More than a decade before the founding of the Small Government Alliance, executive director, Tim O’Brien, was a regular political commentator on the Morning Edition program on Detroit NPR affiliate WDET. Below is a collection of some of the more timeless of these 4-minute commentaries by Tim, as well as a few by his insightful (inciteful?) alter ego.
- Fair Trade vs. Free Trade (No Comments)
Commentator Robert Burran takes on the sacred cow of protectionism from the heart of Motown -- and makes hamburger in so thorough a grinding that it took two, 4-minute commentaries [More...]
- Wormer’s Advice (No Comments)
It took barely a decade after the (first) Chrysler bailout by the federal government for the company to find itself in dire straits again. Commentator Robert Burran isn't surprised, suggesting [More...]
- Taxpayer Action Day (No Comments)
A protest over tax increases imposed by President "Read My Lips" Bush and the congress Mark Twain characterized as the only "distinctly native American criminal class" prompts reflections on the [More...]
- Natural Rights (No Comments)
The confirmation hearings on the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court by a gaggle of senators were a sobering indicator of the appalling ignorance of our political leaders [More...]
- A Jury of your Peers — the fourth check and final balance (No Comments)
The courts intentionally hide from citizens the crucial role they play in protecting themselves from tyranny. This brief retrospective reveals the truth, the history and the inescapable, irrefutable logic behind [More...]
- Term Limits — A baby step in the right direction (No Comments)
Although a proposal to amend the state constitution to limit politicians' terms is a step in the right direction, it's only a baby step -- amounting to little more than [More...]
- National Service (No Comments)
The end of the Super Power confrontation-by-proxy called the "Cold War" required a new tack by advocates of a draft as a means of instilling a greater sense of [More...]
- Civil Disobedience in Defense of the 2nd Amendment (No Comments)
Mass defiance of a California law requiring registration of so-called "Assault Weapons" prompts admiration and congratulations for their civil disobedience, as well as reflections on the intent of drafters of [More...]
- Breaking the Education Monopoly (No Comments)
Educrats discovered more than a century ago that they could create for themselves a taxpayer funded monopoly by simply and repeatedly chanting the sacred mantra: "For the children... For the [More...]
- 1st Class Rip-off (No Comments)
It's more than a little intriguing that those who hyperventilate over the dangers of a monopoly when a private company attempts to "corner the market," proudly and unapologetically extol the [More...]
- Wasting your vote (No Comments)
Although the two, old parties have done a very effective job of boxing voters into a Hobson's choice between their candidates, there are ways to express your actual wishes -- [More...]
- Balancing the Federal Budget (No Comments)
Proceed from the premise that the federal government should be strictly confined to its constitutionally authorized functions and a balanced budget emerges effortlessly as a happy byproduct. Although this proposed [More...]
- Hobson’s Proposal (No Comments)
The 1990 statewide election ballot included alternative proposals to restructure (and level) tax funding for government schools. This Hobson's Choice prompts some reflections on the dangers inherent in our taxpayer-financed [More...]
- The Grand Incendiary (No Comments)
At the start of the American Revolution the British government offered blanket amnesty to any of the leaders of the rebellion who would renounce the cause and swear allegiance to [More...]
- Homelessness: Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake (No Comments)
Libertarians were the first to employ the NIMBY acronym to characterize the penchant of pontificating do-gooders to appease their guilt with charitable donations and "Not In My Backyard" government regulations [More...]
- The Three Great Lies (No Comments)
Liberal and conservative politicians promote their respective agendas by asserting different -- but equally false -- characterizations of the American people. Then they conspire in promoting a real whopper to [More...]
- Newspeak (No Comments)
The legacy of George Orwell flourishes in government and media as they twist the meaning of such words as "terrorism" and "public schools" and "anarchy" in a blatant -- and [More...]
- The War on the Poor (No Comments)
After a quarter century it is apparent that LBJ's other war, the putative "War on Poverty," has been about as successful as his military adventure in Vietnam. What was promoted [More...]
- Independence Day (No Comments)
The 214th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence prompts reflections, wistful and hopeful, on the causes and meaning of the American Revolution -- the heritage of limited government and individual [More...]
- Gun Violence in the Disarmed Society (No Comments)
One of the two most surprising -- and heartening -- developments in recent years has been the ignominious defeat of the "gun control" movement effort to disarm ordinary citizens on [More...]
- Affirmative Action (No Comments)
The irony in the debate over "Affirmative Action" is so heavy it's surprising there isn't an Army Corp of Engineers project to try and bulldoze it aside. Opponents are (unsurprisingly) [More...]
- Drug Wars (No Comments)
Illegal drugs are responsible for most of our social problems. But it's not so much the drugs themselves as the fact they are illegal that is the cause. Amidst all [More...]
- The Peace Dividend (No Comments)
The immanent collapse of the Soviet Union prompted talk about the potential savings in defense expenditures made possible by the end of the "Cold War" -- a multi-billion dollar barrel [More...]
- Earth Day (No Comments)
Earth Day provides the occasion to reflect on the consequences of replacing the centuries-old, common law right to sue a polluter for trespass with a bureaucratic system of regulations, licensing [More...]
- St. Paddy’s Day in Occupied Ireland (No Comments)
Libertarian fastidiousness about any initiation of force as well as our uncompromising advocacy of a strictly non-interventionist foreign policy are often misinterpreted as pacifism. Not so. The celebration of St. [More...]
- Rights — Civil vs. Natural (No Comments)
Our republic was founded on what was then a radical, new idea -- the notion that all people had rights that were inherent and inalienable. Although unprecedented in history, the [More...]
- Sex and the Single-minded State (No Comments)
The presupposition by both left and right that government should prohibit everything they think is bad and require everything they think is good has left precious little room for what [More...]
- Freedom of Speech (No Comments)
The "constitutional right" most frequently cited as the apotheosis of American freedoms -- the opportunity to speak our minds, guaranteed in the very 1st Amendment -- is also the most [More...]
- When private companies pose as public agencies (No Comments)
In an effort to reduce scams perpetrated by private entities posing as public agencies two Indiana congressmen introduced legislation to require companies with public sounding names and official looking seals [More...]
- Panama in the panorama (No Comments)
The 1989 invasion of the tiny central American country of Panama on the orders of President George H.W. Bush is actually one of the more minor, less costly examples of [More...]
- Two, Common (too common) Misconceptions (No Comments)
It is widely believed that our government is a democracy, our economy built on free enterprise and private property. Both assumptions are mistaken. The former is actually something the founders [More...]
- Fully Informed Jury Amendment (No Comments)
Montanans are praised for bringing a proposal to amend that state's constitution to require judges in all criminal trials to explicitly advise juries of their authority to judge not only [More...]
- Political Trends — Moving beyond left and right (No Comments)
Punditry confusion over why the country appears to alternately lurch between liberal and conservative directions is more the result of the inadequacy of those labels than inexplicable voting patterns. The [More...]
- Prohibition — no nobler the second time around (No Comments)
The United States Constitution gives the federal government jurisdiction to prosecute only three types of crime -- piracy, counterfeiting and treason. Authority to legislate and prosecute all other criminal matters [More...]
