Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | The Libertarian Institute

How the FBI’s War on Drugs Contributed to the 9/11 Attacks

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Sep 9, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The story of 9/11 is filled with painful “what-ifs.” Among the most prominent: What if the CIA hadn’t blocked two FBI agents from alerting Bureau headquarters that a future 9/11 hijacker had obtained a multi-entry U.S. visa? What if the FBI hadn’t nixed agents’ request for a warrant to search the computer of “20th hijacker” Zacharias Moussaoui after his arrest in August 2001? What if the FBI hadn’t ignored a Phoenix agent’s July 2001 recommendation to contact aviation colleges across the country, on suspicion that Osama bin Laden was preparing extremists to “conduct terror activity against...

The War in Afghanistan Should Make You Reconsider Military Enlistment

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Sep 3, 2021 | Blog, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Though the war in Afghanistan is over, its grim history is filled with hard truths about what it really means to serve in the American military. Those truths are particularly relevant to anyone contemplating enlistment or commissioning in the armed forces. With that in mind, here’s a warning label informed by the grim lessons of Operation Enduring Freedom—the failed and futile 20-year war in Afghanistan. You Could Lose Your Life Or Limbs In a War That Accomplishes Nothing After 9/11, the U.S. government was right to lash out at Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. However, that mission was largely...

Surprised? Another Hate Crime Hoax Exposed

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Aug 30, 2021 | Featured Articles

In mid-May, news broke of a disturbing incident at Bucknell University: Outlets across the country reported that, on the eve of final exams, a mob of 15 to 20 intolerant male students had victimized the school’s LGBTQ community via an attack on a residence hall established as a “safe space” for community members. The intruders were members of a former Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity chapter that was shut down in 2019 over hazing violations. Before hosting the “Fran’s House” LGBTQ residential group, the building at the center of the disturbance was TKE’s decades-long home at Bucknell....

Government Never Had Control Over the Pandemic

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Aug 16, 2021 | Featured Articles

In the early 11th century, King Canute—while at the peak of his power—set out to demonstrate to his fawning courtiers the limited power of royal edicts. After having his throne placed by the sea’s edge, he sat down and commanded the tide to stop rising. When the water began washing over his feet, he declared, “Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings.” Nearly a thousand years later, facing a different force of nature—COVID-19—an entire global generation of presidents, prime ministers, governors, mayors, public health officials, scientists and citizens is being given the...

Revenge of the Masks

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 29, 2021 | Featured Articles

Just when the forces of rationality had seemingly established a beachhead in the public health domain, they’re back on defense again, as the CDC declares vaccinated and unvaccinated people should wear masks indoors in areas of the country experiencing high transmission, and every schoolchild should be condemned to wear a mask all day long. The moves, which come in response to surging case counts, seem to demonstrate an impulse that animates many questionable government policies: “We have to do something,” regardless of whether that something can be reasonably expected to have a material...

Leaked: How GOP Insiders Torpedoed Attempt To Add ’28 Pages’ Declassification to Party Platform

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 26, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

According to leaked emails obtained by Middle East Eye, an unnamed Republican Party figure orchestrated the defeat of a proposed 2016 GOP plank calling for the declassification of 28 pages on Saudi government links to the 9/11 plotters. That individual then notified Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort of the plank’s defeat and claimed credit for providing instructions to “our political team” to kill it. Manafort forwarded the news to Tom Barrack—Trump’s billionaire friend, surrogate and fundraiser—who notified Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United...

Paying Your “Fair Share” of the Warfare-Welfare State

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 19, 2021 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

A recurring theme in national tax debates is the idea that everyone should pay their “fair share” of taxes. While that aspiration’s validity is widely taken for granted, the stark reality is there’s no such thing as a “fair share” of federal taxes. To understand why, let’s first scrutinize what’s meant by “fair.” When paired with “share,” the most fitting definition is “reasonable, right and just.” If the United States government were limited to its only morally sound function—protecting rights, liberties and lives—perhaps one could entertain the theoretical notion of a “reasonable, right...

How Shipping Interests Have Rigged the Economic Game for a Century

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 1, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles

There’s a 101-year-old law most Americans have never heard of, one that shaves tens of billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy every year for the narrow benefit of politically-influential shipbuilders, shipyard unions and shipping lines. The Jones Act does that by essentially barring foreign vessels from transporting freight or people between two U.S. ports. Among many other ill effects, the elimination of competition drives shipping prices far above what a free market would dictate. Only 46 countries have such laws, and, according to the World Economic Forum, the United States imposes...