Category: Libertarian Advocacy Journalism

As the US Senate considers the latest National “Defense” Authorization Act, Congress clearly intends to bestow more money, not less, on the armed forces. And this despite the end of America’s ruinous 20-year misadventure in Afghanistan. That’s not just fiscally irresponsible, it’s physically dangerous to the very people “Veterans Day” purports to honor and the peace Armistice Day was intended to celebrate.

It’s official: The company that runs Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp has a new name, Meta Platforms, Inc. The company’s focus, according to its introductory announcement, “will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.” The metaverse is a decades-old concept. Neal Stephenson coined the term in his … Continue reading The Metaverse: Gateway to Unanimous Consent and Panarchy? →

“Congress is gradually moving toward having only one bill per year,” former congressman Justin Amash (L-MI) tweeted recently. And that bill will have “everything stuffed into it, negotiated by just a few congressional leaders, completely behind closed doors, with no floor amendments permitted.”

On October 21, actor Alec Baldwin shot and killed one person (cinematographer Halyna Hutchins) and wounded another (director Joel Souza) on the set of Rust, a western film he was making in New Mexico. Reportage generally describes the shooting as an “accident,” but it wasn’t. There are two kinds of firearms discharges: Intentional and negligent. This … Continue reading Who’s Responsible for the Rust Shooting? →

Facebook “whistleblower” Frances Haugen, the Washington Post reports, has “repeatedly accused [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg of choosing growth over the public good.” The Post‘s headline puts it a slightly different way: “Growth over safety.”

You’ve seen the empty shelves at your local stores. You’ve seen the yellow “out of gas” bags at your local gas stations. You’ve seen the “limited hours” and “drive-thru only” signs at your local  fast-food restaurants. Authoritarian politicians and bureaucrats can’t fix those problems. They CAUSED those problems, and anything they do other than sitting down, shutting up, and staying out of the way will make those problems worse, not better.

Seventy-six years after the end of World War Two, governments are rounding up the last few living Nazi war criminals — nonagenarians and even centenarians who played minor roles in the Holocaust — and hauling them to court for their crimes against humanity. Eighteen years after the US invasion of Iraq, the ringleaders of THAT crime against humanity are beginning to die off,  in bed, surrounded by their loved ones, eulogized in the press as “leaders” and “statesmen.” Powell was preceded in death this year by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Per Haugen’s theory, lack of “action” by social media platforms is the cause of social ills such as violence  in Myanmar and Ethiopia. Because, as we all know, Myanmar and Ethiopia were oases of tranquility before Facebook came along and ruined everything.

Government is always a drag on an economy. Every dollar it spends — after looting it from your paycheck or borrowing it in your name — is an “investment” in making us all poorer than we’d have been if left to run our own lives. Every rule it comes up with makes it harder for us to prosper.

“Young investors have a new strategy,” National Public Radio’s Tim Mak reported on September 21:  “Watching financial disclosures of sitting members of Congress for stock tips.” Under the Stock Act, members of Congress must disclose their own stock trades, and those of their spouses, within 45 days. One member of a TikTok investor community refers … Continue reading Raise Congressional Pay — and Tax the Rich →