Explore Freedom

The Disaster of Government-Run Businesses, Part 1

by Jim Powell March 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 Barack Obama defied experience everywhere when he stubbornly claimed he could make a government-run health program work. The standard practice of any government-run business is to provide favored interest groups with something for nothing, forcing other people to pay for it, and there always seem to be complications. If Obama really wanted to see how ... [click for more]

America’s Injustice System

by George Leef March 1, 2010

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey A. Silverglate (Encounter Books, 2009); 325 pages. It was probably inevitable that as the United States became an increasingly politicized nation, its justice system would be transformed from one that actually sought justice into one where prosecutors abuse their power to win cases and advance their careers. ... [click for more]

Bernanke Has the Whole World in His Hands

by Sheldon Richman February 25, 2010

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has a big task ahead of him. He has to withdraw most of the $2.2 trillion the Fed created and pumped into the banking system since 2007 before a monster inflation strikes and robs of us our purchasing power. But he has do it without sending the economy back into a recession in ... [click for more]

The Political Philosophy of Oscar Wilde

by Wendy McElroy February 25, 2010

The renowned playwright Oscar Wilde once said, “A man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.” At the height of his career in 1895, Wilde dominated London dinner-tables, stages, and opinion. Two of his plays opened that year to rave reviews by both critics and the public. His epigrams and activities were repeated — often by ... [click for more]

Obama’s Phony Populism

by Sheldon Richman February 23, 2010

President Obama likes to portray himself as a man of the people. But a look behind the veil shows this to be a deception. Take the financial regulatory overhaul brewing in Washington. I know what you’re thinking: What could better illustrate Obama’s bona fides as a champion of the people? He wants to regulate the banking industry after the recent ... [click for more]

Torture Whitewash

by Andy Worthington February 23, 2010

The long-awaited report by the OPR (the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility) into the conduct of the lawyers in the OLC (Office of Legal Counsel), regarding their role in approving the use of torture, has finally been published (PDF). The report largely focuses on two memos dated August 1, 2002, and a third dated March 14, ... [click for more]

CPAC 2010: “Why Real Conservatives Are Against the War on Terrorism” (Video) by Kelly Torrance, Philip Giraldi, Karen Kwiatkowski, Bruce Fein,

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 22, 2010

Is Americas current War on Terror essential to keeping our nation safe? Or is it yet another vehicle for the federal government to increase its power over our lives and take away our liberties? Is the War on Terror actually weakening our national defense and increasing opposition overseas? The panel, co-sponsored by The Future of Freedom Foundation, Ladies of ... [click for more]

Once Again, Democracy Is Not Freedom (and We Are Not the Government)

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2010

President Bush and his neoconservative supporters were practically teary-eyed on election day in Iraq. No longer did it matter that the weapons of mass destruction that had been used to scare the American people into supporting the war didn’t exist. Or that thousands of U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis were now dead or maimed. Or that ... [click for more]

GOP, R.I.P?

by Sheldon Richman February 11, 2010

I don’t usually come to the defense of conservatives, but I am perplexed that they are being attacked because they don’t support John McCain’s presidential bid. Self-anointed Voices of Responsibility are chiding conservative spokesmen and spokeswomen for criticizing McCain on several counts and for going as far as promising to vote for Hillary Clinton if she’s the alternative to ... [click for more]

Repeating Pentagon Lies on Gitmo Recidivism

by Andy Worthington February 8, 2010

What is to be done about the idiocy that has spread, like a poisonous but imperceptible gas, from the Pentagon to Congress, and is now wafting through the White House, deranging all it touches? As it travels, this dismal infection transforms statistical impossibilities into magic numbers, which appear, to the uninformed observer, to confirm the most shameless lies of ... [click for more]

The Road to Health-Care Serfdom

by Sheldon Richman February 5, 2010

I sensed a bit of frustration during President Obama’s state of the union address when he said, “The longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became.” I’m not totally sure what point he thought he was making. After all, it wouldn’t speak well for a proposal if prolonged discussion of its particulars created doubt about ... [click for more]

When the Military Serves as Police

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 4, 2010

What happens when the military is used in a police capacity? You get a “war on terrorism,” one in which people think that the laws of war now apply to the situation. But in actuality, nothing could be further from the truth. What you actually get is a criminal-justice problem that inevitably goes horribly awry, causing the problem to ... [click for more]