In his 2002 letter to America justifying the savage 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (himself killed in 2011) wrote after listing his grievances against the U.S. government: You may then dispute that all the above does not justify aggression against...
Sheldon Richman
TGIF: Thomas Szasz – Unappreciated Libertarian
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 19, 2024 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I maintain that mental illness is a metaphorical disease: that bodily illness stands in the same relation to mental illness as a defective television set stands to a bad television program. There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography. --Thomas...
TGIF: Why Isn’t Antifa Marching for Apple?
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 12, 2024 | Criminal Justice, Economics, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I was all ready to don a black mask for the Antifa demonstration when I realized that the self-styled antifascists hadn't planned a demonstration. What are they waiting for? After all, the national government has just started a new fascistic crusade. You'd expect the...
TGIF: Static Analysis Clouds Immigration Debate
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 5, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Opponents of people's freedom to cross national borders to where the best jobs are, aka open borders, make a rookie error: they engage in static analysis and overlook the dynamism of social processes that freedom produces. I was recently asked on Facebook: "Are you...
TGIF: Israel Humiliated
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 29, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
To more fully understand the ferocity of Israel's massacre of the people of the Gaza Strip, it's perhaps worth considering that on October 7, 2023, the reputedly invincible Israeli Defence Forces and intelligence services were made to look like fools caught sleeping...
TGIF: Leave TikTok Alone
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 22, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
This is America, last I checked. Surely, the government would not force the sale of a social-media company or ban its app from the Google and Apple stores. Would it? Well, yes, it would, could (perhaps), and might. A bill in Congress, backed by the government's...
TGIF: Reverse Scapegoating in the Immigration Debate
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 15, 2024 | Featured Articles, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
In the controversy over immigration we can spot a phenomenon I call "reverse scapegoating." According to Merriam-Webster, the scapegoat is "one that bears the blame for others." With reverse scapegoating, others bear the blame for one. Both are unjust. Reverse...
TGIF: Is Israel Mad?
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 8, 2024 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Has Israel gone mad? Or has it always been mad? What is the country thinking? The collective nouns seem reasonable in light of the widespread support in that country for the Israeli government's appalling military assault on the people of the Gaza Strip for the last...