Daily Articles

Official Homicide and Legal Rhetoric in Mr. Barron’s Memo

by Joseph R. Stromberg March 1, 2015

The Barron Memo released last summer — if “released” means badly mangled — is an interesting literary production. Its full title is “Applicability of Federal Criminal Laws and the Constitution to Contemplated Lethal Operations Against Shaykh Anwar al-Aulaqi.” Here, David J. Barron, who was acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), argued as of July ...

A Most Radical Libertarian Book

by Laurence M. Vance March 1, 2015

Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion by Thomas E. Woods Jr. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2014), 338 pages. In his foreword to one of Tom Woods’s previous books, former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul described him as “one of the libertarian movement’s brightest and most prolific scholars.” Paul mentions his endorsement in ...

Cruel Compassion

by George Leef March 1, 2015

Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed by Jason L. Riley (Encounter Books 2014), 407 pages. When he was asked, following the abolition of slavery, what the country should do with the Negro, Frederick Douglass issued this thunderous reply: “I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing ...

Missing the Point about Flourishing

by Kevin Carson March 1, 2015

Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change Movement by Edmund Phelps (Princeton University Press 2013), 392 pages. Nobel Laureate Edmund Phelps evaluates economic systems with a view to how they promote human prosperity, or “flourishing”: engagement, meeting challenges, self-expression, and personal growth.... A person’s flourishing comes from the experience of the new: new situations, new problems, ...

TGIF: The War of 1812 Was the Health of the State, Part 1

by Sheldon Richman February 27, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 In 1918, having watched in horror as his Progressive friends gleefully jumped onto Woodrow Wilson’s war wagon, Randolph Bourne penned the immortal words: “War is the health of the state.” As he explained it, The republican State has almost no trappings to appeal to the common man’s emotions. What it has ...

Domestic Fear Is the Price of Empire

by Sheldon Richman February 25, 2015

If you find no other argument against American intervention abroad persuasive, how about this one? When the U.S. government invades and occupies other countries, or when it underwrites other governments' invasions or oppression, the people in the victimized societies become angry enough to want and even to exact revenge -- against Americans. Is the American empire worth that price? We should ask ...

Police Reject Internet Solution to Solicitation Problem

by Laurence M. Vance February 24, 2015

Like any other large city, Washington, D.C., had, and to some extent still has, what is termed a red-light district. Home to a collection of seedy bars, strip clubs, peep shows, burlesque shows, massage parlors, sex shops, porno theaters, and, of course, prostitutes, a visit to these areas served as a rite of passage for young men, although they ...

The Libertarian Angle: Civil Liberties and the National Security State

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 23, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: civil liberties and the national security state. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

Consumers’ Sovereignty and Natural vs. Contrived Scarcities

by Richard M. Ebeling February 23, 2015

One of the great myths about the capitalist system is the presumption that businessmen make profits at the expense of the consumers and workers in society. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the free market, consumers are the sovereign rulers who determine what gets produced, and with what qualities and features. The sovereign consumers also determine who will ...

TGIF: The Economic Way of Thinking about Health Care

by Sheldon Richman February 20, 2015

I realize Mike Lupica is a sports columnist -- and that Howard Cosell called sports "the toy department of life" -- but maybe that's what makes Lupica's recent declaration about Obamacare all the more representative a reaction. Appearing on a morning cable news program, Lupica declared that “health insurance for all is a noble idea.” He repeated this a few ...

The Libertarian Angle: Chasing the Scream: The Drug War

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 18, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the drug war. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

Texas Reexamines Gun Rights

by Benedict D. LaRosa February 18, 2015

The Texas legislature is considering several bills to revise its firearm-carry laws. Texas has had a concealed-carry law since 1995 that requires a permit, a background check, classes, and proof of proficiency at the range. The permit must be renewed at some expense every five years. On its face, it is ridiculous to think that people who form a government ...