Who will watch the watchers?

Posted on 2023-12-14 by TPOL Nathan

The campus security force is a common feature at more and more public (government-run, tax-funded) schools. And for that matter, at more and more businesses. Internal threats to peace and external dangers from growing numbers of people who see an opportunity to do nasty things in what are often free-fire zones with no defenses except signs telling all this is a “gun-free zone.”

Security guards are generally a low-pay occupation, often part-time with few if any benefits, and therefore those men and women who do such work have various problems: mental, social, and physical. Although some States and many government agencies and businesses have some requirements, such as training, drug testing, and background checks, many do not.

And it is not uncommon for those rules to be ignored.

Maybe that was the problem at one high school where the security force supervisor had gone into business with a student at the school. Now, entrepreneurship is a good thing, right? Except that their business was making and selling explosive devices. Or so BATFE and the FBI claim.

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Hannukah – looking forward and back

Posted on 2023-12-13 by TPOL Nathan

Thursday, 14 December 2023, at sunset, is the 8th day of Hannukah, if we are counting right here at TPOL. The observance this year started two months after the Hamas attack.

This latest war in the Middle East – particularly in Canaan (often called “Palestine”) rages on, despite a temporary ceasefire. What we call the “Second Yom Kippur War” or the “Hamas-Israeli War” has seen thousands killed and tens of thousands – even hundreds of thousands wounded, beggared, driven from their homes (temporary or “permanent”). Billions of dollars – millions of ounces of gold – have been spent. The entire world seems to be divided – and the division extends deeply into American society and politics.

And public celebration of Hannukah seems to be limited, around the world. We are told it is due to “antisemitism.” That is hatred of Jews: racism with Jews as its target. The Jews are colonialists: “white Europeans” exercising white supremacy over the people of color and indigenous populations. So any public celebration of a Hebrew/Jewish holiday must be disapproved. Even canceled.

We disagree. Let us explain why, but…

Forgive us if we briefly restate what many – even most – readers of TPOL know.

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Both sides display their stupidity over 2024 eligibility

Posted on 2023-12-12 by TPOL Nathan

And the mainstream media is tickled pink about it.

In several States, Democrats and Never-Trumpers are trying very hard to keep The Donald off the ballot, claiming that since he is an insurrectionist (promoting and encouraging an insurrection on 6 January 2021 to overthrow the government) he is constitutionally ineligible to hold office, and therefore cannot even be on the primary ballots.

Now, we have always seen a few problems with that.

First, although at least one judge has arbitrarily declared The Donald to be an insurrectionist, this was done without due process: no trial, no formal charges (other than the media and virtually every Democrat’s and many Republican’s loud-mouthed rhetoric). Although many people wish it otherwise, even Trump must be considered “innocent until proven guilty.” (There are various groups that claim that no conviction is necessary, but to us, their reasoning seems… well, less than sterling.)

And there is certainly a lot of reason, legally and factually and with a tad of reason, to consider what happened on 6 January 2021 was even “insurrection” according to the intent of Congress and the States back in the 1860s when that provision was added to the Constitution. Lots and lots of people claim it was an insurrection but again, the logic is lacking. A more detailed analysis is beyond the scope of this commentary.

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The FedGov’s attacks on private education

Posted on 2023-12-11 by TPOL Nathan

While the Beer Flu and the ensuing Pandemic Panic really boosted home-schooling in the Fifty States, the movement has been growing for decades. There are more and more adults – even in their 30s and 40s – who graduated from some form of homeschooling. These include pod schools, micro schools, cooperative institutions, and on-line academies. And many of those getting a primary and secondary education in that manner have gone on to successfully matriculate and graduate from universities and technical schools and other institutions.

Although many conventional private schools did suffer and even closed (temporarily or permanently) during the COVID crazy nonsense, the closure and insane policies and closures of public (government-run, tax-funded) schools forced many parents to opt out and into homeschooling.

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Why are American troops in Syria?

Posted on 2023-12-08 by TPOL Nathan

As reposted by ZeroHedge, Senator Rand Paul has joined Representative Matt Gaetz in trying to pass a bill in Congress to force an American withdrawal from Syria.

The Associated Press reported back in March that there are about 900 US troops in Syria on any given day. Now, two months into the Second Yom Kippur War (Hamas versus the Israelis), this is getting to be better known. And these American troops are being attacked regularly: at least 73 times in the last two months, including four in one day. These are blamed on Iranian-backed groups and have increased in frequency since the Hamas attack on Israel.

Why? Why are US troops garrisoning a part of an independent nation with less than good relations with the FedGov in DC?

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Looking back 82 years: Conspiracies and complacency at home and abroad

Posted on 2023-12-07 by TPOL Nathan

Who’s telling the truth?

Many readers may be familiar with the Tuttle Twins and Connor, the publisher, editor, and author. Please note this is not a recommendation or an advert for Tuttle Twins books etc.

But in a recent email, Connor brings up some interesting thoughts. Worth sharing on this 7th of December.

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Mob mentality and American Jews – Cowardice

Posted on 2023-12-06 by TPOL Nathan

The refusal of an arts festival committee in Williamsburg, Virginia to allow a scheduled lighting of a menorah for Chanukah on Saturday is an affront to the very existence of that city. And to liberty, not just to the Jews who have been told that “we don’t have to honor commitments to Jews” by the organizers. But there is more to it.

Why can’t they have the promised participation in what should be a non-political community gathering? Because of the fear that the arts festival might be “taking sides” in the war between Israel and Hamas. Even though Chanukah is a religious festival that has nothing whatsoever to do with the modern State of Israel or the Islamists of Hamas and the so-called Palestinians of Gaza.

However, we at TPOL submit that this action – probably rightly branded as “antisemitism” or prejudice against Jewish people because they are Jews – is due to a nasty little character defect. Called cowardice.

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The trouble with taxes and government spending

Posted on 2023-12-05 by TPOL Nathan

Eric Peters, a prolific libertarian writer and auto fanatic (or is it “freak?), had some words regarding governments and true libertarians that are worth thinking about a bit.

“And that is why libertarians oppose what the government – and those who defend its legalized criminality – style “taxes,” which is a word used by government to camouflage what is understood by almost everyone to mean robbery, when it is performed by someone not affiliated with the government. Libertarians oppose all forms of robbery because they do not see that anyone has a right to take anyone else’s money. They do not argue over the supposed merit of what is done with the money taken from other people  . . . because the money was taken from other people. It does not matter – to the person from whom the money was taken – that it was used to fund something considered by those who took it to be meritorious. What matters – to the person who was robbed – is that he was robbed.“

We here at TPOL add a strong “Amen” to Eric’s words. Especially this next part:

“The usual response here is that without such robbery, important works such as “national defense” (and of course, the schools) would go “unfunded.” Ordinary robbers never use such terminology.

They are too honest.”

So, why do we here at The Price of Liberty (and many other free-market anarchist and paleolibertarian writers and sites} write so much about the way government wastefully spends the money they steal?

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Is it a good idea to let felons have guns?

Posted on 2023-12-04 by TPOL Nathan

This is a question that some people are asking after a federal judge in Chicago (of all places!) has ruled that denying felons who have completed their punishment the right to keep and bear arms is unconstitutional.

Wow.

The prohibition on felons (and in some States, even those with misdemeanors) owning weapons has been questioned by many people over the past decades. Yet it is found to be the law universally in the States: not just “federal law” but law passed and enforced in the individual States.

But is not the question in our headline today actually the wrong question? After all, every day, hundreds if not thousands of felons carry and use firearms to do their work: preying on other people. Most of those times, the felon is using the weapon against people who themselves are unarmed.

And of course, we need to ask, can anyone really keep felons from having guns? Individuals? Governments at any level? Really? Many of us doubt that is possible, as decades of experience in places like New York City and the District of Columbia have demonstrated. And as seen in various foreign places, even a strong, totalitarian government seems incapable of doing that. Especially since many of the felons (both adjudicated and not!) seem to gravitate towards government employment.

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Why do we have rights? Part 2

Posted on 2023-12-02 by TPOL Nathan

We continue Don Moyer’s concluding remarks on why humans have rights. You can read part 1 below at the TPOL home page.

The founders said that these truths are “self-evident.” This means that these truths need no further proof; they prove themselves. That we are created by an Invisible Maker is self-evident (cf. Romans 1). That we have human rights because we are human is self-evident. That a government should seek to protect those rights (not impose their own arbitrary ones) is self-evident. 

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