Freedom Daily Archive

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 ...

Spotsy High a Prison

by Thomas L. Johnson September 1, 2004

How can we speak of democracy or freedom when from the very beginning of life we mold the child to undergo tyranny, to obey a dictator? … How can we expect them, when school-life is finished, to accept and use the rights of freedom? — Maria Montessori, Education for a New World Two Spotsylvania High School students have been very ...

America’s Socialized Health Care

by Lawrence D. Wilson September 1, 2004

Health-care systems in most developed nations are in financial trouble. Health benefits are being cut back because of exploding costs. Degenerative illnesses such as diabetes and cancer are at epidemic levels in spite of new drugs and treatments. While doctors, politicians, and insurers blame each other, they rarely mention the real problem. Skyrocketing costs are due to the structure of ...

In Warsaw, a Good War Wasn’t

by Anne Applebaum September 1, 2004

The veterans have left town. The flags have been packed away for the Fourth of July. The memory of the Second World War, our Second World War, has been honored so now perhaps its worth taking a moment to honor someone elses. An opportunity to do so will present itself this Sunday, when CNN broadcasts an unusual documentary called ...

The Bill of Rights: The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2004

Arguably, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution should have been made first in the Bill of Rights because without the right to keep and bear arms, such rights as freedom of speech and freedom of the press would be treated as nothing more than meaningless “privileges” bestowed and taken away by government officials at will. The Second Amendment ...