All Posts Tagged With: "Terrorism"
Indefinite Detention and the Free Society
The free market, and the free society in general, cannot be understood without also understanding their indispensable political, legal, and moral conditions.
2Dec2011 | Sheldon Richman | 20 comments | ContinuedFear-Mongering and Servitude
In his 1776 essay, “Thoughts on Government,” John Adams observed, “Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.” The [...]
22Jun2011 | James Bovard | 33 comments | ContinuedYes, It Is a Police State
Since 9/11 the biggest threat to the American people is not radical Muslim terrorists, nor deranged domestic terrorists, but the terrorists with the blue uniforms, badges, and body armor.
16Jun2011 | Steven Horwitz | 58 comments | ContinuedDefining “Terrorism” Down
If Bernard von NotHaus did anything, he exposed the sorry fact that U.S. money is hopelessly debased. If that is proof of terrorism, then anyone who openly criticizes this government and its money is a terrorist.
30Mar2011 | William L. Anderson | 2 comments | ContinuedThe TSA Makes Us Safer?
We both have contributed to the debate about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) since the furor erupted over the new “enhanced pat-downs” and backscatter scanners, which some call “porno scanners.” This debate has shown how few are the real defenders of liberty, since even the “liberal” media have lined up with the government. The debate [...]
24Feb2011 | and Steven Horwitz | 2 comments | ContinuedHow Washington Protects Your Privacy and Liberty
Preserving trust in government is the highest good—at least for politicians. To create that trust, government continually spawns façades to make people believe their rights are safe. Few things better illustrate this charade than the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. In 2004, three years after the Patriot Act was enacted, politicians started to worry [...]
22Dec2010 | James Bovard | 7 comments | ContinuedA TSA Myth in the Making
The “Muslim exemption” is a dangerous myth because it strengthens the TSA by making its critics appear to be foolish conspiracy theorists.
23Nov2010 | Wendy McElroy | 19 comments | ContinuedAn American Stasi?
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.” What is a fusion center? The answer depends on your perspective. If you work for the [...]
22Oct2010 | Wendy McElroy | 22 comments | ContinuedA History of Force: Exploring the Worldwide Movement Against Habits of Coercion, Bloodshed, and Mayhem
Contributing editor James L. Payne has written a book that deserves the attention of every advocate of liberty. The nemesis of freedom is the initiation of physical force. Force, or the threat of its use, interferes with the mutually advantageous exchanges people seek. It is the enemy of natural rights, the free market, and the [...]
5Jul2010 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedYet Again with the National ID
Fresh from their defeat in forcing national identity papers on us with REAL ID, the feds are trying once more. Their plea this time isn’t terrorism but immigration—though they’re pretty much the same, according to the State. Introduced in 2005 to combat the waves of terrorists thronging our shores, REAL ID was supposed to thwart [...]
29Jun2010 | Becky Akers | 14 comments | ContinuedWhole-Body Imaging: Intrusion Without Security
Every time the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) fails to protect aviation, as it did when it allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a plane last Christmas Day, it punishes passengers with further restrictions and humiliations. Now the agency wants to virtually strip-search us with whole-body imagers. These gizmos peer through clothing to the skin beneath [...]
19Apr2010 | Becky Akers | 8 comments | ContinuedWhy Whole-Body Imaging Won’t Work
Every time the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) fails to protect aviation, as it did when it allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a plane Christmas Day, it punishes passengers with further restrictions and humiliations. Now the agency wants to virtually strip-search us with whole-body imagers. Becky Akers’s full column is here.
12Jan2010 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedKLM in NYC
I must admit, I’m a bit conflicted about the whole Kalid Sheikh Mohammed controversy. Both sides of the argument valid in a certain context. Mayor Guliani was on the Sunday talk shows this weekend, and of course we all know where he stands on the issue. From CSM: In this particular case, we’re reaching out [...]
16Nov2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedLiquid Lies
Government programs rely on deception from start to . . . well, none of them ever seems to finish, but if one did, the end would doubtless be as devious as the beginning. Politicians propose programs to solve imaginary problems and perpetuate them with blatant lies. Predictably, this wreaks havoc not only on the program’s [...]
20Jan2009 | Becky Akers | 10 comments | ContinuedBig Brother Is Watching as He’s Never Watched Before
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has installed millimeter-wave scanners at checkpoints in about a dozen airports nationwide. It’s threatening to inflict these gizmos on every commercial concourse in the country. Millimeter waves bombard passengers with beams that penetrate clothing to show the body beneath. Victims don’t undress: the rays do it for them so screeners [...]
1Jul2008 | Becky Akers | 8 comments | ContinuedTorture and Liberty
Is torture compatible with liberty? Unfortunately, this is no longer a hypothetical question. Many Americans who claim to support individual freedom also favor permitting the government to torture suspected terrorists or other purported enemies of the United States. This controversy is reminiscent of a disagreement between the famous economists F. A. Hayek and John Maynard [...]
1Jul2008 | James Bovard | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Politics of Freedom
Thomas Paine said that freedom had been hunted and harassed around the world and that only America offered it a home. Today, it seems to many Americans that freedom is on the run here, too. War and taxes, the nanny state and the Patriot Act, unsustainable entitlements—all threaten the liberty we enjoy as Americans. But [...]
1May2008 | David Boaz | 8 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
