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- Written by: Harry Browne
- Category: Selected Blogs
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Harry Browne was the Libertarian Party nominee for President in 1996 and 2000. Harry passed on in 2006. This article was originally published in 2003. |
On this date in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was first unveiled in New York Harbor.
You're probably aware that the Statue wasn't built in America. It was built with money voluntarily raised from the people of France — and then erected in New York Harbor with money voluntarily raised from the people of the United States.
Then & Now
Today, 117 years later, that America doesn't exist anymore — even though politicians love to talk about "our freedoms."
In 1886 America had an open hand to the rest of the world. America didn't fear anyone and no one feared America. Today Americans live in a state of siege.
The idea of invading the Philippines or bombing the Sudan or intervening in Nicaragua or overturning a government in the Dominican Republic or starting a war with Iraq would have seemed ludicrous to the American people in 1886. As John Quincy Adams put it, America didn't go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Today America has troops in over a hundred foreign countries.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Supporters of one of the two old tired political parties often screech that if you don't vote for their candidate that your vote is wasted. This is a fallacy. In fact voting for the underdog often has more of an impact.
In the 2019 presidential election in New Jersey there was a 540K vote difference between the two. If you had chosen to vote for one of the two corrupt parties your vote would have changed that by 0.00018%. If you were to vote democrat it would have changed their total by 0.0000046%. If you were to vote republican it would have changed their total by 0.0000062%
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Police Accountability Project
HAMILTON — Township cops historically removed bras and subjected female prisoners to improper strip searches until a woman filed an explosive lawsuit resulting in a large settlement payout, a Hamilton police source alleged.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Two Asbury Park police officers donned disguises to exact revenge on a citizen who filed a complaint against them by slashing the tires on two of his vehicles, authorities announced Wednesday.
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Published 7/26/2019, West Milford Messenger
Donald Trump's latest comments directed at congresswomen he doesn't like ("go back to where you came from") puts me in mind of remarks made by politicians of the past.
I'm old enough to remember Richard Nixon, his Vice President Spiro Agnew, and Alabama Gov. George Wallace saying similar things about anti-Vietnam War protesters and college students in the late 1960's and early 1970's when I had just started high school.
Back then the slogan against dissent was "America, love it or leave it."
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
I have to chuckle to myself when I see all the pro-choice people getting upset over some of the recent abortion restrictions enacted by states across the country. Why are they not pro-freedom on other issues?
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- Written by: Thomas R. Eddlem
- Category: Latest News
America’s endless Middle Eastern wars have become politically sustainable as a result of millions of dollars in donations to virulent hate-groups with strong deep state ties from establishment foundations.
Americans increasingly view Muslims as a threat to their security, especially Republicans. According to a Pew Charitable Forum survey in 2017, 65 percent of Republicans believe there is a "natural conflict between Islam and democracy." Amusingly, 56 percent of Americans polled by CivicScience in 2019 said American students should not be required to learn Arabic numerals (i.e.: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0) as part of their educational curriculum. A 2018 Chapman University poll noted that – although prejudice against Muslims had fallen somewhat between 2016 and 2018 – more than 60 percent of Republicans believed"Muslims are more likely to engage in terrorist activity than non-Muslims" and nearly 40 percent said America should end immigration from all Muslim countries.
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- Written by: JDaniel Richer
- Category: Latest News
As nefarious as people want 3D-printed guns to look, there is another side of the story entirely.
What if everything you thought about 3D-printed guns was wrong?
I know what you’re thinking. How is this article different from the 50+ articles written beforehand? Well, how many of those journalists do you think consulted with someone who spends a decent amount of their time 3D-printing guns?As nefarious as people want 3D-printed guns to look, there is another side of the story entirely. How many inaccuracies do you think they have written considering most of them know little to nothing about guns, never mind 3D-printing and other technologies? To avoid this dangerous journalistic trend (and to avoid looking ignorant about guns), I contacted New Jersey's "most wanted" anonymous Twitter account, @IvanTheTroll12, about the nature of 3D-printed guns in the United States.
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- Written by: Kevin Lowery
- Category: Latest News
2019 NJLP Convention
March 23, 2019
Agenda
09:00 Call to order & quorum check [Chair]
09:05 Agenda review & approval [Chair]
09:10 Secretary's Report [Secretary]
Approval of prior meeting minutes: February 10 State Board Meeting
09:15 Treasurer's report [Treasurer]
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- Written by: Maria Bell
- Category: Letters to Editor
On June 3, 2018, the communities surrounding Guatemala's Mount Fuego were devastated by the volcano's eruption. An estimated 1.7 million were affected with displacement after a modest recovery from the mudslides affecting the area two years previously. The human interest aspects to the destruction's story brought Guatemala into focus and some discussion surrounding its plan for relief and recovery. Now, as 2018 closes, a similar situation has occurred yet again for the citizens who have started their lives over. The focus of the human spirit triumphing over harsh circumstances shows much bravery but is only part of a (tired) story we witness repeatedly.
Although Guatemala is a beautiful country with potential, the economy has struggled despite a healthy GDP averaging over 60 billion USD between 2015-2018. The neighboring countries of El Salvador and Honduras, in contrast, averaged 23 billion and 21 billion, respectively. President Morales inherited an inflation rate of ~ 2.4% but rose to remain steady around 4%. Despite long-term pledges of equality, the wealth distribution of the country has remained skewed with more than half of the population below the poverty line and the indigenous population most sharply affected. Nor have Morales' campaign platforms of ending malnutrition and steadying employment made significant social impact. This culminated with protests for his resignation a few months ago after UN corruption investigations arose.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Latest News
After a more than four-year investigation, a former member of the Bound Brook Borough (Somerset County) Council was tentatively fined $100 by the New Jersey Local Finance Board (LFB) for voting in favor of a resolution which designated a redeveloper for a Main Street property while her in-laws owned that property and her husband, who currently sits as a Borough Council member, had an interest in a business located on that property.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In his August 2, 2018 article, "Why did Rutgers pay fired AD Julie Hermann $500K more than she was owed?" Star-Ledger reporter Keith Sargeant wrote about Rutgers' refusal to provide him with the university's separation agreement with former Athletic Director Julie Hermann. After reading the article, I had my non-profit submit an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for the separation agreement and then sued when Rutgers denied the request.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Candidates and Elections
In 2001, an appeals court ruled that New Jersey's practice of not allowing anyone to register to vote as anything other than Democrat, Republican, or Independent was unconstitutional. This was the result of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of political parties, including the NJ Libertarian Party.
Since then the number of registered libertarians has been steadily growing. The 2018 numbers show 11,040 registered Libertarians. This is a 32.9% growth from the prior year. This year we have grown once again to 8,309 registered Libertarians. We have 4.8 times as many registered libertarians now than we did 5 years ago,
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- Written by: Maria Bell
- Category: Letters to Editor
Dear editor:
One of Henry Kissinger's aphorisms that remains spot-on today is that "Americans have no permanent friends or enemies, only interests". Darkly echoing Libertarian philosophy, those words are American foreign policy. As such, the consequence of arrogance in the injudicious use of military might has fed the anti-war movement for decades. The case of Iran is a particularly important example of our challenge to understand applying the Libertarian party’s platform of withdrawal from conflict zones.
The tension surrounding Mujahideen-e-Khalq (aka MEK) has provided a split within the anti-war movement - one that has essentially crippled the effort. Groups such as Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, and Hands Off Syria allow their in-fighting to derail any serious movement to effect “welfare/warfare” change. Sarah Flounders manages to be anti-Sisi but pro-Assad. Chris Wilson documents Tamimmi supporters but will not do so for Gazans. And Rania Khalek, employed by Russia Today, assists by spreading propaganda videos such as you see here.
New Jersey Libertarian Party General Meeting
Saturday November 17, 2018 – Killarney's 6:00 pm
AGENDA
6:00 Call to order & quorum check [Chair]
6:10 Agenda review & approval [Chair]
6:15 Secretary's Report [Secretary]
Approval of minutes of prior board meeting
6:20 Treasurer's report [Treasurer]
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
There are only two factors that determine what you are paid for the work that you do - how much you are willing to work for and how much your employer is willing to pay you. How much your employer is willing to pay you is based on the laws of supply and demand. The work that you do may require back-breaking effort or may require a certain skill set and training, but this alone does not mean that it will reward you with a large paycheck. The output of your work needs to be in demand.
In a free market, financial transactions between consenting parties only occur if both parties benefit from the transaction. This is true both for the exchange of goods and the exchange of labor. The wages that a worker receives is defined by the simple fact that both the employer and the employee benefit from the exchange of salary and benefits paid to the employee and the work done for the employer. Anything that stands in the way of this mutual benefit results in fewer transactions.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Policy News
In New Jersey if you want to practice hair braiding you need to complete a 1,200 hour cosmetology course where you learn lots of things – except for how to braid hair. The practice of hair braiding requires no chemicals and is perfectly safe. Last year, a mother of four was fined $1,200 for braiding hair without a license. Anita Yeboah can’t afford the up to $17,000 to obtain this license. She faced the prospect of either going on welfare, or starting a business to support her and her four children. As an immigrant from Ghana, she grew up learning to braid hair as part of her culture.
Brigitte Nzali was slapped with a fine for braiding hair from her shop in Blackwood, NJ. She and other hair braiders have joined forces to form the Hair Braiding Freedom Coalition. They have worked to get a bill through the Assembly that would get rid of burdensome licensing requirements.
On August 27th, Governor Phil Murphy heartlessly vetoed their bill. The bill had bi-partisan support in the legislature, but Murphy thought it went too far and wanted hair braiders to have at least 50 hours of training or three years of experience.
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- Written by: Alex Nowrasteh
- Category: Latest News
Originally Published at Cato at Liberty, republished under Creative Commons License
Yesterday, President Trump tweeted that “unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” with the migrant caravan approaching the U.S. border. Vice President Pence later tried to justify President Trump’s comment by arguing that, “It is inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7,000 people advancing toward our border.” Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies wrote that “the president was obviously referencing … ‘special interest aliens’ … U.S.-bound migrants moving along well-established Latin America smuggling routes from [Muslim] countries.” Perhaps President Trump was referencing special interest aliens but the clear implication is that they are potential terrorists who are using the caravan to sneak into the United States and murder Americans.
The members of the migrant caravan will either apply for asylum at the U.S. border or try to enter illegally. From 1975 through the end of 2017, 9 Americans have been murdered in attacks committed on U.S. soil by 20 foreign-born terrorists who entered illegally or as asylees. During that time, the annual chance of being murdered in a terrorist attack committed by an asylum seeker or an illegal immigrant was about 1 in 1.3 billion per year. Those estimates are based on this methodology with updated numbers.
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Published in the West Milford Messenger, September 25, 2018
Regarding the article on local veterans groups being concerned over the public's lack of understanding the meaning of Memorial Day and Veterans Day
I can only say look no further than the government school system.
The politicians and bureaucrats have a vested interest in keeping the general population in the dark on how we get involved in all these wars.