Freedom

Obama’s Adam Smith Problem

American Thinker | Ed Kaitz | Nov. 1, 2008

Barack Obama has advanced the astonishing thesis that by “spreading the wealth around” he’ll somehow create a more benevolent society. But we’ve seen above that since benevolence can never be extorted by force the only thing Obama will succeed in doing is spreading suspicion, resentment, and poverty – the condition of any society whose lawmakers “push too far.” A vote for John McCain on Tuesday can help keep America in the good hands of the humble yet brilliant Scottish economist who, in his race to develop a solution to the problem of scarcity, never lost sight of man’s most important virtue: freedom. [Read more…]

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Freedom from freedom? Atheism, Christianity, and September 11

BreakPoint | Chuck Colson | October 2008

Those who would eliminate Christianity from public life are sawing off the branch they are sitting on.

September 11 the whole nation paused to remember the 3,000 innocent victims of 9/11 murdered by Islamist terrorists, and to be grateful for those who gave their lives to rescue others—everybody, that is, except the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin. It spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Sept.9 for a full-page propaganda ad in the New York Times—an ad that blamed religion for the horrors of September 11. [Read more…]

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Maybe the Economy Should Wait

Human Events | Dennis Byrne | Sep. 24, 2008

Never has the United States had to make such a momentous decision so quickly, except on more memorable dates such as December 7, 1941 or September 11, 2001. Is this really that urgent?

Our betters tell us that the “financial meltdown” leaves us only two choices: Either put this nation in hock in unspeakable amounts to who-knows-whom for how long. Or bring on another Depression. And we must pick our poison right now — no looking for reasonable alternatives. All the key players agree that we’ve got no time to spare; all us bit players can’t fully understand why. [Read more…]

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What about the Poor?

FrontPageMagazine.com | Barry Loberfeld | Aug. 13, 2008

For defenders of the Constitution, the free market, and individual liberty, no single issue has thus far proved more defeating – on both the intellectual and electoral battlefields – than that of poverty. It has handed one unearned (and by no means inevitable) victory after another to the unconstitutional statism of collectivist liberals.

The conquest of poverty (to borrow the title of Henry Hazlitt’s classic) requires just two weapons: wealth and compassion. So the only real question is: Who can better provide these – civil society (“the market”) or the political state?

The answer as it regards wealth has now been settled: “[C]apitalism has won,” conceded left-aligned economic historian Robert Heilbroner in 1989. “Socialism,” conversely, “has been a great tragedy this century.” [Read more…]

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Solzhenitsyn, Reagan, and the Death of Détente

American Thinker | Paul Kengor | Aug. 10, 2008

In a tribute I wrote earlier, posted at National Review, I noted that it is impossible to capture in one column what Solzhenitsyn meant, experienced, and how he went about translating it to the West. Professors like me know such frustration well, as we struggle to fully convey the impact of such a man to a classroom of students born after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In my earlier piece, I talked about The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn’s shocking firsthand account of the Soviet forced-labor-camp system, where he himself had been held captive, and where tens of millions of innocents perished. In a disturbing way, that book may have made Solzhenitsyn the most significant of all Russian writers, quite a prize when one considers the caliber of the company. [Read more…]

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The Thin Margin of Freedom’s Victory

American Thinker | Lee Cary | July 4, 2008

We the people metaphorically dodged a bullet when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment is still alive. While many of us celebrated, we were also dismayed by the thin margin of freedom’s victory.

But that should not surprise us. There have been close calls in the past. And there will be others in the future, because, as once the Liberty Bell cracked soon after it was hung, so too, from time-to-time, freedom itself hangs by the thin margin of one vote. [Read more…]

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Why we’re losing our right to speak out

Christian Examiner online | Chuck Colson | June 2008

Do you want to talk about traditional values on a college campus? Or do you want to speak out against same-sex “marriage”? You may have to enter the Whisper Zone. David Woodard is a political science professor at Clemson University—one who has first-hand experience on how dangerous it can be to speak out in favor of traditional values: He almost lost his job over it. [Read more…]

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Why Do We Call Them ‘Democrats’?

American Thinker | Lance Fairchok | Jun. 21, 2008

We all knew it even though Democrat spokespersons denied it. Worried that the negative connotations would affect their electability and their eyes glued to the capricious winds of public opinion, they invented new words for the old ideology such as progressivism and communitarianism. Apparently, the camouflage is no longer needed. The masks are off. They now openly call for the nationalization of private business, the establishment of universal entitlements and increased taxation to pay for them. Why worry about socialist labels? The electorate is complacent, prosperity has numbed our senses and the left has worked diligently for many years to sap our national pride and deface our self-image. [Read more…]

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Encouraging Thrift Just Makes Cents

Townhall.com | Rebecca Hagelin | Jun. 12, 2008

Ask 10 people to define capitalism. Chances are, eight or nine will stress the importance of buying things.

They’re making a common mistake — equating capitalism with consumerism. As our friends over at the Acton Institute understand, capitalism, properly understood, involves more than just spending. It’s an economic system that (to the horror of liberals) puts decision-making power over financial matters where it belongs — with free individuals, not with government. [Read more…]

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