In his 2002 letter to America justifying the savage 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (himself killed in 2011) wrote after listing his grievances against the U.S. government: You may then dispute that all the above does not justify aggression against...
Justice
TGIF: Thomas Szasz – Unappreciated Libertarian
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 19, 2024 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I maintain that mental illness is a metaphorical disease: that bodily illness stands in the same relation to mental illness as a defective television set stands to a bad television program. There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography. --Thomas...
TGIF: Why Isn’t Antifa Marching for Apple?
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 12, 2024 | Criminal Justice, Economics, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I was all ready to don a black mask for the Antifa demonstration when I realized that the self-styled antifascists hadn't planned a demonstration. What are they waiting for? After all, the national government has just started a new fascistic crusade. You'd expect the...
TGIF: Israel Humiliated
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 29, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
To more fully understand the ferocity of Israel's massacre of the people of the Gaza Strip, it's perhaps worth considering that on October 7, 2023, the reputedly invincible Israeli Defence Forces and intelligence services were made to look like fools caught sleeping...
TGIF: Leave TikTok Alone
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 22, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
This is America, last I checked. Surely, the government would not force the sale of a social-media company or ban its app from the Google and Apple stores. Would it? Well, yes, it would, could (perhaps), and might. A bill in Congress, backed by the government's...
TGIF: Reverse Scapegoating in the Immigration Debate
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 15, 2024 | Featured Articles, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
In the controversy over immigration we can spot a phenomenon I call "reverse scapegoating." According to Merriam-Webster, the scapegoat is "one that bears the blame for others." With reverse scapegoating, others bear the blame for one. Both are unjust. Reverse...
TGIF: Immigration in an Nth-Best World
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 1, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
We live in an nth-best society. It's neither fully libertarian (though libertarians disagree over exactly what that would mean) nor totalitarian like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Maoist China, or North Korea. It's somewhere in between, closer to...
Weird Defenders of the Palestinians
by Sheldon Richman | Feb 6, 2024 | Blog, Justice
Weird: the Palestinians' advocates who as a rule are unenthusiastic (to put it mildly) about private property rights.