Free Republic

There is an undeniable beauty to laissez-faire theory, with its promise that by struggling against one another, by grasping and elbowing and shouting and shoving, we create efficiency and satisfaction and progress for all. This concept has shaped, at the most fundamental levels, how we understand and engineer our basic freedoms -economic, political, and moral. Until recently, however, most politicians and economists accepted that freedom within the marketplace had to be limited, at least to some degree, by rules designed to ensure general economic and social outcomes. From Adam Smith onward, almost all the great preachers of laissez-faire were tempered...

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to build public support for his eagerly awaited health care overhaul, he turned to a study by the New America Foundation. The report, released recently by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute, concluded that the average family in California pays a $1,200 "hidden tax" to subsidize health care for the uninsured. Never mind that Families USA, a liberal advocacy group, released a similar study in 2005. The Schwarzenegger administration has cultivated a close relationship with the New America Foundation, whose centrist philosophy is more in tune with the governor. Administration officials heard New America was working...

Liberal Air America radio host Mike Malloy had his show abruptly “terminated” on Wednesday, allegedly for financial reasons. The network is failing but there could be another factor behind the Malloy debacle. There is still fallout from Malloy’s recent decision to turn over two-and-a-half hours of his three hour show to a former associate of ex-con Lyndon LaRouche, a perennial candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination who campaigns against what he views as British and Zionist control of the U.S. political system. The LaRouche organization is frequently labeled as a cult. The former high-level LaRouche associate, Webster Griffin Tarpley, was...

If only the Muslims in Europe — with their hearts focused on the Islamic world and their carry-on liquids poised for destruction in the West — could behave like the well-educated, secular and Americanizing Muslims in the United States, no one would have to worry. So runs the comforting media narrative that has developed around the approximately 6 million Muslims in the United States, who are often portrayed as well-assimilated and willing to leave their religion and culture behind in pursuit of American values and lifestyle. But over the past two years, I have traveled the country, visiting mosques, interviewing...

Scowcroft Skeptical Vote Will Stabilize Iraq Friend of Bush Family Joins Pessimists By Dana Priest and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, January 7, 2005; Page A12 Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser for President George H.W. Bush and a leading figure in the U.S. foreign policy establishment, said yesterday that he has grown pessimistic about prospects for stability and democracy in Iraq, a view increasingly expressed by other foreign policy figures in both parties. "The Iraqi elections, rather than turning out to be a promising turning point, have the great potential for deepening the conflict," Scowcroft said. He said...