Freedom Daily Archive

The Colonial Venture of Ireland, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy May 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Irish history has been likened to the cry of wind through a ruined house because so much of it deals with destruction and the breaking of a whole into parts. Centuries of conflict between Catholic and Protestant, Irish rebel and British authority offer a dramatic narrative ...

Rebuilding America: Domestic Policy

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2004

Almost everything the federal government has touched for the last several decades is in crisis. The war on drugs: failure and destruction. Social Security: fraudulent and bankrupt. Foreign policy: led to 9/11 and massive assaults on civil liberties. Medicare and Medicaid: caused health-care costs to soar. Education: public schooling is worse than ever. Monetary policy: a plunging dollar in ...

Is Free Trade Obsolete? Part 1

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 In the last several decades, areas of the developing world, particularly Asia, have become politically more stable and free, more open to foreign investment. The populations there are better educated and have access to modern technology, including the Internet. They are thus more productive. This sounds like something to be welcomed, not only in a ...

The Neocon War on Peace and Freedom, Part 1

by James Bovard April 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 The main problem with Bush’s war on terrorism is that he has not attacked enough foreign regimes and not sufficiently trampled the privacy of the American people. Such is the thesis of David Frum, former speechwriter for President Bush, and Richard Perle, currently on the Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Board, co-authors of the new book ...

April 19: Freedom’s Birthday

by Scott McPherson April 1, 2004

Americans revere a great number of dates that hold special significance for their culture and history. The Fourth of July, Veterans Day, the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a quick glance through any calendar provides numerous other examples. Yet the one day of most importance, to both the nation and its culture, is the one that is conspicuously absent ...

America’s Empire of Bases

by Chalmers Johnson April 1, 2004

As distinct from other peoples, most Americans do not recognize or do not want to recognize that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a ...

Book Review: Drug War Heresies

by Paul Armentano April 1, 2004

Drug War Heresies by Robert J. MacCoun and Peter Reuter (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); 479 pages; $28.00. In the ongoing debate over drug policy, professors Robert MacCoun and Peter Reuter are betwixt and between. On the one hand, government officials have assailed their empirical data documenting prohibition’s negligible impact on both drug use and perceived harm because it undermines ...

How Hitler Became a Dictator

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2004

Whenever U.S. officials wish to demonize someone, they inevitably compare him to Adolf Hitler. The message immediately resonates with people because everyone knows that Hitler was a brutal dictator. But how many people know how Hitler actually became a dictator? My bet is, very few. I' d also bet that more than a few people would be surprised at how ...

Campaign Finance Won’t Square the Circle

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2004

The new restrictions on freedom that constitute campaign-finance reform raise some important issues in political philosophy. It would have been nice if the five Supreme Court justices who upheld the law had addressed those issues. They didnt even notice them. The majority said Congress violated no constitutional stricture, particularly the First Amendment, when it barred political parties from raising or ...

Trampling Aliens in the Name of Anti-Terrorism

by James Bovard March 1, 2004

Americans are still learning the details of some of the abuses that were committed against those rounded up as suspected terrorists after 9/11. The Justice Department inspector general issued superb reports in June and December 2003 detailing violation of rights, denial of due process, and, in some cases, physical brutality. Perhaps the best way to capture the flavor of the ...

A Culture of Subservience

by Scott McPherson March 1, 2004

In a December 2 op-ed in the Washington Times, “Building a Culture of Service,” John M. Bridgeland, president and director of USA Freedom Corps, wrote, “President Bush sought to foster a culture of service, citizenship, and responsibility” following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and, to that end, created the ...

A Lesson from Vietnam, Part 3

by Wendy McElroy March 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 “Counterinsurgency” became the new American buzzword and Vietnam became the testing ground, with American leaders looking to apply its lessons elsewhere — for example, in Cuba. The Kennedy administration developed a policy which broke the containment of revolution into three stages: first, military aid programs; second, counterinsurgency by which American ...