Book Review: Slightly Limited Government’s Nearly Last Hurrah by Joseph R. Stromberg July 1, 2013 Coolidge by Amity Shlaes (New York: Harper, 2013), 456 pages. I am for economy. After that, I am for more economy. — Calvin Coolidge (1920) Amity Shlaes’s Coolidge is a compelling biography of John Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933), 30th president of the United States. It is a well-paced narrative with elements of novelistic plotting and repeated themes both great and small. Indeed, ...
Book Review: Jingo Democrats by Matthew Harwood July 1, 2013 The Emergency State: America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs by David C. Unger (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 368 pages. During a meeting on the Bosnian crisis in the early 1990s, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, furiously asked Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “What’s the point of having this superb ...
TGIF: Is Edward Snowden a Lawbreaker? by Sheldon Richman June 28, 2013 Most people believe that Edward Snowden, who has confirmed that the U.S. government spies on us, broke the law. Even many of his defenders concede this. While in one sense the statement “Snowden broke the law” may be trivially true, in another, deeper sense it is untrue. He may have violated the terms of legislation passed by Congress and signed ...
Judge Calls for An End to Unjust Provisions Governing Guantánamo Prisoners’ Habeas Corpus Petitions by Andy Worthington June 28, 2013 In preventing the release of prisoners from Guantánamo, all three branches of the U.S. government are responsible. Barack Obama promised to close the prison within a year of taking office, but he lacked a concrete plan and soon caved in to criticism, blocking a plan by White House counsel Greg Craig to bring some cleared prisoners who ...
Big Brother, not Snowden and Greenwald, Is the Story by Sheldon Richman June 27, 2013 “Instead of being adversaries to government power … … servants to it and mouthpieces for it.” So said the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story of Edward Snowden’s disclosure of NSA spying on the American people, after Greenwald’s confrontation with Meet the Press’s David Gregory. Greenwald needn’t have limited his observation ...
Why Is the Drinking Age 21? by Laurence M. Vance June 25, 2013 Last month, the parliament in Turkey passed legislation ostensibly designed to curb alcohol consumption among Turkish youth. Retailers may not sell alcohol between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. No alcohol may be sold within 100 meters of educational or religious centers. Educational and health institutions, sports clubs, and gas stations will be banned from selling alcohol. Although the advertising of ...
FFF Webinar: Bastiat’s Economic Harmonies (Audio) by Sheldon Richman June 25, 2013 On May 15, 2013, FFF vice president and editor Sheldon Richman hosted a free, interactive online webinar entitled “Bastiat's Economic Harmonies,” which focused on Federic Bastiat's classic Economic Harmonies. The webinar was an interactive experience with Sheldon and the participants. Download the audio. Subscribe to FFF Podcasts.
The Libertarian Angle: National Service by Future of Freedom Foundation June 24, 2013 Jacob Hornberger and Sheldon Richman discuss recent talk about instituting a national service program. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.
TGIF: National Servitude by Sheldon Richman June 21, 2013 To make citizens, we must facilitate the shared experiences that cultivate civic pride and responsibility. This should mean a period of full-time national service as a rite of passage for every young American, ages 18 to 28. Such service could be military or civilian. Young adults could choose the Army or Peace Corps, Marine Corps or AmeriCorps, the Navy or ...
FFF Webinar: The Income Tax (audio) by Sheldon Richman June 21, 2013 On June 19, 2013, FFF vice president and editor Sheldon Richman hosted a free, interactive online webinar entitled “The Income Tax." The webinar was an interactive experience with Sheldon and particiapants. Download the audio. Subscribe to FFF Podcasts.
The Calling: Markets Turn Waste into Want-Satisfaction by Steven Horwitz June 20, 2013 A frequent criticism of markets is that private owners have every incentive to dump the waste byproducts of their production processes into the air, water, or land without concern about the harmful effects. More sophisticated critics understand the idea of negative externalities and love to jump up and down about how they demonstrate the need for government intervention. There ...
Motives Aside, the NSA Should Not Spy on Us by Sheldon Richman June 18, 2013 You need not suspect the motives of those responsible for NSA surveillance to detest what they are doing. In fact, we may have more to fear from spies acting out of patriotic zeal than those acting out of power lust or economic interest: Zealots are more likely to eschew restraints that might compromise their righteous cause. For the sake of ...