This clever video juxtaposes footage of Bernie Sanders and the late Milton Friedman to create a debate over whether the central government should take over medical care in America. Sanders condemns as a "national disgrace" the lack of a medical care guarantee for all...
natural rights
The Meaning of Inalienable
by Jeffrey Wernick | Oct 18, 2022 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism
This article was originally published on June 17, 2021. Biden expressed the uniqueness of America, the idea of America: “You heard me say this before, again and again. I’m going to keep saying it. What’s that idea. We don’t derive our rights from the government. We...
TGIF: Social Order through Liberty
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 15, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Human beings are self-actualizing social animals. We need to cooperate with others to flourish fully and (but?) we also need the freedom to make of ourselves the persons we wish to be; we need autonomy. Can we do both liberty and social order? The answer is yes, and...
TGIF: Abortion Rights v. Abortion Permissions
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 1, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Even if you cringe at last week's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, it would be wrong to say that the five Supreme Court justices took away women's right to have abortions. I say this because the Supreme Court, unfortunately, never actually recognized a...
Two Under-Appreciated Contributions of the Catholic Church – Thomas E. Woods Jr., Ph.D.
by Keith Knight | Feb 6, 2022 | Don't Tread on Anyone
https://youtu.be/6-5-bOGeYUc Locke may have been and indeed was an ardent Protestant, but he was also a Protestant scholastic, heavily influenced by the founder of Protestant scholasticism, the Dutchman Hugo Grotius, who in turn was heavily influenced by the late...
TGIF: Disagreement without Conflict
by Sheldon Richman | Feb 4, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I'll admit it: I'm a natural-rights guy. I think you can get to individual rights, including the right to property, from within the ancient Greek eudaimonist (virtue ethics) and Spinozist tradition. But here's a separate point: rights-talk may not be the best way to...
Complying with Mandates
by Sheldon Richman | Sep 6, 2020 | Blog, Libertarianism
It's utterly conceivable that the government might mandate that we do (or not do) what we already ought (or ought not) to do, seeing as how social animals owe things to each other. In such cases, refusing to engage (or abstaining from engaging) in the mandated (or...
Who’s Sick of the ‘Zombie Reply?’
by Peter R. Quiñones | Aug 10, 2020 | Blog
On the day Hugh Hefner died I posted a picture on Twitter with a quote in which he puts forth the idea that we own our minds and bodies, and for church or state to attempt to limit that, is inappropriate. A random Tweeter deduced from the comment that if “his own mind...
Israel Demolishes Newly Built Houses of Palestinian Families on New Year’s Day
by Scott Horton | Jan 2, 2020 | Blog
Universal individual natural rights? Consent of the governed? No. In Palestine power simply flows from the barrel of a gun.
Year Zero: The Red Pill Era
by Tommy Salmons | Oct 15, 2019 | Blog, Year Zero
In Episode 72 Tommy takes a deep dive into the modern politic of America. The conservative elements of society have coopted the term red pill in an effort to propagandize the public into their idea of order and justice while coopting the progressive idea that...
Why Anarchy
by Tommy Salmons | Jul 25, 2019 | Blog
In Episode 55 Tommy looks back at his path to the philosophy of anarchy. Tommy started off his journey as a constitutional conservative that put strong influence on natural rights. As he began to study he soon realized that his belief system was not just incomplete...
Israel’s UN Ambassador Waves a Bible at the Security Council
by Scott Horton | May 3, 2019 | Blog
You see, there is no way for the Israelis to justify stealing property from Palestinian human beings with natural rights without being forced to retreat to mysticism and pretended super-natural rights that supersede them. But even if that wasn't absolutely ridiculous,...
Property Rights: The Individual Over the State
by Jonathan Wright | Oct 3, 2018 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism
Philosophers have often made the claim that individuals have a natural right to property. For example, John Locke wrote: “Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to...
The Logical Flaw in Immigration Law
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 20, 2018 | Blog, Justice, Libertarianism
Apart from the obvious rights violation, I see a serious flaw at the very root of immigration law. Let's begin with an indisputable point: no law passed by Congress and signed by a president applies to people on the far side of a US border. Logically, that must...
Blog
My Testimony Before the Maine State Senate
In support of Ld 1054, Defend the Guard legislation: Thank you all so much for the opportunity to testify before your committee today. Today is the 20th anniversary of the beginning of Iraq War II. The consensus now is that we should not have done it. Iraq was not...
These Iraq War Supporters Are Still in Congress
On March 19, 2003 the United States began its military invasion of Iraq. The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq passed Congress in October 2002, with 296 congressmen and 77 senators voting in favor of giving President George W. Bush carte blanche...
Laci Green is Wrong: Democratic Competition vs. Free Market Competition
In environments where there's a lot of competition, people tend to lie out their ass and you can apply this to any competitive situation. Take capitalism. As industrialization took full effect, the Federal Government had to interfere because there was so much false...
Empower the Workers: Decriminalize Economic Activity Between Consenting Adults
The most reliable and effective protection for most workers is provided by the existence of many employers. As we have seen, a person who has only one possible employer has little or no protection. The employers who protect a worker are those who would like to hire...
Chris Rock’s New Special Exposes His Political Ignorance
A common claim among Democrats is that, "It's not that people don't want to be educated, they just haven't been given the opportunity, thus government spending on education needs to increase." If there were ever a group of people capable of "educating" themselves it...
War and Delusion: A Critical Examination
In this episode of the Protestant Libertarian Podcast, Alex Bernardo sits down once again with Laurie Calhoun. Laurie is a philosopher, a cultural critic and an author. She is a senior fellow at the Libertarian Institute, where she regularly writes articles analyzing...
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