Daily Articles

Prohibition Is Alive and Well

by Laurence M. Vance August 4, 2016

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution that instituted Prohibition was proposed by Congress in December 1917, ratified by the requisite number of states in January 1919, and took effect in January 1920. The first and relevant section of the Amendment reads, After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation ...

The Entitlement State and America’s Fiscal Crisis

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2016

The Republican and Democrat Party Conventions are now behind us, but through all the cheers and jeers, hoopla and poopla, warnings of a dark and dangerous future or promises of a bright and beautiful shape-of-things-to-come, one of the most serious shadows hanging over America was hardly mentioned at all: the unsustainability of the “entitlement” programs of the welfare state. In ...

Why I Favor Limited Government, Part 6

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2016

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5| Part 6 Throughout history, people have accepted the notion that government officials have the legitimate moral and legal authority to do whatever they want. The mindset has always been that government is in charge and people are subordinate. The result was ...

The Fraudulent Obama War on Corruption

by James Bovard August 1, 2016

The Obama administration wants Americans to believe that it is fiercely anti-corruption. “I have been shocked by the degree to which I find corruption pandemic in the world today,” declared Secretary of State John Kerry at an Anti-Corruption Summit in London last May. Kerry sounded like the French police chief in Casablanca who was “shocked” to discover gambling. Six ...

Government Licensing or Private Certification?

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2016

Everyone understands the need for children to obtain permission from their parents before undertaking certain activities: sleeping over at a friend’s house, viewing a particular movie, going on a field trip, participating in some sport, attending a particular party, staying up late, playing a particular video game, making a major purchase at a store, surfing the Internet, or having ...

America’s Plunge from Republic to Empire

by Wendy McElroy August 1, 2016

We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single stroke between day and night. The precise moment does not matter. There was no painted sign to say, “You now are entering Imperium.” Yet it was a very old road and the voice of history ...

America’s Misadventures in the Greater Middle East

by Stephen Kinzer August 1, 2016

America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History by Andrew J. Bacevich (Random House, 2016), 480 pages. America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East by Chas W. Freeman Jr. (Just World Books, 2016), 256 pages. Few forces in American public life are as powerful as the one that pulls people in Washington into the foreign ...

Political Fiction in an Age of Televised Lies

by John W. Whitehead July 29, 2016

“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) Politics is entertainment. It is a heavily scripted, tightly choreographed, star-studded, ratings-driven, mass-marketed, costly exercise in ...

Support FFF’s Liberty Video Series

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 29, 2016

I am seeking your financial help for our new video project in which speakers present their perspectives on the burning issues of our time. The Gary Johnson-William Weld Libertarian Party ticket has the potential of raising the level of debate and discussion on libertarian solutions to America’s woes. We need to seize on that opportunity. Our first video ...

Maybe It’s Time to Privatize Foreign Policy

by Richard M. Ebeling July 26, 2016

Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has caused uproar in American foreign policy circles by challenging existing forms of U.S. participation in a variety of military and political alliances in Europe and Asia, including NATO.  But in spite of impressions in the media, Trump is not an isolationist, but an extremely aggressive advocate of American interventionism. The self-proclaimed “master of the ...

There Will Be No Second American Revolution: The Futility of an Armed Revolt

by John W. Whitehead July 22, 2016

“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.”—James Madison America is a ticking time bomb. All that remains to be seen is who—or what—will set fire to the fuse. We are poised at what seems to be the pinnacle of a manufactured breakdown, with police shooting unarmed citizens, snipers shooting police, global and domestic ...

Clinton and Trump are Both the Face of Plunder and Paternalism

by Richard M. Ebeling July 20, 2016

Whether it is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump who stands on the steps of the Capital Building in Washington, D.C in January 2017 to take the oath of office as president of the United States, all public opinion polls suggest that that person will have among the highest unfavorable ratings for anyone beginning their time in the White House. According to an Associated Press poll taken in early ...