Freedom Daily Archive

Just What We Need: New Reasons to Go to War

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2008

A few days before Gen. David Petraeus confirmed for Congress how overworked the military is in Iraq, President Bush was in Croatia talking about the significance of inviting that country and Albania to join NATO. “Henceforth, should any danger threaten your people, America and the NATO alliance will stand with you, and no one will be able to take your ...

The Forgotten Iraqi-Sovereignty Sham

by James Bovard July 1, 2008

The Bush administration and the Iraqi government are wrangling over the future role of the U.S. government in Iraq. The Bush team wants far more power over Iraqis than the current Iraqi government wants to concede. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in April 2008 that the dispute is concentrated on “sensitive issues,” including the U.S. military’s right to imprison ...

Reaching Out to the Left, Part 1: The Basics

by Anthony Gregory July 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Should libertarians reach out to the Left? Why might it be important? And what approach should we take in doing it? As libertarians, we have a goal of a freer world. Despite what some might think, the degree of human freedom in a society is not ...

Socialism and Medicine, Part 3

by William L. Anderson July 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Economic historian Robert Higgs has written that people often will hand personal responsibility to the state either when they are fearful that something will happen to them or when they have a fear of losing something. Moreover, governments are able to harness the destructive power of ...

On the Limits of Government, Part 1

by Scott McPherson July 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Where reason cannot instruct, custom may be permitted to guide; and every nation seems to consult the dictates of prudence, by a faithful attachment to those rites and opinions which have received the sanction of ages. — Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire A pillar of American constitutional ...

The Cult of Executive Power

by George Leef July 1, 2008

The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power by Gene Healy (Cato Institute, 2008); 356 pages. Just in time for the 2008 presidential campaign comes the book we need to get Americans to think sensibly about the office that the candidates are so furiously seeking.

The War No One Mentions

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2008

With all the campaign talk about the various wars in which America is involved — the war on Iraq, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on illiteracy, the war on terrorism, and the war on Afghanistan — there is one war that goes unacknowledged and unspoken about ...

Why the Peaceful Majority of Muslims Are Not Irrelevant

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2008

A few years ago, FrontPageMag.com columnist Paul Marek wrote an article titled “Why the Peaceful Majority Is Irrelevant.” His thesis was that even if the majority of Muslims abhor violence, it doesn’t matter because “the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.... The hard quantifiable fact is, that the ‘peaceful majority’ is the ‘silent majority’ and ...

Federal Attitude Policy

by James Bovard June 1, 2008

The Transportation Security Administration has created more gantlets at American airports than most travelers realize. It has continually changed the rules for flying since it first deployed its 40,000+ army of screeners across the land. Americans are at much greater risk of being arrested or fined in the airport for not kowtowing to federal agents. ...

The Bricker Amendment: A Battle against the Imperial Presidency

by Gregory Bresiger June 1, 2008

Executive agreements shall not be made in lieu of treaties.... The President shall publish all executive agreements except that those which in his judgment require secrecy shall be submitted to the appropriate committees of Congress in lieu of publication. — Part of one of the proposed Bricker amendments The powers not delegated to the United States ...

Socialism and Medicine, Part 2

by William L. Anderson June 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 In 1965, the U.S. economy was unquestionably the most productive and vibrant in the world. Doctors and hospital administrators were enjoying high revenues, and at that time health insurers generally did not worry about such things as “cost containment.” Life in the medical field was a ...

The Folly of Interventionism

by George Leef June 1, 2008

Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire by Doug Bandow (Xulon Press, 2006); 383 pages, $19.99. George Washington unfortunately sided with the big-government federalists when it came to domestic policy, but his famous Farewell Address contained some sage advice for America when it came to foreign policy — not to get ...