https://youtu.be/BfV-OwA-_S4 ... the Constitution has proved to be an instrument for ratifying the expansion of State power rather than the opposite. ... any written limits that leave it to government to interpret its own powers are bound to be interpreted as sanctions for expanding and not binding those powers. In a profound sense, the idea of binding down power with the chains of a written constitution has proved to be a noble experiment that failed. ...The libertarian system would meet this problem by scrapping the entire notion of creating a government — an institution with a coercive...
Lysander Spooner
Progressivism is Unequal & Conservatism is Uncivilized. Olivia Rondeau & Keith Knight
https://youtu.be/O8TGGQ5f-9Q In the jungle, some gain only at the expense of others. On the market, everyone gains. It is the market — the contractual society that wrests order out of chaos, that subdues nature and eradicates the jungle, that permits the “weak” to live productively, or out of gift s from production, in a regal style compared to the life of the “strong” in the jungle. Murray N. Rothbard Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, pp. 1325–26 Olivia Rondeau is the Hazlitt Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education. Find her videos, articles, and social media here....
How Capitalist Abolitionists Fought Slavery
https://youtu.be/tnddZVnXggk ... if we could push the button for instantaneous abolition of unjust invasions of liberty, would we do it? If we would not do it, we could scarcely call ourselves Libertarians. ... The genuine Libertarian, then, is, in all senses of the word, an “abolitionist”; he would, if he could, abolish instantaneously all invasions of liberty, whether it be, in the original coining of the term, slavery, or whether it be the manifold other instances of State oppression. Murray N. Rothbard Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, pp. 242–43 The 1619 Project: A Critique:...
The Real Magna Carta Ep. 58 [Liberty Weekly Throwback]
In 2018, when this episode was first published, the Liberty Weekly Podcast did not have a quarter of the following it now enjoys. There are a great deal of evergreen episodes from the early days of the podcast that did not get the listens I wish they did. Because I am completely gassed from moving this weekend, I thought I would publish one of them to see how it does with a larger audience. I hope you enjoy and thank you for listening to Liberty Weekly. In this scholarly episode of the Liberty Weekly Podcast, I compare Lysander Spooner's interpretation of the Magna Carta to the modern...
Episode 520: Lysander Spooner’s ‘No Treason’ Examined w/ Legalman
66 Minutes PG-13 "Legalman" has been a lawyer for over 30 years and is the host of The Quash podcast. Pete invited Legalman to come back on the show to go over the Lysander Spooner classic, "No Treason." They read chunks of text and comment on the brilliance of a man who truly understood that government has no authority. No Treason The Quash Podcast Legalman on Twitter Get Autonomy 19 Skills PDF Download The Monopoly On Violence Pete's Patreon Pete's Substack Pete's Paypal Pete's Books on Amazon Pete's Books Available for Crypto Pete on Facebook Pete on...
‘But If We Just Kept The Articles of Confederation…’
When someone brings up the quote by Lysander Spooner, “But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist," very often they are met with the retort, "the Articles of Confederation had sufficient protections and should have been kept." While anyone who has read the AOC would agree that individual and local/state liberty was greater under its existence (for less than half the population but the Constitution did nothing to...
No Treason – Book Summary and Analysis. Pete Quinones and Keith Knight.
https://youtu.be/1rWiaHiL8Gw ... my basic motivation for being a libertarian had never been economic but moral. ... While I was convinced that the free market was more efficient and would bring about a far more prosperous world than statism, my major concern was moral: the insight that coercion and aggression of one man over another was criminal and iniquitous, and must be combatted and abolished. Murray N. Rothbard - Betrayal of the American Right, pp. 73–74 Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) is the American individualist anarchist and legal theorist known mainly for setting up a...
TGIF: Birthright Citizenship – Just and Justified
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." So says section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. With the impeccable timing we’re accustomed to, Donald Trump says he will sign an executive order to nullify this constitutional provision by denying citizenship (which today includes the right to make a living among other important things) to persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof if their parents were in the country...
What is Law?
Chapter I of Lysander Spooner's, The Unconstitutionality of Slavery [1860]. Before examining the language of the Constitution, in regard to Slavery, let us obtain a view of the principles, by virtue of which law arises out of those constitutions and compacts, by which people agree to establish government. To do this it is necessary to define the term law. Popular opinions are very loose and indefinite, both as to the true definition of law, and also as to the principle, by virtue of which law results from the compacts or contracts of mankind with each other. What then is Law? That...
The US Postal Service is Dying. Let it.
Like most monopolies, the US Postal Service isn’t interested in changing its business model. An enterprise hemorrhaging cash in a free market would cut prices, improve service, look for new revenue streams, or simply close its doors. The USPS solution, as usual, is to raise prices and hope for the best. Alternative proposal: Let’s put it out of its misery. The Service posted losses of $562 million in the first quarter of 2017, the Associated Press reports. This year will likely bring the Service’s sixth straight annual operating loss. While its package delivery revenues have grown, the...