Tony Petersen

A fishy 'smelt' in the air

Aug 26, 2009 at 9:54 PM

By Tony Petersen

For three years California has been mired in drought, with farms failing and unemployment rising higher and faster than national averages. With the same slothfulness and disregard for constituents displayed during the state's budget crisis, California lawmakers are once again failing in resolving another.

Read the rest here.

Kirk on the Neoconservatives

Aug 23, 2009 at 12:19 PM

By Tony Petersen

In his great book, The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk showed what being a true conservative meant. The great man of letters was a giant of conservatism for the near half century he was in public life. He was also no big fan of the neocons. Here is his lecture to the Heritage Foundation on the neoconservatives, known mostly for his observation that, "Not seldom has it seemed as if some eminent Neoconservatives mistook Tel Aviv for the capital of the United States."

Milton Friedman Unraveled

Aug 16, 2009 at 6:38 PM

By Tony Petersen

During the economic crisis, the establishment media has blamed all that has happened thus far on the "free market" and the view of it represented by the thought and writings of Milton Friedman. Having read Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, I find him a very good economist -- but everyone familiar with Friedman should know that he is no free-market economist in the mold of the Austrians. Here's Murray Rothbard's commentary on Friedman and the damage some of his ideas and actions have had.

(Hat-tip to LRC)

Comments (3)

Dr. Paul on The Ed Show

Aug 13, 2009 at 7:22 AM

By Tony Petersen

Here's Ron Paul's appearance on The Ed Show. Kudos to the good doctor for controlling the interview and not allowing Schultz to shout over everything he said. How this show is still on the air I have no idea.

Comments (1)

Peter Schiff on The Ed Show

Aug 7, 2009 at 6:09 PM

By Tony Petersen

Yesterday Peter Schiff was interviewed by Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's "The Ed Show." Pat Buchanan aside, MSNBC is rarely worth watching, and all the parts of this interview which aren't Schiff talking aren't either.

(Hat tip to LRC.)

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The Birthers

Aug 3, 2009 at 6:10 PM

By Tony Petersen

Daniel McCarthy, on his Tory Anarchist blog, has a very good post on the subject of the "birthers," a "conservative" movement claiming President Obama was not in fact born in Hawaii, but in Kenya.

In this post, he asks the right question: "[D]oes it really make sense to be exercised about this particular clause of the Constitution if you don't care about the constitutionally dubious character of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?"

Read his more indepth arguments here.

Jeffersonian or Hamiltonian?

Jul 31, 2009 at 1:41 PM

By Tony Petersen

The Mises Institute Website has a good article by Murray Rothbard, explaining the Jeffersonian position:

Every student, indeed every literate person, is expected to choose up sides and pin a label on himself in the Great Debate. Most people today consider themselves as Jeffersonians. Groups as diverse as the States' Rights (or Dixiecrat) movement and the Communists consider themselves heirs to the Jeffersonian mantle. At one and the same time, conservative southerners refer to themselves as "Jeffersonian Democrats," while the leading revolutionary Marxist school in the country is called the "Jefferson School of Social Science." Amidst this welter of confusion, to find the true picture of Jefferson the man and political philosopher is an extraordinarily difficult task.

Read the rest here.

End The Fed

Jul 27, 2009 at 3:25 PM

By Tony Petersen

Here is a debate between John Fund and Warren Coates (Pro-Fed) and Gene Epstein and Thomas Woods (Anti-Fed). A little long but time well spent. Woods and Epstein represent our side quite ably.

Dr. Paul on the Tube

Jul 23, 2009 at 7:25 AM

By Tony Petersen

For my first post, here are two appearances Dr. Paul made on television today.

It's amazing the respect Paul gets now, as opposed to during the campaign. What a difference a year makes. It also helps to be right 100 percent of the time.