Freedom Daily Archive

The Illogic of Gun Controllers

by Benedict D. LaRosa February 1, 2010

On August 9, 2009, seven people died and three others were badly injured in Dinuba, California, near Fresno, when a car being chased by police for a traffic infraction slammed into a pickup truck carrying five children and two adults. Four of the children in the pickup died at the scene along with the three occupants of the car ...

Bursting the Myths of the Great Depression

by George Leef February 1, 2010

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal by Robert P. Murphy (Regnery, 2009); 272 pages. Government of all kind depends on elaborate mythologies to keep the people complacent in the face of constant attacks on their liberty, their property, and even their lives. Kings used to proclaim that they were divine or at least ...

The Liberal Assault on the Poor, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 When it comes to economic policy, liberals suffer from two major weaknesses. One, they believe that all that matters with respect to policy are good intentions. As long as liberals mean well, they think that the policies they implement, especially with respect to the poor, are justified. Two, they have a woeful lack of understanding of ...

The Phony Radicalism of Michael Moore

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2010

With phony radicals like Michael Moore around, the ruling elites have nothing to worry about. The filmmaker likes to pose as a radical critic of the status quo, but he isnt. All the evidence you need is in his latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. Sure, he rails against home foreclosures, bank bailouts, low wages, and other real and imagined ...

The Bush Secrecy Legacy

by James Bovard January 1, 2010

Many Americans assumed that the Bush administration’s peril to their freedom ended when George Bush exited the White House on January 20, 2009. Unfortunately, the precedents the administration established continue to threaten Americans’ rights and liberties. This is stark on government secrecy. Shortly after the 2000 election, Vice President-elect Richard Cheney convened a task force on energy policy. After he ...

How a Rich and Proud Nation Went Broke

by Jim Powell January 1, 2010

Amidst a multitrillion dollar spending spree, President Obama apparently believes it’s inconceivable that a mighty nation such as the United States could go broke. Yet France, once the most powerful nation in Europe, went broke and was plunged into a revolution that consumed the king and queen. Germany was bankrupted by reparations following World War I as well as the ...

A Lesson in the (Re)distribution of Wealth

by Edmund Contoski January 1, 2010

Through the company where I worked more than 35 years ago, I had an opportunity to meet an unusual man. I had not seen him since, but his recent obituary caught my eye. His name was Wayne Field, a name I’m sure few, if any, of you will recognize. In his 87 years he accomplished a great deal. He founded ...

New Deal Charades

by George Leef January 1, 2010

New Deal or Raw Deal? by Burton Folsom Jr. (Threshold Editions, 2008); 318 pages. The New Deal rescued the United States from the terrible depression caused by the instability of our capitalist economy. Thats the standard line peddled to gullible Americans by most history books, historians, and politicians. It was not surprising when Republican Speaker of the House Newt ...

The Liberal Assault on the Poor, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 Liberals say that they love the poor, needy, and disadvantaged. Unfortunately, however, the economic philosophy that liberals favor constitutes a direct assault on the economic well-being of the poor, along with nearly everyone else in society. Liberals claim to combat poverty in two principal ways. First, they use the force of government (e.g., income taxes) to ...

Obama’s Message to Schoolchildren

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2009

When President Obama announced last August that he would address American schoolchildren in a nationwide televised speech, the Right went bananas. August, of course, was the height of the health-care controversy, and conservative leaders and media commentators imagined that Obama was going to make an overt pitch for his quest for government control over medicine and medical insurance, as ...

The Material-Witness Charade

by James Bovard December 1, 2009

Last September, a federal appeals court ruled that former Attorney General John Ashcroft could be personally sued for the unjustified incarceration of innocent people as “material witnesses” in the wake of 9/11. The case involved a former college football star — Lavoni T. Kidd — who converted to Islam, changed his name to Abdullah al-Kidd, and was seized at Dulles ...

The Evil of Sanctions, Part 2

by Brian Cloughley December 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 U.S. attacks on Iraq in the no-fly zones were carefully planned, especially in the months immediately before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion by the deluded “coalition” that Washington cobbled together by means of deceit and downright lies about “weapons of mass destruction.” On September 5, 2002, for example, some 100 coalition aircraft bombed and rocketed ...