Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | The Libertarian Institute

You’re Misunderstanding What the ‘Militia’ Is

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Apr 3, 2023 | Featured Articles

America’s latest episode of mass homicide has sparked renewed advocacy for restrictions on gun ownership. Once again, the accompanying debate has many gun control advocates claiming the Second Amendment’s reference to a “well regulated militia” narrows the amendment’s scope if not rendering it altogether moot. Before we examine those claims, it’s important to ensure readers have a proper general understanding of the Bill of Rights. Contrary to common misperception, these amendments do not bestow privileges upon American citizens. Rather, they are primarily a set of prohibitions against the...

Could a National Sales Tax Be a Viable Alternative to the Income Tax?

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Mar 2, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

Sometime during this 117th U.S. Congress, the long-proposed “Fair Tax” will likely receive its first-ever floor vote in the House. A national sales tax, it would replace not only personal and corporate income taxes, but Social Security, Medicare, estate and gift taxes too. Though every tax scheme has its pitfalls and moral failings, the net impact of a switch from the income tax to a sales tax could be positive for the citizenry and the economy. While entrenched interests and the opportunity for misleading political attacks on Fair Tax proponents make its adoption in the near-term a long...

Netanyahu’s Return to Power: A Prelude to Anti-American Terrorism?

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jan 10, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power in Israel has ushered in a government more dominated by religious and ultra-nationalist extremists than any ruling coalition in the country’s 74-year history. While that fact has been well-reported, most Americans are oblivious to a grim implication: The new Israeli government’s extreme policies toward Palestinians and regional rivals will imperil American lives at home and abroad. Americans aren’t jeopardized by those policies per se, but rather by the U.S. government’s unconditional military, financial and diplomatic support of Israel, which are seen as...

America’s Insolvency is Mandatory

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Dec 1, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

In October, the U.S. national debt reached $31 trillion, and the government is projected to wade another trillion dollars into the red in the 2023 fiscal year. The longer-term picture is even gloomier, with the deficit expected to double to $2 trillion by 2030. Indeed, the longer the horizon, the worse things get. At 98% of Gross Domestic Product, the current national debt is the highest it’s been since just after World War II. On its current course, the debt will soar to 185% of the country’s entire economic output by 2052. What’s particularly troubling is that the government’s 2022 $1.3...

The Public School Exodus Will Revolutionize Education

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Nov 2, 2022 | Featured Articles

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, America’s parents have shifted nearly 2 million students from public schools to alternatives that include private schools and home schooling. For public schools, that represents a loss of about 4% of their enrollment. Expect the exodus to grow larger, as the United States is undergoing a major change in philosophy regarding publicly-funded K-12 education, away from funding government-run school systems and toward funding individual students—with parents getting to choose where their children learn. In June, Arizona put itself at the leading edge...

Correcting Another Corporate Media Lie About Hero Edward Snowden

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Oct 3, 2022 | Featured Articles

When Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday, the news revived a long-simmering debate about the propriety of his revelations of U.S. government secrets. At the same time, it prompted reiterations of a widely-embraced falsehood: that Snowden “fled to Russia.” That disinformation-trafficking wasn’t limited to random people on social media. Among others, The New York Times, The Guardian, ABC, Christian Science Monitor and Canada’s CBC all asserted in the past week that Snowden “fled to Russia” in 2013 after revealing that the United...

Halfway To a New Constitutional Convention; But Is It a Good Idea?

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Sep 1, 2022 | Featured Articles

Though it’s received relatively little attention, a conservative-led drive to call a convention to consider amendments to the U.S. Constitution has been making steady progress, and is now more than halfway toward realizing its goal. At a time when Americans are increasingly polarized—to the extent that 43% think a civil war will erupt in the next decade—should you be alarmed or enthused? Article V of the Constitution provides two avenues for amendments. Under the first one, Congress proposes amendments that are enacted if three-fourths of the state legislatures approve them. That’s the way...

Concerned About the Fentanyl Crisis? Blame the Government

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Aug 1, 2022 | Featured Articles

As drug overdoses continue rising in the United States, one drug has emerged as the most notorious killer of our day: fentanyl. Unfortunately, those clamoring loudest about fentanyl’s death toll support policies that actually bolster its position in the illicit drug trade. First approved for U.S. medical use in 1968, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used to counter severe pain after surgery, and chronic severe pain. Though similar to morphine or heroin, it’s 50 to 100 times more potent. Most of the fentanyl circulating on the streets doesn’t come from pharmaceutical companies. According to the...