The Humble Libertarian original

That's it for Mitt Romney. Ron Paul's most serious competition in the GOP 2012 primary just took a major blow to his electability with one ill-advised gaffe. He suggested at a forum in New Hampshire that we should slip the economic misery index around Obama's neck and "hang" him . Of course Mitt Romney isn't racist and didn't mean what he said racially in any way, shape, or form, but it is going to be used against him for sure in what one commentator has already said is going to be the "most racist campaign" in American history. Accusations of racism are probably unfair to Mitt, because let's be honest, if he had actually even been thinking about Obama's race, he wouldn't have said what he did at all. He obviously wasn't thinking about Obama's race, so his words were obviously not racially-motivated. He was talking about Obama just the same way he was talking about Carter-- a white guy-- and the same way he would talk about ...

So according to ThinkProgress , a top climate scientist has said that "it is irresponsible not to mention climate change" in connection with the devastating storms that rampaged through southern states this week (hat tip: memeorandum ) . Just like the birthers, climate alarmists will interpret anything and everything as validating their dogma. Lots of storms? Must be global "climate change" --as if devastating storms did not exist prior to the Industrial Revolution. Earthquake hits Haiti? Yeah, celebrity climate alarmist Danny Glover pinned that one on global warming. It's getting warmer? Global warming. It's getting colder ? Global warming-- er-- climate change-- yeah-- that's it! Climate change! Remember that earlier this week in my discussion of the "After-Birther" movement I wrote: That is the hallmark of a true "wingnut," "barking moonbat," or whatever other dysphemism you want to use for someone who has decid...

In this fantastic 12 minute interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano, Congressman Ron Paul explains why he wants to be president and gives the best answer ever: not because of all the things he wants to do as president, but all the things he wants the president to STOP doing to us. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

So I know it's Saturday, not Monday; and if you've been looking forward to kicking off your week with a good tune every Monday here, don't worry: I've got another song lined up for you on Monday, but this couldn't wait. You've got to watch this music video. It's moving and powerful. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

One liberty candidate is better than none, but is two better than one? To put it another way, if we were looking to preserve the GOP status quo, we would not have to worry about potentially splitting the vote or wrecking our future as a movement. If we were all divided over Romney, Huckabee, Pawlenty, Gingrich, and Santorum, we wouldn’t have a problem. Whatever fisticuffs we endured during a primary fight would be shelved in time to oppose the Democratic incumbent at any and all costs. The problem with having both Ron Paul and Gary Johnson running for president is that having two of our horses in this race will mean that we will inevitably be pitted against each other. For those of us deemed to be on the “fringes” and out of the mainstream of permissible political discourse, we have an unfortunate history of internecine warfare. Michael Badnarik’s line that libertarians agree with each other on 98% of the issues but spend 98% of their time arguing about the other 2% would be on ful...

Writes Krugman: "...even after the cracks in the House budget proposal became apparent, much of the commentariat clung to the view that whatever you might think of Ryan’s priorities, he really is serious and sincere... But he isn’t." Check out the rest of Krugman's piece at The New York Times to find out why. You won't hear me say this very often, but I agree with Krugman. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Those of you who are regular readers will have noticed the difference immediately (those of you who are not-- welcome!). Please let me know what you think. Feel free to be brutally honest so I can get accurate feedback on the look / functionality of featuring my most recent three or four videos in the sidebar next to the text content. EDIT: Just thought of this. Would it be better to leave the videos embedded in the right sidebar as they are, or enlarge them to 400 pixels wide and put them directly under the list of blog posts so that they are sort of part of the stream of content? They would also appear under individual blog posts that way so visitors can go right from reading a story to watching a video that catches their eye underneath it. Thoughts? Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

At the Mises Institute , Roderick T. Long writes: "There are many, many left-wingers whose primary motivation for their left-wing political stance is the very libertarian impulse to protect people who are being pushed around." I cannot more highly recommend that you read his article . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

It's so much worse than I thought. Newt Gingrich is such a classic, big-government RINO, and I can only hope that Republican Primary voters will be well-informed enough understand that. Back in 2006 over at the Cato Institute , Michael D. Tanner took a look at Gingrich's plan for America to help Republicans win the 2006 November midterms. Think Gingrich is a small-government conservative? Read Tanner's piece and follow his link to Gingrich's manifesto, then think again. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Bill Wilson writes: "By Bill Wilson – Iceland is free. And it will remain so, so long as her people wish to remain autonomous of the foreign domination of her would-be masters — in this case, international bankers. On April 9, the fiercely independent people of island-nation defeated a referendum that would have bailed out the UK and the Netherlands who had covered the deposits of British and Dutch investors who had lost funds in Icesave bank in 2008. At the time of the bank’s failure, Iceland refused to cover the losses. But the UK and Netherlands nonetheless have demanded that Iceland repay them for the “loan” as a condition for admission into the European Union." Read more at NetRightDaily.com . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

This is hilarious ! Jeff Dunetz writes: "Can you believe it? President Obama released the long form birth certificate this morning, and it isn't over. There still people who don't believe the released birth certificate is real. Apparently if you have Adobe Acrobat and look at the PDF of the long form certificate and right click, with your left foot off the ground, while chewing on a Ritz Cracker and whistling the theme song from the old Barney Miller TV show, the birth certificate will reveal that the real Paul McCartney was killed in a car accent in 1968 and for the past 43 years we have been rocking to Wayne Newton's unknown brother Fig." And then provides a list of 50 Obama problems more important than the birth certificate. Read them all here . This witty brilliance comes to us via Wolf Files , via Left Coast Rebel . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

In his most recent piece, Jack Hunter notes: "As we head into 2012 more Republicans are beginning to sound like Ron Paul and yet the Texas Congressman hasn't changed one bit." Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Get your own Vote for Ron Paul t-shirt at The Humble Libertarian 's online libertarian merchandise store. Just click the picture above or the link below. My libertarian website gets the support it needs to continue operating, you get an awesome Vote for Ron Paul t-shirt , and the public gets the message. It's a win, win, win! **** Vote for Ron Paul t-shirts **** Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

In my latest Jack Hunter -style op ed regarding the whole embarrassing ( m ) "birther" controversy, I provide a short, sweet, and to-the-point analysis of the real reason Barack Obama isn't qualified to be President of the United States. Text version here . Enjoy! Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Today I got the most hilarious email from this website's new favorite neoconservative comment troll, Eric Dondero, regarding the story I covered yesterday about Miss USA, Susie Castillo's sexual assault by a TSA officer . Now if you haven't been following along, Eric broke up with me earlier this week for saying not all Muslims hate you. Now that we're ex-friends and business partners (I consulted with him on his blogging and designed a lot of his website some time ago), Eric's lobbing grenades.With a couple other bloggers CCed to his email taunt, Eric wrote: Subject: Miss USA molested by TSA at Dallas airport Prediction: Girly Men on Fighting Islamo-Fascists will ignore the Muslim angle, and just report the TSA abuse. Because as we all know, "there's no threat to America from Radical Islam... It's just blowback... the Muslims hate us cause we've got Troops in their lands... has nothing to do with their hatred for who we are as a people and o...

To see the Republican Party fall prey to the alluring political "trump" card of Obama's non-citizenship on the premise of so many different, false, and often contradictory claims about his life and birth, is frankly embarrassing ( m ) when it's not outright irritating because of the party's disdain for 9-11 "Truthers" and its erroneous association of them with Congressman Ron Paul. But there's a deeper issue here, and it's related to the Republican Party's failure to fight the battle in the ideological arena, which is the reason why it has been rapidly losing its own soul and identity in addition to elections everywhere until the Tea Party showed up. That deeper issue is the GOP's entire approach to President Barack Obama. Why shouldn't he be President according to the Palin Republicans? "Because he's not a citizen of this country!" they say, which isn't even true. But if we delve into the world of ideas and cha...

Even after the White House released a PDF of President Obama's long-form birth certificate from Hawaii, "birthers" still aren't satisfied. And honestly-- why should they be? Don't get me wrong; I'm no birther. I think the whole birther theory that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States is silly and improbable. The differing and often contradictory claims birthers make are-- like so many other conspiracy theories-- based on circumstantial evidence, wild speculation, and often plain falsehoods. But if you're going to buy into all of that and believe that the President really wasn't born in America, it's not a huge leap at all to believe that he could and would release a faked PDF of his long-form birth certificate. If all the rest of the theory is true, and the President and his allies have been faking his citizenship this whole time and covering their tracks, of course they could also create a doctored "birth certificate." Any...

Reports The Hill : Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday took a swipe at billionaire businessman Donald Trump, demanding to see his "Republican registration." While speaking at a breakfast with New Hampshire Republicans one day after "The Donald" visited the Granite State, Paul riffed off the potential GOP presidential candidate's "birther" questions. “I’ve come to New Hampshire today because I’m very concerned,” said Paul, according to The New York Times. “I want to see the original long-form certificate of Donald Trump’s Republican registration.” Read the entire story at TheHill.com . Hat tip: Memeorandum Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

EconStories is at it again with a hilarious and incredibly educational Keynes vs. Hayek rap sequel entitled, " Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two ." What I particularly like about it is how Hayek tackles the misconception that World War II got us out of the Great Depression, an obvious mistake in reasoning that has fooled a lot of really smart people. Enjoy: And in case you missed it or want to watch it again, here is the first Keynes vs. Hayek rap video entitled, " Fear the Boom and Bust ," and below that is an excellent commentary on both the video and the history of the economic debate between economists John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, by Jeffrey Tucker: The Brilliance of That Hayek vs. Keynes Rap By: Jeffrey Tucker (Originally ran on Mises.org ) Hat tip: Campaign for Liberty The debate between J.M. Keynes and F.A. Hayek, both living and teaching in Britain in the 1930s, was one of the great debates of the century. Sadly, the cha...

Susie Castillo , who held the 2003 Miss USA title, posted an article and video to her blog Monday to courageously share with her readers an experience that no woman should ever have to go through-- a sexual assault by a TSA agent at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport-- and urge her fans to take action to end the TSA's invasive pat downs. Here's the video that Susie Castillo recorded moments after the assault happened, relating how her vagina had been fondled four times by a TSA officer: Castillo actually started off her April 25th blog post with a quote from Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, writing: "Those that would give up their liberty for security deserve neither and lose both." She went on to write: Dear Friends, ...in the situation I’m about to describe, I felt truly violated and believe I should let my voice be heard. Ultimately, I hope others will do the same.... On my flight back to Los Angeles last week... I connected in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) wh...

Now that the White House has released a PDF of Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate (hat tip: Memeorandum ) and proven once and for all that Obama was born here in the United States, Americans can rest at ease knowing that a genuine American citizen is violating their liberties, taking their money, spending our republic into an economic crisis, trampling on the rule of law, and consolidating Washington DC's hold on every aspect of their lives from cradle to grave. For a second there, we actually had to contend with the real possibility that someone born in a foreign country was doing all those things, so it's a relief to know that an American is responsible for them. If I'm going to spend the rest of my life on my back with a boot to my neck, that boot sure as hell better be "Made in America" and have an American foot in it crushing down on my throat. I'm very, very glad that Obama was born in America. Now I can close down this blog and do someth...

Gary Johnson hits a home run interview on ABCNews . His answers are concise, rational, and correct. Gary-- Don't let them badger you with your relative obscurity. Just fire back that many recent presidents and candidates on presidential tickets were relatively obscure governors like Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Jimmy Carter. They often do well because they are outsiders to DC, have executive experience, and without the name recognition, are less polarizing than other figures might be. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Gary Johnson is a 2012 candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination with an impeccable record as a small-government libertarian while governing the state of New Mexico for eight years. I daresay that absolutely no one in this country has an executive record as good as Gary Johnson's of limiting the size role and influence of government-- even while battling a majority Democratic legislature in a very blue state. But some of his statements on U.S. foreign policy have a few libertarians worried that he won't take a hard line on controlling the size, role, and influence of government the way we could expect Congressman Ron Paul to should he become our nation's next president. Others disagree. AntiWar.com founder and editor Justin Raimondo had some harsh criticism for Johnson in a recent piece entitled, "Gary Johnson: Caveat Emptor." Raimondo wrote : ...what’s the problem? Well, frankly, it’s this : "Johnson is open, in principle, to...