The missionary enterprises of Libertarian movements

Posted on 2025-05-17 by TPOL Nathan

Go over and visit Liberty International now and then. It’s an interesting website full of information about the wonderful things going on in the Balkans, Nepal, Russia, Ukraine, and Israel as people seek to spread the gospel (“good news”) of classical liberalism or libertarianism. Some even espouse free markets and free-market anarchism! (See more websites at the bottom of

It is natural for lovers of liberty to do and encourage this. To quote libertarianism.org on “What is a libertarian?” Libertarians believe that in politics, liberty is the most important value. Almost everyone wants freedom for themselves, but a libertarian also seeks to protect and expand the freedom of others.”

In other words (religious terms), libertarians want to be missionaries, evangelists. We want to share what we know with others who will work together with us to establish and maintain liberty and justice for all.

But let us state a sympathetic critique of “Libertarian missionary” endeavors. As we imply in the opening paragraph, like the Christian missionary efforts they appear to imitate and even use as a model, they have their limits. And their foibles. Perhaps they are even ineffective in using limited resources.

Continue reading →
Posted in Ideas for liberty, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Five years on – the lies continue

Posted on 2025-05-16 by TPOL Nathan

The following was an anonymous posting on a social media site. The (P)-labeled italics are the comments of a good friend and correspondent of The Price of Liberty; the (L)-labeled italics are our (usually sarcastic) response to P’s comments. Reader comments are solicited? What do you think?

A major study just revealed heart attacks and strokes *decreased* after COVID-19 vaccinations. Here’s what the science really says.

(P)Who conducted the study? Who financed it? What was the goal behind conducting this study?

(L)No success yet finding any of this – We share your cynicism regarding its goal.

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Guest commentary, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Capitalism in today’s world

Posted on 2025-05-13 by TPOL Nathan

Students for Liberty has recently posted a cool video, showing the impact of capitalism on our world over the past decades. The many statistics that show the way capitalism has improved our lives and those of billions of people across the entire planet.

They have this to say: “Capitalism: the system that didn’t just give you smartphones and sushi delivery — it also reduced global poverty, raised countries’ GDPs, and turned famine into the exception, not the rule. And yet… some people still claim communism just “hasn’t been done right.””

Keep in mind, these impacts are not calculated or based on truly “free markets.” This is real-world, in a world where all too often we see Crony Capitalism as the dominant but perverted form of Capitalism: of markets that are only moderately “free” for certain values of “free.” Yet this corrupted and all-too-fallible system has resulted in extending the lives of billions of people, of ending millennia of poverty and economic oppression – and largely controlled slavery.

Imagine what it might be life if we didn’t have this abomination of a mixed system where too much of the productive elements (both goods and services) are either owned/operated by government or so micromanaged (regulated) by government as to make them nearly as bad. And if the government did not promote and support crony capitalism?

The plain and simple truth is that individual people are generally the best person to decide what they want to do and want to provide to others. Yes, there are exceptions: children too young to recognize and understand the consequences of their actions, and those mentally incapable of doing so, or who have been driven mad and cannot see what is wrong and what is right. Those who commit aggression against others, for example.

Is the free market perfect? Is capitalism perfect? Of course not. But they are largely self-correcting and avoid the dangers of top-down control, decisions made by self-proclaimed elites, and the machinations of con-artists and other parasites on mankind.

Posted in Ideas for liberty, Image of liberty, Nathan's Rants, Short Takes | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Exclusion – dealing with people who cannot be tolerated in society

Posted on 2025-05-12 by TPOL Nathan

A recent comment (thanks, Steve) triggered some thoughts which we’d like to share. And explore.

Coventry is an idea proposed many times but perhaps best known in Heinlein’s version. The basic concept is similar to penal colonies in general: particularly the larger ones, like the present State of Georgia, or present New South Wales or Victoria State in Australia. It serves a dual purpose: to protect society from the actions of the convict (and at less cost and more humanely than a term in jail or prison, or execution) and to deny the felon most if not all of the benefits of society – to cast him or her out, to banish or excommunicate them.

It is a long traditional method of dealing with those who commit acts of aggression and do other “uncivil” things – including teaching matters contrary to the wishes of the powers that be. Does it work? Read on and see.

Continue reading →
Posted in Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Principles of liberty

Posted on 2025-05-11 by TPOL Nathan

Dr. Robert Malone recently posted this as a “funny.”

It is, of course, but it is also deadly serious. I equate it to that fine statement coined by science fiction writer Eric Frank Russell in his story “And then there were none.”

Freedom = I won’t.

The fundamental right to say “NO!”

Continue reading →
Posted in Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The intersection of politics and religion today

Posted on 2025-05-10 by TPOL Nathan

From The Western Journal: Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu is slightly more Catholic than Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran. We will spot him that. (And as we write this, we have no idea what Ted Lieu’s opinion of the new pope is – but we suspect that he may like the guy far less than he did Frances. See below.)

But we can’t give him much more. Going on two bodies of evidence of Lieu’s religious convictions, the guy is about as good a Catholic as, say, Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. True, he professes to be a Catholic — albeit if and when it suits him, and on terms that seem decidedly anti-Catholic. No surprise that he fits so well into the Congressional Democratic caucus.

For instance, not only does he support abortion, same-sex marriage, and easy divorce — indeed, most Catholic-professing Democrats do, while holding to the idea that their spiritual beliefs are separate from meliorative public policy — he decided to dare the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to deny him communion because he seems to morally support these things as positive ends in themselves. (The USCCB, quite regrettably, does not seem to have taken him up on the offer. Perhaps this will change with Pope Leo XIV?)

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The capricious and irrational nature of American governments

Posted on 2025-05-09 by TPOL Nathan

The following ad (from Cowboy State Daily, a Wyoming on-line daily newspaper) is not a joke.

Yes, you are reading that right. State Departments of Transportation and their various State cops (Highway or State Patrols, State Police, etc.) supposedly close highways during and after blizzards to protect the public safety. (We know about northern and western States: do southern States close off highways for/during hurricanes? Please let us know.) In Wyoming, there is also another consideration: where a highway is closed during blizzards can have a major negative impact on small communities overwhelmed with a massive number of trucks and other travelers.

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Baker’s Dozen : The first thirteen inmates to go to Alcatraz

Posted on 2025-05-08 by TPOL Nathan

NOTE: Please, please, readers! Send us YOUR suggestions as who should go in the first Baker’s Dozen. This is fun, and sarcastic, but it needs YOUR participation! See why at the end.

Now that The Donald has announced that the “crown jewel” of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Alcatraz Island itself, is to revert from being a tourist attraction to again being the Ultra-Super-Max of the Feral Prison system, just who should the Courts, DOJ, and of course The Donald himself send there?

(We see that the Babylon Bee has their own wonderful take on who – and also how Alcatraz can be expanded yet still have historic preservation maintained and hold everyone!)

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

This and that – freedom or tyranny? Explaining ourselves

Posted on 2025-05-05 by TPOL Nathan

“The Price of Liberty” is a news and commentary website, a series of articles (we just call them all “commentaries”). These are posted on-line and often shared individually with people by electronic or hardcopy means. And sometimes in person. We believe that liberty and freedom are the birthright of every human, from conception to eternity. We seek to edify (educate) and encourage (exhort) lovers of liberty – and at the same time to teach those who do not love liberty (or don’t love it adequately) why they should change this condition.

This commentary, under the wonderful tutorage of Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) originally began as a series of short comments about news stories of the day and week. We depended on Rational News Daily Digest (and its rebranded Freedom Net Daily) for years, and continue to visit and read that publication frequently. Mama Liberty of course ranged far more widely in her commentaries, and after her death, Nathan and his family followed her example and continued to identify issues and actions. We seek to promote liberty but to constantly remind our readers and those we speak to (and ourselves) of the price of liberty.

Continue reading →
Posted in Ideas for liberty, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Living with the aftermath

Posted on 2025-05-02 by TPOL Nathan

The various news outlets are babbling about a half-ton half-century-old Soviet spacecraft is going to fall from the sky sometime this month.

No one knows exactly when or where it will fall – given the orbit, population, and the ratio of water to land on this planet, it will most likely fall unobserved and without serious impact somewhere in the oceans. But until then, the media will play ambulance chaser and freak as many people as possible.

But it should remind us that the negative effects of governments – failed or obliterated – often live on long after those governments have disappeared. Or lost jurisdiction over areas they once controlled.

Admittedly, there are some good benefits of societies and nations – if not governments themselves – that long outlast those entities. But it is the negative effects that we need to understand and deal with – including a simple case of survival.

Continue reading →
Posted in Commentary on the News, History of Liberty, Ideas for liberty, Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment