Free Society

Gambling, Freedom, and Federalism

by Laurence M. Vance November 8, 2011

The United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, better known as the supercommittee, was created back in August by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which raised the debt limit. The committee consists of twelve members of Congress, evenly divided between the House and the Senate and between Democrats and Republicans. By the day before Thanksgiving, the committee ...

Anything That’s Peaceful Means Anything That’s Peaceful

by Laurence M. Vance October 31, 2011

Leonard Read (1898–1983), opponent of Roosevelt’s New Deal and founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, was one of the twentieth century’s great champions of individual liberty, private property, the free market, and limited government. He counted among his friends and advisors such luminaries as Ludwig von Mises and Henry Hazlitt. Although he authored numerous collections of essays, Read’s ...

Restoring Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 27, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Declaring that Saddam Hussein had become a new Hitler who was bent on conquering the United States and the rest of the world, President George H.W. Bush went to war against Iraq, securing the permission of the United Nations but not securing the congressional declaration of war required by the ...

Prison-Yard America

by Wendy McElroy October 12, 2011

Since September, a public-school district in Florida has been taking fingerprint scans at the entrance to schools as a way to monitor attendance. The scans are compared against a database of students to detect truants. As in most highly intrusive school policies, parents are thrown a bone of control by allowing them to request an “opt out” for ...

Restoring Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 25, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Today, many Americans have come to accept that Iran is an official enemy of the United States. Most people know about the animosity between the Iranian government and the U.S. government. Since many Americans often conflate the Iranian government and the Iranian citizenry, the entire country is usually viewed as ...

Stockholm and the Kidnapped Citizenry

by Rich Schwartzman September 8, 2011

Individual men and women don’t need enemies. Many want a challenge with an opponent, someone with whom to compete cooperatively, but not an enemy. Governments, however, do need enemies to get their citizenry to submit to coercion. Some of us accept that as almost axiomatic, a self-evident fact that’s so blatant we can’t understand why the rest of society doesn’t ...

Restoring Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 30, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Now that the celebrations over the killing of Osama bin Laden have died down, reality is setting in for the American people. It is slowly dawning on them that the killing wont make any difference whatsoever and, in fact, might even make things worse for them. The occupations of Iraq ...

Rolling Back the Myth of Good Government

by Laurence M. Vance August 20, 2011

Rollback: Repealing Big Government before the Coming Financial Collapse by Thomas E. Woods Jr. (Washington D.C.: Regnery, 2011); 232 pages. The government of the United States has secured the confidence and consent of the American people through myths of its benevolence, provision, innovation, achievements, scientific advances, educational system, and protection. It takes credit for everything good that happens ...

Book Review: The Future of Freedom

by George Leef October 1, 2003

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria (W.W. Norton and Co., 2003); 256 pages; $24.95. One of the most annoying things that Americans have to put up with during elections is the rhetoric that sanctifies democracy. We are bombarded with admonitions to vote, with suggestions that there is something shameful in not “participating in our ...

Do Americans Really Want Freedom?

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2002

Aye, free. Free as a tethered ass! W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida AMERICANS CHERISH FREEDOM. So they say. They praise it every Fourth of July. They solemnly put hands to hearts and pledge allegiance to the United States of America ..., with freedom and justice for all. They open every ball game by singing, Oer the land of the free. Indeed, they ...