The No-Fault No-Fly List: Washington’s Most Irresponsible Agency Strikes Again by Future of Freedom Foundation March 29, 2010 The Transportation Security Administration got another black eye recently when Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) revealed that he had been blocked from flying five times because his name triggered an alarm on the feds’ No-Fly list. Kennedy’s staff had to make multiple calls to high-ranking federal officials before the attempted travel ban was lifted on the Senator-for-Life. One senior Bush administration official explained that the senator’s name was on the list because a suspected terrorist had used “T. Kennedy” as an alias. And the embarrassment was compounded when the feds ordered a United Airlines flight from London to land in Bangor, Maine, because of the presence aboard of rock singer Cat Stevens, known as Yusuf Islam since his religious conversion. His name apparently triggered an alert because the U.S. terrorist watch list contains the name “Youssouf Islam.” The former singer is now a highly respected peace activist; his efforts to spread a moderate form of Islam have been praised by Jewish ...
War with Iraq Is Dangerous Folly by Howard Baetjer Jr. February 14, 2003 Suppose we do get proof that Saddam Hussein is producing banned weapons and hiding them from UN inspectors. Starting a war with Iraq on that account would be utter folly. It would very likely do far, far more harm than good. Those yearning to let slip the dogs of war, in a paroxysm of self-righteous power, justify doing so in terms of their intended goals: They seek “a regime change,” “to disarm Iraq,” “to make sure the day never comes” when terrorists release chemical weapons on American soil. Do these good intentions justify war against Iraq? No way. The essential question is not whether our intentions justify war, but whether the likely outcomes of war justify it. The likely outcomes go far beyond the rosy postwar scenario the administration presumes, in which the celebrations ...
War and the Bankruptcy of the Bush Administration by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 2003 The war on terrorism and the war on Iraq have become the defining characteristics of the Bush administration and the Republican Party in general. Indeed, without the current war hysteria, President Bush and the Republicans have nothing to stand for and run on in next year’s congressional and presidential elections. Think back to August 2001, just a few weeks before the tragic events of September 11. Ten months after the presidential election of November 2000, public-opinion polls suggested that a large number of Americans still did not consider George W. Bush a legitimate president because of the disputes surrounding the vote count in Florida. After running a campaign in which he promised greater parental choice in education, he renounced his tepid support for school vouchers. Instead, he called for greater federal control over education through national testing standards and more federal money. After suggesting that individuals should have more control over their retirement plans through a partial privatization of Social Security heavily ...
Cindy Sheehan’s War by Samuel Bostaph December 14, 2005 Not One More Mother’s Child, by Cindy Sheehan (Koa Books, 2005); 204 pages; $15.00. On August 3, 2005, a former youth minister in Vacaville, California, was at home watching a television report of the deaths of 14 more U.S. Marines in Iraq. Her eldest son, whom she deeply loved, had been killed ...
Yes to Recriminations against Iraq Policymakers by Sheldon Richman July 18, 2007 If, as President Bush claims, Iraq is a sovereign country and its government represents the people, then why are American officials ordering the parliament to cancel its August vacation and insisting that the al-Maliki government meet certain “benchmarks”? Is it sovereign or not? By what authority does the U.S. government ...
The Free Market Is Indomitable by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2001 Deep in the November 14 New York Times report on the liberation of Kabul there was this perhaps little-noticed paragraph: "Food appeared plentiful. A central market that lines the road leading into the city had large amounts of fresh meat for sale, fruit juices from Iran and even Coca-Cola, a ...
Book Review: The Myth of Ownership by George Leef December 1, 2002 The Myth of Ownership — Taxes and Justice by Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel (Oxford University Press, 2002); 190 pages; $25. During the Vietnam War, a popular protest slogan went “Fighting for peace is like drinking for sobriety.” After reading The Myth of Ownership, I feel like making a sign reading, “Taxing for justice is like fighting for peace and drinking ...
Book Review: Terrorism and Tyranny by Brigid ONeill March 1, 2004 Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the War of Evil by James Bovard (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); 448 pages; $26.95. If the Constitution could be imagined as a sort of master tailor for the people, fashioning a government that represents their general shape with each electoral try-on, the Bush administration would be bursting at the seams. In an ...
My Time in the Tower of London by Future of Freedom Foundation March 30, 2010 I visited the Tower of London in May on an overcast, dreary Friday afternoon. The home of so many famous executions and king-approved murders is kept in spiffy shape. The tour guide — a former British sergeant-military wearing a large “Beefeater”-style hat — regaled listeners with tales of beheadings gone wrong, drunks with axes hacking away at half-dead corpses, ...
Book Review: Wilson’s War by George Leef January 1, 2006 Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin & World War II by Jim Powell (Crown Forum, 2005); 352 pages; $27.50. Although most conventional liberal historians, blinded by their adulation for politicians who embrace “progressive” causes, continue to ...
Book Review: Wilson’s War by Jacob G. Hornberger March 30, 2010 Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin & World War II, by Jim Powell (Crown Forum, 2005); 352 pages; $27.50. Although most conventional liberal historians, blinded by their adulation for politicians who embrace ...
Sacrificing Liberty for Safety by George Leef September 1, 2008 Neither Liberty Nor Safety by Robert Higgs (Independent Institute, 2007); 202 pages. Many readers will immediately recognize that the title of this book comes from one of Benjamin Franklin’s many political insights: “Those who would sacrifice essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Author ...
