Free Society

TGIF: Government Is the Problem

by Sheldon Richman May 17, 2013

Barack Obama recently told the graduating class of the Ohio State University, Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems.… They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that ...

Gay Sex, Raw Milk, and a Free Society

by Laurence M. Vance May 7, 2013

Although gay sex and raw milk have nothing to do with each other, they have everything to do with individual liberty, private property, and a free society. The governor or Montana recently signed into law a bill to strike unconstitutional language from a law on the books that criminalized sexual acts between two people of the same sex. However, he ...

Dress Codes and a Free Society

by Laurence M. Vance May 1, 2013

At first glance, the idea of dress codes seems foreign to a free society. Actually, however, the case is just the opposite. That truth was manifest most recently at, of all places, a press conference held at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., to announce the inauguration of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. As recounted ...

TGIF: Liberty, Security, and Terrorism

by Sheldon Richman April 26, 2013

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” It would be nice if Benjamin Franklin’s famous aphorism were as widely believed as it is quoted. I doubt that Sen. Lindsey Graham and his ilk would express disagreement, but one cannot really embrace Franklin’s wisdom while also claiming that ...

Ten Reasons the U.S. Is No Longer the Land of the Free

by Jonathan Turley April 1, 2013

While each new national-security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they don’t operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such ...

Book Review: All in the Family: America’s Big Brother

by Matthew Harwood April 1, 2013

Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner (New York: Random House, 2012), 560 pages. Since its humble beginnings in 1908 with a pint-sized force of 34 special agents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has always been the pillow over the face of the First Amendment. From its inception, the FBI was first and foremost an intelligence agency ...

The Streets of America Feel Different

by Wendy McElroy March 29, 2013

Zeitgeist: noun, German. The spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time. The word zeitgeist occurred to me while reading a March 22 headline in the New York Post: “Military-Style Drones Will Patrol NYC.” The report sprang from comments made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his weekly radio ...

Restrooms and a Free Society

by Laurence M. Vance March 26, 2013

We have all done it. While on a trip across the country with the family, we have all exited the Interstate and pulled into a McDonald’s or some convenience store to use the restroom — and then driven away without making a purchase. A woman in Tennessee will probably never do that again. She stopped at a restaurant in Erin, ...

TGIF: Freedom Overlooked

by Sheldon Richman March 15, 2013

The idea of freedom counts for little in public discourse. It may come up now and then, only to be quickly shoved to the rear as something quaintly outmoded if not suggestive of paranoia. Examples abound, and this week saw its share. The first that comes to mind is New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s legal setback in his attempt to ...

The Democratic Way of Killing: The President as Judge, Jury, and Executioner

by Doug Bandow March 1, 2013

One wonders whether Americans felt pride when they discovered that, according to the New York Times, their president was “a student of writings on war by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.” As a result, Barack Oba-ma believes that “he should take moral responsibility” for U.S. policy, including killing anyone and everyone seen as a terrorist threat to the United States. ...

Civil Liberties and the Free Society (Video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 28, 2013

On February 17, 2013, Jacob Hornberger spoke on behalf of Young Americans for Liberty at the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Calling: I Have Seen the Future of Freedom

by Steven Horwitz February 21, 2013

Even before I started writing regularly for The Future of Freedom Foundation, I had thought a lot about the future of freedom and how those of us who care deeply about liberty in all its dimensions are going to bring about the world we want to see. For the over 30 years I’ve been involved in the libertarian movement, ...