The drug war, as most everyone knows has been going on a long time — decades! It’s just your standard government program. It keeps going and going no matter how much failure, death, and destruction it produces. For example, when I returned to my hometown of Laredo, Texas, in 1975 to practice law, the drug war was going strong. In fact, my very first trial was in federal court. The federal judge appointed me to represent an indigent defendant in a drug conspiracy case. The DEA and the assistant U.S. Attorney were going after my client with a vengeance. But I was able to convince the jury that ..read more

Three years ago, in a citizen’s initiation approved by 3/4 of voters, Oregon decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. Last month, the Oregon governor signed into law a measure that undid what the people of Oregon had decided. The reason for this change in direction was that there were severe problems that arose with decriminalization. Two of the biggest problems were (1) Drug addiction and deaths from drug overdoses had soared; and (2) drug addicts suffered from homelessness and were congregated in public parks and other public areas; some of them were committing acts ..read more

During the Covid crisis, the cry from Covid critics was incessant: “Fauci! Fauci! Fauci!” Fauci was a liar. Fauci was a killer. Fauci was evil. Fauci had to go if we were to regain our healthcare freedom. Well, Fauci is gone. He is no longer head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the 27 entities that compose the National Institutes of Health, which falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He also is no longer chief medical advisor to the president. He left both positions in 2022. Anthony Fauci For that matter, we no longer live under C ..read more

One of the fascinating phenomena in the libertarian movement for the last several decades has been the division of libertarians into those who have decided to settle for advocating welfare-warfare-state reform and those of us who have decided to continue trying to achieve liberty. The reformers have thrown in the towel with respect to achieving liberty. They have concluded that liberty is simply too difficult, even impossible, to achieve. The federal and state welfare state and the warfare state have become too massive, too well-established, too ingrained in people’s minds, and too powerful ..read more

A great new book on the U.S. national-security establishment’s assassination of President John F. Kennedy has recently been published. It is entitled The Final Analysis by David W. Mantik and Jerome R. Corsi. Longtime supporters of The Future of Freedom Foundation might recognize Mantik’s name. That’s because he was one of the speakers at our online 2021 conference entitled “The National Security State and the Kennedy Assassination.” In fact, Mantik cites presentations at that conference in various parts of his new book. Mantik is a radiation oncologist who also has a Ph.D. in physics. He is o ..read more

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the Ukrainian government is lowering the draft age for Ukrainian men from 27 to 25. The measure is “part of an effort to bolster its depleted armed forces after two years of fighting Russia’s invasion and facing renewed assaults.” According to the Journal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “said in February that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action, but military analysts say the true total is likely far higher.” The first thought that struck me was that the Ukrainian conscription age was so high. After all, here in ..read more

According to a March 6, 2024, article in Forbes magazine, the new Netflix series “American Conspiracies: The Octopus Murders” was watched 3.9 million times the previous week “to become one of the streamer’s most-watched shows.” Released on February 28, it was “viewed for 14.5 million hours to become the fourth-most popular show on Netflix from Feb. 26-March 3.” Count me as one of this show’s viewers. I have now watched 3 episodes of the four-part series. The documentary is based on a 2010 book entitled The Last Circle by an investigative reporter named Cheri Seymour. The book was published by ..read more

Proponents of America’s system of immigration controls lament what they say are “invaders” crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and entering the United States. Many of them say that this “invasion” is a conspiracy to alter the culture of the United States in a Hispanic direction. Ironically, very few, if any, of these anti-invaders ever condemn what the U.S. government did with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. That treaty did more to change the culture of the United States in a Mexican direction than immigrant “invaders” could ever hope to do. With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Unit ..read more

Rightwing proponents of America’s socialist system of immigration controls claim that foreign citizens should not be able to enter the United States without “permission.” They are referring to the need to secure “permission” from two entities — the federal government and the private sector. In making their “permission” argument to justify America’s socialist system of immigration controls, conservatives display their lack of understanding of the principles of freedom and free markets. When anyone needs to secure permission from the government to exercise fundamental, God-given rights, we auto ..read more

In a blog post at Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok has an interesting reminder of the virtues of open borders in Europe. Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University, which arguably is the best free-market, Austrian economics department in the country. He is also the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center. Along with his GMU colleague Tyler Cowan, he is the co-author of Modern Principles of Economics. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and many other publications. The Schengen Area, Tabarrok reminds ..read more