing technology, markets, and patterns of Green," loved wild animals, nature, Jane S. Shaw supply and demand" were going to and awe-inspiring places like determine the future. Huber goes on to Yellowstone and Yosemite. Against his For nearly two decades, talented say (citing the work of Julian Simon) concrete environmentalism Huber writers have tried to loosen the hold of that "the closest we come to getting a poses the "Soft Greens," champions of environmental sensationalism on the grip on human ingenuity is in the mar­ micro-environmentalism, which he American people. There have been ketplace, which is not a model at all; it defines as "the realm of huge popula­ is a process." polemical books, reportorial books, tions (molecules, particles) paired with Supremely self-confident, Huber eloquent books, and fact-filled books. very weak (low-probability) or slow has an easy, unfettered way of writing Authors such as Julian Simon, Ron (long time frame) effects." Their envi­ about these issues. He doesn't bother Bailey, and Elizabeth Whelan have ronmentalism is the "Green of the much with footnotes or citations. He tried to puncture the hyperbolic exag­ invisible, the Green of the highly dis­ discusses Soft Green concepts - mis­ gerations, challenge the assumption persed or the far future." It is environ­ conceptions, actually - and then that only the government can protect mentalism in which "the model is undermines them with better ideas. nature from human intrusion, and everything." Given this approach, he is somewhat inject common sense into debates that While this division between "hard" disdainful of facts. When discussing have became unhinged from real life.* and "soft" greens seems at first sim­ Jay Forrester's errors, he comments The latest in the down-to-earth march plistic and artificial, it works reason­ that "in the standard Hard Green to realism is Hard Green by Peter ably well and gives Huber a tract" it is typical to bring up "illustra­ Huber, a senior fellow with the conser­ framework for the book. He compares tive figures" such as "all our trash vative Manhattan Institute. the ludicrous fears (Micro particles will would fit in a pyramid just 2 miles Trained at MIT and Harvard Law kill us all!) and hopes (In the future, high in southern Connecticut" and "all School, Huber has his own take on solar energy will provide us all the our drinking water could be supplied how to counter arguments about envi­ energy we really need) of the "soft" by the rainfall of Oregon." Then he ronmental poisons and apocalyptic environmentalists with common-sense says, "Where did I get all these num­ hazards. His hero is Theodore realities understood by the "hard" bers? I made them up." He is, in fact, Roosevelt, who championed what Greens. making fun of the many writers (I am Huber calls "traditional conservation" Hard Greens, he explains, approve one) who feel an almost obsessive need or environmentalism that "happens in of digging under the earth for coal, oil to footnote every factual reference, places we can see and draw on a map." and other energy sources because it especially when it counters conven­ Roosevelt, in Huber's scheme a "Hard preserves the surface of the earth for tional wisdom. We keep hoping that *1, too, have participated in this trend as co- other uses, including recreation. In such supporting data will make our author with Michael Sanera of Facts, Not Fear: contrast, Soft Greens such as Amory views convincing to the other side. Teaching Children about the Environment. Lovins want to cover vast expanses of Huber seems to think this is a waste of Liberty 41 June 2000 time, and for all I know, he is right. late Julian Simon is about the only per­ ernment "doing nothing." While Hard Green has much merit, son who successfully broke the mold The facts do not support this claim, there are problems with it. First, as - reaching the uncommitted. He com­ however. It is true that setting aside with most books in this category, it is bined a Hayekian vision of how the land as wilderness (which has a spe- not clear whom· Huber is trying to world works with a powerhouse of reach. Is he trying to change the minds detail and was able to capture some of traditional environmentalists? people's imaginations. Probably not. Does he hope to validate Hard Greens approve of the suspicions of traditional conserva­ Wilderness Apostasy digging under the earth for tives and free market environmental­ Hard Green is not a libertarian book. ists? That might sell a few books, but is Indeed, one of the best sales tools coal, oil and other energy unlikely to·bring about much change. Huber has going for him is the debate sources because it preserves Or does he hope to persuade the the book has provoked among free the surface of the earth for undecided? market environmentalists (unfortu­ While this undecided bunch seem nately for sales, this is not a very large other uses, including recrea­ to be the group Huber wants to reach, group). While Huber generally sup­ tion. In contrast, Soft Greens few people fit this category. ports markets to address problems, he such as Amory Lovins want to Environmentalism is immensely popu­ also allows, even welcomes, a major lar, and people generally seem to role for the government to protect cover vast expanses of the what he calls "wilderness." earth's surface with solar pan­ Theodore Roosevelt is his hero in part because T. R. recognized a major els and gigantic windmills. Environmentalism is im­ role for the federal government in pro­ mensely popular, and people tecting land. Huber builds on the example of Roosevelt to argue that generally seem to accept the "conservation may be a mission that cific legal meaning, signifying land views of environmental acti­ government can learn to perform rea­ with very tight restrictions on use) vists who contend that dan­ sonably well. The one thing that big does not require the level of manage­ government is capable of doing well is ment that growing and selling trees gers lurk everywhere and that doing nothing, which happens to be does. However, simply keeping people governmental action is the the paramount objective of out of wilderness requires a govern­ only way to address them. conservation." ment that does more than "nothing." While this claim may elicit a And so does rescuing people lost in the chuckle, Huber's analysis quickly wilderness. breaks down here. He justifies govern­ Recreation, which Huber loosely accept the views of environmental acti­ ment ownership of national parks and associates with wilderness, requires vists who contend that dangers lurk other unspecified areas on grounds management, too. According to federal everywhere and that governmental that some things are too big or toospe­ figures, the Forest Service spends action is the only way to address them. cial to be private. "Some values approximately $364 million per year for Rational analysis and detailed factual depend on doing things on a scope and recreation in our national forests, build­ data are not likely to change their atti­ scale that is inescapably public," he ing trails, maintaining campgrounds tudes, both because their minds are writes, even though he agrees that and boat ramps, and so forth. Although made up and because factual analysis "[i]n every wayan accountant, econo­ this figure is probably not very accurate tends to be boring. mist, or even an ecologist might meas­ - federal funds are notoriously poorly This is a problem not for Hard Green ure, Disney would operate monitored - it seems plain that this alone but for most books that challenge Yellowstone much better than the does not constitute "doing nothing." dominant environmental thinking. The National Park Service." Huber simply ignores the details of Huber says that the actually managing land, especially the vast tracts of land that he considers government should des­ especially suitable for federal owner­ ignate "particular places ship. Whether this is because he is a for conservation alone." sentimental admirer of Theodore These are places where Roosevelt or whether he intentionally "the forests are hiked, avoids the full implications of his argu­ camped, and, up to a ments, I do not know. point, hunted, but not I am not confident that Hard Green lumbered or grazed." will bring about change on the issues He suggests that as long that he grasps more effectively. But I as the "human footprint wish him well; if he changes people's is kept light," it's about minds he will have achieved success "The chicken or the beef?" the same .as the gov- where plenty of others have failed. 0 42 Liberty June 2000

Wa~ tained in the more important theaters The Pity of by Niall Ferguson. Penguin Press, 1998, 624 pages. of war matter more than losses sus­ tained in less important theaters. Similarly, some fatalities are incurred in the course of a rout, some in the course of pyrrhic victories. And some important military gains can be made with little loss to either side. In short, The Great War all of the many fatalities inflicted can­ not be assumed to be equally indica­ tive of military success and aggregated in the way Ferguson has done. The German Threat to England Rerevised Among the book's more controver­ sial suggestions is the argument that at no time during the approach to 1914 was Britain under any real threat from the German Empire. British interven­ tion in the war was, Ferguson con­ vote in selected states is a fairly weak Martin Tyrrell cludes, based on an exaggerated indicator of the extent of anti­ perception of Germany and its aspira­ militarism in pre-war Europe, for Around nine and a half million tions. That Germany was hostile to instance (The membership figures for people died in the First World War. British interests was,by around 1905, a more avowedly pacifist organizations firmly established position within dip­ Millions more received debilitating would have been more informative). injuries. And further millions had their lomatic and military circles, one soon Nor is it especially meaningful to be shared by more hawkish ministers in lives indirectly damaged by the con­ told that only thirty-one of Wilfred the incoming Liberal government such flict. In economic terms, too, the costs Owen's 103 collected poems had a gen­ as Herbert Henry Asquith, Edward were enormous whilst, politically, the uinely anti-war theme, since it is the Grey and Richard Haldane. It was also, end of the war initiated a period of anti-war poems which have lasted, instability and, in time,· further vio­ Ferguson argues, an illusion. In mili­ transmitted through the English tary terms, Britain was decades ahead lence and loss. It is no surprise, then, Literature syllabus. that in retrospect, it has sometimes of Germany and, economically, well One particularly good example of able to ensure that things remained seemed inexplicable, if fascinatingly this number-crunching approach and so. Niall Ferguson's The Pity 01 War is a that way. To overcome Britain's mas­ its limitations is the way in which sive superiority at sea, Ferguson pro­ recent attempt at explanation. A his­ Ferguson supports his claim that tory of the war - though not a con­ poses that the Germans would have Germany and its allies were the more had to build battleships at a faster rate ventional chronological narrative - it economically efficient fighting force. In sets out to answer some of its more than the British whilst at the same a macabre piece of accounting, he time, maintaining a substantial army. puzzling questions. Why did it hap­ apportions each side's total military He is satisfied that the German econ­ pen, for example? Why, if conditions expenditure across the opposing side's omy of the early 1900s could not have were so bad, did so many fight and total war dead. On this basis, he dem­ done both of these things at once. keep on fighting? And if the Allies onstrates that the Central Powers used Germany could have had an army won the war, who won the peace? far fewer economic resources per kill capable of invading the United All this makes for a book that is fre­ than did their opponents. Put bluntly, Kingdom or it could have had the quently stimulating and thought­ it cost the Allies an average of $36,500 naval superiority required to ensure provoking but also somewhat dis­ every time they killed a German, that that invasion could go ahead. But jointed and, in places, contradictory. Austrian or Turkish serviceman; more it could not have had both. On this Inevitably, not all of the questions it than three times what it cost the basis, he concludes that Britain's inter­ poses are equally interesting. Nor do I Central Powers to kill an Allied ser­ vention in the European war of 1914 find all Ferguson's answers equally viceman. Seductive though it is, analy­ was ill-conceived. Without it, he convincing. In explaining why so sis like this should, I think, be argues, the conflict would have been many men fought, for example, approached with caution. Even if the more localized. And if it had been Ferguson relies too much on Freud's cost data are accurate and comparable more localized, it would have been theory of the death instinct, ignoring (and that would be something), the over sooner and claimed far fewer more recent ideas about collective psy­ number of fatalities inflicted by one lives. chology. There is, too, an over-reliance side on another is a somewhat crude If British policy makers generally on elaborate statistical analysis, not all indicator of military success. For one over-estimated Germany's military of it of obvious relevance to the point thing, not all fatalities indicate· the capacity, Ferguson surely underesti­ being made. The socialist share of the same level of achievement. Losses sus- mates it. Germany might have been Liberty 43 June 2000 poorly placed to compete with the Germany, in the early 1900s, was against Fischer. Alas, he then proceeds United Kingdom but, compared with indeed capable of dominating Europe to spoil it by arguing that parts of the France and Russia it was in much bet­ in the way that France had done under Program - primarily those relating to ter shape than his analysis would sug­ Napoleon, then it was conceivable that the establishment of a German­ gest. True, the Russian and French the military and economic resources dominated customs union - were, armies had a two to one edge over available to this greater German­ after· all, genuine German pre-war aspi­ Germany and Austria in terms of man­ centered Europe could have been rations. In effect, he uses the post-1914 power. But this is just arithmetic. As deployed against Britain. Given such a Program in precisely the way he criti­ Ferguson himself acknowledges, it possibility, the strategy of supporting cizes Fischer for having used it - to takes no account of factors such as Germany's closest rival - in this case impute pre-war policy. Ferguson and training, discipline or equipment. France - at least makes sense. In this Fisc~er differ less in approach than in Russia's army, though numerically respect, Grey's policy was nothing degree.* strong, was weak in almost every other new. Quite the opposite. British Re-bunking the War-Guilt Myth respect and, just Cl;S important, Russia attempts at preserving a Continental itself was politically fragile. These balance of power against potential cen­ One reason Germany's actual war defects had become clear during the tralizing forces can be traced back to at aims are important is that the alleged Russo-Japanese War of 1905 when least the time of Louis XIV. aims subsequently and strongly influ­ defeat by the Japanese had led to near Four decades after the First World enced the content of the Versailles set­ revolution. And by 1917 they were, of War ended, Fritz Fischer, a German tlement. Implicit in the Versailles course, all too clear. As for the French, historian, offered evidence suggesting treaty 'is the image of Germany as a Britain's military planners were far belligerent, expansionist state with a from confident that they could have tendency towards brutality. This was held a German invasion and, in prac­ nothing new. Prior to the war, there tice, the Germans did come close to If actual German conduct had been a vogue in Britain for novels taking Paris right at the beginning of in Belgium was deplorable, so speculating on what a German inva­ the war. This and other wartime evi­ was the conduct of the British sion might be like. Though Ferguson is somewhat dismissive of these, I think dence (Russia's collapse, the during their war to annex the Ludendorff offensive) suggests that the that they were important in at least official British pre-war assessment of two Boer Republics or of the two ways. First, they indicate how German military capacity was more Americans during the war to (and how rapidly) popular culture picked up on thegovemment's percep­ accurate than alarmist. Militarily, a suppress the Confederacy. German-dominated Europe was more tion of a German threat. Second, they feasible than Niall Ferguson allows. suggest the way in which Germany Ferguson further alleges that domi­ was popularly imagined not so much nating Europe was never a serious pol­ foreign as alien - clinically authoritar­ that Grey and his supporters had been ian and, in some versions, given to icy objective in Berlin. Germany, he right in their assessment of German wanton atrocity. Wartime reportage claims, had no plans to establish a foreign policy. Germany's outline war revisited these pre-war stereotypes. post-war European superstate, as Grey aims of September 1914 included a Whilst Ferguson, like most commenta­ and his officials must have known comprehensive program of annexation. tors, accepts that much of this material from intelligence reports. Ferguson Parts of France, Belgium and the lies somewhere between mere exagger­ therefore speculates that they deliber­ Netherlands would be incorporated ation and outright mendacity, he is not ately talked up the German threat into a greater Germany; much of merely so as to justify the tacit military European Russia, broken up into entirely dismissive. He concludes that commitments they were making to the German client states; and Germany there was a moral superiority on the French. These commitments, in their would help itself to a bigger and more Allied side, that the more effective bits turn, pressured an increasingly iso­ promising share of Africa. of Allied propaganda tended to be fac.. lated Germany into ill-considered acts But Fischer, Ferguson argues, never tually based and that this was espe- and, ultimately, its support for Austria succeeded in demonstrating that these in the summer of 1914. Grey, Ferguson *Fischerwanted to draw parallels between were the foreign policy aims of the Imperial Germany and Hitler's Germany concludes, "wished to commit Britain German state before 1914. All that this and to imply a certain inherent rottenness to a possible war with Germany ­ "September Program" conveys is the to Germany as a whole; he was a very post­ because otherwise there might be war kind of territorial expansion the 1945 German historian. Ferguson, on the with Germany" (73). His policy, in German government began contem­ other hand, is bang up to date which is why other words, was absurd. plating once it was actually at war. he sees Imperial Germany aspiring to All of which seems a little too neat. And even then, the September' become a kind of forerunner of the I have never had much liking for Program Ferguson reproduces is tenta­ European Union; mischievously, he writes of "the Kaiser's European Union." But both tive, with several propositions obvi­ Edward Grey's foreign policy or the historians are really only speculating. anti-German feeling that was built up ously speculative. Some, indeed, are Ferguson, no more than Fischer, can satis­ behind it, but I cannot see that it was contradictory. All things considered, factorily demonstrate what Germany's pre­ as mindless as Ferguson suggests. If Ferguson appears to have a good case war aims actually were. 44 Liberty June 2000 cially true of two of its recurring tend to be in the eye of the victor. during the war, this increased by 7.3 images - the German atrocities in Both Belgium and the Lusitania per thousand. In contrast, the corre­ Belgium and the sinking of the allowed the Germans to be portrayed sponding English rate increased by 2.4. Lusitania. as having broken the accepted rules of During the war, therefore, the female The fate of the merchant ship warfare. And, in each case, the death rate per thousand showed a Lusitania and more than a thousand of Germans protested that they them­ markedly greater increase in Germany its passengers is well known. The selves were simply responding to than in England. If these increases are Belgian atrocities (civilian reprisals, those rules having been broken. What accurately reported and genuinely infanticide, mass rape) are less familiar they did in Belgium, they claimed, was comparable and they were the product today, though they were an integral not gratuitous violence but reprisals of wartime social conditions, it's plain part of the image of the violated against guerrillas and their supporters that over the four years of the war, Belgium for which the war was alleg- who had carried on an informal war around 670,000 women died on following the withdrawal of Belgium's account of specifically German war­ official armed forces. Ferguson is time conditions. Given the importance of the blockade to these conditions Ferguson rejects as "fantas­ largely dismissive of these claims and doubts that there was any significant (Ferguson states that the blockade tic" the claim that 750,000 guerrilla activity in occupied Belgium. restricted Germany's supply of Germans died on account of But his brief acknowledgement that imported food and also hampered the country's ability to produce food since this "hunger blockade. " "the reserves of Belgium's Civil Guard" (247) fought in a uniform so it made imported fertilizer scarce) and rudimentary it can scarcely be the fact that non-combatant males (children, men too old or too unfit for described as a military uniform sug­ military service) were likely to have gests that there might be more to this been affected, the figure of 750,000 edly waged. Ferguson is careful to sift controversy. out the more obviously fabricated of might not be that fantastic after alL Whatever doubt there is about the the stories (mutilated children and so Belgian guerrillas, there is none regard­ on) but seems confident that around Validating Versailles ing the Lusitania's cargo. No one today 6,000 civilians were killed by the This image of a relatively barbarous seriously disputes that the ship was invading German army, mainly in Germany fighting relatively moral ferrying munitions. Its manifest clearly Belgium but also in Northern France. Allies was one which strongly influ­ shows that it was carrying shells, car­ Thereafter, however, he is uncharacter­ enced the content of the Treaty of tridges and aluminum powder for use istically short on numbers. Some of the Versailles in 1919. The credibility of the in making explosives. Such a cargo 6,000 dead were women and children. image is therefore important to the was in violation of the rules governing And some were priests. Also, some towns and villages were razed and merchant ships in time of war. There sometimes civilians were used as was nothing unusual in that. The First During the war, 670,000 human shields. World War saw a general disregard for women died on account ofspe­ With regard to the German inva­ pre-war agreements concerning mer­ sion of Belgium, much of the moral chant shipping. Germany, for example, cifically German wartime con­ superiority Ferguson alleges on behalf was, from 1914 onwards, subjected to a ditions. Given the importance of the Allies depends on whether the naval blockade intended to starve the of the blockade to these condi­ Allies would have behaved differently. country of resources. Commentators Of course, that cannot be answered for generally acknowledge that this con­ tions and the fact that non­ certain. However, Ferguson himself tributed to wartime hardship among combatant males were also cites the evidence of Cabinet papers to the German civilian population and affected, the figure of 750,000 show that Britain would have at least that this hardship in turn led to many blockaded Belgium if the Belgians had premature deaths. Here, estimates doesn't seem fantastic after all. tolerated a German incursion and that vary. Ferguson rejects as Ufantastic" they might have bombarded Antwerp. the claim that 750,000 people died on At any rate, if actual German conduct account of this so-called "hunger credibility of the Treaty. Article 231 of in Belgium was deplorable, so was the blockade" but does not report, let the Treaty of Versailles - the famous conduct of the British during their war alone discuss, more conservative esti­ U war guilt clause" - does not blame a to annex the two Boer RepUblics or of mates. Generally, in fact, his assess­ specific German government or the the Americans during the war to sup­ ment of this controversy is brief. He individuals comprising it for having press the Confederacy. In the end, the focuses on the blockade's impact on started the war. It explicitly blames the categorization of the German army's Germany's ability to wage war, and war on Germany. behavior in Belgium as morally infe­ does not consider whether it, too, The German state which concluded rior has less to do with what the might be considered an atrocity, the 1918 armistice and signed up to Germans actually did and a great deal though he does, in passing, note that Versailles was a quite different state more to do with what they didn't do. the female mortality rate in Germany from the one which had entered the They didn't win the war. Atrocities in 1913 was 14.3 per 1,000 and that, war in 1914. The new Germany was a Liberty 45 June 2000 republic, not an empire. There were important thing. policy option. It is on this basis that different people in the government and , Likewise, Ferguson's comparison Ferguson reaches the somewhat sur­ there had been a significant change in between post World War I reparations prising conclusion that the war was its ideological character (the least mili- . and the enormous subventions modem not simply a tragedy, since tragedy, tarist of the German electoral parties Germany makes to the European properly speaking, is inevitable. Far were now in power) and a change of Union. These have only the most worse than that, it was a pity, lithe policy. The German Government of superficial resemblance to the repay­ greatest error of modem times" (462). 1914 and the German system of gov­ ments Weimar Germany was obliged Ferguson's fondness for counterfactu­ ernment from 1871 to 1918 were to make. There is a world of difference als has been criticized and, in the case defunct. All of these changes were between a state making large annual of the concluding arguments of The interrelated. But this cut no ice with contributions to· the budget of an·inter­ Pity of War, at least, I think those criti­ the Allies at Versailles. The Allies had national organization in which it is an cisms are valid. At times the book objected to both the Government and important and influential participant, makes it seem as if history is a kind of the system, and had implied that a and a state repaying an indemnity airplane journey. Without the en route change of both would be looked on widely seen and depicted as a piece of favorably. But in practice, Germany vindictive humbug. turbulence, we would arrive at the was Germany. Had there been no First World War, same destination, but far less shaken In The Pity of War Ferguson never Ferguson conjectures that Europe up. Is it reasonable, though, to assume formally concludes whether or not would be remarkably similar to what it that if there had been no world war in Versailles was justifiable. Ferguson actually is. A Continental economic 1914, there would never have been offers instead that the treaty and its union would still have evolved and one? Or to suggest that Europe today provisions were not particularly harsh this would have been centered on would be no different does not reflect and that even the large indemnity was Germany. The big difference would be the harsh lessons of the First, then in theory repayable. That it was the that Britain, not having exhausted its Second World Wars. No, without the largest demand for postwar repara­ resources on Continental wars, would First World War, I rather suspect 'that tions ever imposed upon a defeated be able to stand aside from this bloc. Europe at the beginning of the twenty state (a fifth larger than the indemnity Coexistence, not gradual and grudging first century would be very different, the Germans had planned to impose absorption, would have been a feasible not much the same. 0 upon all of the Allies put together and, allegedly, larger in value than all the The Encyclopedia. ofGun Control and Gun Rights, by Glenn Utter. gold reserves in the world combined) is inadequately addressed. Instead, The Oryx Press, 1999, xxiii + 376 pages. Ferguson argues that if Weimar Germany had been more monetarist than Keynesian, it could have cleared its debts in style. Perhaps. But what­ ever might have happened in theory, in practice the indemnity proved Straight-Shooting impossible to repay. At the very least, I do not think that the issue of war guilt and the German indemnity can be dis­ sociated in the way Ferguson attempts. Encyclopedia The huge indemnity was, by impli­ cation, proportionate to the size of the alleged guilt; an ongoing reminder of it. Germany was, as it were, fined on erage of federal court cases modifying the basis of accusations perceived as Brien Bartels the right to bear arms. The book is also inflated by many Germans. This is why sprinkled with capsules on the swarm they objected to being made to pay. In writing The Encyclopedia of Gun of advocacy groups which push gun Ferguson compares the war debts Control and Gun Rights, political scien­ control or gun rights, with contact incurred by the victors to the German tist Glenn Utter set out to do the information in an index. It biographs indemnity and suggests that, America impossible and proved it to be merely the major players, including the aside, every state, victor or van­ Very Hard. His object was to compile Senate's Gang of Four: Schumer, quished, entered the post-war world an unbiased and reasonably compre­ Lautenberg, Feinstein, and Boxer. with significant financial commit­ hensive album of the facts, personali­ Their capsules contain toothy publicity ments. I cannot see that the compari­ ties and events that shape the debate photographs so you can put a face to son is fair. Those loans, while on the right to keep and bear arms. He the name that makes you grind your substantial, were not the same thing as is not entirely successful, but The teeth. You can even see a photo of that the indemnity. They were not as big. Encyclopedia does a lot of good for his dapper Liberty contributing editor And they were not accompanied by a trying. David Kopel, noted in The Encyclopedia sense of injustice, which was the There seems to be pretty good cov- for his work on gun rights at the 46 Liberty June 2000

Independence Institute. Almost all the gun industry." But he follows this with The Rise of America's Militia Movement. capsules have notes with further read­ his own observation: flLott critics Where's Alan Bock's Ambush at Ruby ing, including web sites and scholarly regret such personal attacks in part Ridge? Or Waco: The Rules of articles where applicable. because they give [Lott's] research Engagement? Or David Thibodeau's A When this book was brought to my greater credibility than is deserved." Place Called Waco? I wouldn't have attention, I asked myself, Who the hell Nothing remotely like such editorializ­ expected Utter to hunt down Adam ing appears in the adjacent bio of Jens Parfrey's monograph Oklahoma City: Otto Ludwig, an academic whose Cui Bono? but I would have been research runs counter to Lott's. impressed by any effort to balance the It clarifies more than it Thirdly, his flfurther reading" is propaganda of careerist left-wing obscures, which in these dark sometimes limited to the anti-gun blatherers. times is about the most you works. Utter includes capsules on As you can surmise, Utter's ency­ Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the Oklahoma clopedia is not without its problems, can ask for in a book about the City bombing (which has the encyclo­ and a closer reading by bona fide right to bear arms. pedia's 0 section all to itself). The only experts in constitutional law could fIfurther reading" references listed for probably uncover many more. But it these articles are Gathering Storm, an clarifies more than it obscures, which would read such a thing? But one anti-militia screed pumped out in these dark times is about the most reader would be a friend of mine who between mailings by direct marketing you can ask for in a book about the wants to do some free-lancing for gun genius Morris Dees in 1996; and right to bear arms. 0 magazines. This would be a good refer­ Jonathan Karl's The Right to Bear Arms: ence for such a writer's desk. And its unbiased commentary on the laws, Makers and Takers, by Edmund Contoski. American Liberty court decisions and political turning Publishers, 1997, viii + 464 pages. points in the debate makes it a valu­ able resource. The factual information, for example, on U.S. v Lopez, the case in which the Supreme Court over­ turned the Gun Free Schools Act, is a signal service. I can think of a few members of the media, especially those Making Sense of honest scribblers on the legal beat who toil in ignorance, to whom I would rec­ ommend this encyclopedia. Too often Wealth & Progress journalists in all areas reduce their dependence on factual research by sim­ ply reporting spin. Having a handy ref­ erence such as Gun Control and Gun Rights would at least neutralize one of one individual. The originator of a excuse for their errors. Bettina Bien Greaves The problem is, Utter creates credi­ new idea notices something his fellow­ bility problems for himself. Consider men missed and arrives at a different In Makers and Takers, Edmund the bio of firearms pioneer John Moses conclusion. All production, all Contoski describes the histories of man Browning: flBrowning, still active, died progress, starts with such an idea in and civilization in a way that is' dra­ in 1926 from a heart attack in his son's the mind of a definite individual. matic yet easy to understand. He por­ office in Liege, France." Browning may Contoski reasons, therefore, that men trays world history as a conflict have been in Liege, but I'm pretty sure should be free to differ from their fel­ Liege was in Belgium in 1926. Indeed, between men who use their minds to lowmen and to conceive of new ideas. Browning's name is forever and glori­ achieve their objectives and those who On this.reasoning he builds the case ously bound up with Belgium's use force. Those who use their minds for individual freedom and individual Fabrique Nationale, manufacturer of conceive ideas that help themselves rights. the FN Browning Hi-Power. and also inevitably help others; they The first application of mind led Secondly, there's the sometimes are· responsible for all production and men to abandon the life of hunting­ condescending tone which Utter progress. Contoski calls them gathering-foraging and to begin farm­ adopts when writing of the opinions of flMakers." On the other hand, those ing. With the development of agricul­ gun nuts ... I mean, gun rights advo­ who use force to take what they want ture they settled down and started cates. For example, in his bio of John have an invader mentality and are producing; they became flMakers." Lott, the author of More Guns, Less anti-mind; Contoski calls them They began accumulating property, Crime, he quotes a gun control think flTakers." which aroused the envy of outsiders, tank's attack on Lott's research as Contoski starts with a truism: who banded together to use force, to flindelibly stained with the taint of the Every new idea originates in the mind invade their territory and to take what Liberty 47 June 2000 the Makers had produced. By using tion ever made. It was at once pro­ property is as natural as the individ­ force, the invaders revealed they were foundly theoretical and immensely ual's right to life itself. "Property is the anti-mind; they produced nothing practical. It was founded on universal effect of which labor is the cause. If a themselves; they were "Takers." principles of human nature. It was the man has the liberty to labor for him­ Throughout world history Makers who Constitution of the United States" self, can he logically be denied the used their minds have found them­ (370). effects of his labor? If he is so denied, selves aligned against the anti-mind One of the most important "univer­ then he does not really have a right to Takers with an invader mentality. sal principles of human nature" on his life since his life is the source of his Contoski refers to Copernicus, which the Constitution was based is labor. Property is the recognition of the Galileo, and Kepler to show how that individuals have natural rights: causal relationship between a man's progress comes from ideas developed If, as the Declaration of Independence actions and their material' conse­ in the minds of definite individuals. states, 'all men are created equal,' it is quences. It is the legal means by which Each of these three men saw the same in the sense that each man has an men can provide themselves with the equal right to life, that class or blood­ physical world as his predecessors. But physical means for sustaining and sat­ line is not the basis of rights, that life they thought things out for themselves isfying their lives without the use of itself is. The right to life is the basic and reached different conclusions. By right from which all others are force against each other. It is the hall­ developing a new understanding as to derived. The basis of rights is thus a mark of a civilized society, where men how bodies moved in the heavens and natural phenomenon. Rights are not an deal by reason rather than force." He on earth, these three men laid the arbitrary convention but a logical deri­ continues "Property rights are inextri­ groundwork for a revolution in knowl­ vation from a physical reality: a man's cably tied to the rights to life and lib­ edge and science. Those who came existence (371-372). erty. All three are simply different later made advances and produced Contoski describes the reasoning aspects of the nature of man - and "beneficial consequences" beyond the behind the u.s. Constitution's division those governments which have been significance of the original idea. of powers and system of checks and most. vigorous in attacking property "Seemingly unrelated ideas, such as balances. He shows how these "univer­ rights have inevitably been the greatest those of Galileo and Kepler, were com­ sal principles of human nature" have violators of life and liberty. The posed bined to provide the base upon which been ignored, rejected, amended, vio- opposition of 'human rights versus further progress was pyramided" property rights' is an absurdity (368). Their ideas as to how the earth, because property rights are a human sun and other planets moved enabled right. Property, as such, has no rights. Sir Isaac Newton to understand the Those who use their minds The term 'property rights' simply law of gravity and to explain why they conceive ideas that help them­ means the rights of humans to possess moved as they did. selves and also inevitably help property" (372). But the development of new ideas Contoski explains that all produc­ concerning the physical world did not others; they are responsible for tion and progress stem from individual stopthere. all production and progress. rights. With their new mastery of the physical [I]t's the importance of the individual world, it was not surprising that men that leads to the upgrading of values beg~n to apply the same successful and to a chain of beneficial economic mental process to ethical, social and lated and overruled. He explains more consequences in a free market. It's political subjects. Newton had taught clearly than I have seen elsewhere the because each man considers himself men that there were universal princi­ thinking of the Founding Fathers in important that he acts for his own ples of physical order which could be establishing a separate Electoral interests in the marketplace, that he discovered by studying the nature of College to choose the nation's presi­ seeks to obtain greater values for him­ things. Men now began studying the dent. As it was set up, it comple­ self in exchange for lesser ones. It's a nature of man, in quest of universal mented and reenforced the Founding consequence of each side in a volun­ principles of social and political order Fathers' desire to disperse authority, tary transaction acting for its own (369). and prevent the rise of political corrup­ interests that both sides benefit. ... It's John Locke was one who showed tion and centralization of power, while a consequence of individuals acting the way. This was the age of the men retaining to the people the opportunity for themselves that waste is limited, who drafted the Declaration of to express their views by indirect elec­ , that efficiency is promoted, and that such affluence is created for satisfying Independence and the U.S. tion. Those responsible for amending the needs and wants of others. But Constitution; it was the age of. men the Electoral College in the Twelfth who produced the ideas of natural law deny the individual the freedom to Amendment (ratified June 15, 1804) serve his own self-interest, and you and natural rights; it was the Age of failed to appreciate the thinking of the deny the consequent benefit to others. Enlightenment. "The same reasoning Founding Fathers in setting up the Negate the value of the individual, which led men to both a theoretical Electoral College the way they did and, .. and you stop the complex economic understanding of the world and to as a result, they weakened one of the machinery of progress. It's the practical inventions for enhancing their Constitution's significant checks and machinery of progress. That machin­ lives also led them, "in Contoski's balances. ery is fueled by individual motivation words, "to the greatest political inven- It may be said that the right to and operated by individual economic 48 Liberty June 2000

decisions. It's run by human thought, als and that when government uses sons, the anti-mind, anti-industry peo­ not human force. It's the machinery force, even in response to majority ple, fail to understand that one man's for creating values, not implementing demand, the effects are not only anti­ gain on the market does not mean a invasions (81). mind and antagonistic to the equal loss for someone else. They do not When Contoski explains that all rights of individuals, but usually understand that producers, progress originates with ideas in the unproductive, costly and even destruc­ "Makers" - help others as they help minds of individuals, he reasons that tive. "[I]n the same way that progres­ themselves, that the more they pro­ the role of government should be sive action causes beneficial, if duce, the more is available, not only strictly limited to defense, the defense unintended, consequences for others, for themselves but for others. The of individuals, their freedom to think Takers' intentions are admirable; they and to differ from their fellowmen, want to help the poor, conserve natural their property and their equal rights, If a man has the liberty to resources, protect the environment, so long as they do not infringe on the eliminate pollution, prevent overpopu­ equal rights of others. "Since rights are labor for himsezt can he logi­ lation, wipe out disease, starvation, an attribute of individual life, not of cally be denied the effects ofhis and food shortages, and improve med­ human numbers, men acting together labor? If he is so denied, then ical care. But the method these invader in the name of government have no types suggest is government force. more rights than any individual. ... he does not really have a right Government interventions are al- Since self-defense - a corollary of the to his life since his life is the ways counter-productive: right to life - is the only justification source ofhis labor. Government intervention can only for the use of force by individuals, it is force people to take actions they con­ the only justification for government. sider uneconomic or to refrain from ... Government is logically limited to a taking actions they consider economic. coercive action, however well defensive role, too, by the principle of ... What the proponents of economic intended, produces detrimental secon­ equal rights. Government cannot serve intervention have never understood is dary effects in addition to the original all its citizens equally if it violates the that economic progress is a result of injury. The 'heavy hand of govern­ rights of any of them. To prevent gov­ man's mental faculty and any attempt ment' performs exactly the opposite of ernment from violating anybody's to forcibly displace the role of the Smith's I invisible hand' and inflicts mind in the marketplace is economi­ rights, Americans devised the concept damage in unexpected ways" (260). cally counterproductive because it is of limited government. The idea was to The "people-are-the-enemies" per- anti-mind (70). give government only enough power and authority for its proper function, no more" (374). Liber-Tees.com Design Your Own T-Shirt Online The Takers Take Over NEW AND IMPROVED! However, during the last hundred years, the democratic idea, "a collecti­ .111•••" vist concept," has been displacing con­ stitutional government, based on the principles of individualism, equal rights, and limited government. Contoski reminds us that democracy

"is J a form of government in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of the people collectively.' It is a system VCYI'E of collective coercion, whereby every L~.lBJhRT}\Ral\N· individual is forced to conform to the rule of the majority. The Founders Item #T171 sought a system of individual choice, The Media PUppet The Media PUppet· ~,~ 'II~8 where every man would be free to go 8110116""11 II~ Qert ,AI 'o~/u, his own way. They wanted a system \! Item #T153 where no man would have a master, \ \ not one where the majority would be Current sale prices: the master, as in a democracy" (378). $9/ea, $8.50/ea for 3-5, $8/ea for 6+ Save 10% when you buy online using e-gold Under a democratic government, how­ SHIPPING RATES: ever, force is used to impose majority I lOyconl. $3.20 up to 3 shirts, 75 cents ea. add" . 100% cotton Hanes Beefy-Ts rule; the rights of all are not protected VISA-MC-AMEX-DISC accepted (S9 h8SchehandOFdle equally. &;. 30 day money back guarantee (-S&H) blatantlYmisinForms socialiSt eStabliShment .Sizes: MED,LG, XL (XXL add $2Iea) Contoski then cites case after case theAmerican people. UP itS @$$. T-Shirt Colors: White, Natural to show that progress and production Liber-Tees Free catalog Item #T160 Item #T161 P.O. Box 1330 available upon are the result of the ideas of individu- Uber-Tees now sells sweatshirts (add $5/ea) Redlands, CA 92373 request Avail. in white, XL and LG onl June 2000

Contoski delineates three main prices or on terms they would not oth­ the Makers made it feasible and eco­ weapons of the Takers. If government erwise agree to. Thus it discourages nomic for people to transform the increases taxes to bring about its lauda­ voluntary market transactions which sticky, black -gooey substance oozing ble goals, it is hurting some persons by would improve the situation of both out of the ground in some places into forcing them to subsidize others. If it parties to every trade. fuel oil, natural gas, and gasoline ~ inflates, it is increasing the quantity of After discussing these weapons, he cleaner fuels than the wood and coal money and raising prices while adding turns his attention to claims that capi­ people had used for centuries. -Thanks nothing to the wealth of society; it is talism is injurious. We are bombarded to the ideas of individuals, Makers dis­ destroying the means of economic cal­ by propaganda claiming that industry covered oil on the northern slope of culation and future planning, depre­ is responsible for society's ills, that it is Alaska, drilled for it and built a mas­ ciating the value of money and so industry that causes pollution, is sive pipeline to bring it to the lower enabling the government to spend it at wasteful and produces carcinogens. forty-eight states. Then while the OPEC a -loss. If it tries to bring about the Yet the world's producers, the Makers, embargo created a shortage of gasoline results it wants by regulation, it is forc­ did more to eliminate pollution than and drivers waited in long lines at gas ing some people to trade with others at EPA government regulations. Ideas of stations, anti-mind forces used lawsuits and new regulations to delay oil deliv­ eries from Alaska. We have been almost scared to death by threats of industry-related environmental hazards. It has been charged that global warming is caused by increased carbon dioxide, but scien­ Business The Titanic Story by Stephen Cox. Truth is tists have discovered much higher con­ more fascinating than myth. This readable and centrations of carbon dioxide than CHRISTIAN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.Call entertaining new book cuts through the myth today's in the ice sheets of Greenland 1-800-585-5873 option 3. Leave my ill #32628 at nology and gets to the real story - the drama formed 130,000 years ago. We have the end ofthe message. of individuals coping with the risks of human life. Send $9.95 to Liberty Book Club at P.O. Box been warned that CFCs (chlorofluoro­ 1181, PortTownsend, WA 98368. carbons) were destroying the -ozone Employment layer, leading to increased solar ultravi­ Liberty magazine offers full-time, paid intern­ SunriseView.com olet radiation which would cause many thousands more cases -of skin cancer ships at all times of the year. We seek intelligent, Inspired by Thomas Paine, this unusual highly motivated individuals who want to learn polemic, The Return of Common Sense by Eric every year. But the ozone hole was first more about writing and editing. Responsibilities Szuter, reveals a surprising solution to the statist discovered in the 1950s, before there are flexible according to demonstrated abilities chokehold. Visit our Web site or call (504) 734­ were any appreciable CFC discharges; and interests. For more information, write: R.W. 1795 Bradford, Editor, Liberty, P.O. Box 1181, Port volcanic eruptions seem to have much Townsend, WA 98368. Personal more- effect on -the ozone layer than industrial CFCs. Gay libertarian man, 39, seeks new friends. POB Literature 190315, San Francisco, CA 94119-0315. Email: Industry and population growth [email protected] have been blamed for wasting nature's resources. However The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cultby Murray Radical Individualist seeks 19 yloin fact or More of the nation's forest products N. Rothbard. Published in 1987, this ess~y is one spirit. http://go.to/indiv of the most important scholarly works on Ayn come from the industry's 65 million Rand's inner circle. Rothbard was there, and Services acres than from the government­ what he offers is an unflinching, critical look at a managed 135 million acres. But don't cult that "promoted slavish dependence on the Until the libertarian future is realized, we're jump to the conclusion that industry is guru in the name of independence." Send $4 to going to need tax relief. Call me. 602/295-6563. merely depleting its resource faster. Liberty Publishing, P.O. Box 1181, Port http://ima.thetaxpeople.net/ ~joenail Just as with privately-owned game Townsend, WA 98368. and farm animals, maximum profit Victory News, Brien Bartels' free "investment from privately-owned forests is Ayn Rand and Her Movement - an interview newsletter" for libertarian political donors. obtained by operating the asset for with Barbara Branden. Ayn Rand's close friend www.vforvictory.net. Also the home of Victory discusses the inner circle of the Objectivist move­ sustained yield. Concerned with con­ Communications marketing, consulting and tinuing profits, the industry is actually ment. Learn whatitwas like to bea companion of / commentary. the woman who thought of herself as "the growing 13 percent more timber than world's greatest political philosopher." Send $4 Web Sites it is cutting ----'- and this figure has been to Liberty Publishing, P.O. Box 1181, Port rising steadily since the 1920s (302). Townsend,WA 98368 Any libertarian stuff on tv this week? And the industry is actually wast­ www.missliberty.com ing less. According to a Georgia-Pacific ad in The Wall Street Journal (October Classified Advertising is available for 50¢ per word, ten words minimum. E-mail addresses, telephone numbers, URLs are charged as 7 cents PER CHARACTER. Ask us for requirements on adding your 11, 1977): "For a typical 320 square foot logo to your ad. 10% discount for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order (check or log cabin, our forebears used 70 trees. money order only). Please suggest classification. Deadline for next issue: May 5,2000. And burned what was left over. Today, 50 Liberty June 2000 that same number of trees would pro­ through greater government activity ­ Contoski has done an admirable job vide a 3500 square foot home - plus more laws, more controls, more of outlining the theory that underlies enough tissue and paper products for bureaucrats to I correct' the problems ­ natural rights libertarianism, and pro­ an average family - for over 30 years" while creating a variety of unintended vided excellent illustrations and expla­ (304). secondary losses throughout society" nations of how the theory works in Contoski gives example ~fter exam­ (327). prnctic~ 0 ple illustrating that the cost of govern­ ment's programs intended to promote "the public good," help the poor, pro­ tect employees on the job, assure that food and drugs are safe and effective, clean up the environment, and protect Finding Rare Books endangered species, have not only failed to achieve their objectives but have led to a vast waste of valuable resources and exorbitant, out-of-control government spending. on the Web John A. Hill, former deputy admin­ istrator of the Federal Energy collectively have over ten million books Administration said: "The government Richard Kostelanetz for sale. In the great Internet tradition of has spent more than $100 billion over indiscriminate commerce, ABE doesn't the past 35 years for clean coal technol­ I was slow to sign onto the Internet impose false obstacles to membership ogies, solar energy, conservation and because I already had too much (such as recommendation or approval synthetic fuels; none of these programs information in the house and too by other members). added one viable technology to the many friends who merited attention, Having published several dozen commercial marketplace" (266). both of which remain legitimate books over the past thirty-five years, I problems now that I'm on-line, as we The Force of Ideas then began to check out my own titles say. My principal discovery was the Contoski shows that one economic on various sites, some of them ease and efficiency in purchasing gain leads to others. On the other hand, representing more than one retailer. scarce out-of-print books. I used to [E]very ... attempt to I direct' the use Bibliofind.com isn't bad. Nor is of private property through govern­ keep in a pocket notebook a list that I Alibris.com. I should warn that the ment stimulation or controls results in would test in used bookstores that I used book channel of Barnes & Noble too much of something, too little of it, visited around the country. Only offers titles from its affiliated or puts it in the wrong place.... In a rarely did any of them have titles I booksellers that are available elsewhere free economy men tend to employ wanted, so esoteric were my needs. (often from the same booksellers) for their property in ways complementary Now on-line, I simply ring up roughly 33 percent less. For ease and to others because the greatest profits abebooks.com, type in the titles I need, efficiency, nothing in my experience can be obtained from doing so ... And and invariably get a rich list with rivals ABE. because men's interests aren't natu­ various prices. For one title I thought At ABE I found more than three rally in opposition, many harmonious truly scarce, the English translation of hundred thirty of my titles available consequences are produced inciden­ Michel Seuphor's Dictionary ofAbstract (while John Hospers has 64 titles, tally which couldn't have been fore­ Painting, a few dozen copies were seen or provided for by central Murray Rothbard only 16, Milton listed! There were several copies of authority (323). Friedman over 400, Thomas Szasz over Stanley Berne's and Arlene There can be no doubt that the 450, Samuel R. Delany over 500, and Zekowski's First Book of Neo-Narrative world is richer, people are better off, Ayn Rand a whopping 1,525 the last enjoy more conveniences and comforts, (1954) at prices ranging from $15.00 to time I looked). Some of my 300+ were live longer and are healthier than ever $100.00. For those titles meriting books that had been recently before in history. We owe these purchase, I click on the bookseller's remaindered, such as John -Cage improvements to Makers who 'con­ name and simply type in my name, (Ex)plain(ed), here available at prices ceived ideas and implemented them in address, and credit card number. close to' those recently requested by the the attempt to improve their own situa­ Within a few days the book is at my remainder hOllses. Some of these tion and, in the process, improved the door with a credit card slip as a kind booksellers are in provincial locales, situations of countless other persons of receipt. I threw away my want list, making me wonder how titles of mine also. Their economic profits and their having already obtained all the titles. ever got there or, conversely, making technological advances became "the Physically located in western me appreciate the truth that books basis for further progress. They also Canada, Advanced Book Exchange is really do take my work and name to create[d] a variety of unintended secon­ a consortium of several thousand places I've never been. dary benefits for other people. The eco­ antiquarian booksellers, some of them Other books of mine that haven't nomic losses inflicted by government abroad, who pay twenty dollars a. been in print for years are now intervention have the opposite effect. month if they list less than 100 titles available for prices sometimes as low as They lead to even greater losses (more money for more titles), who a few bucks. Though most of the titles Liberty 51 June 2000 came from commercial houses, those End of Intelligent Writing (1974) offered from small presses were amply for ten bucks and another for William P. Moulton-RIP represented. Some items thirty-five. Since I sell the hardback for from page 18 acknowledged an. inscription by me, one hundred, and have only two thankfully only to recipients who have copies, I purchased the first for myself. passed away. The highest price, For Master Minds (1969), which I sell As a young man, he worried con­ $250.00, is for a book made valuable by for $75.00, I found a price of $40.00 stantly about his inability to get along someone else - the copy of my from one place, $10.00 from another. with women, which was understanda­ anthology On Contemporary Literature Inexplicably, nobody seemed to be ble, given a problem with and his utter that the novelist Raymond Federman selling The New Poetries and Some aIds self-absorption. I recall how he solved inscribed to his mother-in-law. The (1991) or Autobiographies (1981), the problem. One day he told me that retailer adds: "A poignant document, among other favorite titles of mine. he'ddecided it was time for him to find even haunting at first glance, as Two booksellers took works of mine, out what seX was like. "I drove down Federman's own parents were offered at a discount, in exchange for Division Street," he explained, referring annihiliated in the Nazi roundups of titles by others that I wanted. While on to a street then famous for its street­ Jews in occupied Paris." Ask no more one hand I should, I suppose, be walkers in a rough neighborhood in questions. Others were books that I disappointed that people are Grand Rapids, "until I saw a young keep available as Archae (RK) (re)selling books of mine without woman who was dressed flashily. I Editions, often at drastically lower or offering me royalties, I should on the stopped my car, opened my window higher prices. One dealer wants $12.00 other hand be gratified that so many and asked, 'Excuse me, miss, are you a for the newsprint edition of One Night are out there, still moving around, Stood (1977) that I sell for $2.00. On the representing for .my work a kind of prostitute?' She replied that she was .. .." It other hand, I found one copy of The survival. 0 was a parody of the rationalist approach to life. ,..------~ ;::~~e~~o~eBill drifted from job~~YSW~hto job, neverh:~ ('- No teson Con tributors..", ] worker, but he had':7sa tendency to rub people the wrong way. Once when an Baloo is a nom de plume of Rex F. May. Southern California and author of The employer threatened him with a Brien Bartels is a free-lancer and politi­ Fuzzy Future. broomstick, Bill took a punch at him cal consultant living in Ellensburg, Richard Kostelanetz is an independent and ended up spending a weekend in Washington. -critic of culture and politics living in jail for assault. After he got out, his David Boaz is the author of Manhattan. He recently published a employer hired him back. His work Libertarianism: A Primer and the editor book of his Political Essays. was worth it. of The Libertarian Reader. While he drifted, he found time to Barry Loberfeld is. the president of the write a some pretty good book-length Alan Bock is a senior columnist for the Long Island chapter of the Freeman manuscripts, one on the history of the Orange County Register. Discussion Society. third parties in America, another a his­ R.W. Bradford is editor of Liberty. Dyanne Petersen is a longtime libertar­ tory of the John Birch Society. He was, Scott Chambers is a cartoonist living in ian activist and writer, currently a resi­ indeed, a master of arcane knowledge Arizona. dent of Federal Prison Camp in Dublin, about fringe politics. But he never even California. sought to have either of those manu­ Stephen Cox is the author of The Titanic scripts published. At the time, I sus­ Story. Dolores T. Puterbaugh is a mental pected that he feared rejection more Nicholas Dykes is a writer living in health counselor in Largo, Florida. than he feared failure. Ledbury, Herefords, England. Paul Rako is a consultant living in When I launched Liberty in 1987, I Scott Gossard is a writer living in Sunnyvale, California. invited Bill to write for it. He turned in Anaheim, California. a number of exceptional pieces. I espe­ Jane Shaw is co-author with Michael cially treasure "My Dinner With Gus," Bettina Bien Greaves is co-compiler of Sanera of Facts, Not Fear: Teaching (September, 1988) his memoir of how Mises: An Annotated Bibliography. Children About the Environment. he had talked his way into a conference ]. Bishop Grewell is a research associate Sandy Shaw is co-author of Life­ held by the Communist Party USA and at the Political Economy Research Extension: A Practical, Scientific Approach. so impressed party boss Gus Hall that Center in Bozeman, Montana. he was invited to dine with him. But Gene Healy is a lawyer practicing in Tim Slagle is a stand-up comedian liv­ his .knowledge was diverse, and he Virginia. ing in Chicago. treated readers to a great many other articles, covering topics ranging from George Hollenback is a writer living in Martin M. Solomon is an assistant edi­ Ivan the Terrible to the Libertarian Houston, Texas. tor at Liberty. Party's place in history. Bart Kosko is a professor of electrical Martin Tyrrell is a writer and I offered him a full-time position engineering at the University of researcher based in Europe. even before launching the magazine, 52 Liberty. June 2000 hoping that Liberty would provide him moral crime - but was never inclined resented people who succeeded and to put his immense intelligence to con­ to pay much attention to the details of wallowed in self-pity. He was never structive use. In 1990, he accepted my life. I n~call once noticing the engine of happy and seldom even pleasant, offer, mostly because he was desperate his car smoking and insisting on check­ though his trenchant wit earned him a for money. He came to Liberty head­ ing the oil. It was five quarts low. few friends. It's hard to imagine a per­ quarters in Port Townsend, but things Unfortunately he was about as punctil­ son wasting such an obvious and mag­ didn't work out: he had his usual prob­ ious about taking his blood pressure nificent intellect - although that is the lems getting along with people, and he medicine as he was about checking the terrible fate of many individualists steadfastly refused to learn how to use oil in his car. whom I have known. Nevertheless, the a computer. He left after a few months. Bill Moulton was one of the most impact of his intelligence, which would Once home to Michigan, he asked intelligent people I've ever known, but never surrender its own cranky sense to be paid for writing in Liberty. I was he was never able to channel that intel­ of self, will always remain with those reluctant to agree. Liberty had always ligence into productive activity. He who knew him. -R. W. Bradford been a labor of love. Even staff mem­ bers did their writing for our pages on their own time. Karl Hess was the only --TheIndependentReviewis excellent. ~ contributor who had been paid for his - GARY S. BECKER, Nobel Laureate in Economics writing. I'd come up with money to ranscending the all-too-common superfici­ pay Karl because I thought him a very ality of public policy research and debate, special case: he was a hero of libertari­ TThe INDEPENDENTREVIEWis the widely anism whose contributions to the acclaimed quarterly journal devoted to individ­ movement were immeasurable, and he ualliberty and excellence in the critical analysis was on hard times. of government policy. Edited by Robert Higgs, I decided to make a similar arrange­ The INDEPENDENT REVIEWis superbly written, provocative, and based on solid peer­ ment with Bill, but such was his per­ reviewed scholarship. verse nature that he wrote hardly Probing the most difficult and pressing of anything afterwards. In early 1992, he social and economic questions, The INDEPEN­ even stopped corresponding with me. DENTREVIEWboldly challenges the politiciza­ The only contact I had with him was tion and bureaucratization of our world, featur­ indirect: a couple of times he called a ing in-depth examinations of current policy mutual friend, and in the course of con­ questions by many of the world's outstanding scholars and policy experts. Unique, undaunted versation explained that he was calling and uncompromising, this is the journal that is from a pay phone so that· his number pioneering future debate! could not be traced. I had lent him a "The Independent Review is the most exciting new intellectual journal in fairly substantial sum of money a few many years and one of the few with aprofound commitment to liberty." years earlier, and he apparently feared - WILLIAM A. NISKANEN, Chairman, Cato Institute that I might try to collect it. He needn't "The Independent Review is ofgreat interest." - C. VANN WOODWARD, Pulitzer Prize-Winner, Yale Univ. have worried. "The Independent Review is excellent in both format and content, Bill spent his last years selling high­ and is a most important undertaking for the cause ofliberty. " rate mortgages to people with bad - RALPH RAICO, Professor of History, SUNY Buffalo "It is a welcome relief to have The Independent Review, that com­ credit, a job where his immense size ­ prehensively analyzes current issues from the standpoint ofliberty he was terribly overweight, often tip­ and limited government. We are most fortunate to have the unique ping the scales at nearly 400 pounds­ and powerful perspective ofits scholarship and commentary." was not a handicap. I searched the Net - HARRY BROWNE, bestselling author "The Independent Review is distinctive in badly needed ways." occasionally to see whether he was - LELAND YEAGER, Professor of Economics, Auburn Univ. back writing, but I never heard from In Recent Issues: him until April 12, when an old mutual Population Growth: Disaster or Blessing? - PETER T. BAUER friend from Michigan called to tell me Predatory Public Finance and the Origins ofthe War on Drugs that he was gone. Financial pressure - BRUCE L. BENSON AND DAVID RASMUSSEN had forced him to sell the small house Medicare's Progeny: The 1996 Health Care Legislation - CHARLOTTE TWIGHT he had inherited in his home town, and Is Microsoft a Monopolist? he had moved to a room the same - RICHARD B. McKENZIE AND WILLIAM F. SHUGHART II Democracy and War motel in Grand Rapids where'd he'd - RUDY RUMMEL AND TED GALEN CARPENTER lived as a student a quarter century ear­ Liberty and Feminism lier. It was there he died. - RICHARD A. EpSTEIN The Endangered Species Act: Who's Saving What? It's always a shock when an old - RANDY T. SIMMONS friend dies, but his death was not Is National Rational? - ANTHONY DE JASAY entirely surprising. Bill was the sort of Why Did the East Germans Rebel? person who was intellectually fastidi­ - SUZANNE LOHMAN ous - he considered a trivial misquota­ On the Nature ofCivil Society tion of a 400-year-old poem to be a - CHARLES K. ROWLEY T t 1f I n

New York, New York And tonight, "Hamlet II: The Investigation" - produced, Even a trendy art exhibition sometimes persecutes directed, co-written by and starring Mark Dorosin - opens at the minorities, from The New York Times: ArtsCenter's West End Theater. The work, which is called "Sanitation," will go on view March Turkey 23 as part of the Whitney's 2000 Biennial. It includes a wall that juxtaposes the First Amendment with statements made by Mayor Reuters reports on a popular sporting event the Rudolph Giuliani and antiart quotations by three conservative pol­ Middle East: iticians, written in the Gothic Franktur typeface once favored by Turkey's oil wrestlers - burly men who cover themselves in the Nazis and sometimes used by neo-Nazis. Beneath the pas­ olive oil and grapple with each other wearing leather trousers ­ sages is a row of trash cans that blare the sound of marching are trying to stop a group of homosexuals coming to watch. A troops. group calling themselves Bears of Turkey is advertising on the Last week, the Anti-Defamation League protested the exhibi­ Internet for a tour to watch. the 639th Kirkpinar oil wrestling tion, saying itdenigrated the memory of those killed by the Nazis. championships to be held on July 1 and 2 near Turkey's north­ western city of Edirne. 'Canada The wrestlers, their muscles rippling in olive oil under the hot America's Neighbor to the North's progressive meth­ sun, try to pin each other to the ground. Putting a hand down the ods of crowd control, from the Associated Press: opponent's trousers to get a better grip is a common tactic. Students at the University of Toronto are being "tortured" by Rocky Mount, Virginia campus police with the music of the Backstreet Boys in an Law enforcement setback in the Dominion State, attempt to end a six-day-old sit-in at the president's office. reported by The New York Times: USA "It's an awkward situation," Allen G. Hudson, deputy director Not all television crimes are excessively violent, but of the Virginia alcohol agency's Bureau of Law Enforcement still are inventively terroristic, from a television listing in the Said. "Moonshiners hire people locally and buy materials locally. We don't get a lot of cooperation, because they see them doing Seattle Times: more good than we can do' them." "Profiler." Now a member of the VCTF team, newly relo­ cated Agent Rachel Burke sorts through a series of murders Charlotte, North Carolina where the killer singles out successful career women and subju­ The Charlotte Observer follows the Vice President on a gates them to humiliating housework. visit to a local middle school: New York, N.~ At 9:00 a.m., Vice President Gore went to science class where Chef in the Big Apple gets the thrill of his life, from seventh-graders were creating molecule models out of toothpicks and marshmallows. He helped students create models of water The New York Times: and hydrochloric acid. After Gore left, student Andrew Spohn "You cook a great dish 7,000 times over and over," Mr. Wang said that "Everyone was trying to eat the marshmallows that he said, "it's nice to have it be more exciting because you know the had touched." food we're touching is actually going to the president." USA Carrboro, North Carolina There is one segment of the population whose health The advance of culture in the Tar Heel State, reported care needs have been overlooked, from the USA Today: by the estimable Chapel Hill News: When Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was rushed to the hospital with chest pains, his illness prompted other big-city may­ "I was talking about how Shakespeare's plays, which are of ors to think about their own high-stress lives. course full of beautiful language, are so long and talky, so verbal, "It should be a wake-up call," says Providence, R.I. Mayor up until the last five or ten minutes," Mark Dorosin, a Carrboro Vincent (Buddy) Cianci, 58. "Mayors are always talking about Alderman said. "And then, at the very end, all hell breaks loose. health care and early intervention for kids, but we never do it for People stab each other. They stab themselves. They drink poison. ourselves." They fall on their swords. People start dropping right and left. And at the end you have all these dead folks sprawled all over the Massachusetts stage. Bay State schools discover an ironclad way to improve "And I just thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun to pick up at that test scores according to The New York Ti"!:es: . point, where one of those plays ends?' You know, when the In the latest example of cheating on high-stakes standardized police come in and go, 'Oh, my God, what happened?' I went, 'I tests, administrators, teachers and students in at least 19 should write a play like that.'" Massachusetts schools violated the rules when taking statewide The next weekend, he sat down at the typewriter. exams last spring.

(Readers are invited to forward news clippings or other items for publication in Terra Incognita, or email [email protected].) 54 Liberty The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent by Jacob G. Hornberger

1930s. Like other young Ger­ authors were having to pro­ Their sentence: Death. mans, they enthusiastically cure large quantities of paper, That afternoon, the pris­ joined the Hitler Youth. Un­ envelopes, and postage. It on guards permitted Hans, like so many other Germans, knew that they were using a Sophie, and Christoph to have however, they later turned duplicating machine. But de­ one last visit together. Sophie against Hitler and his Nazi spite the Gestapo's best efforts, was then led to the guillotine. regime. it was unable to catch the per­ One observer described her as Open dissent was impos­ petrators. she walked to her death: sible in Nazi Germany, espe­ On February 18, 1943, "Without turning a hair, with­ cially after the start of World however, luck ran out for the out flinching." Christoph War II. One day in 1942, members of the White Rose. Probst was next. Hans Scholl The date was February 22, however, copies of a leaflet Hans and Sophie Scholl were was last; just before he was 1943. Hans Scholl and his entitled "The White Rose" caught leaving pamphlets at beheaded, Hans cried out: sister, Sophie, along with their suddenly appeared at the the University of Munich and "Long live freedom!" best friend, Christoph Probst, University of Munich. The were arrested, along with their Today, every German were to be executed by Nazi leaflet contained an anony­ friend Christoph Probst. All knows the story of the White officials that afternoon. The mous essay that said that the three were immediately in­ Rose. A square at the Univer­ prison guards were so im­ Nazi system had slowly im­ dicted for treason. sity of Munich is named for pressed with the calm and prisoned the German people On February 22 - four Hans and Sophie Scholl. bravery of the prisoners in the and was now destroying them. days after their arrest - their There are also streets, squares, face of impending death that Germans needed to rise up, trial began. Sophie Scholl and schools all over Germany they violated regulations by the essay declared, and resist shocked everyone in the named for the White Rose. permitting them to meet to­ the tyranny of their own courtroom when she said to The German movie The White gether one last time. Hans, a government. the.judge: "Somebody,·after Rose is now found in video medical student at the Univer­ The leaflet caused a tre­ all, had to make a start. What stores in Germany and the sity of Munich, was 24. mendous stir among the stu­ we wrote and said is also be­ United States. Sophie, a student, was 21. dent body. It was the first time lieved by many others. They :Richard Hanser summed Christoph, a medical student, that internal dissent against just don't dare to express up the story ofthe White Rose: was 22. the Nazi regime had surfaced themselves as we did." "In the vogue words of the This is the story of the in Germany. The members of In the middle of the trial, time, the Scholls and their White Rose. It is a lesson in the White Rose, however, did Hans's and Sophie's parents, friends represented the 'other' dissent. It is a tale of courage not limit themselves to leaf­ Robert and Magdalene Scholl, Germany, the land of poets - of principle - of honor. It lets. Graffiti began appearing tried to enter the courtroom. and thinkers, in contrast to the is detailed in three books: The in large letters on streets and Magdalene said to the guard: Germany that was reverting to White Rose (1970) by Inge buildings all over Munich: "But I'm the mother of two of barbarism and trying to take Scholl, A Noble Treason "Down with Hitler! ... Hitler the accused." The guard re­ the world with it." (1979) by Richard Hanser, and the Mass Murderer!" and sponded: "You should have An Honourable Defeat (1994) "Freiheit! ... Freiheit!" brought them up better." Mr. Hornberger is founder and by Anton Gill. ("Freedom! ... Freedom!") The judge pronounced president of The Future of Freedom Hans and Sophie Scholl The Gestapo was driven his judgment on the three de­ Foundation (wwwfff.org) in were German teenagers in the into a frenzy. It knew that the fendants: Guilty of treason. Fairfax, Va.

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