Freedom Daily Archive

West Africa and Colonialism, Part 2

by Wendy McElroy November 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Nineteeth-century Europe revolutionized trade through the development of steam power that sent trains across continents and large cargo ships across the sea. Construction projects, such as the Suez Canal, were proposed to link Africa and Asia to a trade-hungry Europe. With the advent of quinine, which effectively removed the worst ...

Book Review: Drug War Crimes

by Paul Armentano November 1, 2004

Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition by Jeffrey A. Miron (Oakland: The Independent Institute, 2004); 109 pages; $15.95. For the past several decades economists, perhaps more so than any other group of professionals, have been largely united in their criticism of American drug policy. On numerous occasions, prominent economists such as Milton ...

The Bill of Rights: Searches and Seizures

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2004

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is rooted in the horrific government abuses arising from “general warrants” in English history and “writs of assistance” in British colonial history in America. With the aim of protecting the American people from similar abuses at the hands of U.S. federal officials, the Fourth Amendment was worded as follows: The right of ...

The Danger of Science

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2004

Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ludwig Lachmann, among other members of the Austrian school of economics, often lamented that the discipline of economics alienated itself from flesh-and-blood existence to the extent it imitated the natural sciences, such as physics. With that in mind, I received the news that Cambridge University economist Partha Sarathi Dasgupta, ...

Sudan: Don’t Forget the Past Follies

by James Bovard October 1, 2004

Many politicians and much of the media are hollering for a U.S. military intervention into Sudan to stop the growing carnage in that nation’s civil war. However, few Americans clearly recall the debacle from the last time the United States attacked Sudan. Operation Infinite Reach was a farce of the first ...

West Africa and Colonialism, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy October 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Until recently, Western scholarship ignored West Africa. The blind spot reflects Europes historical view of Africa as a continent to be exploited, not examined. To Europe, Africa was a market for products and a source of raw goods. In short, it was an object of mercantilism the economic system ...

In Defense of Open Immigration

by Anthony Gregory October 1, 2004

Immigration is one of the most difficult and divisive issues for freedom lovers. Many principled libertarians and champions of a free society believe in government restrictions on immigration, either for their own sake or as an interim measure so long as the United States has welfare programs that are presumed to attract immigrants, who then become net recipients of ...

Book Review: How Capitalism Saved America

by George Leef October 1, 2004

How Capitalism Saved America by Thomas J. DiLorenzo (Crown Forum, 2004); 285 pages; $25.95. Back in my days as a college professor, I used to give my students a quiz on the first day of class. It didn’t count in their grades, and the purpose was simply to find out the extent to which they had absorbed the ...

The Bill of Rights: Antipathy to Militarism

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2004

The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “no Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.” Obviously, the Third Amendment has little relevance today. But what is relevant for us today is the mindset that ...

When Force Masquerades as Social Science

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2004

Maybe desperation has me grasping at straws, but I am encouraged that people usually try to camouflage their advocacy of physical force against innocent people. It means they must be at least slightly embarrassed at favoring the threat of violence against those who have remained peaceful. That can signify only their at-least-dim awareness that the initiation of force is ...

Saddam as the Twentieth Hijacker

by James Bovard September 1, 2004

The 9/11 commission reported in June that there was no “collaborative relationship” between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and thus that Bush’s Enemy No. 1 had no role in the 9/11 attacks. Far from finding any partnership between the two, the report noted that bin Laden “at one time sponsored anti-Saddam Islamists ...

State-Run Schools: The New Caesaropapism

by Lawrence M. Ludlow September 1, 2004

After two and a half years of the so-called war on terror, it is disturbingly clear that the attacks of 9/11 were the result of an immoral U.S. foreign policy and that the government’s inability to prevent the attacks represents a massive and inexcusable failure. Nonetheless, faith in government reached epidemic levels in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead of wholesale ...