Mailbag

Cristina C. Espina of Sancta Sanctis sends along her latest LewRockwell.com article, a review of a dystopian novel in which guns have been outlawed — Fact-Checking the Future.

Kalim Kassam of the Western Standard sends along Doug Bandow's assesment that "Asia is likely to dominate the future, containing two possible superpowers as well as several other states with growing international influence" — The Asian Century. Sadly, he concludes, "The U.S. won’t be leaving Asia soon, or perhaps ever."

Mr. Kassam also sends long a fascinating abstract of a paper by one Bruno Leoni, which "is essentially a defense of the unity of mankind" — “Two Views of Liberty, Occidental and Oriental (?)”. The abstract notes that "custom has often been invoked both in the East and in the West to oppose and limit the power of tyrants, and to defend or to secure civil or political liberty." The author also suggests that "Buddha and Confucius were both concerned mainly with individual freedom" and that "Confucius’s theory of society, in particular, was very individualistic; he clearly formulated for the first time in recorded history that principle of 'reciprocity,' the 'golden rule' for any liberal society."

"I can hardly think of anything more illustrative of the condescension and disrespect of the US military towards the Iraqi people than this soldier's 'motivational' speech to some Iraqi police," says Mr. Kassam of this "sure way to win hearts and minds" — (Video) The foul language of empire.