Freedom Daily Archive

The Root of All Evil, Part 1

by Gregory Bresiger April 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance. — The Declaration of Independence   You may think you’re safe from ...

A History of Libertarianism

by George Leef April 1, 2008

Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty (Public Affairs, 2007); 741 pages; $35. With Radicals for Capitalism, veteran libertarian journalist Brian Doherty (whose work is most often found in Reason) gives the world what he calls a “freewheeling history of the modern American libertarian ...

The Demise of Conscience, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 As libertarians have long pointed out, both the welfare state and the warfare state have brought immeasurable damage to our country. With its various programs of confiscatory taxation of income and capital to accomplish its coercive redistribution of wealth, the welfare state has brought standards of living lower than otherwise would ...

Independent Migrants, Welfare, and the Law

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2008

It’s a sad sign of the times that political candidates — even those who profess to be proponents of limited government — feel they have to one-up their rivals in showing how hard they would crack down on people who have the gall to come to the United States without the government’s permission. “Border security” is the odious buzzword ...

The Democratic-Peace Fraud

by James Bovard March 1, 2008

The doctrine of “democratic peace” now provides vital camouflage for the American war machine. Michael Novak, a theologian with the pro-war American Enterprise Institute, observed, “Democracy is the new name for peace.” The idea that democracies never fight wars against each other has become axiomatic for many scholars. Prof. Jack Levy commented in 1989 that the democratic-peace doctrine is ...

Open Borders Work, Part 1

by Philippe LeGrain March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Imagine you were born in a part of the country where farming was no longer productive, or in a rust-belt town where the local factories had closed. You hear of good jobs in California and Colorado, so you decide to move. How would you feel if, when you arrived at the state ...

I Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Part 6

by James Glaser March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Now we come to the very reason that veterans get PTSD. More than likely, there was a traumatic experience or experiences that, you might say, overwhelmed them. Now that I have been through it, I believe that the whole ...

The Legacy of Milton Friedman, Part 1

by Doug Bandow March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 It has been more than a year since Milton Friedman passed from our lives. What a world he departed. The desire for liberty burns ever brightly. The forces of statism resist ever strongly. How we miss his presence. Although he has left us, his ideas live ...

The Media Versus the State

by Wendy McElroy March 1, 2008

Good Night, and Good Luck was the television sign-off of Edward R. Murrow (19081965) the journalistic pioneer often considered to be the finest broadcast news commentator produced by America. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) is also an Oscar-nominated docudrama that explores the conflict between Murrow (played by David Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy over the anti-Communist crusade he ...

The Enemy-Combatant Attack on Freedom, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Another revolutionary aspect of the enemy-combatant doctrine was how the discretionary power to treat suspected terrorists, including Americans, as enemy combatants was acquired by the president and the Pentagon. Despite the assumption of this monumental power by the executive branch, there never was a constitutional amendment authorizing it. Initially, there wasn’t even a law ...

Why They Hate Us

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2008

What’s more obnoxious than a person who constantly whines about the real and imagined injustices committed against him while ignoring his own injustices against others? A country that does the same thing. One of the great myths accepted by the American people is that historically, the United States — more precisely, the ...

Warring as Lying Throughout American History

by James Bovard February 1, 2008

Americans are taught to expect their elected leaders to be relatively honest. But it wasn’t always like that. In the mid 1800s, people joked about political candidates who claimed to have been born in a log cabin that they built with their own hands. This jibe was spurred by William Henry Harrison’s false claim of a log-cabin birth in ...