Explore Freedom

Speaker Spotlight: Ron Paul and Andrew Napolitano

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 4, 2007

This week we spotlight Congressman Ron Paul and Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano, our two Sunday dinner speakers for our upcoming June 1-4 conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties in Reston, Virginia. If there is a genuine hero of our time with respect to the advancement of liberty, it is Ron Paul. The ... [click for more]

Boxer’s Confusion about Ownership

by Tibor R. Machan May 4, 2007

California Senator Barbara Boxer sent around a letter to the editor that was published in The OC Register on April 30th, hoping to clarify my California Wild Heritage Act. She states in this letter that the approximately 2.3 million acres included in the bill are all publicly owned lands. Not one acre of private land is included in the ... [click for more]

What Do Citizens Owe Government?

by James Bovard May 1, 2007

When politicians are not promising new benefits to citizens, they continually remind citizens what they owe the government. From their first years in government schools, children are indoctrinated with the notion that government provides them some grandiose benefit. This seed often produces a harvest of servility in later life. But few people stop and ... [click for more]

Why Germans Supported Hitler, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 The most remarkable part of the movie Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is the courtroom scene, which is based on recently discovered German archives. Sophie and her brother Hans, along with their friend Christoph Probst, stand before the infamous Roland Freisler, presiding judge of the People’s Court, whom Hitler had immediately sent to Munich ... [click for more]

Why Germans Supported Hitler, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 It has long intrigued me why the German people supported Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. After all, every schoolchild in America is taught that Hitler and his Nazi cohorts were the very epitome of evil. How could ordinary German citizens support people who were so obviously monstrous in nature? Standing against the Nazi ... [click for more]

Ford’s Legacy: Lawless Government

by James Bovard March 1, 2007

The death of former President Gerald Ford unleashed a tidal wave of bathos and political bunkum across the land. Ford was far more exalted in death than he had been during his time in office. Slate’s Timothy Noah critically noted, Within the narrow confines of Permanent Washington — the journalists, lobbyists, and congressional lifers who are the city’s avatars ... [click for more]

The Active Authoritarianism of Teddy Roosevelt

by George Leef March 1, 2007

Bully Boy by Jim Powell (Crown Forum, 2006); 329 pages, $27.50. Most historians rank Teddy Roosevelt as one of America’s great or near-great presidents. That is mainly because he is regarded as a “progressive” — a trustbuster, a proponent of government regulation of the ... [click for more]

Executive Orders and the Decline of Law, Part 2

by William L. Anderson February 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 The longest-lasting legacy of Lincoln is not the War Between the States or even the violent way in which slavery ended in the United States. Lincoln was able to use brute force to “settle” the various arguments regarding the centralization of political power in this country. As the late Shelby Foote said during an ... [click for more]

Bush’s Doublethink

by Sheldon Richman January 19, 2007

The most peculiar passage in President Bushs much-dissected surge speech was this: I have made it clear to the prime minister and Iraqs other leaders that Americas commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people. What could the president have meant by ... [click for more]

Bipartisanship? Bah!

by Sheldon Richman January 10, 2007

One of our smartest political philosophers, Will Rogers, had it right: Be thankful were not getting all the government were paying for. I think of that whenever I hear politicians and commentators praise bipartisanship. I also think of this saying: Be careful what you wish for. You might get it. Where did all the wise heads get the idea that Americans ... [click for more]

What Exactly Did Gerald Ford Heal?

by Sheldon Richman January 5, 2007

Over the last several days former President Gerald R. Ford has been repeatedly praised for healing the nation in the aftermath of Richard Nixons Watergate scandal. Democrat, Republican, and solemn pundit alike paid extravagant tribute to the man who, in their view, saved the American people from disaster. But is that what Ford really did? Lets recall the context. The ... [click for more]

Executive Orders and the Decline of Law, Part 1

by William L. Anderson January 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 During his presidency, Bill Clinton would conclude his trips abroad by telling his advisors that he was determined to use the powers of his office. Those “powers,” of course, included what are called “executive orders,” which are orders that come from the office of the president of the United States and have the ... [click for more]