Daily Articles

The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 13

by Gregory Bresiger May 5, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |Part 12 |Part 13 Well, when the president does it that means it is not ...

Constitutional Conservative or Libertarian?

by Laurence M. Vance May 3, 2012

Libertarians — those who believe that violence is proper only in the defense of person or property and who believe that people have the fundamental right to do anything that’s peaceful — have an image problem, according to some “libertarian-leaning” conservatives. Although those conservatives claim to espouse many libertarian viewpoints, they prefer to shy away from the term “libertarian” ...

HR 1983: Good Idea, Wrong Reason

by Rich Schwartzman May 2, 2012

The world is changing its view on drug laws and drug use — at least, most people and many countries are doing just that. Here in the States, recent polls indicate 50 percent of people favor full legalization of marijuana, while 80 percent advocate medical marijuana use. The federal government is lagging behind, however. Portugal decriminalized the use of all ...

Florida Doubles Down on Cuba Restrictions

by Laurence M. Vance May 1, 2012

It is not just the federal government that violates Americans’ liberties; state governments can be just as tyrannical. From the Alien and Sedition Acts in the eighteenth century to the USA PATRIOT Act in the twenty-first century — and many other things in between — the U.S. federal government has ignored its own Constitution and sought to weaken or destroy ...

The Roots of America’s Financial Crises

by Martin Morse Wooster May 1, 2012

Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream by R. Christopher Whalen (Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2010); 393 pages. It is obvious by now that the massive U.S. debt cannot be sustained. Last year’s downgrading by Standard and Poor’s of the U.S. government’s credit rating is but the latest signal that the Obama administration’s policy of an ever-expanding ...

Political Capitalism in Action

by Wendy McElroy April 30, 2012

On April 26, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 248 to 168. CISPA seeks to grease the sharing of data about people between government and big business. CISPA states, The Director of National Intelligence shall establish procedures to allow elements of the intelligence community to share cyber ...

No Sweat: How Sweatshops Improve Lives and Economic Growth (video)

by Benjamin Powell April 30, 2012

On April 23, 2012, Benjamin Powell gave the following speech at The Future of Freedom Foundation’s “Economic Liberty Lecture Series.” The speech can viewed below in its entirety. Benjamin Powell is an associate professor of economics at Suffolk University, the President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, a senior economist with the Beacon Hill Institute, and a senior ...

The Evil of the National-Security State, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 30, 2012

Part 1 | Buy the eBook The two most important words in the lives of the American people for the past 60 years have been “national security.” The term has transformed American society for the worse. It has warped the morals and values of the American people. It has stultified conscience. It has altered ...

Canada’s Shameful Treatment of Omar Khadr

by Andy Worthington April 27, 2012

Last week, the Canadian government received a formal request for the return of Omar Khadr from Guantánamo Bay. Julie Carmichael, an aide to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, told the Globe and Mail, “The government of Canada has just received a completed application for the transfer of prisoner Omar Ahmed Khadr. A decision will be made on ...

Opposing Imperialism Isn’t Isolationism

by Sheldon Richman April 26, 2012

When pundits and rival politicians call Ron Paul an “isolationist,” they mislead the American people — and they know it. They know it? How could they not? Ron Paul is for unilateral, unconditional free trade. He believes any American should be perfectly free to buy from or sell to any person in the world. In that sense — the laissez-faire ...

Forgotten Lessons from the D.C. Sniper Rampage

by James Bovard April 26, 2012

A decade ago, the Washington, D.C., area was traumatized by two guys who rode around shooting people from the trunk of their ancient Chevrolet Caprice. John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo have long since been convicted, and Muhammad was executed for the killings. But the media’s reaction to the official follies during that time should remind Americans to ...

An Echo, Not a Choice

by Sheldon Richman April 26, 2012

With Mitt Romney’s sweep of Tuesday’s primaries, he will almost certainly be President Barack Obama’s Republican opponent in November. Romney has vowed to make the economy the chief issue against Obama, and he is sure to portray the president as an enemy of free enterprise in order to draw a contrast with himself. How fit is Romney’s claim to ...