In the 14-month period from August 2001 to October 2002, we had 135,920 different computers (“unique users”) access our website. In the last 7 months alone, we have had 404,780 different computers access our site. (Yes, more than four hundred thousand different computers!)

That performance is also reflected by website hits. In the earlier 14-month period, we had 5,354,561 hits. In the last 7 months, we have had 18,650,390 hits.

Last July, our Alexa.com ranking (www.alexa.com) was 180,000. Today, we have risen to rank among the top 7,100 websites on the Internet in terms of website traffic.

Keep in mind that as a direct result of the financial support you have given us for our website, people all over the world are able to access every essay we have published in the last 13 years.

Those essays are impacting people. Here is what one reader wrote: “Your site is absolutely fantastic. It is no understatement for me to claim that my recent exploration of libertarianism has literally completely changed my philosophy of life. Your site is one of the most powerful catalysts for my development as an independent thinker.” Here is a review of our website that a reader posted on Alexa.com: “I truly love this site. I only wish that more people knew about it. They write some the best commentaries that you will ever come across.”

The driving force behind the traffic to our website is our FFF Email Update, which is now sent out six days a week — three times with essays and three times with editorial cartoons -- and just last Saturday, we made it seven days with a Biographical Bonus featuring Frederic Bastiat.

In the pre-Internet days, when we wanted to share an article or op-ed from a newspaper with our readers, we had to secure a copyright release, then type it into the computer and send it to our printer with the next issue of Freedom Daily, which could take several months.

Today, all that is avoided through Internet hyperlinking. With our FFF Email Update, we are able to bring our readers some of the finest libertarian articles from mainstream publications all over the world. And we’re able to do it instantaneously. With its carefully chosen articles and editorial cartoons, our FFF Email Update could be considered people’s daily libertarian newspaper.

Equally important, our FFF Email Update operates as a portal to our website, with its innumerable essays on virtually every facet of libertarian philosophy. Moreover, since we include readily accessible links to other libertarian websites, such as LewRockwell.com, the Cato Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Reason, and Laissez Faire Books, viewers are easily and quickly able to glimpse the depth and breadth of the entire libertarian movement.

That’s not all we are doing with our website. Two months ago, we initiated the FFF Blog (Web Log), which includes a daily commentary by me and periodic commentaries by Sheldon Richman and two new young libertarian writers, Bart Frazier and Scott McPherson.

We have also added a new archive section to our FFF Email Update, which links by subject matter to all the outside articles that have appeared in the Update. Thus our website now enables people to search not only FFF articles by issue but also the outside articles that we have shared in our FFF Email Update.

I met Richard almost 20 years ago, when I was a young lawyer in Dallas and he was teaching economics at the University of Dallas, and we quickly became great friends. When I started The Future of Freedom Foundation in 1989, I could never have done it without his help and participation. As our long-time subscribers and supporters know, Richard has served as our vice president of academic affairs and has contributed articles to every issue of Freedom Daily since our first issue in January 1990.

As many of you have probably already heard, Richard, who has long served as the Ludwig von Mises Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College, has accepted an offer to become the new president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), which is a boon not only to that organization but to the entire libertarian movement.

One downside, as far as FFF is concerned, is that we will not be able to continue Richard’s regular contributions to Freedom Daily. Fortunately, with the power of the Internet, we’ll be bringing you his perspectives at FEE with links in our FFF Email Update.

We have decided that this would be a good time for us to explore new ways to enable us to advance liberty in even more dynamic and effective ways. That means that you are going to see some exciting changes coming up. For example, some of you will recall the economics conferences we co-sponsored with the George Mason University economics department a few years ago. We are reinforcing our relationship with GMU, and that means that we are expanding our list of economics authors to include Donald J. Boudreaux (economics department head, who recently did a great piece for us on the Martha Stewart case), Peter J. Boettke (economics professor and deputy director of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy), and graduates of GMU’s excellent free-market-oriented Ph.D. program.

Our newest book is hot off the presses and available for purchase — $14.95 plus $2 shipping — thanks to you for helping to bring it into publication, and we hope you’ll support us by buying a copy — or two! It can be purchased at Amazon.com.

As almost everyone knows, from our very beginning, we have taken a firm stand against socialism and interventionism not only on domestic issues but also on foreign-policy issues. When we published our book The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars in 1996, foreign policy was just an esoteric subject for most people. Not any more! If there is an upside to the difficult times in which we are living, it is that there are more people than ever who are reflecting seriously on government’s role in foreign affairs.

Almost everyone also knows our position — that we should restore the concept of a republic to our land, and that that is the key to liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony. An increasing number of people are recognizing the nature of the intellectual battle and the magnitude of stakes involved. For example, Middle East writer Ahmad Faruqui, pointed out in an Asia Times article entitled “Battling for the Soul of the American Republic,”

As the battle for Baghdad comes to a close in Iraq, a battle for the soul of the American republic has begun in Washington. This is a battle of ideas being waged by people with an imperial concept of American power, or “flag conservatives,” with a diverse coalition of other groups. The flag conservatives have taken the view that America needs to fight a long war of self-defense until the last one of the cold-blooded killers of September 11 has been hunted down and killed and until all regimes in the “axis of evil” - Iraq, Iran and North Korea - have been changed.

The opposing coalition does not support such an imperial expression of power. The opposing coalition counters that an imperial war will erase the very freedoms domestically that the U.S. seeks to project internationally. This coalition spans the ideological spectrum, and includes conservatives such as Pat Buchanan, libertarians such as Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute and Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation, mainstream democrats and the various groups who were active in the no-war movement.

As you no doubt can guess, the success we are experiencing spreading ideas on freedom has brought with it an upsurge in expenses, which is placing a big burden on us. For example, there are increases in author fees, proofreading and editing expenses, and website redesign and maintenance costs, all of which are ongoing and increasing.

We want you to know that we are working hard for liberty. (And also that we’re enjoying the good fight!) Equally important, we want you to know that we are putting your money to good use. We are not unmindful that these are difficult times for many people, which is why we are trying our best to be good stewards of the support you give us. We know that you work hard for your money and also that there are a hundred other things you could do with the support you send us.

Again, you can purchase our newest book, Liberty, Security, and the War on Terrorism, at Amazon.com.

To make a tax-deductible donation to FFF, please do any of the following:

1. Use your VISA or MasterCard at the “Subscribe and Support” section of our website.

2. Mail us a check payable to The Future of Freedom Foundation at:

The Future of Freedom Foundation
11350 Random Hills Road
Suite 800
Fairfax, VA 22030

3. Telephone us (ask for Alicia) or fax us your VISA or MasterCard number and the amount of your donation at:

Tel: (703) 934-6101
Fax: (703) 352-8678

We are doing our best to play a leading role not only in the preservation of our civil liberties, as guaranteed by our Constitution, not only in restoring our economic liberties, which are the basis for the prosperity of a nation, but also in moving our country toward the more peaceful, harmonious foreign policy of our Founders and ancestors.

Life has presented us with some big challenges, but working together we can continue meeting them. We need your financial help more than ever. Thank you for your consideration, your devotion to freedom, and for the confidence you have shown in us.

Sincerely,
Jacob G. Hornberger

P.S. According to Alexa.com, the five most visited libertarian sites are:

1. Antiwar.com
2. Ludwig von Mises Institute
3. The Future of Freedom Foundation
4. Anti-State.com
5. Reason Online

P.P.S. We recently received our first used-car donation, which was worth $618. If you would like to donate your used car to FFF, we can have it picked up anywhere in the country, have it sold, and send you a receipt for the donation.

Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.