Freedom Daily Archive

Wishing You a Free and Merry Christmas

by Doug Bandow December 1, 2000

CHRISTMAS IS THE TIME of goodwill, when everyone thinks of giving. And giving their own money, not other people’s money. Even in Washington, D.C. But in Washington, at least, Christmas is probably the only time of the year when anyone thinks about spending his own money.

Morals and the Welfare State, Part 3

by F.A. Harper December 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 ANOTHER POINT of possible confusion has to do with coveting the private property of another. There is nothing morally wrong in the admiration of something that is the property of another. Such admiration may be a stimulus to ...

Not Yours to Give

by David Crockett December 1, 2000

MR. SPEAKER — I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of ...

Book Review: The Faces of Janus

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2000

The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century by A. James Gregor (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000); 240 pages; $30. IN 1947, Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises published a short book entitled Planned Chaos. He analyzed and put into perspective the intellectual and ideological forces that had been at work in the Western world since the ...

Legal Tender and the Civil War

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2000

FACED WITH A LACK of Northern enthusiasm for his war against the South, President Lincoln resorted to drastic means to finance his war effort. If Lincoln had resorted to a traditional method of government finance — taxation — he knew that he might be faced with tax riots among the people of the North. And he knew that if ...

Market Liberalism, International Order, and World Peace, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 In this Post–Cold War epoch the world is desperately searching for international order, global peace, and general economic prosperity. The great debate going on around the world is whether these desired goals can be attained through the existing system of national sovereignty or whether they require the establishment of international political organizations with the ...

The Civil War and the American Mind

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2000

THE CIVIL WAR and its militaristic effect on American society had important consequences for the nationalist collectivization of America that occurred in the following decades. It encouraged collectivist intellectuals to vigorously promote their reform visions and it won thinkers to the collectivist cause. It even convinced ...

AmeriCorps: Salvation through Handholding

by James Bovard November 1, 2000

PRESIDENT CLINTON, in an August 9, 1999, speech to AmeriCorps members, declared, “AmeriCorps is living, daily, practical, flesh-and-blood proof that there’s a better way to live ... that if we ... hold hands and believe we’re going into the future together, we can change anything we want to change. You are the modern manifestation of the dream of America’s ...

Lincoln Crossing the Rubicon

by Charles Adams November 1, 2000

WHEN THE CIVIL WAR started in the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar defied the civil authority and crossed the River Rubicon in 49 B.C. This was a violation of the Roman constitution, for no army was to cross the Rubicon and enter Rome under arms. Within a few months Caesar was the ...

Why the South Was Right, the North Wrong

by Doug Bandow November 1, 2000

THE VICTORS WRITE history books, and the dominant accounts of the Civil War reflect the victorious perspective: misguided Southerners sought to destroy democratic governance and preserve slavery. Led by the heroic Abraham Lincoln, Northerners responded by saving the Union and emancipating the slaves. And for leading his moral crusade, Lincoln is America’s greatest president, martyred ...

Book Review: When in the Course of Human Events

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2000

When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession by Charles Adams (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); 255 pages; $24.95. IN HER 1924 BOOK Free Trade and Peace in the Nineteenth Century, Helen Bosanquet pointed out, The conflict between Free Trade and Protection was one of the chief causes of the great Civil War.... Interests ...

Do the Rich Help the Poor?

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000

PRESIDENT CLINTON justified his veto of Congress’s recent repeal of the estate tax by suggesting that most of the benefits of the repeal would go to the wealthy. “Of the $750 billion the repeal costs , one-half — nearly $400 billion — goes to the top one-tenth of one percent ...