Daily Articles

What Dionne Warwick Reveals about the Drug War

by Sheldon Richman September 13, 2002

The American Inquisition got another one last month. Singer Dionne Warwick, who was found with nearly a dozen marijuana cigarettes at the Miami airport recently, had her charges dropped in return for promising to undergo “drug treatment” and to make anti-drug public-service announcements. Let’s not dwell on the fact that a ...

Repeal the Corporate Tax

by Sheldon Richman September 13, 2002

Why not repeal the corporate income tax? Everyone’s worried about falling stock values, so let’s remove one of the big burdens on corporate profits: the corporate income tax. We shouldn’t do this as a short-term quick fix. The repeal should be permanent. What? you’re saying. Let those dirty corporations get ...

Economic Liberty and the Constitution, Part 4

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |  Table of Contents After the end of the Civil War, the “carpetbag” ...

Homeland Security and the Bureaucratic Dilemma

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2002

On the evening of June 6, 2002, President George W. Bush delivered a brief nationwide television address in which he called for the creation of a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. The president stated that “America is leading the civilized world in a titanic struggle against terror. Freedom and fear are at war. And freedom is winning.” But in ...

Packing Heat, Part 1

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 I sometimes wonder what the people around me would think if they knew I had a pistol under my shirt. A few years ago I would have been the last person I know who was likely to carry a concealed handgun. But here I am. I carry it nearly everywhere. ...

Protectionist Welfare for Steel

by James Bovard September 1, 2002

On March 5, President Bush announced that he was slapping high tariffs on steel imports. Bush began the announcement by declaring, “Free trade is an important engine of economic growth and a cornerstone of my economic agenda.... To open even more markets to American products, I have urged the Senate to grant me the ...

Conservatives, Guns, and Drugs

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2002

Conservatives are generally good at arguing against gun control. Besides the constitutional case — that the Second Amendment protects an individual right keep and bear arms — they are also well versed in the “pragmatic” arguments. For example, they say that gun laws will not be respected by people intent on committing crimes of violence because ...

Book Review: Liberating the Land

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2002

Liberating the Land: The Case for Private Land-Use Planning by Mark Pennington (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2002); 114 pages; $15. Over the last 20 years there have been a variety of strong reactions against the idea of government planning. But one of the areas in which most people still take for granted the necessity of government planning and regulation is ...

The Problem Is the Schools

by Sheldon Richman August 20, 2002

I’ll bet Michael Newdow doesn’t care if private schools have kids say “under God.” Newdow is the father who sued the government school district near Sacramento, California, because his daughter’s school begins the day with the Pledge of Allegiance, which contains those words. An atheist, Newdow objects to the school’s ...

Why Is the Self a Lesser Cause?

by Sheldon Richman August 20, 2002

War increases the burdens of government. If you seek evidence, look around. Government does not grow only in obvious ways, for example by gaining the power to hold individuals without charge or to monitor their lawful activities. It also grows through the promotion of a culture of sacrifice. In war, more ...

The Real Solution to Business Misconduct

by Sheldon Richman August 20, 2002

The way people talk about the need for new regulation of business, you’d think it was 1930. Have we not already lived through the New Deal with its pervasive regulation of corporations? Have we not lived through the regulatory explosions of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s? Are not the transgressions ...

Liberty Again at Risk

by Sheldon Richman August 13, 2002

At the root of the concept “America” is the idea that you can go about your daily business without being monitored by the government. Indeed, every piece of literature about the horrors of totalitarianism includes secret police whose job it is to keep tabs on the people because everyone is under suspicion. This more than ...