Daily Articles

“Our” Collective Goodness in the Tsunami Disaster

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 29, 2004

Stung by the suggestion that “we” (please note the quotation marks) are stingy because “we” (quotation marks again) were sending only $15 million to the tsunami victims, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell immediately upped the ante with another $20 million in U.S. government assistance. Powell also made it clear that ...

The Federal Attack on the Dollar

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2004

In the wake of unrestrained U.S. federal spending, U.S. conservatives are no longer talking so loudly about how they brought down the Soviet Union — by making it spend the nation into national bankruptcy. But the marketplace is speaking as loudly as conservatives once did, as reflected in ...

Limits on Chinese Imports Harm Low-Income Americans

by Sheldon Richman December 22, 2004

President Bush has a nice little Christmas present for every family struggling to make ends meet: he announced the other day that he will make clothing more expensive in the coming year by imposing limits on cheap imports from China. This little favor to American textile and apparel interests ...

The Longest-Running War

by Doug Bandow December 20, 2004

Joel Miller, Bad Trip: How the War on Drugs Is Destroying America; (Nashville, Tenn.: WND Books, 2004). Jeffrey A. Miron, Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition; (Oakland, Ca.: The Independent Institute, 2004). War has become a centerpiece of American politics. The ...

Brady Wrong on Automatic Weapons

by Benedict D. LaRosa December 20, 2004

During the campaign season, James Brady, former press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, criticized Illinois Republican senatorial candidate Alan Keyes for defending the right of Americans to keep and bear arms, including machine guns. Brady called Keyes’s stand an “insane” call for a return to “the Al Capone ...

Republicans Have Family under Attack

by Sheldon Richman December 17, 2004

Anyone who still believes that the people and the government are the same thing ought to think about what a House-Senate conference committee refused to do recently. Thanks to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the committee had the opportunity to strike a blow for the rights of parents and for ...

Think Globally, Act Absurdly

by Scott McPherson December 17, 2004

“We didn’t run for office just to rake the leaves and tend to tree trimming. We’ve got ideas.” — George L. Leventhal, vice president, Montgomery County (Maryland) Council That statement sums up the essence of so-called progressivism. If you’ve got ideas about the way things are supposed to be, ...

Why No Indictment for Bernard Kerik?

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 15, 2004

Amidst all the hubbub over Bernard Kerik’s decision to remove himself from consideration as director of Homeland Security owing to his reported hiring of an illegal-immigrant nanny, no one, including the press, seems to be asking an important question: Why aren’t the feds seeking a criminal indictment against ...

States Should End the Drug War

by Sheldon Richman December 13, 2004

“Medicine by regulation is better than medicine by referendum.” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said that during last week’s arguments over the much-watched medical-marijuana case. Breyer, in other words, prefers that any change in the government’s prohibition of marijuana use be accomplished by an appeal to the ...

Licensure: A Lawyer Protection Racket

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 8, 2004

One of the most popularly held beliefs in American society is that state licensing of attorneys is necessary to ensure that they are competent. But you’d have a hard time convincing people accused of crimes in Virginia of that. In an editorial entitled “A System Still in Crisis”, the ...

The Bill of Rights: Eminent Domain

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2004

One of the bedrocks of a free society is a system of private property. The concept of economic liberty is founded not only on principles of free enterprise but also on the principle that people have the right to accumulate the fruits of their earnings. If government has the power to arbitrarily seize a person’s wealth or property, then ...

Democratic Relativism

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2004

It occurred to me recently that the American political system is even worse than I thought. Before the abstract discussion, lets look at some particulars. When First Lady Hillary Clinton held secret meetings in order to formulate the Clinton administrations plan for medical services, the Republicans exploded with rage. Secret government! they shouted. Nefarious elitism! Conservatives overflowed with venom. Republicans ...