The Police State

Something happened in Buffalo, New York, that contradicts the propaganda of those who support "gun control."

After several years of scant media coverage, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is back in the public spotlight. Its admission late last year that it had revived its nuclear program has caused a flurry of Washington war planning.

In the games planners play, the model builder wins by outsmarting an opponent programmed to react in predictable ways. The conclusion is decided by the assumptions built into the system. If this is true in peace, it is all the more true in war. The game called "war" is no better at preparing central planners for real life than the game called "market."

If popularity was the sole measure of success then D.A.R.E., the "Drug Abuse Resistance Education" curriculum that is now taught in 80 percent of school districts nationwide, would be triumphant.  However, if one is to gauge success by actual results, then America's most pervasive and expensive youth drug education program is (and always has been) a gigantic and incontrovertible flop.

If the pundits and politicians ever succeed in imposing the draft again on American citizens, for purposes of bolstering the military empire or doing social work, writes Jeffrey Tucker, they will have to look for support outside the libertarian tradition. Mises is not enlisted in this cause.

Douglas Husak, a distinguished legal philosopher, presents in excellent fashion a key point about drug prohibition. He claims not to be a libertarian;

George Leef, in a review of Reassessing the Presidency, asks us to imagine the equivalent of the Academy Awards for American presidents. We have just gotten to the big moment. "And the Oscar for Greatest President goes to...Martin Van Buren?"

For those who have not flown commercially in since last September are in for a rude awakening, writes William Anderson. You will face the insanity that passes for modern airport security, even as airline travel is as vulnerable as ever. And if you believe things might improve, think again.

"The myth of Lincoln cannot stand up under scrutiny," says Thomas DiLorenzo, "and after all these years, the word is finally getting out." Mises.org interviews DiLorenzo on his new book and its thesis that Lincoln's legacy was not freedom but the consolidated state. The book's high sales are as notable as the explosive controversy that has erupted about his thesis. 

What set in motion the explosive technological advance of the last 250 years was the world of ideas. Great thinkers began to understand the internal logic of the market economy and its potential for liberating mankind from poverty, dependency, and despotic rule.