Trauma and the True Cost of War

Mark Dust, one of Michael Shermer’s Ph.D. students and an Army veteran, appeared on Stossel with Brig. General Loree Sutton (ret.) to discuss the psychological impact of our protracted wars and occupations since 9/11. Dust blogs about the psychology of PTSD and his own experiences at RamblingsOnTrauma.com. “As many as 1500 days exposed to hostile action.” … Continued

Death by Regulation

I had the opportunity to hear Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Greg Conko talk about the “precautionary principle” today. The precautionary principle was enshrined by the Rio Declaration on Development and Environment in 1992: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing … Continued

Without a Prayer: Vatican Calls for Deity to Run Global Economy

Reuters is reporting that Vatican, in its infinite wisdom, is calling for a “global authority on the economy” in an official document from the papacy’s creepily named “Justice and Peace Department.” It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic … Continued

Infrastructure Banks

Now that the Senate has rejected Obama’s American Jobs Act, it’s worth reflecting on what they passed up. A major proposal was an “infrustructure bank.” Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews has commented on this proposal over at Forbes.com: I stopped by our bank Friday to get something notorized, and, damn, they were all out of free … Continued

More evidence of U.S. foreign policy failures

My Letter to the editor in the Washington Examiner for tomorrow, September 15: On one page on Monday, The Washington Examiner published three articles that demonstrate massive failures of U.S. foreign policy. First, Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s call to halt military operations vindicates anti-war voices in Congress, specifically Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who has argued … Continued

End the Post Office Monopoly

Representative Darrell Issa is right to be concerned about the fate of the Post Office, but his response is far too typical of politicians across the country. He advocates for more bureaucracy, more government micro-management, as if the problems inherent in government-run monopolies are not enough government. Mail service will not be improved by a … Continued

The End of “War” (It’s Definition at least)

Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson can call President Obama’s definition of war “nonsense” all he wants, but the Libyan non-War isn’t an Obama novelty. Rather, the definition of war has been silently eroding for many years, and both parties have been complicit. In fact, if you look only at the official record, America hasn’t been at … Continued