Daily Articles

Book Review: Roosevelt and World War II

by George Leef August 1, 2012

FDR Goes to War by Burton W. Folsom Jr. and Anita Folsom (Threshold Editions, 2011); 386 pages.  Hillsdale College history professor Burton Folsom and his wife, Anita, have given us in this book a much-needed counterweight to the standard view that Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the greatest American presidents. After reading FDR Goes to War anyone who ...

Your Religion or Your Business

by Wendy McElroy July 31, 2012

On July 27, an American court for the first time offered a tentative ruling on whether Obamacare outranks the religious rights of business owners. At issue is the Obamacare provision that requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide insurance coverage that includes contraceptives, abortion-related drugs, and sterilization. These services would be provided without cost-sharing: that ...

Extradition Gives America Jurisdiction over the Globe

by Wendy McElroy July 27, 2012

Since June 19, WikiLeaks whistle-blower Julian Assange has eluded the British authorities by secreting himself within the diplomatically shielded Ecuadorian embassy in London. On June 14, Assange's final appeal against his extradition to Sweden was rejected by the British courts, and he was ordered to surrender himself to the police on June 29. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa

Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri: The Torture Victim the United States Is Desperate to Gag

by Andy Worthington July 26, 2012

A millionaire Saudi businessman, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is accused of being the brains behind the terrorist attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000, in which 17 U.S. soldiers died. He is also a victim of the notorious torture program initiated by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks. No less a source than the ...

Republicans versus Freedom

by Laurence M. Vance July 25, 2012

House Republicans have voted once again to repeal Obamacare — for the thirty-third time. By a vote of 244-185, all the House Republicans, along with five Democrats, voted in favor of repealing the whole of Obamacare. The simple 8-page bill (H.R.6079), called the “Repeal of Obamacare Act,” finds with respect to the impact of Public Law

Reviving a Peculiar Institution

by Tim Kelly July 24, 2012

In a recent New York Times op-ed column, Thomas Ricks called for reinstating military conscription. He quoted Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who said at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival, “I think if a nation goes to war, every town, and every city needs to be at risk. You make that decision and everybody has skin in the game.” Ricks, ...

Don’t Let Aurora Shooting Curtail Right of Self-Defense

by Sheldon Richman July 23, 2012

The shooting in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater has incited the usual debate over guns. One side says tighter gun restrictions could have prevented the horrible incident that night. The other responds that more guns in the hands of law-abiding people might have prevented it. While the theater chain prohibits firearms, it is hard to say that the alleged shooter, ...

Obama, Romney Rhetoric Risks Trade War

by Sheldon Richman July 20, 2012

When economic times are bad, animosity is directed at foreigners: “They’re taking our jobs!” So it’s unsurprising that the presidential campaigns feature charges and countercharges about outsourcing, the employment of foreign labor by American companies. This is a dangerous game because it sows the seeds of trade war. Economists understand the benefits of the division of labor. If you and ...

Uncle Sam Is a Sugar Daddy

by Laurence M. Vance July 19, 2012

When the government of a foreign country tells companies in a particular industry how much of its product it can sell; guarantees minimum prices; provides nonrecourse loans; restricts imports of foreign product; buys up excess product; and seeks to stabilize, support, and protect the industry, it is denounced as socialism or central planning. But when the same thing occurs in ...

Bagram: Still a Black Hole for Foreign Prisoners

by Andy Worthington July 19, 2012

In March 2009, three foreign prisoners seized in other countries and rendered to the main U.S. prison in Afghanistan, at Bagram airbase, where they had been held for up to seven years, secured a legal victory in the District Court in Washington, D.C., when Judge John D. Bates ruled that they had habeas corpus rights. In other ...

U.S. Honors Deal to Release Convicted Bin Laden Cook from Guantanamo to Sudan

by Andy Worthington July 13, 2012

Getting out of Guantánamo is such a feat these days (with only three men released in the last 18 months) that it is remarkable that Ibrahim al-Qosi, a Sudanese prisoner who agreed to a plea deal at his war-crimes trial in Guantánamo in July 2010 guaranteeing that he would be freed after two years, has been repatriated as ...

The Two Little Cities Who Can’t

by Wendy McElroy July 12, 2012

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is stomping its jackboot down on two little towns that straddle the Arizona-Utah border. The Civil Rights Division has brought an unprecedented and vague federal religious discrimination lawsuit against the cities and their utility companies (PDF). In its June 21 announcement, the DOJ stated, “This is the first lawsuit by the ...