Freedom Daily Archive

Conservative Principles

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2020

Back at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis in the United States in March of this year, two Democratic representatives (Tim Ryan of Ohio and Ro Khanna of California) proposed that the federal government give at least $1,000 to every American making less than $65,000 a year. Three Democratic senators (Michael F. Bennet of Colorado, Cory Booker of New ...

Collectivism Breeds Indifference to the Loss of Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2020

Who does not want to make the world a better place? With so much sorrow and suffering, poverty and plunder, cynicism and corruption in far too many places, nearly everyone, if asked, will usually say that if he could he would try to make this shared planet of ours a safer, prettier, more prosperous, and less unjust shared domicile ...

The Gold Clause: A Free-Market Gold Standard

by Wendy McElroy December 1, 2020

President Franklin Roosevelt destroyed one of the most valuable uses of gold when he nationalized ownership of the metal in 1933: the gold clause. This value did not return when private ownership of gold was legalized once more in 1974, partly because its use is still discouraged by anti-usury laws. The impact of its sudden absence was dramatized by a ...

Black Lives Matter, But Not to Everyone, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2020

Part 1 | Part 2 I recently watched the Netflix series Seberg, which profiles the Hollywood actress Jean Seberg and the U.S. government’s intentional and secret destruction of her. Why did the federal government, specifically the federal government’s national police force, the FBI, decide to destroy Seberg? Among other reasons, it was because back in the late 1960s and 1970s ...

End Police Tyranny by Repealing Laws

by James Bovard November 1, 2020

“I can’t breathe,” George Floyd protested as a Minneapolis cop pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck for eight minutes while Floyd was lying face down. Floyd’s death sparked violent protests, looting, and arson attacks in Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is just the latest reminder that politicians and judges — through federal law and judicial interpretation — have turned ...

The Real Constitutional Crisis

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2020

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a crisis (plural: crises) is: 1a: the turning point for better or worse in an acute disease or fever b: a paroxysmal attack of pain, distress, or disordered function c: an emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person’s life; a midlife crisis 2: the decisive moment (as in a literary plot); The crisis of ...

Francis Lieber’s America and the Politics of Today

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2020

Presidential election years always seem to mark dramatic and historically important milestones. The political parties nominate their candidates for the highest governmental office in the land. Party platforms are written and offered to the voting public with great fanfare about how, if their candidates to the White House and the Congress are elected, a new dawn will spread over ...

Will People Now Ask the Fundamental Question?

by Michael Swanson November 1, 2020

The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory by Andrew Bacevich (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2020), 236 pages. Andrew Bacevich’s new book, The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory, examines the period of time between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. ...

Socialism, American Style, Part 6

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2020

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 I grew up on a farm on the Rio Grande just outside Laredo, Texas, a city that is situated on the U.S.-Mexico border. I lived practically half my life in Texas. Throughout that time, I witnessed an immigration ...

“Extremism” as a Ticket to Tyrannize

by James Bovard October 1, 2020

“Extremists” are one of the famous bogeymen that American politicians invoke to sanctify their own power. But the definition of “extremism” has forever been in flux. The only consistent element in definitions of extremism is that politicians always win. In the 1770s, people who suggested that the king of England had no right to rule America were considered extremists. Even ...

Donald Trump, Flag Burning, and the First Amendment

by Laurence M. Vance October 1, 2020

Earlier this year, Germany’s Parliament passed an amendment to outlaw the burning of foreign flags, including the flag of the European Union. The vote was in response to an anti-Israel rally held on the streets of Berlin in which protesters burned Israeli flags. The penalty is a maximum of three years in prison. Burning the German flag is already ...

The Socialist Elixir Is a Deadly Cyanide

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2020

Suppose you saw someone holding a bottle that had a label with the word “cyanide” and he was about to drink from it. You tell him to be careful, that that is poison, and he could die a painful death. He says, no that’s not true, cyanide is a delightful drink, that he has heard that it cures many ...