Daily Articles

The CIA and the Assassination of John Kennedy, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Even though the CIA was the premier government agency in the world whose expertise was assassination, coups, and regime change, it does not necessarily follow that it employed its talents and abilities here in the United States in November 1963. But it’s an important factor that should have been considered ...

Haiti Needs Freedom

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2010

The heartbreaking devastation of Haiti shows again that as deadly as Mother Nature can be when acting alone, she is far more lethal when she conspires with poverty. The immediate cause of the deaths of the hundreds of thousands Haitians was the earthquake, but most of those people might be alive today if Haiti weren’t poor. And why is ...

The Fraud of Big Picture Thinking

by James Bovard April 1, 2010

Politicians, pundits, and others perennially invoke the “Big Picture.” Recognizing the role of the Big Picture is vital to understanding how contemporary democracies are going off the rail. The Big Picture provides preemptive exoneration for almost anyone who wants to kowtow and cheerlead for political power. Fifteen years ago, there was a hullabaloo to denounce “politically correct” mandates and imperatives. ...

The Disaster of Government-Run Businesses, Part 2

by Jim Powell April 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 In the 1870s, the Japanese had many government-run businesses — among them, mining, shipbuilding, railways, and silk production. According to economic historians Johannes Hirschmeier and Tsunehiko Yui, they “were a heavy burden on government finance, and on the whole were running in the red.” The government couldn’t even make money with silk production, something ...

John Maynard Keynes, Defunct Economist

by Edmund Contoski April 1, 2010

John Maynard Keynes, who rose to prominence in the 1930s, wrote, “The ideas of economists and political philosophers ... are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men ... are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority ... are usually distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of ...

Unnatural Law, Natural Tyranny, Part 1

by William L. Anderson April 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 A typical federal courtroom scene has the trappings of ages gone by. The judge wears a black robe, everyone stands when he enters, the bailiff utters the “Oyez” sayings, and much of the language is the same as what might have been said two centuries ago in an American or ...

Leading Humanity Out of the Darkness (Video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2010

On March 21, 2010, Jacob G. Hornberger gave the following speech at The Free State Projects Liberty Forum. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.

Hard Cases Make Bad Law

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 23, 2010

The issue in the Terri Schiavo case is not whether the Florida district court originally entered a correct judgment or not. The issue is whether this is a nation in which the American people are going to continue permitting their Washington politicians and bureaucrats to continue trampling on the Constitution and the rule of law, even while these people ...

Health Care Reform: Were Being Fooled Again

by Sheldon Richman March 22, 2010

The medical system does need reforming — radical reforming. It’s more expensive than it ought to be, and powerful interests prosper at the expense of the rest of us. The status quo has little about it to be admired, and we shouldn’t tolerate it. Thus, the American people should be fed up with Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid ...

Will Obama Sell Out on Terrorist Trials?

by Andy Worthington March 22, 2010

In the dark farce that is the Obama administrations counter-terrorism policy, decisions are now, it seems, being made by whoever makes the most noise, regardless of whether what they are shouting for actually makes sense. Since last November, when Attorney General Eric Holder first announced that five men including ...

The Black Hole of Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington March 22, 2010

When it comes to dealing with the thorny question of how to close Guantánamo, the remaining prisoners have been caught between two competing systems since President Obama took office last January, and the result, to put it mildly, has been confusing. Under President Bush, prisoners were cleared for release by military-review boards, established to review the supposed evidence against them, ...

The Soviet Unionization of Health Care

by David R. Henderson March 16, 2010

Few of us relish paying for health care, but when we do, amazing things happen: Strangers listen to us and try to give us what we want. Theres a simple economic rule that what we pay for, we control. Insurers, hospitals, doctors, nurses, and drug companies listen to us when their livelihood depends on it. ...