ATM Tyranny by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2000 Some years ago, when gas stations began replacing free air pumps with coin operated models, some motorists objected. "But air is free," one protested. To which a gas station owner replied, "Fine; blow the tire up yourself." I'm reminded of that story by the current flap over fees for ATMs. Here's a controversy tailored-made for demagogic political leaders looking for ...
The Re-igniting of Waco by James Bovard February 1, 2000 The return of Waco could herald the pending death of the final shreds of credibility of Janet Reno and federal law enforcement. Or it may turn out to be one more episode of Stepin Fetchit journalists racing to help cover up the worst misdeeds of the Clinton administration -- forever willing to accept whatever government's latest version of the ...
Slavery Reexamined, Part 2 by Charles Adams February 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 But the tax slavery vs. chattel slavery story is not over. The one place medieval serfdom did not take root was in Russia. Unlike the farmers in Europe, the small farmer in Russia during the Middle Ages was free, and he could travel about the ...
Hate-Crime Laws Threaten Our Liberty by Jeffrey A. Singer February 1, 2000 Recent front-page news stories about racist gunmen attacking innocent minorities in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas have led to calls for new federal hate-crime legislation, and for the expansion of hate-crime laws already on the books in many states. In short, these laws place additional penalties on those found guilty of committing a ...
Book Review: The End of Privacy by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2000 The End of Privacy: Personal Rights in the Surveillance Society by Charles J. Sykes (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999); 282 pages; $24.95. At Menwith Hill in the North York moors of Great Britain, there is a spy center employing 1,400 U.S. National Security Agency personnel ...
Is Democracy Freedom? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000 One of the core tenets of American foreign policy is the encouragement of democracy around the world. The implication is that if a country is democratic, the people within that country are free. But is democracy freedom? In 1787, the U.S. Constitution called the federal government into existence. The document provided ...
Why Shouldn’t We Question the Good War? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000 By raising questions about America's participation in World War II, Pat Buchanan has horrified American interventionists. People are simply not supposed to raise questions about America's role in what has become known as the "good war." Was Nazi Germany a direct threat to the United States after 1940? It's difficult to see how it was. After all, if Germany was ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 37: Free Banking and the Market Demand for Money by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 ...
Why Does Buchanan Scare Them? by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2000 The hysterical reaction to Pat Buchanan's presidential bid is highly revealing. It says little about Buchanan but much about his critics. There is much in Buchanan's platform to object to, but it plays a small role in understanding the criticism. Buchanan is, to be sure, a protectionist. He falls for all the hoary protectionist fallacies that have long been exploded. ...
King of Chaos: The Fiasco of Floyd by James Bovard January 1, 2000 Hurricane Floyd was quickly labeled "the King of Chaos" by southerners. Unfortunately, foolish evacuation orders and foul-ups disrupted the lives of far more people than were seriously hassled by the hurricane itself. Not surprisingly, the spin is on to portray "the largest peacetime evacuation in the history of the United States" as a triumph. Clinton administration officials wasted no time ...
Liberty and Virtue: Invaluable and Inseparable: Part 2 by Doug Bandow January 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 Attempting to forcibly make people virtuous would make society itself less virtuous in three important ways. First, individuals would lose the opportunity to exercise virtue. They would not face the same set of temptations and be forced to choose between good and evil. In some ...
Slavery Reexamined, Part 1 by Charles Adams January 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 Slavery is a powerful word, evoking ugly and horrifying memories in our society during the past centuries. We assume that our kind of slavery was the world's worst, and that the abolition of slavery throughout the world was the most important social accomplishment of the last century. No doubt ...