The Emotion Machine » Barack Obama

The War on Drugs Is Up In Smoke

Steven Handel — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:50:46 +0000

This is the third time within the last couple of weeks that Judge Napolitano’s show “Freedom Watch” has covered the War On Drugs, and its utter failure as a government motive to protect its citizens from substance abuse. Even though I already reported on one of these segments at Legalize It? Director of NORML on Marijuana Prohibition, because this is a topic I find very interesting, I decided to report on this latest update as well.

Jacob Hornberger, the founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation , a non-profit libertarian educational facility, says Nobel Prize economist Milton Friedman predicted the failure of the War On Drugs back in the 1970s, back when then-President Richard Nixon first defined the movement. Since then, Hornberger argues, the WOD has proved itself to be a failed war. He claims the best way to fix this mess is to do the same thing we did with alcohol prohibition – end it!

Napolitano agrees with Hornberger; he believes the War On Drugs is unconstitutional, a waste of time, and a waste of the American people’s money and resources. As a result of some of these laws, innocent people’s lives have been ruined by the hands of the state.

NAPOLITANO: Is it controversial for people in the public eye to come out in favor of the legalization of the private use of recreational drugs?

HORNBERGER: Well when I was bringing this up 20 years ago on radio talk shows I could light up the phone calls. People were just shocked at the possibility that drugs could be legalized. Twenty years later it is now a legitimate position…What do the drug warriors have left? All they have is their good intentions, and that is not enough. They have made the situation worse.

According to Hornberger it is not uncommon today to see police officers, federal judges, prosecutors, and lawyers against the War On Drugs.

HORNBERGER: We have argued for 30 years now, Judge, that the free market would put these drug dealers and drug cartels out of business instantaneously. And the article to which you are referring, where the private sector is having these marijuana farms, is proving that. These cartels are having a difficult time competing against these legitimate marijuana farms. Which leads us to believe that if you legalize the whole market, [then] these drug gangs and cartels would go out of business overnight.

According to this CNN poll conducted earlier this year 95% were in favor of marijuana legalization.

Is it time politicians start listening to the American people? Can we ever return to a society that respects the individual’s freedom to choose his own pursuit of happiness, as long as it does not undermine the liberties of another? What is stopping legislators from legalizing drugs like marijuana and regulating it similarly to how we regulate alcohol? Over the last decade I have noticed a surge in people speaking up on this issue – hopefully we can come to our senses sooner rather than later. America, let your voice be heard!

Best Libertarian Resources On The Web

Steven Handel — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:21:12 +0000

THE CATO INSTITUTE

These guys are just about everywhere nowadays and for good reason: they have been pushing libertarian ideals hard since 1977.

This non-profit, pro-free market libertarian think tank, and public policy research facility, was first founded by Edward Crane after he received assistance from Mr. Libertarian himself Murray Rothbard as well as some funding by engineer and CEO Charles Koch.

According to their website,

“The mission of the Cato Institute is to increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace. The Institute will use the most effective means to originate, advocate, promote, and disseminate applicable policy proposals that create free, open, and civil societies in the United States and throughout the world.”

The Cato Institute is responsible for a variety of publications and essays throughout the decades on a on a wide range of policy issues including taxing and spending, education, free speech, Social Security, regulation, federalism, individual rights, the rule of law, globalization, national security, and the environment.

Where to start:

Their main blog is great as well as their multimedia section and homepage where they display recent articles and recommended links.

LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE

The Mises Institute considers themselves the world center of the Austrian School of economics as well as libertarian political and social theory. That can certainly not be disputed. They also have an incredible amount of content – so you are going to want to get digging soon.

In the media center you will find a variety of downloadable video and audio files of lectures, documentaries, and interviews. These are great to put on your IPOD and listen to on long road trips. Topics cover welfare, bureaucracy, war, monetary reform, and economic critiques on Keynesian, classical, monetarism, socialism, Marxism, and communism.

The literature section is also full of gold, where you will find hundreds and hundreds of downloadable books, journal articles, essays, and even study guides.

Where to start:

One of my personal recommendations is to check out their study guide dedicated to Mises’ magnum opus Human Action, which lays out the Austrian methodology of praxeology – the basis of all Austrian economic theory. Praxeology is a form of methodological individualism (who early economist and Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek, and one of the most influential philosophers of science Karl Popper both advocated), which demands that social sciences ground their theories in the actions of individuals and not collective entities who do not behave as autonomous decision makers.

If that last paragraph bored the heck out of you: then just check out their daily archive and recommended links on their homepage.

LEWROCKWELL.COM

I’ll be honest here, LewRockwell.com is my favorite libertarian resource but it is also the most extreme recommendation on this list. I think their main slogan sums up what you are going to get here perfectly: “Anti-State, Anti-War, and Pro-Market,” and their articles are certainly not bashful of it.

You won’t be seeing many kind words regarding government – but it is not like they are just being spewed by the mouths of government fear-mongering, Fox News-motivated drones.

Far from it: LewRockwell.com is nothing but quality reading. They update their site daily with about 13-15 new articles, with about 75% being about current issues in politics and economics and 25% regarding miscellaneous topics like art, culture, and science.

LewRockwell.com’s strong point is its stunning display of diversity in perspective. Authors range anywhere between university professors, politicians, economists, financial experts, authors, doctors, psychiatrists, and various others devoted to individual rights, limited state (sometimes flirting with anarchism), and the freedom to choose within the marketplace.

You may not readily agree with some of the ideas you read, but at the very least LewRockwell.com offers one of the freshest, inspiring, and most intellectual perspectives on what liberty really means.

Where to start:

Just check out their daily articles and pick whatever sounds interesting.

Federal Reserve in San Francisco

FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION

The Foundation For Economic Education (FEE) was first founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read. Since then they have been dedicated to provided a consistent case for freedom and the sanctity of private property, individual liberty, the free market and the moral superiority of individual choice and responsibility over coercion.

Since FEE was established they have published or hosted lectures by some of the greatest economists of the last century: Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, Vernon Smith, Israel Kirzner, Walter Williams, George Stigler, Frank Chodorov, John Chamberlain, F.A. “Baldy” Harper, William F. Buckley Jr., among many others.

One quick look through their library of books, articles, audio and videos and you will see the massive database and free information that FEE has to offer to the general public. I also recommend their main blog, Anything Peaceful which gives a free market perspective on current issues facing our nation’s economy, and how we can help move our country in a more free and prosperous direction.

AYN RAND INSTITUTE

It is clear that Ayn Rand as an individual would never endorse libertarianism as a political movement or philosophy.

But the fact of the matter is the ideas of Rand’s Objectivism and the ideas of capitalism, individual rights, and limited government are essentially synonymous. Rand just never liked the term “Libertarianism” because she saw it as inherently collectivist.

If I had to say one thing about Rand I would say she was misunderstood, and this was partly because she was such a stubborn person.

But ultimately, she was an intellectual tyrant, and true defender of freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and peace. I highly suggest reading The Ayn Rand Institute’s FAQ page for a full overview on what Rand was about, what her writings were about, what her philosophy called Objectivism was all about, and what the Ayn Rand Institute is doing today, as a non-profit think tank, advancing these ideas and trying to make real world changes.

DAILYPAUL.COM

A lot of the recent popularity in libertarianism is because of Congressmen Ron Paul who ran for President in 2008 under the Republican Party, and also back in 1988 under the Libertarian Party.

He is also currently getting a lot of recognition in the media for his new bill HR1207: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, which currently has 297 cosponsors, as well as Dr. Paul’s new book “End The Fed” which is an intellectually marathon on the economic, philosophical, and moral reasons why the Federal Reserve is a threat to everyone’s liberty.

I go to DailyPaul.com because when Ron Paul is getting coverage I like to see what he has to say. Just the other week he was on the Daily Show discussing his book. Ron Paul’s opinion matters, and he is still going to be relevant in the next coming years – especially as our economy continues to slide, and the American public gets more eager for answers and rational explanations to what got us into the mess we are experiencing now.

REASON.COM

Reason.com is updated daily with articles and columns on current developments in politics and culture. It also contains the full text of past issues of the print edition of Reason Magazine. Like all these other resources, it is also entirely free. You can look through their Print Archives here.

One of my personal favorite features of Reason Online is REASON.TV which contains videos, celebrity interviews, and short documentaries on a variety of topics like civil rights, health care, business and technology, welfare, foreign policy, government spending, The War On Drugs, abortion, gun rights, labor unions, global warming, science, art, culture, and much more.

Their slogan is “Free Minds, Free Markets,” which are ideals they hold to pretty well since they are very non-partisan in their political beliefs and very dedicated to the principles of liberty and voluntary transactions as they would take place in a free market.

There is also REASON.ORG, or the Reason Foundation, which takes a more academic approach at critiquing public policy, offering different solutions. According to the Washington Journal, “Of all the nation’s conservative or free-market policy groups, it may be the most libertarian among them, the Reason Foundation in Southern California, that ends up having the most direct impact on the actual functioning of government.”

Where to start:

It really depends if you want to read articles, watch videos, or listen to podcasts or audio files. Reason has all of the above and the best idea is to just go to their main page and start digging through all they have.

FREEDOM WATCH ON FOXNEWS.COM

Yes, it is affiliated with Fox News. Yes, Judge Napolitano sometimes fills in for the Glenn Beck show. Now can we get over it? The truth is Freedom Watch is the best libertarian TV show on the internet, and it is now running on a new daily schedule, or as Napolitano calls it: “A Daily Dose Of Raw Liberty!”

Frequent guests include pretty much everyone we have discussed above: members from The Cato Institute, Reason magazine, Mises Institute, Ayn Rand Institute, and politicians like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, Rand Paul, and Jim Demint, including many other knowledgeable guests, authors, constitutional and law experts, etc.

Where to start:

You could just check out the site and start streaming the videos. Or, if you want to take a personal recommendation, check out my recent article, “Legalize It? Director of NORML on Marijuana Prohibition.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

HOOVER INSTITUTION

They Hoover Institution at Stanford University is a public policy think tank which has had much influence in both conservative and libertarian circles. It was first founded in 1919 by then-future U.S. president Herbert Hoover. High-profile conservatives like Edwin Meese, Milton Friedman, George Shultz, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Amy Zegart are all Hoover Institution fellows. Check out their website for a great archive section and various other material on economics, politics, and freedom within the marketplace.

HUFFINGTON POST

Sure it’s not libertarian, but it is always healthy to keep up to date on what other political commentators are saying about current issues in America. The Huffington Post has a lot to offer libertarians and the American public in general by raising awareness about serious issues our country is facing.

Even if many of the solutions they might propose are more government and regulation, I still find their reporting much more unbiased than some of the stuff I have found at DailyKOS, truthdig and alternet.

FORA.TV

FORA.TV is not libertarian either but its site gathers the web’s largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates at universities, think tanks and conferences. Of course their politics section and economics section would be the pages libertarians would be most interested in but they also include some great information on various things about science, culture, the environment, and technology.

Obama’s “Unconstrained Vision”

Steven Handel — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:34:40 +0000

In 1987, the American economist and philosopher Thomas Sowell wrote the book “Conflicts in Vision: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles.” In it Sowell describes American politics as broken down into two distinct visions: the constrained and the unconstrained.

Those with a constrained vision believe that human nature is flawed, but fixed. They, like our founding fathers, acknowledge that humans are greedy and self-interested by nature, and that power always corrupts. A constrained vision is at strict adherence to federalism and the idea that a healthy government needs a separation of power in order to limit the damages done by human nature.

Those with an unconstrained vision believe that a government can be as powerful as it needs to be in order to make the world just. As long as the right people are in office then the government can rid the world of the problems caused by human’s flawed and greedy nature. They believe that human nature is not fixed, but malleable: “There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” – this is the shared attitude of the unconstrained visionary.

Sowell was recently interviewed on these old ideas and was asked how they relate to the politics of today:

In this interview he expands on his ideas regarding the unconstrained vision, which he believes is like a disease slowly taking over America, and especially those who are currently being led by the most unconstrained visionary ever to be President of the United States: Barack Obama.

Sowell warns us that the Left is almost always seeking some unconstrained vision. It is a vision never rooted in the reality of men, but in the dreams of idealists. Instead of protecting the freedoms that this country was founded on, they will utilize government intervention until there is not equal opportunity, but equal outcomes. They believe they can achieve a Utopian-like society as long as they are given the power to do so.

“Ask not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” Barack Obama

Our President will grab as much power as he can until his vision is fulfilled. And the unconstrained American people are willing to give it to him – as much as he wants in fact – because we believe Obama is the right person to do it.

But the constrained are saying “Stop!”

They understand power corrupts, and more power is almost never a good thing. Even if Obama is half as noble as the unconstrained believe he is, then what happens when the next president comes into office? What happens if he is corrupt? Or the next guy after that guy is corrupt? Eventually someone is going to step to the floor with all of these new powers – and we will be doomed. By giving government these new powers we are only setting up a time bomb for our own inevitable destruction.

Sowell believes that the unconstrained are the same kinds of people that believe communism would have worked – if only Stalin wasn’t in power. They fail to understand that a system like communism only brings people like Stalin into power. The same is true for all other forms of Fascism and Socialism that have failed in the past. Power corrupts – this is human nature – the constrained understand this.

In an economic environment, the unconstrained visionary believes that the powers of the free market only appeal to particular interests instead of focusing on the public interests. And Obama, as well as other unconstrained visionaries, have taken it upon themselves to define what “public interests” even means.

They fail to understand that man only has one mind, and by nature there are only individual interests. Only the conglomerate of actions done by individuals, driven by their own one-minded interest, can create the outcome of the “public interest.” There is no one-minded man that can possibly know what is in the interest of the public. Obama with his unconstrained vision is ignoring his senses, and the limitations of his own mind, in replace of his dreams. This is dangerous.

When Sowell is asked why he voted for McCain, his answer was simple: “I wanted a disaster over a catastrophe.” Sowell believes that Obama’s presidency is going to offer a good demonstration… of how government intervention, as a result of an ever encroaching power, almost always messes things up.