Daily Articles

The Demise of Conscience, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 As libertarians have long pointed out, both the welfare state and the warfare state have brought immeasurable damage to our country. With its various programs of confiscatory taxation of income and capital to accomplish its coercive redistribution of wealth, the welfare state has brought standards of living lower than otherwise would ...

Independent Migrants, Welfare, and the Law

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2008

It’s a sad sign of the times that political candidates — even those who profess to be proponents of limited government — feel they have to one-up their rivals in showing how hard they would crack down on people who have the gall to come to the United States without the government’s permission. “Border security” is the odious buzzword ...

The Democratic-Peace Fraud

by James Bovard March 1, 2008

The doctrine of “democratic peace” now provides vital camouflage for the American war machine. Michael Novak, a theologian with the pro-war American Enterprise Institute, observed, “Democracy is the new name for peace.” The idea that democracies never fight wars against each other has become axiomatic for many scholars. Prof. Jack Levy commented in 1989 that the democratic-peace doctrine is ...

Open Borders Work, Part 1

by Philippe LeGrain March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Imagine you were born in a part of the country where farming was no longer productive, or in a rust-belt town where the local factories had closed. You hear of good jobs in California and Colorado, so you decide to move. How would you feel if, when you arrived at the state ...

I Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Part 6

by James Glaser March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Now we come to the very reason that veterans get PTSD. More than likely, there was a traumatic experience or experiences that, you might say, overwhelmed them. Now that I have been through it, I believe that the whole ...

The Legacy of Milton Friedman, Part 1

by Doug Bandow March 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 It has been more than a year since Milton Friedman passed from our lives. What a world he departed. The desire for liberty burns ever brightly. The forces of statism resist ever strongly. How we miss his presence. Although he has left us, his ideas live ...

The Media Versus the State

by Wendy McElroy March 1, 2008

Good Night, and Good Luck was the television sign-off of Edward R. Murrow (19081965) the journalistic pioneer often considered to be the finest broadcast news commentator produced by America. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) is also an Oscar-nominated docudrama that explores the conflict between Murrow (played by David Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy over the anti-Communist crusade he ...

FFF Conference Schedule Now Online!

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 29, 2008

We have just gone live with the schedule for our upcoming June 6-8 conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy & Civil Liberties. See it here: Conference Schedule. I know Ive said it before, but it bears repeating: This conference might well turn out to be the greatest and most important ...

Common Sense and the Drug Problem

by Hank Sames February 25, 2008

“Largest Pot Bust on Record” ... “State to Fund New Jail Construction” ... “City Police and County Sheriffs Lobby for More Federal Funds to Fight Drugs” ... “Federal Courthouse Overwhelmed with Drug Cases” The headlines are disturbing and are never-ending. The “war on drugs” has gone on since the Nixon administration in the 1970s and ...

Individualism, the Collectivists’ Nemesis

by Tibor R. Machan February 22, 2008

It is individualism that the American Founders elevated into political prominence and it is individualism that most politicians and governments, including Americas, find most annoying because it is the bulwark against arbitrary power. If, as the Declaration of Independence states, individual human beings have unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, no one may violate these rights. ...

InfraGard: An Unhealthy Government Alliance

by Gary D. Barnett February 22, 2008

There is an organization that is quietly and secretly becoming very large and powerful. The FBI started this partnership or alliance between the federal government and the private sector in 1996 in Cleveland with a few select people. After September 11, 2001, when the general population replaced their rationality with fear, this organization, called InfraGard, continued growing, and with ...

A Sure-Fire Argument on the Second Amendment

by Rick Lynch February 18, 2008

With the Supreme Court’s decision to examine the constitutionality of D.C.’s gun ban, the nation once again turns to an intense examination of the wording of the Second Amendment. One way to understand an amendment whose words have confused generations is to study its somewhat confusing text. But another way ...