Daily Articles

Lies, Damn Lies, and the Clinton Administration

by Sheldon Richman June 2, 1999

What are we to do with a head of state who is responsible for the deaths of many innocent people, who has never been elected to office by a majority of citizens, and who rules by force and deceit? Will the war crimes tribunal at the Hague bring him to justice? It's unlikely, because the man is ...

Warfare-Welfare in Yugoslavia

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 1999

More than 80 years ago, the United States entered World War I with the express purposes of making the world safe for democracy and making that war the one that would end all future European wars. The intervention was a radical departure from the foreign policy that George Washington had enunciated in his Farewell Address and which had been ...

Do Our Rights Come from the Constitution?

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 1999

It is commonly believed that the rights of the American people come from the Constitution. Nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout history, the standard belief was that people were unconditionally subject to the commands of their government. If the king ordered a person to leave his family to fight in a war thousands of miles away, that person ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 30: The Gold Standard as Government-Managed Money

by Richard M. Ebeling June 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 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 ...

Bill Clinton: World Cop

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 1999

In a major foreign-policy address delivered a few months back in San Francisco, President Bill Clinton solemnly affirmed that everything everywhere in the world is the business of the United States. If you ever entertained the thought that we Americans should be free just to live our lives, raise our families, and participate voluntarily in our communities — forget ...

Politics by Incantation

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 1999

Americans pride themselves on being modern and sophisticated, but in some important matters, we are no more advanced than primitive animists in southern Sudan. To see this, just witness so much of what passes for public affairs. Leaders and led alike behave as if words shape reality. Legislation is incantation. ...

Sabotaging Privacy for Political Profit

by James Bovard June 1, 1999

Federal regulators announced last December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, a brazen scheme to convert banks into conspirators against their depositors. The "Know Your Customer" rules were a landmark in the history of the attempted subversion of American privacy and property rights. But enough Americans rallied — at least temporarily — to block this power grab. The proposed rules vastly expanded ...

FDR – The Man, the Leader, the Legacy, Part 7

by Ralph Raico June 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 Two major grounds are put forward nowadays for the ...

Book Review: Freedom in Chains

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1999

Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen by James Bovard (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999); 326 pages; $26.95. Are you better off than you were 25 years ago? Listening to critics from the left, the impression would be created that Americans are experiencing a falling standard of living and facing immanent mass ...

It’s Not Ours to Negotiate

by Sheldon Richman May 2, 1999

Jesse Jackson's mission to Belgrade, which led to the freeing of the three American prisoners of the Yugoslav war, has many people wondering whether a negotiated settlement is in the works. After Jackson brought the servicemen out of Serbia, President Clinton implied that he was lowering his standard for a bombing halt. For example, he ...

Delay the Canonization

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1999

Let's not rush to elevate outgoing Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to sainthood. Rubin is like a surfer who accepts credit for creating the big wave that carries him to shore. He might look good riding the board, but he's not responsible for the wave's motion. The accolades being heaped ...

Freedom is the Key to Life’s Short Journey

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1999

The following is a commencement speech delivered by Jacob G. Hornberger at Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School in Joplin, Missouri. The relatively short journey from birth to death remains a great mystery to all of us. While the Creator has breathed life into each of us, He has not yet seen ...