Did the Government Drive Aaron Swartz to Suicide?

My latest op-ed explores the case of Aaron Swartz, the programming prodigy and Internet freedom activist who faced 35 years in prison before taking his own life this month.

Read "Did the Government Drive Aaron Swartz to Suicide?"

Aaron Swartz, RIP

I highly commend Glenn Greenwald's article about Aaron Swartz, the young genius and passionate champion of Internet freedom, who recently committed suicide after being targeted by a Javert-like federal prosecutor. Swartz's story is a sad commentary on the American justice [!] system.

James Buchanan, RIP

Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan, a founder of the Public Choice school and a proponent of radical subjectivist economics, died today at the age 93. He leaves a library full of writings important to libertarians.

Gary Chartier has notes on Buchanan at the Center for a Stateless Society site.

Israel Lobby or Jewish Lobby?

I'm amused by the criticism of Chuck Hagel for referring to the Jewish Lobby, instead of the Israel Lobby. When it's convenient, Israel's supporters never fail to insist that Israel is the state not of its citizens or even its Jewish citizens, but of the Jewish people worldwide. Any Jew (by criteria set by ultra-orthodox rabbis) may move to Israel and immediately become a citizen. A Palestinian Arab born in what became Israel in 1948 and driven out during the Nakba is forbidden to return to his home.

Of course, not all Jews are Israel chauvinists, but that's not relevant here. The point is that Jewish Israel chauvinists support Israel because in their eyes what's good for Israel is good for the Jewish people.

I tried to capture this point in my cartoon.

By the way, "Jewish Lobby" is an uncontroversial synonym for AIPAC in Israel.

Priorities

Hey, no big deal if the U.S. government murders people in other countries.

No big deal if it sends people off to be tortured. 

No big deal if if holds people indefinitely without due process. 

But God forbid it should miss a bill payment!