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Sheldon Richman Articles

Unpleasant Times

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 31, 2020

If Ludwig von Mises were alive today he would be viewing our current predicament with alarm but not surprise. He lived through something similar about a century ago. In response to inexcusable police brutality, some outraged people who've taken to the streets have...

Regarding Seth Rogen: Some Feelings Ought to Be Hurt

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 3, 2020

When actor Seth Rogen, an atheist of Jewish heritage, announced that he no longer supports Israel -- "I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life" -- he was criticized for his apostasy. (Being an atheist does not constitute Jewish heresy, but breaking...

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

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 22, 2020

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...

TGIF: Mises, Ryle, and Me

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 10, 2020

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...

TGIF: Replace Your Divots

by Sheldon Richman | May 22, 2020

I am not, nor have I ever been, a golfer. I did golf once, just before the turn of the century, and I disliked it. Nevertheless, I live by a cardinal principle in golfer etiquette: Replace your divots. A divot, of course, is a chunk of turf that is dislodged by a golf...

TGIF: Is Self-reliance a Libertarian Ideal?

by Sheldon Richman | Apr 17, 2020

An Associated Press article published a few days ago reported on disagreements among libertarians over what, if anything, the government may properly do about the coronavirus pandemic. My purpose here is not to comment on the quotes from the various libertarians. I...

TGIF: Libertarianism in Emergencies

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 27, 2020

Libertarians have always acknowledged that emergencies -- severe extraordinary conditions of limited duration -- can justify actions that would be unacceptable under normal circumstances. This doesn't mean that all the rights-based rules disappear, only that some...

TGIF: Despite Appearances, ‘Price Gouging’ Helps People in Distress

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 20, 2020

[This article originally appeared on the American Institute for Economic Research website on September 12, 2017.] Critics of the free economy often complain that the market fails to “behave” as economic theory predicts. Hence the voluminous literature on “market...

TGIF: Democracy Can’t Fix Socialism

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 6, 2020

However you feel about democracy, it can’t fix what’s wrong with socialism. In theory, modern representative democracy -- unlike ancient Greek direct democracy -- means that people vote for so-called representatives to fill various executive and legislative...

TGIF: Might You Be a Libertarian?

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 28, 2020

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...

TGIF: The Nonintervention Principle

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 21, 2020

Anyone old enough to think about "America's" role in the world ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. For example, one ought to be able to argue firmly against U.S. intervention in other countries without feeling obliged to downplay or deny the real...

TGIF: Anti-BDS Laws Violate Our Freedom

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 14, 2020

Americans’ free-speech and other rights are being violated by state laws aimed at stifling the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement against Israel’s illegal rule of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both conquered over half a century ago....

TGIF: Trump Would Make Palestinian Subjugation Permanent

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 31, 2020

The fundamental flaw at the heart of Trump’s Palestine/Israel plan, presumptuously titled Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People, is that Trump -- like his predecessors -- believes that the Israelis are the aggrieved...

Trump Lays an Egg: The Israel/Palestine Vision

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 29, 2020

Trump's long-dreaded diktat to the Palestinians is now public. (See details here and here if you have the stomach for them.) The so-called plan of the century -- the "Vision" -- is pretty much what the early reports described, so I have little to add to what I wrote...

TGIF: Warmonger Cotton Accuses Antiwar Think Tank of Anti-Semitism

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 17, 2020

If you wonder what the post-Trump Republican Party will look like, take a glimpse at Tom Cotton, one of the US senators from Arkansas (where I live). Cotton has waged a relentless campaign for war against Iran and has supported every horror produced by the US...

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Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies; former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education; and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest books are Coming to Palestine and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other.

What Social Animal's Owe to Each Other

by Sheldon Richman

These essays, written over the past 20 years, have a single underlying theme: namely, that we human beings, as social animals, need individual freedom to fully flourish.

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Coming to Palestine