Freedom Daily Archive

My Two-Bit Political Awakening

by James Bovard December 1, 2021

Samuel Johnson may have been wrong when he declared, “There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.” But for young kids, collecting coins is a less pernicious pastime than becoming a pyromaniac or Tik-Tok star. My own experience collecting, buying, and selling coins vaccinated me against trusting politicians long before ...

Equality and Fairness for All but Property Owners

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2021

The grossly misnamed Equality Act is a government attack on the rights of private property, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, free enterprise, and freedom of contract. According to the official summary of bill (H.R.5): This bill prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, ...

Civil Liberties, Economic Freedom, and Property Rights

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2021

We are living at a time when civil liberties are severely under attack from a number of directions. Two of the most obvious ones at the moment are the response by many governments to the coronavirus crisis and the rise of “critical race theory,” with its accompanying “cancel culture.” We are seeing imposed or threatened suppression of freedom of speech, ...

Freedom Is Not Free

by Leonard Read December 1, 2021

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. —Abraham Lincoln Only a few — the pure, the apt and the true — never deny freedom to anyone. All others, while they may hope for freedom for themselves, deny this blessing to others in countless ways, sometimes knowingly but often in ignorance. Whoever diminishes your freedom deserves it not ...

The Real Lessons of the Afghanistan Disaster

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2021

I will never forget a formal dinner I attended shortly after the 9/11 attacks. It was sponsored by a conservative-oriented libertarian foundation. There were hundreds of people in attendance, mostly conservatives and conservative-oriented libertarians. There was no doubt about where most everyone at that dinner stood: They were fully in support of President Bush’s plan to launch the “global ...

Bitter Belated Afghan Vindication

by James Bovard November 1, 2021

The 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan ended with a bang in August as a terrorist attack killed a dozen Marines at the Kabul airport. For almost 20 years, The Future of Freedom Foundation has been one of the few organizations that stalwartly criticized the Afghanistan war. FFF President Jacob Hornberger helped set the gold standard for uncompromising honesty about ...

Contactless Government

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2021

It seems that at almost every business website you go to, you will see a link to information on that business’s response to the coronavirus, the pandemic, or COVID-19. One of the original responses of businesses to the COVID-19 “pandemic” that is not only still with us, but apparently here to stay, is contactless service. Although this initially appealed ...

Resisting the Market Process Undermines Freedom and Prosperity

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2021

The free market often seems a hard sell. The resistance and opposition to its seemingly straightforward case emerges and persists, over and over again. It is all very strange, since, after all, how many people do not want the personal liberty to make their own choices about what to buy, where to live, and the amount they are willing ...

Cuba and the Destruction of Conscience

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2021

Last summer, protests erupted in Cuba against the communist regime over poor economic and health conditions within the country. No doubt operating under pressure from the Pentagon and the CIA, President Biden used the Cuban government’s suppression of the protests as an excuse to strengthen the decades-old U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. Biden proclaimed that he was supporting the Cuban ...

The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes

by James Bovard October 1, 2021

The Biden administration is seeking to radically narrow the boundaries of respectable American political thought. The administration has repeatedly issued statements and reports that could automatically castigate citizens who distrust the federal government. We may eventually learn that the new Biden guidelines spurred a vast increase in federal surveillance and other abuses against Americans who were guilty of nothing ...

Predatory Pricing

by Laurence M. Vance October 1, 2021

Uncle Sam can’t seem to make up his mind about how to define predatory pricing. Charge too little for a good or a service and the federal government might term it predatory pricing. But charge too much for a good or a service and the federal government might term it predatory pricing. And here is a related ...

The Importance of Liberty and the Rhetorical Misuse of Freedom

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2021

The seemingly singular concern of modern political debate, dispute, and disagreement is the issue of how and in what forms government will command and control and restrict and regulate the actions and interactions of virtually everyone in society, as well as redistribute the income and wealth of some for the benefit of others. Open the opinion pages of practically any ...