Good work

Discussion
1

Rolling back government: Lessons from New Zealand
Liberty For All
by Maurice P. McTigue

"If we look back through history, growth in government has been a modern
phenomenon. Beginning in the 1850s and lasting until the 1920s or '30s,
the government's share of GDP in most of the world's industrialized
economies was about six percent. From that period onwards - and
particularly since the 1950s - we've seen a massive explosion in
government share of GDP, in some places as much as 35-45 percent. (In
the case of Sweden, of course, it reached 65 percent, and Sweden nearly
self-destructed as a result." (04/10/08)

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=1262

Phil Donahue's "War"
The Nation
by John Nichols

"During the week that George W. Bush - with an assist from Gen. David
Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker - began demanding another $100
billion or so for his Iraq War, Phil Donahue began presenting the real
face of the conflict. The daytime television pioneer, who from the 1960s
to the '90s taught America how to discuss uncomfortable topics, was
doing it again with a remarkable antiwar documentary, Body of War, which
went into national distribution just as Petraeus was telling Congress to
forget about the ever mounting human and economic toll and give the war
more time. Donahue was not just using his considerable prominence to
pitch a project." (04/10/08)

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080428/nichols

2

Great article Mike - thanks.

I recommend we print selected passages with a URL and pass them out to people on tax day. I can help with the editing if you guys support this idea.

3

I agree, this is among the best articles on libertarian reforms in government I've ever read. It's not a new piece -- I first read it in Hillsdale College's Imprimis magazine when it was published in 2004, and I believe that some of the reforms discussed in the article may not have survived. But printing selected passages could still be a worthwhile endeavor.

  Incidentally, while looking (unsuccessfully) for a good link on the current state of pro-freedom reforms in New Zealand, I came across an interesting Wikipedia page listing liberal political parties around the world. The United States is an anomaly in the way the word "liberal" is typically used here. Internationally, "liberal" tends to mean something more like "libertarian-leaning." The Wikipedia page -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism_worldwide -- recognizes this, listing libertarian parties under the umbrella of "liberal," but *not* social democratic parties which are seen as further to the left!

Love & Liberty,
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