Daily Articles

The Banality of Evil: How the U.S. Government Killed an Innocent Man

by Andy Worthington November 19, 2012

Now that the all-consuming and insanely expensive presidential election is over for another four years, Barack Obama’s in-tray still contains Guantánamo, where, of the 166 men still held, 86 were cleared for release by the Guantánamo Review Task Force. Consisting of officials from the relevant government departments and the intelligence agencies, the Task Force analyzed the cases ...

The War on Terrorism, the Constitution, & Civil Liberties: UC Boulder

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 19, 2012

From October 15-19, 2012 The Future of Freedom Foundation and the Young Americans for Liberty co-sponsored a College Civil Liberties Tour that brought a panel of three lawyers – a libertarian, a liberal, and a conservative – to five campuses on the West Coast. The three panelists, inluding Jacob G. Hornberger, Glenn Greenwald, Bruce Fein, and along with moderator ...

The Goal Is Freedom: Love the Market?

by Sheldon Richman November 16, 2012

Libertarians are sometimes accused of being “market fundamentalists,” and there’s a sense in which I will plead guilty to the charge (though I have multiple criticisms to offer of the Longview Institute’s “vulgar liberal” take on the subject). Libertarians certainly have great esteem for “the market” — but our esteem is rooted in reason and ...

Scottish Independence Vote Holds Important Lessons — And Possibilities

by Scott McPherson November 16, 2012

In 1998 the people of Scotland, part of the United Kingdom, gained a considerable measure of self-government. For the first time in almost three centuries their parliament met in Edinburgh, the capital, after a referendum among Scots in the previous year resulted in 74.3 percent of voters answering “Yes” to the statement, “I agree that there should be a Scottish ...

Republican Reconsideration of Immigration

by Sheldon Richman November 15, 2012

“Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.” — Groucho Marx Apparently Groucho has been elected chairman of the Republican National Committee. Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama has so shocked the Republican Party that it now is willing to question long-held positions. If defeat prompts Republicans to abandon anti-freedom convictions, that’s all to the good — ...

The Disparate Impact Is Nigh

by Wendy McElroy November 15, 2012

A racial agenda is about to be unleashed on America. According to Investor’s Business Daily (Nov. 8), the Obama administration intends to eliminate the “persistent gaps” between whites and minorities “in everything from credit scores and homeownership to test scores and graduation rates.” Almost every organization and business in America could be held legally accountable for policies that ...

The Japan Problem

by Laurence M. Vance November 14, 2012

There were no issues of any real substance debated by Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in the presidential campaign leading up to the recent election. With foreign wars raging, the USA PATRIOT Act and the NDAA threatening Americans’ civil liberties, the police state and surveillance state increasing, drone attacks killing foreign civilians, the drug war destroying Americans’ freedoms, the ...

First Shots in the New War on Guns

by Scott McPherson November 13, 2012

Gun-control advocates commonly say they just want “sensible gun laws” that will “keep guns out of the wrong hands.” Yet none of their ideas ever work. That’s not just hyperbole: an intensive study of U.S. gun-control laws by the Centers for Disease Control found that they had done nothing — zip, zero, nada — to reduce crime. That ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show – November 11, 2012

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 13, 2012

The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live every Sunday night at 6:30 pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live.  

Supersized Fries, Downsized Jobs

by Wendy McElroy November 12, 2012

On November 2 the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that America added 171,000 jobs in October. President Barack Obama lost no time in proclaiming to crowds, “Today we learned that our companies have created more jobs in October than in any of the last five months.” Meanwhile his unsuccessful presidential challenger, Mitt Romney, called the jobs report ...

Conservative Judges Demolish the False Legitimacy of Guantánamo’s Terror Trials

by Andy Worthington November 9, 2012

When is a war crime not a war crime? When it is invented by the executive branch and Congress and implemented for six years until a profoundly conservative appeals court strikes it down. The invented war crime is “providing material support to terrorism.” On October 16 a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, threw out the conviction ...

The Election’s Unanswered Question

by Sheldon Richman November 8, 2012

Thank goodness the tedious presidential campaign is over. It was enough to put a caffeine freak into a coma. If all you cared about was the horse race, you missed how anemic the past year was. Rhetoric aside, the differences between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were virtually inconsequential; big government was never in doubt. That being the case, ...