Social Security’s Malign Premise by Sheldon Richman March 18, 2005 Take note of the sheer panic displayed by the left-socialist opponents of President Bush’s Social Security proposal. We can divine some significant information from that reaction. The president’s suggestion (no detailed proposal has been offered yet) would not give individuals anything like the control over their own incomes ...
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri: Charge Him or Release Him by Jacob G. Hornberger March 16, 2005 When U.S. citizen Ahmed Abu Ali was recently returned to the United States to face criminal charges for terrorism, after some two years of detention in Saudi Arabia without being charged with a crime, he told U.S. Magistrate Liam O’Grady that he had been tortured by Saudi officials. Judge O’Grady ...
Democracy May Be Breaking Out, But Is Freedom? by Sheldon Richman March 14, 2005 Virtually everyone from President Bush to the New York Times sees democracy on a roll. Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinians, and Saudi Arabia (men, not women) have had elections. Egypt could be next. Is something really happening in that part of the world? Perhaps. The real question is, what is happening? People are ...
The IRS vs. Ragnor Danksjold by Jacob G. Hornberger March 14, 2005 The feds are very upset with Walter Anderson, whom they’re accusing of being the “biggest tax cheat in American history.” They say he evaded taxes on $450 million in income, although he can’t be all bad because in 1998 he paid $494 in income taxes. So, the feds are now going ...
Government’s Social Security Mess by Sheldon Richman March 11, 2005 It’s hard to say how the debate over Social Security will turn out. Considering that the system rests on the three-legged stool of the welfare state — coercion, deception, and paternalism — it’s hard to see a case for anything but abolition and the individual right to control one’s ...
Why Save Social Security? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 11, 2005 In their desire to reform or save Social Security, some advocates of free enterprise display a reluctance to openly call for the repeal or dismantling of Social Security or even to suggest that their Social Security reform plan would gradually tend in that direction. For example, the conservative Heritage Foundation, ...
Murder or Ouster for Chavez? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 7, 2005 According to CNN, unnamed U.S. officials have branded the charge of Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, that the U.S. government plans to oust him from office through assassination as “ridiculous.” Ridiculous? Maybe those particular unnamed U.S. officials aren’t familiar with a government organization known as the Central Intelligence ...
The Padilla Ruling Is a Victory for Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger March 2, 2005 As I have been writing for the past two years, it is impossible to overstate the importance of the Jose Padilla case. The power assumed by the U.S. military and the Bush administration in the Padilla case constitutes what is arguably the most ominous and dangerous threat to the ...
The Bill of Rights: Bail, Fines, and Cruel and Unusual Punishments by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2005 Like the Sixth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment deals with the administration of criminal justice. The Eighth Amendment reads as follows: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. This is how bail works: When federal officials arrest someone suspected of having committed a crime, they are required to take him promptly ...
Medical Marijuana Is Not a Libertarian Cause by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2005 “Medicine by regulation is better than medicine by referendum.” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said that during arguments in the much-watched medical-marijuana case, Ashcroft v. Raich. Breyer, in other words, prefers that any change in the government’s prohibition of marijuana use be accomplished by an appeal to federal drug-enforcement authorities rather than by a public vote in the ...
Ashcroft, 9/11, and Government as Victim by James Bovard March 1, 2005 John Ashcroft resigned as attorney general last November. Unfortunately, few Americans are aware of how profoundly Ashcroft botched his job and abused his power. He continues to be revered by many conservatives, despite his role in dragging the Bill of Rights into the mud. Nothing better illustrates both Ashcroft’s arrogance and verbal manipulations than his testimony last April 13 to ...
Ashcroft v. Raich: Whither Federalism? by George Leef March 1, 2005 Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution provides that “Congress shall have the power to prohibit citizens from consuming or ingesting any substance that it deems hazardous to the health, safety, or morals of the people.” On the basis of that grant of authority, Congress has carefully investigated the effects of numerous substances and has chosen to ban ...