Free Society

Macaulay and My 75-Cent Epiphanies, Part 1

by James Bovard August 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Fearing that my writing style was becoming anemic, I recently sought a literary booster shot from my bookshelves. Happily, a dozen volumes of Thomas Macaulay awaited me. Macaulay made history mesmerizing, and I have been captivated by his speed, grace, and wit for 40 years. Nobody would mistake my shelf of Macaulay books for leather-bound ...

Why Not Equalize Beauty, Talent, and Intelligence?

by Walter Block July 12, 2023

A basic premise of the “progressive” (actually, regressive) left is that the rich have too much money and the poor have too little. Therefore, they say, it is justified to take wealth away from the former and give it to the latter. The typical means leftists use to accomplish this is to adopt a steeply progressive tax ...

Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and College Admissions

by Laurence M. Vance July 10, 2023

Conservatives are cheering and progressives are crying about the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which was consolidated with Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina et al. The cases began in 2014 when Students for Fair Admission (SFFA) — a nonprofit ...

Everyone Should Have the Same Freedom to Contract — or Not

by George Leef July 1, 2023

The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, that seems to turn on the meaning of the First Amendment. In my view, this is indeed an important case, but casting it as a free speech dispute is mistaken. The real issue is whether all Americans enjoy freedom of contract, or if, instead, some ...

The U.S. Government Is the Real Criminal

by John W. Whitehead June 22, 2023

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.”—H.L. Mencken And so it continues. This entire fiasco—indicting Donald Trump for allegedly violating both the Espionage ...

Jeremy Bentham, Usury Laws, and the CFPB

by Laurence M. Vance June 1, 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case that challenges the constitutionality of the funding of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), “a 21st century agency that implements and enforces Federal consumer financial law and ensures that markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive.” The agency was created by the Dodd-Frank ...

Rein in the FBI

by John W. Whitehead May 26, 2023

“One of the creeping hands of totalitarianism running through the democracy is the Federal Bureau of Investigation… Because why does the FBI do all this? To scare the hell out of people… They work for the establishment and the corporations and the politicos to keep things as they are. And they want to frighten and chill ...

The Government Is Turning America Into a Constitution-Free Zone

by John W. Whitehead May 17, 2023

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”—James Madison How far would you really go to secure the nation’s borders in the so-called name of national security? Would you give the government limitless amounts of money? Surround the entire country with ...

Danger Within: The Government Is Turning America Into a Constitution-Free Zone

by John W. Whitehead May 11, 2023

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”—James Madison How far would you really go to secure the nation’s borders in the so-called name of national security? Would you give the government limitless amounts of money? Surround the entire country with ...

Government Spin Doctors Control the News Cycle

by John W. Whitehead April 19, 2023

“We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth.”—Former New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg Let’s talk about fake news stories, shall we? There’s the garden variety fake news that is not really “news” so much as it is titillating, tabloid-worthy material peddled by anyone ...

The Government Is Fomenting Mass Hysteria

by John W. Whitehead April 6, 2023

“This country has been having a nationwide nervous breakdown since 9/11. A nation of people suddenly broke, the market economy goes to shit, and they’re threatened on every side by an unknown, sinister enemy. But I don't think fear is a very effective way of dealing with things—of responding to reality. Fear is just another word ...

World Economic Forum Wants to Make You a Serf

by James Bovard April 1, 2023

The January meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, should have set off alarms among freedom lovers around the globe. The annual confab of billionaires, political weasels, and deranged activists laid out plans to further repress humanity. But at least the gathering provided plenty of comic relief for people who enjoy elite buffoonery. Self-worship is obligatory in ...