Daily Articles

Book Review: Communism

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 2002

Communism: A History by Richard Pipes (New York: The Modern Library, 2001); 175 pages; $19.95. IT SEEMS HARD TO BELIEVE that it is already more than 10 years since the collapse and disappearance of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was only about 10 years earlier, in 1981, that the conservative French social critic Jean-François Revel first published his book ...

9/11 and Pearl Harbor

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 22, 2002

Immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attack, some people compared that attack to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 12/7/1941. It now seems that the comparisons might be more appropriate than anyone could have imagined. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration ignored increasing signs that a surprise attack somewhere in the Pacific was ...

Bush’s Reluctant Embrace of Civil Liberties

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 10, 2002

Bowing to public pressure, the Bush administration has agreed to modify its rules for its military trials of accused terrorists captured abroad. Included among the new rules are: (1) the accused will be presumed innocent rather than guilty; (2) the accused will have the right to have an attorney represent him; (3) the government will ...

America’s Pro-Terrorism Foreign-Aid Program

by James Bovard May 3, 2002

President Bush recently announced that he plans to boost American foreign aid by 50 percent — to more than $15 billion a year. While Bush’s proclamation was widely praised as a sign of American generosity, little attention is being paid to the hypocrisy behind his policies. Unfortunately, American foreign aid could result in new chains ...

Cant and the Middle East

by Sheldon Richman May 2, 2002

In the world of diplomacy, and politics generally, words are not chosen for their correspondence to the truth. They are chosen for their power to advance some purpose. That’s why most of what we hear is cant. Nowhere is this rule more faithfully observed than in connection with the Middle East. When President Bush says Israeli Prime Minister ...

Black Hawk Down and American GIs

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

The recently released movie Black Hawk Down raises interesting challenges to those who think theyre supporting American GIs when they support U.S. government decisions to send them into battle. In 1993, the Clinton administration sent U.S. soldiers into the capital city of Mogadishu, which was in the midst of a civil war, to capture a Somali warlord named Mohammad Farrah ...

Freedom, the Income Tax, and the Welfare State

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

Americans have come to believe that the IRS and the income tax are inevitable parts of our lives. After all, most everyone alive today has lived his entire life under federal income taxation. It wasn’t always that way. For some 125 years, the American people lived without having any tax imposed upon their income. The obvious question that arises is: Why ...

“Economic Freedom”

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

In a May 1 editorial, The Washington Post called on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to honor a petition signed by 10,000 Cuban citizens demanding that a national referendum be called on freedom of expression, free elections, the right to private enterprise, and amnesty for political prisoners. The Post correctly praised those 10,000 ...

Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century: Freedom of Trade, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 A FUNDAMENTAL REVOLUTION IN IDEAS began to emerge in the 18th century against the premises and policies of mercantilism. These ideas undermined the rationales for government regulation and control of the economic affairs of the people of European society. In its place there arose a conception and vision of a free society based on ...

Do Americans Really Want Freedom?

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2002

Aye, free. Free as a tethered ass! W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida AMERICANS CHERISH FREEDOM. So they say. They praise it every Fourth of July. They solemnly put hands to hearts and pledge allegiance to the United States of America ..., with freedom and justice for all. They open every ball game by singing, Oer the land of the free. Indeed, they ...

A Republic or an Empire

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

The “Week in Review” section of the March 31 issue of the New York Times published an article containing a startling observation—that “today, America is no mere superpower or hegemon but a full-blown empire in the Roman and British sense.” The article, “All Roads Lead to D.C.,” by Emily Eakin, which included a picture of ...

U.S. Justice in the War on Terrorism

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

Suspected pipe-bomb terrorist Luke J. Helder should be counting his lucky stars that he was captured by the American police before the U.S. military could intervene. Just ask Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was recently the target of a missile fired by CIA forces in Afghanistan. Even though Hekmatyar was not part of the Taliban or al-Qaeda, he has nevertheless ...