The Vietnam War and the Drug War by Future of Freedom Foundation April 1, 2010 Maybe you have never thought about the similarities between the Vietnam War and the Drug War. You may believe that although the former really was a war, the latter is only called a war. But the recently published memoirs of Robert S. McNamara, defense secretary for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, call to mind many parallels. At the start, few people imagined either war would last so long. Leaders assured citizens that overwhelming force would cause the enemy to capitulate. The authorities did not doubt the righteousness of the cause or their ability to prevail. Successive escalations ensued. In Vietnam, troop strengths and bomb tonnages increased again and again. Yet North Vietnamese supplies for the fighters in the South continued to flow along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Likewise, repeatedly augmented efforts to prevent the entry of drugs into the United States have had scant effect. According to Commissioner of Customs George J. Weise, "We see no signs that smuggling is decreasing." Hardliners continued ...
Monsters, Inc. by Future of Freedom Foundation April 27, 2010 In 2001, an animated film from Pixar Animation Studios was released and became extremely popular with both adults and children. Monsters, Inc. is set in the city of Monstropolis, where all monsters live. A corporation that gives the title to the movie employs “scarers,” monsters who venture out of the city every night to enter the human world through the closets of children. Their job is to scare children into screaming because the screams can be collected and used to generate the electricity that powers Monstropolis. The children themselves, and all their things, are believed to be toxic to monsters and must be kept out of the city. One night a furry, blue monster named Sulley is followed by a child through her closet door into Monstropolis and panic ensues. In the midst of it, Sulley discovers that she ...
For Starters, What Is Government? by Future of Freedom Foundation April 2, 2010 Soon! Soon! Welcome contemplation of the voting booth will silence political shouting. Most of us will have had a bellyful of charge and countercharge, of shrill bombast, of candidates almost questioning each other's parentage. How refreshing it would be to hear one reply as did the Virginian in the novel of that name: "When you call me that, smile." Also refreshing would be campaign oratory, even sound bites, such as spoken by our Founders more than 200 years ago. They were concerned about philosophical underpinnings of government those dealing with private property, freedom, and the nature of human beings. I'd like to hear even a few references to four questions: 1) What is government? Its definition? 2) By that definition, do we need government? 3) If so, how much? Where should the limitation on government be placed? 4) How can that limitation be maintained?
A Capitalist Looks at Free Trade by Future of Freedom Foundation March 29, 2010 Protectionists seeking relief from the rigors of foreign competition bring to mind Milton Friedman's dictum, "The great enemies of face enterprise are businessmen and intellectuals — businessmen because they want socialism for themselves and free enterprise for everyone else; intellectuals, because they want free enterprise for themselves and socialism for ...
Economics for the Citizen, Part 1 by Future of Freedom Foundation April 26, 2010 10-Part Series Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Last fall semester, I didn’t teach for the first time in 37 years. No, I haven’t retired. ...
Emergencies: The Breeding Ground of Tyranny by Future of Freedom Foundation April 26, 2010 When the New York Times recently reported that the Bush administration was routinely tracking international and domestic financial transactions, the president said he was doing these things under emergency powers granted to him by Congress. While many commentators have openly questioned the legality ...
The Progressive Era, Part 1: The Myth and the Reality by Future of Freedom Foundation April 26, 2010 Part 1 | Part 2 One of the most enduring set of myths from U.S. history comes from the political and social developments in what is called the “Progressive Era,” a period lasting from the late 1800s to the end of World War I. (Of ...
The Progressive Era, Part 1: The Myth and the Reality by Future of Freedom Foundation May 3, 2010 Part 1 | Part 2 One of the most enduring set of myths from U.S. history comes from the political and social developments in what is called the “Progressive Era,” a period lasting from the late 1800s to the end of World War I. (Of course, one could argue, ...
Henry David Thoreau and “Civil Disobedience,” Part 1 by Future of Freedom Foundation April 26, 2010 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an introspective man who wandered the woods surrounding the small village of Concord, Massachusetts, recording the daily growth of plants and the migration of birds in his ever-present journal. How, then, did he profoundly influence such political giants as Mohandas Gandhi, ...
The Colonial Venture of Ireland, Part 4 by Future of Freedom Foundation April 2, 2010 n the North, treatment of Catholics deteriorated as one of the most infamous measures in Irish history was passed — the Special Powers Act of 1922. Catholic-rights advocate Bernadette Devlin explained, It gave the authorities power to arrest people without a warrant on suspicion “of acting or of having acted or being about to act” in a manner prejudicial to ...
The Colonial Venture of Ireland, Part 3 by Future of Freedom Foundation April 2, 2010 In 1912, Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith introduced a Government of Ireland Bill that attempted to establish an Irish parliament with a popularly elected lower house and an appointed senate. A small delegation of Irish was to remain at Westminster to represent Irelands interest in the Empire. Although the bill was temporarily blocked by the House of Lords, alarmed ...
The Colonial Venture of Ireland, Part 2 by Future of Freedom Foundation April 2, 2010 In the 1840s, a new voice would be heard in Ireland: the Young Irelanders, who urged the Catholic peasantry to return to their Gaelic roots. Literary and political radicals, the Young Irelanders sprinkled Gaelic terms throughout their writings long before the language was revived in order to redeem the Irish soul by de-Anglicizing it. They urged the Irish to ...
