The U.S. Empire Provokes Terrorism by Sheldon Richman August 8, 2013 Perhaps we’ll never know if intercepted chatter between al-Qaeda leaders — which prompted the U.S. government to close dozens of diplomatic missions in the Muslim world and to issue a worldwide travel alert — was serious or not. But mischief shouldn’t be ruled out. Without cost or risk, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, head of ...
Gun Control and Drug Control by Laurence M. Vance August 7, 2013 The Democratic attempt to enact additional or more draconian gun-control legislation is dead. Liberals in and out of Congress — many of whom would prefer that only members of the military, the Department of Homeland Security, and the police be armed — have lost the momentum they thought they had after the Sandy Hook school shooting last year in ...
California’s Move to Eliminate Private Schools by Wendy McElroy August 6, 2013 California Senate Bill 131 is the latest volley in the political campaign against religious and private educational institutions, especially Catholic ones. SB 131 raises the current civil statute of limitations on damage lawsuits that are brought on the grounds of childhood sexual abuse. Under existing law, such a suit must be brought within 8 years of the child’s ...
JFK’s War With the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated, Part 1 by Douglas Horne August 5, 2013 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 Introduction I served on the staff of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) from August of 1995 through September of 1998, during the final three years of ...
The Libertarian Angle: Uncompromising Libertarianism by Future of Freedom Foundation August 5, 2013 Jacob Hornberger and Sheldon Richman discuss an uncompromising vision of the libertarian philosophy. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.
TGIF: Frédéric Bastiat and Subjective Marginal Utility by Sheldon Richman August 2, 2013 In the 1870s economics took a radical turn in what is known as the “marginal revolution.” Whereas the classical economists, beginning with Adam Smith, cleaved use-value from exchange-value and thought in terms of the total utility and total supplies of goods, Carl Menger, William Stanley Jevons, and Leon Walras realized that people act at the margin. They never choose ...
Stand Your Ground Makes Sense by Benedict D. LaRosa August 2, 2013 The July 13, 2013, acquittal of George Zimmerman in the February 2012 self-defense shooting of Trayvon Martin has brought a flood of criticism against Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. Despite the fact that this law was not a factor in the Zimmerman case, opponents are using the incident as a pretext to lobby for repeal of that statute. More than ...
How to Help Fast-Food Workers by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2013 Doubling the minimum wage may seem like a good way to help fast-food workers, but it would hurt them instead. So what should we do? We must sweep away the government-created barriers to income earning, barriers that protect established businesses from competition and rob the most vulnerable people of options. This week, fast-food workers have engaged in 24-hour strikes throughout ...
How I Came to Reject the Welfare State, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2013 Part 1 | Part 2 According to a Census Bureau announcement during the 1950s, I was growing up in the poorest city in the United States. That was Laredo, Texas, a city that borders the Rio Grande. Even though I was only a kid, that announcement struck me hard. Here I was, actually living in the poorest ...
Government Is the Problem by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2013 Last spring Barack Obama told the graduating class of Ohio State University, Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems.… They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is ...
Where’s the Body Count from Shootings by Police? by James Bovard August 1, 2013 Barack Obama has made curtailing Americans’ right to own firearms one of his highest priorities. Earlier this year, he appealed to “all the Americans who are counting on us to keep them safe from harm.” He also declared, “If there is even one life we can save, we’ve got an obligation to try.” But some perils are not worth ...
The Outrage of Stop-and-Frisk by David S. D'Amato August 1, 2013 As the subject of an ongoing trial in federal court, Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., the controversial police policy known as “stop and frisk” is receiving more attention than perhaps at any other moment in its history. For most of that time — and indeed it is difficult to know exactly how long the ...