This Week's Scribblings

Op-ed: "Big Brother, Not Snowden and Greenwald, Is the Story"

Snowden and Greenwald have not “aided the enemy” — unless the American people are the government’s enemy. What they have done is embarrass the Obama administration by exposing criminal activity.

 For the media’s defenders of power against truth, that’s inexcusable.

TGIF: "Is Edward Snowden a Lawbreaker?"

Lex injusta non est lex — an unjust law is not a law.

Media Priorities

If the television talking heads spent half the time discussing NSA spying that they spend sneering at Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, the people might actually get mad at Big Brother.

TGIF: National Servitude

The idea of "national service" never goes away. It just stands in the wings waiting to reappear. Well, it's back, and here is my take.

What do [the advocates of  “national service”] really want: improvement in the lives of people or service to “the nation,” which always translates into service to the state? If it’s the latter, they should remind themselves that earlier attempts to institutionalize that notion of duty weren’t pretty.

Just Wondering

Has the NSA spying ceased pending the debate?

TGIF: It’s Not Edward Snowden Who Betrayed Us

TGIF this week cuts through the NSA fog to show that how one comes down on the controversy depends on whether or not one trusts power.

Op-ed: Obama Speaks with Forked Tongue on Surveillance

My take on the revelations about the NSA's spying.  Bottom line:

Obama says, “If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress and don’t trust federal judges to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution, due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here.”

That’s wrong. If the politicians’ only response to revelations that they’re violating our privacy is to ask for trust, then we already have problems.

Hero

Edward Snowden, Unmasker of Big Brother

Does He Listen to Himself?

If Barack Obama really "welcome[s] the debate" on the surveillance state, why is his administration pulling out all the stops to find the leaker who's making that debate possible?

TGIF: The Lie Factory

Obama says things are going well in Afghanistan. He lies.
Read all about it.

Caplan on Pacifism

Bryan Caplan defends his antiwar stance against Jan Ling in this Learn Liberty video.

 

Op-ed: The US Base on Diego Garcia: An Overlooked Atrocity

Most Americans know (well maybe not) that the U.S. government has a military base on the island Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. But how many know of the atrocity that occurred to establish that base?

Read about it.