On Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 7:00 pm in the beautifully restored Granada Theater in Emporia, the Emporia State University Lectures on Liberty begins its second year with a lecture on “Liberty and the Constitution” by Matthew Spalding of the Heritage Foundation. Dr. Spalding is the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at Heritage and is the author of We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future (ISI Books, 2009). He is also the editor of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, an indispensable collection of essays on the founding document. Dr. Spalding will be available after the lecture to sign his book which will be for sale in the lobby of the theater. Lectures are free and open to the public.
ESU historian Gregory L. Schneider created the Lectures on Liberty series last year. Speakers last year were: Burton Folsom (Hillsdale College) and Vincent Cannato (University of Massachusetts-Boston). Confirmed speakers this spring include Dr. Spalding, Jonathan Bean, a historian from Southern Illinois University who will be speaking on Race and Liberty, and Benjamin Powell, an economist at Suffolk University, who will be speaking on the subject In Praise of Sweatshops. The Lectures on Liberty series is intended to promote discussion and awareness of issues of liberty in American history and he economy and to raise awareness of the founder’s vision for the American republic.
For more information contact Greg Schneider at (620) 341-5565 or by e-mail at gschneid@emporia.edu.
The Granada Theater is at 807 Commercial Street in downtown Emporia. Google maps shows that from Central and Rock Road in Wichita, it’s a 84 mile drive that should take one hour and 22 minutes. Click here for the Google map with driving directions.
This event is free and open to the public. It is presented by The African American Student Association, The Young Democratic Socialists, WSU College Republicans, and The Center for Student Leadership. This event is part of WSU’s Civic Engagement Lecture Series.
Star Parker From Welfare to Warrior
The story of Star Parker is a chronicle of how she left the seductive life of drugs, crime, abortions and welfare fraud to become a leading advocate for the family.
Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education, a 501c3 non-profit think tank that provides a national voice of reason on issues of race and poverty — in the media, inner city neighborhoods, and public policy.
Star is a syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service, offering weekly op-eds to more than 400 newspapers worldwide.
As a social policy consultant, Star gives regular testimony before the United States Congress, and has appeared on major television and radio shows across the country. She is a regular commentator on C-Span, FOX News, and MSNBC. Star has debated Jesse Jackson on BET, fought for school choice on Larry King Live and defended welfare reform on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Star Parker’s personal transformation from welfare fraud to conservative crusader has been chronicled by ABC’s 20/20; Rush Limbaugh; Readers Digest; Dr. James Dobson; the Washington Times; Christianity Today; Charisma, and World Magazine. Articles and quotes by Star have appeared in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. Recently she co-hosted an episode of The View with Barbara Walters.
Her books include “Uncle Sam’s Plantation” (2003) and “White Ghetto” (2006). She works in Washington, DC, and resides in California.
The local chapter of Americans for Prosperity has been screening the PBS television series “Free to Choose.” This series from 1980 features Milton Friedman teaching about the close relationship between human freedom and economic freedom. This week, the series finishes with program ten: “How to Stay Free?”
“Democracies have only recently been considered desirable. Historically, it was feared that democracies always self-destruct when citizens, forgetting that you cannot remove want and misery through legislation, insist on government actions that physically and morally bankrupt their nation. Friedman explains why the United States has so far avoided this outcome and how we can continue to do so. This program includes an interview of Dr. Friedman by Lawrence E. Spivak.”
The program is from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm this Wednesday, in the private dining room at Mike’s Steakhouse, 2131 S. Broadway, Wichita, Kansas 67211. The telephone there is (316) 265-8122. Attendees purchase their own meals from the regular menu.
To be precise, it will be Kansas City, Missouri, but that’s close enough. This event — American Liberty Tour — is an opportunity to hear some great speakers, get some training, and make new friends. The Kansas City stop is on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009.
According to the organization’s website: “The American Liberty Tour is aimed at generating mass awareness and promotion of liberty, and the effort required as a country to retain it.”
American Majority will be offering candidate and activist training in conjunction with this event.
The page for the Kansas City stop is Kansas City American Liberty Rally. On that page you can RSVP for the rally, and also separately for the activist training by American Majority.
At a forum on health care in Wichita held last Sunday, Dr. Douglas Bradham, DrPH, professor and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the KU Medical School-Wichita, said this:
“Direct-to-patient advertising for procedures and for pharmaceuticals, in my mind, should be eliminated.” The audience — a left-leaning group — applauded.
Bradham then gave a few reasons why this advertising is harmful. He’s probably correct in his diagnosis.
But the suppression of free speech that would be necessary to implement his recommendation is intolerable. I’m surprised that the audience agreed with Bradham’s proposed restrictions on such a basic human right.
Today we learn that Rose Friedman has died. The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice has a notice at Remembering Rose Friedman. Also Reason has Rose Friedman, R.I.P. From the Reason notice:
“Because she was collaborator on his major works of popular political and economic philosophy and advocacy, most importantly Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, she deserves her fair share of the glory and regard her husband Milton got. Consult my March 2007 article in Reason magazine for the ideas and accomplishments of the Friedmans in helping make America a place that is in some respects actually freer, and in most respects an intellectual environment where the idea of human liberty has wider play than it did before they did their long, arduous work of explaining the benefits of liberty, often against great opposition.”
I’ve not attended any of their meetings, but I’ve seen some of these folks in action, so I know the members of the South Central Kansas 9-12 group are a dedicated bunch. If you’re looking for a group where you can be involved in working for freedom as defined in the United States Constitution, this is a good place to start.
The next meeting of the South Central Kansas group is on Thursday, August 13, at the Wichita Westlink Library Branch, located at 8575 Bekemeyer in Wichita. The meeting starts at 6:30 pm, with social hour starting at 6:00 pm. Being held in a public library, I’m guessing the social hour doesn’t feature cocktails.
Following is the group’s brochure. (This is a Scribd document. Click on the rectangle at the right of the document’s title bar to get a full-screen view.)
Here’s a slide show of some photographs I took of neighborhood fireworks on Independence Day. It’s a challenge to take photographs of fireworks, at least for me, and a good dose of luck is needed to get just the right shot.
There’s some coverage of the Wichita, Kansas tea party on television. Click on Wichita tea party coverage on KSN TV to view coverage from KSN Television.
Susan Estes, Western Kansas Field Director for AFP-Kansas does a great job explaining the spirit behind the tea parties.
Jason Kravarik, the reporter for KSN Television, as part of the story consulted a Wichita State University professor who expressed doubt about the ability of the tea party movement to generate broad appeal. That’s a problem that those who advocate for freedom face. Many people have a stake in the government continuing to dish out goodies. Those who simply want to be left alone to pursue their lives and happiness in freedom are a distinct minority.
By the way, KSN reporter Kravarik is benefiting from government in a way that you and I probably can’t. He lives in a downtown condominium building that is seeking to extend Wichita’s facade improvement program in ways it hasn’t been applied. In order for Kravarik’s building to benefit — and he did sign the petition that pleads for this special treatment — the city will have to waive two standards that buildings have previously had to meet in order to qualify for special assessment financing. See In Wichita, special assessment financing gone wild for details.
Here’s a message sent to me by Mike Shaw. This seems like it will be an interesting event. For more information, contact Mike Shaw at mshaw21@cox.net.
Too many times we have heard the upcoming National Holiday referred to as “firecracker day.” I wonder, have we really been dumbed down to the point we no longer know why we celebrate on that day?
As such, a team of good voices will be reading the Declaration of Independence aloud this upcoming 4th of July. We will be at the south steps of the old Sedgwick County Courthouse at 9:00 a.m., across the street east of the new courthouse. The building is located in the north east corner of the intersection of Main and Central. It is a Saturday, so we hope we will have a good turnout, and the county asks that we stay off the grass. Beware, it is a scary document when you realize these men were risking their lives, fortunes, and reputations in signing this document and declaring our country free of England. A copy of the original document will be on display. I’m hoping we can make this a yearly event.
John Stossel is the best-known libertarian in the news media.
As the co-anchor of the long-running and immensely popular ABC News program 20/20, auteur of a continuing series of specials on topics ranging from corporate welfare to educational waste to laws criminalizing consensual adult behavior, and author of best-selling books such as Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, Stossel brings a consistent message of liberty to millions of viewers on a weekly basis.
In his article Americans Love Government, Walter E. Williams wonders why we rely on something that we have so little faith in:
According to latest Rasmussen Reports, 30 percent of Americans believe congressmen are corrupt. Last year, Congress’ approval rating fell to 9 percent, its lowest in history. If the average American were asked his opinion of congressmen, among the more polite terms you’ll hear are thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks. But what do the same people say when our nation faces a major problem? “Government ought to do something!” When people call for government to do something, it is as if they’ve been befallen by amnesia and forgotten just who is running government. It’s the very people whom they have labeled as thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks.
So why do people rely on government so much? Here’s what Williams says:
I don’t think that stupidity, ignorance or insanity explains the love that many Americans hold for government; it’s far more sinister and perhaps hopeless. I’ll give a few examples to make my case. Many Americans want money they don’t personally own to be used for what they see as good causes such as handouts to farmers, poor people, college students, senior citizens and businesses. If they privately took someone’s earnings to give to a farmer, college student or senior citizen, they would be hunted down as thieves and carted off to jail. However, they get Congress to do the identical thing, through its taxing power, and they are seen as compassionate and caring. In other words, people love government because government, while having neither moral nor constitutional authority, has the legal and physical might to take the property of one American and give it to another. (Emphasis added.)
What does this lead to? Williams paints a grim picture, but if you’ve read Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (or see the cartoon version), you know very well the danger that we face. Here’s how Williams explains the danger:
The path we’re embarked upon, in the name of good, is a familiar one. The unspeakable horrors of Nazism, Stalinism and Maoism did not begin in the ’30s and ’40s with the men usually associated with those names. Those horrors were simply the end result of a long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the name of “social justice.” In Germany, it led to the Enabling Act of 1933: Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation and, after all, who could be against a remedy to relieve distress? Decent but misguided Germans, who would have cringed at the thought of what Nazi Germany would become, succumbed to Hitler’s charisma.
Today’s Americans, enticed, perhaps enchanted, by charismatic speeches, are ceding so much power to Washington, and like yesteryear’s Germans are building the Trojan Horse for a future tyrant.
Tonight in Northbrook, Illinois, about 300 people gathered to attend an awards ceremony presented by the Sam Adams Alliance.
The Sam Adams Alliance inspires, trains, and links allies to advance economic and individual liberty through a strategic combination of new media tools and traditional communications.
The Sam Adams Alliance is a “to-do tank” that educates, informs, and empowers citizens about important political issues through a set of new media tools (i.e. Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia) that allow ordinary people to fight big government.
So far awards in three categories have been given.
“Best Microblogger of the Year” award went to Melissa Clouthier of The Woodlands, Texas. Just since November, she has used Twitter to advance the causes of liberty.
Ruth Bendl of Portland, Oregon received the “Voter Watchdog Award.” Her work included digging up records of dead voters in Oregon. According to Bendl, Oregon has sloppy voter registration rules. This is a matter of homeland security, she said. Our adversaries know our weaknesses. It’s not just about stealing elections, it could be a case of stealing our country. She urged citizens to clean up the voter roles nationwide.
Three men won “Wikiteer Awards” for their work on wiki sites that the Sam Adams Alliance sponsors. These sites — Ballotpedia for ballot access issues, Judgepedia for information about judges, and Sunshine Review for government transparency — are important contributions to creating an informed citizenry.
The Founding Fathers, who took such deliberate care to preserve personal liberty in our Constitution, would be ashamed by the hysteria and pandering that have consumed Washington, D.C., over bonuses paid to employees of American International Group.
There is no justification for rewarding people for failure, but the conduct of elected officials calling for legislative retribution is far more egregious.
Members of both parties are tripping over one another in a rush to endorse legislation that would tax bonuses paid to employees of companies receiving bailout money at rates as high as 90 percent.
Not that Congress should be giving away taxpayer money for handouts to failed companies, but it easily could have prevented this mess by putting some restrictions on the money.
Taxpayers are justifiably angered by the lack of fiduciary responsibility, and Congress is predictably responding with diversionary tactics.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, hit the nail on the head, saying, “This bill is nothing more than an attempt for everyone to cover their butt.”
As unseemly as that is, it pales in comparison with the assault on the Constitution and our personal freedom. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, called the legislation “an ex post facto bill as well as a bill of attainder, which is unconstitutional, so they’re using the tax code to punish people.”
“Ex post facto” is a legal term referring to an attempt to go back in time and apply new circumstances to something that already has occurred. A bill of attainder is a legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment. Both are prohibited by the Constitution.
Some members of Congress may be acting like children, but this isn’t a game in which the rules can be changed to alter the outcome. It is of paramount importance that Congress act responsibly to preserve the principles of liberty and freedom. Today the issue is bonuses paid to AIG employees, but there are endless opportunities to use the tax code punitively.
For example, House and Senate leaders are pursuing the elimination of secret balloting in order to make it easier for unions to form. Imagine if they decided to encourage the behavior they wanted by imposing special taxes on nonunion workers.
Using the tax code to punish people who raise the ire of Congress is wrong under any circumstance.
If Congress really wants to show leadership in going after those responsible for this latest abuse of taxpayer money, it should pass the hat at the next joint session.
In the meanwhile, we must send a very strong message to Washington:
Knock off the grandstanding, start acting like the leaders you promised to be, and keep your hands off our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and liberties.
I received this fine article from Al Terwelp of Overbrook, Kansas, and he agreed to let me publish it here.
Our nation is in crisis. It has become very difficult to see the right direction out of our predicament. We are overwhelmed with opinions, viewpoints, and expressions of good intention regarding solutions. I caution placing hopes [...]
Here’s Paul Jacob’s commentary for today.
I’m annoyed by a new law passed in the Michigan town of Brighton City.
According to the ordinance, police may fine anyone who is too annoying in public. Up to $500. The ordinance states: “It shall be unlawful for a person to engage in a course of conduct or repeatedly [...]
From FreePaulJacob.com
A super editorial appeared in yesterday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, defending Paul (and, more generally, the First Amendment) and calling AG Drew Edmondson a “zealot” and “a bully with considerable power, a high state office, and more ambition than respect for the rights of others.”
The Sunday lead editorial read in part:
This indictment has been hanging over [...]
A Wall Street Journal editorial explains the recent development in the case of Paul Jacob and two others in Oklahoma. This case is of interest for a few reasons.
First, I know and like Paul Jacob. He’s been at the forefront of the fight for term limits. The Oklahoma case stems from his advocacy of initiative and referendum, something we don’t have in Kansas.
As our country works its way through a period of turmoil, we must remember that there is another way than what those on the left and right propose. That way, the way of liberty, is the subject of For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, by Murray N. Rothbard. (The book is available to read [...]
Community service: involuntary servitude dressed in polite language. Change … Obama Announces Creation Of His Marxist Youth Corps. See also Emanuel Discusses Compulsory Civilian Youth Force.
I just returned from Austin, Texas, attending a conference put on by Americans For Prosperity partnering with Sam Adams Alliance, Heritage Foundation, Leadership Institute, and Media Research Center. Thank you to my friend Erik Telford for inviting me to this conference.
We had some great speakers. Robert Novak is a favorite person of mine. I devoured [...]
According to Americans for Tax Reform today, July 16, 2008, marks national Cost of Government Day:
On July 16, Americans mark the national Cost of Government Day (COGD), the date on the calendar year when the average American finishes paying off his or her share of federal, state and local spending, and the regulatory burden. Cost [...]
Later this week I’ll be traveling to Austin, Texas to attend Americans For Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit, also known as RightOnline Summit.
There will be many excellent speakers, including a favorite person of mine, Robert Novak, whose recent autobiography The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington I highly recommend.
Naturally, I’ll be blogging [...]
A writer in the Wichita Eagle’sWE blog recently wrote this cautionary note about what our country would be like if libertarians were in charge: “… you can HOPE that the acid factory down the road didn’t taint your well water and the food you buy isn’t disease ridden.” This writer seems to believe that under libertarianism, one can do whatever one wants, and to heck with the consequences.
University of Kansas School of Medicine professor Dr. Rick Kellerman is on the front page of the May 30 Wichita Eagle. Kellerman is upset that a complete ban on smoking is not expected to be adopted by the city council at their June 3 meeting.
Once you are exposed to the complete picture — and For a New Liberty has been the leading means of exposure for more than a quarter of a century — you cannot forget it. It becomes the indispensable lens through which we can see events in the real world with the greatest possible clarity.
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto by Murray N. Rothbard
An absolutely awesome book. If you are interested in liberty, this is, in my opinion, the most important book to read.
I think Lew Rockwell, who I recently had the pleasure to meet at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, says it best about this book:
Once you are exposed to the complete picture — and For a New Liberty has been the leading means of exposure for more than a quarter of a century — you cannot forget it. It becomes the indispensable lens through which we can see events in the real world with the greatest possible clarity. … Its logical and moral consistency, together with its empirical explanatory muscle, represents a threat to any intellectual vision that sets out to use the state to refashion the world according to some pre-programmed plan. And to the same extent it impresses the reader with a hopeful vision of what might be. … He never talks down to his readers but always with clarity. Rothbard speaks for himself. … The reader will discover on his or her own that every page exudes energy and passion, that the logic of his argument is impossibly compelling, and that the intellectual fire that inspired this work burns as bright now as it did all those years ago.
And finally, from Lew again:
The book is still regarded as “dangerous” precisely because, once the exposure to Rothbardianism takes place, no other book on politics, economics, or sociology can be read the same way again. What was once a commercial phenomenon has truly become a classical statement that I predict will be read for generations to come.
This book is available for purchase at the Mises Institute at http://mises.org. It may be read in its entirety from that site, and an audio recording is available there as well.
The libertarian creed, finally, offers the fulfillment of the best of the American past along with the promise of a far better future. Even more than conservatives, who are often attached to the monarchical traditions of a happily obsolete European past, libertarians are squarely in the great classical liberal tradition that built the United States and bestowed on us the American heritage of individual liberty, a peaceful foreign policy, minimal government, and a free-market economy. Libertarians are the only genuine current heirs of Jefferson, Paine, Jackson, and the abolitionists.
The opening words of Capitalism and Freedom, by Milton Friedman, written around 1962:
In a much quoted passage in his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” It is a striking sign of the temper of our times that the controversy about this passage centered on its origin and not on its content. Neither half of the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society.
The problem is that politicians are not supposed to have power over us – we’re supposed to be free. We seem to have forgotten that freedom means the absence of government coercion. So when politicians and the media celebrate political power, they really are celebrating the power of certain individuals to use coercive state force.
I wonder how many of the newspaper reporters and editorial writers praising Milton Friedman, not to mention politicians, knew of his strong belief in and advocacy of a very limited government. Would they still praise him? Would they be willing to take his advice?
There is no doubt in my mind that smoking cigarettes and breathing secondhand smoke are harmful to health. If a young person asked my advice as to whether to smoke cigarettes, I would strongly urge them to avoid smoking.
But it doesn’t follow that we should have laws against smoking, or laws that govern how businesses such as bars and restaurants must accommodate smokers and non-smokers.
In a free society dedicated to personal liberty, people should be able to gamble. But that’s not what we have, as in a free society dedicated to personal liberty, people wouldn’t be taxed to pay for the problems that others cause in the pursuit of their happiness.
How does this relate to the issue of casino gambling in Wichita and Kansas?
I, Government Published in The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, October 2002 by D.W. MacKenzie Click here to read the article.
This article illustrates just how large government at all levels has become.
Do we really want governments so powerful that they can do the things described in this article?
How have we let this happen? Will we ever be able to shrink the size and intrusiveness of government? Even under a president who labels himself a conservative, government spending has grown rapidly. Even the most modest proposals to take away power from the government and give it back to the people appear to have no chance of success. The proposal for social security private accounts is an example of this.
About a year ago I became acquainted with the writings of the economist Walter E. Williams. After reading his foreword to this book, I understand — as Williams says himself — how important Bastiat’s writings are. As Williams says:
Reading Bastiat made me keenly aware of all the time wasted, along with the frustrations of going down one blind alley after another, organizing my philosophy of life. The Law did not produce a philosophical conversion for me as much as it created order in my thinking about liberty and just human conduct.
And then this:
…Bastiat’s greatest contribution is that he took the discourse out of the ivory tower and made ideas on liberty so clear that even the unlettered can understand them and statists cannot obfuscate them. Clarity is crucial to persuading our fellowman of the moral superiority of personal liberty.
I am tempted to repeat in full Dr. Williams’s foreword, but you would do well to read it yourself.
The Law is a book about liberty and justice. One of the most important things I learned from reading this book is that the proper function of the law is not to create justice, but to prevent injustice. This makes the laws we should have quite simple. Instead of deciding how much to take from us in the form of taxes (plunder) and how to distribute it, laws should protect us from plunder.
Today, in the town of Hutchinson, Kansas, an indoor smoking ban takes effect. I hope Wichita does not pass the same law. I believe the evidence that shows smoking is tremendously harmful to the health of the smoker, and also dangerous to those around the smoker. Personally, I don’t care to be around smokers and I take measures to avoid places where I will be exposed to cigarette smoke. So shouldn’t I favor a smoking ban in Wichita?
The Kansas Legislature blew through a $900 million surplus in two years, and now they're asking you for more. Learn more from AFP-Kansas, the state's voice for economic freedom and growth, of how we can return fiscal sanity to the Kansas Statehouse.
Government is essentially the negation of liberty. — Ludwig von Mises
It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government. — Thomas Paine
It does not take a majority to prevail, but an irate, tireless minority keen to set brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. — Samuel Adams
You do not know, and will never know, who the Remnant are, nor where they are, nor how many of them there are, nor what they are doing or will do. Two things you know, and no more: first, that they exist; second, that they will find you. — Albert Jay Nock
A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that ... it gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. — Milton Friedman
As the coercive power of the state will alone decide who is to have what, the only power worth having will be a share in the exercise of this directing power. — F.A. Hayek
The kind of rules we should have are the kind that we'd make if our worst enemy were in charge. — Walter E. Williams
Your principle has placed these words above the entrance of the legislative chamber: “whosoever acquires any influence here can obtain his share of legal plunder.” And what has been the result? All classes have flung themselves upon the doors of the chamber crying: “A share of the plunder for me, for me!” — Frederic Bastiat
This was all before politicians gave us the idea that the things we could not afford individually we could somehow afford collectively through the magic of government. — Thomas Sowell
While the short-run prospects for liberty at home and abroad may seem dim, the proper attitude for the Libertarian to take is that of unquenchable long-run optimism. — Murray N. Rothbard
Barbra Streisand told Diane Sawyer that we're in a global warming crisis, and we can expect more and more intense storms, droughts and dust bowls. But before they act, weather experts say they're still waiting to hear from Celine Dion. — Jay Leno
The great virtue of free enterprise is that it forces existing businesses to meet the test of the market continuously, to produce products that meet consumer demands at lowest cost, or else be driven from the market. It is a profit-and-loss system. Naturally, existing businesses generally prefer to keep out competitors in other ways. That is why the business community, despite its rhetoric, has so often been a major enemy of truly free enterprise. — Milton Friedman
Increasingly, it seems that the biggest difference between conservatives and liberals is that the conservatives know government is force. But that doesn't stop them from using it. — John Stossel
One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license. — P.J. O'Rourke
Late one night in Washington, D.C. a mugger wearing a ski mask jumped into the path of a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs. "Give me your money!" he demanded. Indignant, the affluent man replied, "You can't do this. I'm a United States Congressman!" "In that case," replied the robber, "give me my money!" — Related by Walter Block
The libertarian creed, finally, offers the fulfillment of the best of the American past along with the promise of a far better future. Even more than conservatives, who are often attached to the monarchical traditions of a happily obsolete European past, libertarians are squarely in the great classical liberal tradition that built the United States and bestowed on us the American heritage of individual liberty, a peaceful foreign policy, minimal government, and a free-market economy. Libertarians are the only genuine current heirs of Jefferson, Paine, Jackson, and the abolitionists. — From "For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto" by Murray N. Rothbard
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: “But what would you replace it with?” When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with? — Thomas Sowell
Here’s Williams’ law: Whenever the profit incentive is missing, the probability that people’s wants can be safely ignored is the greatest. — Walter E. Williams
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. — Barry Goldwater
A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests. — Milton Friedman
When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will inevitably destroy itself. — F.A. Hayek
The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. — H.L. Mencken
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. — C.S. Lewis
When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. — Benjamin Franklin
What is euphemistically called government-corporate "partnership" is just government coercion, political favoritism, collectivist industrial policy, and old-fashioned federal boondoggles nicely wrapped up in a bright-colored ribbon. It doesn’t work. — Ronald Reagan
Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. — Ludwig von Mises
The problem is big government. If whoever controls government can impose his way upon you, you have to fight constantly to prevent the control from being harmful. With small, limited government, it doesn’t much matter who controls it, because it can’t do you much harm. — Harry Browne
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. — Frederic Bastiat
It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil. — F.A. Hayek
Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself ... Economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom. — Milton Friedman
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. — Will Rogers
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened. — Norman Thomas
[The political system] tends to give undue political power to small groups that have highly concentrated interests; to give greater weight to obvious, direct and immediate effects of government action than to possibly more important but concealed, indirect and delayed effects; to set in motion a process that sacrifices the general interest to serve special interests rather than the other way around. There is, as it were, an invisible hand in politics that operates in precisely the opposite direction to Adam Smith's invisible hand. — Milton Friedman
I'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the faculty of Harvard. — William F. Buckley Jr.
Liberty is not a means to a political end. It is itself the highest political end. — Lord Acton
The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another. — Milton Friedman
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens. — Adam Smith
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. — H.L. Mencken
This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the "hidden" confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard. — Alan Greenspan, “Gold and Economic Freedom” [1966]
Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion — the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation of individuals — the technique of the marketplace. — Milton Friedman
The compelling issue to both conservatives and liberals is not whether it is legitimate for government to confiscate one’s property to give to another, the debate is over the disposition of the pillage. — Walter Williams
In Germany, they came first for the Communists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then ... they came for me ...
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.
— Pastor Martin Niemöller
There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as "caring" and "sensitive" because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll do good with his own money — if a gun is held to his head. — P.J. O'Rourke
The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community. — David Boaz
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. — Thomas Jefferson
After all, only the imagination limits the kind of laws and restrictions that can be written in the name of saving the planet. — Walter E. Williams
One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary. — Ayn Rand
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick. ... It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. — Adam Smith
Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. — Immanuel Kant
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it. — Frederic Bastiat
