Daily Articles

Park51 and Collective Guilt

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2010

If a YMCA or a YMHA were planned for 51 Park Place in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the Twin Towers’ former site, who would have noticed? Instead, the equivalent of a Muslim Y (without the implied male exclusivity) is to be built there. What’s the big deal? I can think of only one answer: Consciously or not, a majority of ...

Obama Advisor Sunstein’s Peril to Freedom

by James Bovard November 1, 2010

Cass Sunstein is the chief of the Obama administration’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. As Salon’s Glenn Greenwald noted earlier this year, Sunstein “has long been one of Barack Obama’s closest confidants.” His values are probably guiding the Obama administration far more than most Americans realize. Sunstein, formerly a law professor at the University of Chicago, has long spearheaded ...

Regulation and Union Corruption

by Jim Powell November 1, 2010

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been a hotbed of violence and corruption ever since it started in 1903. Cornelius Shea was the Detroit-based union’s first president, and he constantly battled rivals. He was charged with graft, criminal libel, and mail fraud, and was indicted for conspiracy to restrain trade, commit violence, and prevent nonunion people from working. During ...

Lessons from a Bloated Budget

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2010

President Obama has just sent to Congress the largest federal budget ever in U.S. history. His $3.518 trillion budget is also the most unbalanced in history, with a built-in deficit of $1.413 trillion. The United States has rarely in its history had a balance of receipts and outlays. Deficit spending has been the norm, with the last real budget surplus ...

Nullifying Tyranny

by George Leef November 1, 2010

Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century by Thomas E. Woods Jr. (Regnery, 2010); 309 pages. One of the big mistakes made by the drafters of the Constitution was their omission of any provision that says what is to be done if the Congress or president acts unconstitutionally. Although the Constitution places limits on their authority, nowhere does ...

Have Republicans Finally Seen the Light?

by Laurence M. Vance October 29, 2010

How many Republicans does it take to screw up a light bulb? If you said ninety-five then you must be familiar with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandates the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. Although it is true that Republicans never reverse the legislative damage done by Democrats, sometimes they do make a lame, half-hearted attempt ...

No Justice for Omar Khadr at Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington October 25, 2010

Exactly two years ago, when I began writing a weekly column for The Future of Freedom Foundation on Guantánamo, torture, and other crimes and abuses committed as part of the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” I focused on the story of Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen who was just 15 years old when he was seized after ...

Hypocrisy’s Coming Election-Day Triumph

by Sheldon Richman October 22, 2010

By nearly all accounts, Republicans are poised for a big win, even by historical midterm standards, in the November 2 congressional elections. Many candidates backed by the Tea Party should have a big day. But what will these victories mean for people who are alarmed by the growth of the welfare-warfare state? Not much, I’m sorry to say. Who among the ...

States Rights, the Constitution, and Individual Liberty (Video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 13, 2010

Speech given at Virginia Liberty Fest //

Torture and the Ghailani Case

by Andy Worthington October 11, 2010

Terror ruling threatens civilian prosecutions,” screamed the Los Angeles Times last Thursday. “Ruling in ’98 East Africa embassy bombings is setback for US,” wailed the Washington Post. The headline writers were referring to the federal court trial, in New York, of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a former CIA “ghost prisoner” (for two years and two ...

Liberty, Legislation, and Law (video)

by Don Boudreaux October 10, 2010

On October 4, 2010, Donald J. Boudreaux gave the following speech at The Future of Freedom Foundations Economic Liberty Lecture Series. The speech can viewed below in its entirety. Professor Donald J. Boudreaux was the Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, from August 2001 to August 2009. Previously, he was president of ...

War Does Not Produce Prosperity

by Sheldon Richman October 8, 2010

Many bad ideas go under the rubric “Keynesian economics,” but perhaps the worst is that government spending — no matter what kind — can genuinely stimulate of an economy and increase the general welfare. To see how ridiculous this idea is, have a look at what the leading Progressive Keynesian, Paul Krugman, and leading conservative Keynesian, Martin Feldstein, agree on: ...