Left-libertarians need a psychological theory and practice to augment their philosophical framework. Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) represents a good choice for left-libertarians, because it emphasizes individuality and social interest. It was formulated and begun by the psychologist, Albert Ellis. The central idea of it is that our beliefs about things that happen to us…

Será que o governo deveria punir coletivamente donos de empresas que, por aparentes razões religiosas, se recusassem a servir alguns grupos de consumidores? Embora esse comportamento seja repugnante, a recusa em prestar serviços por conta de raça, etnia ou orientação sexual é um exercício de auto-propriedade e da liberdade de não-associação. É um ato não-violento…

Should the government coercively sanction business owners who, out of apparent religious conviction, refuse to serve particular customers? While such behavior is repugnant, the refusal to serve someone because of his or her race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation is nevertheless an exercise of self-ownership and freedom of nonassociation. It is both nonviolent and nonviolative of…

On the early summer morning of July 28, 2012, Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed and Michael Walli, the Oak Ridge Three, hiked down a wooded ridge to the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At the complex the hikers cut their way through three fences using bolt cutters, stealthily moved past guard dogs and then made their way…

The Libertarian Alliance blog posted my piece on why libertarians are not conservatives. It wasn’t received very well. The poster of the article argued thusly: Note: In my view, this is a silly article. The author does to conservatism just what the more brain dead conservatives do to libertarianism – that is, to pick out…

Know how southern Republican politicians who support “right to work” laws claim they’re not against unions as such — just against closed shop contracts that force workers to join a union as a condition of employment? They’re liars. The negative outcome of the recent UAW certification vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga proves that,…

The identification of libertarians with conservatives seems never ending. At the recent International Students for Liberty conference Justin Amash equated the two. Many leftists make similar equations with the intent of demonizing libertarians as right-wingers. What is the truth of the matter? We’re most definitely not conservatives. Liberty is a radical and revolutionary idea. One…

US Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) is far from the first, and is unlikely to be the last, politician to equate libertarianism and conservatism (“Rep. Justin Amash: Conservative and libertarian ‘basically the same philosophy,’” by Jack Hunter, Rare, February 16). But the comparison is not only just plain wrong: It benefits supporters of statism on both…

Max Borders discusses the rise of the libertarians. Sheldon Richman discusses the sacralization of voting. Ramzy Baroud discusses the implosion of Iraq. Pratap Chatterjee and Tom Engelhardt discuss the surveillance state. Marjorie Cohn discusses the NSA scandal. Wendy McElroy discusses the immorality of government education. Michael S. Rozeff discusses the nation-state. Carlos Clemente discusses Chomsky’s…

Lots of action on the equality front the past few days. One story gaining national attention from Tennessee is a political action that serves to marginalize the LGBTQ community. State senator Brian Kelsey, of Memphis, has introduced a bill coined “turn the gays away.” This bill would allow businesses to refuse service to the LGBTQ community. According to the bill no “persons” will…

Norman Solomon recently published a piece about Amazon.com’s connection to the CIA. The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, claims to be a libertarian, but what kind of libertarian contracts with the CIA? A faux one. It’s not possible to be a libertarian and support one of the most odious agencies of the American state. An…

The Problem of Structure What would the constitution of a free nation look like? In trying to answer that question we immediately think in terms of a Bill of Rights, restrictions on governmental power, and so forth. And any constitution worth having would certainly include those things. But if a constitution is to be more…

I recently finished reading the second edition of Chris Matthew Sciabarra’s, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical. It was a fantastic read and is highly recommended. There is a comprehensive review in the works, but I want to use this blog post to touch on a particular quotation from We the Living. Kira is quoted thus:…

C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Barbara Sostaita & Judith Ayers’s “Liberty Beyond White Privilege” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Barbara Sostaita & Judith Ayers’s “Liberty…

The 2008 global financial crisis has had far-reaching implications, depressing markets for years. Charged with US monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank, with its mantra of “too big to fail,” is empowered to manage the economic downturn. The central bank’s monetary policies effectively redistribute wealth to the upper tiers of society — and the proof is…

Say the words “class analysis” or “class conflict” and most people will think of Karl Marx. The idea that there are irreconcilable classes, their conflict inherent in the nature of things, is one of the signatures of Marxism. That being the case, people who want nothing to do with Marxism quite naturally want nothing to…

“From Crossbows To Cryptography: Techno-Thwarting The State” [PDF] was written by Chuck Hammill and presented for Future of Freedom Conference, November 1987. Public Domain: Duplicate and Distribute Freely You know, technology—and particularly computer technology—has often gotten a bad rap in Libertarian circles. We tend to think of Orwell’s 1984, or Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, or the proximity detectors keeping East…

Wendy McElroy reviews a historical work on the surveillance state. Jonathan Cook discusses the Israel-Palestine conflict. Sheldon Richman discusses how intellectual property creates corporate concentration. Jim Lobe discusses the fall of Fallujah. Stephen Kinzer discusses the potential detente with Iran. Thaddeus Russell discusses The Other America. Kevin Carson reviews AFFEERCE: A Business Plan to Save…

John Stossel recently penned a piece titled Equality vs Liberty. In it, he argues that wealth inequality is not a serious issue. This post is the beginning of a lengthier response to him. It will be expanded into an opinion editorial. Quotations from Stossel will be used in both pieces. Stossel remarks: It’s true that…

More than a few libertarians appear to hold the view that only rights violations are wrong, bad, and deserving of moral condemnation. If an act does not entail the initiation of force, so goes this attitude, we can have nothing critical to say about it. On its face, this is strange. If you observe an…