The Humble Libertarian original

What really caught my eye about this story is that there are two separate, but very similar incidents that have both recently occurred in the U.S. and the U.K. where the state thinks it can get off telling parents they can't babysit each others children. In Michigan, a woman has been threatened by the state for babysitting her neighbor's children : Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood's children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school. Regulators who oversee child care, however, don't see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she'd be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers. In England, two women (who happen to be police officers) were told by the state that they were breaking the l

Rand Paul's 3rd Quarter Closing Update: The Rand Paul campaign is on the verge of a groundbreaking achievement- they are about to raise $1 million in one quarter (outfundraising Dr. Paul's primary opponent, Trey Grayson for the quarter). But Rand needs your help! The ticker on his website needs to cross $1,112,000 by midnight tonight in order to reach that goal, which means as of 12:30 PM Central we need to raise Rand Paul just $17,000 by midnight. You think the group that raised him four hundred and thirty thousand dollars on one day last month can handle that? Me too! Please give even just a little ($10 or $25 makes a huge difference!) right this second . Reporting over a million for the quarter sounds much better and will generate far more press than reporting "almost a million" for the quarter. Adam Kokesh for Congress Another Liberty Candidate- Adam Kokesh is having a "mini-money-bomb" today to push past $100,000k for the quarter in his New Mexico co

So I went out for some air and sunlight yesterday as I like to do, and ended up producing the video above. I'm amending the birthday giveaway contest to add that if you embed this video in an update on your blog, you get two more entries in the drawing. Just remember to e-mail me with a link to your post. Here are some previous shenanigans: What can I say? Libertarians like to have fun (Plus it's always good to know how the U.S. Dollar must feel by traveling downward at a high velocity! Did I already make that joke in the video? Oh well... this is a long parenthetical statement.).

With the initial, limited release of Michael Moore's newest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story , I have guest posted an article at Rise of Reason explaining how government intrusion, not free market capitalism, is to blame for the problems Michael Moore correctly denounces. Here's an excerpt: Capitalism, as the film’s title suggests, is the culprit and the target of Michael Moore’s misguided polemics. The free market is the problem and more government regulation is the solution. This common line of thought and rhetoric is so tragic not merely because it is mistaken, but because the mistake is predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of capitalism itself. Read the full article here (and Digg it here ). For an excellent article that clarifies just what capitalism is and why it is such an enlightened and prosperous political and economic system, read " The Truth About Capitalism ."

As many of you already know, this blog turns one year old in less than a week on October 2nd, when in 2008, I put this blog together and published its first post (the About Page ). I've done a lot of things to renew and revamp the blog. To begin with, I have some phenomenal articles in store for you during the month of October! New Ways to Support T H L Additionally, I have put together several new pages to help T H L supporters know how they can make a measurable difference towards making this website the hottest new political blog on the Internet. Visit the new and improved "Support Page" by clicking here or using the little button with a heart on it at the top of the sidebar. Attention Webmasters and Bloggers : Of particular interest to webmasters and bloggers should be two new pages. One offers paid advertising at T H L (a quick and affordable way to get traffic to your site). The other offers paid consulting services to help you improve and market your website

By: Ryan Jaroncyk , T H L Contributor Last night, CBS's 60 Minutes aired its highly anticipated interview with our top commander of the Afghanistan War, General Stanley McChrystal. General McChrystal has been enlisted by the Obama administration to generate a new war strategy at a time when U.S. casualties are spiking, Taliban militants are rapidly gaining the upper hand, and the Afghan government is mired in corruption. Despite the addition of nearly 21,000 additional troops this year, General McChrystal is calling for more troops, up to 40,000 more according to some reports . General McChrystal is warning that the United States may lose the war within the next 12-18 months if the situation on the ground further deteriorates. After watching the interview, I thought I'd share a few of my initial thoughts and impressions. Impressions of the interview The interview lasted about 15 minutes, which in my view, was shockingly brief considering our nation is bogged down in a deadly

Earlier this year, I put together a wildly popular list of the Top 100 Libertarian Blogs and Websites on the Internet (if you don't believe me, just Google "libertarian websites" and see what turns up at the top of the results). Well it's time for another revision of the list. Over the past few months, as I've grown better-acquainted with the libertarian movement and its presence on the Internet, I have noticed some pretty glaring oversights on the list. Additionally, I still get feedback about the list with more websites to consider, both in my inbox and in comments on the list itself and this post announcing a previous revision. So please take a look at the list, peruse the comments at both of the links above, and feel free to drop some more suggestions in the comment thread of this post so that I can make the list better than ever! I'm also considering expanding it to include the Top 1 50 Libertarian Blogs and Websites on the Internet, in which case I&

Okay- discussion point for the week: should American libertarians [1] work within the confines of the two party system and operate through the Republican Party for instance, in order to achieve an ideal government? Or should we seek out third parties like the Libertarian Party and Constitution Party? Or ought we to stay entirely outside the purview of partisan politics altogether and simply focus on educating people about the principles they have forgotten (or- more likely- have never been taught)? [1] Note the small "l" - I use this word to denote those who believe in the principles of liberty, whether they style themselves liberals, conservatives, or something else altogether)

Feel free to click the image to get a bigger version that you can read. I got an e-mail with a link to this article (Michelle Malkin covered it too ) about a high school teacher whose school didn't show Obama's speech to students, but who just couldn't live without indoctrinating those students' fertile little minds, so he (she?) played a video of Obama's speech to Congress with his health care proposal, and made them take a quiz on it afterward. Note: this was not for a civics or government class- it was an anatomy class. There's really no reason to play the video and give a graded quiz like this that has nothing to do with anatomy. It's unprofessional, partisan, and petty (and just not fair to the students). Anyways, the author of the post, Teri- put up a screen shot of the quiz the students were made to take, and I decided I'd have a little fun with it. I was always a bit of a "smart alec" in school (which some teachers found charming and

This Sunday, I had the exciting privilege of interviewing a candidate for U.S. Congress, the strict Constitutionalist, RJ Harris . You can listen to that interview in its entirety here . If you would prefer to read a shorter, abbreviated text version, I have transcribed it for you below: W. E. Messamore: Mr. Harris, you're on the air! How are you doing tonight, sir? RJ Harris: Very good, Wes. How are you and your listeners? Hope all is well. W. E. Messamore: Ah- doing very well. Really- excited to talk to you because- I'm just excited to have a candidate that I'm excited about! RJ Harris: (chuckle) W. E. Messamore: Um, before Congressman Paul made his historic presidential bid in '07, so many Americans who feel the way we do as Constitutionalists, felt that there were few really good choices out there we can be excited about, and then after Dr. Paul's run, it seems that all of you are just showing up everywhere, running in all kinds of elections, on a state, l

The Fight is on! Rand Paul's grassroots "money bomb" fundraiser has already raised over one hundred thousand dollars today to counter Trey Grayson's Washington establishment fundraiser , and it's not even 2:00 here in Middle America! Perhaps more exciting- he is within striking distance of putting his entire campaign's total above one million. Please visit RandPaul2010.com, and help make $1 million a reality. It would be excellent if he could announce that on Fox Business Channel with Neil Cavuto in just three hours at 6 pm Eastern. Courtesy of RandPaulGraphs . Here is a rousing e-mail sent out by the Rand Paul campaign. It's almost poetic: Friends in Liberty , Something big is going on in our country. Something very big. And it's happening right now. Imagine , if you will, the senators who voted for the 2008 bailou t. They pulled off the greatest robbery in history, and were so powerful that not only did they keep their positions; they were able t

By: Ryan Jaroncyk , T H L Contributor In my recent blog, " Make a choice: contain Al Qaeda or nation build in Afghanistan ," I endorsed George Will's proposal for a more limited and focused mission. Now, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Ralph Peters, has issued a similar proposal in the New York Post . Like Will, Peters advocates a more narrowly defined mission, one that specifically targets Al-Qaeda and any unabashed cohorts, instead of expending endless amounts of blood and treasure on rebuilding a corrupt nation-state. If adopted, such an approach would likely save hundreds of billions of dollars, decrease the casualty count by thousands, lower suicide rates and PTSD in the military , prevent a resurgence of Al-Qaeda safe havens, and inspire the Afghanis to fight for their own future. Most conservatives, however, appear to be quite reluctant to adopt this type of approach. Much like Iraq, they are far more willing, at this time, to sign off on thousands more troop

How exciting! The Humble Libertarian 's first birthday is coming up this October 2nd. That's right, this blog turns 1 in less than two weeks! It is unbelievable to consider how far we've come in such a short time and positively energizing to dream big for this libertarian website's future. To celebrate, I'm giving away some really awesome prizes: 3rd Place - A copy of " The Revolution: A Manifesto " by Congressman Ron Paul ( Amazon.com's "Most Loved" Book of 2008 ): 2nd Place - A free 1 year NRA Membership, which includes: - Official NRA members-only shooter's cap - Your choice of monthly NRA magazines - Membership card and automobile decal - Insurance for you and your guns - Invitations to "Friends of NRA" dinners, other special events and more... GRAND PRIZE - An autographed copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, by none other than U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul . I got this pocket Constitution and Decla

By: Ryan Jaroncyk , T H L Contributor Make a choice: contain Al Qaeda or nation-build in Afghanistan. General Stanley McChrystal, top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has called for more troops in Afghanistan , saying: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible." Afghan President, Hamid Karzai supports the general's recommendation. But General McChrystal also said earlier this month that there is no evidence to suggest a major Al-Qaeda presence in the war torn country. In light of McChrystal's assessment, columnist George Will writes in a recent Washington Post op-ed : "If U.S. forces are there to prevent reestablishment of Al-Qaeda bases -- evidently there are none now -- must there be nation-building invasions of Somalia, Yemen and other sovereignty vacuums?" If Al-Qaeda's

RJ Harris is an Army veteran with two deployments to Iraq who is now ready to serve his country here on the home front. He has boldly challenged the establishment incumbent and career politician Tom Cole, for the U.S. Congress seat representing the Fourth District of Oklahoma. (More on RJ Harris here ) Tomorrow (Sunday, Sept. 20th) I will have the exciting privilege of interviewing Mr. Harris live at 7:00 pm Central Time (8 EST / 6 MTN). The interview will stream live over the Internet via Blog Talk Radio , and you can listen to the show here or just visit here again at The Humble Libertarian where I will have a widget ready to play the show live for you. Sorry, I will not be taking calls for the show, but if this works out well and I decide to do some live shows more frequently, I would love to take callers in the future to discuss politics and current events. You are encouraged however, to discuss and respond via Twitter using The Humble Libertarian 's hashtag: #THL If you are

Here's our discussion point for the week: how can we start a real conversation about liberty? We have two sides yelling at each other rather than talking to and with each other, it would seem. Partisan politics seem angrier and more polarized than ever. Worse, both "sides" seem to live in entirely different realities altogether. If you're on one "side," two million people descended on Washington just one week ago, and if you're on the other you barely noticed when "the 60,000" people showed up in D.C. -an insignificant blip on the radar. We live in such different realities because we don't trust each other. We don't trust each other because we suspect the motives on the other side. If the liberty faction in this country wants to make a difference it is going to have to address and refute the notion that we are angry birthers, racist rednecks, and paranoid survivalists. Let's have a brainstorming session right here, right now on this

Portrait of James Madison Yesterday was Constitution Day, the anniversary of the day the U.S. Constitution was completed by a convention in Philadelphia in 1787. It came and went without notice from the media or punditry. I'm fairly sure that most Americans were completely unaware of it. In a 2000 statement archived by the House of Representatives, Congressman Ron Paul (R) of Texas wrote : "At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a Mrs. Powel anxiously awaited the results, and as Benjamin Franklin emerged from the long task now finished, asked him directly: 'Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?' 'A republic if you can keep it' responded Franklin." Have We The People (...as our Founding Document famously begins) kept our republic? Sadly, no! Instead we have handed to our government more unchecked powers and privileges than any English monarch would have dreamed to impose upon his colonies. Co

Guest Post By: Dave Cruikshank I searched out a group to go with, mainly because I definitely did not want to drive, and I wanted to be with like minded individuals. To date all of my discussions of politics have mainly been online or with my wife. Many people just don't want to talk politics, are uniformed, or have steadfast liberal views like many of my family. My mother-in-law whom we live with gets upset when I talk politics or watch Glenn Beck, O'Reilly, or listen to talk radio. When I said I was going to DC she asked "Why did I feel a need to dig up dirt?" She is from the generation that you respect the President no matter who is in or what they do. I found 2 groups by searching for "912 project" and eventually meetup.com . I ended up joining the Schuylkill County Conservatives and the Berks County Tea Party. Both are in East-Central PA. I grew up in Schuylkill County and had originally planned on going with them. I actually knew 2 members from High