Jeffrey Wernick | The Libertarian Institute

Blame Mexico? Blame Neocons! Blame Big Pharma! Blame the USA!

by Jeffrey Wernick | Mar 23, 2023 | Blog

ABC News: If fentanyl is so deadly, why do drug dealers use it to lace illicit drugs? I have an alternative explanation. America has been fighting endless wars almost the entire century. Many have come home from these never-ending wars with injuries and pains. Doctors got them addicted. The prescriptions often expired but not the pain. So the first drug dealers who created the addictions were neoconservatives who have sent so many to wars of choice that never end and it is dubious that we are safer but it is indisputable that we are now burdened by a much heavier debt burden in addition to...

To AI, or Not to AI

by Jeffrey Wernick | Feb 23, 2023 | Featured Articles

Americans allegedly believe in justice. Our founders deemed the concept of justice as necessary for the preservation of our republic; defined as a free and just society, where preserving liberty and property was the only legitimate role of government. Consider our current system of justice, judgment by our peers. Trial by jury! Where information asymmetries should be eliminated or mitigated by the pre-trial discovery process. Where only facts are considered evidence. Where we can face our accuser, advocate on our own behalf, and explain any mitigating circumstances. And appeal, if we can...

Our System Has a Trust Deficit (And For Good Reason)

by Jeffrey Wernick | Feb 2, 2023 | Featured Articles, Politics

Trust is apparently an extremely elusive concept to implement. If you read The New York Times or Washington Post, you are told not to trust Fox News nor Newsmax nor OANN. If you listen to Fox News you are told not to trust the NYT nor WaPo nor CNN nor MSNBC. And they all seem to have derisive terminology they label each other while asserting that their label is the factual one. And that, you can trust. Democrats tell you to distrust Republicans. Republicans tell you to distrust Democrats. Republicans tell you to not trust any judge or bureaucrat nominated by Democrats nor RINOs. Democrats...

The Insanity of Political ‘Moderation’

by Jeffrey Wernick | Jan 19, 2023 | Featured Articles

I find the self-anointed gatekeepers who claim to be the sole arbiters of the truth very amusing (also pathetic). Apparently if you want to accumulate unsustainable deficits, inadequately fund liabilities, print an infinite amount of money, and engage in never-ending wars, then you are a moderate, sound, sane, reasonable, and rational person. Anyone that disputes or dissents from that position must be a dangerous radical. Just pick up and read most publications. Apparently a reasonable moderate believes government should not be constrained by how much taxes people are willing to pay, and...

Only a Virtuous People Can Sustain A Republic

by Jeffrey Wernick | Jan 10, 2023 | Featured Articles

Some claim we are a democracy. Others a constitutional republic. Many find it difficult to reconcile the differences. There are those who might agree that our rule of law is based around the Constitution, but completely disagree about how the Constitution should be construed and how we approach jurisprudence. Political economist Joseph Schumpeter has stated: “Evidently the will of the majority is the will of the majority and not the will of 'the people.' The latter is a mosaic that the former completely fails to “represent.” “The typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental...

Section 230 Is a Subsidy for Surveillance

by Jeffrey Wernick | Dec 19, 2022 | Featured Articles

The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet is a nice book title. It might even be an interesting read. But it is also false. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. He stated that the power of the Web was its universality as a permissionless, decentralized, censorship-resistant ledger. Since we are a litigious society, a legal question arose regarding whether a service provider was liable for the content it hosted on the internet. In Cubby, Inc. vs. CompuServe, Inc., the Court held that: "CompuServe has no more editorial control over such a publication [as Rumorville] than does a...

Patriots Cannot Be Nationalists

by Jeffrey Wernick | Dec 6, 2022 | Blog

I think George Orwell has explained this very well: “By 'nationalism' I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions and tens of millions of people can be confidently labeled 'good' or 'bad'...By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power.” “The...

DHS Bulletin Warns of Dangerous, Anti-Government ‘Extremists’

by Jeffrey Wernick | Dec 2, 2022 | Blog

From a DHS Bulletin dated November 30, 2022: Perceptions of government overreach continue to drive individuals to attempt to commit violence targeting government officials and law enforcement officers. In August 2022, an individual wearing body armor and armed with a firearm and a nail gun attempted to forcibly enter the Cincinnati, Ohio Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). When uniformed officers responded, the individual fled the scene, resulting in a pursuit and eventual shots fired by responding officers. In the days preceding the attack, the individual called on...

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