Daily Articles

Did Business Want Campaign-Finance “Reform”?

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2004

It didnt take long for the sponsors of the latest campaign-finance reform (translation: free-speech prohibitions) to complain that their law is being circumvented. Senators John McCain (Republicrat) and Russell Feingold (Demoblican) are infuriated that private groups are using (gasp!) unregulated money to influence an election and their law doesnt seem to be able to stop it. The McCain-Feingold law, also ...

Terrorism Debacles in the Reagan Administration

by James Bovard June 1, 2004

Many Americans are unaware of the dark side of U.S. foreign policys past. Some conservatives think that Ronald Reagans foreign policy began and ended with the thwarting of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, there were many other U.S. actions during his reign that did not reflect favorably on the U.S. governments devotion to human rights. There were few common-places that offended ...

Government Interventionism in Ireland, Part 2

by Scott McPherson June 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 In 1881, the Young Ireland Society was formed. The Gaelic Athletic Association and the Gaelic League followed soon after. The Gaelic League began selling Irish-language textbooks and by 1906 had 900 branches boasting 100,000 members in urban areas around the country. The same Arthur Griffith who would found Sinn Fein in 1905 had in ...

The Colonial Venture of Ireland, Part 2

by Wendy McElroy June 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 In the 1840s, a new voice would be heard in Ireland: the Young Irelanders, who urged the Catholic peasantry to return to their Gaelic roots. Literary and political radicals, the Young Irelanders sprinkled Gaelic terms throughout their writings long before the language was revived in order ...

Book Review: A History of Force

by George Leef June 1, 2004

A History of Force by James L. Payne (Sandpoint, Idaho: Lytton Publishing, 2004); 296 pages; $23.95. Tune in to most news broadcasts and you will probably hear one or more stories dealing with the use of force: armed conflicts in the Middle East; crimes; riots; and more. It often seems that we live in a violence-saturated world. Perhaps so, but political ...

The Pentagon’s Plunge into Barbarism

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 28, 2004

A British citizen, Jamal Harith, who was held in Cuba for two years without trial by Pentagon officials, is alleging that U.S. troops committed the same kinds of abuse in Cuba that they committed in Iraq — severe beatings, forced injections, sleep deprivation, shackling in painful positions, and sexual ...

A Tale of Two Free Countries

by Anthony Gregory May 28, 2004

It isn’t the best of times, but hey, at least it isn’t the worst. That’s the way the warhawks are defending the torture in Abu Ghraib prison and the disaster of Operation Iraqi Freedom. ...

Spreading the Word

by Bart Frazier May 28, 2004

To: Friends and Supporters of The Future of Freedom Foundation From: Bart Frazier, program director Date: May 28, 2004 Subject: FFF Op-Ed Program Most of you associate FFF with our Email Update. Every day you get the best news culled from the internet addressing issues ...

Lessons about Our Constitution from Abu Ghraib

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 26, 2004

Those who think that the U.S. Constitution is an antiquated document with no relevance to modern times might want to consider how federal officials would operate in the absence of constitutional restraints. The best evidence for such a thought experiment exists in Iraq, where U.S. officials have had ...

The Bright Side of War

by Sheldon Richman May 24, 2004

In case you didn’t realize it, there’s a bright side to the death, destruction, and prisoner abuse going on in Iraq and Afghanistan: they’re good for the American economy. War creates jobs. At least that’s what lots of people think. The Washington Post recently helped to spread that impression ...

Separating School & State – W(h)ither Public Schools?

by Sheldon Richman May 19, 2004

The following is the first chapter from The Future of Freedom Foundation’s most popular book, Separating School & State by Sheldon Richman. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, Separating School & State has become one of the most popular books in home-schooling and libertarian circles. Purchase this book. Chapter 1 - ...

A Visit to the National Constitution Center

by James Castagnera May 14, 2004

A colleague of mine — the chairman of Rider University’s American Studies Department — brought his wife and two young boys down from Manhattan to Philly for the weekend. And so I finally got around to visiting the year-old, multi-million-dollar, multi-media National Constitution Center. This sprawling museum of ...