Author: Wendy Honett

We are pleased to announce that web developer Doug Sparling has created the first iPhone app for Antiwar.com! Approached by Angela Keaton a few months ago about the possibility of developing the app, Sparling “who consumes most his daily news on the iPhone and iPad” accepted and has been volunteering his time.

“Since Antiwar.com isn’t optimized for mobile browsers [editor’s note: see here],” he said, “I had always wanted to build a mobile app for my own use and as an iPhone user, that’s the direction I went.”

“Initially, I wasn’t 100% sure if Apple would accept the Antiwar.com app to the App store, so I began by putting together a simple antiwar quotes app using quotes from the site. Once that was approved, I wrote a simple Antiwar.com RSS-reader type app for the iPhone, which is the version that’s currently in the App store.”

Sparling has already submitted version 1.1 and is fast at work on version 1.2 “which will rely more on the feeds instead of the site, so the stories will be easier to read on the iPhone.” He plans to add share features, improve the audio and video, and create versions for iPad and Android. Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, the Antiwar.com app requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Sparling’s tag line, “Will Code for Peace,” says a lot as he also contributes volunteer work to FreeGaza.org. For more information, please download the app or visit Sparling’s website.

Received from Richard Land of the Ridgefield Liberty Coop, host of Justin Raimondo’s recent talk at Western Connecticut University:

Essay Contest Due Date is Extended to December 8.

Video of Program is Posted Here: Link to Video and Other Related Information.

For students who could not make the program but who might want to submit an essay, we promised to post a video of the program.

It took longer than expected to post the video of the presentation to YouTube.  We finished that process Friday (11/19).  You will find a link to the video and other details of the program here:  Link to Video and Other Related Information.

You can read Justin’s presentation here:  Getting Beyond Left and Right Part Oneand Getting Beyond Left and Right Part Two.

Because we were late posting the video, we extended the due date for the essays to December 8 from December 1.

We reset the target date for announcing the winner to December 17 from December 10. 

Also, please keep in mind that we are encouraging collaboration.  One goal is to stimulate questions and discussions among students, teachers, friends, parents and other family members.  We encourage students to submit essays that are the product of group discussion, deliberation and effort.

Last Sunday, the Daily Bell published a lengthy interview with Antiwar.com’s founder and managing editor Eric Garris. Garris discusses his time in Venice Beach, the beginning of LewRockwell.com, the influence of Murray Rothbard, political activism in the 70s, the importance of economic liberty, foreign policy in Israel and Afghanistan, and the future of Antiwar.com. Check out the exclusive piece “Eric Garris on Anti-War Activism, Military Adventurism and the Future of Economic Liberty” here.

Antiwar.com’s editorial director Justin Raimondo has fallen ill over the weekend and we regret that we were forced to cancel his talk at UC Berkeley on Thursday, November 18. Our apologies to SFL and to organizer Casey Given who worked hard to plan and promote this event. We hope to reschedule in the future.

Recently, the Washington Post’s David Broder resurrected the tired and long debunked case for wartime prosperity, claiming that “a showdown with the mullahs” in Iran would be a boon to the economy. As political economist and historian Robert Higgs has shown time and again with regards to WWII, the economy did not fully recover until after the war ended and employment numbers looked good merely because much of the labor force was drafted into the military at below-market wages. While some have rejected Broder’s column, many fail to understand this point.

In 2003, Higgs responded to a similar argument made in the Wall Street Journal, calling it a “hoary fallacy” and showing instead that “unemployment fell during the war entirely because of the buildup of the armed forces. In 1940, some 4.62 million persons were actually unemployed (the official count of 7.45 million included 2.83 million employed on various government work projects). During the war, the government, by conscription for the most part, drew some 16 million persons into the armed forces…Voila, civilian unemployment nearly disappeared…”

Higgs concedes that “officially measured GDP soared during the war. Examination of that increased output shows, however, that it consisted entirely of military goods and services. Real civilian consumption and private investment both fell after 1941, and they did not recover fully until 1946. The privately owned capital stock actually shrank during the war…It is high time that we come to appreciate the distinction between the government spending, especially the war spending, that bulks up official GDP figures and the kinds of production that create genuine economic prosperity. As Ludwig von Mises wrote in the aftermath of World War I, ‘war prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings.’”

When I asked Higgs for his reaction to Broder’s column, he said, “if you mix one part historical superficiality, one part economic confusion, and one part sheer immorality, you get the combination that qualifies a journalist to become known as the dean of the Washington press corps.”

On November 11^th, the Boston Chapter of Come Home America will be hosting a talk by Justin Raimondo. The free event, “How We Can Organize a Left-Right Alliance Against the War Parties—and Why We Must” will be held at the Arlington Street Church (351 Boylston Street, Boston, MA) at 7 p.m.

And don’t forget, Justin is speaking in Thousand Oaks, CA tomorrow night; Danbury, CT on November 10; and Berkeley, CA on November 18. To sponsor an event, please email Wendy Honett.