SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses the Harry Potter book series and contains spoilers including the ending of the final book just released in bookstores. Do NOT read if you do not want to know how the Harry Potter series ends.

KKLA is the largest Christian talk radio station in America. I hold a dubious record there - I am responsible for causing the largest number of complaint calls the station had ever gotten in a single day. The topic? Harry Potter.

While fear itself is not always the product of irrationality, once experienced it tends to lead away from reason, especially if the experience is extreme in duration or intensity. When people are fearful they tend to be willing to irrationally surrender their rights.

Thus, fear is a threat to rational liberty. The psychology of fear is an essential component of those who would have us believe we must increasingly rely on the elite who manage the apparatus of the central government.

The statement "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin. It is clear, people seek out safety and security when they are in a state of fear, and it is the result of this psychological state that often leads to the surrender of liberty.

Last week, I wrote about the ideology of globalism and how it underlies certain government policies. Managed trade agreements, international military adventurism, and amnesty for illegal immigrants all emanate from this ideology.

Yet globalism has a consequence that is, if we are to believe the rhetoric of its greatest proponents, entirely unintended. Globalists often label those of us who resist their schemes as "isolationist." Yet it is, somewhat remarkably, the globalists themselves who promote policies that isolate our nation from the rest of the world.

Before the U.S. House of Representatives on May 2, 2007

Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Health Freedom Protection Act. This bill restores the First Amendment rights of consumers to receive truthful information regarding the benefits of foods and dietary supplements by codifying the First Amendment standards used by federal courts to strike down the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) efforts to censor truthful health claims. The Health Freedom Protection Act also stops the Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) from censoring truthful health care claims.

The recent defeat of the amnesty bill in the Senate came after outraged Americans made it clear to the political elite that they would not tolerate this legislation, which would further erode our national sovereignty. Similarly, polls increasingly show the unpopularity of the Iraq war, as well as of the Congress that seems incapable of ending it.

Because some people who vocally oppose amnesty are supportive of the war, the ideological connection between support of the war and amnesty is often masked. If there is a single word explaining the reasons why we continue to fight unpopular wars and see legislation like the amnesty bill nearly become law, that word is "globalism."

Before the U.S. House of Representatives on July 12, 2007

I rise in opposition to HR 2956 which, while a well-intended attempt to reduce our nation's seemingly unlimited military commitment in Iraq, is in so many respects deeply flawed.

I have been one of the strongest opponents of military action against Iraq. I voted against the initial authorization in 2002 and I have voted against every supplemental appropriations bill to fund the war. I even voted against the initial "Iraq regime change" legislation back in 1998. I believe our troops should be brought back to the United States without delay. Unfortunately, one of the reasons I oppose this legislation is that it masquerades as a troop withdrawal measure but in reality may well end up increasing US commitments in the Middle East.

Before the U.S. House of Representatives on June 28, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the life and achievements of Hans F. Sennholz. Dr. Sennholz was one of the foremost free-market economists of his generation and an inspiration to tens of thousands of people around the world.

Dr. Sennholz was born on February 3, 1922 in Germany in the midst of the German hyperinflation crisis and experienced firsthand the Great Depression and the horrors of Hitler's dictatorship. After receiving his master's degree from the University of Marburg and a doctorate in political science from the University of Cologne, Dr. Sennholz received a Ph.D. in economics at New York University, where he studied under the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises.

Recently, the General Accounting Office studied nineteen instances where the President issued so-called "signing statements." In such statements, the President essentially begins the process of interpreting legislation - up to and including declaring provisions unconstitutional - hence often refusing to enforce them.

The GAO study found that in nearly 1/3 of the cases studied, the administration failed to enforce the law as enacted. This approach is especially worrisome for several reasons.

Here are some reasons, to be refuted, on Ron Paul's chances.

I. Dr. Ron Paul can't win

1. There's more to life than winning. Even if the Congressman from Texas doesn't win this time, still, he is spreading the libertarian message like pretty much NO ONE else before him. (Yes, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises popularized libertarianism, but none of them did so in the political sphere). Our refusal to support him can't help this campaign. I would think that as a libertarian, we would want to help this effort, whether Dr. Paul wins or not. We should all get behind him as strongly as we can. This is perhaps the best opportunity in a long while to introduce libertarianism to the wider public.

This week Americans will gather around the grill, attend parades and watch fireworks displays, all in the celebration of the signing of our Declaration of Independence. At the same time, we will have thousands of bureaucrats, troops and agents stationed in countries across the globe being paid by American tax dollars.

On the anniversary of our declaring our own independence from the British, it is certainly appropriate that we reflect on the nature and spirit of independent nationhood. While our founding fathers were individual men in a historically unique situation, they posited that the principles upon which they rested our national independence were timeless.