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Are You a Precious Snowflake? Or Old Dinosaur? Understanding the Slight Cultural Differences to Lessen the Great Divide
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Douglas Herman 2017-10-05 09:29
Column by Doug Herman. Exclusive to STR Some snowflakes are directly related to old dinosaurs. Strange as it seems, some actually live under the same roof! Not sure how that is possible, what with global warming and climate change, but they do. Are YOU a snowflake? Or perhaps you’re an old dinosaur, whose extinction is long awaited by his heirs – I mean snowflake relatives. Consider...
The Question, the Answer, the Result
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Paul Hein 2017-09-29 12:59
Column by Paul Hein. Exclusive to STR It has often been pointed out that the “masses,” the “public,” obtain wealth in several ways: most usually by earning it, or, less commonly, receiving it as a gift or inheritance. For most of us, this means yielding about 40 hours of our lives weekly to obtain what we need or want. A different way of acquiring wealth is practiced by...
Releasing the Kraken of Political Power
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Lawrence Samuels 2017-09-19 08:27
Column by Lawrence Samuels. Exclusive to STR What to make of Trump? Never has someone with so little political experience offended so many with so few words. This has aggravated almost everyone, but especially those who did not even vote for him. For instance, the founder of antiwar.com in San Francisco recently remarked that after he told his left-wing friends that he had voted for Gary Johnson...
Conscription
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Paul Hein 2017-08-29 08:06
Column by Paul Hein. Exclusive to STR From time to time our Rulers, and the individuals and firms with whom they have a close financial relationship, find it necessary to threaten, or even employ, force to protect their interests and further their objectives. If the situation warrants it, they are willing to fight. Their importance precludes their doing the actual fighting themselves, but they...
The Higgs Boson Article
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Alex R. Knight III 2017-08-29 07:49
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR A very short piece by Robert Higgs, recently published on Everything Voluntary, caught my attention in a big way, and you can read it here. The key sentence therein that caught my eye was this: “Except for a tiny minority, avowals of the love of liberty are little more than hot air. Given a choice, people choose something else.” To...
Bureaucrits
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Alex R. Knight III 2017-08-24 08:40
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR It's an all-too typical condition among those calling themselves Government: Do as I say, not as I do. Most members of the public seem to be so conditioned to the notion of it that they tolerate it with almost total obliviousness. And the government apologists are even more dismissive of such callous hypocrisy. They seem to feel, at least...
Fear
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Paul Hein 2017-08-08 09:12
Column by Paul Hein. Exclusive to STR Back in the Christian era, one sometimes encountered the phrase “fear of the Lord.” The fear referred to was not so much a fear of punishment at the hands of powerful but capricious and spiteful gods, but rather a sense of awe and respect towards someone you loved, not feared. It was the “fear” that you might feel for neglecting a...
Demand and Supply
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Alex R. Knight III 2017-07-20 08:45
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR Much has been made in the press recently about former Texas Governor turned Trump's Energy Secretary Rick Perry's economic statement: "Here's a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out there and the demand will follow.” To be sure, at first assessment, this statement seems counter-intuitively inverted...
A Moral Compass
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Paul Hein 2017-07-20 08:36
Column by Paul Hein. Exclusive to STR The journey you are about to undertake requires you to travel directly South. Would a compass be helpful? Today you would use a GPS device, but its directions would be based upon some sort of internal compass. There is one situation, however, admittedly far-fetched, that would make a compass unnecessary. If you were to begin your journey from the North Pole--...
Men, Women and Automobiles
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Paul Hein 2017-06-23 09:55
Column by Paul Hein. Exclusive to STR It comes as no surprise that “mater,” (Latin for mother) forms the root for “MATERnal.” But it also forms the root for “MATERial.” That’s significant, I think, suggesting that the woman’s world is the world of stuff, of things. Men, on the other hand, live in a land of ideas, abstractions, and dreams. How nicely...
A Dollar in Peril
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Jim Davies 2008-11-02 17:00
Exclusive to STR One of the nice things about not voting is that one can enjoy a little sport at the expense of those who do. Let me share with you an example or three. A few days before November 4th, I visited a nearby town, and first called at the government postal monopoly for some stamps so that I could write to an innocent friend incarcerated in a government prison. Standing in line, I said...
Deadliest Catch: One Alaska Fisherman to Another
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Douglas Herman 2008-09-28 16:00
Exclusive to STR September 29, 2008
The Confessions of Osama Bin Laden
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Douglas Herman 2008-11-17 17:00
I confess I did not know then, but I know now, why you Americans stopped chasing me at Tora Bora in October 2001.
What's So Hard to Understand About the Right to Bear Arms?
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Wilton D. Alston 2009-02-03 17:00
Exclusive to STR February 4, 2009 'Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India , history will look upon the Act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.' ~ Mohandas Gandhi, from An Autobiography
Do You Really Want Freedom, Or Are You Just Kidding Yourself?
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Wilton D. Alston 2009-06-09 16:00
Exclusive to STR June 10, 2009 'The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.' ~ Plato 'Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to...
A New Strategy For Liberty - Part 1: An Open Letter To Ron Paul Supporters
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Stewart Browne 2009-05-17 16:00
Exclusive to STR May 18, 2009 Dear Ron Paul Supporters, Thank you. Thank you for giving your time, effort, and money to the cause of liberty. Thank you for taking a stand for what you know is right, and putting yourselves out there in favor of opinions the State would rather you didn't hold.
A New Strategy For Liberty - Part 2: Secession in Three Easy Steps
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Stewart Browne 2009-05-17 16:00
Exclusive to STR May 18, 2009 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
Objectivist Resistance to Anarchy: A Problem of Concept Formation?
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Carrie Burdzinski 2009-05-19 16:00
Exclusive to STR As a former Orthodox Objectivist who now recognizes anarchy's intrinsic coherence, I have particular interest in studying the ethical basis of anarchism. Roy A. Childs, Jr.'s "Objectivism and the State: An Open Letter to Ayn Rand" and "The Epistemological Basis of Anarchism: An Open Letter to Objectivists and Libertarians," and Nicholas Dykes' "Mrs....
Charity Never Faileth
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B.R. Merrick 2009-05-13 16:00
Exclusive to STR May 14, 2009 The title of this article comes from 1 Corinthians 13:8. I can't call myself a believer anymore, but I do believe quite strongly in the need for each of us to be charitable. I think it's good for us. I know that for me, it helps to remind me of things I tend to forget, when I think of what it is that I lack. There are plenty of people worse off than I am, or...
Functional Rights: The Elephant in the Parlor, Part II
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Scarmig 2009-06-03 16:00
Exclusive to STR June 4, 2009 Part II: Rights are' So what are rights? If there are none of these things, functionally, despite what anyone might claim, then what are they? How do they function in daily life? How are they exercised inalienably by every person everywhere that has ever existed, regardless of the government that claimed authority over them? George Potter wrote:
Do We Need a Vaccine for Hubris? MUST READ
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D. Saul Weiner 2015-02-13 09:13
Column by D. Saul Weiner. Exclusive to STR There are a lot of heated exchanges going on right now in social media related to vaccination. Many people have become convinced that parents who do not vaccinate are jeopardizing the health of others and that vaccines for children should be mandated. Politicians who are expected to run for president in 2016 are starting to weigh in on the topic and some...
'Obamacare Nightmare Edition' of Ringo's Law and the Healthcare System of Doom MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2013-10-30 08:02
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR Introduction for this 2013 Edition As I write this – October 28, 2013, more than four years after the column below was posted (here with minor edits; see the original at this link if you wish) – NBC News is reporting that the Obama administration “knew millions could not keep their health insurance" under Obamacare, and has known...
An Armed March on Washington? MUST READ
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Alex R. Knight III 2013-05-07 06:52
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR Perhaps never before have I encountered a proposal within Liberty Movement circles that has generated more controversy faster and further than Adam Kokesh’s planned July 4th march on Washington, District of Criminals, in which he states that himself and the other participants “will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to...
The Orwellian Paradigm--Killing You, For Your Own Safety MUST READ
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fmoghul 2013-04-10 08:12
Column by Faisal Moghul. Exclusive to STR Almost 30 years ago, cultural critic Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death that television’s gradual replacement of the printing press has created a dumbed-down culture driven by mindless entertainment. In this context, Postman claimed that Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World correctly foresaw our dystopian future, as opposed to George...
Frameworks, Virtual Reality and Civil Society: A Manifesto for the Doctrine of Love and Freedom MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2012-12-06 08:44
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR Perhaps I should say this paradigm shift is resuming. The healthier incoming paradigm is a modern, more accurate, better-supported, and better-understood version of one that began the shift towards a free, healthy, and prosperous world more than three centuries ago and which informed the creation of the United States itself: Classical Liberalism. - 1...
Timeline of a World-Killing Paradigm Shift MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2012-05-14 00:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR   Part 3 of "Could the Non-Aggression Principle Stop the Sixth Great Extinction?"   Part One of this series discussed the Non-Aggression principle, calling it "the libertarian half of the Golden Rule" (compassion being the other half) and describing the function of aggression in creating not only tyranny and war but also...
Terrorist Alert: Government Extremists Threaten Americans MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2012-03-26 00:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR   Question: are you more terrified by Muslim extremists, by "domestic terrorists" – or by your own government? Which group is more likely to assault you? To kill you? To unjustly imprison and even torture you?   The U.S. federal government has ALREADY:   Built and is staffing a huge gulag of concentration camps [...
The State Is a Firing Squad MUST READ
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JGVibes 2012-02-17 01:00
Column by JGVibes.   Exclusive to STR   Although the common perception of human nature is very negative, the truth is that most people who aren’t mentally ill have a very difficult time committing acts of violence. Usually it takes a sizeable payment and a fair amount of manipulation to convince someone to act violently, and even then a tremendous amount of guilt typically...
How the 1% Took America's Wealth--and How to Get It Back MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2011-12-01 01:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR  - 1 - Plundering Wealth vs Producing Wealth   In recent decades, the rich have gathered an increasing share of the total wealth in the United States. As this wealth disparity grows and especially as large numbers of the formerly middle class fall into poverty and even into homelessness, this flow of wealth from main street (from anyone not...
'Anarchy or Minarchy' Is Only Half the Question, Part 2 MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2011-04-13 03:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR  This is Part 2 of a response to a column by Wesley Messamore. Last week's Part One of this column discussed the following:   ·      Minarchy: Lighting a Match to the Fuse of Tyranny ·      Anarchy: By Itself, Yang without Yin ·      The Missing Key...
Neocons and Progressives: One Big Family of Aggressors and Central Planners, with Delusions of Grandeur Recommended
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Scott Lazarowitz 2012-04-26 00:00
Column by Scott Lazarowitz. Exclusive to STR Regarding the traditional left-right scheme and modern uses of the terms “conservative” and “liberal,” the neoconservatives are hardly conservative and the liberals and progressives are hardly liberal or progressive. Rather than viewing “left” as liberal or progressive, and “right” as conservative or...
The Great Stagecoach Robbery Recommended
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David Calderwood 2012-03-02 01:00
Column by new Root Striker David Calderwood.  Exclusive to STR  It’s Political Season and the airwaves are stuffed with Great Plans from Great Men, full of promises to Fix This and Fix That. I guess the goal is, “He who makes the Most Believable Promises Wins.”   Bah.   Does anyone else share my sense that I’m a passenger on a stagecoach that is being...
Freedom Is Not Found on Paper Recommended
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Alex R. Knight III 2012-02-14 01:00
Column by Alex R. Knight III   Exclusive to STR   One of the good folks at Gun Owners of Vermont (I like spelling that out much more than the acronym – GOVT – for what should be an obvious reason) recently sent me, along with my 2012 membership card, a piece published not long ago in a small freebie newspaper called The Shopper. It hails out of Ludlow, Vermont, and the...
A Look at the True Collectivist, Socialist and Communist Nature of Today’s Conservatives Recommended
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Scott Lazarowitz 2011-12-06 01:00
Column by Scott Lazarowitz. Exclusive to STR Many of today’s conservatives speak of traditional moral values and free-market capitalism, and say they are “against collectivism, socialism and communism.” But an examination of the actual policies they support and the way they want to implement their “values” shows that many conservatives are really the collectivist,...
Heartless Libertarians Recommended
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tzo 2011-11-03 00:00
Column by tzo. Exclusive to STR   The specter of the heartless libertarian arises when it is suggested that society could perhaps be better organized without a coercive government at its core. The proponents of this shocking scheme are dismissed as being either blatantly naïve or else accused of being calculating, soulless monsters who don’t want to be bothered with the less...
Against State-Sponsored Gay Marriage Recommended
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R. K. Blacksher 2011-06-29 00:00
Column by R.K. Blacksher. Exclusive to STR In an 1877 essay titled “Against Women’s Suffrage,” Lysander Spooner wrote, “Women are human beings, and consequently have all the natural rights that any human being can have.” These natural rights, Spooner argued, do not include the “right” to use the power of the state to engage in theft and coercion against...
Patriot Pauls and Patriot Acts, Part II of II Recommended
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tzo 2011-06-28 00:00
Column by tzo. Exclusive to STR   Part II: Get Real   Reality check: There is little I can do to change society as it is currently configured, and the Constitutionalist must come to grips with the fact that he is in an identical situation. The Voluntaryist is ridiculed for holding a position that hardly anyone understands or is aligned with, but the same may be said of the Ron Paul...
Why Experience Libertopia? An Interview with Sky Conway – Paraphrased Recommended
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Lawrence M. Ludlow 2011-04-27 03:00
Column by Lawrence M. Ludlow. Exclusive to STR In February, Sky Conway introduced Libertopia to the anarchists who gather regularly at Café Libertalia in San Diego. I decided to interview him again to explore his concept for the Libertopia weekend (October 21 to 23) a bit further. I gave up on writing a formal interview article, but the following paraphrase is an accurate depiction of what...
'Anarchy or Minarchy' Is Only Half the Question Recommended
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Glen Allport 2011-04-05 03:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR Hello Wesley,     I loved your Libertarian Dilemma: Anarchy or Minarchy? in today’s Humble Libertarian (March 22, 2011). Since founding the site, you’ve shown a knack for asking interesting questions and a willingness to consider views outside your comfort zone. In this new column, you say, among other things, that “I am...
Why Is Social Security Going Broke? Recommended
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Glen Allport 2011-03-08 04:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR - 1 -   In plain language, there is no good reason for the unfolding Social Security nightmare. Yes, the Baby Boomers are retiring, but so what? It's a big group, but this same big group has been paying into Social Security their whole adult lives. It's not like the money hasn't been set aside or anything.   Right?   - 2 -   Of course,...

 

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