Kym Robinson | The Libertarian Institute

The War Films of Sam Peckinpah

by Kym Robinson | Jun 29, 2022 | Featured Articles

War movies have been popular since the early days of motion picture, often as means of propaganda to stir contemporary emotions and depict brave warriors of nation or faith locked in battle. War is a popular setting for story tellers, a stage for heroes and villains. The destruction and death is as much a prop as it can be a fellow character. Alongside the romantic war movies, some with an anti-war message emerged. In the 1960s and 70s, American film writer-director Sam Peckinpah gave us the misery of war with his own particular touch, specifically with The Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron....

‘They Took Our Guns’: A Perspective From Down Under

by Kym Robinson | Jun 20, 2022 | Featured Articles

To the rest of the world, the United States has a gun problem. Mass shootings, especially inside of schools, are national tragedies in the USA. When a non-American asks the question “Why a private citizen needs an ‘assault rifle’?" the pro-gun response is rarely helpful. Non-Americans assume it’s the “gun crazy” culture of the U.S. and to Americans, the rest of the world isn’t free because without a Second Amendment liberty is non-existent. Misunderstandings persist and innocent lives are lost while governments use tragedy and fear to grow. “Unarmed Australia” “Australian civilians now own...

The Need to Act

by Kym Robinson | May 31, 2022 | Featured Articles

It’s hard not to fall into patterns. While some routines may be for the better, habits develop because they may be easier, comfortable. After weeks, months, or perhaps decades of neglect and self destructive behavior, a cycle can develop because of these bad practices. A promise is made that they will fix and recover, improve from their circumstances and rise from the ashes, ascending to heights of utopian glory...only to return to the habits that first inspired such a declaration (though each time it will be different). Ignoring the reality of accident and injury, for the purpose of the...

Would Your Online Self Pull Over to Help a Stranger?

by Kym Robinson | May 24, 2022 | Featured Articles

It’s raining, late in the evening and you have been driving for most of the day. You want to get home. It’s cold and the pangs of hunger stir. You are on the home straight, and through the darkness and rain your beams of light illuminate the familiar. Suddenly ahead of you a car is on the side of the road, hazard lights flashing, a lone stranger is attempting to change a tire. Assuming that you know your way around a tire and you are not concerned for your safety, many of us would stop and offer assistance. Some may drive on, declaring that it’s none of their business. Assume that you do...

The Harrowing Conversations

by Kym Robinson | May 15, 2022 | Blog

I sometimes coach (MMA etc) cops and military types. They know my opinion on certain things and I am not shy about expressing them. I at times feel a hypocrisy in working with them and have even mentioned that to them. Those few I work with, are "nice" men. Easy to get along with and just regular blokes. This past Thursday I had a heavier debate with one lad, he is ex military and now a cop. He said that it is important to have a strong government to rule over others. He says that disarmed populace is good because statistically Aus has very low stranger gun deaths (this may be due to culture...

Now You Care About the Spilling of Blood?

by Kym Robinson | May 11, 2022 | Featured Articles

Actress Megan Fox recently claimed on social media that she and other Hollywood elites enjoy drinking each others blood, exciting those critical of Hollywood culture. In their minds it proves the evil, secret Pagan nature of the liberal American establishment. It's as though a sub-culture of drinking blood has never existed prior or that the symbolic drinking of blood and eating of the flesh of a body is not an already widely accepted ritual. In any case, a video of a woman boasting of her involvement in the voluntary ritual of blood drinking is upsetting to some. Drinking blood is bad. The...

‘Best of the Best’: A Karate Team of Individuals

by Kym Robinson | Apr 14, 2022 | Featured Articles

“A team from the United States is going to compete against Korea in a Tae Kwon Do tournament. The team consists of fighters from all over the country - can they overcome their rivalry and work together to win?" The 1980s gave us a wave of action movies like no other decade. The martial arts genre was especially popular, filled with montages, mullets, listenable soundtracks, and individuals overcoming the odds. They kicked ass. The 1989 film Best of the Best was a celebration of all of those things. A simple plot about the U.S. karate team forming, training, and then travelling to Korea to...

The ‘Threat’ of the Big Bad Bear

by Kym Robinson | Apr 6, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

At the height of the late Cold War period, Andrew Cockburn wrote The Threat, a book that explored the bear cave of assumed Soviet military dominance. Challenging the narrative of Soviet supremacy—the belief that the Red Bear not only had greater numbers in their favor but also technological marvels that were capable of ensuring swift victory in time of war—Cockburn exposed myths that had been invented: a perceived supremacy that helped justify NATO, the Pentagon’s spending sprees, and a military-industrial complicated nation state that continues to grow long after the Berlin Wall fell and...