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Friday January 11th, 2013
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A 5 Step Plan To Significantly Reduce Gun Violence in the US
posted 01/11/2013, 6:59 AM (Robert Wenzel)
[Category: Commentary]
1. Abolish the DEA and end the war on drugs. A large part of gun violence comes as a result of the drug market being forced underground. Drug dealers have to shoot to stay alive, just like Al Capone had to during Prohibition.
End the drug war and drugs would be sold at drugstores by little old lady cashiers – -and at a fraction of the price – thus reducing all kinds of drug related crime.
2. Abolish the FDA and government invol... (more) |
His Majesty Obama and the Debt Ceiling
posted 01/11/2013, 6:57 AM (Wendy McElroy)
[Category: Commentary]
President Obama may be poised to claim an unprecedented executive power. Or not. It depends on whether you credit official denials from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney or public statements from high-ranking Democrats. The monarchical power in question is the ability to raise the debt ceiling at will. It involves bypassing the House of Representatives, which currently has the constitutional authority to initiate all revenue bills.... (more) |
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Wednesday January 9th, 2013
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Guns, Like Washing Machines, Don't Act -- People Do
posted 01/09/2013, 6:21 AM (James E. Miller)
[Category: Commentary]
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the usual cadre of politicians, pundits and commentators are hitting the airwaves and condemning believers of the “guns don’t kill” rationale. This exercise in demonization is being followed with pleas to strip Americans of their guns and place a ban on vaguely-defined “assault” weapons.
What’s been lacking in the flurry of proposals that inevitably followed a catastrophe like Sandy Hook has been a deeper look at the kind o... (more) |
I Used to be a Socialist. True Story.
posted 01/09/2013, 6:15 AM (Mark Tordai)
[Category: Commentary]
I pride myself on being an honest person. I don't have too many close friends and have lost many acquaintances on Facebook over changes to my political beliefs. Thankfully, I have made a lot of liberty loving friends since I became a Libertarian and am very grateful for their support. Many of my new allies have also lost people in their lives too, due to their beliefs which I find sad, but also, inevitable.
The story of how I became a Socialist begins at age 17 and during 2000 Can... (more) |
Guns and Libertarianism
posted 01/09/2013, 6:15 AM (David S. D'Amato)
[Category: Commentary]
The tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, has expectedly renewed interest in the “gun debate,” animating the worst inclinations of both the left and right halves of the statist conversation. Some conservative quarters are calling for something like armed-to-the-teeth military police to be stationed in the country’s schools. Progressives have naturally fallen back on all of the stock bilge in adjuring for stricter gun laws. It would thus seem to be as good a time as any for libertarians to interpose w... (more) |
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Tuesday January 8th, 2013
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The Fascinating Case of Lynne Stewart
posted 01/08/2013, 3:19 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
 Lynne Stewart is a New York attorney who is serving a 10-year sentence in the federal penitentiary for being a supporter of terrorism. Her crime? Two years after the 9/11 attacks, she read the following message from her client, convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, at a press conference in New York City: "I [Omar Abdel-Rahmn] am not withdrawing my support of the cease-fire, I am merely questioning it and I am urging you, who are on the ground there to discuss it and to include everyone in your ... (more) |
America Is Being Systematically Transformed Into A Totalitarian Society
posted 01/08/2013, 3:19 AM (The American Dream)
[Category: Commentary]
 If someone were to ask you for an example of a “totalitarian society”, how would you respond? Most Americans would probably think of horribly repressive regimes such as the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, East Germany or North Korea, but the truth is that there is one society that has far more rules and regulations than any of those societies ever dreamed of having. In the United States today, our lives are governed by literally millions of laws, rules and regulations that govern ... (more) |
Sexism, Oppression, and Libertarianism
posted 01/08/2013, 3:17 AM (James E. Miller)
[Category: Commentary]
In France, minister for women's rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is demanding the social media network Twitter reform its operations to remove all hate speech that may emanate from the country. Statements deemed overly malevolent are already "prohibited by law" according to Vallaud-Belkacem. In the name of "human dignity," Twitter must go further to remove any messages ... (more) |
Academia and Imbecility
posted 01/07/2013, 1:18 AM (James E. Miller)
[Category: Commentary]
 In a recent LRC article, economist William Anderson dissects the leftist progressive mindset within the modern-day academic community. University professors, along with their colleagues of sophisticated thinking in the press, display an affinity for state power in their reasoning. In their eyes, the state can do little wrong even as its enforcers plunder society, spy on dissidents, imprison non-criminals, and conduct military campaig... (more) |
The Salmon Trap: An Analogy for People's Entrapment by the State
posted 01/04/2013, 6:28 AM (Robert Higgs)
[Category: Commentary]
A salmon trap (also known as a pound net) is a setup for catching salmon as they return to their spawning places in the gravel beds of shallow inland streams. Such traps were used in Washington and Oregon until they were outlawed—by Oregon in 1926 and by Washington in 1934—and in Alaska until they were banned in 1959. They were highly efficient arrangements for harvesting salmon, outlawed only because the operators of comp... (more) |
The New Year's First Heist
posted 01/04/2013, 6:28 AM (Douglas French)
[Category: Commentary]
 The high priests of the civic religion are very worried that people no longer seem to trust government. The law stands discredited. Once-hallowed institutions are under fire and losing status. People are openly loathing public officials. Movies, television, and best-selling books urge revolt. Most people don’t bother to vote.
And these priests wonder why.
Here’s an example of why. As the year opened, the House, Senate, and president all collaborated to enact the lar... (more) |
Government Violence: The Missing Link in the Gun Control Debate
posted 01/04/2013, 6:28 AM (John W. Whitehead)
[Category: Commentary]
 It didn’t take long for the tragedy of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, which left 20 schoolchildren and six adults dead, to be co-opted by politicians and special interest groups alike, all eager to advance their ideas about how to prevent another deranged madman from taking innocent lives. President Obama is calling on Congress to issue gun control legislation that would limit access to assault weapons. The National Rifle Association (NRA) wants armed guards patrolling every school ... (more) |
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Thursday January 3rd, 2013
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The Rationally Misinformed Voter
posted 01/03/2013, 12:18 AM (Thomas DiLorenzo)
[Category: Commentary]
 In the sub-discipline of economics known as public choice, an important concept is the theory of "rational ignorance." First articulated by political scientist Anthony Downs in the 1950s, and expanded upon by economist Gordon Tullock and others, the theory of rational ignorance holds that it is perfectly rational for individuals to largely ignore politics, or even not to vote. There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and we all spend most of our time doing our jobs, pursuing an educa... (more) |
Doug Casey on 2013
posted 01/03/2013, 12:18 AM (Casey Research)
[Category: Commentary]
L: So Doug, the world didn't end in 2012, so it's onward into another new year. It's time to tune in to your guru-vision and tell us what trends you see shaping up and what actions they imply taking.
Doug: Yes, it looks like the Mayans missed this one; perhaps they'll get another kick at the cat a few millennia from now when it's once more time to turn the page on their calendar. Better luck next time, Mayan astrologers! But although nothing seems... (more) |
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Wednesday January 2nd, 2013
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Book Review: The U.S. War Machine
posted 01/02/2013, 12:34 AM (Anthony Gregory)
[Category: Commentary]
Many supporters of Barack Obama are disappointed that he has not reversed the war policies of his predecessor. He did his best to continue the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The Afghanistan war rages far beyond what was seen under George W. Bush. Obama has also proved militaristic in operations in Libya, Yemen, and Pakistan, and in the sanctions against Iran. The attacks on civil liberties and human rights continue on the same path that Bush forged.
Obama gave indications early on that ... (more) |
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Tuesday January 1st, 2013
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I Question Your Patriotism
posted 01/01/2013, 2:37 AM (Laurence M. Vance)
[Category: Commentary]
I have been called a lot of things since I began writing about ten years ago on the folly of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the evils of the U.S. military, and the belligerence of U.S. foreign policy.
Many of the things I have been called I can’t repeat because they are so vile and filthy. However, the negative e-mails have tapered off quite a bit over the years since these wars have turned out to be such debacles.
One charge that has been con... (more) |
Javert's Religion of Statism
posted 01/01/2013, 2:36 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
Those who take prosperity for granted — and all of us do whether we admit it or not — would do well to make their way to the film Les Misérables, which features Russell Crowe playing the role of the relentless French cop Javert (not to mention an astonishingly effective presentation of “I Dreamed the Dream” by Anne Hathaway).
This film brilliantly pictures a level of poverty that none of us has ever known. We do well to reflect on it and the reasons that we do not experience such ... (more) |
Why We Fight
posted 01/01/2013, 2:36 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
Given the statist direction in which our nation continues to head, one might be tempted to succumb to despondency. After all, everywhere you look, there’s a crisis, with calls for even more statism to address the crises. The worse things get, the more hopeless the situation might seem for people striving for the triumph of libertarianism.... (more) |
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Monday December 31st, 2012
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Sandy Hook and Pre-emptive Civilian Disarmament
posted 12/31/2012, 12:07 AM (William Norman Grigg)
[Category: Commentary]
 Civilian disarmament advocates insist that the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre illustrates the dangers of inadequately restrictive firearms laws. That assumption is impossible to reconcile with the fact that Connecticut’s state government regards individual firearms ownership not as a right but as a highly conditional privilege subject to revocation without notice, on the whim of an unaccountable bureaucrat.
In 1999, the Connecticut legislature enacted Sec. 29-38c, a m... (more) |
Do the Mentally Ill Need Locked Up?
posted 12/31/2012, 12:03 AM (James E. Miller)
[Category: Commentary]
In the weeks following the Sandy Hook shooting tragedy, the usual cadre of intellectuals spilled their insight on the opinion pages and television cameras across the nation and shared what they thought were meaningful solutions. The most inane of these answers was for state officials to boost their efforts to disarm society. The fact that the deranged shooter blasted his way into a decreed "gun-free" zone and went about murdering helpless innocents is lost on these anti-firearm observers. Then a... (more) |
The Exploitation of Labor by Government
posted 12/31/2012, 12:03 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
Considering taking a job with the government? You might want to rethink that. The new survey from Partnership for Public Service paints an ugly picture of job satisfaction at government agencies.
It’s worst of all at place like the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Labor, and Education. We find that only 50-60% of workers are satisfied with their jobs. To put it another way, every other person working in these concrete bunkers is a wreck.
... (more) |
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Saturday December 29th, 2012
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Obsessed by Megalomania
posted 12/29/2012, 12:55 PM (Junge Freiheit)
[Category: Commentary]
 The following interview with Hans-Hermann Hoppe first appeared in the German weekly Junge Freiheit on November 2, 2012, and was conducted by Moritz Schwarz. It has been translated here into English by Robert Groezinger.
Are taxes nothing but protection money? The state a kind of mafia? Democracy a fraud? Philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe is not only considered one of the most prominent pione... (more) |
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Thursday December 27th, 2012
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Prosecution as Persecution: The Carol Asher Case
posted 12/27/2012, 5:25 PM (William Norman Grigg)
[Category: Commentary]
 "Hi, my name is Larry Wasden," explained the short, stocky man, flashing a politician's practiced smile and extending a hand. "I'm the Attorney General."
"Mr. Wasden, my name is Will Grigg," I replied, shaking his hand. "Several years ago you tried to put a 66-year-old retired nun named Carol Asher in prison for fourteen years because she acted as a conscientious juror. Have you ever apologized to her for that abuse of discretion?"
My ice-breaker caused Wasden's smi... (more) |
A Politician's Promise
posted 12/27/2012, 5:25 PM (James E. Miller)
[Category: Commentary]
The sure sign of a halfwit is someone who believes a politician's promise. They can be observed at candidate rallies with their faces beaming and their hands grasping tightly to a cardboard sign. In bars and restaurants they speak endlessly on how their preferred dictator is smarter, kinder, and cuter than the rest. In doing so, they make up for a lack of drunkenness with exuberance over the prospect of being ruled over. This mix turns the political enthusiast into a package more bothersome than... (more) |
Gun-Control, Mental-Health Laws Won't Make Us Safer
posted 12/27/2012, 5:24 PM (Sheldon Richman)
[Category: Commentary]
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 kept in mind. First, liberty is never more in peril than when politicians sense that the people want them to do something -- anything. Second, a false sense of security is worse than no security at all. Legislating in the heat of emotion will not prevent future attacks, but it will do irreparable ... (more) |
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Wednesday December 26th, 2012
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Ron Paul: Government Security Is Just Another Kind of Violence
posted 12/26/2012, 12:51 PM (Ron Paul)
[Category: Commentary]
The senseless and horrific killings last week in Newtown, Connecticut reminded us that a determined individual or group of individuals can cause great harm no matter what laws are in place. Connecticut already has restrictive gun laws relative to other states, including restrictions on fully automatic, so-called “assault” rifles and gun-free zones.
Predictably, the political left responded to the tragedy with emotional calls for increased gun control. This is unders... (more) |
Repudiate the National Debt
posted 12/26/2012, 12:51 PM (Wendy McElroy)
[Category: Commentary]
As of December 19 at 11:50:59 a.m. GMT, the national debt of the federal government was $16,357,278,240,896.86, or $52,080.07 for every individual in the United States. The only sane and moral stance is to repudiate it entirely.
"Repudiation" is not a word used by the political mainstream. Part of the reason is who holds the ... (more) |
Lies, Damned Lies and Gun Control Statistics
posted 12/26/2012, 12:51 PM (Doug Newman)
[Category: Commentary]
Mark Twain once lamented that there were “lies, damned lies and statistics”, with the third being the most deceptive at all. I was reminded of this the other evening when examining a “hit piece” that was circulating on Facebook last Friday in the aftermath of the horrific mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
I was feeling a bit wonkish and I thought I would look up some statistics on violence and gun ownership around the world. One stud... (more) |
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Monday December 24th, 2012
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Private Murders versus Government Murders
posted 12/24/2012, 3:35 PM (Michael Tennant)
[Category: Commentary]
 The December 14 murder of 20 children and 6 women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, has garnered vast media attention and caused countless people with no connection to the victims to grieve for them. This is not a new phenomenon: nearly all mass murders carried out by civilians generate the same type of coverage and response.
But what of the far more numerous incidents of government murder of innocents? Most of them hardly make the news at all; fewer still p... (more) |
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Sunday December 23rd, 2012
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The Spontaneous Order of the Dance Floor
posted 12/23/2012, 6:49 PM (James E. Miller)
[Category: Commentary]
On a recent Saturday evening, some friends and I were at a loss at how to spend the night after a concert we planned on attending was booked up. In search around the venue, we discovered what appeared to be an unassuming club. Upon entering we discovered an empty dance floor with little activity around the bar. In not intending to be rude, it was decided we have one drink before vacating.
Unbeknownst to us, that night in the club was unique. As we were beginning to leave, the disc... (more) |
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Friday December 21st, 2012
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American Children and Foreign Children
posted 12/21/2012, 3:20 PM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
If there is a more emotionally painful experience than a parent's losing a child, I can't imagine what it would be. The emotional wound is raw and goes down to the deepest recesses of a person's heart and soul.
And as we see with the Connecticut massacre of all those little children, it's not just the parents or even just Connecticut residents, who feel the pain and anguish over what has occurred. People all over the country sympathize deeply with the pain being suffered by the p... (more) |
I Fear the Government and the Obedient Sheeple, More Than I Fear Guns
posted 12/21/2012, 3:20 PM (Scott Lazarowitz)
[Category: Commentary]
I do not intend to write something here to convince the emotionally hysterical gun-control crowd to abandon their fantasy of removing guns from the world. They live in a fairyland and there appears to be no way to change their minds. Nor am I trying to even convince the so-called conservatives, the Republicans, the alleged "gun-rights" advocates to stop it with their kowtowing. This is really just a rant (albeit an informed rant).
But I do want to note that the ... (more) |
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Thursday December 20th, 2012
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Wednesday December 19th, 2012
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Why Can't Schools Secure Themselves?
posted 12/19/2012, 12:48 PM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
My inbox has been slammed with notes concerning the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Given the accessibility of information, and the pace at which it travels, people have treated this event as not just a case of a ghastly local crime, but much more than that, a signal and a wake-up call to the culture at large.
There is no harm in such reflections. The 500-year-old trend toward ever less violent societies — a trend that continues to go in the right direction in ... (more) |
Guns, Security, and Liberty
posted 12/19/2012, 12:28 PM (Tim Kelly)
[Category: Commentary]
The barrage of anti-gun-rights rhetoric in the aftermath of last week’s massacre at an elementary school in Connecticut was predictable. The usual suspects appeared on various network and cable news shows to politicize the tragedy by blaming private gun ownership and calling for stricter gun-control laws.... (more) |
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Tuesday December 18th, 2012
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Those Government Gun-Free Zones
posted 12/18/2012, 9:02 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
 It's no big surprise. A gun massacre brings out the gun-control crowd, which loudly demands that gun control be imposed on the American people, as if that would have prevented the massacre in Connecticut.
It's really a shame to have to trot out the same arguments exposing the fallacies of statist thinking, but, alas, it must be done.
First, murderers don't and won't obey gun-control laws. If they don't comply with murder laws, they're not going to comply with gun-... (more) |
Government, the New Debtors' Prison
posted 12/18/2012, 9:01 AM (Douglas French)
[Category: Commentary]
An old banking buddy of mine has been out of work for a full year. I met up with him yesterday, and he told me the good news that he has finally found work. It's not enjoyable. But it pays better than sitting at home.
His time of unemployment had been doubly tough because his son was also out of work at the same time. The proud father seemed happier that his son had also found a job.
"And since he works for a nonprofit, they will pay his student loan," he said.
... (more) |
Pundits And Politicans Very Quick To Blame Video Game & Movie Violence For Newtown
posted 12/18/2012, 8:54 AM (Techdirt)
[Category: Commentary]
The tragedy last week in Connecticut is still horrifying to think about on many different levels -- but the constant search for blame, and using it to support pet political ideas is troubling. This isn't to say that we don't necessarily need to have a "conversation" on various hot potato political issues, but basing it around an event like this isn't likely to be a productive and informed conversation, but one driven purely by emotions. I understand the desire, and the idea that making use of ... (more) |
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Monday December 17th, 2012
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Drug-War Tyranny in Its Purest Form
posted 12/17/2012, 9:37 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
 Stephanie George, who is now 42 years old, has spent the last 15 years of her life in jail. That might turn out to be a short period of time, given that her sentence is life without parole. She has no hope of ever being released from jail. Her crime? Living in a house in which her boyfriend maintained a lockbox hidden in the attic that had a half-kilogram of cocaine in it. The judge said that the lockbox was evidence that George was helping her boyfriend sell drugs.
Forty-seven ye... (more) |
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The Century of the Self: The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires
Operation Gladio: The Hidden History of U.S. Sponsored False Flag Terrorism in Europe
The New American Century: The Untold History of The Project for the New American Century
In the days since the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, many in the media and government have asserted that the only way to prevent such attacks in the future is to prohibit persons from being able to purchase guns. So what are we to make of the fact that on Christmas Eve a man 
Osman Barre, a Somali-born software engineer living in Portland, Oregon, was concerned that his teenage son 
When the "heroic" (and 
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California, a bottomless fountain of foolishness, 
“An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland.” – Adolf Hitler, 1922.
"They had their entire lives ahead of them – birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own," 
Cop Who Karate Chopped NY Judge In Throat Gets Off Scot-Free
Florida Cop Smashes Compliant Woman's Face Into Car -- "Maybe Now You Can Understand Simple Instructions"
VIDEO: Lapel Cam Reveals A Day In The Life Of A U.S. Police Officer (Tasing, Beating, Breaking & Entering, Stomping On Heads... and Laughing About It)
Caught On Tape: Officer Sucker Punches Inmate In Face, Files Report Claiming 'Self Defense'
Insult Person On Twitter, Go To Jail
SWAT Team Brings TV Crew To Film Raid Against Threatening Internet Critic -- Raids Innocent Grandma Instead
Cop Karate Chops NY Judge In The Throat
When the Right to Resist Becomes the "Duty to Submit"
The Missing Lesson From Norway: Never Trust a Man in Uniform
"They're Only Out To Make Cold Hard American Cash"; Park Police Crack Down on Bicycle Cabs in DC