Mike Nifong lives!

by Robert Shibley

As a Duke alumnus twice over (undergraduate and law), I watched with horror the events that unfolded in the infamous Duke Lacrosse/Mike Nifong case. While the prime "bad actors" in the case were clearly (now disbarred) former prosecutor Nifong and the false accuser, Crystal Mangum, Duke's disregard for and even attacks on its students' rights to due process in the case also gave me plenty of reasons to tell Duke that they won't be getting a donation from me next time they call. (Incidentally, just about every aspect of the case has been ably documented by Professor KC Johnson in both his Durham-in-Wonderland blog and his book with the National Journal's Stuart Taylor, Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case.)

One major upshot of the fiasco, however, would seem to be Duke students' increased awareness of the crucial importance of due process and fair procedure, both in the law and on campus. And unfortunately, it looks as though Duke has been headed in the wrong direction on these issues for a number of years. In a series of columns in Duke's Chronicle student newspaper last fall, student Elliott Wolf does yeoman's work in tracing the evolution (perhaps devolution would be a better word) of Duke's judicial code over the last decade or so. Amazingly, despite the fact that while I was at Duke, the student judicial board was widely considered a total joke and a kangaroo court, it turns out that I attended Duke during what was, comparatively speaking, a golden age of justice and fair procedures

To read more of Shibley's comments on due process at Duke University, go to The Tourch, the blog of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Property rights: The Achilles Heel for GOP electoral success in November

by Steve Greenhut

One of the guilty pleasures I expect to partake of later this year is watching the Democratic electoral tsunami obliterate Republicans in the November election. It's not because I often agree with Democrats, who manage to get almost everything wrong, but nothing but a disaster can shake any sense into a GOP that, as one prominent Republican told me, has "engaged in a wholesale abandonment of its limited-government principles."

The California GOP can't figure out its irrelevance, and the Republican governor insists that he is protecting the "little guy" by taxing, borrowing and spending on an even grander scale than his Democratic predecessor. GOP legislators are busy sending out hit pieces in the primary, swearing to do everything short of setting up machine-gun turrets on the Southern border to keep out illegal immigrants, even though no legislative candidate will have any influence whatsoever on immigration policy.

But for all this cluelessness and pandering, the state GOP and its allies in the business community have been unable to unite behind a core pro-freedom position – one that's popular among Californians of all parties and all ethnic and demographic groups. It's the issue of property rights and, in particular, the narrower matter of eminent-domain reform.

For more on this op/ed piece, go to The Orange County Register

Why recessions are important

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.

We all want to live well and no one wants their living standard to decline. That makes sense, right? It's just the way we are made.

What does not make any sense is the strange article of faith that has descended over Washington, DC, that says that no prices must ever be permitted to decline due to recessionary pressures. All resources in the national treasury, every conceivable monetary manipulation, all efforts of every regulatory body must be marshaled toward the great national goal of re-pumping the economy, which must never ever be permitted to fall even a tiny bit

Welcome to the War on Recession, which is being pursued with the same vehemence and folly as the War on Terror, and will likely prove just as spectacularly destructive of its own aims as well as liberty itself. Maybe we need songs, banners, and little ribbon pins and car magnets too.

For more on this commentary, go to LewRockwell.com

Clinton and Obama Struggle for Power

by Sheldon Richman

Many Americans are spellbound by the historic contest for the Democratic presidential nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Forgetting the political context, it is indeed something spectacular, even inspiring. A woman and a black man have reached a pinnacle that just a few years ago seemed impossibly far off.

If it were happening outside politics, it would be something to appreciate.

But we can’t forget the political context, and it’s the nature of that context that should keep us from truly rejoicing in Clinton’s and Obama’s achievements.

For more on this commentary, go to The Future of Freedom Foundation

Oregon student senate committee may have conducted illegal meeting

Eugene, Ore. — A University of Oregon student Senate committee disregarded the state's open meetings law, according to student government President Sam Dotters-Katz.

The Associated Students of the University of Oregon Senate Over-Realized Committee conducted a meeting May 13 to begin evaluating student groups' requests for access to the university's over-realized fund. The fund, which accumulates as enrollment unexpectedly increases, built up more than $735,000 for the 2007-08 academic year. The meeting, according to Dotters-Katz and Oregon Daily Emerald Editor in Chief Laura Powers, violated Oregon's public reports and meetings law.

For more on this article, go to The Student Press Law Center

The state is always the enemy

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

The web loves nothing more than a good brawl, so people often write me to ask me to respond to a critic of LewRockwell.com or the Mises Institute. There's certainly no shortage of them, and they come from the left, the right, and everything in between.

My first thought on the request is that the archive speaks for itself, and a response would amount to little more than reprinting. And yet the criticisms in themselves are interesting because often they come from people who liked one thing we said and then felt betrayed by another thing we said, so we get praise for the first thing and attacked for the second thing.

For more on this op/ed, go to LewRockwell.com

The importance of borders

by Walter Block

Doctors without borders. Journalists without borders. Educators without borders. Librarians without borders. Rivers without borders. Potters without borders. Hydrogeologists without borders. Facilitators without borders. Builders without borders. Life without borders. Students without borders. Veterinarians without borders. Friends without borders. MBAs without borders. Words without borders. Dogs without borders (see here). Mexicans without borders. Slavery without borders. Dumping without borders (see here).

These are only some of the quickly burgeoning groups that share the same last (two) name(s), "without borders."

What is going on here? What accounts for this new "without borders" initiative? What do all these groups have in common? Do they resemble each other in any way apart from choice of appellation? And, where are the "libertarians without borders?"

At first glance, these groups are as dissimilar as they can be. What, after all, do doctors, reporters and Mexicans share apart from their humanity, of course? But, by digging a little deeper we are able, at least, to hazard an informed guess as to what is going on.

All of these organizations are associated with leftish political philosophy in general, and with support for world government in particular.

For more on this op/ed piece, go to LewRockwell.com

Texas college muzzles concealed handgun protest

Fort Worth, Texas —In a dramatic blow to freedom of expression, Tarrant County College has prohibited its students from wearing empty gun holsters to protest policies that forbid students with concealed carry licenses from carrying concealed handguns on campus.

A TCC administrator told interested students that they could not wear the holsters and could only conduct a protest in the school's tiny and restrictive free speech zone. TCC student and protest organizer Brett Poulos has turned to a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania civil liberties watchdog for help.

"TCC has cast aside decades-old Supreme Court precedent strongly protecting symbolic expression by refusing to recognize its students' right to wear empty holsters to make their point," said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

"The students were using the empty holsters to protest policies that they believe render students defenseless. They have every right to engage in this symbolic protest, and TCC's cynical attempt to ban dissenting views is both shameful and transparent."

To read more, go to FIRE's Website. Also, to find out more about the protest taking place nationwide, including UC, go to Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Teaching about Mynamar through M & M's - Minn. diversity program found to be a political slush fund

Minneapolis, Minn. - Schools in Minnesota are saving money any way they can, including laying off teachers.

But a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation has uncovered a huge pot of money that just keeps growing.Experts say that money has been budgeted with no clear purpose.

The $85 million program has a lofty goal—enhance diversity in school districts across the state. But our investigation discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable spending.

For more on this story, go to KSTP-TV 5.

South Ruffner collegues take note - WVU faculty takes stand for free speech

MORGANTOWN - The faculty overwhelmingly defeated another motion that had recommended any faculty member who threatens or intimidates a university employee, board member or other state executive be disciplined or dismissed immediately.

The motion, offered by professor Dallas Branch and rejected 527-23, stemmed from two fliers found in the engineering building last week that used the word "kill.''

The composition and font size were crafted carefully to avoid qualifying as a direct threat, and State Police said last week they did not consider the language criminal.

From a distance it reads, "Kill Joe Manchin,'' although when read closer, does not advocate killing the governor -- just his candidacy for re-election. But campus Police Chief Bob Roberts said last week he found the language disturbing, as did Branch.

"Faculty colleagues, this is unacceptable. It may be seen as a joke to some,'' Branch said. But after the mass murder at Virginia Tech last year, "Something like this cannot be taken as a joke.''

Two professors opposed the language of the motion as overly broad and warned it could have discourage free speech on campus.

This article is condensed version of a larger Associated Press article found in the May 14 edition of The Charleston Daily Mail. To read that article in its entirety, click here. Also, for more information on what lead to the resolution, click here.