Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

Fallujah Is Not a Presidential Victory Lap

by Jim Bovard | Aug 30, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

In the first 2024 Republican presidential debate last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis touted his time in Iraq. “I learned in the military, I was assigned with U.S. Navy SEALs in Iraq, that you focus on the mission above all else, you can’t get distracted,” he declared. Later in the debate he stated, “I’m somebody that volunteered to serve, inspired by September 11 and I deployed to Iraq alongside U.S. Navy SEALs in places like Fallujah, Ramadi…” Some viewers had the impression that DeSantis was a Seal, but he was actually a Harvard Law School graduate who was a Judge Advocate General...

Trusting the 9/11 Commission Is An Automatic Disqualification

by Jim Bovard | Aug 14, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

The nation’s media and political establishment were horrified the other week when a presidential candidate cast aspersions on the 9/11 Commission report. Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, in an interview on Blaze TV, responded to a question on the 9/11 attacks, “I don’t believe the government has told us the truth…Do I believe the 9/11 Commission? Absolutely not.” Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is laboring on the campaign trail while awaiting a miracle to save his candidacy, announced that he was “deeply offended” by Ramaswamy’s doubts. But was Pence ever “deeply offended” by government...

Biden’s Crazy COVID Nose Bleed Police

by Jim Bovard | Aug 7, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

Breaking News: Biden White House discovers a "nose bleed" exemption to the First Amendment! A top Biden White House staffer elbowed Facebook to intervene in private conversations anytime someone mentioned COVID vaccine side effects such as nose bleeds. House Judiciary Committee Ahairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) released another batch of subpoenaed internal documents from Facebook last week on the Joe Biden administration's COVID censorship campaign. Facebook had balked at disclosing the documents until the House Committee verged on charging Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt. The Biden...

Remember the Atrocities of the Korean War, Not the Propaganda

by Jim Bovard | Jul 27, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Today is the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting between North and South Korea. Almost 40,000 American soldiers died pointlessly in that conflict. If politicians and policymakers were honest and prudent, the Korean War would have vaccinated America against the folly and evil of foreign intervention. Instead, the war was retroactively redefined. As Barack Obama declared in 2013, “That war was no tie. Korea was a victory.” The war began with what Harry Truman claimed was a surprise invasion on June 25, 1950, by the North Korean army crossing the dividing line with South...

‘The Most Massive Attack Against Free Speech in United States History’

by Jim Bovard | Jul 10, 2023 | Featured Articles

Sometime since January 2021, Biden administration policymakers decided that they were infallible—or a “close enough for government work” level of infallible. They claimed a divine right to suppress the online posts and comments of conservatives and anyone else who had a bad attitude towards federal power. That party ended on July 4 when federal judge Terry Doughty condemned the Biden censorship regime as potentially “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” Doughty issued a preliminary injunction to ban federal agencies and the White House from browbeating...

Celebrate Fourth of July by Cussing Politicians

by Jim Bovard | Jul 3, 2023 | Featured Articles, Politics

America was founded by rowdy folks who enjoyed nothing better than applying tar and feathers to British tax collectors. For a couple centuries, Independence Day was an occasion for raising a ruckus with firecrackers and plenty of other friendly detonations. But in recent times, the Fourth of July has been downgraded to simply another opportunity for citizens to express gratitude to their political masters. We are still permitted to celebrate, but unfortunately, federal, state, and local governments routinely trample the rights that the Founding Fathers sought to make sacrosanct. The Fourth...

My 40 Year War on Reefer Madness

by Jim Bovard | Jun 26, 2023 | Featured Articles

Forty years ago this week, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner published my first attack on the federal drug war. The previous year, the Reagan administration unleashed its "Just Say No" program, vilifying anyone who smoked a joint, sniffed the wrong powder, or used non-approved hallucinogens. I was mortified to see Ronald Reagan—who was elected on a promise to get “government off your backs”—double-cross his supporters with what morphed into the most intrusive scheme in American history. Like kids everywhere in the 1970s, I laughed at the 1936 “Reefer Madness” movie in my high school health...

Daniel Ellsberg’s Courageous Work Remains Unfinished

by Jim Bovard | Jun 19, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

What if truth doesn’t win out until a million corpses too late? Daniel Ellsberg, one of the most heroic truth-tellers of our era, passed away on Friday at the age of 92. He risked life in prison to leak the Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration. Ellsberg sought to shatter the enchantment that official lies held for so many Americans. That noble cause remains a work in progress. Here is a two minute video of Ellsberg telling the story of his epic battle against the Nixon administration and warmongering government officials. Ellsberg was an antiwar icon for more than 50 years after...