Freedom Daily Archive

Bush’s Wiretap Crimes and the FISA Farce

by James Bovard March 1, 2006

President Bush proudly announced last December that he is violating federal law. He declared that in 2002 he had ordered the National Security Agency to begin conducting warrantless wiretaps and email intercepts on Americans. He asserted that the wiretaps would continue, regardless of the law. Bush claims that he must ignore ...

The Progressive Era, Part 2: Progressives and the Economy

by William L. Anderson March 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 The last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade or so of the 20th century saw the rise of the large corporation in the United States. Those of us who are used to mega-multi-national firms cannot appreciate the sea change that occurred in the United States, as business enterprises, from ...

The Disastrous World of the New York Subway, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger March 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Here is one thing government enterprise has undeniably delivered: There are no more serious debates about greed. How can there be greed when government enterprises such as the subways and Amtrak almost always lose boatloads of money? For example, in a recent Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) annual report, the ...

Misguided Democracy

by George Leef March 1, 2006

Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); 288 pages; $26.95. One of Winston Churchill’s most famous quips is that democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others. The supposition behind the “except” clause is that ...

The Separation of Economy and State

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2006

Hardly a week goes by without some free-market think tank or foundation’s publishing an analysis of some government program, pointing out its inevitable “waste, fraud, and abuse” and then issuing what has become a standard bromide: “The system needs reform.” This game is, of course, endless because all government ...

Is “the Environment” a Collectivist Idea?

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2006

No issue has been more prominent the last several decades than “the environment.” Almost every day a new environmental “threat” arises, spelling the end of life as we know it, if not literally. We are being poisoned by polluted water and air; man-made carcinogens hide in our food; our ozone protection from the sun is eroding. And then there’s ...

The Most Absurdities per Kilo

by James Bovard February 1, 2006

The war on drugs has produced more absurdities per kilo than any other federal policy. Drug warriors have had high-profile belly flop after belly flop. Yet most of the media and the vast majority of American politicians continue to treat this war with deference, if not reverence. One of the biggest farces of the George W. Bush-era war on drugs ...

The Progressive Era, Part 1: The Myth and the Reality

by William L. Anderson February 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 One of the most enduring set of myths from U.S. history comes from the political and social developments in what is called the “Progressive Era,” a period lasting from the late 1800s to the end of World War I. (Of course, one could argue, convincingly, that the Progressive Era never has ended.) ...

The Disastrous World of the New York Subway, Part 1

by Gregory Bresiger February 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 New York City just went through another egregious subway strike. Again. Yet this was a strike of public workers that was never supposed to occur. The workers are covered by the state’s Taylor law, which isn’t much of a law, since the workers repeatedly violate it. (There were ...

Mary Wollstonecraft

by Wendy McElroy February 1, 2006

O, why was I born with a different face? Why was I not born like this envious race? Why did Heaven adorn me with bountiful hand, And then set me down in an envious land? William Blake’s poem “Mary” (1803) could have been an epitaph for Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) — a woman born with a “different face” in a society hostile to her ...

The Separation of Education and State

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2006

Americans, like most people around the world, have become so accustomed to the role that government plays in educating children that the idea of separating education from the state usually comes as a complete shock to them. While everyone is aware of the ever-growing problems associated with public schooling, the ...

Who Made the State the Ultimate Parent?

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2006

When an opponent declares, “I will not come over to your side,” I calmly say, “Your child belongs to us already.” — Adolf Hitler If you believe that parents have a fundamental, natural right (recognized in the Constitution) to raise ...