Daily Articles

A Conflict of Paradigms

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2005

Understanding the true nature of a free society entails asking ourselves two basic questions: What does it actually mean to be free, and what is the legitimate role of government in a free society? Reflecting on those two fundamental questions might provide the way out of the ...

Coercion: It’s What’s for Dinner in Postconstitutional America

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2005

Most recent free-speech controversies have been about government efforts to restrict someone’s right to express himself. So it is noteworthy that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving not stifled speech, but rather coerced speech. Alas, it decided the case wrongly. Everyone has seen the generic TV ...

A New Federal War on Dissent?

by James Bovard August 1, 2005

On October 15, 2003, the FBI sent Intelligence Bulletin #89 to 17,000 local and state law-enforcement agencies around the country. The bulletin warned of pending marches in Washington and San Francisco against Bush’s Iraq policy and stated, While the FBI possesses no information indicating that violent or terrorist activities are ...

The Courts and the New Deal, Part 3

by William L. Anderson August 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 When Janice Rogers Brown was renominated to fill a vacancy on the D.C. Court of Appeals this year, the New York Times demanded that Democrats filibuster her nomination, one of the reasons being that, in a speech to a gathering of conservative lawyers, Brown had called ...

Public-School Outrages

by Anthony Gregory August 1, 2005

Americans across the political spectrum see the failure of the government school system in teaching the basics, such as reading, writing, math, science, and history. No matter how many tax dollars have been spent or reform proposals implemented, the dismal performance of public-school students continues unabated. A recent case involving a student’s arrest helps to ...

Economics for the Citizen, Part 6

by Walter E. Williams August 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 My last article introduced the law of demand, which states that, holding everything else constant, the lower the price of something, the ...

Unchaining Africa

by Doug Bandow August 1, 2005

Africa Unchained: The Blueprint for Africa’s Future by George Ayittey, (Palgrave/Macmillan 2005); 483 pages; $35. So much promise, so little progress. Populated with creative people and filled with natural resources, Africa, one might think, should be a global powerhouse. Instead, the continent ...

Africa Needs Freedom, Not “Aid”

by Sheldon Richman July 18, 2005

Politicians are never more dangerous than when they are thinking, “We’ve got to do something!” Take the just-adjourned G8 meeting in Scotland. The rulers of the most advanced economic powers (and Russia, go figure) met with the intention of looking as though they were doing something to end poverty in Africa. ...

The Pentagon: Islam’s Newest Department of Defense

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 15, 2005

Iraq’s defense minister is assuring everyone that the military agreement that Iraq entered into with Iran last week does not provide that Iran would train Iraq’s troops. That job, he insisted, remains with the U.S. government. Let that sink in for a moment.

The Most Important Argument against the Draft

by Anthony Gregory July 11, 2005

As neoconservatives and some “liberals” contemplate bringing back the draft, it is time for all friends of liberty to prepare for a national debate of the utmost importance. Restoring conscription would be a monumental assault on individual liberty in America, one of the worst asaults since the ...

Terrorism Comes with Empire

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 8, 2005

Question: Why didn’t the terrorists strike Switzerland instead of England? After all, the two countries share the same “freedom and values,” don’t they? Answer: The Swiss government didn’t attack Iraq. It doesn’t meddle in the Middle East. It didn’t participate in the brutal sanctions against the Iraqi people. It doesn’t maintain ...

Gitmo Threatens Us All

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 6, 2005

It might be safe to say that Americans who have been supporting or pooh-poohing the torture, mistreatment, and sex abuse of detainees at the Pentagon’s infamous detention facility at Guantanamo Bay have been doing so because the detainees have been foreigners. What those Americans might not realize is that “Gitmo” is for Americans too, ...