Freedom Daily Archive

Political Evils and Utopian Seductions

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1994

Without question, one of the most moving and disturbing movies of the last several years has been Steven Spielberg's film, Schindler's List. Wrapped in a fascinating story about one German businessman's successful attempt to save 1,100 Jews from the Nazi extermination machine is a visual style that captures more clearly the cold ...

Will You Be Safer If Guns Are Banned? Part 2

by Jarret B. Wollstein August 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 Gun prohibition threatens your safety and your life. Prohibition will make it much more difficult for you to defend yourself and your family from predators. Prohibition will create a violent black market dominated by criminal gangs. And prohibition will result in many police assaults and murders of innocent Americans. Gun-control laws will make our streets ...

Citizen Exploitation Isn’t New

by John L. Egolf Jr. August 1, 1994

Recent news that the U.S. government subjected as many as 800 people to radiation as part of an experimental program during the Cold War era, and Energy Secretary Hazel R. O'Leary's acknowledgment and recommendation of compensation for the victims is cause for deep concern and is also a symptom of a far wider and deeper sickness infesting the U.S. ...

Gun-Control Group Fears Us Most

by Ken Grissom August 1, 1994

I wish people would stop dragging hunters into this gun control argument. And if I was in the Mafia, or even a halfway active street gang, I'd probably feel the same way about the constant references to criminals, criminals, criminals. Gun control has nothing to do with hunters or criminals, at least not professional criminals. Look, the Second Amendment is real short. ...

The Lessons of Yeltsen’s Show of Force

by Alan W. Bock August 1, 1994

The standoff at the Russian White House, eventually won (for the time being) by forces loyal to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, demonstrates once again the truth that most holders and defenders of political power prefer to keep under wraps: that political power is ultimately the result of the use of force, and depends for its continuance on the willingness ...

Book Review: The Nazi Connection

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1994

The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism by Stefan Kühl (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) 166 pages; $22.00. In his 1910 textbook, Elementary Principles of Economics, world-renowned Yale Professor Irving Fisher devoted part of a chapter to "Population in Relation to Wealth." Fisher warned of the problem of "race suicide" caused by the ...

Classical Liberalism in Argentina: A Lesson for the World

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1994

Two centuries ago, Adam Smith asked a very fundamental question: what are the nature and causes of the wealth of nations? Note that Smith did not ask what most people today ask — that is, what are the causes of poverty? Smith understood that poverty had always been the natural state of mankind. He wanted to know something much ...

The Government’s Smoke Screen for Health Nazism

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1994

Since in our era of health Nazism, it is an ideological requirement to state whether one is "politically correct" on various issues, let me be up-front. I am a smoker — both cigarettes and a pipe — and I enjoy them immensely. I used to run in 10-K races, and I used to run seven-minute ...

Will You Be Safer If Guns Are Banned? Part 1

by Jarret B. Wollstein July 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 Violence is out of control, and guns are a major cause. This is a belief many Americans now share. This belief is fueling a nationwide movement that could result in a total prohibition on private-gun ownership in the near future. Ownership of private guns is being banned one step at a time. The recently enacted ...

Gun Control: A Historical Perspective, Part 2

by Benedict D. LaRosa July 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 Let's look at a few recent examples in history of armed and disarmed populaces. A shining example of the former is Switzerland. Like America, Switzerland won its independence in a war fought by armed citizenry. Since independence in the 14th century, the Swiss have been required ...

Book Review: Double Lives

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1994

Double Lives: Spies and Writers in the Secret Soviet War of Ideas against the West by Stephen Koch (New York: Free Press, 1994) 419 pages; $24.95. In the first half of the 20th century, one of the most respected and internationally famous economists was Arthur C. Pigou. A Cambridge University professor, Pigou ...

Nationalism: Its Nature and Consequences

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1994

In the 19th century, many classical liberals believed that the ideas of "national identity" and "nationalism" were false scents that were likely to lead the world away from liberty and towards a continuation of political tyranny and international conflict. For example, William E. H. Lecky, in his study Democracy and Liberty (1896), argued that "the idea and ...