The Hijacking of the Republican Party by James Muhm September 27, 2004 The traditional principles of the Republican Party have in the past several years been subordinated to a more intrusive domestic policy and an imperialistic foreign policy. Whereas a policy of less federal government intrusion into domestic personal affairs once held together most party adherents, now the party ...
The Election Isn’t about Vietnam by Sheldon Richman September 24, 2004 What a topsy-turvy election! One candidate chose to fight in Vietnam. One candidate avoided it. So which candidate is supported by opponents of the Vietnam war? As I said, topsy-turvy. We hear lots of people say that the election should be about terrorism, Iraq, Medicare, Social Security, the budget not about a war that ended 30 years ago and what ...
Revisiting the Wal-Mart Battlefield: A Reply to Critics by George Leef September 22, 2004 In a previous posting on the FFF site, I argued that the campaign of demonization against Wal-Mart was silly. As expected, a number of people emailed me to tell me off. I think it’s worth another posting to examine the anti–Wal-Mart arguments made by those writers.
In Support of Voting by Jacob G. Hornberger September 22, 2004 As one who refused to vote for some 20 years, I wield a credential in the debate currently taking place in libertarian circles as to whether people should vote or not vote. (See a sampling of the vote vs. no-vote articles below.) I vote in favor of voting. The reasons I didnt vote for all those years were the ...
Big-Government Republicans by Sheldon Richman September 22, 2004 If that was the small-government party we saw in action at the Republican National Convention in New York City, who needs a big-government party? In fact the Republicans have been a big-government party for many years, but at least they used to try to sound like they favored small government. Now they dont even try. The convention throng went wild ...
Freedom, Hope, and Fear: The Paradox of Vietnam, Part 3 by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan September 20, 2004 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 A frightened 10-year old schoolgirl stared shyly at me. We stood outside the War Remnants Museum in front of children’s crayon drawings of bombs dropping from U.S. aircraft on burning villages and palm trees. “Hi, yes, I’m an American,” I said, speaking softly to her in English she didn’t completely understand. Then ...
Freedom, Hope, and Fear: The Paradox of Vietnam, Part 2 by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan September 15, 2004 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Some backpackers said they preferred understated Hanoi to the raucous attack of venders, the capitalism in Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. I enjoyed the bartering, the drivers who surrounded and harangued me. Told that many hawkers would exaggerate tales of suffering to get a better price, I felt the ...
Freedom, Hope, and Fear: The Paradox of Vietnam, Part 1 by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan September 13, 2004 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Since the breakdown of Marxist state planning in 1985 and the introduction of free-market reforms in 1986, the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has unleashed a tiger. Free enterprise will not be stopped. Capitalism is respected now for good reason. People are not starving. But police presence hovers. This ...
Another Perverse Consequence of the “War on Terrorism” by Jacob G. Hornberger September 10, 2004 Sometimes the perverse consequences of federal government policies and programs are evident immediately and sometimes they take a bit longer. For example, at the end of World War I, statists, imperialists, and interventionists were in ecstasy over the U.S. intervention, proudly claiming that the loss of more than 100,000 American deaths was worth the ...
Swift Boat Censorship by Anthony Gregory September 8, 2004 The recent hot topics of American politics — John Kerry’s service in the Vietnam War, whether he lied about it, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads claiming that he lied, and George Bush’s reaction to those ads — seem to have come right out of an alternate dimension. ...
Hearsay Convictions at Guantanamo by Jacob G. Hornberger September 3, 2004 The Pentagon’s decision to admit hearsay evidence at its military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay flies in the face of one of the most important principles in the administration of criminal justice — the right to confront one’s accuser and cross-examine him in the presence of the jury. ...
The Bill of Rights: Antipathy to Militarism by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2004 The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “no Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.” Obviously, the Third Amendment has little relevance today. But what is relevant for us today is the mindset that ...