Daily Articles

The Al-Awlaki Murder and the Rule of Law

by Tim Kelly October 6, 2011

There is no mention in the U.S. Constitution of a presidential power to order the summary execution of any person. In fact, that power is expressly denied to the government by the Fifth Amendment, which states: No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. What that means in layman's terms is the government ...

Is This Any Way to Run a Republic?

by Sheldon Richman October 6, 2011

The assassination by drone of American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen raises questions that should disturb anyone who holds the rule of law as essential to protecting individual rights and limiting the arbitrary power of government. The Obama administration alleges that al-Awlaki committed a variety of bad acts, but the key word is “alleges.” We are taught that ...

Death from Afar: The Unaccountable Killing of Anwar al-Awlaqi

by Andy Worthington October 4, 2011

What a strange and alarming place we’re in when the U.S. government, under a Democratic president, kills two U.S. citizens it dislikes for their thoughts and their words, without formally charging them with any crime or trying or convicting them, using an unmanned drone directed by U.S. personnel many thousands of miles away. And yet, that is what happened on ...

Handicapped Parking and a Free Society

by Laurence M. Vance October 4, 2011

Special parking permits that allow disabled motorists to park in spaces reserved for the handicapped are commonly issued in every state. But in the nation’s most populous state — California — where more than two million of such permits have been issued, it was recently reported by the Los Angeles Times that 56,000 people that had a ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show: October 1, 2011

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 3, 2011

The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live Saturday nights at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live. Download the MP3 here, or subscribe to the RSS feed

Game Theory and the Dark Side of Envy

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2011

Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory by Robert Leonard, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2010); 390 pages. Economist Oskar Morgenstern is best known as the co-developer, with mathematician John von Neumann, of game theory. Game theory emerged out of curiosities about logic and strategies of games such as chess, where each player must take into consideration the ...

Parallels Between Liberty and Health

by Rich Schwartzman September 30, 2011

There are interesting parallels between those in the libertarian movement and some people involved in the health industry. I’m referring to those who no longer pledge allegiance to formal Western medical traditions run by the AMA and Big Pharma through the federal government. The parallels arise naturally. Both of us are involved in challenging an incomplete, and inconsistent mainstream orthodoxy. ...

Guantánamo: Military Commissions and the Illusion of Justice

by Andy Worthington September 30, 2011

When something is irredeemably broken, the sensible course of action is to get rid of it. However, when it comes to military trials for terror suspects in the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” however broken the system is, government officials and lawmakers have repeatedly gathered round to put it back together again, and continue to do so, even though, ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show: September 24, 2011

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 27, 2011

The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live Saturday nights at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live.

Stripping the Fat from Rights

by Wendy McElroy September 27, 2011

Gov.Rick Snyder of Michigan wants doctors to track the body mass index (BMI) of children through a database that currently tracks immunizations and then to report the collected data to the state. (BMI is the ratio between a persons weight and the square of his height; it is viewed as an indication of whether that persons weight ...

The Real Problem with Solyndra

by Laurence M. Vance September 27, 2011

Executives from the bankrupt solar-energy company Solyndra recently invoked their Fifth Amendment privileges before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, declining to testify to avoid self-incrimination. “On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer any questions,” said CEO Brian Harrison and CFO Bill Stover at the Subcommittee hearing “Solyndra and The ...

Ignorance Is Statist Bliss

by Rich Schwartzman September 26, 2011

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I was with some friends (in the Delaware Libertarian Party) who were running an Operation Politically Homeless table during Newark Community Day in Delaware recently. An OPH consists of having people take The World’s Smallest Political Quiz, then plotting their position on the Nolan Chart. It’s been years since I manned ...