Freedom Daily Archive

Book Review: The Future of Freedom

by George Leef October 1, 2003

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria (W.W. Norton and Co., 2003); 256 pages; $24.95. One of the most annoying things that Americans have to put up with during elections is the rhetoric that sanctifies democracy. We are bombarded with admonitions to vote, with suggestions that there is something shameful in not “participating in our ...

There Is No Freedom in Iraq, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Unfortunately, all too many Americans have swallowed — hook, line, and sinker — the Bush administration’s claim that the Iraqi people are now free. The U.S. invasion of Iraq has indeed ousted the brutal dictatorial regime that ruled the country, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that life under the regime ...

An Empire for America

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2003

Shortly before his death in 1902, the great classical-liberal social philosopher Herbert Spencer penned an essay entitled “Imperialism and Slavery” that was included in a collection of his writings under the title Facts and Comments (1902). The theme of the essay was that, as Great Britain was proceeding to expand its empire around the world, it was not only enslaving ...

The Fraud of Insider-Trading Law, Part 1

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 This article was originally intended as a discussion of the Martha Stewart case. But instead it will be a discussion of insider trading. Many people think those are one and the same issue. But that is incorrect. After more than a year of associating Martha Stewart with insider trading, the U.S. Justice Department declined to ...

Bush’s WMD Flimflams

by James Bovard September 1, 2003

The Bush administration’s rush to war against Iraq was justified largely by the danger that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction supposedly posed to the United States and to U.S. allies. In his January 28, 2003, state of the Union address, Bush denounced Saddam as “the dictator who is assembling the world’s ...

The Abolitionist Adventure, Part 3

by Wendy McElroy September 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 National attention soon focused on whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state — a matter that affected the balance of power in the Senate. The immense Kansas-Nebraska territory had been formerly closed to slavery under the Missouri Compromise. But the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 — ...

The Deerslayer, the Bootmaker, and the Violin Player, Part 1

by Scott McPherson September 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 Once there lived a man called “The Deerslayer.” The Deerslayer lived in the plush green valley of a rugged mountain range and survived through his cunning and skillful use of a rifle to hunt game. His mountain valley home was far to the north; he saw only a few short months of warm weather ...

Book Review: Gulag

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2003

Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum (New York: Doubleday, 2003); 677 pages; $35. Siberia. The word has had a chilling connotation for people around the world for 200 years. Long before Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, the tsarist regime had used the vast area that stretches from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific and Arctic Oceans as ...

Classical Liberalism and World Peace

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2003

Since the end of the First World War in 1918, the world has been in search of international order and global peace through the political method of international organization. The League of Nations was seen as the great hope for world peace and security. Its failure in the years between the two world wars was taken ...

There is No Freedom in Iraq, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Most Americans are familiar with the political and civil aspects of liberty. They include such rights as freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, the right to vote, and the right to petition public officials for redress of grievances. They also include important procedural protections in ...

Two Great Books

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2003

Libertarians love books. They hunger for reading material and are always eager to hear of new works dealing with the broad and deep subject of individual liberty and its social and economic implications. In my opinion, two books in particular belong on every libertarian’s shelf. I mean this literally because these are books that libertarians will want to consult often. One, ...

The Greatest Ignorance of the Greatest Number

by James Bovard August 1, 2003

The specter of an ignorant or indifferent populace has long haunted democracy. Montesquieu wrote in 1748, The tyranny of a principal in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. James Madison warned, A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue ...