Freedom Daily Archive

The Media Versus the State

by Wendy McElroy March 1, 2008

Good Night, and Good Luck was the television sign-off of Edward R. Murrow (19081965) the journalistic pioneer often considered to be the finest broadcast news commentator produced by America. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) is also an Oscar-nominated docudrama that explores the conflict between Murrow (played by David Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy over the anti-Communist crusade he ...

The Enemy-Combatant Attack on Freedom, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Another revolutionary aspect of the enemy-combatant doctrine was how the discretionary power to treat suspected terrorists, including Americans, as enemy combatants was acquired by the president and the Pentagon. Despite the assumption of this monumental power by the executive branch, there never was a constitutional amendment authorizing it. Initially, there wasn’t even a law ...

Why They Hate Us

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2008

What’s more obnoxious than a person who constantly whines about the real and imagined injustices committed against him while ignoring his own injustices against others? A country that does the same thing. One of the great myths accepted by the American people is that historically, the United States — more precisely, the ...

Warring as Lying Throughout American History

by James Bovard February 1, 2008

Americans are taught to expect their elected leaders to be relatively honest. But it wasn’t always like that. In the mid 1800s, people joked about political candidates who claimed to have been born in a log cabin that they built with their own hands. This jibe was spurred by William Henry Harrison’s false claim of a log-cabin birth in ...

Education: Free and Noncompulsory

by Scott McPherson February 1, 2008

“The transfer, by the parents, of so much of their own authority and responsibility to the schools is in most ways a cowardly and contemptible business.” — John Holt, What Do I Do Monday? Several times in the last few years, after I’ve written some criticism of the public-school system and called for a complete separation of school and state, ...

I Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Part 5

by James Glaser February 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Last month I wrote about the assertiveness training in the Tomah Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) program and how I thought it helped me. This month, it’s dreams and relaxation therapy. I am purposely saving the trauma group ...

The Oil-Addiction Fallacy

by William L. Anderson February 1, 2008

Watch any talking head, and when the subject comes to energy, one can expect to hear the mantra, Americans are “addicted” to oil, and especially “foreign oil.” This is repeated as though the repetition is proof that the premise is true. Thus, American taxpayers are currently being forced to contribute billions of dollars — and will be dunned many billions ...

We Need Immigrants

by George Leef February 1, 2008

Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them by Philippe Legrain (Princeton, 2007); 374 pages; $27.95. Many years ago, I agreed to be a guest on a talk-radio program originating in California. The host wanted a speaker who would defend immigration. After I explained my position, the host opened the call-in lines, and for the ...

The Enemy-Combatant Attack on Freedom, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Since an attack on Iran could result in heightened “war-on-terrorism” emergencies here in the United States, this would be a good time to review the issue of “enemy combatants,” especially as the concept applies to American citizens. To analyze the critical importance of the “enemy-combatant” doctrine, we will examine the cases of two people ...

Woodstock May Have Saved Senator McCain’s Life

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2008

Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain scored a standing ovation at one of the presidential debates when he attacked Sen. Hillary Clinton for proposing — unsuccessfully — to spend a million taxpayer dollars on a museum commemorating the 1969 Woodstock festival. In an obviously well-planned moment, McCain told the audience, Now, my friends, I wasn’t there. I’m sure ...

The Martial Law Act of 2006

by James Bovard January 1, 2008

Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make it easy for President Bush to impose martial law in response to a terrorist “incident.” It also empowers him to effectively declare martial law in response to what he ...

I Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Part 4

by James Glaser January 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 So far I have gone from thinking about needing help with post-traumatic stress, to going to the Minneapolis VA and getting a year of one-on-one sessions with a shrink, and on to an intensive eight-week in-hospital ...