The NSA’s spy program failed miserably, but some spooks want to expand it The US National Security Agency spent $100 million over three years on illegally collecting millions of American phone records – all for two reports with unique counterterrorism intelligence,...
Libertarianism
Data Don’t Speak for Themselves
by Matt Knight | Feb 28, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics
Check out this graph, data for which were drawn from the USDA and CDC: With a correlation coefficient of about -0.94, these data indicate that for the decade 2000-2009 there was a strong inverse relationship between per capita consumption of beef and the number of...
TGIF: Might You Be a Libertarian?
by Sheldon Richman | Feb 28, 2020 | Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If you're like most people, you don't go around killing or assaulting others. You probably would never think of torturing, raping, kidnapping, or confining your fellow men and women. I doubt if you'd think that stealing or vandalizing their belongings would be a good...
‘I Was Just Following Orders’
by Peter R. Quiñones | Feb 18, 2020 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Op Eds, Peter Quinones, Politics
“I was just following orders” is the mantra of everyone who has found themselves on the wrong side of history - who is called into account for their actions as an order taker. How is it possible that everyone from corrupt mayors, to murderous tyrants have been able to...

Short-sighted state governments rack up $1 Trillion in liabilities
by Bradley Thomas | Feb 18, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics
As if the national debt and federal entitlement liabilities weren’t enough. Now we get word that state governments have racked up more than a trillion dollars in unfunded healthcare benefits for state government workers. That’s trillion – with a ‘T’. In a report...

Socialism in Education
by Jacob Hornberger | Feb 16, 2020 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism
It would be virtually impossible to find a better example of socialism here in the United States than the public schooling systems that exist in every U.S. state. Ironically, it is this socialist system that is primarily responsible for the widespread belief among...

Small Countries Are Better: They’re Often Richer and Safer Than Big Countries
by Ryan McMaken | Feb 13, 2020 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism
In the wake of the Brexit vote, Scottish nationalists have renewed their calls for a new referendum on Scottish independence. But many remain unconvinced, and many claim Scotland is "too small" to be an independent country. Others claim that Scotland is too poor,...
Compulsory Education – The Bane of Learning and Freedom
by Christine Smith | Feb 11, 2020 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics
Approximately 50-million students, bound by state compulsory attendance laws, are trapped in what is essentially a prison of their bodies and minds. Most Americans never question school compulsory attendance laws itself but instead focus on what occurs inside the...