What Do Terrorists Want?

After the terrorist violence in Brussels many people, including Barack Obama, said we should not change our way of life and live in fear because that is what terrorists want. Maybe, but is that all they want? It seems that something important is left out of the story. In the classical model of terrorism, instilling fear (along with causing death and injury) is not an end in itself. It's a means to an end.

Help Support America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited

You can support my efforts to promote this book through PayPal -- see the link to the right -- or by becoming a patron at Patreon. I hope you'll consider it. Thanks!

Watch This Space

This morning I put the finishing touches on my book America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited. Details to follow...

It's Not Impossible

Maybe Trump's secret mission is to rehabilitate establishment politicians in the eyes of the people.

Tibor Machan, RIP

Tibor R. Machan, the indefatigably prolific libertarian philosopher, died March 24 at the age of 77. He was a founding editor of Reason and the author or editor of many -- many -- books, scholarly papers, articles, and letters to editors. Having first seen him speak in 1970 (as I recall), I worked with Tibor in several capacities and always found him interesting and challenging. I had disagreements with him, and he could be difficult at times. But he was, in my experience, a good person with an oversized love of life. Reason's obituary is here.

As Usual, Adam Smith Had It Largely Right

I'm an anarchist, but I still like this from Adam Smith (1755), a lovely man, indeed:

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.

By comparison with today, how nice does "peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice" sound? 

Trump's Toxic Aggrieved-Nation Shtick

The key to Donald Trump's presidential campaign -- the feature that explains nearly everything else about that toxic dump -- is his aggrieved-nation shtick. Just about everything Trump says (when he's not adoring himself or belittling others) is about how the once-great American nation has been humbled by the rest of the world. To hear him tell it, the United States is a 99-pound weakling who repeatedly has had sand kicked in his face by everyone. "We don't win anymore," he says. "We don't win with trade. We don't win with the military. We don't win."

It's Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day, and Einstein's birthday! I'm gonna party likes it's 1592.

TGIF: Conceived in Tyranny

If the American Revolution was in some large measure a tax rebellion, we should appreciate the bitter irony that the U.S. Constitution was in some large measure a reaction to a tax rebellion. It's another reason we can reasonably view the move toward the Constitution -- toward, that is, the concentration of power in a national government -- as a counter-revolution and something for libertarians to abhor.

On Trade, Sanders and Trump Are Peas in a Rotten Pod

Neither Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist, nor Donald Trump, the self-described terrific businessman, knows squat about economics. If their polices were enacted, regular working people would be harmed.

Trump Loses Debate to Dead Economist

HT: Mark Perry

TGIF: Trump's Creators

The Donald Trump phenomenon is indeed the creature of the Republican establishment, but there's more to it than that.

Webinar: FBI versus Apple

My latest webinar at Liberty.me covered the FBI-v-Apple case.

How Well Does the Constitution Protect Liberty?

I was a recent guest on Libertarianism.org's podcast series Free Thoughts with Aaron Powell and Trevor Burrus. Have a listen: "How Well Does the Constitution Protect Liberty?"