The Answers

Posted on 2017-11-20 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

Just this morning I was talking with another freedom blogger about our mutual writer’s block – the fact that we’ve said what we had to say for years and years, yet so few seem to agree or even contribute to the discussion.

But the answers to the problems in the world remain the same: self ownership/governance, personal responsibility, voluntary association. Along with recognition that no non-voluntary government has any legitimate authority to exist, let alone control the population. Theft, assault, murder and rape are crimes, not government options.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Are we headed that way? Or is this the last we might be seeing of that light in the rear view mirror?

What do you think?

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Of Frogs and Universities

Posted on 2017-11-18 by MamaLiberty

By Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D.

Over the past half century or so there have been unprecedented changes in higher education which most exquisitely are explained by The Frog Theory. Per Wikipedia, The Frog Theory goes as follows: If a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. Higher education in America today has been most thoroughly cooked to death.

When I entered ultra-liberal Antioch College in 1957 we were encouraged to read, listen to, explore and debate a wide range of points of view. To this day I remember one course on Modern Political Ideologies where I read both The Communist Manifesto as well as The Blue Book of the then secret and far right John Birch Society. I don’t recall ever hearing the words “free speech zone” nor recall any protests against invited speakers.

Because I believe in the value of the traditional liberal arts, I have spent my entire adult life teaching. Sadly, the freedom and the light to explore the life of the mind that I enjoyed as an undergraduate has been extinguished on virtually all campuses today. Continue reading →

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The color of politics

Posted on 2017-11-17 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Reality is a difficult concept for many people to grasp. And those who are “reality challenged” seem to be on the increase, these days.

One of the areas where this seems to be a particular problem is in the area of “clean elections” and “corrupt politics.” Many people apparently sincerely believe that we can end corruption in politics and ensure clean elections. That we can reduce and ultimately eliminate improper influence of all kinds and have honest and open elections.

They are wrong. History shows that political and business elections are inevitably dirty. That politics is not just corrupt, but corrupts people very fast and… in Acton’s words, ultimately absolutely.

One of the ways in which the political activists think that they can clean up elections and politics involves “undue influence” by OTHER political activists and politics.

Almost inevitably, such attempts to crack down on this undue influence involve mere trifles, like curtailing or outright prohibiting free speech and other basic, G-d-given human rights. Continue reading →

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Dealing with predators

Posted on 2017-11-16 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The lists get longer and longer – the predators – sexual predators – are being outed and (for the most part) condemned, even expelled from various and sundry events and organizations.

On the political side (just in the Fifty States), both admitted (or convicted) and accused include:

William Jefferson Clinton (Dem)

George Herbert Walker Bush (former GOP)

Judge Roy Moore (GOP)

Don Shooter (Arizona state legislator, GOP)

Dan Schoen (Minnesota state legislator, DFL)

Donald Trump (GOP)

Barney Frank (Dem)

Tim Murphy (GOP)

Members of Congress (unnamed as yet, one GOP, one DEM) Continue reading →

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Who owns space?

Posted on 2017-11-14 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

“The Next Big Future” has an article which both castigates government (NASA) in particular, and then demonstrates an unhealthy and irrational faith in government as well as a weird claim of dependence on government, all in a very brief article. Apparently the article originally comes from or is based on some government flack, and is not necessarily Brian Wang’s opinion, even though it is under his byline.  But Brian does not challenge it.

As republished by Freedom’s Phoenix, the article states (correctly) that NASA wasted billions on developing the Space Launch System (SLS), supposed to replace the long-dead Space Shuttles with expendable (throw-away) heavy-lift rockets.  In essence, 1950s technology, examples of which litter the bottom of Earth’s oceans with trillions of (2017) dollars of thrown-away missiles.  A waste of money and manhours that is second only to the waste due to war.  Waste which might have been necessary to send the first Sputnik, Explorer, or Mercury into orbit, but today is needless and even immoral – not that the vast trillions of dollars and rubles and pounds and euros, etc. stolen from taxpayers in 60 years of spaceflight is not. Continue reading →

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Welfare – the alternative

Posted on 2017-11-13 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Today, it seems that more and more of government resources here in the Fifty States – federal, state, tribal, and local – go to providing welfare.  Although the statistics seem to say otherwise, the cost of helping people with the costs of food, housing, utilities, and more goes up and up.

This has been the case for more than half a century, with the proclamation of the Great Society back in the 1960s.  That was when the FedGov got deeply involved: much like the old Southern story of the Tar Baby.  In for a dime, in for a dollar, after decades.  (Actually, more like “in for a million, in for multiple billions!” I guess.) But for decades before that, way back to the Great Depression in the 1920s and 1930s, we know that more and more of the expenditures of local and state governments were spent to “alleviate poverty” and “help the poor.” Indeed, we can see the growth of the welfare state all the way back to the 1910s.

But it wasn’t always this way.  Once upon a time, government spent very little on any sort of welfare, and definitely not on providing welfare for women, children, the disabled, the unemployed and others.  No, it wasn’t that such things did not exist in the past; as Jesus told His disciples, “the poor you will always have with you.” Continue reading →

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Another centenary remembrance

Posted on 2017-11-12 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

I failed to finish this article in time for MamaLiberty to post it on the 7th, which was the 100th Anniversary of the infamous “October Revolution.” (This was so-called because at the time, Russia still used the old calendar and its dates were off more than a month from the rest of the world.) This revolution in post-Czarist Russia, was when Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks (Communists) began their rise to power.  It was the beginning of a nightmare which lasted until 1991.  And which legacy of blood and terror remains with us to this day.

But that was indeed the 100th anniversary of the most massive effort to impose totalitarian socialism on a huge segment of humanity in history.  The October Revolution was NOT against the Czarist (Imperial) monarchy; but rather against a nominally democratic government which had replaced the monarchy, and tried to continue to fight the Germans and Austrians (as allies of the Brits and French) in the Great War (1914-1918), which we now call the First World War. Continue reading →

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Deadly highway epidemic? Only a runner-up

Posted on 2017-11-11 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A recent email from a highway safety group provided this chart of “The 10 Worst Epidemics In History” a few days ago.

Rank Epidemic Period In History Estimated Number of Deaths
1 Plague of Justinian 541-542 100,000,000
2 Black Plague 1346-1350 50,000,000
3 HIV/AIDS 1960-present 39,000,000
4 1918 Flu (Spanish Flu) 1918-1920 20,000,000
5 Modern Plague 1894-1903 10,000,000
6 Asian Flu 1957-1958 2,000,000
7 Sixth Cholera Pandemic 1899-1923 1,500,000
8 Russian Flu 1889-1890 1,000,000
9 Hong Kong Flu 1968-1969 1,000,000
10 Fifth Cholera Pandemic 1881-1896 981,899

Continue reading →

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What are your priorities?

Posted on 2017-11-10 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

I just got a Hardware Store ad –  as we race through the “holiday shopping season” once again in the Fifty States. Prominently featured in their “Light Up The Season” flyer is a giant (12 feet tall!) inflatable Santa, sure to show how sophisticated your tastes are as you celebrate the holidays. For just $59.95 plus tax.

No this is not a diatribe against commercialization of Christmas. Nor an attack on those who think there is no Christmas – just “holidays.” (In fact, the word Christmas appears several times in the Hardware Store ad.) Rather, it is a look, as I title this commentary, at our priorities.

One of the very few justifications (from a religious or even godly point of view, especially) for celebrating Christmas – at least as a secular holiday and not a religious one – is that it is a season of good will, of giving of gifts, of showing more concern than usual for the poor, for families, and for peace on earth.

(Of course, that is also a good argument against the celebration. Are we not to be loving, seek peace, care for the poor, have good will towards others, and pay attention to our families ALL YEAR, and not just for a few weeks in December?) Continue reading →

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Individualism vs “Social Justice”

Posted on 2017-11-09 by MamaLiberty

From MamaLiberty

This might just be the definitive answer to individualism vs collectivism in a neat and well written article. I suspect it would be very helpful to people who try to explain their individualism, and/or libertarianism, to friends and families. It would be an excellent resource to explain the concepts of liberty on forums and blog comments. I’m definitely going to save this and use those arguments where appropriate. Please do visit Garry Reed at the HubPages.

Social Justice? Libertarians Want Justice; Others Want Control
By Garry Reed

Why would libertarians give up their individuality for a collectivist version of “social justice?” Libertarians believe in real social justice for everyone but too many liberals want “social justice” to disguise what they really want: Social control over everyone.

First, Libertarians believe in social relationships. It’s just that they reject imposed social relationships while accepting and seeking voluntary social relationships of all kinds at all levels of society.

Second, Libertarians believe in justice. That is what their concept of self-ownership and their moral/ethical Non-Aggression Principle against coercion, intimidation and fraud are all about.

Third, “justice” and “social justice” are not the same things even though some social justice advocates try to make it seem so. Virtually every fair, honest, decent human being in the world wants justice; only liberals, progressives, socialists and similarly-oriented people talk in terms of “social justice.”

Read the rest of this excellent article here.

Garry Reed combined a professional technical writing career and a passion for all things libertarian to become The Libertarian Opinionizer.

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