Daily Articles

Albert Jay Nock on “Doing the Right Thing” versus Government

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2023

It is almost 100 years since the libertarian essayist and social critic Albert Jay Nock (1870–1945) published his essay “On Doing the Right Thing” in the pages of the American Mercury (November 1924). Nowadays, the very title of the essay may seem strange to many modern American readers. The “right thing?” Surely, the right thing is just “doing your ...

Congressional and Media Hypocrisy on Cluster Bombs

by Ted Galen Carpenter September 29, 2023

The U.S. elite’s alleged commitment to human rights and opposition to war crimes was just put to the test in an especially clear fashion. Not surprisingly, both Congress and the American news media failed that test. On September 27, 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives voted down an amendment to the appropriations bill funding the Pentagon that Rep. Matt ...

The Many Ways Our Rights Have Been Usurped Since 9/11

by John W. Whitehead September 27, 2023

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” — Abraham Lincoln Those who gave us the Constitution and the Bill of Rights believed that the government exists at the behest of its citizens. It is there to protect, ...

Announcement from FreedomFest

by Future of Freedom Foundation September 22, 2023

This announcement was sent out by the organizers of FreedomFest, an annual event "where free minds meet to celebrate freedom in an open-minded environment." Last week we announced that we are uploading all of our FreedomFest content, starting with this summer's main stage speeches, to our YouTube channel, @TheFreedomFest. We will add new videos ...

The Next Crisis Is Anyone’s Guess, But the Government Is Ready to Lockdown the Nation

by John W. Whitehead September 19, 2023

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”—H.L. Mencken First came 9/11, which the government used to transform itself into a police state. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which the police state used to test out its lockdown powers. In ...

Movie Review: The Mauritanian

by Lance Lamberton September 14, 2023

If ever one were to doubt or question that the United States has become a national-security state, all he or she would need to do is see the movie The Mauritanian to dispel such doubts. Titled after the name of the obscure Arab country in Africa from which the protagonist is from, it is an inspiring true story of ...

The Bipartisan Assault on the Right to Travel

by Ted Galen Carpenter September 13, 2023

Americans used to boast proudly that unlike most countries in the world, domestic travel in the United States was unfettered by legal obstacles. Unfortunately, an array of restrictions on airline travel reduced that freedom, but one could still drive from Massachusetts to California without once having to “show your papers” at a checkpoint. Increasingly, though, that freedom to travel ...

Dump Trump’s Trade Policy

by Laurence M. Vance September 12, 2023

After “a thorough, transparent, and data-driven investigation,” the U.S. Commerce Department has determined that American companies should pay higher prices for imported tin mill products, which, of course, will be passed on to consumers. Although the Constitution authorizes the federal government (Art. I, Sec. 8, Par. 18) “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with ...

How the Government Weaponizes Surveillance to Silence Its Critics

by John W. Whitehead September 6, 2023

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — President Harry S. Truman Ever ...

Disaster Relief, Foreign Aid, and Ukraine

by Laurence M. Vance September 5, 2023

The deadly fire in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui is the fire seen round the world. The death toll is in the hundreds, with hundreds more still missing and thousands of people evacuated. There is a lot of blame to go around. Progressives are blaming the severity of the fire on climate change. Some people are questioning why ...

America’s Forever Wars Are Not the Problem

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2023

Ever since it became clear that the U.S. invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq were turning into disasters, a common refrain has been to end America’s “forever wars.” Politicians of all political stripes, commentators in the mainstream press, and various conservative and libertarian think tanks and educational foundations have embraced the refrain, thinking that if only America can ...

Macaulay and the Ghosts of Tyranny Past, Part 2

by James Bovard September 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Reposing with a favorite author in the Virginia Tech library in 1976, I savored one zinger after another in Thomas Macaulay’s History of England. Macaulay hailed the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 as “the most stringent curb that ever legislation imposed on tyranny,” a law that adds to “the security and happiness of every ...