Free Society

Ali Is Dead, Fear is Alive & Free Speech Is Being Dealt a Knock-Out Punch

by John W. Whitehead June 7, 2016

“What are the defenders of free speech to do? The sad fact is that this fundamental freedom is on its heels across America. Politicians of both parties want to use the power of government to silence their foes. Some in the university community seek to drive it from their campuses. And an entire generation of Americans is being taught ...

The Keys to Human Prosperity: Individual Liberty and the Rule of Law

by Richard M. Ebeling May 30, 2016

We live at time when, increasingly, the U.S. government operates in arbitrary and discretionary ways. Government regulatory agencies seemingly have unrestrained powers over land-use, business manufacturing and enterprise, the workplace and the environment under broad legislative mandates. And proposals are now frequently being made for ad hoc restrictions and prohibitions on freedoms of speech, press, religion and association.  The ...

The Shameful Truth About the Government’s Secret Experiments

by John W. Whitehead May 11, 2016

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us ...

Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution: A Graduation Message for a Dark Age

by John W. Whitehead May 3, 2016

“The most striking fact about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not that he slept 20 years, but that he slept through a revolution. While he was peacefully snoring up on the mountain, a great revolution was taking place in the world - indeed, a revolution which would, at points, change the course of history. And ...

Bipartisan Battering of Freedom

by James Bovard May 1, 2016

For more than 40 years, Republicans have been promising to cut federal spending. In the same period, federal outlays have inched up by a few trillion dollars. But the Grand Old Party continues singing the same song — though voters may finally be losing confidence in the opposition team. The latest pratfall occurred last December, once again illustrating that Republican ...

Censored, Surveilled, Watch Listed and Jailed

by John W. Whitehead April 28, 2016

“You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”—George Orwell, 1984 In past ages, those who dared to speak out against tyranny—viewed as an act of treason—were blinded, castrated, disfigured, mutilated, rendered mute by having their tongues cut out of their heads, and ultimately ...

The Bathroom Wars: More Freedom is Going Down the Toilet

by Richard M. Ebeling April 27, 2016

Let me be frank and up front from the start. I was biologically born male, and I have always felt and viewed myself as male. In addition, I have never had an urge to cross-dress or a desire for a sex change operation. However, in a free society an individual is at liberty to dress however they want and pay ...

Society’s Newest Victims of Discrimination

by Laurence M. Vance April 11, 2016

The federal government has long been concerned about discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability. Although the Obama administration supports adding discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity to the list, they haven’t been officially added yet. Meanwhile, the administration has come to the rescue of another group that it feels is being ...

Why Progressives Don’t Understand and are Enemies of Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling April 4, 2016

What does freedom mean? What is the purpose of government? And what should be the government’s relationship to each of us as individuals and as members of society as a whole? These issues recently came up during a dinner conversation with a new acquaintance with whom I’d not previously had such a discussion. The views that I expressed in the ...

Obama’s Forgotten Victims

by James Bovard April 1, 2016

The White House kept one seat vacant in the gallery during Obama’s State of the Union Address in January “for the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice.” This was part of Obama’s crusade for new federal restrictions on firearms ownership. But shouldn’t there have also been chairs left empty to memorialize other casualties — including those ...

Can a Business Overcharge Its Customers?

by Laurence M. Vance April 1, 2016

How many times have we heard someone say that he was overcharged for something? The answer to the question of whether a business can overcharge its customers seems, on the surface, to be quite obvious. Yet, it is a question that has more than one answer. At the end of last year, Whole Foods Market, a supermarket chain specializing in ...

From Democracy to Pathocracy: The Rise of the Political Psychopath

by John W. Whitehead March 30, 2016

“Politicians are more likely than people in the general population to be sociopaths. I think you would find no expert in the field of sociopathy/psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder who would dispute this... That a small minority of human beings literally have no conscience was and is a bitter pill for our society to swallow — but it does ...