Over the weekend CNN breathlessly reported as “Breaking News” — it breathlessly reports everything as “Breaking News” — a new poll indicating that people are increasingly frightened about terrorism. The accompanying web story stated, “Terrorism has eclipsed the economy as voters’ top pick for the biggest issue facing America, a New York Times/CBS News poll…

It’s about time someone challenged the phrase radical Islamic terrorism. The most objectionable part is the word radical since it is now popularly associated with aggression — violence against innocents — as an acceptable means to politico-religious ends. But nothing about the word radical implies approval of aggression or terrorism. Rather, the word signifies an approach that goes to the…

I usually don’t dip my feet into the perilous waters of the gun-control debate for several reasons: I’m not a gun-owner, guns have never interested me as either a pastime or culturally, and having the capacity to end people’s lives easily unnerves me. Be this as it may, I still strongly oppose gun control and Obama’s…

At Progressive Review (“Two Types of Terrorism,” Dec. 7), Sam Smith breaks terrorism down into two types: “That which uses guns and bombs and that which uses words to terrify the public into going along with whatever those in power want.” But the two aren’t unrelated, as the respective domestic reactions to the Paris bombings…

What do Barack Obama and Donald Trump have in common? Among other things, they have — or pretend to have — no clue why some Muslims hate us. Trump says (I almost typed believes, but I’m not sure anyone, including Trump, knows what he believes) Muslims should be barred from the United States until “until…

In a video produced by the Future of Freedom Foundation (“The Libertarian Angle: Do Libertarians Really Hate the Poor?“), Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling obviously intend a smashing, unanswerable rejoinder to the left-wing stereotype of right-libertarians as “pot-smoking Republicans” who hate the poor. Sadly, it only reaffirms that stereotype. It’s exactly what left-wing critics of libertarianism…

Controversy and the Australian second‑wave feminist Germaine Greer have unfailingly gone hand-in-hand over these last few decades, with much of this attributable to her vocal, yet divisive, opinions about transgender people (mainly trans women in particular). The latest chapter in Greer’s fraught dealings with the transgender community concerned a recent invitation by Cardiff University for…

Considering that what liberty we continue to enjoy in the West is a product in large part of competing legal institutions operating within overlapping jurisdictions hundreds of years ago, it’s curious that so many libertarians still believe such an order — an essential feature of free-market, or natural-law, anarchism — would be inimical to liberty. Why wouldn’t…

According to Reuters, as of last Sunday, the NSA has shut down their invasive phone surveillance program. Under the program, the NSA collected callers’ so-called metadata.  Under the system, information such as what numbers people called and when they called were gathered and retained in a government database. This program’s closing is a positive step…

While Franklin Roosevelt may not have said that Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza “may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch,” he probably thought it — just as other presidents have had similar thoughts about myriad brutal rulers. So if the U.S. government has forced the American people to support useful dictators, why is…

A recent Pew Research Survey found 40% of Americans from ages 18 to 34 support the notion that the government should limit speech that is offensive to minorities. Older Americans were less favorable to the idea, while Democratic voters were twice as likely to support the idea than Republicans. As a member of the American Left’s libertarian…

Canada recently announced plans to take in 25,000 Syrian refugees as soon as possible. However, not all refugees will be considered. Adult males without families will be excluded. Canada has added a stipulation permitting single male refugees to enter Canada if they are gay. Gay men and all other sexual and gender minorities face a…

From the start, opponents of the American empire warned that the government could not violate the rights of foreigners without eventually violating the rights of Americans. An excellent example is William Graham Sumner’s post-Spanish-American War classic The Conquest of the United States by Spain. The anti-imperialists were spot-on, and the evidence for their case keeps…

You could make a sport out of writing on police misconduct at this point. And to date I may as well have — I’ve written about police brutality and the (partly intentional) lack of statistics for said brutality. More recently I’ve written about their ability to act like a mafia towards their critics as well….

Thanksgiving is truly a great holiday. I’ve always enjoyed the day — how it feels, smells, and of course, tastes. As a college instructor, I’m fond of Turkey Day because it comes at the end of a long Fall semester. Thanksgiving offers some needed down time right before the total chaos that rings in the…

The Paris attacks on 11/13 were hardly concluded before the first cries for excluding refugees from Europe and the U.S were shouted. The tragedy is clear to those who know the politics and goals of the Islamic State, the fascist organization responsible for the attack. Like so many western chauvinists and nationalistic goons in this country…

In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut and Kenya, CNN Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta asked Barack Obama, “Why can’t we take out these bastards?” Acosta echoes many Americans who are hungry for revenge, and favor further military intervention in the Middle East. Ironically, those wishing to exact revenge with…

Hysteria over the Islamic State is now focused on the refugees seeking to escape the violence in Syria and Iraq. Predictably, the Republican-controlled House yesterday voted to increase background checks on potential refugees, a demand for omniscience that would amount to exclusion. The bill faces trouble in the Senate, however, and President Obama, who wants…

The Intercept is a website dedicated to investigative journalism. It is best known for having Glenn Greenwald as one of its editors. Its long term goal is to provide “fearless journalism” that sheds much-needed light on privacy invasions. But even knowing all of that, some of its headlines still manage to take you by surprise: Massive…

The criminal trial of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw has entered its third week. Dozens of witnesses have already taken the stand, including many of Holtzclaw’s 13 alleged sexual assault survivors and their families. As the trial progresses, one thing has become clear: Holtzclaw’s defense team is not interested in proving, based on…