James Bovard
James Bovard
James Bovardis a libertarian author and lecturer whose political commentary targets examples of waste, failures, corruption, cronyism and abuses of power in government. He is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy, and eight other books. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Republic, Reader's Digest, The American Conservative, and many other publications. His books have been translated into Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean...
ProfessionAuthor
government law america
America needs fewer laws, not more prisons. By trying to seize far more power than is necessary over American citizens, the federal government is destroying its own legitimacy. We face a choice not of anarchy or authoritarianism, but a choice of limited government or unlimited government .
powerful lying government
The more powerful government becomes, the more abuses it commits and the more lies it must tell.
alzheimers people long
Politicians nowadays treat Americans like medical orderlies treat Alzheimer's patients, telling them anything that will keep them subdued. It doesn't matter what untruths the people are fed because they will not long remember. But in politics, forgotten falsehoods almost guarantee new treachery.
government one-day noble
If an election is simply a one-day snapshot of transient mass delusions, then this is not a very noble form of government.
government shepherds chiefs
If so many Americans are looking for the government to save them, then it is hard to have a dignified search for a shepherd in chief.
gun rights government
Gun laws are an attempt to nationalize the right of self-defense. Politicians perennially react to the police's abject failure to prevent crime by trying to disarm law-abiding citizens. The worse government fails to control crime, the more the politicians want to restrict individuals' rights to defend themselves. But police protection in most places is typical government work - slow, inefficient, and unreliable...
positive-thinking people important
It is important to recognize and politics positive thinking is often the slaves' virtue - something that people do to con themselves about the burden and change being placed upon them.
children agency government
The more expansive government is, the more perils people face in daily lives, be it from IRS agents or from child support services, or from other agencies that often have little or no legal restraints on their power.
average years libertarian
The average American family head will be forced to do twenty years' labor to pay taxes in his or her lifetime.
government dangerous loses
The more freedoms Americans lose, the more dangerous government becomes.
government liberty lists
The only things government can do are regulate and redistribute, prohibit and penalize, confiscate and command. Are these the things that liberty is made of? Somebody else's money and an endless list of Thou Shalt Nots?
path standards certain
Once freedom is equated with a certain material standard of living, confiscation becomes the path to liberation.
war president revision
Freedom is whatever the president says it is, pending revision.
self government democracy
The more government dependents, the more likely that democracy will become a conspiracy against self-reliance.