Daily Articles

There Is No Right to a Religious Accommodation

by Laurence M. Vance July 19, 2023

Overshadowed by the Supreme Court decision in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College that struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina — which was decided on the same day — was the court’s ruling in ...

Uncle Sam, War Criminal

by Ted Galen Carpenter July 18, 2023

U.S. officials invariably stress their commitment to human rights and are extremely quick to condemn other countries for alleged violations. However, Washington’s conduct too often makes a mockery of that supposed commitment. The latest examples of such hypocrisy are two aspects of U.S. policy regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, both involving the provision of highly controversial weapons to ...

Why Not Equalize Beauty, Talent, and Intelligence?

by Walter Block July 12, 2023

A basic premise of the “progressive” (actually, regressive) left is that the rich have too much money and the poor have too little. Therefore, they say, it is justified to take wealth away from the former and give it to the latter. The typical means leftists use to accomplish this is to adopt a steeply progressive tax ...

Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and College Admissions

by Laurence M. Vance July 10, 2023

Conservatives are cheering and progressives are crying about the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which was consolidated with Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina et al. The cases began in 2014 when Students for Fair Admission (SFFA) — a nonprofit ...

The Real Lessons from the Iraq War, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Our nation was founded as a limited-government republic. It was a type of government whose powers were few and limited. That’s the way our ancestors wanted it. They believed that the greatest threat to their freedom and well-being lay not with some foreign threat but rather with their very own government. Our ancestors were fiercely ...

Biden’s Wrecking Ball Benevolence for Homebuyers

by James Bovard July 1, 2023

When did being creditworthy become a federal crime? The Biden administration is intentionally punishing homebuyers with good credit scores to subsidize people with shaky histories of paying their debts. But the latest salvation scheme ignores the sordid history of federal policymakers ravaging homeowners they promised to rescue. As of May 1, a Biden administration decree requires adjusting mortgage calculations to ...

Too Far, or Not Far Enough?

by Laurence M. Vance July 1, 2023

In his October 22, 2020, column in the New York Times, titled “When Libertarianism Goes Bad,” establishment economist Paul Krugman bemoaned the “libertarian rhetoric” he was hearing from Republican politicians while they questioned the usefulness of wearing face masks during the “pandemic.” This rhetoric he described as “a lot of talk about ‘freedom’ and ‘personal responsibility.’” But in addition to ...

The Dangerous Pursuit of Empire: Russia, China, and the United States

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2023

Giving up the reality, the nostalgia, or the dream of empire is very difficult for those in political power, and even for those citizens who have bought into their government’s indoctrination and propaganda. Historically, empire-builders and political leaders often seem to hold certain attitudes and ideas in common. First, they believe that they and their group or nation are on ...

Everyone Should Have the Same Freedom to Contract — or Not

by George Leef July 1, 2023

The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, that seems to turn on the meaning of the First Amendment. In my view, this is indeed an important case, but casting it as a free speech dispute is mistaken. The real issue is whether all Americans enjoy freedom of contract, or if, instead, some ...

A State of Martial Law

by John W. Whitehead June 30, 2023

“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?”—Thomas Jefferson The government is goosestepping all over our freedoms. Case in point: America’s founders did not want a military government ruled by force. Rather, they opted for a republic bound by the rule of law: the U.S. ...

Help FFF Achieve the Free Society

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 28, 2023

Some 45 years ago, I discovered four little books in the public library of my hometown of Laredo, Texas. Essays on Liberty, volumes 1–4, consisted of a series of uncompromising, principled libertarian essays by such people as Leonard E. Read, Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, Frédéric Bastiat, Bettina Bien Greaves, F.A. Harper, Frank Chodorov, and Clarence Manion. Those four ...

The U.S. Government Is the Real Criminal

by John W. Whitehead June 22, 2023

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.”—H.L. Mencken And so it continues. This entire fiasco—indicting Donald Trump for allegedly violating both the Espionage ...