Explore Freedom

Ten Tenets of Freedom, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 Even while resisting the steady erosion of liberty in America, it is important that we keep in mind an overall vision of what a free society looks like. For if people lose sight of the “big picture,” the risk is that they end up settling for — and even celebrating — an unfree society ... [click for more]

Obama’s Betrayals

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2009

After President Obama announced he would fight the release of photographs showing American soldiers abusing “war on terror” detainees, Richard Haass, president of the quintessentially mainstream Council on Foreign Relations, said that Obama had learned the difference between campaigning and governing. He wasn’t being ironic. It was said during the presidential campaign that one of the candidates was running for ... [click for more]

The Media As Enablers of Government Lies

by James Bovard August 1, 2009

Why do politicians so easily get away with telling lies? In large part, because the news media are more interested in bonding with politicians than in exposing them. Americans are encouraged to believe that the media will serve as a check and a balance on the government. Instead, the press too often volunteer as unpaid pimps, helping politicians deceive ... [click for more]

Obama’s Link to “Old Iron Pants”

by Jim Powell August 1, 2009

Since Barack Obama pledged a “New New Deal” for the American people, he has been favoring a combination of more government spending, more government regulations, and more power for labor unions. This has led some observers to conclude that he might be drawing inspiration from “Old Iron Pants” — the hard-drinking, fast-talking Gen. Hugh Johnson, Time magazine’s 1933 “Man ... [click for more]

Imprisoning Musical Creativity

by Jennifer Warren-Baker August 1, 2009

I am a composer. Since the age of 12, I have been painting canvases of sound at the piano. But my teachers never cared. In fact, my type of talent was deemed worthless by the government’s public-school system. Growing up in the D.C. area, I didn’t have any real models to follow. In the shadow of the nation’s capital, ... [click for more]

A Prudent Foreign Policy

by Doug Bandow August 1, 2009

Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America by Ted Galen Carpenter (Cato Institute, 2008); 352 pages. Change has come to Washington in the form of a new administration. Yet the cast of characters looks much the same. Their philosophies, while differing in degree, remain solidly interventionist. The question ... [click for more]

What We Spend on Health Care Is None of the Government’s Business

by Sheldon Richman July 30, 2009

“Preventive care” is one of the magic formulas often invoked in discussions of so-called health-care reform. Don’t worry about the apparent costs of reform, we’re told, because we’re going to save a ton of money with — fanfare — preventive care. To listen to this promise, you’d think no one would get sick if the ... [click for more]

The Health-Care Debate Needs a Dose of Reality

by Scott McPherson July 30, 2009

The current debate over “reforming” health care in America — and lest anyone need reminding, “reform” means more laws dictating our health-care decisions — is a perfect opportunity to start asking important questions about the world around us. In an essay written in 1973, “The Metaphysical versus the Man-Made,” the philosopher and novelist Ayn ... [click for more]

Shades of Operation Condor

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 29, 2009

The CIA’s assassination plan, which it chose to keep secret from Congress, brings to mind Operation Condor, a similar plan run by DINA, which was Chile’s counterpart to the CIA under the dictatorial regime of military strongman Augusto Pinochet. After Pinochet took power in a coup, his agents proceeded to round up communists and ... [click for more]

Martial Law and the War on Terrorism

by James Bovard July 28, 2009

The New York Times reported last week that the Bush administration considered sending in the U.S. military to arrest the so-called Lackawanna Six in 2002. Ironically, one of the worst prosecutorial overreaches by the Justice Department in the war on terror almost resulted in a temporary period of martial law. The Lackawanna Six was a group of half-a-dozen Yemeni-Americans from a ... [click for more]

Obama and the Guantánamo Deadline: It’s Worse than You Think

by Andy Worthington July 27, 2009

When the Obama administration’s Detention Policy Task Force, established by executive order on the president’s second day in office, conceded last week that it would miss its six-month deadline to issue its recommendations about how to close Guantánamo, many observers focused on whether this meant that Obama would fail to meet his deadline of Jan 21, 2010, for ... [click for more]

Failure Leads to Success in the Public Sector

by Gregory Bresiger July 24, 2009

We are playing out the latest chapter in the crisis and leviathan model in the financial-services business. It is a model in which public-sector failure leads to bigger government. It leads to success for socialists who want the government to expand into every aspect of our economy but dont want to overtly call for nationalization ... [click for more]