Daily Articles

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “New Drug Czar”

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2000

"Retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey has come under a withering assault from his fellow officers for improper conduct during the Persian Gulf War. As detailed in an article by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine, McCaffrey is accused of ordering an attack on Iraqi forces who were either surrendering ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Peru Can Take Care of Itself”

by Andy Falkof May 1, 2000

"Today, the United States government declared Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori's re-election invalid and a threat to democracy across the Americas. Fujimori defeated his opponent, Alejandro Toledo (who had withdrawn in protest), by a considerable margin, and did not postpone the election to allow international monitors to inspect and confirm the ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Liberty”

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2000

"Yesterday, in United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group, the Supreme Court struck down a 1996 federal law that restricted sexually explicit adult channels' broadcasting to late-night hours. Despite people's concern for children's exposure to the pornographic programming, the Court made the right decision by respecting private ownership, the First ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “The Benefits That Immigration Brings”

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2000

"Another cycling story this week! While cycling last weekend, I noticed a street corner where about 100 Hispanic guys were hanging out, all of whom appeared rather impoverished. I dismounted my bike and went up and asked (in Spanish) what was going on. They said that they were waiting for work. ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “The Diversity of the Boy Scouts”

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2000

"The Supreme Court will soon decide Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale, a case that will determine whether the Boy Scouts can exclude a homosexual from their organization. Many people may find the Boy Scouts' policy of excluding homosexuals repugnant, but is it necessarily an ignorant, negative policy? Certainly the ...

Winston Churchill’s “Finest Hour” and the Fate of the European Jews

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2000

Sixty years ago, on May 10, 1940, Hitler's armies began the process of overrunning Holland, Belgium, and France. By the third week of May, the French army was in retreat, and the British Expeditionary Force was withdrawing to Dunkirk. Western Europe was rapidly falling under the occupation and control of Nazi Germany. The French were already thinking of possible ...

Limit Government, Not Contributions

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2000

"Money is property; it is not speech." Thus did U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens pithily sum up his opinion concurring in a ruling that states may impose limits on campaign contributions without violating the First Amendment to the Constitution. While Justice Stevens conceded that money can accomplish the same goals as speech, he added, "It does not follow, however, ...

When the Violent Attack the Peaceful

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2000

In the topsy-turvy world of Washington, D.C., the federal government is a friend of competition and Microsoft its mortal enemy. To appreciate this fully, keep in mind that the government forbids competition with its activities (beginning with delivery of first-class mail), while Microsoft has rivals at every turn. Yet Microsoft, not the federal government, is on the chopping block. Through federalism ...

Clinton’s Coming Colombia Catastrophe

by James Bovard May 1, 2000

The Senate will soon consider President Clinton's proposed $1.6 billion package to bankroll the government of Colombia's war against leftist guerillas. The aid windfall purports to help staunch the flow of drugs from Colombia. But there is no reason to expect further U.S. anti-drug aid to be any more effective than past aid. Even ...

The EEOC’s War on Fairness

by James Bovard May 1, 2000

Upon signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared that the purpose of the act was "to promote a more abiding commitment to freedom, a more constant pursuit of justice, and a deeper respect for human dignity." In the subsequent decades, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that was created by the Civil Rights Act has ...

Wishful Thinking on Guns

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2000

Rosie O'Donnell, mistress of ceremonies of the Million Mom March, couldn't have been clearer about what she wants for the American people. On ABC's This Week program, Cokie Roberts asked O'Donnell what she thought of concealed-weapons laws. Said Roberts: "There is some evidence that those laws do reduce ...

The Conservative Shame on Immigration

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2000

The moral decline of the conservative movement was recently reflected in a syndicated column entitled "Goofy may be a Libertarian" by Don Feder, one of the conservative movement's leading lights. Feder's critique, which in part took the Libertarian Party to task for its position favoring open immigration, displayed not ...