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Wednesday, June 19

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Eric Field is the guest editor today.

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They Say They Want a Revolution
Original article
Molyneux or Rand (or Long)?
Original article Approaches to libertarian ethics. 
Can I Get Your Number?
Original article
Right and Left
Original article One examination of the relationship between Left and Right.
Memo To Authoritarians: The "Oath" is to the Constitution, Not to Secrecy
Original article Author and former intelligence officer, Barry Eisler examines the recent NSA abuses. 
The Eyes Watching You 1984 and the Surveillance State
Original article
Thank You For Your Service, Mr. Snowden
Original article
We Are All Bradley Manning
Original article
Politics: Michael Hastings, 'Rolling Stone' Contributor, Dead at 33
Original article Michael Hastings, one of the few real journalists in America, died in an auto accident. 
Gary Webb's Glorious Comeback
Original article
What the French Teach Libertarians About Our Own Homophobia
Original article I don't agree with all of the author's assertions, but I do think this is an article that is absolutely worth reading. 
Surveillance Is For Perverts – Stop PRISM Surveillance
Original article
John Stossel on Why Libertarians Have Better Things to Worry About Than the NSA
Original article With friends like these, libertarians really don't need enemies. 
Why John Stossel is Wrong: NSA is Definitely Something to Worry About
Original article Excellent rebuttal to Stossel by Sarah Harvard. 
Flying Bicycle Gets Off the Ground in Prague
Original article
Sometimes When Things Get Really Stressful, I Close My Eyes, Sit Back, And Pretend I’m Back In Kenya
Original article Satire.
Why Joe Stack Was So Angry
8
Bill Butler 2010-04-05 03:00
Exclusive to STR   What if the United States Supreme Court tomorrow delivered this opinion regarding our present income tax system:   The injustice and harm which must always result from overthrowing a long and settled practice sanctioned by the decisions of this court could not be better illustrated than by the example which this case affords.  Under the income-tax laws which...
Diffusion and Confusion
9.4
tzo 2010-04-04 03:00
Exclusive to STR   So once again someone has sent an airborne explosive device into a building that supposedly housed the “enemy” organization, and innocent people were killed and injured as part of the collateral damage.   And then it is discovered that the attacker had a “manifesto” of sorts that purports to explain the rationale for the strike. The four page...
Economics for Dummies
8.125
Paul Hein 2010-03-15 03:00
Exclusive to STR I don’t want to deceive you: I am not going to present a sort of Economics 101 for the benefit of the economically illiterate. In fact, I am myself among that number, never having studied economics. What I am suggesting is that, in the current financial crisis, economics is, in my opinion, somewhat irrelevant. It may be dumb to think that there is an economic solution to...
Suckers!
9.5
tzo 2010-03-15 03:00
Exclusive to STR In a (nearly) parallel universe, portions of recent history are recorded as follows:   late 19th century-1934 Saudi Arabia's currency is called the Petro, and it is backed with oil, such that one barrel of oil equals 20.67 Petros. All taxes and payments to the Saudi government must be made in Petros. World markets utilize the Petro, a way to deal in oil without actually...
Quake
6
Jim Davies 2010-03-15 03:00
Exclusive to STR Among the welter of news reports about the recent tragedy in Haiti, I noticed a couple that were quite perceptive. As it happens, they both broke surface on the PBS News Hour.   One came a few days after January 12th from David Brooks, the Hour's token conservative. He observed that a slightly more severe earthquake had hit San Francisco and Oakland in 1989, which brought...
We're All Irresponsible Now
7
Emiliano Antunez 2010-03-15 03:00
Exclusive to STR On Wednesday, January 27th, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, delivered his first State of the Union message to its citizens (and “illegal” aliens), all three hundred million plus of us. Besides all the usual empty rhetoric, platitudes and clichés, there was a sentence in Mr. Obama’s speech that was very telling of his audacity and...
Twenty-one Reasons Why Statism Is a Radical and Radically Incoherent Theory
9.75
Jakub Bozydar W... 2010-03-10 04:00
Exclusive to STR Upon encountering the claim that some non-statist doctrine (e.g., anarcho-capitalism) is practically unsafe due to its radical character, it is worthwhile to point to the glaring radicalism of every form of statism. Having thus suggested, however, that it is not radicalism per se that is a problem with any given socio-economic doctrine, it is even more worthwhile to underscore...
Does Obama Hate Black People?
0
Manuel Lora 2010-03-09 04:00
Not even an earthquake in a very poor country is enough for the federal administrators to show compassion. The Obama regime will make no change to its immigration policy in light of the utter devastation in Haiti. The Coast Guard will interdict those trying to enter the U.S. illegally by sea. Only those with special circumstances will be granted special permission: orphans who have ties (not just...
Eminent Domain and the Free Society
0
Alex Schroeder 2010-03-05 04:00
Exclusive to STR Eminent domain has long been a contentious issue in American politics. The United States Constitution, under the Fifth Amendment, grants the government the authority to legally seize private property. It stipulates that such a seizure is warranted if the property will subsequently be used to serve the “public”. Moreover, the property owner must be justly compensated...
Valor and Discretion
9.1
tzo 2010-02-01 04:00
Exclusive to STR   Once upon a time I worked a second shift job and regularly walked home from the train station during the later hours of the evening. One night as I was making my way home, a police cruiser pulled up alongside me and the officer asked me where I was headed. I said I was going home, and he then asked me where that might be. I gave him the name of my street, and with that he...
We're All Irresponsible Now
7
Emiliano Antunez 2010-03-15 03:00
Exclusive to STR On Wednesday, January 27th, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, delivered his first State of the Union message to its citizens (and “illegal” aliens), all three hundred million plus of us. Besides all the usual empty rhetoric, platitudes and clichés, there was a sentence in Mr. Obama’s speech that was very telling of his audacity and...
Ideology
7
Charles Davis 2010-04-14 03:00
Exclusive to STR Barack Obama is an eminently reasonable man. Not an ideologue of the left or right -- you know, one of those people with actual core beliefs and convictions -- he's a pragmatist interested only in what works. Or so that's what he's sought to convey in every major speech and policy decision: President Obama, Mr. Centrist -- his only ideology is his commitment to being non-...
Avaunt, Anabaptist Atavists!
7
Tony Pivetta 2010-07-22 03:00
By Tony Pivetta.   Exclusive to STR     You’ve really done it this time, Dr. Rand Paul. Our thought crime stands exposed! Your impolitic utterances have confirmed what our fascio-socialist elites (motto: “Forced to be Free! Hooray, Dumb-Ah-Crah-Cee!”) have long suspected; namely, that we Neanderthal devotees of do-nothing government uphold the right to...
There’s No Such Thing as a Statist
7
Paul Bonneau 2011-02-21 04:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.   Exclusive to STR   Nor are there any minarchists or anarchists.   In this brouhaha stirred up by Per Bylund, some strange lines of argument have appeared. Here is an example:   ---------------- "There are a huge number who would reject abolishing the state while consenting to leave us alone." [quoted from previous comment] That is redundant...
A Silver Lining Shines Within the Odious Debt
7
Marcel Votlucka 2011-02-22 04:00
Column by Marcel Votlucka. Exclusive to STR Co-winner (with Mark Davis) of the 2011 Strike the Root "Odious Debt" essay contest   Fourteen trillion, one hundred twenty-three billion, five hundred eighty-nine million, three hundred-seven thousand, one hundred ninety dollars and fifty-three cents.   That’s the total US national debt as of February 17, 2011. I figured I...
On the Spiritual Nature of a Lawless Society
7
livefreeretiree 2011-12-12 01:00
Column by Vahram G. Diehl. Exclusive to STR “Spirituality” is probably the least well-defined word in common English usage, aside from words like “God,” which are usually used in the context of “spirituality.”  When trying to reach fellow human beings on a level deep enough to really capture their interest and sway their reluctance, one cannot...
The Gulch, Revisited
7
Jim Davies 2012-04-13 00:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR  Perhaps the most delightful chapter in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is the one describing Dagny Taggart's visit to Galt's Gulch. Exhausted and frustrated by trying to run a railroad in the teeth of bureaucrats and bloodsuckers, she drops in to see what a free society is like--and is given a vision of liberty. If Rand had never...
The Revolution Is a Relay Race
7
JGVibes 2012-06-08 00:00
Column by JGVibes.   For many centuries, the dismal state of civilization has been largely ignored by those who have had to live through it.  The pain, depression and confusion that can come from admitting the twisted nature of our day to day existence has been far too much for most people to cope with, so throughout history, people have created extremely complex justifications and...
Marijuana Prohibition Will Die of 1,000 Cuts…So Look Out
7
Alex R. Knight III 2012-11-16 08:47
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR Of the 50 tax farms that comprise America, 16 have governments that will allow prescribed medical marijuana for use by patients suffering from such conditions as glaucoma, anorexia, or cancer. The local rulers of the District of Criminals also recognize such provisions, benign repositories of wisdom that they are. In some of these arbitrary...
Requiem for the Republican Right
7
Alex R. Knight III 2012-12-03 08:53
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR The 2012 elections, while of limited interest to Voluntaryists, can still provide us, I believe, with something both instructive and profoundly useful. Not only did Obama win a second term in the Oval Office, but Democrats in general made gains in both the Senate and House (even if Republicans held a slim majority in the latter). Now after you...
An Armed March on Washington? MUST READ
10
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...
Oh, Stanley MUST READ
10
tzo 2011-03-30 03:00
Column by tzo. Exclusive to STR   Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist best known for his Milgram Experiment, a study conducted in the 1960s.   Dr. Milgram wanted to research the relationship between obedience and authority, and he was at least partly motivated to do so by the events of the Nazi Holocaust. It greatly troubled him that so many supposedly good people could...
The Pathocracy Unmasked MUST READ
10
Glen Allport 2011-02-11 04:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR - 1 - Exposed as Criminals and Psychopaths, the Coercive Elite are Desperate to Stop the Flow of Honest Information     "When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made it public and announced that the Bush Torture Indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next." CCR...
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
10
Angelo Mike 2013-01-04 01:00
Column by Angelo Mike. 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...
The Duty to End the State Recommended
10
Jim Davies 2012-11-30 08:53
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR Many reading this already understand the Self-ownership Axiom; that we each own our own lives by right, and hence that all government is an unnatural and ruinous appendage. Among those who do, though, surprisingly there is disagreement over what to do about it. Some hold that resistance by such voluntaryists in the present government-saturated environment...
Why I'm Leaving America Recommended
10
SailboatDiaries 2012-11-07 01:00
Column by new Root Striker Michael Fielding. Goodbye, America. For as long as I’ve lived you’ve been my only home. I’ve had a wonderful life here. Your inhabitants are almost universally kind, and I’ve become lifelong friends with many of your citizens. All of my family lives here, everyone I have ever known or loved, and I will miss them all a lot. But after 22 years, I...
Voting Is Not Rational Recommended
9.66667
Stephen Nichols 2012-11-01 00:00
Column by Stephen Nichols. Exclusive to STR While reading Paul Bonneau’s recent column on STR entitled “Voting Is Not Irrational,” I was taken aback by the obvious flaws in his analysis and the conclusions resulting from that analysis. It’s been a few days since his article was published and I’ve been formulating my response to it for some time. Let me now share with...
St. Abe Recommended
0
Jim Davies 2012-10-23 00:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR When the Church of Rome has in mind to elevate one of its heroes or heroines to the status of sainthood, it follows a certain procedure – one element of which is to hear the opinion of an advocatus diaboli – a devil's advocate. His job is to reason against the proposed canonization, so reducing the probability of error. That task fell in...
A Reason Not to Vote Recommended
10
Stephen Nichols 2012-10-18 00:00
Column by Stephen Nichols. Exclusive to STR I don't know about you, but I take a look at my financial situation pretty regularly. I like to keep tabs on my family's spending and keep things under control. I also like to reduce or eliminate any unnecessary expenses. Take a moment to review this chart of some recent family spending: Notice anything big that sticks out there? Yeah, me...

 

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