Daily Articles

For and Against Libertarianism: A Debate, Part 1

by George Leef May 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 Libertarianism: For and Against by Craig Duncan and Tibor Machan (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005); 167 pages. What is a debate? Most of the “debate” that contemporary Americans see consists of the pathetic events featuring political candidates on the same stage, frantically trading sound bites calculated to ...

The Immigration Debate We’re Not Having

by Scott McPherson April 28, 2006

As the nation finds itself embroiled in a debate over immigration, we hear the standard arguments for and against. Those favoring a more liberal approach to immigration warn of the economic consequences of turning away low-cost workers. On the other side, we’re warned that immigration itself “costs” too much — ...

The Price of Empire

by Sheldon Richman April 26, 2006

Empire — sorry, benevolent hegemony — has its price. Terrorism is one. Every empire in history probably had terrorism directed at it, because it’s one of the few weapons available to relatively weak nonstate adversaries. Another, less dramatic price is the determination of other countries’ rulers to go their separate ways. This can range ...

Leave Immigrants and Their Employers Alone

by Scott McPherson April 24, 2006

A basic tenet of a free and open society is the right of everyone to try to better his own life. That’s why millions of people come to the United States every year looking for work. For that same reason, people hire them. With mid-term elections on the way, “immigration reform” is ...

Shifting Realities on Iraq

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 24, 2006

One of the fascinating aspects of the Iraq War has been the way in which some people have permitted their sense of reality to shift and mutate as circumstances have changed. Recall that the primary justification for supporting the war was that Saddam Hussein was about to unleash a biological, chemical, ...

A Message from Jacob G. Hornberger

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 21, 2006

The ideas and principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution brought into existence the greatest, freest, and most prosperous nation in history. It is to the restoration of those principles of liberty that The Future of Freedom Foundation is committed. Our country is headed in a bad direction with respect to our rights and freedoms. Under the ...

What Do You Mean “We”?

by Sheldon Richman April 19, 2006

To say the least, there is tension between the ideas that we live in a free society and that government may determine whom we may sell to, rent to, and hire. This is the real heart of the immigration debate. Who should decide such things, free individuals or the state?

Constitutional Illiteracy & Attention Deficit Democracy

by James Bovard April 14, 2006

Another poll has confirmed that most Americans are constitutionally without a clue. Americans’ political illiteracy is good news for Washington politicians hungry to seize more power. But this ignorance is one of the most perilous elements of attention deficit democracy. The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum poll, released last month, ...

“Failure to File” Says It All

by Sheldon Richman April 14, 2006

“Willful failure to file a tax return is a misdemeanor per IRC Section 7203. In egregious cases, willful failure to file may be elevated to a felony under IRC 7201 Tax Evasion. In addition, a civil penalty for fraudulent failure to file may be applicable per IRC Section 6651(f).” That passage in ...

Conservatism vs. Libertarianism

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 12, 2006

The Conservative: I’m a conservative. I believe in individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government, except for: 1. Social Security; 2. Medicare; 3. Medicaid; 4. Welfare; 5. Drug laws; 6. Public schooling; 7. Federal grants; 8. Economic regulations; 9. Minimum-wage laws and price controls; 10. Federal Reserve System; 11. Paper money; 12. Income taxation and the IRS; 13. Trade restrictions; 14. Immigration controls; 15. The postal monopoly; 16. Foreign aid; 17. ...

Bush’s Bogus Theory of Absolute Power

by James Bovard April 7, 2006

The Bush administration has a theory to explain why the Founding Fathers secretly intended for the president to have boundless power. Even though the new unitary executive theory is nowhere in the Constitution, White House officials continually invoke it to justify scorning federal law. The fact that the administration is getting away with this charade symbolizes how docile much ...

Not War, But an Imperial Venture

by Sheldon Richman April 3, 2006

President Bush, sticking to a script like a five-year-old clinging to a security blanket, insists that the United States can bring democracy to Iraq and other Middle East countries at the point of an American bayonet. So convinced is he of that, he has made death America’s best-known export. Not everyone is ...