Daily Articles

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 ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “U.S. War Crimes”

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000

"The U.N. war-crimes prosecutor is examining evidence of possible war crimes by NATO pilots during the bombing of Yugoslavia last spring. Civilians were killed when U.S. pilots attacked a bridge as a passenger train was crossing, a refugee convoy, and a television station. U.S. officials are outraged over such ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “The Monopoly of the USPS”

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000

"The United States Postal Service has decided that the Internet is a viable means of communication and commerce. Postmaster General William Henderson is contemplating a campaign to plug the USPS into the fast-paced, ever-evolving electronic community. His ideas include giving everyone an Internet address that would match up with their ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Immigration Policy Hypocrisy”

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000

"The pure, pristine hypocrisy of Republicans is reflected in the case of Elian Gonzalez. Republican presidential candidates are vehemently protesting the INS's plans to return the boy to Cuba, suggesting that communism is so horrific that the boy should be permitted to remain in the U.S. rather than be returned to ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Immigration Hypocrisy”

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000

"A new twist has surfaced in the Elian Gonzalez case. In a fascinating op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled "Elian's Journey" (Jan. 24), James Taranto tells the story of the two other people who survived the Elian tragedy at sea - Nivaldo Fernandez and Arianne Horta, both of whom are ...