Daily Articles

Self-Inflicted Violence

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2001

IN OUR RUSH justice for the perpetrators of the horrors of September 11, we seem to have forgotten another kind of violence that is ready to befall America: the self-inflicted violence of an open-ended, comprehensive, and essentially secret global war conducted by the U.S. government against an enemy so amorphous it apparently cannot be ...

The Hopped-Up DEA Chief

by James Bovard December 1, 2001

“I WOULD HOPE that we are judged by the lives that are touched and the hope that we give America,” declared Asa Hutchinson, Bush’s new Drug Enforcement Agency chief during a press conference on his first day in his new job. Considering that the DEA seeks to maximize the number of people that it sends to prison each year ...

Settling for an Injustice

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2001

The federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft apparently will end in a settlement. All that remains is for the presiding judge to give her blessing and for some recalcitrant state attorneys general to get on board. It's understandable why Microsoft would acquiesce in a settlement. The long case has been costly. ...

Healing the Health-Care System

by Lawrence D. Wilson December 1, 2001

HISTORY CAN OFTEN yield insights into our dilemmas. Health care is no exception. The Founders of America envisioned a health-care system based on principles of the dignity and liberty of every person. They were: 1. A right to work. England’s system of guilds and licenses kept many people out of the healing arts. America would allow anyone to become a doctor ...

Book Review: Ludwig von Mises

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2001

Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics by Israel M. Kirzner (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2001); 226 pages; $24.95. LUDWIG VON MISES was, without a doubt, one of the most important economists of the 20th century. Every textbook on comparative economic systems, for example, will point out that it was Mises who initiated the famous debate over economic calculation under ...

The Wolf, the Coyote, and the Sheep

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 27, 2001

Americans who are rushing to embrace the federal government's efforts to protect them from terrorists might want to keep in mind the story of the wolf, the coyote, and the sheep. One day the wolf and the coyote got into a battle with each other. In the midst of the fight, the coyote attacked the ...

The Meaning of Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 25, 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 about anything it ...

A New Foreign-Policy Paradigm for America

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 25, 2001

Ludwig von Mises observed that government intervention inexorably leads to more government intervention until the point comes that government assumes total control over the affairs of the citizenry. The idea is that since government interventions always produce perverse consequences, government officials will inevitably enact new interventions designed to fix the problems resulting from the ...

An Unkeepable Promise

by Sheldon Richman November 20, 2001

President Bush should be wary of making promises he may not be able to keep. He’s vowed to prosecute a long and victorious war against “terrorism,” an amorphous “entity” if there ever was one. But before he extends his campaign beyond Afghanistan, which will have as its inevitable casualties a long list of civil liberties, ...

Emergencies, Military Tribunals, and the Constitution

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 20, 2001

President Bush has ordered that people he suspects of being "terrorists" will be tried before military tribunals rather than indicted and prosecuted in the customary judicial manner. Judges and juries (which will consist of the same people) will be appointed by the secretary of defense, trials will be held in secret, and convictions will ...

Patriotism and War

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 15, 2001

In every war, controversies over patriotism inevitably arise. Most everyone would agree that patriotism involves the loyalty that a person has toward his country. But there are two conflicting concepts arising out of the application of that principle. One concept dictates that a citizen has a duty to make an independent, reasoned judgment of whether the ...

Winning the Battle and the War (short version)

by Richard M. Ebeling November 9, 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 ...