Sheldon Richman | The Libertarian Institute

To Annex or Not to Annex — Is the Question Moot?

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 22, 2020 | Featured Articles, Justice, Sheldon Richman

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains under a cloud of personal corruption, had more or less promised to annex some of the West Bank in July. He's let his deadline slip, we've been told, because he doesn't want to proceed while his buddy Trump is preoccupied with other matters. He must need the cover, which is interesting in itself. Meanwhile leading Jewish Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer are uneasy with annexation talk, perhaps because his party is no longer solidly in Israel's corner. So who can say when and if a formal annexation will occur? I prefer to ask: does it...

Free Speech Is Sadly Controversial

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 10, 2020 | Blog

In the topsy-turvy world we live in, this otherwise unremarkable letter calling for respect for free speech, published in Harper's and signed by 153 writers, etc., has set off a nasty firestorm of statist-left criticism. It seems that some people are so insecure about what they think and who they are that they cannot tolerate a world in which others are free to say and write what they like. The hell with that. I'll take John Stuart Mill.

TGIF: Mises, Ryle, and Me

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 10, 2020 | Sheldon Richman, TGIF

In 1949, the first year of Harry S. Truman's only elective presidential term, three things happened that were of huge importance ... at least to me. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) published Human Action. Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) published The Concept of Mind. And, oh yeah, I was born. The connection here is that Mises's and Ryle's books are two of the most influential things I have ever read. What's also interesting is what else the books have in common. Human Action sets out the logical structure of all purposeful action as well as its socioeconomic implications. Mises called the study of...

There’s Independence and There’s Independence

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 3, 2020 | Blog, Libertarianism

Happy Independence Day, although I prefer immanent to vicarious independence.

It’s Beginning to Make Sense

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 3, 2020 | Blog, Foreign Policy

So now, if Trump says he's going to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, he'll be accused of turning tail before the Russians. I wonder if there's a connection,

Regarding the Latest in Russophobia

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 3, 2020 | Blog, Foreign Policy

I might believe the latest Russia story (about bounties for American scalps in Afghanistan) when I see a headline like this: Russian Fiscal Conservatives Blast Putin for Paying for What He's Already Getting for Free

Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga.

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 17, 2020 | Blog, Libertarianism

This week the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., ruled 6-4 that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans workplace discrimination on the basis of various categories (race, religion, color, sex, etc.), by implication also covers discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (i.e., homosexual and transgender persons). The case was really two cases, one involving the county government, the other a private company. The ruling has brought the usual conservative gnashing of teeth about unelected justices' making law rather than doing their proper job, interpreting...

When “Defund the Police” Will Turn Serious

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 11, 2020 | Blog, Economics, Justice, Libertarianism

Defunding the police is only a small part of only one side of the equation. All anti-vice laws must be erased, and the people, individually and in voluntary combination, must be freed -- including freed from taxation -- to see to their own security, their own education, their own health care, their own this, their own that, and their own the other. When that stuff enters the discussion, it will have gotten serious.