Free Society

A Four-Point Plan for Government

by Laurence M. Vance September 1, 2020

In July 2010, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), launched the “If You See Something, Say Something” national campaign to raise “public awareness of the indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime, as well as the importance of reporting suspicious activity to state and local ...

Trump’s Authoritarianism Should be a Warning, Not a Guidebook

by Michael Zigismund August 24, 2020

When President Donald Trump floated the idea of postponing the upcoming presidential election, my social media feeds exploded with howls of “authoritarianism” and “fascism” and “toldya so.” More bark than bite I think we can all agree that the president has at least some authoritarian tendencies. But as presidential scholar Gene Healy recently

Watchwords that Threaten Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling August 18, 2020

One of the more disturbing aspects of our times is the growing distrust, even dislike, and, therefore, disregard for liberty in a seemingly growing number of corners of life. There is plenty of talk about “equality,” “racial justice,” “democracy,” “socialism,” “privilege,” “oppression” and “racism.” But, of liberty, that is, the liberty of the individual to live his own life ...

Discrimination and the “Ministerial Exception”

by Laurence M. Vance August 5, 2020

The U.S. Supreme Court issued two landmark discrimination decisions in its term that recently came to an end. However, only one will result in more liberty and fewer lawsuits. For several years, federal agencies and courts were split on the issue of whether the prohibition against discrimination in employment because of sex in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ...

Pandemic Follies: Tyranny Won’t Keep Us Safe

by James Bovard August 1, 2020

Politicians have destroyed more than 13 million jobs this year in a deluge of edicts aimed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200,000 Americans still died from the coronavirus, but the anti-COVID government crackdowns probably did far more damage than the virus. The COVID crisis has also shown how easy it is for politicians to fan fears to ...

Empire Kidnapping on American Streets

by Benjamin James Bartee July 30, 2020

Lest any observer refuse at this late date to acknowledge that the full weight of the police state is pressed on the American citizenry's neck, let the recent developments in Portland, Oregon settle the debate conclusively. Unidentified federal police are now snatching American citizens off the streets of Portland. Their victims receive no due process because ...

“Systemic Racism” Theory is the New Political Tribalism

by Richard M. Ebeling July 22, 2020

Have you stopped beating your wife? Yes or No? This is the classic question that condemns you as a wife beater, regardless of your answer. Now, welcome to the new world of “systemic racism.” Are you still benefiting from your “white privilege” oppression of others? Yes or No. Either reply unmasks you as a past or present racist. You ...

Save America from Cancel Culture

by Richard M. Ebeling July 14, 2020

One of the new fashionable phrases has become “cancel culture,” the idea that ideas, institutions, and people of the present as well of the past must be overturned and dethroned from legitimacy and acceptance in society, so as to expunge the injustices, cruelties, and insensitivities existing in current life and lingering over from history. The question is: what exactly ...

Liberty Is the Theme of the American Spirit

by Richard M. Ebeling July 8, 2020

July is the month when Americans celebrate the signing and then the announcement of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. While this July 4th was one of the most peculiar in the country’s history because of fears about and government restrictions on social gatherings due to the coronavirus, it is nonetheless one of the great cultural events ...

Seattle Gets It Half Right

by Laurence M. Vance July 7, 2020

The city of Seattle City Council has voted to strike down its drug-traffic and prostitution loitering laws. The vote was unanimous. I should emphasize that it is not drug-traffic and prostitution laws that were struck down, just drug-traffic and prostitution loitering laws. At least the Seattle City Council got it half right. According to Title 12A, Subtitle I, Chapters 12A.10 ...

Ad Hominems Against Freedom

by Richard M. Ebeling July 2, 2020

Statues are historical symbols of people and events from the past, and as such they reflect the heritage and values of a country. In the heightened current racial tensions in the United States, demonstrators and vandals have insisted that monuments glorifying the Confederacy and the old slave South must come down. But this challenge and attack against America’s past, in ...

The Coronavirus Crisis and Restoring the Spirit of Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2020

The year 2020 will, most certainly, go down in history as a momentous one. Having started out in January with most people fairly confident that relatively prosperous times were likely to continue at least into 2021, it witnessed within a couple of months entire economies almost everywhere collapsing into one of the most serious economic downturns of the last ...