25 Years Ago in Reason

"[The CIA] was so sure that Soviet defector Yuri Nosenko was a KGB double agent that they confined him in a secret underground vault for over three years while trying to force him to 'confess.'"

-- Bill Birmingham, Brickbats

"No politician of our time can indirectly act to increase his private future; but we remain blind to the direct influence that government employees can exert on their own wages via their support for larger and larger budgets."

-- James M. Buchanan, "Truth As Bestseller"

"If it is important that noncombatants be immune from attack, it is important that the combatants be distinguishable….We should not scorn those who delight in wearing military uniforms, for they groove on the garb that demarcates them as legitimate targets."

-- Robert Nozick, "Hard Thoughts About Warfare"

"It is no accident that libertarians tend to be buoyantly optimistic while conservatives are suffused with pessimism. In fact these seemingly purely personal reactions are really a function of the general world outlook of both schools of thought."

-- Murray N. Rothbard, "Optimism and Pessimism in Hong Kong"