Daily Articles

Barack Obama: No Radicalism to Be Found

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2010

A portion of the American people believe that President Barack Obama is a left-wing radical bent on transforming U.S. society in his image. There’s an easy way to dispel that misconception: Look at what he does and what he says. In domestic affairs Obama has stayed within the narrow establishment zone. The health-care “debate,” for example, has featured no radical ...

The Folly of Blindly Trusting the Government

by James Bovard March 1, 2010

Democracy breeds gullibility. Lord Bryce observed in 1921, “State action became less distrusted the more the State itself was seen to be passing under popular control.” The rise of democracy made it much easier for politicians to convince people that government posed no threat, because they automatically controlled its actions. The result is that the brakes on government power ...

The Rule of Law, Part 2

by Ridgway K. Foley Jr. March 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 Note well that any contention that the United States of America was born out of a well-developed and unbridled libertarian philosophy does not square with historical fact. Ordinary candor and historical precision compel recognition that not all residents in the 13 colonies (or even a majority of those hardy men) would describe or agree ...

The Tumor in the War on Cancer

by Michael Tennant March 1, 2010

Gen. George S. Patton said, “Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth.” Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a group of people more eager to take advantage of others’ misfortunes to increase their own power and inflate their own egos than our so-called public servants. When it comes to exploiting tragedies, they are shameless. For a prime ...

The Disaster of Government-Run Businesses, Part 1

by Jim Powell March 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 Barack Obama defied experience everywhere when he stubbornly claimed he could make a government-run health program work. The standard practice of any government-run business is to provide favored interest groups with something for nothing, forcing other people to pay for it, and there always seem to be complications. If Obama really wanted to see how ...

America’s Injustice System

by George Leef March 1, 2010

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey A. Silverglate (Encounter Books, 2009); 325 pages. It was probably inevitable that as the United States became an increasingly politicized nation, its justice system would be transformed from one that actually sought justice into one where prosecutors abuse their power to win cases and advance their careers. ...

Bernanke Has the Whole World in His Hands

by Sheldon Richman February 25, 2010

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has a big task ahead of him. He has to withdraw most of the $2.2 trillion the Fed created and pumped into the banking system since 2007 before a monster inflation strikes and robs of us our purchasing power. But he has do it without sending the economy back into a recession in ...

The Political Philosophy of Oscar Wilde

by Wendy McElroy February 25, 2010

The renowned playwright Oscar Wilde once said, “A man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.” At the height of his career in 1895, Wilde dominated London dinner-tables, stages, and opinion. Two of his plays opened that year to rave reviews by both critics and the public. His epigrams and activities were repeated — often by ...

Obama’s Phony Populism

by Sheldon Richman February 23, 2010

President Obama likes to portray himself as a man of the people. But a look behind the veil shows this to be a deception. Take the financial regulatory overhaul brewing in Washington. I know what you’re thinking: What could better illustrate Obama’s bona fides as a champion of the people? He wants to regulate the banking industry after the recent ...

Torture Whitewash

by Andy Worthington February 23, 2010

The long-awaited report by the OPR (the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility) into the conduct of the lawyers in the OLC (Office of Legal Counsel), regarding their role in approving the use of torture, has finally been published (PDF). The report largely focuses on two memos dated August 1, 2002, and a third dated March 14, ...

CPAC 2010: “Why Real Conservatives Are Against the War on Terrorism” (Video) by Kelly Torrance, Philip Giraldi, Karen Kwiatkowski, Bruce Fein,

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 22, 2010

Is Americas current War on Terror essential to keeping our nation safe? Or is it yet another vehicle for the federal government to increase its power over our lives and take away our liberties? Is the War on Terror actually weakening our national defense and increasing opposition overseas? The panel, co-sponsored by The Future of Freedom Foundation, Ladies of ...

Once Again, Democracy Is Not Freedom (and We Are Not the Government)

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2010

President Bush and his neoconservative supporters were practically teary-eyed on election day in Iraq. No longer did it matter that the weapons of mass destruction that had been used to scare the American people into supporting the war didn’t exist. Or that thousands of U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis were now dead or maimed. Or that ...