Daily Articles

The Martial Law Act of 2006

by James Bovard January 1, 2008

Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make it easy for President Bush to impose martial law in response to a terrorist “incident.” It also empowers him to effectively declare martial law in response to what he ...

I Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Part 4

by James Glaser January 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 So far I have gone from thinking about needing help with post-traumatic stress, to going to the Minneapolis VA and getting a year of one-on-one sessions with a shrink, and on to an intensive eight-week in-hospital ...

World-Saving: A Disastrous Policy

by Gregory Bresiger January 1, 2008

We must act in time — ahead of time — to stamp the smoldering beginnings of any conflict that may threaten to spread. — George W. Bush As a public policy, world-saving ...

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 ...