Daily Articles

Price Discrimination Is Fair and Just

by Laurence M. Vance November 29, 2011

While on a recent cross-country flight, I looked around at the 200 or so other passengers on the plane and thought, not about the snacks we would be served (pretzels), the movie we would be shown (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), or whether the babies on the flight would cry the whole way (they did), but about ...

“An Introduction to Libertarianism”: A Lecture to the Delphian School (video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 28, 2011

Jacob G. Hornberger speaks at the Delphian School in Sheridan, Oregon, on November 18, 2011.

Darwinian Stupidity

by Rich Schwartzman November 28, 2011

One has to question the mindset of the current administration in Washington. The country is $15 trillion in debt due to the ever-increasing welfare-warfare state. The warfare side of the equation is imperialistic to the point of crippling stupidity. Not only do we already have as many as 900 military bases, and military personnel in an estimated 130 different countries, ...

As Judges Kill Off Habeas Corpus for the Guantánamo Prisoners, Will the Supreme Court Act?

by Andy Worthington November 28, 2011

When it comes to Guantánamo, the prisoners held in the Bush administrations experimental prison have mostly been abandoned by those who should have acted on their behalf in all three branches of government the executive branch, Congress, and the judiciary. In June 2004, for a brief moment, George W. Bush's excesses were checked by the Supreme Court, which took the ...

Central Planning at the Federal Reserve

by Sheldon Richman November 25, 2011

While it is understandable that inflation hawks keep a close watch on the Federal Reserve’s money-creation activities, an equally worrisome Fed activity is taking place right under their noses. Whether or not the Fed is expanding the money supply, it has undoubtedly moved into a new activity under cover of addressing the financial crisis and recession: central planner of ...

Criminalizing Your Internet Profile?

by Wendy McElroy November 23, 2011

The New American (15/11) states, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is backing a controversial component of an existing computer fraud law that makes it a crime to use a fake name on Facebook or embellish your weight on an online dating profile such as eHarmony. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a 25-year-old law that mainly addresses ...

War with Iran Would Be Madness

by Sheldon Richman November 23, 2011

President Obama's refusal to rule out military action against Iran and GOP contender Mitt Romney's recent threat of war against Iran should appall anyone who believes, with the free-market liberal Ludwig von Mises, that not war, but peace, is the father of all things. If the U.S. government or its client state Israel were to attack Iran, all hell ...

Drug-Sentencing Disparities

by Laurence M. Vance November 22, 2011

As many as 12,000 inmates in federal prison could soon be released early including 1,800 who are eligible for immediate release thanks to the U.S. Sentencing Commissions vote earlier this year to provide retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act that was passed by Congress last year. The new policy took effect on November1. Does that mean that murderers and ...

GOP Debate Reveals Depraved and Deluded Political Class

by Tim Kelly November 21, 2011

The most recent GOP foreign policy debate revealed the depraved and deluded state of Americas political class. There was a time when U.S. presidents sought plausible deniability for things like torture and assassination; now such sordid practices are openly supported by candidates seeking the country's highest elected office. Several candidates were asked their opinion regarding waterboarding. Herman Cain said that ...

The EEOC’s Forgotten Racial Racketeering

by James Bovard November 21, 2011

Few federal agencies have a more brazen history of trampling due process and basic fairness than the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. From the time the EEOC was created in 1965, it has continually stretched its power and sought to win by legal intimidation. Its latest shenanigans need to be judged in light of its early bureaucratic racketeering. The 1964 Civil ...

It Costs $72 Million a Year to Hold Cleared Prisoners at Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington November 18, 2011

Last week, the exorbitant expense of maintaining the Bush administrations war on terror prison at Guantánamo was revealed in the Miami Herald, where Carol Rosenberg explained that Congress provided $139million to operate the prison last year. With 171 prisoners still held, that works out to $812,865 per prisoner nearly 30times as much as it costs to keep a ...

Industrializing Human Suffering

by Wendy McElroy November 16, 2011

Is Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain guilty of sexually harassing women? Only the people directly involved know for sure. But so many high-profile cases of alleged sexual abuse have crumbled under scrutiny for example, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged rape of a New York City maid that some skepticism is called for. Indeed, the presumption of innocence offered to ...