What’s Wrong with Conservatives by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2001 You want to know what’s wrong with conservatives? Here’s what’s wrong. Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas is widely regarded as the most conservative member of the United States Senate. He’s someone the national Democrats badly want to defeat next year in their bid to take firm control of that body. So what ...
The Constitution Is Forgotten in the Stem-Cell Research Question by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2001 Throughout the debate over embryonic stem-cell research, one thing was apparently never mentioned: the Constitution. Keep in mind that President Bush was not deciding whether the research should be banned. He was deciding whether the federal government should compel the taxpayers to finance it. Thus the question is whether the government has ...
Winning the Battle and the War by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2001 THE TRAGIC EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, have aroused a degree of sympathy for the victims and a demand for justice against the perpetrators that have not been seen in America in relation to any other event for many decades. But in this understandably emotional moment it is necessary for every American to step back and weigh carefully what should ...
Libertarian Splits in the War on Terrorism by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2001 Responses to the September 11 attacks have split the libertarian movement like no other issue I have seen since I discovered libertarianism almost 25 years ago. Limited-government libertarians have always maintained that one of the essential functions of government is to protect the nation from invasion or attack. The corollary to that duty is the government's ...
Nature as Miser by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2001 A POPULIST IS SOMEONE WHO who believes scarcity is a capitalist plot. If only social arrangements were otherwise, he believes, mankind would enjoy a boundless cornucopia of goods and never want again. The populist thus assumes that our current economic institutions, such as the price system, are merely devices controlled by producers to withhold needed goods and to gouge ...
The Era of Big Government Being Over Is Over by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2001 It is hard not to notice a certain amount of glee in the aftermath of the catastrophe of September 11. Some pundits and commentators have taken this line: "So, where are all you government bashers now? Let's see one of you step forward and criticize big government now that we need it to save us from the terrorists." I'm paraphrasing, ...
Ruby Ridge: The Coverup Continues by James Bovard November 1, 2001 THE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUBY RIDGE CASE during the past year further illustrate why this is a landmark case defining how much deadly, arbitrary power federal agents shall possess over private citizens. The Ruby Ridge case involved the entrapment of Randy Weaver on firearms charges by an informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), false ATF reports ...
Does Alan Greenspan Hate the Poor? by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2001 By calling for the repeal of the minimum wage during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee last summer, Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan undoubtedly dismayed the members of Congress. After all, Greenspan didn’t recommend that the minimum wage be reformed or reduced. He suggested that the law should be ...
The Meaning of Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2001 Today's Wall Street Journal's editorial page reflects how differently libertarians and conservatives view the meaning of freedom. For libertarians, freedom entails the right of people to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is peaceful. For conservatives, freedom entails the right of government to do just ...
The Immutable Nature of the Constitution by Wesley Allen Riddle November 1, 2001 THERE’S A PHILOSOPHY ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION that’s killing it — ironically, by conceiving it as a so-called living thing, subject to reinterpretation by society. In our entire history, the view has been ascendant for only the last 40 years — a “contribution” largely of Earl Warren’s Court. Before that time, judges discerned the meaning of the Constitution from what ...
Book Review: Money and the Market by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2001 Money and the Market: Essays on Free Banking by Kevin Dowd (New York/London: Routledge, 2001); 226 pages; $100. KEVIN DOWD IS ONE OF THE LEADING free-market monetary theorists today. Along with Lawrence H. White and George Selgin, he has helped to revive and refine the case for abolishing central banking and replacing it with a market-based competitive free-banking system. In 1976, Austrian ...
An Indian Novelist Turns Her Wrath on the U.S. by Gary D. Barnett October 24, 2001 An Indian Novelist Turns Her Wrath on the U.S.