Freedom Daily Archive

Liberty and the Constitution

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2001

ONE OF THE MOST COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS in the United States is that people’s rights come from the Constitution. Without the Constitution, it is believed, people wouldn’t have such rights as freedom of expression and religion. People should be grateful to the Founding Fathers, it is said, for establishing the vehicle by which people could have such rights as life, ...

Israel M. Kirzner and the Austrian Theory of Competition and Entrepreneurship

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2001

WITH THE END OF THE 2001 SPRING SEMESTER, one of the leading Austrian economists in the world, Dr. Israel M. Kirzner, has decided to retire from formal academic life at the age of 71. Over a scholarly career that has spanned more than 40 years, Kirzner has enriched our understanding of the theory of the competitive process, the role ...

Update on the Drug War

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2001

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT has ruled that “medical necessity” is not a permissible defense under the federal statute that outlaws distribution of marijuana. This has been widely interpreted as a lethal blow to the medical marijuana movement. The government had sought an injunction against an Oakland, California, cooperative that distributed marijuana to people whose ...

A Modest Proposal for the Next Drug-War Shootdown

by James Bovard August 1, 2001

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION and federal agencies are still struggling with the backlash from the shootdown by Peruvian jet fighters of a Cessna airplane in which five Americans were traveling. Everybody regrets the fact that a CIA surveillance plane notified Peruvian jets that a plane carrying Baptist missionaries might contain drug traffickers. But unless the U.S. government is to suffer ...

The Colombia Quagmire, Part 2

by Doug Bandow August 1, 2001

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 AMERICAN-TRAINED SOLDIERS often serve with and even become paramilitaries. In one celebrated case, heavily decorated Lt. Carlos Acosta joined the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia and executed government investigators. Reported his brother, “He used to say that a soldier in Colombia has to fight not only the guerrillas but also ...

Patrick Henry’s Choice

by Ben Moreel August 1, 2001

IN 1775, an American patriot stood before his neighbors in a small church in Virginia and challenged the tyranny of government — his own government — in a ringing statement on liberty and death. While I subscribe wholeheartedly to ...

Book Review: The New Dealers’ War

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2001

The New Dealers’ War: F.D.R. and the War within World War II by Thomas Fleming (New York: Basic Books, 2001); 628 pages; $35. THE SECOND WORLD WAR is considered America’s “good war” of the 20th century. The First World War is considered the tragic war, which need not have occurred, which could have been ended much earlier than the four years over ...

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 ...

A Regulated-Economy Agreement for the Americas

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2001

DURING THE WEEKEND of April 20–22, 2001, the leaders of countries in North, Central, and South America met in Quebec, Canada, to approve an agenda for establishing free trade throughout the western hemisphere by 2005. The news media gave a great deal of attention to the thousands of demonstrators who clashed with the police. Representing a wide variety of diverse ...

The Myth of Self-Government

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2001

AMERICANS PRIDE THEMSELVES on what we may call the Great American Myth of Self-Government. But in a very real sense we are governed not by ourselves but by a collection of men and women quite separate from ourselves. That, of course, is contrary to everything we learn in school. Then, again, most of those schools belong to some government. Think back ...

The Latest Waco Fireball

by James Bovard July 1, 2001

APRIL 19th was the eighth anniversary of the final FBI assault on the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas. For almost a decade, politicians and bureaucrats have sweated to withhold key information about that day’s events from the American public. But the ghost of Waco may be rising from the grave once more to place its ice-cold hand on the ...

The Colombia Quagmire, Part 1

by Doug Bandow July 1, 2001

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 “THIS IS NOT VIETNAM,” declared Vietnam-era draft evader Bill Clinton on his arrival in Colombia last year. Alas, while the continents may be different, the conflicts offer eerily similar potential as quagmires for the United States. “This is always how it starts,” warns writer Patrick Symmes. But there’s still time ...