Culture & the Libertarian Heritage

We Aren’t Children

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2001

Theoretically this is the Land of the Free, but don't you believe it. In the Land of the Really Free, adults wouldn't be treated like children. Yet all levels of government treat us like the youngest, dumbest children you can imagine. Here are some examples, all from one state (my adopted state of Arkansas) and involving only one thing: alcohol. Just ...

George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)

by George Washington October 1, 2001

Friends and Citizens: The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce ...

Morality, the Welfare State, and Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2001

THE WELFARE STATE and the regulated society are based on a twofold notion about morality: first, that this type of society reflects that people are moral, caring, compassionate, and responsible and, second, that this type of society makes people moral, caring, compassionate, and responsible. Consider, for example, President Bush’s plan to deliver government funding to faith-based organizations. His belief is ...

McVeigh Isn’t the Only One Who Doesn’t Care

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2001

Much has been made of convicted mass murderer McVeigh’s indifference to the fact that 19 children were among the 168 deaths in the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh has referred to the children’s deaths as “collateral damage.” But it’s important that we not forget that McVeigh is not the only ...

What Makes an American?

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2001

WHAT MAKES SOMEONE an American as opposed to, say, an Englishman, or a Frenchman, or a German, or an Italian? Within these other countries, the answers are fairly simple. For example, a German is someone who can demonstrate that his ancestors were German-speakers originally from those areas in which Germans have ...

Yahoo! We Have Free Speech

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2001

A RECENT RULING by a French Court in a lawsuit brought against Yahoo.com reflects the dramatically different way in which Americans and Europeans view the importance of individual liberty. The case involved Yahoo’s online auctions of Nazi memorabilia. In France, as in Germany, such sales constitute a severe criminal offense. While ...

The Disunited States of Europe: The Politics of Power and Privilege, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 2001

Part 1 | Part 2 FOR SIX DAYS, during December 6-12, 2000, the 15 member-nations of the European Union (EU) met in Nice, France, for a conference that was meant to set the direction and structure for the organization well into the 21st century. On the EU’s agenda were: (a) plans for expanding the European Union to include many of the ...

The Rule of Law, R.I.P.

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2001

THERE IS LITTLE LEFT of the rule of law in the United States of America. To be sure, things are worse elsewhere, but that gives no comfort. We live under a regime in which the traditional features of the rule of law are largely absent. No one claims to be against the rule of law. Quite the contrary. But most ...

The Disunited States of Europe: The Politics of Power and Privilege, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2001

Part 1 | Part 2 The corrosive effects that may occur from a spirit of political and economic nationalism were understood long before the disastrous consequences experienced as a result of them in the 20th century. In 1759, in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith warned against the danger residing within any strongly held nationalist ...

A Nation of Children

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2001

President Clinton took some flak in the closing weeks of his administration when he told a Rolling Stone interviewer, “I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in some places and should be.” The negative reaction was so strong that a Clinton spokesman said that the president was not ...

Morals and the Welfare State, Part 4

by F.A. Harper January 1, 2001

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 ISN’T IT a strange thing that if you select any three fundamentally moral persons and combine them into a collective for the doing of good, they are liable at once to become three immoral persons in their collective ...

The Wills of the Persons

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2000

Besides “every vote counts,” the most frequently uttered nonsense of the 2000 postelection season is “the will of the people must be respected.” Most memorable is the Florida Supreme Court’s remark: “The will of the people, not a hypertechnical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our ...