Daily Articles

The Second Amendment’s Right to Bear Arms: What It Means

by John W. Whitehead July 13, 2021

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” — The Second Amendment to the US Constitution You can largely determine where a person will fall in the debate over gun control and the Second Amendment based on their view of government ...

Help Us Defend Our Civil Liberties

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 13, 2021

On the heels of our very successful online Zoom conference in April and May on “The National Security State and the Kennedy Assassination,” we now wish to do another online Zoom conference this fall on the critical importance of “Restoring Civil Liberties in America.” I am writing to see ...

Is School Choice the Answer to Critical Race Theory?

by Laurence M. Vance July 9, 2021

Following the lead of lawmakers in Tennessee and Idaho, my state of Florida has become the latest state to ban the teaching of critical race theory in its public schools. As adopted by the Florida State Board of Education, the amendment banning the teaching of critical race theory states in part: Examples of theories that distort historical events ...

“Race Manners” Reinforce a Harmful Race Conscious

by Richard M. Ebeling July 7, 2021

Which one of us does not want to be treated with respect and dignity, rather than rudeness and disregard? Which one of us does not hope for empathy and support from those who know us when misfortune or tragedy befalls our lives, rather than indifference or callousness? We all do. It’s normal, it’s human. But what happens if this ...

Private Charity, Personal Choice

by Laurence M. Vance July 2, 2021

Although Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.)—the son of former House member and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul—would identify more as a conservative and a constitutionalist than a libertarian, he is certainly the most libertarian member of the U.S. Senate. Sen. Paul is usually the top scorer on The Freedom Index: A Congressional Scorecard Based on the U.S. Constitution, ...

Healthcare Whack-a-Mole

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2021

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of libertarians and conservatives have played an extensive game of Whack-a-Mole. That’s the Japanese game in which plastic moles pop up at random on a board and a person whacks each mole as it appears. In Healthcare Whack-a-Mole, governmental assaults on liberty have continuously popped up during the course of the pandemic. As ...

Ambrose Bierce’s Pro-Freedom Cynicism

by James Bovard July 1, 2021

The friends of freedom must recognize the verbal charades that sway people to surrender their rights and liberties. The political establishment and its media allies are continually abusing the English language to lull people into submission. From pupils being required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each school day to adults being endlessly hectored to vote, ...

Should There Be Equal Pay for Equal Work?

by Laurence M. Vance July 1, 2021

Although I rarely watch cable television, I happened to tune in to an episode of Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel the other day. The segment I saw was about Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Murphy (1894–1964), the first female professional baseball player. The diminutive first baseman from Warren, Rhode Island, who was known professionally as Spike Murphy, billed ...

Modern Collectivist Trends and How to Resist Them

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2021

The First World War and the Great Depression were, I would suggest, the major events that have shaped most of the political, social, and economic trends for more than a century. The Great War, as it used to be called, undermined the generally “classical” liberal world that prevailed, at least in much of Western and Central Europe and North ...

Frank Chodorov’s Peaceful, Persistent Revolution, Part 2

by Wendy McElroy July 1, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 Chodorov’s rejection of war was motivated largely by the growth of the state that accompanied it and that savaged individual freedom. Chapter 11 of his autobiography, entitled “Isolationism,” summarized his position: When the enemy is at the city gates, or the illusion that he is coming... the tendency is to turn over to the captain ...

“Progressives” Blame F. A. Hayek for Everything They Dislike

by Richard M. Ebeling June 30, 2021

There is the ideologically captured mind that squeezes all the complexities, diversities, uncertainties, and serendipities of life into one limited dimension of cause and explanation. One such mind is that of Wellesley College historian, Quinn Slobodian, who sees everywhere the manipulating agents of a nefarious “capitalism.” Even what seems as differing or even opposing ideas are placed through an analytical ...

George Orwell’s 1984 Has Become a Blueprint for Our Dystopian Reality

by John W. Whitehead June 29, 2021

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”— George Orwell, 1984 Tread cautiously: the fiction of George Orwell (Jun. 25, 1903-Jan. 21, 1950) has become an operation manual for the omnipresent, modern-day surveillance state. It’s been more than 70 years since Orwell—dying, beset by fever and bloody coughing fits, and ...