America Is NOT A Free Country
By Doug Newman

Independence Day is upon us. This July 4 we will celebrate the 228^th anniversary of our independence from Britain and our birth as a free nation. We will watch fireworks, go to barbecues, go camping (at tax-funded state and national parks), go to baseball games (in tax-funded stadiums) and hear endless talk about how gosh darn wonderful it is that we live in a free country.

Or do we live in a free country?

Consider the following.

In a free country, taxation would be well-nigh non-existent. You could keep what you earned and you could spend, save, invest and donate as you saw fit. You would have far more money with which to solve your own problems. (Read the rest here)

Safe at Home! At Least For Now!
By Ted Lang © 2004

Times have changed dramatically over the last half-century. Our society has become more technologically oriented with less reliance upon personal interactions and dependencies on other people. Of course, this lament could have been uttered by the adults of my childhood. Supermarkets were only just getting started back then, but there were still plenty of “mom and pop” delicatessens, small drug stores, butcher shops, bakeries, paint stores, candy store/soda fountains, etc. Today, one trip by car to the area mall, and all these things can be had. Warehouses now have been greatly modified, changing marketing distribution channels via such revised retail outlets as Wal-Mart, Costco, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Electronic supermarkets and huge computer outlets are all the rage. (Read the rest here)

Government by Euphemism
by Sheldon Richman
The Future of Freedom Foundation

People live by political euphemisms. Sometimes they die by them, as when civilians are bombed in the name of liberating them. There are less lethal euphemisms, but since all of them embody dishonesty (the word "euphemism" itself is a euphemism), they all have bad consequences. Those that do not kill may "merely" make us poorer and less free.

Most politicians speak in almost nothing but euphemisms. Their success depends on our not translating those phrases into more honest terms. For example, when a candidate for office advocates "helping the middle class," he usually means he plans to use the mighty force of government to take money from wealthier, super-productive people in order to give it to others. No candidate has ever made a campaign promise that he intended to fulfill from his own bank account. I await the day that a candidate says, "If elected I promise to command the armed personnel of the federal government to compel those who make over a million dollars a year to surrender a higher portion of their money than they already surrender. After skimming off an appropriate amount, I will have the remainder distributed to the people whom I am counting on to vote for me." (Read the rest here)

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The American Revolution and Iraq
By William Marina*

As Americans mark the 228th anniversary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence this Fourth of July, two parallels between our Revolution and today’s insurgency in Iraq come to mind. One, based in myth, would lead its advocates to folly, while the other deserves serious consideration.

The mythical parallel, drawn by intellectuals as diverse as Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and Iraq war-hawk, neo-conservative godfather Irving Kristol is what might be called “The Minority Myth.” Cited in numerous books about the Revolution is a letter written by founding father John Adams which seems to indicate that only one third of the American colonists were for the Revolution, another third were against it, and a final third were neutral or indifferent to the whole affair. The letter has been brought into favor by certain parties hoping Iraq turns to democracy, for, if true, this claim would suggest that the current lack of consensus on democracy in Iraq does not foretell defeat of the efforts to impose it there. (Read the rest here)

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