Selected Blogs
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
There are many progressives in the media, in academia, in politics and elsewhere that have this belief that for the good of society and for the good of the nation, one must surrender his or her liberties and rights for “the common good.” That one must surrender one’s right to own and have property for “the common good;” that one must surrender his or her privacy for “the common good;” that one must surrender his or her conscience, speech and thoughts for “the common good;” and that one must surrender his or her own individuality, being and body for the so called “common good.”
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently stated in an interview that there is a strand of libertarianism that is in both the Democratic and Republican parties that he finds repugnant and “dangerous” when it comes to foreign and domestic policy. In the same interview, he attacked libertarian politicians like Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and others both personally and professionally.
On foreign affairs, Mr. Christie believes that it is justified to have U.S, troops stationed in 140 countries for the sole purpose of sending them into battle in wars and conflicts that are not in U.S. interests. He further believes that it is the duty of the U.S. to be the world’s policeman. Mr. Christie agrees with Neo-Conservatives like William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer that the U.S. must follow the foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson to make the world safe for democracy no matter where. Libertarians believe the opposite. They are of the belief that wars should only occur when a nation is attacked or threatened. Furthermore, while they believe that all nations of the world should be free and prosperous, they are the well wishers of their own nation. They also believe that the U.S. should stay out of the affairs of other nations both internally and externally.
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- Written by: Alex Libman
- Category: Selected Blogs
Tent City is a voluntary institution that exists as the result of local supporters and mutual aid, saving the taxpayers 1-2 million dollars a year! It is a perfect example of how more can be accomplished on a voluntary nickel than on a dollar that has been stolen from the taxpayers by the corrupt and inefficient racket called the Welfare State! The government here has done nothing to help the homeless, and everything that it could think of to try to shut this place down... The film covers the personal stories of several individuals, as well as the never-ending harassment from the local government.
Destiny's Bridge is an authentic look into the lives of otherwise-homeless individuals living in a little village of about 100 tents and shanties - a homestead that has been built on "public" woodland over the past 7-8 years. This film will be particularly enjoyable to people interested in off-the-grid living, agorism / homesteading, the small house movement, government corruption, protests / civil disobedience, and voluntary charity. It also explores some very complex issues, like the underlying causes of homelessness in America, artificial scarcity, sustainable living, personal responsibility, addiction, love, hope and despair.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Recently at a gathering in Rome, Pope Francis stated that in order to help out the poor and the downtrodden, government must do more. While I admire the Pope’s adoration for the less fortunate and those at the bottom of the economic ladder, I believe that government assistance is the last thing that they need. After more than 70 years of the Welfare State, and the implementation of social programs designed to help the poor, the state has failed and, instead of helping the poor and the downtrodden, it has enslaved them, so much so that they consider it a lifestyle. They have become so dependent on the state to assist them in housing, food etc. that they do not want to be self-sufficient, moving up the latter and being independent. They have chosen to become slaves of government.
Most people will then ask me the following question: “If the state cannot help the poor and the downtrodden, then who can?” Here’s the answer: Churches, Synagogues, Non-Profits, Businesses, Institutions, Individuals and others. If given the opportunity, these entities not only can help out the poor and the downtrodden, but they can also teach the value and worth of being independent, having dignity and being free in a free society. Furthermore, they would be the teachers and helpers of the free market and upward mobility whereas the state cannot do that.
At this time, this viewpoint is not welcomed by most Americans. However, with the enormity of the national debt and with the enormity of trillions in unfunded liabilities to fund these social programs, this will be considered and it should be. I believe in the future that the help of the private sector will be more welcoming than the help of government and that the American people will be the better for it.
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- Written by: Joe Siano
- Category: Selected Blogs
Rahm Emmanuel commented that one should never let a good crisis go to waste. He’s absolutely right. Success demands decisive action when opportunities arise..
This is exactly what the Left does after every tragic public shooting incident and what they are doing in the wake of Sandy Hook.
But the programs that gun control advocates advance do not make us safer; they just make us more vulnerable and more dependent upon government. However, that is exactly what these programs are really intended to accomplish - to make us ever more dependent upon government.
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- Written by: Smiling Dave
- Category: Selected Blogs
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Keynes and Hayek portrayed in the Fight of the Century. |
I was wondering. Should I refer to Ludwig von Mises as “von Mises”, instead of “Mises”? Should I change my name to Smiling von Dave?
We know that Keynes popularized an old blunder [one picked up by the Money Dis. crowd], one that was around for ages, the so called lack of Aggregate Demand. Say wrote his famous law to refute it, and I’m sure a little research will find it mentioned in the Stone Age cave drawings.
We’ve written many times about how wrong it is, in theory and reality. Now it’s time to see how Mises took care of it. Genius that he was, all he needed was one line to expose the key flaw in Keynes’s theory.
Unfortunately, when he wrote the one liner, he didn’t mention Keynes by name. He also wrote it in technical language, because he wasn’t addressing a lay crowd, but experienced economists. This may be why Mises’ argument is not well known. Luckily for our generation, and for mankind in general, Smiling von Dave is here to spell it all out.
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- Written by: Joe Siano
- Category: Selected Blogs
Although a great number of libertarians are also secularists, there is still a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned for our cause in the pages of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Beyond religious content, the Bible provides a timeless perspective on human nature and the human condition, which is unchanging.
Therefore, it seems fitting that, during this Easter and Passover season, we take a fresh look at what the ancient texts have to offer to us friends of limited government and private property.
The first lesson, which is often tough for libertarians to swallow, is that liberty is not necessarily a popular idea. From time immemorial, a great many people have been willing to trade essential liberty for the illusion of a strong ruler who is both a powerful protector and a benevolent caretaker.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
When the Newton School massacre occurred, the bodies of the 26 victims were not even cold when the mainstream press call for and advocated for more laws restricting firearms. To the press, the victims did not matter at all. Their lives did not matter. What mattered to the press was having a story to promote an agenda. I was not in the least bit surprised, considering that 78% of all mainstream journalists favor stricter gun control laws, according to a survey of journalists done by the Los Angeles Times. To the press, the story represented a vehicle to advocate a position.
What the mainstream press chooses to ignore is that the issue is not gun control per se; it is and forever will be about mental illness, and how we as a society deal with individuals who have these afflictions.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
The recent stories regarding Anna Gristina and Catherine Scalia have once again brought up the issue of prostitution in the Empire State to the forefront. These women feel that they have done nothing wrong and they also feel that they have a right to engage in this activity, regardless of what others may think. While I personally find the thought of any adult man or woman selling his or her body for the purposes of sex disgusting and abominable, I also feel that these women should not be prosecuted and that the practice of prostitution should be decriminalized.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
There was once a time in America when we all praised the open mind. That we praised hearing open, honest and thoughtful debate on all sides of an argument; that we looked at all information, data and evidence; that we listened and read openly what people had said and wrote; that we would test our hypothesis over and over again always with the open mind and the come to our own conclusions.
Since the late 1960s and early 70s, most Americans have abandoned all that considering it all passé. They replaced it with their own prejudices, ideology and their own beliefs. In short, since that time, there has been a deliberate closing of the American mind.
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- Written by: Seth Grossman
- Category: Selected Blogs
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This First Amendment, adopted on Dec. 15, 1791, is the most important part of the Constitution. With free speech and press, we can be informed when government officials violate other parts of the Constitution. And we can inform others any way we can, and form organizations strong enough to either make them stop – or vote them out of office.
Without the absolute right to freely speak, assemble and organize, a constitution is useless. The Soviet Union under the dictator Stalin had a constitution that gave its citizens all sorts of rights. But anyone who reported violations of those rights or who tried to organize any opposition to the government was killed or sent to prison.
Last week Norm Cohen, my fellow columnist, wrote that he, and others with him on the left, want to “take the money out of politics.” They include filmmaker Michael Moore and MSNBC commentator Dylan Ratigan.
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- Written by: Joe Siano
- Category: Selected Blogs
From our friends at the Mises Institute. This is chapter three of Jeffrey A. Tucker's book It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes.
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- Written by: Radley Balko
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I’m saddened to learn this morning that Siobhan Reynolds died over the weekend in a plane crash.
I met Reynolds several years ago when I attended a forum on Capitol Hill on the under-treatment of pain. Her story about her husband’s chronic pain was so heartbreaking it moved me to take an interest in the issue. I eventually commissioned and edited a paper on the DEA and pain treatment while I was working for Cato.
Reynolds was fierce and tireless. She ran her advocacy group the Pain Relief Network on a thin budget, and often used her own money to travel to towns and cities where she felt prosecutors were unfairly targeting a doctor. And then she’d fight back. And sometimes she’d win. And the DEA and the federal prosecutors she fought weren’t really accustomed to that.
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- Written by: Geoffrey Lewin
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Last May, New Jersey’s Supreme Court delivered the 21st Abbott vs. Burke decision, appropriating $500 million more from the state treasury for Abbott school districts. However, New Jersey’s history of court-ordered taxation to fund education originated with the Gross Income Tax Act of 1976. Advertised as a means to lower property taxes and limit the growth of public spending, the income tax was forced on residents by the court in order to improve student performance in economically disadvantaged districts by increasing per-pupil spending to the level of the wealthier districts.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
While Article VI of the U.S. Constitution states that “…no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States,” throughout history, there have been those elements in society that have attempted, and sometimes succeeded, in applying that which the Constitution strictly forbids.
In the presidential election of 1800, those elements applied the religious test to Thomas Jefferson in his contest with Aaron Burr solely because Jefferson was a Deist. In 1928, the test was applied to Al Smith because he was a Catholic. In 1960, the test was applied to John Fitzgerald Kennedy because he was also a Catholic. In 2011, these elements, in which a majority of them can be found in the mainstream press, are applying the test to Republican candidates Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Since the Progressive Era, a belief has been established by the American people that when something is wrong in society, that it is the duty of government to act and get involved. Often times, the remedies that they put forth and enact make matters only worse for the people that it is suppose to serve. Furthermore, when the situation does make the matter unbearable, government cures it all with more government intervention. For example, if there aren’t adequate housing apartments in a great metropolis, government forces landlords and landowners to reduce their rents through Rent Stabilization laws, i.e. Rent Control. This causes even more of a shortage of housing apartments (We see this case in New York City). If people are worried about high incidents of crime being committed afterhours in big cities like Newark, New Jersey, they call on the City Council and The Mayor to act. Recently, the City Council passed and Mayor Cory Booker signed a law that if business establishments were open afterhours, then these businesses must hire contract security. This law will cause some businesses to close and will cause others to lose money. If the automobile industry is not building enough hybrid or fuel efficient motor vehicles, then government uses CAFE standards to punish these businesses until they comply, never mind that some of these standards causes safety hazards in designs and construction.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Suppose that the welfare state, with its promise of cradle to grave entitlements and its promise of wealth redistribution, “social justice,” and “benefits,” ceased to exist. Suppose that the welfare state, constructed during the progressive and New Deal era and afterwards, ended totally and permanently. What would happen? If we are to believe the progressive philosophy, old people, the unemployed, the weak and the needy, children, the disabled and others would suffer immensely. The progressives, along with “moderates” and “compassionate conservatives” would claim that the streets of every town, hamlet and city would be littered with a sea of human misery and awash in human tragedy. I believe otherwise.
If the welfare state were to end, the following would transpire:
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
In his book, ‘Leviathan,” it was Thomas Hobbs that wrote that in the state of nature, man is entitled to everything. He or she is not only entitled to his or her own property and possessions, but also to the property and possessions of others. To some in this society, this kind of reasoning is a sacrilege and an abomination to civilized and human norms. However, when one survey’s the environment and the politicians not only in Washington, D.C. but around the globe, there is no question that Hobbs’ philosophy is followed down to the last letter.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
In American Society today, there is a great many misconceptions of what is meant by “The American Dream.” There are forces in the mainstream press, in politics, in academia and elsewhere who claim that the dream is to own a home, regardless if one can afford it or not; that it entails having a government sponsored heath care system and other entitlements; that it means getting paid by government to do, what they believe, is “the right thing;” and that it entails society being controlled by a central power located in a distant capital.
It is not nor will it ever be any of these things.