Daily Articles

Economic Delusions, Political Demagoguery, and Ideological Deceptions

by Richard M. Ebeling March 10, 2015

We live in a time, as, indeed, mankind has lived already for a long time, in which economic delusions, political demagoguery, and ideological deceptions abound due to the power lusting of those who wish to gain control of government to serve their own ends at others’ expense. Suppose someone were to ask you the easiest and quickest way to drive ...

Libertarianism: The Hope for America

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 10, 2015

Continuing our successful partnership with Young Americans for Liberty, FFF president Jacob Hornberger is hitting the road again! Discussing "Libertarianism: The Hope for America," Jacob will be visiting four campuses in the Florida. Admission is FREE and open to the public. Monday, March 16, 2015 - Florida International ...

Conservatives Miss the Real Issues on Health Care

by Laurence M. Vance March 9, 2015

Conservatives are incensed over some of the latest medical research grants doled out by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Libertarians are infuriated as well, but not for the same reasons. Last year it was the $237,750 grant to George Washington University “to study whether the use of telemedicine can help overcome barriers to care for transgender women ...

TGIF: The War of 1812 Was the Health of the State, Part 2

by Sheldon Richman March 6, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 As the War of 1812 with Great Britain approached during the Republican administration of James Madison, the War Hawks saw silver linings everywhere. (See part 1.) “Republicans even came to see the war as a necessary regenerative act — as a means of purging Americans of their pecuniary greed and ...

America Must Reject Netanyahu’s War Cry on Iran

by Sheldon Richman March 4, 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington this week to prepare the American people for war against Iran. Backed by American neoconservatives, the Israel lobby, and assorted other war hawks, Netanyahu insists that Iran intends to build a nuclear weapon and thus is an “existential threat” to Israel. He has no confidence that President Obama will negotiate an agreement that once and for ...

The Folly and Presumption of Big Government Social Engineers

by Richard M. Ebeling March 3, 2015

One of the social mythologies of our time is that it is in the power and ability of governments to remake society in any image or shape that those with political authority consider “good,” “right,” and “just” for mankind. No other idea has caused more horror and hardship in modern times. The extreme attempts at such “social engineering” in the ...

The Libertarian Angle: Presidential Politics and Benjamin Netanyahu

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 2, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the upcoming visit by Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu . The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

The Cuban Embargo and the Perversion of American Values

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2015

It would be difficult to find a better example of how the adoption of America’s post–World War II national-security state perverted the morals, principles, and values of the American people than the 54-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba. Now that the issue of lifting the embargo has fully erupted into the political sphere, Americans have an opportunity to question not ...

“And the Pursuit of Happiness”: Nathaniel Branden, RIP

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2015

Libertarians and others have wondered why Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of In-dependence concludes its explicitly incomplete list of unalienable rights with the pursuit of happiness rather than property. The website Monticello.org states, Unfortunately, Thomas Jefferson himself never explained his use of the phrase “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. However, he was almost certainly influenced by George Mason’s Virginia ...

Know-Nothing Democracy on Capitol Hill

by James Bovard March 1, 2015

“You can lead a man to Congress but you can’t make him think,” quipped Milton Berle in 1950. Last December’s congressional approval of the 1,603-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus bill (known as “Cromnibus,” because it was also a Continuing Resolution) also shows you cannot make congressmen read. Unfortunately, as usual, politicians refused to let their ignorance restrain their power over ...

Official Homicide and Legal Rhetoric in Mr. Barron’s Memo

by Joseph R. Stromberg March 1, 2015

The Barron Memo released last summer — if “released” means badly mangled — is an interesting literary production. Its full title is “Applicability of Federal Criminal Laws and the Constitution to Contemplated Lethal Operations Against Shaykh Anwar al-Aulaqi.” Here, David J. Barron, who was acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), argued as of July ...

A Most Radical Libertarian Book

by Laurence M. Vance March 1, 2015

Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion by Thomas E. Woods Jr. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2014), 338 pages. In his foreword to one of Tom Woods’s previous books, former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul described him as “one of the libertarian movement’s brightest and most prolific scholars.” Paul mentions his endorsement in ...