Daily Articles

Gun Control, Europe and America

by Scott McPherson February 21, 2013

After the turbulent years 1968–1972, the widespread civil unrest that plagued Northern Ireland calmed to a point deemed “an acceptable level of violence” by then British home secretary Reginald Maudling. City centers and army barracks were still being bombed; policemen and soldiers were still being shot. But things weren’t as bad as they had been, and so were considered ...

The American People Need Real Spending Cuts

by Sheldon Richman February 20, 2013

President Obama and other so-called progressives insist that the American people are not overly dependent on government. They also predict dire consequences if the automatic budget “cuts” known as sequestration take place March 1. Both claims cannot be true. If modest across-the-board “cuts” — mainly cuts in the rate of growth — in military and domestic spending pose a threat ...

Identity Politics Über Alles

by Wendy McElroy February 20, 2013

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is backing a bill to reinstate the draft, but he wants to include women this time. Gender and liberal feminists are responding in various ways, but they seem to have arrived at the same conclusion: an endorsement of drafting women. The why of it Many gender and liberal feminists view female conscription as a Left ...

Discounts and a Free Society

by Laurence M. Vance February 19, 2013

We have all been there: a nice restaurant, a quiet evening, a companion of the opposite sex — only to have the experience shattered by loud, ill-mannered, or unruly kids. From coast to coast, some restaurants have begun placing signs on their doors and menus saying things such as, “We love children, especially when they are tucked in ...

Immigration, the Constitution, and Liberty

by Tim Kelly February 19, 2013

Immigration is one of those intractable wedge issues. It is, for the most part, a problem created by government meddling — and therefore any “solution” implemented by the government is more likely to aggravate the situation than improve it. First, let me state that I believe the federal government to have no authority over immigration except to create uniform laws ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show: February 17, 2013 (Video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 18, 2013

The Jacob Hornberger Show airs live every Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. eastern on the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Ustream channel.

TGIF: Mind Your Metaphors

by Sheldon Richman February 15, 2013

Metaphor consists in giving a thing a name that belongs to something else. — Aristotle, Poetics Language is metaphorical through and through. — Thomas Szasz, Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences In a lecture delivered at the London School of Economics in March 1933, F.A. Hayek, a 33-year-old economist recently appointed to the faculty, lamented that the “oldest and most general ...

Is Today’s Argentina Tomorrow’s America?

by Michael Tennant February 15, 2013

Americans wondering what to expect as their government piles on more debt and refuses to cut spending do not need to look any further than Argentina. A nation once among the most prosperous in the world is now deeply in debt, hemorrhaging cash, and trying to inflate its way out of the mess it has created. This inflation, naturally, ...

The Calling: The Everyday Marvels of the Market

by Steven Horwitz February 14, 2013

Those of us who live in largely market-based economies can too easily take for granted what we might call the everyday marvels of the market. We find ourselves with things that would have amazed and mystified people just a couple of generations ago. If we think of the marvels the market delivers, we normally think of technology, but fancy ...

Religious Discrimination

by Laurence M. Vance February 13, 2013

Do churches and other religious organizations have the right to discriminate? Even advocates of discrimination laws in general are usually willing to make an exception for churches and religious organizations to practice discrimination in employment based on religious creed, sex, marital status, or sexual orientation. Thus, a church of a particular denomination is free to limit offers of employment to ...

Drone Trust the Government

by Sheldon Richman February 12, 2013

“Covert” drone warfare requires a level of confidence in politicians that they will never deserve. In the Kentucky Resolutions, the 1798 protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts, Thomas Jefferson wrote, It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of ...

America: Extorting Data Access

by Wendy McElroy February 12, 2013

U.S. law enforcement wants companies to covertly install so-called computer back doors in the software they produce. This would allow the government to access information on any computer using the software without being detected and without going through an authentication process that protects privacy. As well, the untraceable e-wiretaps would effectively bypass the sticky question of obtaining ...