Daily Articles

The Schiavo Case Is Not Judicial Murder

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 28, 2005

Contrary to popular opinion, the Schiavo case does not involve “judicial murder” or even euthanasia or assisted suicide. Instead, it is a case that turns on a factual determination in a court of law regarding Terri Schiavo’s intent with respect to the conditions under which she would want to be ...

Why Not a Free Market in Education?

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 25, 2005

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is a smart man. Such being the case, why isn’t he able to recognize the real solution to the woes of public schooling? Gates recently published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times in which he stated, “Our high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, ...

National Wealth Tax to Fund Education?

by George Leef March 25, 2005

Like all socialist enterprises, “public education” in the United States is very high in cost and very low in positive results. While some students graduate from public schools with sharp intellectual skills (often owing more to their home environment than to their school instruction), many others drift aimlessly ...

What’s Wrong with Public Schools?

by Sheldon Richman March 25, 2005

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Separating School & State: How to Liberate Americas Families (1994) by Sheldon Richman. Its time to admit that pubic education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybodys role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. Its ...

Rule of Law Damaged by Schiavo Bill

by Sheldon Richman March 23, 2005

The events surrounding the life of Terri Schiavo are tragic enough. Now congressional Republicans and President Bush have made things worse. In one weekend they disabled federalism, the separation of powers, and the rule of law. These principles were embraced by the Founding Fathers because they tend to ...

Why Save Social Security? Revisited

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 18, 2005

My article “Why Save Social Security?” generated so much email, both pro and con, that I thought I would share some of the comments with you, along with my response to some of the points made by them. Email supporting repeal “Please continue this attack to eliminate this ...

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, ...