Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

Politicians Will Always Be Damn Rascals

by Jim Bovard | Jun 10, 2024 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

Former President Donald Trump was recently convicted by a New York jury after prosecutors claimed he was guilty of “hoodwinking” voters in the 2016 election by paying to cover up his boinking of a beefy porn star. Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg proclaimed that Trump was guilty of taking steps with “the end of keeping information away from the electorate.” Cue the casino scene from the movie Casablanca, with the French officer lamenting that he was “shocked, shocked” to find gambling on the premises. Lying is practically the job description for politicians. Economist John Burnheim, in his...

Forced Busing: Biggest DEI Debacle in U.S. History

by Jim Bovard | May 30, 2024 | Featured Articles

President Joe Biden seeks to boost government school spending to close the achievement gap between white and black students. According to the Biden administration, disparities in student test scores justify further government intervention. But Biden ignores how previous government education decrees ravaged Americans’ freedom and domestic tranquility. In a speech earlier this month, Biden touted the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education. That decision ruled that “separate but equal” systems that intentionally segregated students by race violated the...

Biden’s Sham Snickers Salvation Shtick

by Jim Bovard | May 20, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics

In 1896, Democratic Party presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan made a famous pro-inflation speech, proclaiming "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold" (and stable prices). In 2024, President Joe Biden is campaigning for re-election by denouncing corporations for crucifying consumers on a grocery store rack of Snickers bars. According to Biden, “shrinkflation”—adjusting for inflation by selling smaller products for the same price—is a worse crime than anything his administration inflicted on the American people. And Snickers bars are Exhibit #1 of corporate perfidy in...

Psychiatry is Vexing Americans and Subverting Freedom

by Jim Bovard | May 13, 2024 | Featured Articles

Psychiatry is ruining more lives than ever before. The New York Times recently showcased psychiatric “prevalence inflation”—a vast increase in reported mental illness among teenagers because they are encouraged to view normal symptoms as grave maladies requiring intervention. Oxford University psychologist Lucy Foulkes observed that school programs are “creating this message that teenagers are vulnerable, they’re likely to have problems, and the solution is to outsource them to a professional.” In an analysis published last year in the academic journal, New Ideas in Psychology, Foulkes...

Senator Bob Graham, 9/11, and the Mirage of American Democracy

by Jim Bovard | Apr 22, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

Former Senator Bob Graham passed away on April 16 at the age of 87. Graham had been one of the most outspoken opponents of the Iraq War, but his brightest legacy was his perennial fight against the George W. Bush administration’s cover-up of the 9/11 attacks. Graham was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee when terrorists toppled the World Trade Center towers. When President Bush whipped up support for war by blaming the 9/11 attacks on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Graham recognized the scam. In October 2002, when Bush rammed a pro-war resolution (though not a formal declaration...

One Hundred Years of IRS Political Targeting

by Jim Bovard | Apr 15, 2024 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Politics

One hundred years ago, Senator James Couzens, a Michigan Republican, took to the Senate floor to denounce the Bureau of Internal Revenue for abusing its power and trampling innocent taxpayers. Couzens launched a sweeping Senate investigation of federal tax collectors. One year later, Internal Revenue Commissioner David Blair personally delivered a demand for $10 million in back taxes as Couzens stepped out of the Senate chamber. Couzens fought the case, and eventually proved that he had actually overpaid his taxes by roughly one million dollars, as David Burnham noted in his 1989 classic, A...

‘Journalists’ and the Fight to Save Freedom of Speech

by Jim Bovard | Apr 8, 2024 | Featured Articles

“What is a journalist?” is a contemporary equivalent of the ancient question, “What is truth?” The U.S. government's prosecution of Julian Assange hinges on the assertion that he is not a journalist and should be punished like a spy for a hostile country. The controversy over Assange is part of broader clashes over the meaning of journalism and freedom of the press across the United States. I recently wrangled on this topic with former top-ranked New York City radio host Brian Wilson, with whom I do a weekly podcast. In one of his Substack essays on the topic, Brian stated that "anyone...

The Great Escape from Government Schools?

by Jim Bovard | Apr 3, 2024 | Featured Articles

After enduring bullshit school shutdowns during the COVID pandemic, many students concluded that school itself must be bullshit and have skipped attending classes. Government bureaucrats are panicking since subsidies are tied to the number of students’ butts in chairs each day. Duke University Professor Katie Rosanbalm lamented that, thanks to the pandemic, “Our relationship with school became optional.” School absences have “exploded” almost everywhere, according to a New York Times report last week. Chronic absenteeism has almost doubled amongst public school students, rising from 15%...