Thomas E. Woods, Jr. | The Libertarian Institute

Neocon Control is Slipping Away

by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. | Apr 23, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Quite a bizarre sight in the U.S. House the other day: Hundreds of Democrats waved the Ukrainian flag and chanted the name of a foreign nation as they voted to send still another enormous "aid package" to anyone on earth other than Americans. Now I expect this kind of behavior from Democrats, because they are enemies of civilization and because they think nothing of looting productive Americans. The smarter and more decent Republicans know better, though the America Last Romney wing is still dominant in Congress. But as the Democrats continue to morph into the war and intervention and CIA...

Hi, folks. Tom Woods here.

by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. | Dec 6, 2022 | Blog

Listeners of “The Tom Woods” show know I celebrated my 2000th episode last year with a live event in Orlando, Florida. My special surprise guest was the one and only Libertarian Institute Director Scott Horton. Scott entertained my audience with some original comedy, led a rival team against mine in “Family Feud” and all around helped make my event fun and memorable. In addition to being a great friend and good sport, Scott has been my foreign policy expert for years. His knowledge is encyclopedic, his research is tenacious and his analysis is always grounded in libertarian values and...

An Open Letter to the Person Who Gave Me COVID

by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. | Aug 10, 2021 | Featured Articles

To the Person Who Gave Me the Virus: I have no idea who you are, but our paths almost surely crossed last month in Las Vegas. Even now I wouldn't change a thing about that trip, by the way, which was a blast. The existence of the virus, it's true, made my life a fraction of one percent more dangerous than it was before. But since I don't have any mental disorders, I hadn't calibrated my risk tolerance so precisely that such a tiny change would make me radically alter my life. Naturally if you knew you were sick, you should have stayed home. Of all the advice they've given—mask wearing,...

The Jefferson Nobody Knows

by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. | Apr 28, 2017 | Featured Articles, Politics

Following up on his successful and highly regarded James Madison and the Making of America (St. Martin’s, 2012), Kevin Gutzman has returned with a fresh look at Jefferson in Thomas Jefferson, Revolutionary: A Radical’s Struggle to Remake America. It could well have been called The Jefferson Nobody Knows. Jefferson, Gutzman reminds us, had such a fertile mind that he would devote himself to the study of a subject and become the leading figure of his day in that area. Architecture may be the most obvious example — at the time of the bicentennial, the American Institute of Architects declared...

Cato VP: Ron Paul Represented a “Hideous Corruption of Libertarian Ideas”

by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. | Apr 25, 2017 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

Today’s Tom Woods Letter, which all the influential people receive every weekday. Be one of them. “Ron Paul’s xenophobia was a hideous corruption of libertarian ideas.” What kind of person says something so detached from reality? Why, Brink Lindsey, Vice President of research at the Cato Institute. (Before I go on, let’s dispense with this objection: “Woods, you purist, why are you attacking fellow libertarians?” There are many possible answers to that question. But my response is: before you criticize me for defending Ron Paul, please forward me the letter of outrage you sent to Brink...