Daily Articles

Letter #3 to Conservatives

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1999

Dear Conservatives: There you go again! You're once again trying to use public schooling to require students to submit to religious indoctrination. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Can't you simply leave well enough alone? After all, look at all the damage you have already done to students with public schooling ...

Letter #1 to Conservatives

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1999

Dear Conservatives, Since you have chosen to enter this web site, you have acknowledged that you suffer from the dread disease known as hypocrisitus. This is a good sign. Admission and confession are important first steps in the treatment of this dreadful disease. We cannot help you if ...

The Lynching of Microsoft

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999

Reading Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact in the Microsoft case, you can't help but conclude that the software company wouldn't be in trouble if it didn't make life so easy for consumers. That, of course, is at odds with the judge's explicit conclusion that Bill Gates has stifled innovation ...

Welfare Is Welfare

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999

When is welfare not welfare? When it goes to the middle class. At least that's what many people want to think. A controversy in Bill Clinton's state of Arkansas illustrates the point. A few years ago President Clinton and the Republican Congress created the Children's Health Insurance Program, which ...

Surplus Balderdash

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999

The projected budget surpluses are useful in revealing the political philosophies of Democrats and Republicans. None of the revelations is flattering. The Democrats hold that lowering taxes in light of the surpluses constitutes a form of government spending and should be judged against other ways government could spend the ...

Drug-Courier Profiles: Or, Why We Are All Guilty

by James Bovard November 1, 1999

Police using drug-courier profiles are bringing the best of Third World authoritarianism to American airports and highways - with narcs constantly waiting to leap out and shake down any passenger or driver they think looks suspicious. And the definition of "suspicious" includes almost anyone over the age of four. The next time that you make a phone call after getting ...

FDR – The Man, the Leader, the Legacy, Part 8

by Ralph Raico November 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Table of Contents In January 1932, Franklin Roosevelt announced his candidacy for ...

Book Review: Patterns in the Dark

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1999

Patterns in the Dark: Understanding Risk and Financial Crisis with Complexity Theory by Edgar E. Peters (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999); 222 pages; $39.95. In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Austrian school of economics was considered one of the leading contributors to both economic theory and economic policy. The Austrian economists challenged the premises and arguments of the ...

Moderation: Virtue or Vice?

by Sheldon Richman October 2, 1999

The death of Rhode Island Senator John Chafee provides an occasion to look at some fundamentals of what passes for political philosophy in the United States. Chafee was one of those Republicans best loved by big government advocates everywhere, including those at the editorial pages of the establishment newspapers. When he died of heart ...

Has Compassion Gone Astray?

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1999

As part of his presidential-campaign theme of "compassionate conservatism," Texas Gov. George W. Bush recently announced nearly $500,000 in state-financed grants to Christian groups in Texas. "America will be changed because people of faith and good heart are willing to help people in need," Bush said. "I believe rallying ...

Educational Coercion and Aberrant Behavior

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1999

Many years ago, a high-school teacher from North Dakota invited me to deliver a lecture to one of her classes, assuring me that I would find it to be a fascinating experience. The class was composed of approximately 10 students who had been classified by the school authorities as "slow ...

The Art of Plunder

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 1999

Now that the controversy surrounding the art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum has calmed down, it's a good time for some sober reflection. To recap, the museum, which is subsidized with taxpayer money, is hosting an exhibit that includes among other things, a painting purportedly of the Virgin Mary adorned ...