Tuesday, May 02, 2006

End Notes: Recommended Reading

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/january2006/200106Bin_Laden_Tape.htm Watson, Steve, "Latest Bin Laden Tape: Another of the NeoCons' 'Greatest Hits'" Illustrates how far they will go to create a crisis mentality and justify war. I am not sure of the correctness of the article's particulars, but this is the neo-cons' general mentality.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts139.html Roberts, Paul Craig, "Bush has Crossed the Rubicon." How power has gravitated to the Executive, especially now in Bush's second term. With Justice Alito confirmed, he now has a majority on the Supreme Court who favor enlarged presidential powers. Also, the use of "signing statements" has enabled Pres. Bush to bypass statutes passed by Congress and signed into law by him. This little-known tool has tremendously increased his power.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr011806.htm Paul, Dr. Ron, "Searching for a New Direction." Paul on the neo-conservative Bush administration's fiscal and monetary irresponsibility.

http://www.mises.org/story/1973 Rothbard, Murray, "What is the Free Market?" Dr. Rothbard explains in everyday language why everyone benefits if the market is free from government interference, as opposed to the neo-conservative limitations placed on it.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706I.shtml Pitt, William Rivers, "The New Fascism." The author describes what is going on in the country now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4655196.stm Brookes, Adam, "US Plans to 'Fight the Net' Revealed. Newly declassified document reveals how the Bush administration wants the military to control the Internet for propaganda purposes. Written by Pentagon officials in 2003, Donald Rumsfeld signed it.

http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=8329 Roberts, Paul Craig, "A Criminal Administration." It is apparently treasonous to reveal Bush's illegal behavior, according to the Bush administration. It is out to bust the patriotic hero who broke the spying news in The New York Times, even as it goes on committing blatant crimes!

http://mises.org/story/2051 Rockwell, Llewellyn H., Jr., "The Myth of the Math and Science Shortage." Lew Rockwell is one of the best libertarian writers on the planet. In this article he is disputing one of many blatantly false statements in President Bush's 2006 State of the Union speech. That was the idea that more scientists and mathematicians are needed. Actually, lawyers command much higher wages, showing that lawyers are in much higher demand in the marketplace. This is due to the plethora of rules and regulations imposed by government. Bush's comments betray his lust for central planning. I would only add that the study of the sciences takes time away from the study of the humanities which is desperately needed if students are ever going to realize how they are being led down the garden path to despotism. Good scientific knowledge and technique are no guarantee that one can think critically about authority vs. liberty. I know this first hand having been in a scientific field myself and remembering the inane and anti-freedom comments of some (otherwise) very bright co-workers and students.

http://villagevoice.com/news/0607,hentoff,72136,6.html Hentoff, Nat, "The War on Privacy." The general public is becoming aware of and concerned about infringements on privacy rights, according to Zogby polls. I hope they are right, as today the only way to communicate with guaranteed privacy is the in-person conversation.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods28.html Woods, Thomas E., Jr., Reviews Anne Norton's Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire (Yale, 2004). In it he points out many of the highlights of the book. As anything but a conservative in the real sense, Leo Strauss opposed the idea of individual rights and, despite his words to the contrary, was a Machiavellian. Willingness to act outside the law is a mark of "statesmanship." In fact, I had quite an "Aha!" moment when I saw that the Straussians have great admiration for Abraham Lincoln, precisely because he broke the law. See my Three Enemies essay on my blog. A related article by Thomas Di Lorenzo is found at http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo80.html

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11968.htm Roberts, Paul Craig, "Conservatives Endorse the Fuhrer Principle." The Conservative Political Action Conference met in February, 2006. Former congressman Bob Barr, a real conservative, reminded them that nobody, including the president is above the law. He was received negatively.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block58.html Block, Walter, "Those Cartoons: A Libertarian Analysis." A libertarian commentary on the cartoons. The first link in the article shows some of the cartoons.

http://lewrockwell.com/orig7/asingleton1.html Singleton, Aaron, "Legally Lewd: A Right Reserved Only For Cops." This illustrates the two-class system where government people are treated as a privileged class, when they can engage in an activity on the taxpayers' money, while the taxpayers are strictly forbidden to engage in the same activity.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory109.html Gregory, Anthony, "On Being Anti-State, Anti-War, and Anti-Bush." He says that anyone who loves liberty must be anti-Bush. That is abundantly clear. (Well, I don't call myself Anti-Bush Alice because of my tiddlywink game.) However, some libertarians are confused as to being pro-state and pro-war even as they are pro-liberty. The Left is also confused, and as statist as Bush.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer132.html Shaffer, Butler "V for Vendetta." A review of the movie V for Vendetta which is an absolute must-see. Shaffer says the movie is overtly anti-state.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts159.html Roberts, Paul Craig, "Bush Is No Conservative." This is yet another indictment of Bush and the neoconservatives showing they are anything but conservative in the true sense.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Alice, once again you have hit the nail on the head. People need to stand up and take notice: "conservatives" today are not advocates of small government and free markets, but totalitarian one world proponents.

Your essay covered much of the philosophical background for todays conservatives. You might also mention Nixon as a turning point in the conservative movement. He could advocate Keynesian economics and a welfare state, and was "conservative" only in his foreign policy and domestic spying. A sharper contrast to the true 1950s conservatives like Taft and Goldwater could hardly be imagined.