While we’re revisiting the Industrial Revolution and the distortions of its historians, let me recommend Ralph Raico’s talk on the subject from the 2001 Mises University (MP3).

You might recall this story on the presiding judge in the I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial ordering classified and “sensitive” documents be made available to the public.

The government, famed for building bridges to nowhere, can’t replace a bridge blown down by Hurricane Katrina in four times the time required for a private company to replace its bridge just downriver from it, blown down at the same time. And the private company is a railroad, no less!

Ed Brown has received multiple felony convictions for income tax evasion. After trying to take up his case in court, he and his wife believe that federal agents will storm their 110 acre home, which is like a fortress complete with watch towers and its own supply of electricity should the government try to cut off the Browns’ power.

According to Lauren Canario,

Politicians love taxes like my cat loves cream. We just got another notice from the mayor’s minions about my cat, Kato. She’s a winsome black and white alley cat who could pass for an miscolored Siamese on a moonless night.

Who is Robert Higgs? No economic historian working today has done more to untangle the intellectual mess that the welfare-warfare state made of the 20th century. Higgs has a keen eye for detail, a passion for deep research, a sound theoretical outlook, and a flair for writing that makes his prose white hot.

Michael Perelman argues that economics is not an objective science, but an ideology, an apologia for capitalism promoted by the mercantile classes and their intellectual vanguard. Richard Vedder says “[a]s neo-Marxist accounts go, this one is far less polemical and hysterical than some, but it still simply does not accord with critical facts.”

The lessons of Iraq pose challenges for our understanding of the state. Consider the gap that separates the Bush administration’s original theory with the reality on the ground today. The idea was that the Iraqi government would be “decapitated,” and that once Saddam and his few henchmen were crushed, the country could breathe free and get on with the business of building a great society.

Education and social critic Alfie Kohn is an exhaustive researcher and engaging writer. I have not read all of his eleven original books, but I do highly recommend these two: Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason. The titles and subtitles make clear his premises about human motivation and behavior.