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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After more than 18 years on the nation's highest court, Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring, a source close to Souter told CNN Thursday. Souter will leave after the current court term recesses in June, the source said. Filling Souter's seat would be President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointment -- and the first since George W. Bush's picks of Samuel Alito in 2006 and Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005. Souter, 69, was tapped for the court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, but disappointed many conservatives when he turned out to be a typical old-fashioned Yankee Republican -- a moderate, with an independent, even quirky streak. And abortion debate in 3... 2... 1... ! Get ready for more drama, invective, and empty partisan rhetoric. Things are about to get interesting (by which I mean, things are about to stay boring and predictable). And Mr. President, make sure your nominee paid his (or probably her ) taxes! In the me

Photo by Pete Souza While I published a list of 100 blunders, lies, gaffes, and bad policies the day before President Obama's hundredth in office, I was kicking myself for not publishing mine a little earlier because the New York Post beat me to the punch . I must say I am a little partial to mine because the New York Post's list has several items on it that I don't consider valid criticisms of Obama in his first hundred days as President. Here they are with my responses: 9. Turkey tried to block the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as new NATO secretary general because he didn't properly punish the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Mohammed. France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel were outraged; Obama said he supported Turkey's induction into the European Union. That's a little more of a criticism of Turkey than it is of Obama . Sarkozy and Merkel may have been outraged, but does that mean that they don't support Turkey's ind

Photo by Pete Souza For the first hundred days of President Barack Obama's administration, here is a complete list of 100 blunders, mistakes, gaffes, and public policies that threaten our freedom: 100 Blunders in 100 Days: 1. Promising to "publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days... before the President signs it," then breaking that promise over and over again . 2. Despite promising to keep lobbyists out of his administration, Obama has broken his word again and again (making 17 exceptions to this promise in his first two weeks). 3. Obama promised to eliminate income taxation for seniors making less than $50,000 a year. He has broken this promise despite numerous opportunities to keep it, including the economic stimulus package and his administration's first budget proposal. 4. The President also boasted during his campaign that "During 2009 and 2010, existing businesses will receive a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each additiona

This weekend I had the pleasure and honor of being part of a small, invitation-only academic conference, Advanced Topics in Liberty, hosted by the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) and Liberty Fund . Something rather remarkable happened at this conference: 15 intelligent, educated people with diverse viewpoints and interests gathered to talk about a controversial political issue and did so in a kind, unargumentative, and productive fashion. Frankly, given my past experience with an IHS seminar (which from talking to others about their own experiences, was a rather anomalous experience), I expected to have a room full of people with rather similar views, inclined to agree with one another too easily and not to challenge one another. What I found instead was an intensely diverse group of people who were both willing to challenge one another and disagree, but whose doing so always seemed to have the goal of coming together to the truth. The topic for the weekend was “Education, Compulsi

This is a phenomenal short video of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Parliament responding to the accusation that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. It showcases "Maggie Thatcher's" superb wit and social democrats' / welfare statists' true colors when it comes to actually helping the poor.

Photo by W. E. Messamore © 2009 All Rights Reserved As Americans protest to End the Fed today , here's another note on last week's Tea Party protests... to all of the hypocrites among the social democrats and mainstream media who laughed about the conservative "tea bagging" party and thought that its supporters were clueless- the joke is on you. I've been getting some traffic from this comment on Slate.com, which says: You do know that the people organizing the teabagger parties were the first ones to use it? Olberman and Maddow (nice respect, BTW. Do you also call Juan Williams a [edit]) were just making fun of their ignorance. http://teabagcongress.com/ [ Matthew Yglesias ] A Reminder to Tea Bag The Fools in Washington on April 1st. I mean, if you're that stupid to use a vulgar term as your rallying cry, you deserve to be mocked. As I said, the joke is on you. The Tea Partyers (or Baggers, whatever), knew exactly what we were saying when we used slogans a

In the aftermath of the wildly successful tea parties (follow the link for lots of great pictures over at Not PC ), there is another much-less-touted protest happening tomorrow- The End the Fed Protests, Saturday April 25, 2009. I highly encourage you, if you are able, to find and attend a protest in your area. There are far fewer of these and I'm sure they'll be much smaller, but they strike to the root of what is enabling all of the runaway spending happening in Washington- the abuses and unrestrained power of the Federal Reserve, a secretive, private, central bank with no checks and balances. It is time for We The People to be the check and the balance. Visit the EndTheFed website for more information and see if there's a protest happening in your area. If not, you can (and should!) still participate by calling your Congressmen and asking them to support H.R. 1207: The Federal Reserve Transparency Act - a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, or as stated in the bill

Source - ( CC ) Contributor Ben Bryan has been leading the charge for school choice (I think we should start calling it "Freedom of Education" just like we call the freedom to pick your own religion "Freedom of Religion" ...it has a nice ring to it.) in his last couple posts here and here , so I thought I'd weigh in on the discussion with another fantastic article for you to read. Before linking to it, let me say that the debate over freedom of education frustrates me so much- because there isn't one. People aren't willing to debate it. Typically when I bring it up in conversation, the assertion that government should not provide compulsory education is immediately rejected before I even have a chance to make an argument. Most people's automatic reaction is to dismiss it as silly or too radical. We've got a lot of fighting to do in order to change people's minds. Here's some more ammo: From: The Political Economy of Force-F

Most of the environmentalist groups celebrating Earth Day today advocate the draconian curtailment of basic productive activities that support and improve the lives of human beings. They are not proud to live on Earth, but ashamed of it. They do not celebrate Earth as our home, but condemn us as its intruders. The basic activities which are requirements and essential functions of man's life are destroying the Earth, they say. They argue that it is a fight and an irresolvable conflict between the Earth's well being and ours- and they side with the Earth. They believe if we want to continue living here that we need to renounce and give up the activities that are required by our human nature to live more like the animals. What else is the meaning and final result of their pet initiatives like steep emissions caps, heavy carbon taxes, and suffocating environmental regulations? The truth is that energy is a necessary foundation of human economic activity. It has brought unp

Miss California, Carrie Prejean Source ( CC ) When front running Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean was asked whether all fifty U.S. states should legalize gay marriage, her answer lit a firestorm of controversy . The Question: "Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit, why or why not." Miss California's answer: "I think it's great Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what in my country, in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be, between a man and a woman." Here's the video (followed by my commentary): Now before writing what she should have said, I would like to make a couple observations about what she did say. Notice that she did

Photo of Wilson Library at Montgomery Bell Academy ( CC ) In my last post I argued, with Auberon Herbert, that school choice is the best way to challenge the status quo and produce new ideas in education. This is a point much emphasized by contemporary advocates of school choice. This argument, however, was one among several arguments Herbert makes in his essay "Education: Help or Hindrance" . Of the several paths Herbert's argument takes, I found one of particular interest: private education, he argues, supports virtue in parents: The effort to provide for the education of children is a great moral and mental stimulus. It is the great natural opportunity of forethought and self-denial; it is the one daily lesson of unselfishness which men will learn when they will pay heed to none other. There is no factor that has played so large a part in the civilization of men as the slow formation in parents of those qualities which lead them to provide for their children. In this

A Don't Tread On Me T-shirt , one of the prizes courtesy of ReTeaParty.com Okay! The Subscription Contest prize winners have finally been determined and have all responded back to me in the affirmative that they want to claim their prizes and be announced on the blog. Everyone who subscribed via e-mail to The Humble Libertarian during the contest period was entered into a drawing for three prizes. Thank you, everyone that subscribed and promoted the contest! Here are the winners: 1st Prize: Patrick - Tennessee 2nd Prize: Greg - Michigan 3rd Prize: George - Tennessee Congratulations to Patrick, Greg, and George! What they won: 3rd place - The choice of a Campaign Bumper Sticker from Schiff2010 or Rand2010 2nd place - A "Don't Tread On Me" T-shirt from ReTeaParty.com 1st place - A "Don't Tread On Me" T-Shirt and Campaign Bumper Sticker (also courtesy of ReTeaParty.com ), as well as a copy of "The Revolution: A Manifesto" by Congress

I've recently been enjoying the barrage of articles over at Cato on the recent death (or murder) of the D.C. voucher program (see here for Cato articles on education, most of the recent of which deal with the voucher scandal). If you're unfamiliar with this situation in particular or education vouchers in general, allow me to explain: In Washington, D.C. they've had a voucher program. This basically allows students to take tax money that would have been spent educating them in public schools and spend it in private schools. Thus poor students who can't afford to choose private schools otherwise can afford it by using the tax money that would have been spent on their public education. Research has shown that the voucher program in DC has produced better results for less money spent per pupil. Yet, the DC voucher program has been killed, and before it was killed, the research demonstrating its effectiveness was conveniently kept quiet . This is outrageous. What is most

Lord North - Painting by: Nathaniel Dance There are a lot of naysayers and critics opposed to the nation-wide Tax Day Tea Party protests that took place in hundreds of cities across the United States. When annoyed at their remarks, it helps me to look at the picture above, a painting of Lord North- a fat, stupid, incompetent London bureaucrat who opposed and criticized the original Boston Tea Party. He is truly the spiritual and intellectual ancestor of the modern naysayers. They write smug little columns and make smug remarks on television news networks, saying that the analogy is false and overblown, arguing that we do not face the abuses our tea partying forefathers did. Let's put this claim to the test. I've already argued ad nauseam here that we are suffering taxation without representation because bills are being crafted and amended in secret, closed-door committee meetings and put to a vote just hours later before any of our representatives have a chance to read t

Feb 27th Tea Party Protest - Nashville, TN © 2009 W. E. Messamore Nationwide 'tea party' protests blast bailout : (CNN) -- Conservatives are showing they know their way around the Internet just as well as liberals, as more than 300 organized "tea party" protests raged across the nation Wednesday. The protests are a backlash against President Obama's bailout policies. ... Conservatives have borrowed a page from Obama's Web-savvy style which he leaned on heavily during the '08 campaign and still uses to push initiatives. ... Protesters on Wednesday said like their colonial forebears, they felt that their voices were not being heard by their government. Today is a proud day for Americans to stand together in defiance of their government's long list of abuses. The history of the present reigning establishment in Washington D.C. is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute t

Hey everybody! I'm excited to announce The Humble Libertarian is now on Twitter at ( http://twitter.com/thehuli ). There are a few reasons why: 1. Breaking News Alerts - Earlier this month I delivered two different stories to you as they were breaking: The Binghamton, New York Shooting Massacre and the Somalian Pirate Hijacking . I don't know how many of you got these stories as they were breaking, but I imagine that far more of you check your Twitter account regularly throughout the day than you do this blog or your feedreader. My hope is to do with Twitter what I cannot effectively do with this website alone, and that is provide you with critical news alerts along with my commentary as the stories are breaking . Using Twitter as a resource, I hope to turn the Humble Libertarian brand into your source for quick, important news updates as well as the libertarian analysis of current events and policy you get here at the blog every day. 2. Live Tweeting- I am also excited