IPFS
Public Policy Hooligan, New Book now available on Amazon
Written by James Bovard Subject: BooksAs part of the terms of my parole, I whittled up some memoir essays which are now available as an Amazon ebook titled Public Policy Hooligan. It's the story of going from Helltown to Washington - lots of mischief (and police encounters) along the way - as well as plenty of clashes with federal agencies. There is a chapter about my clashes with the FBI over Waco and Ruby Ridge, chapters about my wars on agriculture and trade policies, and plenty of reminiscences about editors, authors, and women along the way. Perhaps the quickest way to get an overview of the book’s gist and purpose is from the Preface:
I have spent decades trying to turn political dirt into philosophic gold. I have yet to discover the alchemist’s trick, but I still have fun with the dirt.
I have sometimes been mistaken for a troublemaker. My work has been publicly denounced by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, International Trade Commission, Drug Enforcement Administration, Agency for International Development, and Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Yet, I was merely seeking to help Americans appreciate how their government serves them.
This is the wayward journey from Eagle Boy Scout to public policy hooligan - from being raised to revere authority to slaughtering sacred cows left and right, or at least hot-branding politicians.
It is also the story of the overnight conversion of a protein pill-popping weightlifting champion into a library-addicted philosophy devotee. I dropped out of college after becoming enthralled by a Great Books list. After the classics awoke my mind to new Yukon Territories, I could no longer endure tenured droning.
Disregarding the unanimous recommendations of my Freshmen English professors, I vowed to become a writer. Before my pen hit paydirt, I worked as a Santa Claus, peach picker, highway department flagman, Kelly Girl typist, lawn mower, demented Beatrix Potter rabbit, census taker, freight unloader, construction worker, and Harvard Business School-certified snow shoveler.
With coffin makers on one side of my family and gravediggers on the other, I naturally became an investigative journalist. From getting kicked out of the Supreme Court, to heisting damning documents at World Bank headquarters, to racing around East Bloc regimes one step ahead of the secret police, I have had more fun than I deserved. My rabble-rousing in Playboy, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and elsewhere exposed how bureaucratic rampages have razed one constitutional right after another.
This is the chronicle of how I came to better understand liberty and Leviathan. I’ve had a front row seat as our republic morphed into an Attention Deficit Democracy. I remain mystified why so many people willingly submit to rulers who give them such grief.
*****
The names of some of the women mentioned in this narrative have been changed so that they don’t track me down and try to stab me again.
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For those (like me) who do not own a Kindle, Amazon offers free apps to read Kindle books on your personal computer, iPad, or just about anything else.
++ You can also read 10 % of the book on-screen at that site as a free sample. I think the sample cuts off right around the point where I explain the mystery of the Lawnmower Lady.
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3 Comments in Response to Public Policy Hooligan, New Book now available on Amazon
Lots of people say or write, "the American experiment," referring to the self-governing ideas that start with the United States Constitution. And they are right to consider it such. Obviously, it has worked to some extent. However, we see, now, the very important things that it lacks.
We are on the verge of a civil war in America - if the banking system doesn't collapse first. This war won't be between the States. It will be between people who want freedom from Government, vs. the people who think that Government is the freedom they want. Basically, it will be between law enforcement/military and everyone else.
The avoidance of the civil war depends on ONE great thing - if we keep the Constitutional form of Government, that is. It depends on Government officials obeying their oaths of office, right from the garbage truck second-man, to the President - this President taking his second-term oath of office with his hand on the Quran.
There are two ways to solidify the Great American Experiment into something that will work. They are either:
1. An non-repealable, non-circumventable Amendment to the Constitution that spells out the punishments to be applied to Government officials who act against the Constitution and their Oath. These punishments should include: a) a few monetary punishments (fines); b) a lot of public whippings and floggings; c) a reasonable number of executions.
or:
2. A formal transfer of the Constitution principles, including the Bill of Rights, to all the State Constitutions in State Amendment form, followed by a disbanding of the Federal Government, except that it may possibly remain in some form of advisory capacity ONLY. The disbanding would include the disbanding of all treaties, and Federal Government corporations, agencies, and other organizations wholly owned by the Federal Government.
Thanks, Powell. This is the first book I have written with NO FOOTNOTES. I think it will read much more smoothly as a result. But there is enough "Helltown" in there to prevent it from being accused of being high-toned.
No wonder you drink!
Seriously, the reason they hate you is your footnoting everything you say so extensively 1/3 of your book is footnotes and references. Anyone who wishes can look up your sources and find out who is lying: You or the bureaucrats. Place yer bets!