From the archives.

20 YEARS AGO

January 1997

"In a representative government, who watches the watchers is neither a rhetorical question nor an easy riddle to solve. Although outside groups can exercise some oversight, the unsettling truth is that, to a considerable degree, the watchers must be able to watch themselves."

NICK GILLESPIE

"Out of Sight, Out of Hand?"

"Americans have always had mixed feelings about psychoactive substances. To deal with our ambivalence, we tend to divide drugs into neat categories: good and bad, legal and illegal, therapeutic and recreational. We are not comfortable with drugs that straddle categories, as the opioids do."

JACOB SULLUM

"No Relief in Sight"

30 YEARS AGO

January 1987

"Until the satellite dish came along, communications technologies had always spread from population centers outward. But the dish revolution has advanced, like some Third World guerrilla army, from the country to the cities. And now it promises a change in the landscape of communications all across the United States. For, although the various players in the industry don't fully realize it yet, satellite TV could erode, perhaps even wipe out, the monopolistic foundations on which the cable-TV industry was built."

MILTON MUELLER

"Dishing Out Competition"

"In South Africa, a state that intrudes on every aspect of blacks' economic lives, it is impossible to separate economic and political reforms. For it is not capitalism but socialism that has forged the chains which shackle South Africa's blacks. The way to break the chains is not by passing more laws but by repealing forthwith those that discriminate against blacks. Our platform, with its protection of property rights and guarantees of equal treatment of all races, would accomplish this goal."

FRANCES KENDALL

"South Africa's Only Hope?"

35 YEARS AGO

January 1982

"The geopolitical rationale of those urging a new draft is that it would send a signal to friend and foe alike that the United States is 'serious' about a strong defense. But what kind of message are we sending if we must resort to coercion to get people to defend us?"

ROBERT POOLE JR.

"A Draft Is No Solution"

"Books on the economy are like opening lines in a singles' bar: The trick is to devise some crafty, innovative vehicle to steer you to the destination whereto the whole world knows you're headed."

THOMAS W. HAZLETT

"Paper Tiger"

"Prior to deregulation in the United States, the most frequently voiced fear was that under competition service to...