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Joined: 2009-08-30
Columns on STR: 40
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Harry Goslin lives in eastern Arizona. 

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Columns by Harry Goslin

A Monster in the White House
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Harry Goslin 2016-06-12 23:37
Column by Harry Goslin. Exclusive to STR A recent article by Eric Posner, “And If Elected: What President Trump Could or Couldn’t Do,” begs the question of why any American should be concerned with what a President Trump can or can’t do. The expansive executive actions of Presidents Bush and Obama over the last 16 years make a response to this inquiry fairly obvious:...
Verbal Anomalies and Hyperbole Confound Comprehension and Basic Literacy
10
Harry Goslin 2015-08-11 08:12
Column by Harry Goslin. Exclusive to STR Recently I saw “Jurassic World.” The special effects were great. Humor was prevalent throughout to lighten the story somewhat, what with dinosaurs running around chomping people. At one point an announcement over the park’s PA system advised park attendees to seek shelter because of a “containment anomaly.” Many people looked...
Cecil Was One of Us. No, Wait, He Was Just a Lion.
9
Harry Goslin 2015-08-05 07:50
Column by Harry Goslin. Exclusive to STR The irrational, overly-emotional and childlike reaction to the killing of a lion in Africa is another example of why Americans will be forever in the dark about what’s important in the world and what’s not. It’s these kinds of silly, irrelevant stories that especially gets the lip-quivering left up in arms and unfortunately dominates the...
The (Re)birth of A(nother) Nation
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Harry Goslin 2011-06-22 00:00
Column by Harry Goslin. Since October 26, 2001, the United States has undergone several transformations. That's the date the original version of the PATRIOT Act became law and marked the beginning of Police State America.   Whenever "key" provisions of the Act were scheduled to "sunset," we have been bombarded by warnings from Congress and the executive branch of...
More Government 'Investment' Means Less Returns All Around
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Harry Goslin 2011-05-19 00:00
Column by Harry Goslin.   Exclusive to STR   Whatever the challenge, you can usually count on Americans to demand more be done even though they're likely to get less returns on their "investment." From bombs to bailouts, disasters to schools, there seems to be no end to the funny-money available to "fix" all the problems facing the world. We can do it...
Iraqi Democracy Needs More 'Numbers' to Stabilize
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Harry Goslin 2006-07-23 16:00
Exclusive to STR At around the time of last month's House and Senate debates on setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq , White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was giving a press conference on the 'progress' thus far in Iraq . When it was pointed out that the number of U.S. soldiers killed had reached 2,500, Snow responded, 'It's a number.' Snow's seeming callousness was a weak attempt to...
Mindless and Emotional: An Exercise in Statist Thinking
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Harry Goslin 2006-07-18 16:00
Exclusive to STR I often wonder what it would be like if I suddenly woke up one morning and started thinking and writing about issues from a statist point of view. To satisfy my curiosity, I sat down at the computer, did some research, and started smacking the keys. This is what I created:
Understanding Freedom and Its Costs
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Harry Goslin 2006-07-09 16:00
Exclusive to STR
Public Money, Public Destruction
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Harry Goslin 2006-06-30 16:00
Exclusive to STR
Public Money, Public Destruction
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Harry Goslin 2006-06-22 16:00
Exclusive to STR
Crimes of Distance Are Not Crimes
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Harry Goslin 2006-06-19 16:00
Exclusive to STR Through the efforts of a court-martial and an FBI sting operation, the integrity of the U.S. Air Force will be preserved when a Davis-Monthan NCO is dishonorably discharged, forfeits his retirement pay and benefits, and spends up to eight years in prison for his crime. What did he do? The airman in question transported cocaine between Tucson and Phoenix while in battle dress...
Food Freedom an Increasingly Precarious Right
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Harry Goslin 2006-06-04 16:00
Exclusive to STR
Umpires, Overstepping Authority and Human Anatomy
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Harry Goslin 2005-08-09 16:00
Several times a week this summer, I have been taking one of my sons to a nearby park for batting practice. One morning I suggested that we return in the evening to watch a baseball game. Being almost of Little League age, I thought the experience would be helpful on what to expect when he started playing next year. Twenty minutes into a game, I'm not so sure I want him exposed to that...
Just Plain Stupid
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Harry Goslin 2005-08-08 16:00
These days, trying to figure out what Americans are thinking isn't an easy task. Trying to figure out how Americans think is even tougher. Judging by how many Americans 'think,' as measured by polls, statistics, and reaction to the ruling class, maybe they don't think at all. One thing is certain, though. Too many Americans are prone to fickleness, short-sightedness and just plain stupidity.
Having Custody Is Just Another Excuse for Cruelty, Torture and Murder
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Harry Goslin 2005-07-26 16:00
I heard that the Bush administration is lobbying Congress to block legislation that would bar the military from treating detainees in cruel and unusual ways. As quoted in a recent post, Bush's people say that such legislation would 'usurp the president's authority' and make it difficult for him to protect all of us Americans from terrorists and other bad guys.
Obedient Americans Will Make Good Nazis
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Harry Goslin 2005-07-24 16:00
English statesman Benjamin Disraeli once said, 'It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.' Well, if not in the nursery, a public school system would suffice. Get them young, get them early, and get them often.
Annoy a Liberal, Annoy a Conservative
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Harry Goslin 2005-07-11 16:00
Since I moved to the big city, I've picked up the peculiar habit of reading the stickers people affix to the back of their cars. Because of more traffic and more opinions, there is a wealth of reading material to be found at most red lights. Since I exist outside the 'Flock A' or 'Flock B' mentality, I more often find humor and indifference, rather than agreement, with the tailgate philosophies...
An Experience with Public Sector Customer Service
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Harry Goslin 2005-07-10 16:00
Now that I live in Tucson , I am required by law to have my vehicles emissions-checked once a year. It's now part of the yearly renewal process I have to go through in order to ensure that Caesar's minions (cops) leave me alone unless by circumstances I get tagged as one of those 'speeders' to be ticketed by the end of the shift. Naturally, there's a fee for the emissions check separate from...
The Caretakers Are Everywhere
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Harry Goslin 2005-07-07 16:00
For this Fourth of July, my wife challenged me to create some sort of lasting memory for the kids, something that might even evolve into a family tradition. I could not, in good conscience, attend a breakfast sponsored by her church as she had hoped.
Misleading the Young
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Harry Goslin 2005-06-19 16:00
CNN.com recently reported that a high school principal in Santa Ana , California , sent a memo to her staff, requesting that grades for 98 failing seniors be 'reconsidered.' She cited compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act as her driving necessity. However, she should have checked with her guidance department before sending out the memo; it turns out her school needs to graduate only 82.8...
When Eating Lunch Is No Longer Appetizing
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Harry Goslin 2005-06-01 16:00
Public schools claim to be doing everything they can to prepare students for the 'real world.' By spending enormous sums of money to teach what many children can learn in a short period of time with minimal guidance and interference from adults--literacy, math skills, and a genuine love of learning--public schools are prepping students that life's most simple challenges require complicated and...
Pickaxes, Sledgehammers and Plundering the Truth
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Harry Goslin 2005-05-29 16:00
Most libertarians and anarcho-capitalists spend the better part of their intellectual energy criticizing everything the state does, from 'helping' the poor to 'educating' children; from 'defending' the borders to 'regulating' trade; from 'keeping' the peace to 'upholding' the law. The general consensus is that the state sucks, leaving nothing but misery, poverty, and death among everything it...
The General Stupidity of Homework
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Harry Goslin 2005-05-22 16:00
Practice makes perfect, at least that's how the saying goes. How much practice makes perfect, though? Even for world-class athletes, there is more to success than practice, practice, practice. Somewhere in the mix there has to be raw talent and a strong, almost obsessive, desire for success. Without talent and the desire for success, all the practice in the world generally will not make the...
When Ignorance Borders on Stupidity
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Harry Goslin 2005-05-19 16:00
On more than one occasion this year, I have either been involved in a discussion/argument over economics and social issues with a colleague, or been bystander to one, usually walking away shaking my head and mumbling some choice profanity under my breath. I've resigned myself to listening to periodic tripe from intelligent and mostly competent adults completely ignorant about the basics of...
Staging an 'Attack' to Promote Fear and Paranoia
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Harry Goslin 2005-05-17 16:00
For anyone who cares to know the true character of the gutless and paranoid warmongers driving this country quickly into the ground, it was on full display in the fiasco last week when an aircraft 'invaded,' supposedly undetected, the most restricted airspace on earth. Being there on the ground in DC was not necessary to get a feel for the new extremes The Empire is willing to go to perpetuate...
Forgive, Forget, Pass the Buck
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Harry Goslin 2004-12-19 17:00
It's Christmas time again and it's a certainty that many have once more added to their already bloated credit card balances. I heard last week on the news that it takes the average American consumer up to six months to pay off their Christmas spending binge. Perhaps in the seasonal spirit of giving, banks will give their customers what the United States just gave Iraq : complete forgiveness of...
Ain"t Nothing New About the "New" Iraq
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Harry Goslin 2004-05-26 16:00
When U.S. forces failed to beat the city of Fallujah into submission, a 'tactical redeployment' of forces was ordered and Iraqi security forces were sent in to quell the chaos that erupted at some point after the commencement of the U.S. occupation. General Mark Kimmitt was quick to point out that the maneuver was not a 'retreat'; in other words, a failure. In government and military...
Defend Marriage, Defend the Language, Defend Freedom
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Harry Goslin 2004-02-29 17:00
Earlier this week a student asked me what the word 'morp' meant (it's a traditional annual dance at our school). Since it's 'prom' spelled backwards, the traditional dating ritual is also reversed. The girls ask the guys to the dance and typically pay for dinner. I doubt this tradition is unique to our school, although other schools may not refer to it as morp. I also doubt the addition of...
Onward, Conscript Soldiers!
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Harry Goslin 2003-12-14 17:00
Over the last two years, some have suggested the possibility of reinstating military conscription. No wonder. If President Bush is reelected in 2004, he will have no electoral restraints on his imperial ambitions. Given recent surveys indicating that a significant portion of active duty and reservist military personnel will not reenlist, the president will need to tap other sources for 'axis...
Turning the World to Crap
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Harry Goslin 2003-10-13 16:00
Try as he might, President Bush will never prove that he is a capable leader, just as his staunch supporters will never prove that they are capable of rational thought. No, the only thing President Bush continues to demonstrate is that government success is measured by its colossal failure. Death, destruction, despair, and suffering are the ageless achievements of government.
Tyranny, Press Whores and the Slaughter of Millions
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Harry Goslin 2003-09-28 16:00
Censorship is a necessary component of every 'successful' war. As General William Westmoreland observed during the Vietnam War, 'without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.' So long as government controls the flow of information and images to the folks back home, it can maintain the slaughter and oppression of thousands half a world away indefinitely. Essential to...
A History of Putting Up Too Many Kites
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Harry Goslin 2003-09-07 16:00
Fear, confusion, and subterfuge have been the grist of every 'crisis' which has plagued this nation. Whether working alone or in collusion with self-interested factions, government has used every crisis-generating event to increase its own power while suffocating the freedom of the individual. Even the individual has been used as a tool in the hands of government to facilitate his own...
A Land Plagued With Useful Idiots
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Harry Goslin 2003-08-24 16:00
V. I. Lenin referred to apologists for the brutality of the Soviet state and the worldwide socialist cause as 'useful idiots.' Predominant among the intellectual elitists that have controlled the social institutions of the West since the beginning of the Twentieth Century--government, business, education, and mass communication--these 'useful idiots' have been in the vanguard of the march of...
Government Corrupts the Simplicity of Freedom
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Harry Goslin 2003-08-17 16:00
Albert Jay Nock, commenting on Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'Four Freedoms,' said, 'There is no such thing, four or forty. Freedom has no plural. Freedom either is, or isn't.' Roosevelt, and successive executive tyrants, have destroyed the meaning of freedom, making it a privilege to be bestowed, regulated and even revoked at the discretion of government. Since his presidency, generations of...
Iraqis Too Smart for American-Style Democracy
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Harry Goslin 2003-08-13 16:00
Some things in life get better with the passage of time: fine wine, a great novel, a loving relationship. Others start off bad and just get worse: public education, fiat money, the two-party system.
Verbal Anomalies and Hyperbole Confound Comprehension and Basic Literacy
10
Harry Goslin 2015-08-11 08:12
Column by Harry Goslin. Exclusive to STR Recently I saw “Jurassic World.” The special effects were great. Humor was prevalent throughout to lighten the story somewhat, what with dinosaurs running around chomping people. At one point an announcement over the park’s PA system advised park attendees to seek shelter because of a “containment anomaly.” Many people looked...
Cecil Was One of Us. No, Wait, He Was Just a Lion.
9
Harry Goslin 2015-08-05 07:50
Column by Harry Goslin. Exclusive to STR The irrational, overly-emotional and childlike reaction to the killing of a lion in Africa is another example of why Americans will be forever in the dark about what’s important in the world and what’s not. It’s these kinds of silly, irrelevant stories that especially gets the lip-quivering left up in arms and unfortunately dominates the...