Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'liberty'

October 17, 2014

Freedom, Security, and the iPhone

Writing on September 22 in the Wall Street Journal, Devlin Barret and Danny Yadron reported, Last week, Apple announced that its new operating system for phones would prevent law enforcement from retrieving data stored on a locked phone, such as photos, videos and contacts. Continue Reading...
October 15, 2014

Video: Daniel Hannan at Acton’s 24th Anniversary Dinner

Daniel Hannan is an author, journalist, and – perhaps most famously – an outspoken member of the European Parliament. To paraphrase the great Troy McClure, you may remember him from such viral YouTube sensations as “Gordon Brown, The Devalued Prime Minister” and “How the EU wastes our money,” among many others. Continue Reading...
September 22, 2014

Reverend Robert Sirico: Why Liberty?

The Cato Institute, as part of this year’s recognition of Constitution Day, offers a series of videos featuring prominent scholars, educators and entrepreneurs answering the question, “Why Liberty?” Each has a different and personal perspective on the meaning and importance of liberty, both in the U.S. Continue Reading...
July 24, 2014

Why Liberals Should Support the Hobby Lobby Decision

When the Supreme Court ruled on the Hobby Lobby case, the near universal reaction by liberals was that it was a travesty of epic proportion. But as self-professed liberal law professor Brett McDonnell argues, the left should embrace the Hobby Lobby decision since it supports liberal values: The first question was: Can for-profit corporations invoke religious liberty rights under RFRA? Continue Reading...
July 08, 2014

John Milton’s Anthropology of Liberty

Today’s edition of Prufrock (subscribe here!) notes the forthcoming release of Paul Hammond, Milton and the People (Oxford, July 29): Who are ‘the people’ in Milton’s writing? They figure prominently in his texts from early youth to late maturity, in his poetry and in his prose works; they are invoked as the sovereign power in the state and have the right to overthrow tyrants; they are also, as God’s chosen people, the guardians of the true Protestant path against those who would corrupt or destroy the Reformation. Continue Reading...
July 02, 2014

American Freedom: Is It Overrated?

We Americans will celebrate 238 years of freedom this Friday. In 1776, the 13 colonies unanimously declared: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Continue Reading...
June 26, 2014

Calvin Coolidge’s warning against an entrenched bureaucracy

As we read about the increase of scandal, mismanagement, and corruption within our federal agencies, it is essential once again to revisit the words of Calvin Coolidge. Recent actions at the IRS, Veterans Administration, and the ATF gunwalking scandal all point to systemic problems that come from an entrenched bureaucracy. Continue Reading...