The Long Shadow of World War I and America’s War on Dissent, Part 2 by Danny Sjursen January 1, 2020 Part 1 Upon U.S. entry into the war, in 1917 the Wilson administration proposed and a compliant Congress almost immediately passed the Espionage Act, a direct attack on American press freedom. The law criminalized newspaper journalists who dared to oppose the war, question the official narrative, or encourage dissent. Massive fines and stiff prison sentences were dealt out with ...
Caution: Government May Be Hazardous to Your Liberty by Laurence M. Vance December 30, 2019 The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 required a health warning to be placed on packs of cigarettes sold in the United States. The original warning, which appeared on cigarette packs from January 1, 1966, through October 31, 1970, was Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous To Your Health There are more dangerous things that Americans should be on ...
Help Us Spread Pure Principles of Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2019 Everywhere you look, there are crises. Healthcare. Immigration. Social Security. Drugs. Violence. The Middle East. Afghanistan. Federal spending and debt. There is a common denominator to all this mayhem, to this socialism, interventionism, and imperialism. It is, in a word, statism, the philosophy that views the government as a daddy or, even ...
The Perils and Pitfalls of Political Paternalism by Richard M. Ebeling December 23, 2019 Across the spectrum of differing political views, whether “progressive,” “nationalist,” “populist,” or “conservative,” there is a common presumption in all of their policy positions and programs. That common dominator is the premise that government is to be the guiding hand in directing and remaking society in some chosen form, to which and within which all in that society are ...
How Would Jesus Fare in the American Police State? by John W. Whitehead December 20, 2019 Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts… We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, ...
The Miracle of the Free Market by Richard M. Ebeling December 17, 2019 One of the great fallacies arrogantly believed in by those in political power is the notion that they can know enough to manage and command the lives of everyone in society with better results than if people are left to live their own lives as they freely choose. The fact is, there is far more in the world that successfully ...
Wasserman’s Twisted Tale About the Austrian School of Economics by Richard M. Ebeling December 12, 2019 The Austrian School of Economics has been one of the most original and insightful approaches to economic understanding over the last century and a half. The Austrian School is also widely identified with the classical liberal ideal of individual liberty and free markets. Indeed, several of the Austrian economists have been considered to be among the most consistent and ...
Betraying the Constitution by John W. Whitehead December 10, 2019 “It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”—Thomas Paine While Congress subjects the nation to its impeachment-flavored brand of bread-and-circus politics, our civil liberties continue to die a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts. Case in point: while Americans have been fixated on the carefully orchestrated impeachment drama that continues to monopolize headlines,
A Progressive Case for Free Trade and against Protectionism by Laurence M. Vance December 9, 2019 Conservative free-traders who support Donald Trump don’t talk about trade much anymore. To do so would mean that they have to criticize the president — an economic nationalist with a mercantilist mindset whose ignorance and incoherence on trade knows no bounds — and risk being labeled “Never Trumpers.” Since Trump’s election and the imposition of his protectionist trade policies, other ...
Socialism and the Green New Deal are Economically Impossible by Richard M. Ebeling December 6, 2019 The Spanish philosopher, George Santayana (1863-1952) is usually credited with the phrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Nowhere is this truer than with the renewed idea and demand for the establishment of a socialist economic system. A noticeable number of intellectuals inside and outside the ivy tower of academia, as well as a vocal ...
Should There Be a Federal Cap on Interest Rates? by Laurence M. Vance December 5, 2019 Although every state has laws that limit the rate of interest that can be charged on loans, there exist broad exemptions, exceptions, and loopholes based on the type of lender or borrower, the loan amount, the nature of the loan contract, or the subject of the loan contract. Some lenders have found a way to get around those laws. According to ...
Freedom and Prosperity: The Importance of Sound Money by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2019 Sound money is a key to a free and prosperous society. That principle was clearly reflected in the monetary system that the Constitution established when it called the federal government into existence. Our ancestors didn’t trust government officials with power. They believed that the greatest threat to their own freedom and well-being lay not with some foreign regime but rather ...