The Enclosure Acts and the Industrial Revolution by Wendy McElroy March 8, 2012 They hang the man, and flog the woman, That steals the goose from off the common; But let the greater villain loose, That steals the common from the goose. — English folk poem An understanding of the Enclosure Acts is necessary to place aspects of the Industrial Revolution in their proper context. The Industrial Revolution is often accused of driving poor laborers en ...
The Nonissue That’s Still an Issue by Gregory Bresiger March 7, 2012 Let the voters beware. There are lots of Wimpies and Wilkins Micawbers who propose to expand deficits by spending more of your money now, with the promise that next year or five years from now the nation will have surpluses. This legerdemain allows candidates to skirt or ignore what is possibly the most important issue now, the issue ...
RT Russia Today: The Real McCain: “Call to Strike Syria ASAP Exposes Neo-Con Mindset” by Jacob G. Hornberger March 6, 2012 Who needs diplomacy, or international law? Not former presidential candidate (R-AZ) John McCain, who became the first senator to publicly call for a US-led military strike on Syria in order to halt the nearly year-long conflict there. Taking the Senate floor, McCain said there will be no UN mandate for the air strikes he deems ...
Tax-Credit Hypocrisy by Laurence M. Vance March 6, 2012 There are always rallies, marches, and demonstrations taking place in the nation’s capital, but a recent event organized by the American Mustache Institute was certainly one of the most unusual to ever take place. Members of the American Mustache Institute (AMI), a tongue-in-cheek advocacy group with the mission of “protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against, mustached ...
With Freedom and Justice for Some, Part 2 by Glenn Greenwald March 6, 2012 Part 1 | Part 2 Revealingly, the central function of the Constitution as law — the supreme law — was to impose limitations not on the behavior of ordinary citizens but on the federal government itself. The government, and those who ran it, were not placed outside the law, but expressly targeted by it. Indeed, the ...
No to AIPAC, No to Israel, and No to War by Sheldon Richman March 5, 2012 Those who hoped President Obama might bring a new approach to foreign policy have been repeatedly disappointed. On Sunday, Obama had a chance to partially redeem himself. He failed. Speaking at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he declared, “I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining ...
How to Leave Guantánamo: By Means of a Plea Deal or In A Coffin by Andy Worthington March 2, 2012 Guantánamo briefly emerged from the shadows on Wednesday, February 29, when Majid Khan, a Pakistani national described as one of 14 “high-value detainees” when he arrived at Guantánamo in September 2006, after three and a half years in secret CIA prisons, appeared in public for the first time since his capture almost nine years ago. Khan, now 32, pleaded ...
Out of Afghanistan Now! by Sheldon Richman March 2, 2012 Memo from the people of Afghanistan to the United States: Get out! Now! The mass demonstrations in Afghanistan, punctuated by anti-American violence, carry a clear message: After more than a decade, the U.S. empire should pack up and leave. It’s long past time. The news media, in its typically shallow fashion, attribute the current popular outrage to the ...
Iran: Scapegoat for a Bankrupt Empire by Tim Kelly March 1, 2012 Over the last few years the United States has been obsessed with preventing Iran from developing its own nuclear weapon. This obsession has been made even more curious by the fact that American politicians appear to be at odds with their own intelligence services on the issue. President Obama said in his State of the Union address, ...
The Natural Right to Be Free by Laurence M. Vance March 1, 2012 It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom by Andrew P. Napolitano (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011); 240 pages. Three recent books on libertarianism — Jeffrey A. Miron’s Libertarianism, from A to Z (Basic Books, 2010); Jacob H. Huebert’s Libertarianism Today (Praeger, 2010); and Tom G. Palmer’s Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, ...
Too Little, Too Late by Laurence M. Vance February 28, 2012 The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is seeking to repeal two Department of Education regulations that intrude on the authority of the states to set education policy. The Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Act (H.R. 2117) repeals certain Department of Education regulations that for purposes of determining whether a school is eligible to participate in programs under the ...
The Jacob Hornberger Show – February 25, 2012 by Jacob G. Hornberger February 27, 2012 The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live Saturday nights at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live. Stream ...