Rule of Law versus Unlimited Rule by James Bovard February 1, 2003 President Bush is fond of reminding Americans of his devotion to the rule of law. On May 3, 2002, he told an audience that he “always” lectures foreign leaders “about the need for there to be rule of law ... and our country is a shining example of that.” Unfortunately, the current U.S. “rule ...
Ending the Anachronistic Korean Commitment, Part 1 by Doug Bandow February 1, 2003 Part 1 | Part 2 The United States has defended South Korea (the Republic of Korea, or ROK) for 50 years. But newly elected ROK President Roh Moo-hyun suggests that his nation might “mediate” in any war between America and North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK). Talk about one-way alliances! The presence of 37,000 troops in ...
Book Review: Creative Destruction by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2003 Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World’s Culture by Tyler Cowen (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002); 179 pages; $24.95. Most people can understand the common-sense logic and benefits from division of labor and international trade. After all, most people understand that there are some things that they are not able to provide for themselves, so they either buy them ...
A Message from FFF’s President by Jacob G. Hornberger January 31, 2003 To: FFF Friends and Supporters From: Jacob G. Hornberger Subject: FFF Immigration Project Date: January 31, 2003 Whether Americans will admit it or not, American society is now being transformed in one of the most revolutionary fashions in American history. Today, the federal government is assuming and exercising powers that have historically been the hope and dream of communist and ...
Peace Prize to a Man of War by Sheldon Richman January 27, 2003 The day before former President Jimmy Carter formally received the Nobel Peace Prize, he told a reporter he hoped the honor would spotlight the more favorable things that happened during his term in office, such as the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978. Camp David is widely known. Not so well known is another foreign-policy achievement of ...
Flying the Regulated Skies by Scott McPherson January 27, 2003 If ever there was cause to believe that the government is not competent to dictate airport and airline security, the recent arrest of a pilot for trying to carry a pistol onto his flight should confirm that suspicion. It also shows again why security ought to be left to individual ...
Bush to Chavez: Just Ignore Your Constitution by Jacob G. Hornberger January 22, 2003 President Bush’s recent advice to embattled Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez reflects Bush’s cavalier attitude toward constitutional restraints. In the midst of all the political turmoil in Venezuela, Bush, who apparently despises Chavez, aligned himself with his political opponents and called for early presidential elections, with the aim ...
The Growing Triumph of the Second Amendment by James Ostrowski January 22, 2003 Something happened in Buffalo recently that contradicts the propaganda of those who support “gun control” — the control of law-abiding people who wish to own a gun for protection against the assorted nefarious elements in this world. A citizen actually used a gun, a shotgun, to defend his home ...
Postmodern Government Budgets by Sheldon Richman January 17, 2003 If President Bush’s bureaucracy were as capable as the bureaucracy in George Orwell’s great novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Lawrence Lindsey, the president’s former economic advisor, would have been airbrushed out of every photograph he appeared in while holding that post, and every reference to his estimate of the cost of the ...
What Is Seen and Not Seen in the Federal Budget Deficits by Richard M. Ebeling January 17, 2003 President Bush’s budget director, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., has now admitted what most people have been expecting — that the era of federal budget deficits has returned for the foreseeable future. In the current fiscal year, the deficit will most probably be greater than $200 billion and will very ...
Robbing Peter to “Prime the Pump” by Scott McPherson January 16, 2003 If Franklin Roosevelt were alive today, he’d want to shake the hand of California governor Gray Davis. Why? The good governor dreams of an economic recovery plan that FDR, the old socialist himself, would easily identify as a page out of his own failed Keynesian dream. In a January 7 ...
Market Competition Lives by Sheldon Richman January 15, 2003 With the resignation of Steve Case as chairman of AOL Time Warner, we have yet another demonstration of the greatness of the marketplace and a striking contrast with its nemesis, government. Think back to the day three years ago when the mega-merger between AOL and Time Warner was announced. ...