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Sheldon Richman Articles

TGIF: Assertions versus Facts

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 17, 2017

CNN is running a house commercial that on its face is a plea for respect for demonstrable facts. "This is an apple," a voice says over an image of a bright red apple. "Some people might try to tell you that it's a banana. They might scream, "Banana, banana, banana,"...

TGIF: Real Common Sense on Gun Control

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 9, 2017

Here's how to judge the pragmatic case for gun control: if the pro-control lobby managed to have each of its favorite restrictions enacted, could we as individuals be more casual about our safety than we are today? The answer clearly is no. So what's the point of the...

TGIF: Quit Worrying about the Russians in Our Borderless World

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 3, 2017

Is American society so fragile that a few "divisive" ads, news stories, commentaries, and even lies -- perhaps emanating from Russia -- threaten to plunge it into darkness? The establishment's narrative on "Russian election meddling" would have you believe that. On...

TGIF: New York Times Acknowledges US Global Empire

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 27, 2017

One big advantage the war party has is the public's ignorance about the activities of the far-flung American empire. Although frustrating, that ignorance is easy to understand and has been explained countless times by writers in the public choice tradition. Most...

TGIF: Dying for the Empire Is Not Heroic

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 20, 2017

Predictably, the news media spent most of the week examining words Donald Trump may or may not have spoken to the widow of an American soldier killed in Niger, in northwest Africa, in early October. Not only was this coverage tedious, it was largely pointless. We know...

TGIF: Is Secession by Referendum Libertarian?

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 13, 2017

I have concerns about secession by referendum. Individual secession, of course, is no problem; that's simply libertarianism. Before I get into my reasons, let me stipulate that smaller political jurisdictions are on net preferable to larger ones if for no other reason...

TGIF: Overcoming Confirmation Bias on Guns

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 6, 2017

Confirmation bias is one of the great obstacles to making the practical case for liberty. People see in events what they want to see. I think of the joke about the person who planned to take his hyperactive dog on a train trip and asked his veterinarian for a...

TGIF: Flags, Football, and Begged Questions

by Sheldon Richman | Sep 29, 2017

Defenders of Donald Trump's condemnation of NFL players who "take a knee" during the national hymn -- sorry, anthem -- beg a few questions. They assume the truth of matters that are or should be in dispute. So, not so fast, Trump defenders. You have work to do. The...

TGIF: Trump’s Americanized Fascism

by Sheldon Richman | Sep 22, 2017

Donald Trump delivered a depraved address to the UN General Assembly this week. It might not have been a new low for Trump, but that's only because he went into the UN at an appallingly low level. The address had some obviously egregious parts, most especially Trump's...

TGIF: The American Führerprinzip

by Sheldon Richman | Sep 15, 2017

Why is the president of the United States expected to rush to a weather disaster zone to reassure the victims? Why do distressed people want to be comforted by the president, any president? Commenting on Donald Trump's visit to hurricane-stricken Florida, Julie Pace...

TGIF: The Liberal Spirit and Its Opposite, Alt-Rightism

by Sheldon Richman | Sep 1, 2017

How ridiculous it is for Matt Lewis of The Daily Beast to write, "It seems observably true that libertarianism is disproportionately a gateway drug to the alt-right." To say the libertarian movement is a "gateway drug" is to say more than that some prominent members...

TGIF: Operation CYA – Afghanistan

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 25, 2017

Steve Bannon's Breitbart and others notwithstanding, that was Trump being Trump when he announced he would not be quitting Afghanistan, despite the manifest futility and counterproductivity -- that is, idiocy -- of America's 16-year war there. He is not a captive of...

TGIF: Tribalism and Economic Nationalism – Cut from the Same Cloth

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 18, 2017

I have no idea what goes on in Donald Trump's head, but I can imagine a connection between his refusal to renounce the support of alt-right white identitarians and his rejection of globalism -- that is, the freedom of people to trade across national boundaries and to...

TGIF: Trump’s “Fire and Fury” Wouldn’t Be the First for North Korea

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 11, 2017

Leave it to Donald Trump to threaten to rain "fire and fury" on the North Korean people the same week the world observed the 72nd anniversary of the U.S. government's vindictive atomic bombings of Japanese civilians. In case anyone missed the message, Defense...

TGIF: Immigration and Social Engineering

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 4, 2017

Immigration brings out the social engineers and central planners across the political establishment. We see this clearly in the debate over Donald Trump's support for legislation that would cut legal immigration in half while tilting it toward well-educated...

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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