These are our numbers and some comments on November: 17 op-eds published (+7 compared to October); 32 pickups (average of 1.9 per article, a disappointing dip compared to the previous month, when we got a 3.7 average); The Syrian refugee crisis has occupied the headlines in the last few months, and our most republished article…

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…

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…

The Attractions of Geo-Mutualism Appraisers Begone! I am neither a philosopher, nor an economist, nor a political scientist, and so I’ve found myself a bit out of my scholarly depth in this symposium. Prior to these exchanges, I had only slight understanding of Georgist land use proposals, and it had not occurred to me that…

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…

Gli attentati di Parigi del tredici novembre erano ancora in corso quando già si levavano le prime voci che chiedevano porte chiuse ai profughi in Europa e America. Per chi conosce la politica e gli obiettivi dello Stato Islamico, l’organizzazione fascista responsabile degli attentati, la tragedia è evidente. Come i tanti spacconi sciovinisti e nazionalisti…

My post about Donald Trump’s immigrant-deportation proposal was picked up by Newsweek. This screen shot is featured in an anti-Trump ad produced by presidential contender John Kasich. The ad, suggesting a comparison between Trump and the Nazis, has been widely discussed by news outlets and other sites. (HT: Joel Schlosberg.)

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…

L’atteggiamento isterico riguardo lo Stato Islamico ora incentra l’attenzione sui rifugiati che cercano di sfuggire alla violenza in Siria e Iraq. Prevedibilmente la camera dei deputati, a maggioranza repubblicana, ha deciso ieri di incrementare i controlli sulla vita dei potenziali rifugiati: una pretesa di onniscienza che si traduce in esclusione. Ma il progetto di legge…

The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer (Palgrave McMillan – 2012) Whether anarchy is good or not isn’t important. It’s whether it’s comparatively better than the alternatives. Or at least that’s what Michael Huemer begins arguing in chapter eight of The Problem…

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…

Jerry Taylor, del Niskanen Center, ha sganciato una bomba della verità sulla politica di Washington con un suo recente pezzo, scritto per Fox News, a proposito del declino di Rand Paul. Taylor nota come la presunta crescita del movimento libertario sulla scia della campagna elettorale di Ron Paul fosse in gran parte illusoria. I populisti…

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…

Un articolo pubblicato il 29 ottobre sul Washington Post prende in esame il piano “rivoluzionario” di Bernie Sander su come cambiare in un solo colpo il sistema bancario e quello postale. L’autore cita il fatto che “dal 1911 al 1967, le poste assunsero anche funzioni bancarie”, permettendo così ai clienti di depositare denaro in un…

If you want to see how inhumane people can be, just watch those who make and execute foreign policy. We could spend all day discussing the cruelties that politicians and bureaucrats commit against people who live inside the United States. Think how many are caged like wild animals because they manufacture, sell, or consume disapproved…

An article published on October 29th by the Washington Post discusses Bernie Sanders’s “revolutionary” plan to change the banking system and Postal Service in one fell swoop. The author mentions that “from 1911 until 1967, the Postal Service also served as a bank,” where customers could deposit money into a savings account. Sanders, recognizing that low income…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Jason Farrell‘s “Why Libertarians Are Failing at Politics” read by Athena Roberts and edited by Tony Dreher. There’s a good reason libertarians remain at the ideological fringe: “Libertarian politics” is a contradiction in terms. Libertarianism is not a third party, like the Know-Nothings or the Whigs or a prescription of policy…

The CIA’s torture program is back in the headlines this week, as three former detainees have filed suit against the two psychologists who created and administered the CIA’s Bush-era torture program. According to the ACLU (who are pushing for Attorney General Loretta Lynch to appoint a special prosecutor in the matter), Drs. James Mitchell and…

Transgender people and issues are receiving more attention in media and policy spaces, but there seems to be some uncertainty from libertarians on how to go about approaching them in both personal and political contexts. This is odd from a group that boasted acceptance of same-sex unions long before the mainstream left or right and…

C4SS Feed 44 presents David S. D’Amato‘s “Policy Research and the Limits of Statistical Utilitarianism” read by Dylan Delikta and edited by Nick Ford. As an example of misguided attempts to reduce complex systems to something “legible,” “simplified,” and therefore controllable, James C. Scott describes the “scientific forestry” efforts of 18th and 19th century Germany, instituted to…