A Short Numismatic History of the United States by Edward B. Elmer M.D. January 1, 2008 Governments are inveterate despoilers of the freedom, wealth, and lives of their citizens. As consolation, the citizens usually receive little more than lofty words and pretentious sentiments from the political leaders in charge of the looting, murder, and enslavement. Less commonly, governments produce something concrete, such as a marble palace for the ruler or an ...
Crushed by the Fed by Glenn Jacobs January 1, 2008 During a roundtable debate on a major cable-news outlet about how the Federal Reserve should handle the current credit crunch, one of the economic “experts” made a startling statement. He said, “The Fed has two jobs: to control inflation and to run the economy.” That such a statement is considered conventional wisdom is a stark ...
The Military Draft: A Moral Abomination by Michael Boldin January 1, 2008 An article in Newsweek, “Why We Need a Draft: A Marine’s Lament,” stirred up a bit of a hornets’ nest online recently. It was written by a Marine who fought in Fallujah, Iraq, and gave a fairly compelling overview of the practical need for the draft. I’m sure the Marine felt he was right. Forcing you or other people next ...
The Nightmare of the New Deal, Part 2 by George Leef January 1, 2008 Part 1 | Part 2 The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes (HarperCollins, 2007); 464 pages. Who were the good guys? They were people who fought against the collectivization favored by Roosevelt and his “brain trust.” Shlaes devotes a full chapter ...
Are Conservatives (Undocumented) Aliens? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 19, 2007 Conservatives are strange and fascinating creatures. Their minds operate in a strange, Bizarro-like universe in which delusion and deception seem to be considered normal. Consider, for example, the most recent Republican presidential debate. Let’s leave Ron Paul out of the picture for the time being. The rest of the candidates were standing there and periodically proclaiming how committed ...
Torturing the Language of Torture by Sheldon Richman December 17, 2007 Is waterboarding, known during the Spanish Inquisition as tortura del agua, really torture or not? The question seems to answer itself, but the Bush administration says No. Its critics disagree, noting that the “interrogation technique,” which makes a subject physically and mentally react as though he is drowning, has long been regarded as torture by ...
The Tortured Logic of Executive Supremacy (video) by Joseph R. Stromberg December 14, 2007 On June 3, 2007, Joseph Stromberg gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.
Nonintervention: The Original Foreign Policy by Ron Paul December 14, 2007 On June 3, 2007, Ron Paul gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.
Iran’s Phantom Nukes by Sheldon Richman December 10, 2007 We can all sleep easier today. Any plans President George W. Bush may have had to attack Iran were dealt a major blow by the news that U.S. intelligence now believes Iran stopped trying to develop nuclear weapons in 2003. That, by the way, was two years before Mahmoud “The New ...
Technology and Government Power — A Deadly Cocktail for Freedom? (video) by Bob Barr December 7, 2007 On June 4, 2007, Bob Barr gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.
The Ultimate Tax Cut by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2007 Since it is presidential campaign season, we will inevitably be treated to the usual discourse about tax cuts. Some candidates will call for tax cuts, undoubtedly as a way to bribe voters into voting for them. Others will resist the call, undoubtedly in fear that their favorite government program might not receive desired funding. In actuality, all the tax-cut ...
America’s Anti-Militarist Tradition by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2007 The right wing went apoplectic at the skepticism that greeted Gen. David Petraeus’s recent testimony about the alleged success of the military escalation in Iraq. It was as though a member of the military was incapable of engaging in spin to support his commander in chief’s war policy. President Bush summed up this attitude revealingly when he said it ...