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Thursday, June 22

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Robert Taylor is the guest editor today.

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photo courtesy of Trey Ratcliff
Ron Paul Interviews Snowden On 'The Rise Of The Deep State'
Original article In a discussion with Edward Snowden, Ron Paul and the former NSA contractor trace the genesis of the so-called Deep State, and discuss how the US intelligence community uses covert programs like those exposed by Snowden in 2013 to trample individual freedoms.
Trump’s Love Affair With the Saudis
Original article Not that anyone in a position of power seems to notice, but there’s a simple rule for American military involvement in the Greater Middle East: once the U.S. gets in, no matter the country, it never truly gets out again.
Jeff Sessions's Reefer Madness
Original article Jeff Sessions's war against marijuana legalization will do nothing to fight crime or improve health.  
American Influence Does Not Depend on Intervention
Original article Some 16 years on, the Middle East is on fire; dangerous power vacuums abound; American safety has not been enhanced; our civil liberties have been undermined; and this litany of failures has been accomplished at enormous expense.
Character and Liberty: A Relationship We Must Always Remember
Original article “No people who lost their character kept their liberties."
Our Rush to War in Syria
Original article Here is yet another crisis that has been caused and ratcheted up by our alleged “allies,” who have succeeded in getting the US to front for their interests. As for American interests, they don’t come into the equation. So much for “America first.”  
Jean-Baptiste Say and the 'Law of Markets'
Original article Whatever economic freedom we enjoy in the world today is due, to a great extent, to the ideas and efforts of the classical liberals and economists of the first half of the nineteenth century. Inspired by the eighteenth-century writings of the French Physiocrats and Scottish Moral Philosophers (for example, David Hume and Adam Smith), they forcefully and insightfully demonstrated the errors and inefficiencies in Mercantilism (the eighteenth-century system of government planning and regulation).
Playing Offense: Defeating the Assault on Free Speech
Original article We live in times of hypersensitivity. One way in which collectivism acts against individual freedom is by declaring morally reprehensible—and oftentimes prohibiting—what is deemed “offensive.” The expression “political correctness” has come to define this assault on free speech that hides behind the mask of respect for the sensibilities of others.
Putin: U.S. Routinely Meddles in Russian and Other Nations’ Elections
Original article Putin described the current accusations against Russia, by the U.S. government, as a deceitful and fictitious tat, which ignores the very real and longstanding American tit, of CIA and other U.S., meddling in the electoral processes of foreign countries.    
Trump Revives Failed U.S. Theory That Cubans Will Be Best Helped by Harming Americans (and Cubans)
Original article The president rolls back some of Obama's "completely one-sided deal with Cuba," reasserts that America will be a champion of liberty in "our hemisphere."  
The U.S. Economy is a Perverted, Neo-Feudal, Rent-Seeking Abomination
Original article Corporate bailouts and the government’s emphasis on obsessively rescuing some of the most degenerate people in our society shows how completely rigged and sleazy the U.S. economy really is. As you might expect, it only got worse under Obama’s oligarch-coddling policies and will surely continue to deteriorate under Trump (Goldman Sachs is not your friend).
Execution by Firing Squad: The Militarized Police State Opens Fire
Original article Legally owning a gun in America could get you killed by a government agent.
Must Every Tragedy Be Politicized?
Original article Ideally in moments like this we should be silent, honour the memory of those who died, and simply be human. But the acrobatic building of a narrative by which whatever bad happens in this world is due to "neoliberalism" doesn't stop for anything, death included. 
Brain Hacking
Original article Now I understand (somewhat) why so many people are anxious today.  (video clip, Editor's pick)
The Kim Jong Un Romper
Original article Another victory for the market!  (Editor's pick)
Born
Original article Song by Over The Rhine.  (Editor's pick)
STR Blog
Original article
Freedom Is Not Found on Paper Recommended
9.2
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...
Striking the Root of Religious Extremism
0
Robert L. Johnson 2012-02-14 01:00
Column by Robert Johnson. Exclusive to STR  We are all appalled and disgusted when we hear about Islamic courts sentencing people to be whipped or beheaded for blasphemy against Islam or Mohammed.   We wonder how injustices can be justified by their perpetrators when we see images of Muslims being forced from their homes by Israeli settlers or hear Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu...
Should Anarchists Be Tolerated?
8
Paul Bonneau 2012-02-10 01:00
Column by Paul Bonneau. Exclusive to STR  I had earlier addressed the question of tolerance of anarchists, in this article. At some point, it occurred to me to actually ask the question. After all, we have these wonderful forum tools that include polls!   I went to my favorite gun forum, one I recommend, by the way, Oleg Volk’s Gun Rights Media. On a sub-board called “Ethics...
Is Money and Politics the New Church and State?
0
JGVibes 2012-02-10 01:00
Column by new Root Striker JGVibes. Exclusive to STR One of the main battles of the Enlightenment was the fight to separate the church from the state. After centuries of inquisitions and religious wars, people had grown sick and tired of the church and the state conspiring together to create empires. The churches were the newsrooms of the Middle Ages, and these ministries of propaganda...
An Enduring Institution, and Democracy!
0
Paul Hein 2012-02-08 01:00
Column by Paul Hein.   Exclusive to STR   Some might jump to the conclusion that the world’s oldest enduring institution is prostitution, and they wouldn’t be far wrong. But in fact, the holder of the title is not prostitution, but slavery. Not only is it alive and well, but thriving.   We’ve dealt with the subject of slavery before, but what made me think of it...
A Very Short Q&A on Money, Banking and the Great Recession
9
Jakub Bozydar W... 2012-02-07 01:00
Column by Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski.   Exclusive to STR   Q: Why do states and their clients in the banking sector demand control of the money supply? A: Because it allows them to: 1. Engage in the inflationary redistribution (taxation without legislation) of the purchasing power of money in their own direction. 2. Monetize (inflate away) their debts. 3. Create credit out of thin air and...
To Govern and Enslave
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Jim Davies 2012-02-07 01:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR  Given the axiom of self-ownership, there's very little difference between those two verbs. To govern someone is to override his own wishes; he wants to do X, but government commands him to do Y. Likewise, to enslave someone is to override his own plans; he wants to be an Econ Professor and columnist, but the slave-owner commands him to pick cotton, and...
Rule by Children
10
Bob Wallace 2012-02-06 01:00
Column by Bob Wallace.   Exclusive to STR   Of the current crop of Republican presidential candidates, all of them, except for Ron Paul, are whores and puppets for international bankers and international corporations (I call them Cosmodemonic Transnational Megacorporations). And Paul doesn’t stand a chance, because he is an adult. It doesn't matter if Obama is re-elected, or...
Panarchy, Subsidiarity and Me
10
Paul Bonneau 2012-02-06 01:00
Column by Paul Bonneau. Exclusive to STR  When I first started writing on this subject (see here, here, and here), I was mostly shooting in the dark. Subsequent reading has yet again proven the old saying, from Ecclesiastes, that there is nothing new under the sun; that what I wrote has been thought of before. This article will attempt to collect and connect these themes.   The first...
1492
9
Jim Davies 2012-01-30 01:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR It's a bit difficult to compress a big slice of human history into a few hundred words, so if I omit some of your favorite details, I hope you'll forgive me.   I pick 1492 as being the pivotal year in that immense saga. One could of course choose from other good candidates: 50,000 years ago when mankind migrated out of Africa to populate the rest of the...
The Little Issues
9
Paul Hein 2012-11-05 01:00
Column by Paul Hein. Exclusive to STR Although I have little interest in politics--except as outstanding examples of the madness of crowds--there was no avoiding them during the final days of the 2012 electoral campaigns. There seem to be two predominant campaign types. There are the well-known negative campaign ads, in which candidate A points out the utterly baseless character, lack of...
Why I Did Not Create a Vermont Secession Request
9
Alex R. Knight III 2012-11-14 07:57
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR At the time of this writing, people from 48 of the 50 tax farms comprising the “United States of America” have created “We the People” web-based petition pages to the White House in Washington, District of Criminals, requesting Obama to peacefully allow their tax farm of residence to have a government entirely independent of...
What a Century!
9
Jim Davies 2012-12-19 08:54
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR It was the best and the worst century in human history, and it ends this month. The previous one closed in 1912, a year best remembered for the sinking of the Titanic--a story that has been skillfully tuned to incite distrust of business and reliance on governments. It's a fable, which I demolish here. But the fable served as a prélude to what...
I'm a Liberal, You Dirty Radical!
9
Alex R. Knight III 2013-01-09 08:49
Column by Alex R. Knight III Exclusive to STR I’d like to share a little something here with you, a recent e-mail exchange I had with a now-former Facebook “friend” of a few years. This individual will remain unnamed here, though I will provide some details. This person is a not untalented filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. He has published an autobiography of some...
A Deal With Government
9
Jim Davies 2013-01-09 09:04
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR World history was radically changed, in the small Turkish town presently known as Iznik. It affected a vast range of human activities during the last 17 centuries; it housed an event more significant than Rome itself with its claim to dominate Christendom, than Paris with its thousand years of prominence in trade and culture, than Florence or Venice with...
You Say You Want a Revolution?
9
tzo 2013-02-12 08:55
Column by tzo. Exclusive to STR Logical Consistency Warning: Severe mental discomfort may result from any serious consideration of the comparison made in the following essay. Please disregard said comparison as ridiculous in order to restore previous state of mental tranquility. Here is a familiar passage that any self-respecting Patriot recognizes and supports: ". . . that whenever any...
Government, a Force of Nature
9
Paul Bonneau 2013-02-21 06:56
Column by Paul Bonneau. Exclusive to STR When I go outside this time of year, I get cold. I compensate by getting a coat on, and then go about my business. This is the standard way of dealing with forces of nature. I don’t spend a lot of time lying in bed wishing it weren’t cold. I have better things to do with my time. Why is government any different? Government is just a gang of...
The Smilers Among You
9
Alex R. Knight III 2013-03-05 08:43
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR I don’t know why you do it, any of you, when I talk about or discuss the fundamental issues. It is entirely inappropriate, absolutely irrational. Yet you continue to do it, almost every time. The smiles. The grins. The amused looks – sometimes even outright laughter. It puzzles me, and it frustrates me. I’ll even admit, it upsets...
Hold It, Holder
9
Jim Davies 2013-03-12 07:49
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR The great danger of criticizing specific things government does or says or fails to do or say is that readers can reasonably infer that if the opposite were done or said, all would be well. In other words, they can infer that the author envisages the possibility of a satisfactory government. I do not, ever, anywhere; for by definition (of “govern...
Do We Owe Gratitude to American Veterans For Having Fought in Iraq?
9
Robert L. Johnson 2013-03-22 05:56
Column by Robert L. Johnson. Exclusive to STR U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S. war against Iraq by saying, “Every one of the more than one million service members that deployed to Iraq, often for multiple tours of duty, deserves our highest praise and deepest debt of gratitude.” Is Hagel correct? Do the American people owe the veterans of...
Do We Need a Vaccine for Hubris? MUST READ
10
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
10
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
9.625
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
10
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
0
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
9
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
10
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
9.25
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
9.5
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...
Chaos Gets a Bad Rap: Importance of Chaology to Liberty Recommended
9.75
Lawrence Samuels 2015-02-18 08:43
Column by L.K. Samuels. Exclusive to STR Chaos gets a bad rap—from the academic and scientific world, even from some uninformed libertarians. Few people realize that without the dynamics of chaos, order would not exist. In fact, nothing would exist. Without chaos there would be no creation, no structure and no existence. After all, order is merely the repetition of patterns; chaos is the...
An Apostate From the Government Religion Recommended
9.66667
Paul Bonneau 2013-10-23 08:00
Column by Paul Bonneau. Exclusive to STR I was reading an article about Roger Williams. The more I learn about him, the more impressed I become. "Roger Williams was not a man out of time. He belonged to the 17th Century and to Puritans in that century. Yet he was also one of the most remarkable men of his or any century. With absolute faith in the literal truth of the Bible and in his...
Murray's Missing Plan Recommended
9.66667
Jim Davies 2013-10-07 08:37
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR I've been continuing to read the fascinating story of the modern libertarian movement's early years, as told in the Libertarian Forum, edited and often written by Murray Rothbard. It's vast, but very worthwhile – warmly recommended. I've supplemented it recently with a re-read of parts of Justin Raimondo's excellent biography of him...
Left-Libertarians and the Ring of Power Recommended
9.5
Glen Allport 2013-10-01 08:32
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR Whoever cannot hit the nail on the head should please, not hit it at all. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche Image of The Ring of Power from Wikimedia Commons – 1 – If I had the Ring of Power, I would only use it for GOOD!   Recently, I was reminded that to at least some extent, left-leaning libertarians and anarchists do not understand that...
Government Denial Recommended
10
Alex R. Knight III 2013-07-31 08:31
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR During my years as a practicing alcoholic, I employed any number of tactics to avoid the ultimately invariable conclusion that in order to solve my numerous problems, I needed to stop drinking altogether. Even long after I had made the inner admission that I was, in all likelihood, suffering from the disease – and I knew or understood very...
The Licensing Effect Recommended
0
Lawrence Samuels 2013-05-10 08:28
The article below contains excerpts from L.K. Samuels’ new book, In Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action. Column by L.K. Samuels. Exclusive to STR Good intentions rarely make good laws. Those who do evil almost always think they are doing good for goodness’ sake. Nobody sees himself as evil. As Will Smith, the American actor, once quipped, “...
The Pugsley Plan Recommended
8.5
Jim Davies 2013-01-14 08:46
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR Prior to Harry Browne's first run for US President in 1996, his friend John Pugsley wrote him a passionate “open letter” urging him not to. As far as I know, Harry didn't reply, but he did continue his campaign – and repeated it four years later. He got few votes more than the LP normally receives, but his platform and campaign were...
Ed Schultz and His Alleged Middle Class Heroes Recommended
8.5
Greg Haley 2013-01-04 01:00
Column by Greg Haley. Exclusive to STR Ed Schultz has set quite the task out for himself. On his New Year’s Eve broadcast on MSNBC, he announced who his “Middle Class Heroes of 2012” are. Schultz is a self-styled liberal, so his recipients of the title “Middle Class Hero” are predictable and worthy of a certain amount of eye rolling. The general reverence for...
The Trials Recommended
8.33333
tzo 2012-12-11 08:49
Column by tzo. Exclusive to STR To anyone who has seen or read The Reader (a synopsis of the relevant part of the story is here), one of the main questions raised in the story is, "What should be done with Hanna?" Was she responsible for her actions even if she was so thoroughly indoctrinated so as to be completely confused by the charges against her? She asked more than once, while...
464 Lost Years Recommended
8.25
Jim Davies 2012-12-10 08:48
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR Recently I re-read part of that seminal essay, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude by Etienne de la Boëtie, written in 1548, or 464 years ago. He said that if you want to topple a tyrant, all you need to do is to withdraw support. No violence, no sweat, just stop helping him. Yet 24 years later there was a massacre of Huguenot Protestants, indicating that...

 

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