This post was prompted by all-too-common opinions expressed in Randall Holcombe's recent "Federal Government Debt Undermines the Programs It Finances" blog. The respondents passionately insist that Social Security is a contract, whatever you do to the budget, do not touch Social Security. "I paid in and it is a contract. They owe me."

The Supreme Court settled this issue in 1960! Even more to the point, the Social Security Administration mocks those who think it is a binding contract. On the SSA's own web site, it states:

"There has been a temptation throughout the program's history for some people to suppose that their FICA payroll taxes entitle them to a benefit in a legal, contractual sense."

The SSA cites the Flemming v. Nestor (1960) decision and even posts it in its entirety. The Social Security Administration defends the inevitable default on payments (for some Americans, not all) by summing up that case:

"In its ruling, the Court rejected this argument and established the principle that entitlement to Social Security benefits is not contractual right."

I don't...

For more than two centuries the subject of opium has been one of great controversy. Both its use and the legal restrictions against its use have been the cause of much human suffering. The Drug War Chronicle has posted a review of the recent works on the topic. They look at Opium: Reality's Dark Dream, by Thomas Dormandy, Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction, by Steven Martin, and Social Poison: The Culture and Politics of Opiate Control in Britain and France, 1821-1926, by Howard Padwa. These book are in the tradition of Arnold Trebach’s The Heroin Solution one of the first works to point out that by demonizing the opium plant we were doing much harm to our society by sacrificing  in many cases a most useful and effective remedy for the world’s pain and...

It is very important for the American people to understand by knowing history and to proclaim as loudly as possible that Barack Obama  is every bit the callous war monger that Richard Nixon and George Bush ever were. Oliver Stone and my old professor American University’s Peter Kuznick are doing their part with their currently running Showtime historical series Untold History of the U. S. and this interview explaining their purpose. They do an outstanding job of illustrating the fact that the policies and mindset which got 50,000 Americans needlessly killed in Vietnam are still in place.

It  is time we started thinking about the real cause of the mass murder of children.

Yet another public shooting rampage has occurred, this time at an Oregon mall. The police and the news media offer no explanation for this particular incident of violence. The shooter, Jacob Tyler Roberts -- who killed two and seriously wounded one other person -- has no criminal record, merely two speeding tickets earlier this year. The weapon he used, a fully legal AR-15, was a stolen from someone he knew, so no background check on him would ever have been performed. The perpetrator, wearing a Jason-style hockey mask, walked briskly through the stores in the mall and began firing randomly. Roberts and a woman were evicted from their apartment in Happy Valley, Ore., last summer; police have searched the his home in Portland, but declined to indicate what they found. The unexplained attack ended when Roberts followed the example of many of our soldiers and took his own life.

The question I have here -- but the question that our news media may not want answered, because of the millions of dollars they make from pharmaceutical advertising -- did the use of legal psychiatrist prescribed anti-depressants, as it has in so many other cases cause this violence? 

This video shot in a Wal Mart parking lot is disturbing not because of anything Wal Mart does but because it shows the American people demonstrating a degree of ignorance and callousness that is uncomfortable. Can you answer the two key questions here  by naming four countries that Obama has bombed and telling how many veterans commit suicide each day. People are not trying to buy happiness at Wal Mart, they are trying to buy the things they need at a low price so that they can continue pay their taxes and the government can keep on buying the bombs as well as sending our sons and daughters to die or be wounded overseas. That is what makes government happy.

I don't think anyone could say this with a straight face post-9-11 when "everything changed."

Of the three candidates on most of our ballots there is only one who says categorically that he would not bomb Iran -- of course, the mainstream media tells us that we should not even consider voting for him, Gary Johnson. No matter which one wins a pro-war person will be in charge. But take comfort in the fact that war is good for the press and means higher television ratings so do what they tell you and do not vote for peace.