An interesting piece of news passed our desktop recently.
According to various mainstream media newspapers and a video blogger, the Premier of Quebec’s “Minister for secularism” (how’s that?) has introduced Bill 9 in the Quebecois National Assembly (Parliament). The bill, entitled “Act respecting the reinforcement of laicity,” is supposed to encourage secularism in public life.
To do so, it would make praying in public a crime for which anyone in the Province of Quebec could be arrested, fined, and even imprisoned. Building on the 2019 law that bans teachers (and other public service employees) from wearing religious symbols, including crosses and crucifixes.
The blogger accurately describes the bill as an attack, a form of persecution, on religion in general, including Islam, Judaism, and virtually all versions of christianity. The bill was introduced as a government bill, meaning that it has the backing of the current majority party (81 of 124 seats), the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ). (Quebec using the British-style parliamentary system but has no upper house: no Senate or House of Lords or Legislative Council). The Lieutenant Governor, who represents the King, has no veto power. Thus the bill is fairly certain to pass and become law. Note this applies only to Quebec and not the other provinces and territories of the Dominion of Canada.
Editor’s note: Ron Paul published this during Thanksgiving week (25 NOV 2025), and succinctly explains both Ukraine’s problems and the only logical solution from the point of view of Americans.
We urge all our readers to think about what Dr. Paul suggests. And what makes more sense. The Donald is clearly torn and not being straight forward in dealing the US out. Too many lovers of liberty buy the Kool-Aid of Russia bad, Ukraine good, Europe in danger, US must help. We need to encourage preventing an even worse war than the last three years. We hope and pray that Dr. Paul is right about the end of the fighting.
We actually believe that the change in demographics (of not just Ukraine but Russia) is not “may” but a sad fact of life.
Read on, dear reader. See out thoughts at the end of Dr. Ron’s thoughts.
Last week’s surprise release of a draft Ukraine war peace plan has raised hopes that the nearly three-year bloody conflict may finally come to an end. Ukraine has suffered horrible losses that may change the demographics of that country for decades to come.
If this peace plan can be negotiated in a way that satisfies all sides and the guns finally go silent, I will be the first to cheer. However, the continued failure to understand the nature and origin of the current conflict leaves me skeptical that a real peace can be reached this way.
Fifty-sixty years ago, no one had ever heard of home schooling here in the States. It wasn’t necessarily nonexistent, but incredibly rare. You might find the occasional rancher or forest ranger or other remote family teaching their own children, but truancy (mandatory attendance) laws, tradition, and above all, public perception looked upon such things as horrible and totally unacceptable. Even parochial (Catholic) and other private (religious or not) schools were seen by the mainstream and general public as tolerated but weird. And rare. Many State constitutions enshrined the idea of “free tuition” – that is, public schools.
Then came a combination of measures and events which started gradually to change that. Indeed, to create the modern-day homeschooling movement. There was what was viewed as the “prohibition of prayer” in public (government-run, tax-funded) schools by the Supreme Court decision (Engel v Vitale, June 1962).
But that was just the start. A whole bunch of things happened in the next 20 years. Without worrying about exactly when, we can see the impact. The push for “special education” and integration of those students with other students in classrooms. The growing power of the teacher’s unions, together with the “new math” and new styles (fads) of teaching reading and writing, the mandated “must have a 4-year degree” program for teachers, and many other actions rapidly deteriorated the “public schools” (and seeped into the private schools as well). The consolidation of school districts and the rising power of administrators (and exploding staff) all reduced the power of elected school district boards of education. New State laws and especially the creation of the US Department of [UN]Education sped up the collapse. Many teachers were fired, others driven out of the schools by a combination of unionism, failure in discipline (and danger to teachers and staff from the students!), and growing bureaucracy and regulations.
The so-called “reforms” (supposedly driven by the competition with the Soviet Union and the need to educate American children in science and technology and “good citizenship”) were anything but. The decay of quality and standards has continued to this day.
Some States did better than others, but even the relatively good States are a travesty. Homeschooling was sought by parents (many of them actually teachers!) as an alternative to the decayed public and private schools. Other alternatives were also presented, such as the Montessori schools and unschooling. But it took time and often major pushes to change laws, regulations, and public understanding.
In the last quarter century, the development and deployment of online schooling (not just virtual academies but independent teachers and “tutors” together with ready availability of good resources) has made a significant impact. Parents (and grandparents) began organizing locally, in their States, and nationally to promote and provide for homeschooling. But the real impetus was the Beer Flu Panic and the mass closing of schools – brick-and-mortar schools – in every State in 2020. Even while legislatures and Congress and local boards threw ever more money at the public schools. And invented ideas like charter schools to try and coopt private and home-schoolers.
Instead, more and more people opted out, angry over the growing tax burden of public education and the continued deterioration of standards and the results on people.
People get hurt. People get sick. The medical profession is supposed to help those people. But then, anyone able to do so should help others, like the woman in the picture. But doctors are expected to do more. Supposedly, doctors take the headline as part of their oath as a medical doctor.
Considering how many MDs participate in such activities as induced abortions, vaccine injections of dubious merit (or proven dangerous), and many other highly suspect actions, prescriptions, and recommendations, we wonder about the entire profession. (We know that there are many doctors who do value life and health. We are not condemning them all.)
But government officials, who need to understand and apply the oaths of office they take, really need to add this phrase to their solemn promises and their practice. We submit that overall, governments increasingly do harm to many people, starting with their own citizens.
Regarding those things, Rob Morse makes some very good points in his brief discussion, which we present here:
Lots of us live in large cities. Those cities have police chiefs who are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by a city council. Those chiefs tell us to be a good witness if we see a crime. The thought is that a criminal might take someone’s property and property can be replaced. Recently, we’ve seen young women stabbed, beaten, and set on fire by repeat criminals. In one case, the criminal in Chicago had been arrested 72 times before he set a female train passenger on fire. Another man in Chicago has a habit of knockout-punching random women on the street. He has been arrested over 20 times and is still on the streets. That means that witnesses don’t matter since judges put criminals back on the street.
So, if you see this happen in front of you, then what do you do? In most cases, you are as stuck as the victim.
I’m almost 70 years old. I’m not going to go hand to hand with a crazy young man. Many of these horrible crimes occur in gun free zones in Democrat controlled cities. I have taken quite a few first-aid classes, and the first thing we are always told is to make sure the scene is safe for you before you give aid to someone else. If the attacker is standing there, what are you going to do? You could give the attacker verbal orders to leave. If he doesn’t leave, it is a tough legal case for you to claim the right to use lethal force so you could render aid to an innocent victim. You might take that legal risk for a family member, but would you take it for a stranger?
We are talking about at least a half-million dollars to defend yourself in court in a democrat controlled city. In New York City, a 67 year old man was given four years in prison for defending himself from a habitual criminal. The defender’s crime was that he didn’t get a carry permit in New York City. Let us point out that it is still a fiction that he might get a concealed carry permit in New York City.
Politics is real and that is why you must care about it. We have to pass through blue states even if we don’t live there. God help you if you do.
Rob’s point is very well taken: we need to be concerned about how we must prepare to help others.
Imagine if the good Samaritan of Jesus’ parable had tried to help the man while his attackers were still present. And imagine if he ran the risk of the priest or the Levite ratting him out to Herod’s (or Roman) bully-boys.
At the same time, we believe that the example Jesus gave to answer the question, “who is my neighbor” would be a man willing to take risks to help. Not just a family member or fellow member of his synagogue, but a stranger who needed help badly.
Courage is virtue. And yes, (for those who believe in God), cowardice is a sin. We must be bold and confront evil when the stakes are high – whether the evil is a madman on his own or a madman in a government uniform or “a suit” in business or government.
Once again, the Republic of South Africa is in the news headlines. This time courtesy of that exclusive club, the G20, and The Donald in one of his infamous on-line postings:
Of course, for libertarians, the first question we ask is “why is the American FedGov paying and subsidizing anything and anyone in South Africa?
Welcome to one of the Socialist States of America.
Ruled by Her Imperial Majesty, Michelle (I) Lujan Grisham, since 2019, the State has increasingly become both more socialist and returned more to its origin and roots as a (now-“independent”) province of Imperial Spain. It is a curious mix of bizarre sects and “alternative lifestyles” and traditional Spanish, AmerInd culture, and high-tech. It is both poor and expensive to live in.
One of the most recent examples is the “Universal Child Care” plan pushed by HIMajesty and gladly accepted by the State’s Woke legislature. Every child in the State will now be entitled to receive free childcare, both preschool and apparently before and after school hours.
The following commentary is the work of a friend of The Price of Liberty, Donald. TPOL has added a few comments here and there in brackets and edited for clarity!
Why learn about fascism? Whether it is Italian or Spanish or Argentine style (or even the German National Socialist variant), it is an enemy of liberty. We need to recognize it and encourage people to stop mislabeling anything and anyone that they don’t like as fascists or Nazis. And especially to examine those people whom they do like to see if perhaps they are exhibiting indications of fascism (belief and behavior).
——————-
– I have been asked to write an article about Fascism in the USA, and so I am.
— In my background, I have had detailed discussions with people who have lived under both Soviet Communism of the USSR and Fascism under the Nazi state during WWII. In my interviews with these people living under both systems, they all stated there was no difference in leadership. Both were repressive and controlling.
The ether is filled with stories of how people were foolish enough to trust the various pieces of software and the data stored on immense servers when it comes to daily activities.
When the weaknesses of AI combine with the wonders of information technology, and Murphy’s Laws, life, limb, and liberty are at stake. We all remember (and shudder) the Blue Screen of Death (yes, it has an acronym: BSOD).
Many are funny (at least if you are not the victim of the falsely placed trust).
Lew Rockwell once posed an interesting observation:
The Price of Liberty very much believes that Lew’s observation is not just correct, but is something that all lovers of liberty should understand and apply.
We here at TPOL attempt to apply this principle. We are, as we sometimes note, libertarians (lovers of liberty) because we are first christians. That is, followers of Jesus the Christ; we see “extreme libertarian” anarchism and free markets as the only political and economic philosophy that is truly compatible with the New Testament. We see human liberty (both personal and economic) as a gift from our Creator.
(We do not condemn nor reject those who are lovers of liberty who are not believers – we just believe that they are wrong, and encourage them to examine themselves and the universe carefully.)
Our worldview, therefore, is based on the Bible and on the economic and political theory of libertarianism. The heart of true biblical christianity is love: God is love, and we are to love Him and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This in turn leads to what is called the Golden Rule, as stated by Jesus: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Politically and economically, and socially, this is expressed in the Zero Aggression Principle: individuals should not initiate force against others. That is, aggression against others or their property. We see such actions as sinful and illegitimate.
We are, at best, small-mouthed pacifists (as described by Heinlein and others). We believe, again as given by God, humans have the right to use force for defensive actions only: of ourselves and others. (We do not have to always use force: that is our choice. We have free will (another gift of God) to decide whether to respond or to turn the other cheek.
This is, of course, why we reject human, mandatory government. Not only is it in rebellion to God, not only does it fail to meet the most simple of standards, but claims the “right” to initiate force, to aggress against people.
We ask our readers not just to ask themselves what their worldview is, and whether or not we act in conformity to our worldview. We ask them (and ourselves) to ask those around them, those they come in contact with, how those people view the world and how they apply that view.
And give thanks to God, to readers, to friends, and to correspondents, for their understanding, encouragement, and more. We love you and pray for you.
Nathan, Debby, Gareth, Andrea, Matthias, Kaylynn, all the little ones, all the cats, and all the snakes and lizards!
The Price of Liberty 
Religious conflict spreads in North America
An interesting piece of news passed our desktop recently.
According to various mainstream media newspapers and a video blogger, the Premier of Quebec’s “Minister for secularism” (how’s that?) has introduced Bill 9 in the Quebecois National Assembly (Parliament). The bill, entitled “Act respecting the reinforcement of laicity,” is supposed to encourage secularism in public life.
To do so, it would make praying in public a crime for which anyone in the Province of Quebec could be arrested, fined, and even imprisoned. Building on the 2019 law that bans teachers (and other public service employees) from wearing religious symbols, including crosses and crucifixes.
The blogger accurately describes the bill as an attack, a form of persecution, on religion in general, including Islam, Judaism, and virtually all versions of christianity. The bill was introduced as a government bill, meaning that it has the backing of the current majority party (81 of 124 seats), the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ). (Quebec using the British-style parliamentary system but has no upper house: no Senate or House of Lords or Legislative Council). The Lieutenant Governor, who represents the King, has no veto power. Thus the bill is fairly certain to pass and become law. Note this applies only to Quebec and not the other provinces and territories of the Dominion of Canada.
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