Daily Articles

Hate-Crime Laws Threaten Our Liberty

by Jeffrey A. Singer February 1, 2000

Recent front-page news stories about racist gunmen attacking innocent minorities in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas have led to calls for new federal hate-crime legislation, and for the expansion of hate-crime laws already on the books in many states. In short, these laws place additional penalties on those found guilty of committing a ...

Elian’s Fate: It’s Not America’s Decision

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2000

Imagine an American father-a widower-deciding that he wants to move himself and his 6-year-old son to Cuba. Should the U.S. government permit it? Many strong arguments could be raised against the father's decision. Cuba is a communist dictatorship where Fidel Castro's word is law. His Marxist philosophy squelches the most ...

Let’s Stick with Traditional American Values!

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2000

Upon reading Hans-Herman Hoppe’s article “On Free Immigration and Forced Integration,” I couldn’t help but wonder whether he first reached the conclusion that he wanted to reach and then constructed a set of arguments to support that conclusion. Hoppe begins his article by correctly pointing out that from a ...

The Taxman at Your Service

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2000

At a time when federal revenues are the highest percentage of gross domestic product since the peak of World War II-over 20 percent-we are asked to feel sorry for the IRS. According to the tax agency, recent legislation has turned it into a shell of its former self. It is unable ...

A Cigarette Police for America?

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2000

Included in President Clinton's proposed new budget is a call for a 25-cents-a-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes. Having seen his 55-cents-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax defeated last year by Congress, Clinton is hoping that a more modest proposal will have a better chance of getting enacted. ...

Anarcho-Anti-Immigrationism?

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2000

For reasons not exactly clear, the immigration issue gives some libertarians trouble. In their efforts to grapple with the issue, it’s made needlessly complicated and some highly odd “solutions” are promulgated. We’ll look at one such solution in this article. Preliminarily, we would expect that when a libertarian examines any ...

Book Review: The End of Privacy

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2000

The End of Privacy: Personal Rights in the Surveillance Society by Charles J. Sykes (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999); 282 pages; $24.95. At Menwith Hill in the North York moors of Great Britain, there is a spy center employing 1,400 U.S. National Security Agency personnel ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Drug War Booty”

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 27, 2000

"A small $45,000 scandal has hit the Prince George's County (Maryland) sheriff's office. It seems that the sheriff's department seized the money from an alleged drug dealer seven years ago and hid it in a safe instead of depositing it in the county treasury, as required by Maryland law. Why? To give ...

Is Democracy Freedom?

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000

One of the core tenets of American foreign policy is the encouragement of democracy around the world. The implication is that if a country is democratic, the people within that country are free. But is democracy freedom? In 1787, the U.S. Constitution called the federal government into existence. The document provided ...

Should Old Glory Fly over the Capitol?

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000

The flap over whether the Confederate flag should fly over the South Carolina state capitol raises an interesting question: Should Old Glory be permitted to fly over the nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C.? After all, while the Confederacy lasted only 4 years, the U.S. flag represents a nation that had an ...

Why Shouldn’t We Question the Good War?

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000

By raising questions about America's participation in World War II, Pat Buchanan has horrified American interventionists. People are simply not supposed to raise questions about America's role in what has become known as the "good war." Was Nazi Germany a direct threat to the United States after 1940? It's difficult to see how it was. After all, if Germany was ...

Freedom and the 21st Century

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2000

Perhaps the ultimate indictment of the government's schools is that most people think year 2000 is the 2001st year and thus the start of a new century and millennium. This is not mere quibbling. Next time someone owes you five bucks, insist that he start counting from zero, as people ...