The U.S. military paid just under $1 million for two 19 cent flat washers. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. C&D Distributors, LLC, bilked the Pentagon over ten years for $20.6 million in excessive shipping costs for a variety of small parts whose value rarely exceeded $100, accordin...

A fundamental change occurs in the psyche of most people who work for the government. They begin to develop a superiority complex. After a while, they begin to believe they can do whatever they want to anyone who isn’t part of their exclusive club. And to an extent, they’re right: they h...

It’s that time again, time for outgoing government bureaucrats to make room for fresh new faces and to say goodbye. Today, outgoing Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said goodbye to the country in a video. Of course, the government can’t seem to do anything right, and now we c...

Illinois governor Milorad “Rod” Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges, for allegedly attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, and trying to have Chicago Tribune editorial board members fired...

Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Ian Freeman will spend 100 days in jail because he questioned the legitimacy of a system which would penalize him for having a couch in his yard and conduct his trial in secret. Keene resident Nick Ryder wrote on the Free Keene blog that the courtroom at Fr...

On September 17, while the financial world was still reeling from the collapse of several Wall Street institutions, a next day air envelope arrived at my house. I probably should have opened it and read its contents before this weekend, because it has a direct bearing on the present crisis. Inside I...

Call it Hurricane Ben, if you will. Last week the world of finance was rocked hard as the policies of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government finally came home to roost, with one major investment bank going under and many more in dire straits and being bought up at fire-sale prices. It started l...

[Note: The following essay was written by "John Law," a pseudonym, and released into the public domain in 2006. Its author's web site is offline. Though it is slightly dated, the economy isn't getting any better, and the analysis presented is as relevant as ever. I disagree with small parts of it, e...

On July 4 I woke up in Pennsylvania, in a mansion which had served as a station on the Underground Railroad, that network of people and places which helped slaves escape their bondage before and during the Civil War. And I thought that, with the replacement of yesterday’s chattel slavery with ...

You check in at the airline ticket counter. But instead of a boarding pass, you get shackled with an electronic bracelet which tracks your every move, contains all your personal information, and can shock you senseless. This vision of the future of air security is being floated around the Department...