The Absurdity of “Universal” Background Checks
Those who favor “universal” background checks on gun buyers make some ridiculous arguments. ...
About: Sheldon Richman
Posts by Sheldon Richman
Progressives Believe in Money Magic
It’s hard to believe that in the 21st century, educated people believe the government can produce real wealth by creating money. It’s especially ironic that the main preachers of this superstition...
How the News Media Betrayed Us on Iraq
The tenth anniversary of the start of America’s illegal and aggressive war against Iraq should not pass without recalling that the mainstream news media eagerly participated in the Bush administration’s dishonest...
The Disasters That U.S. Intervention Created
The enormity of the crime committed by the Bush administration, with the complicity of cheerleading politicians (Republican and Democrat), journalists, and foreign-policy “experts” cannot be adequately calculated — and the consequences...
The Dow Jones Is Lying
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is at a record high, and the unemployment rate has ticked down to 7.7 percent, but this is no time to celebrate. The economy is...
Cutting Government Would Boost Economy
Budget sequestration is as modest a step toward cutting Leviathan as one can imagine. Further progress will be difficult as long as people believe that slashing the size of government conflicts...
The Minimum Wage Harms the Most Vulnerable
Crocodile tears are flowing again for low-income people. In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour. A debate is...
Hagel’s Retreat
Some observers are mystified by Chuck Hagel’s pathetic showing at his Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, but there should be no mystery about it. He performed as he did for one...
The Ominous U.S. Presence in Northwest Africa
Ominously but unsurprisingly, the U.S. military’s Africa Command wants to increase its footprint in northwest Africa. What began as low-profile assistance to France’s campaign to wrest control of northern Mali (a...
Mali: Here We Go Again
In testimony before Senate and House committees, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enthusiastically endorsed increased U.S. intervention in Africa. When government officials seem incapable of learning obvious lessons from the recent...
Did the Government Drive Aaron Swartz to Suicide?
Swartz faced 13 counts under the 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and, if convicted, could have faced 35 years in federal prison and a million-dollar fine. ...
The Hagel Brouhaha
The anti-Hagel hysteria carries a message different from the one getting all the attention: If Hagel is “out of the mainstream” of foreign-policy thinking, the range of permissible thinking is more...
The Washington Con Game Goes On
Much of what government does seems unfathomable until you remember one thing: the politicians think the people are morons. Take the latest example: the effort to avert the “fiscal cliff.” ...
Gun-Control, Mental-Health Laws Won’t Make Us Safer
We would do the young victims of the Newtown shootings no honor by frantically enacting futile restrictions on freedom. It may be satisfying to “do something.” But two things ought to be...
The Fight Over Right-to-Work
When a state passes a right-to-work law, as Michigan did this month, employers in that state can no longer agree to require workers to pay union fees as a condition of...