Thomas M. Sipos
Thomas M. Sipos is author of such satirical novels as Vampire Nation and Manhattan Sharks, and the horror collection, Halloween Candy. He's the Vice Chair of the L.A. Westside Region of the California Libertarian Party.
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Articles by Thomas M. Sipos
September 12, 2007
Shame on Time-Warner Cable. Upon buying Adelphia Cable in Santa Monica, Calif. early this year, it dropped C-SPAN 2 from basic tier channels and replaced it with … a blank screen.
Sure, Time-Warner is a private company. And though cable systems have long lobbied government for the power to violat...
July 10, 2007
The income tax has four detriments: (1) We are forced to pay money to the government; (2) filing the tax forms invades our privacy, forcing us to reveal how much money we have, how we got it, how we spent it; (3) it’s a hassle to keep records, then hire accountants or attorneys to make sure we filed...
May 09, 2007
If home prices are too high for your budget, don't feel bad. You can still enjoy the vicarious thrill of paying for a stranger's house, thanks to pending state legislation.
Maybe you've wanted to buy a house for many years now, but you've seen prices skyrocket. Especially in California. You might...
April 09, 2007
In 1984, Orwell observed that the State uses war to rally unquestioning support for its policies. Thus 1984's three States sought perpetual war.
Yet it occurs to me that the opposite is also true. Some people hope to benefit from a peace movement. And if so, surely they have an incentive to de...
April 06, 2007
Academic film books suffer from two common pitfalls. First, there's the intentionally unreadable prose. The bigger the word, the more convoluted the sentence, the better. Academics will say "methodology" when they mean "method." They'll "post" everything. Post-feminist, post-industrial, pos...
March 14, 2007
Conservatives and progressives (as liberals now like to be called) suffer from power envy. They will say or do anything, even subvert their own principles, to attain power.
Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger. He promised to halt California's big-spending. He did give it an honest try. Propositions...
February 12, 2007
Landlords and tenants may both benefit by replacing rent control with "rent vouchers."
Tenant advocates argue that because housing is a need, landlords should be forced to provide housing at an "affordable price." But food is a greater need, yet society doesn't force grocers or restaurants to sub...
May 09, 2006
In 1984 George Orwell observed that power is power over people. A corollary may be that freedom is freedom from people. Privacy. The right to determine who enters our personal space.
Privacy is enhanced through business diversity, which arises when businesses are free to ban people or behavior. Th...
March 29, 2006
Immigration is a contentious issue because it perturbs many people's self-image and sense of acceptance. "Do I belong here? Am I as American as you?" Few say it like that, yet those are the unspoken undercurrents fueling the fear and anger over the issue. Yet immigration also raises legitimate conce...
March 06, 2006
Even as they complain about students downloading music and movies from the internet, record companies and film studios are pirating your copyrights. And the government is aiding this theft by enforcing the MPAA and RIAA's wish list of anti-consumer copyright laws.
Here are three ways hypocritical...
March 03, 2006
A postal regulation designed to fight terrorism has not only failed to protect us, it's weakened our economy, thus our ability to fight terrorism. Confused? Let's go back a decade.
My local post office used to open at 5 a.m. (window service at 9 a.m.) I'd enter at dawn, weigh my packages on one...