Deregulator: Alive since '85!

Empire of the Son? As usual, Virginia Postrel says it better than I ever could: It's common on the left and even more common among isolationist libertarians to charge that the United States is, or is becoming, an "empire" because of interventions abroad. Hearing it the other day, I was struck by how utterly absurd the term is. If this is an empire, where's the emperor? Where's the territorial control? Where's the tribute flowing from overseas possessions? Saying the word empire is the wrong one doesn't imply that U.S. foreign policy is correct, merely that another term is needed. A 21st-century representative democracy with a large regulatory bureaucracy and many overseas involvements may be problematic. But it isn't an "empire" unless that term just means "a government I don't like." As for the nonstop blather -- particularly popular among antiwar types -- about the "failure of diplomacy"? About the only failure I ca...

Celebrate FOIA, annoy a bureaucrat Today is National Freedom of Information Day, the 39th anniversary of the signing of the Freedom of Information Act, a law which not only enhances the power of individuals over the government, but also gives citizens a recipe book for exercising their rights. Review-Journal Editor Tom Mitchell celebrates the day in this week's column , also noting how state and federal policy-makers continue in their efforts to circumvent FOIA. Today is also -- not coincidentally -- the 252nd anniversary of the birth of James Madison (my long-time friend Al Dawson's favorite president/founding father), whose theories of governance are reflected in FOIA. Speaking of Madison ... The R-J's editorial positions tend to confuse some readers (and confound others), because the paper is, in many ways, one of the few remaining outlets of classical liberalism (very broadly speaking) among daily newspapers in America. The paper pretty consistently defends the individ...