Daily Articles

Is Free Speech a Relic in America?

by James Bovard December 1, 2023

Is the First Amendment becoming a historic relic? On July 4, 2023, federal judge Terry Doughty condemned the Biden administration for potentially “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.” That verdict was ratified by a federal appeals court decision in September 2023 that concluded that Biden administration “officials have engaged in a broad pressure campaign ...

Conservatives, Hate Crimes, and Victimless Crimes

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2023

Libertarianism and conservatism have been described as “uneasy cousins.” There are some issues where they can unite in opposition to the terrible policies of progressives: the green new deal, universal health care, free college tuition, gun-control laws, taxpayer-funded abortions, defunding the police, etc. But even when they seem to agree on something — like hate-crimes laws — the inconsistency ...

The Beginnings of a Reborn Austrian School of Economics

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2023

Fifty years ago, on October 10, 1973, one of the leading members of the Austrian School of Economics, Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973), passed away at the age of 92. There was little notice of Mises’s death in the mainstream of the economics profession, even though he had been one of the most widely recognized economists in Europe during the ...

The U.S. Government Buys and Sells Its Citizens for Profit and Power

by John W. Whitehead November 29, 2023

Americans have become easy prey for hackers, scammers, snitches, spies, and con artists. But don’t be fooled into thinking the government is protecting you. To the contrary, the U.S. government is selling us (or rather, our data) to the highest bidders. By the way, those highest bidders also include America’s political class and the politicians aspiring to get elected or re-elected. As ...

Stop Drinking the Political Kool-Aid, America

by John W. Whitehead November 15, 2023

“We’ve got to face it. Politics have entered a new stage, the television stage. Instead of long-winded public debates, the people want capsule slogans—‘Time for a change’—‘The mess in Washington’—‘More bang for a buck’—punch lines and glamour.”— A Face in the Crowd (1957) We are one year out from the 2024 presidential election and as usual, the American people remain eager to ...

School Choice and American Taxpayers

by Laurence M. Vance November 10, 2023

Conservative and libertarian proponents of “school choice,” that is, government-provided educational vouchers that allow low-income parents to send their children to the school of their choice — which usually means private schools that they would otherwise not be able to afford — now generally make only two arguments in defense of government-provided educational vouchers. They used to maintain that a ...

FFF Conference: How Austrian Economics Impacted My Life

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 7, 2023

Join us every Thursday evening at 7 p.m. Eastern time for our upcoming live Zoom conference entitled “How Austrian Economics Impacted My Life.” Each week will feature one of the premier Austrian economists in the world telling his personal story of how he discovered Austrian economics, the impact that it ...

Authoritarians Drunk on Power

by John W. Whitehead November 3, 2023

“There is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame?”— V for Vendetta We have ...

Foreign Aid Shows True Nature of Conservatism

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2023

After the horrific attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, conservatives wasted no time in denouncing U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinians. Although it was not their intention in doing so, they showed the true nature of conservatism. Advancing American Freedom, an “organization advocating for Conservative values and policy proposals” founded by former vice president ...

America’s National-Security State

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2023

The following is a nonverbatim transcript of a talk that I delivered on September 1, 2023, at the young scholar’s segment of the annual conference on foreign policy sponsored by the Ron Paul Institute and held at the Dulles Hilton in Virginia. The biggest mistake America has ever made was the conversion of the federal government to a national-security state. ...

Our Potemkin Presidency

by James Bovard November 1, 2023

The Founding Fathers sought to create a government that would be under the law and under the Constitution. Since World War One, presidents have amassed far more arbitrary power to rule by decree. Every recent American commander-in-chief has expanded and exploited the dictatorial potential of the presidency. Yet, because elections continue to be regularly held, most Americans do not ...

Reform, Replace, or Repeal?

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2023

The U.S. government is a monstrosity. With its four million employees and annual budget approaching $7 trillion, there is no other way to describe it. The federal government contains a myriad of agencies, bureaus, corporations, offices, commissions, administrations, authorities, and boards, most of which are organized under 15 cabinet-level, executive-branch departments headed by a secretary: for example, Health and Human ...