An Empire for America by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2003 Shortly before his death in 1902, the great classical-liberal social philosopher Herbert Spencer penned an essay entitled “Imperialism and Slavery” that was included in a collection of his writings under the title Facts and Comments (1902). The theme of the essay was that, as Great Britain was proceeding to expand its empire around the world, it was not only enslaving the peoples brought under British imperial control, it was also enslaving the British people in the process. Spencer asked his readers to picture a man literally enslaved with his hands tied and with a collar round his neck to which was attached a rope held at the other end by his slave-master. Most people, seeing this, would say that clearly one was the captor and the other the captive. But Spencer suggested that, in fact, the slave-master is as much enslaved as his prisoner. Unless he holds on to the rope and watches his prisoner, the slave will run away and reclaim ...
Bush’s WMD Flimflams by James Bovard September 1, 2003 The Bush administration’s rush to war against Iraq was justified largely by the danger that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction supposedly posed to the United States and to U.S. allies. In his January 28, 2003, state of the Union address, Bush denounced Saddam as “the dictator who is assembling the world’s most dangerous weapons” and listed vast quantities of biological and chemical weapons that few independent experts believed Saddam possessed. Bush concluded, “A future lived at the mercy of terrible threats is no peace at all.” In his March 17 “ultimatum address,” after listing Saddam’s alleged WMDs, Bush declaimed, “And this very fact underscores the reason we cannot live under the threat of blackmail.” In that same speech, Bush declared that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised…. Under ...
The Abolitionist Adventure, Part 3 by Wendy McElroy September 1, 2003 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 National attention soon focused on whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state — a matter that affected the balance of power in the Senate. The immense Kansas-Nebraska territory had been formerly closed to slavery under the Missouri Compromise. But the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 — a deal struck by Stephen Douglas of Illinois to get Southern support for a railway in his state — nullified the compromise. Kansas was now up for grabs. Let the people decide, Douglas said. And so, resident voters would determine the slave status of new states carved from the territory. Pro- and anti-slavery forces flooded Kansas in an effort to influence the election. Violence erupted; voting irregularities were rampant. The election in 1856 of President Buchanan, who was regarded as a friend to slavery, angered Garrison. In the first issue of its 27th year, The Liberator announced plans for a State ...
Shame on WorldNetDaily by Jacob G. Hornberger August 25, 2003 Several days ago, WorldNetDaily, a conservative website, published an article entitled “Libertarians Who Loathe Israel,” by Ilana Mercer (email), a self-described libertarian who is a WND columnist. In her article, Mercer wrote in part, I understand that libertarians like Sheldon Richman (and the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical ...
Foreign Policy for Tyros by Jacob G. Hornberger August 22, 2003 The Declaration of Independence In 1775 at Concord and Lexington, a small group of British citizens living in America took up arms against their own government, starting the American Revolution. Other British citizens chose to support their government and its troops during the crisis. Did You Know?Did you know that the British Empire ruled ...
The Gun-Control Tide Is Turning by Scott McPherson August 4, 2003 Advocates of the right to keep and bear arms have modest reason to celebrate these days. The state of Alaska recently became the second state, after Vermont, to allow citizens to carry concealed firearms without a permit or any of the restrictive measures, such as fingerprinting or background checks, ...
Classical Liberalism and World Peace by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2003 Since the end of the First World War in 1918, the world has been in search of international order and global peace through the political method of international organization. The League of Nations was seen as the great hope for world peace and security. Its failure in the years between the two world wars was taken ...
The Abolitionist Adventure, Part 2 by Wendy McElroy August 1, 2003 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 On August 31, 1831, a Virginia slave named Nat Turner instigated a slave revolt in which a slave owner and his family were killed. Eventually, the victims of Turner’s band exceeded 50. The South exploded with fear and rage, with many blaming Northern abolitionists, especially William Lloyd Garrison. A Virginia paper called ...
Book Review: Defend America First by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2003 Defend America First: The Antiwar Editorials of the Saturday Evening Post, 1939–1942 by Garet Garrett (Caldwell, Idaho, 2003); 285 pages; $13.95. It has now long been taken for granted by the American citizenry that the president of the United States, in his role as commander in chief, has the authority and power to send American armed forces into harm’s ...
Crossing the Rubicon by Jacob G. Hornberger July 11, 2003 Have you noticed how many Americans get upset over the comparisons that are increasingly being made between the United States and National Socialist Germany? After all, it’s not as though we’re living in a police state, right? Well, if U.S. officials could somehow assure us that the U.S. government’s treatment ...
Selected Bibliography from The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars by Richard M. Ebeling July 2, 2003 The following is a bibliography of revisionist works that was included in The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars, published by The Future of Freedom Foundation in 1996. The bibliography was prepared by Richard M. Ebeling. Acton, Lord (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton). “Nationality,” in Essays in the History of Liberty. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Classics, 1985. Ambrose, ...
