Liberty Books

Central to the debate on encryption is the universality of policy, and this report clearly shows that the United States' restrictions on the technology are irrelevent to the proliferation of this technology. The report surveys over 100 countries and explains in detail their policies on encryption.

This report is vital to anyone concerned about their rights in this arena.

This book covers most conifer species with a drawing both leaf and cone morphology. Also includes varieties with a short description.

Dancing with Elves

This short book on parenting is written by a retired pediatrician who knows how to get nervous children to be calm, stubborn ones to open their mouths, and jittery ones to hold still while he looks in their ears. He does it not by commands, threats, or force. He uses little strategies that most good pediatricians-and Dr. Gall is one of the best--have to learn or invent. I won't enumerate them, because that is part of the fun of reading the book.

The point of reading it is that you can not only see how a pediatrician does his work, you can learn how to approach similar challenges yourself. The pediatrician has to advise parents with a child who likes to stick his head in the toilet bowl, one who gets stomach cramps at school time, one who likes school but dawdles and always has to be dressed by a parent at bus time. These problems, and worse, are eventually solved by most parents, but here you can learn to solve them more successfully and with less stress to everyone concerned.

I enjoyed the book, and wish I had it when my children were small.

Richard F. Shaw

This is the review that appeared in Bookloons.com, which is quickly becoming one of the best book review sites on the web:



Reviewed by J. A. Kaszuba Locke

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Allan Cole and Chris Bunch spin a significant historical saga dating from 1778 to 1814, using original sources of diaries and letters wherever possible. The story is told in a five-book format beginning in Valley Forge, and continuing to Cherry Valley, NY, to Philadelphia, PA, and Washington. The authors credit the women and minorities who played a vast role in shaping history.

Among these women is Diana Jameson, a 15-year-old indentured servant, escaping an abusive master with the assistance of Emmett Shannon. Emmett is a deserter from the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Diana and Emmett fall in love and marry en route to his family in Cherry Valley. But Emmett is mortally wounded while pursuing renegades bent on pillage and destruction. Alone, Diana continues to Cherry Valley where, with the birth of a son, she assumes leadership of the Shannon homestead, surviving the war, attacks of rebels, and vengeful Seneca Indians. Diana's natural instinct for business leads her to establish a successful inn upon the Shannon homestead. From the sale of the Cherry Valley inn, Diana resourcefully progresses to Pennsylvania with stepson Farrell and son James Emmett. Taken under the wing of Michael and Anne Walsh in the city of Philadelphia, Diana strategically establishes new business ventures.

But, her Philadelphia success is not without pain. Hundreds of refugees arrive at the city's docks of the already well-populated Philadelphia. The seasons take their own course with too-warm winters, and low rainfall causing dried crops, and cracked dirt streets. When the rain does come harshly, it leaves paths of mud and stagnant water where mosquitos breed. Yellow fever devastates the city. Diana comes to the aid of the sick, saving as many as she can with natural remedies. She vehemently fights the city doctors, who believe that bleeding the stricken is the only way to purge them of disease. From a population of 55,000, Philadelphia dwindles to 30,000 residents after the plague. On leave from her Philadelphia businesses, Diana travels to Boston for the marriage of Farrell to Constance O'Hara. With the failing of the chandlery owned by inlaws Ruth and Isaac in that city, Diana brings the family to Philadelphia to join her enterprises.

In Philadelphia, 'golden times' were with the Shannons. Isaac says of his sister-in-law, 'Elm Court as her engine and the family at her back ... Diana built a glorious machine I ain't seen the likes of in all my years of wander.' And to add to the family name, Farrell and Constance presented Diana with seven grandchildren. The humane Diana is strongly against slavery. Knowing she will be faced with the issue, Diana hesitantly travels to Virginia to attend the marriage of son James Emmett to Eliza Hope Beecham. It is here that she meets John Maguire, who becomes a friend and companion. From Virginia, Diana ventures to Washington at the request of her good friend Dolly (Todd) Madison, wife of President James Madison. Of Washington Diana thinks, 'What could one expect in a city that produced nothing but government ... It seemed to Diana that everybody she met was here to serve his own purpose.' Again, there is no safety in Washington as the Royal Navy attacks the States.

Diana is stalwart, concerned for all classes, rich and poor - she works from her heart. She's an independent woman, generous, and caring, and a true 'Daughter of Liberty'. Cole and Bunch begin with a leisurely-paced story that gains momentum with each succeeding chapter. Their novel tells of courage, love, hardship, sadness, and joy through war, plagues, destruction, and rebuilding. I recommend the book, whose ending left me longing for a continuation of the story. For readers who enjoy rich, historical fiction, Cole and Bunch successfully deliver.

David Walker was born in the late 1700s, in the newly-formed nation of the United States, shortly after ratification of the Constitution, into a society which on the one hand was celebrating a victory for freedom from oppression, but which also was still oppressive of a significant number of its own people.

Walker grew impatient with the pace and tone of the Abolitionist movement, of which he was a part, beginning in New England. Slave rebellions such as that of Denmark Vesey seemed to be an answer to the slowness. Injustice was being committed at this very moment -- action was therefore required immediately. This was the tone with which Walker's 'Appeal' was infused. His message was rather shocking to white Americans, and Walker found ways to reach his own people in the South with this message. Vesey and others had used religious meetings as a means of gathering and organising; likewise, they found the Bible rich in material to support their cause. Walker did likewise, seizing upon biblical ideas of deliverance and justice.

Walker found himself becoming unpopular for his outspoken views. Many in the Abolitionist movement purposefully discouraged talk of rebellion, lawbreaking and violence. However, Walker was not convinced that this kind of change was the best in the situation -- he felt strongly that the Black people had to unite and fight, with the full support of God.

Walker further was mistrustful of white people's effort on the behalf of blacks, and doubtful that Southern white men would ever be willing to give up their position of power. Walker noted that even men like Jefferson believed in the racial idea of white superiority. Even in those placed where African-Americans would live as 'free' persons, they seemed forever destined to be in the eyes of the white majority second-class citizens. This to Walker clearly was not right. 'Are we men!! - I ask you, O my brethren! are we men? Did our Creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves?'

Walker began to view whites as the only Americans. He felt the sins of racism and slavery were so intrinsically American that it would be a contradiction for any black person to be an American. This racist sin permeated even through to the churches, which Walker held in contempt for their seeming complacency in the face of on-going injustice.

And yet, one of the key elements throughout Walker's 'Appeal', for all its radical viewpoints, which no other Abolitionists seemed to have picked up after Walker's death in 1830, is hope. 'I verily believe that God has something in reserve for us, which, when he shall have poured it out upon us, will repay us for all our suffering and miseries.' Walker had no qualms about allowing that he wanted to destroy the status quo in society; however, he was not an advocate of wanton violence and bloodshed. He said that is was incorrect to assume that he was asking for civil war of any kind, but that he was simply asking for basic human rights to be enforced for all people.

This calls for rights and justice, the very basic call to recognise the humanity in all people, is a primary element of Walker's 'Appeal'. The time to rise up and take back humanity which had been stripped away by the white slave traders was, to Walker, clearly at hand.

Like the biblical prophets, Walker understood that what he was doing was dangerous. However, Walker saw his writing as a call from God, a call that could not be put away. The call to justice, the call to right the wrongs in society, the call to action against an evil oppressor, are reminiscent of the Hebrew prophets.

Although Walker's call and prophecy never took the shape he himself might have imagined it, his words inspired many and discomfited more. Some forms of injustice take many voices, many martyrs, before they are addressed. Walker was one of these.

The Wall came tumbling down. As the torch of communism burns out, the torch of faith egnites. The secrets of the rose is passed on from on generation to the next. Matthew, Sabrina, and their son Tad travel to Germany to participate in a gospel conference in the cold war era. They encounter some remaining links of the Network and become involved in another escape. Jesus said that those who follow him must be last of all and servant of all. The fragrance of the rose never dies. This a must read series. You too will discover the secrets of the rose

Volume 14 of James M. Buchanan's Collected Works series contains his papers on taxation and on public debt finance. The papers supplement Buchanan's book-length treatments of those subjects (which are, roughly, volumes 2, 4, 8, and 9 in the series).

The papers on taxation are divided into four categories: public choice, earmarking, tax limitations, and fiscal constitutionalism. The dominant theme is the shortcomings of orthodox public finance theory, as observed from a public-choice perspective. Public finance-based tax theory tends to neglect the expenditure side of the government budget. Public finance focuses too much on outcomes, whether of justice or efficiency or economic growth, and not enough on the process by or rules under which these outcomes are obtained. And public finance theory tends to not adequately consider the political setting within which collective choices are made. In short, public finance is interested in what's best for government, while public choice is more interested in what's best for individual citizens.

Buchanan's views on public debt finance can be summarized as follows.
(i.) Public debt constitutes a burden on future generations (we do not "owe it to ourselves"). This is unfair because those future generations end up facing a financial burden that is the result of spending and borrowing decisions in which they had no participation.
(ii.) The tendency in elective majoritarian democracy becomes for government to borrow and spend rather than tax and spend, and to spend much rather than little. "The most elementary prediction from public choice theory is that in the absence of moral or constitutional constraints democracies will finance some share of current public consumption from debt issue rather than from taxation and that, in consequence, spending rates will be higher than would accrue under budget balance." (p. 471) To correct for these defects, Buchanan favors a constitutional balanced budget amendment. Along the way he also thoroughly debunks Robert J. Barro's famous interpretation of Ricardian equivalence.

Most papers in this volume are clearly academic in nature, as are Buchanan's books on the same topics. Personally, I prefer the papers over the books, since they offer the same substance in more concentrated fashion, which means you receive more bang for your buck and for your time invested reading. With this volume, it's time that is very well spent.

I am so pleased to find such a comprehensive review of Bomber pilots and crew of WWI and WWII. Our family has searched for information regarding my uncle who was a B-17 pilot killed in WWII. David is included in this book. He is our Hero. Many families such as ours have lost loved ones who have fought for our liberty. We need to continue to fight for liberty for our children and grandchildren.

James M. Buchanan's The Demand and Supply of Public Goods develops a theory of public goods in response to the more traditional public-goods theory developed during the 1950s by Paul Samuelson in his famous articles in the Review of Economics and Statistics and by Richard A. Musgrave in The Theory of Public Finance. The traditional approach argues that the provision of public goods is justified as a response to market failures. Buchanan argues that just because markets may sometimes fail, it does not automatically follow that government will therefore do a better job. The process of politics is not perfect--group decisions cannot meet individual preferences as closely as can individual decisions. Furthermore, government action is costly (e.g. excess burden associated with taxation, disincentive effects). This is not to say that there should be no government intervention, but government is not the panacea that the political left makes it out to be, and we should be cognizant of its imperfections when deciding how much economic activity to organize through government rather than markets. Whereas the traditional approach focuses on market failure, Buchanan focuses on political failure, arguing that government action should be evaluated by the same criteria by which markets are deemed to have failed. In short, market failure may be a necessary condition for government action, but not a sufficient one.

The Samuelson-Musgrave approach results in a "social welfare function" (p. 128), which is equivalent to the perspective of an outsider looking in to determine what is good for society, i.e. what choices it should make in allocating its resources. This approach may seem somewhat pontificatory in nature, but this is how public finance sees its traditional function: advising governments.

Buchanan, in contrast, develops what he calls a "voluntary exchange" (p. 8) theory of public goods. It is based on the notion that insiders in society, i.e. citizens who participate in their role as taxpayers and as beneficiaries of public services, should be the ones to decide what choices are best for them when it comes to determining which and how many goods should be publicly provided, and how to tax themselves to pay for these goods. One advantage to Buchanan's approach is that the social welfare function inherently contains a normative component that is exogeneously determined (assumed, really), and which Buchanan's model does not require, making his a methodologically purer theory.

Another difference lies in the Samuelson-Musgrave definition of public goods as those that are nonexcludable and nonrivalrous: once provided, no one can be excluded from the provision of a public good, and its provision to additional taxpayer-citizens does not add to its cost. The implicit rationale is that such goods have attributes that make their provision more efficient as a public good than as a private good. In practice, however, only very few goods follow this definition perfectly. Buchanan argues instead that what matters is not so much the physical attributes of a good but how its provision is organized, i.e. whether through market organization or political organization. Thus, Buchanan's model applies to any good of which the provision is to some extent collectively organized.

The book's core methodology is a standard two-person, two-good microeconomic demand-supply model, except that one of the goods is a private good and the other is a public good. With each chapter, the initial assumptions are dropped, and the conclusions are shown to remain intact. As this description may make clear, the book has very much a microeconomics textbook feel to it (it was originally based on second-year graduate seminar lectures Buchanan gave during the 1950s). If you're a graduate student writing a thesis on public-goods theory, you'll definitely want to include this book among your research (along with the papers in volume 15 of Buchanan's Collected Works series, Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory). If you're a general-interest reader, the book may be somewhat on the abstract side, although if you've ever taken microeconomics 101 somewhere, the economics is by no means difficult to follow.

For those who teach American politics and government, there are distressingly few good textbook choices available for national or state courses. A rare exception to the dismayingly dreary or tiresomely trendy tomes that abound is "Democracy in California: Politics and Government in the Golden State." Authors Brian P. Janiskee and Ken Masugi have combined the standard features (formal and informal institutions, demographics, historical vignettes, recent developments, political terminology, etc.) with a thoughtful historical and philosophical approach that places California within the broad scope of American experience and Western political thought.
As its title suggests, this distinctive text draws both high inspiration and practical wisdom specifically from Alexis de Tocqueville's classic study, "Democracy in America" (1835). But the book is more than high-minded or useful: it is dead-on timely too. Tocqueville observed America during the Age of Jackson, early in the pre-Civil War crisis (1830-60) which both preceded and shaped California government. Thus, California was founded at a time (1849-50) when, as Tocqueville knew, republican government was under severe attack from Southern slavemasters and European autocrats. To the extent that the influence of the American founding was not attenuated by these attacks, the new State of California was both representative and free. But having weathered those challenges, California (and the nation) have had to endure the various phases and consequences of the Prussian administrative state which was the questionable contribution of the Progressive movement in the decades since the State's admission to the Union by the Compromise of 1850.
California has been shaped for good or for ill by these competing forces and is necessarily presented in this work as a sort of hodge podge in which multiple offices, frequent elections and political cronyism (the Jacksonian contribution) overlap with direct democracy, anti-partyism and professional expertise (the Progressive contribution). The battle over slavery shaped the State's original identity as a free state in the midst of a bitter sectional dispute but also long tainted its politics with racism. California defied the odds against republican government but the rise of the administrative state and its seemingly boundless taxing and spending--and bureaucratic meddling--puts the future of that regime in serious question. Not everything could be included in this relatively short (160 pages) work but no salient fact is overlooked as it bears upon the future of democracy in the Golden State.
The authors are discerning students of political philsophy, best exemplified today by Harry V. Jaffa, who single-handedly rescued Abraham Lincoln and principled anti-slavery politics from the near-oblivion of the professional historians. Janiskee and Masugi in turn seek to rescue California politics (but not many of its leading politicians)from the academic dead end to which years of pseudo-scientific approaches have relegated it. "Democracy in California" makes the study of California government and politics a much more serious and rewarding enterprise than it has been for many years and will be, if this book is widely adopted, for many more. Extensive footnotes and excellent bibliography. Highest recommendation.