Joseph S. Diedrich interviews Sheldon Richman

Libertarian America: A conversation with Sheldon Richman | Washington Times Communities- The Business of Living, Joseph S. Diedrich:

"MADISON, Wisc., April 28, 2013 ― Sheldon Richman, a native of Philadelphia and a now-Arkansas resident, is a life-long libertarian..... A 1971 graduate of Temple University, Richman has worked tirelessly his entire adult life to spread the message of freedom, primarily with his pen.

"For many years, Richman was the editor of The Freeman, the flagship publication of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). He recently started a new chapter in his career, becoming the Vice President of the Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF). In his role at FFF, he edits their monthly publication, Future of Freedom, and also writes multiple pieces every week, including in his column, TGIF (“The Goal Is Freedom”).

"Richman is the author of Separating School and State: How to Liberate America’s Families, in which he proposes government should have absolutely nothing to do with education."

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/business-living/2013/apr/28/libertarian-america-conversation-sheldon-richman/#ixzz2SKjwMagf
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Fiscal-Cliff Antics | The Future of Freedom Foundation

Fiscal-Cliff Antics | The Future of Freedom Foundation - Jacob Hornberger:

January 2, 2013 - "The fiscal-cliff deal shouldn’t surprise anyone. A sufficient number of Republicans caved, enabling President Obama to bask in the glory of causing Republicans to vote for a massive tax increase.

"What did the Republicans get in return with respect to federal spending?

"Not one darned thing. On the contrary, they agreed that the 'cuts' in federal spending that were going to go into effect as part of the 'fiscal cliff' would be suspended for at least the next two months.

"Why do I place 'cuts' in quotation marks? Because under the so-called fiscal cliff, there really isn’t any reduction in federal spending at all. That’s what the statists, including the mainstream media, never point out. The fiscal-cliff 'cut' is actually an increase in federal spending.

"Why do they call it a 'cut'? Because the increase in federal spending is not as much as federal officials had hoped for and planned for. That’s what a 'cut' in federal spending means in Washington and within the mainstream statist press.

"That’s what the Republicans got for their cave in — they gave the welfare-warfare bureaucrats the full increase in federal spending they had hoped for, at least for the next two months, after which they will undoubtedly cave again."

Read more: http://fff.org/2013/01/02/fiscal-cliff-antics/
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YAF’s Attack on Ron Paul - Hornberger

YAF’s Attack on Ron Paul - Jacob Hornberger, MWC News

February 15, 2011 - "[An] area in which conservatives and liberals have long been advocates of big government is with respect to the military and foreign policy. This is another area that separates libertarians from statists. Libertarians support a limited-government republic while conservatives and liberals support a vast overseas military empire, wars of aggression, invasions, occupations, sanctions, the CIA, militarism, and the military-industrial complex, along with the ever-growing taxes, debt, and spending needed to pay for it all.

"A few days ago, the long-time conservative organization Young Americans for Freedom, once again demonstrated the stark foreign-policy dividing line between conservatives and libertarians. The group publicly ousted Ron Paul from its national advisory board owing to Paul’s libertarian foreign-policy views.... In this Daily Caller article, the national vice chairman of YAF, Chris Bedford, explains the reasons for Paul’s expulsion from the group.

"Bedford’s article is standard conservative fare with respect to foreign policy, citing first communism and now radical Islam as grave threats that threaten the existence of the United States. Although Bedford doesn’t come out and say it, the implied position is the same that conservatives held during the Cold War: that unfortunately, it is necessary for conservatives to support big government in the form of a vast military empire, hundreds of overseas bases, foreign aid to dictatorial regimes, an enormous military-industrial complex, foreign wars and interventions, and of course ever-soaring budgets for the military and the military-industrial complex.

"Libertarians heard this conservative justification for big government during the 45 years of the Cold War. 'The only reason we favor big government,' conservatives cried, 'is because of the communist threat. If there were no communist threat, we could dismantle big government'.... Revealingly, at no time during the entire Cold War did conservatives ever cite the so-called threat from radical Islam as an excuse for big government. In fact, one of the things Bedford failed to point out in his article was that during the Cold War conservative icon Ronald Reagan actually supported radical Islamic groups that young conservatives like Bedford now consider an official enemy....

"In 1989, the worst fear of conservatives materialized: Much to their shock, their decades-long justification for big government disintegrated with the unexpected demise of the Soviet Union....

"Then, throughout the 1990s, with the ardent support of the conservative movement, the U.S. Empire went into the Middle East to stir up hornet’s nests. The Persian Gulf intervention, in which the Empire went after its old Reagan-Bush partner and ally, the dictator Saddam Hussein. The Iraq sanctions, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright’s infamous announcement that the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children were 'worth it.' The intentional stationing of U.S. troops on Islamic holy lands. The unconditional military and financial aid to the Israeli government and Arab dictators, including Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

"The inevitable anger and hatred against the United States came in the form of retaliation: the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, the attack on the USS Cole, the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and of course the 9/11 attacks....

"Yes, the conservatives had found a new official enemy to support their embrace of big government — from communists to drug dealers to illegal aliens and finally to Muslims. Needless to say, the last thing conservatives considered was that it was the U.S. government, which many of them treat as their god, that was at the root of the problem. When Ron Paul pointed out in that famous debate exchange with conservative icon Rudy Guliani that the terrorists came over here to kill us because of what the U.S. government was doing to people over there, conservatives considered that statement to be heresy and treason."

Read more: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/8674-yafs-attack-on-ron-paul.html
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