Daily Articles

Arrogance Is Humility

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2003

Taking a step back from all the particulars, the real lesson of September 11 is that for more than 50 years, the U.S. government has put the American people in harm’s way by its heavy-handed intervention in the bitter disputes throughout the Middle East. Then, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year on “national security” and ...

Foreign Dissent on Bush’s Imperial Ambitions

by James Bovard January 1, 2003

The Bush administration was outraged this past summer when German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder starkly declared that he would not support Bush’s war with Iraq. The resulting transatlantic brouhaha provides insights into political developments and delusions in both the United States and Germany. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld huffed that the German campaign had been “unhelpful” ...

Hawks and the Free Market

by Bart Frazier January 1, 2003

Rosalie Barrow Edge should be considered a hero to libertarians and conservationists alike. In 1933, she founded Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, Pennsylvania. At a time in our country's history when the economy was a shambles and socialism was hip, Edge managed to establish the first refuge for hawks in the world without the aid of government. In the 1920s ...

Guns and Privacy

by Scott McPherson January 1, 2003

Ask a member of the mainstream political Left whether he would be willing to have a camera installed in his house by the government with the explicit purpose of monitoring his activities for any potential wrongdoing. Like any self-respecting human being, he would very likely recoil in disgust against so blatant a violation of his privacy. Next, assure him that, ...

Socialism Lives in Public Schools

by Thomas L. Johnson January 1, 2003

A piece entitled “Education is not just another product in the market economy,” by Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, is one of the clearest expressions of socialism and collectivism that one could ever encounter. His article also contains both errors and omissions. He begins with a significant error. Chase claims that in the 19th century when people ...

Book Review: Misguided Virtue

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2003

Misguided Virtue: False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility by David Henderson (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2002); 169 pages; $19.95. In spite of the end of Sovietstyle communism, the introduction of more market-oriented policies in many previously socialist societies, and the further integration of many of the world’s economic activities through the process of globalization, the ideology and policies of anti-capitalism ...

Should Government Run Churches … or Schools?

by Scott McPherson December 27, 2002

What if government ran our churches? Imagine the spectacle. If the government were in charge of religion, there would be just one for everyone. No more competition between differing sects and denominations. No longer would there be diverse and numerous places of worship flourishing all over our cities and ...

The Real State of the Union

by Scott McPherson December 27, 2002

In late January, President Bush will speak to the nation from the House of Representatives in his annual state of the Union address. By the tens of millions Americans will tune in to hear the president outline his legislative agenda for the coming year and congratulate himself on his past ...

Another Frankenstein’s Monster

by Sheldon Richman December 27, 2002

When a nemesis such as Osama bin Laden speaks, one would expect his words to be of great interest. But this is apparently not the case. The latest audiotape of a voice purporting to be bin Laden’s prompted discussion principally of three issues: (1) Was it really him? (2) Why wasn’t it a videotape? (3) Where is he? There was ...

Multilateralist Cowards

by Sheldon Richman December 27, 2002

The biggest bunch of cowards in the U.S. Congress are the multilateralists. These are the ones who say that the Bush administration should not escalate the 10-year-old war against Iraq without the support of the United Nations. What makes them cowards is not their skittishness about having the United States go it ...

Cancel Christmas, the Government Owns Your School

by Scott McPherson December 27, 2002

The moral case for separating school and state was made long ago. Still, the role that government played in micro-managing the holiday season in Americas public schools this year proved yet again the wisdom of this cause. In the December 20 Washington Times, readers got to glimpse another of the fiascoes which make up our government-run education system. An increasing ...

Sic the IRS on Saddam

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 23, 2002

President Bush made a grievous mistake by relying on a UN weapons report to go after Saddam Hussein. He should have instead required Saddam to file a federal income-tax return. It would have been a much more effective and less costly way to get rid of the man. Look at the ...