42 months of gains and losses
This is the 500th article published as part of No Force, No Fraud, since 5/28/2003... about a dozen per month over that 3 1/2 year period. My friend Chris Basten wrote 53 of those, and several other authors contributed as well. Three and a half years is not a long time, but long enough to be depressing, despite a few positive changes.
When I started No Force, I decided that there were already enough people writing and reporting on the War in Iraq, and I didn't want the war to obliterate attention to other relevant issues. An update is, however, appropriate in looking back. As of today, 2,931 Americans have lost their lives in Iraq, another 21,778 are wounded, and the conflict is still escalating. The latest surveys now show that less than 30% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling the war. Nearly 2/3 of us do not think Iraq will end up with a stable, democratic government, and only 9% think we will exit with a clear-cut victory.
Eminent domain
No Force, No Fraud began with "Is your home your castle?" ... about eminent domain abuse. At that time, when I spoke to others about eminent domain, I had to explain the term to them, and they still showed little interest. It was one of those problems they thought only happened to other people, so it wasn't worth bothering with.
A little over a year later, in June of 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Kelo case, ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses for private development, even when the government doesn't have specific plans for that development. Even though governments had been doing exactly that for many years, all over the country, having the Supremes bless it suddenly got everyone up in arms. Since then, many state legislatures have been pressed into reforming eminent domain in their states. At the same time, though, cities have been hurrying to beat deadlines, as reported by CastleWatch:
Lifesharers - organs for organ donors
When I first wrote about LifeSharers as a free-market solution whose mission is to end the shortage of donated human organs and tissue for transplants, it was just a year old and had 795 members. As of November 30th 2006, LifeSharers has 6,530 members. Good ideas succeed without force.
Free State Project
The Free State Project is an effort to recruit 20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire. When I wrote "The libertarians are going... the libertarians are going?" it wasn't much more than an idea. Today, 7,471 have pledged to move when that total reaches 20,000, but 627 have pledged to join as part of the first thousand, and 438 are already there and very active. One has already been elected to the New Hampshire legislature... Joel Winter, who is one of a half dozen former Minnesota Libertarians already there. Yes, it has been difficult for our MN party to lose a half dozen activists and friends to another state, but it's a loss in the cause of freedom. New Hampshire has really welcomed them. I hear often from them about how much more free and less socialistic New Hampshire is than Minnesota.
Crime
When I wrote "Crime is down. Was it worth it?" in 2003, I wrote that in 2001, 6.5 million Americans were in the prison system... incarcerated, on parole, or on probation. Today, another half million have been added, at an approximate cost of $24,000 per year per prisoner. That's an additional $12 billion each year, and still going up. Which brings us to...
The War on Drugs
Almost half of the increase in federal prisoners is for drug offenses, even though a number of state legislatures have passed measures reducing drug law severity. Our federal government, through the DEA, continues to ignore the will of the American people and tramples on states rights, wasting billions of dollars and wrecking many thousands of lives, with no impact on drug availability. A new study (not the first) indicates that marijuana is not a "gateway" drug that predicts or eventually leads to substance abuse. The insane war on drugs continues.
Social Security
In September of 2003, I wrote "Social Security - the Deadly Legacy", and said:
Contented, willing slaves
I recently heard some numbers that are broadly discouraging. About 25% of the American population is now receiving a check from government at some level... either from some sort of benefit program, or because they're employed by government. That means that one-fourth of our population has a financial incentive to "go along" with government... to put up with loss of liberties... to not "rock the boat". Most of those people are organized... as recipients of a program, or as part of government employee unions, which means that they're more politically active than the rest of us, and represent clear voting blocs that politicians will not ignore.
The World at War, fueled by us
There is brutal fighting in so many parts of the world today that it is astonishing. Aside from major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is Israel/Palestine, Israel/Lebanon, and brinksmanship with Iran and North Korea. Much of the African continent is torn with war, and far too many other places to itemize. Quite literally, thousands are slaughtered with little notice.
It seems easy for Americans to write off most of that worldwide violence and congratulate ourselves on at least having peace within our own borders, but a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service indicates that we are to blame for much, if not all, of the violence around the planet.
When I started No Force, I decided that there were already enough people writing and reporting on the War in Iraq, and I didn't want the war to obliterate attention to other relevant issues. An update is, however, appropriate in looking back. As of today, 2,931 Americans have lost their lives in Iraq, another 21,778 are wounded, and the conflict is still escalating. The latest surveys now show that less than 30% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling the war. Nearly 2/3 of us do not think Iraq will end up with a stable, democratic government, and only 9% think we will exit with a clear-cut victory.
Eminent domain
No Force, No Fraud began with "Is your home your castle?" ... about eminent domain abuse. At that time, when I spoke to others about eminent domain, I had to explain the term to them, and they still showed little interest. It was one of those problems they thought only happened to other people, so it wasn't worth bothering with.
A little over a year later, in June of 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Kelo case, ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses for private development, even when the government doesn't have specific plans for that development. Even though governments had been doing exactly that for many years, all over the country, having the Supremes bless it suddenly got everyone up in arms. Since then, many state legislatures have been pressed into reforming eminent domain in their states. At the same time, though, cities have been hurrying to beat deadlines, as reported by CastleWatch:
Since the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous decision in Kelo v. City of New London, 31 states passed bills reforming their eminent domain laws in order to better protect home and small business owners from the government's wrecking ball. But these same reforms have sent tax-hungry cities and land-hungry developers into a mad rush to squeeze in more projects before new laws take effect.As I write this, even though the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed reform legislation, the U.S. Senate failed to pass the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2006 (H.R. 4128/S. 3873). As a result, thousands of Americans will remain subject to eminent domain abuse supported by federal dollars (a common trick the political parties play to cover both sides of an issue).
Lifesharers - organs for organ donors
When I first wrote about LifeSharers as a free-market solution whose mission is to end the shortage of donated human organs and tissue for transplants, it was just a year old and had 795 members. As of November 30th 2006, LifeSharers has 6,530 members. Good ideas succeed without force.
Free State Project
The Free State Project is an effort to recruit 20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire. When I wrote "The libertarians are going... the libertarians are going?" it wasn't much more than an idea. Today, 7,471 have pledged to move when that total reaches 20,000, but 627 have pledged to join as part of the first thousand, and 438 are already there and very active. One has already been elected to the New Hampshire legislature... Joel Winter, who is one of a half dozen former Minnesota Libertarians already there. Yes, it has been difficult for our MN party to lose a half dozen activists and friends to another state, but it's a loss in the cause of freedom. New Hampshire has really welcomed them. I hear often from them about how much more free and less socialistic New Hampshire is than Minnesota.
Crime
When I wrote "Crime is down. Was it worth it?" in 2003, I wrote that in 2001, 6.5 million Americans were in the prison system... incarcerated, on parole, or on probation. Today, another half million have been added, at an approximate cost of $24,000 per year per prisoner. That's an additional $12 billion each year, and still going up. Which brings us to...
The War on Drugs
Almost half of the increase in federal prisoners is for drug offenses, even though a number of state legislatures have passed measures reducing drug law severity. Our federal government, through the DEA, continues to ignore the will of the American people and tramples on states rights, wasting billions of dollars and wrecking many thousands of lives, with no impact on drug availability. A new study (not the first) indicates that marijuana is not a "gateway" drug that predicts or eventually leads to substance abuse. The insane war on drugs continues.
Social Security
In September of 2003, I wrote "Social Security - the Deadly Legacy", and said:
Votes, Votes, and more votes. As our life expectancies have lengthened, those receiving, or soon to receive Social Security benefits, have come to represent a constantly growing voting bloc. The simple fact is that the Democrats and Republicans don't have anything close to the moral courage required to do anything about this disastrous problem, because they won't take the chance of losing those senior votes. The big batch of Democrat presidential candidates aren't even saying what they would do, for fear of losing votes.In the more than 3 years since I wrote that, Congress has done nothing to solve the ever-worsening problem. I had occasion to speak with a group of high school honor students, and Social Security was on their mind. I made it personal... asking them how they liked supporting me. Naturally, they didn't, and asked how the problem could be solved. I told them the truth... that it could be solved, but that Congress was extremely unlikely to ever have the political courage.
Contented, willing slaves
I recently heard some numbers that are broadly discouraging. About 25% of the American population is now receiving a check from government at some level... either from some sort of benefit program, or because they're employed by government. That means that one-fourth of our population has a financial incentive to "go along" with government... to put up with loss of liberties... to not "rock the boat". Most of those people are organized... as recipients of a program, or as part of government employee unions, which means that they're more politically active than the rest of us, and represent clear voting blocs that politicians will not ignore.
The World at War, fueled by us
There is brutal fighting in so many parts of the world today that it is astonishing. Aside from major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is Israel/Palestine, Israel/Lebanon, and brinksmanship with Iran and North Korea. Much of the African continent is torn with war, and far too many other places to itemize. Quite literally, thousands are slaughtered with little notice.
It seems easy for Americans to write off most of that worldwide violence and congratulate ourselves on at least having peace within our own borders, but a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service indicates that we are to blame for much, if not all, of the violence around the planet.
The United States last year provided nearly half of the weapons sold to militaries in the developing world, as major arms sales to the most unstable regions -- many already engaged in conflict -- grew to the highest level in eight years.I don't know how to tally the results of these past 42 months. Some changes have been encouraging, others discouraging. The rightness of libertarian ideas makes them continue to become "mainstream" over time, but government continues to grow in size, destructiveness, and deviousness. I tire of trying to keep updated on political events, and of writing about them. It's more than tiring, it's often depressing. Like most Americans, I would find it more pleasant to concentrate on just enjoying my own personal life. I continue because of several thoughts... one, that my articles may influence someone to become more politically knowledgeable and active, and two, because I am one more voice on the side of sanity and liberty, and to stop would be to desert my kindred voices.
A study last year by the progressive World Policy Institute found that the United States transferred weaponry to 18 of the 25 countries involved in an ongoing war.
posted by Robert Ronald Smith at 12:07 AM
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