Daily Articles

Why Did They Torture Jose Padilla?

by John Grant February 1, 2007

There’s a rancid odor escaping from the cracks in the Jose Padilla case. Padilla is the American citizen arrested in Chicago and declared by President Bush to be an “enemy combatant.” He was then kept for nearly two years in a South Carolina brig without access to a lawyer, family, or friends. The courts finally forced the Bush administration to ...

Ripping Off the Taxpayers

by Thomas E. Woods Jr. February 1, 2007

The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money by Timothy P. Carney (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2006); 285 pages; $24.95. Frédéric Bastiat called it legal plunder when the state expropriated one set of property owners for the benefit of another. Whether it loots the workers to benefit the farmers, the farmers to benefit the workers, ...

A Clarion Call for Health Independence

by Wendy McElroy January 31, 2007

Lorenzo’s Oil (1992) is one of the best movies you’ve never seen. This incredible drama hit the big screen for two seconds before skidding into rental stores, where it failed to find the wider audience it deserves. Lorenzo’s Oil is a compelling reality-based story of parental devotion and the triumph of truth ...

Conference 2007 Speaker Spotlight: Lew Rockwell and Bob Higgs

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 26, 2007

Two weeks ago, I profiled the first two speakers James Bovard and Ralph Raico at our upcoming June 1-4 conference: Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Reston, Virginia. Jim and Ralph will be followed by two of the most principled and courageous people in the libertarian movement: Lew Rockwell and Bob ...

No Need for Energy Subsidies

by Sheldon Richman January 26, 2007

For a guy who claims to believe in limited government, President Bush is awfully good at dangling subsidies and threatening coercion when he wants to encourage or discourage something. That’s the lesson to take from his State of the Union Address. Look at what he said about energy: “For too ...

Bush’s Doublethink

by Sheldon Richman January 19, 2007

The most peculiar passage in President Bushs much-dissected surge speech was this: I have made it clear to the prime minister and Iraqs other leaders that Americas commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people. What could the president have meant by ...

Conference 2007 Speaker Spotlight: Jim Bovard and Ralph Raico

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 12, 2007

Every Friday, Ill be writing to give you a brief update on our June 1-4 conference, Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties, including a mini-bio of two of our featured speakers. On Monday morning, June 1, Jim Bovard will kick off the conference with the first talk. Jim has been a close personal friend of mine and has ...

Bipartisanship? Bah!

by Sheldon Richman January 10, 2007

One of our smartest political philosophers, Will Rogers, had it right: Be thankful were not getting all the government were paying for. I think of that whenever I hear politicians and commentators praise bipartisanship. I also think of this saying: Be careful what you wish for. You might get it. Where did all the wise heads get the idea that Americans ...

FFF Conference: “Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties”

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 5, 2007

On June 1–4, Friday morning through Monday noon, The Future of Freedom Foundation is hosting one of the most exciting and important conferences of our time: “Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties.” Featuring 24 of the nation’s top libertarian, liberal, and ...

What Exactly Did Gerald Ford Heal?

by Sheldon Richman January 5, 2007

Over the last several days former President Gerald R. Ford has been repeatedly praised for healing the nation in the aftermath of Richard Nixons Watergate scandal. Democrat, Republican, and solemn pundit alike paid extravagant tribute to the man who, in their view, saved the American people from disaster. But is that what Ford really did? Lets recall the context. The ...

Empire or Republic

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2007

We now live in a country in which the president wields the power to send the entire nation into war on his own initiative, without the congressional declaration of war required by the Constitution. We live in a country in which the president and the military wield the power to arrest an American citizen and incarcerate him in a military ...

Democracy and Government Schools

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2007

Let’s be frank. We advocates of a completely free market in education are making little progress. I think I know why. Before I get to that, let’s look at where we are. Roughly 90 percent of American children attend government schools. That share has not changed substantially in the last 20 ...