The Humble Libertarian original

[Trigger warning: micro-aggression discussed below] Micro-aggressions happen every day. They are the common-place, brief, and subtle dismissals, slights, and insults that constitute the casual degradation of socially marginalized groups. Micro-aggressions are a 21st-century reenactment on a smaller scale of older, more severe forms of oppression and terrorism faced by minority groups. But while they are subtle... They are every bit as damaging in their effects on socially marginalized people. We will not wait for social justice to just happen while we are vulnerable. We will be prepared at all times to micro-defend ourselves against micro-aggressions, and this summary of micro-sparring principles serves as the first-of-its-kind guide to self-defense against micro-aggressions. You could think of it as a real version of the Defense Against The Dark Arts class in the Harry Potter series’ Hogwarts School of Magic, except the very name of that class could be perceived as ...

Saw this on Davi Barker 's Facebook page last night: "We've heard a lot about how compulsory schooling harms the natural enthusiasm to learn, as well as the unspoken lessons of the Prussian system. I've heard a lot of people discuss how forced association leads to bullying. But I have never heard anyone discuss to effects of compulsory schooling and forced association on broken hearts. Think about a highschool from a biological standpoint. It is for practical purposes a cage in which society throws people who are biologically, and by any pre-modern standard, adults. They are trapped there for six hours a day, locked in a room with 30+ other adults, arbitrarily selected by age. They are at the peak of their emotional and hormonal volatility. And they are told to devote their undivided attention to education. This is very bad chemistry. Inevitably relationships form, adding more volatility. Love, lust, jealousy, rage. Explosive emotions, probably experienced for th...

I loved you, prison guard. I know you loved me. I had no choice and no escape from the cinder block walls for an eternity of those bright adolescent hours that should have been all mine to have and to hold for better or worse and spend in brilliant bursts of godlike play that could have only made it better. But in that dreary prison place, I felt that I had yet escaped from some even darker, more sickly and sorrowful hole, and that you, my prison guard, were at least some fashion of a mother to me.

When his parents found this sentence scrawled onto a piece of paper in their 4th grader's backpack, they could not believe their eyes: "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure." The boy's classmates confirmed to his dad that they were instructed by the teacher to write this sentence, though the teacher is playing dumb and saying that the boy wrote this himself. Yeah right. I'm sure he'd think of that himself. The real irony is that most public school teachers are Democrats. This reads like something Dick Cheney would make school children write. Then again, this happened in Florida , land of Jeb Bush. Still I wonder if the teacher would have given this assignment to the students in 2004. And I don't wonder at all whether the progressive media and blogosphere would have jumped all over this in 2004; and I don't wonder at all whether they will now. Can you hear the silence on civil liber...

Over the weekend, we learned that Ron Paul's next big project is a full K-12 Ron Paul homeschool curriculum that will be offered to parents for free from grades K-5. Website: RonPaulCurriculum.com "You're trying to decrease my future tax obligations and improve my education?" *mmmwwwaaahhhh* The curriculum is being co-authored with libertarian economist Gary North and libertarian historian Tom Woods . On his own blog, Woods lists the benefits of the new Ron Paul homeschool curriculum as follows: (1) Grades K-5 will be available for free. You have six years to try out the program without having to spend a dime. (2) Students will learn the origins and travails of liberty in the Western world and in the United States in particular. (3) Students will learn the economics of the Austrian School. (4) Students can learn at their own pace. If they’re advanced and move more quickly, they can quiz out of the first two years of college and enter college as juni...

A letter from YAL 's Jeff Frazee: Dear Patriot, I want to bring to your attention a breaking news story at the University of Cincinnati (see below). Cincinnati YAL Chapter President, Chris Morbitzer, has filed a lawsuit against his university, with the assistance of Ohio's 1851 Center for Constitutional Law and in cooperation with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), to put an end to "free speech zones" on his campus. This is a historic case that could have lasting implications for freedom at Chris's university! So, I want to ask for your support to encourage Chris to keep going! If you are a defender of free speech on American campuses, please support this battle with a tax-deductible donation of 200, 100, or 50 this afternoon . And, be sure to read about Chris's compelling fight for freedom below. This is a significant and brave action by one of YAL's best activists. Please show your support. For liberty, Jeff Frazee ...

The YAL Civil Liberties College Tour starts tonight at 8pm EST at Columbia University in New York City! The four tour stops feature Glenn Greenwald (liberal), Bruce Fein (conservative) and Jacob Hornberger (libertarian). They will discuss habeas corpus, the PATRIOT Act, extraordinary rendition, torture, regime change, and how the war on terrorism has infringed upon the rights of U.S. citizens in the name of making us safe. The tour will be moderated by YAL's own Jack Hunter, and hosted by YAL chapters in conjunction with The Future of Freedom Foundation. If you don't live near any of the stops, you can stream the events online . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

This is what's wrong with public education: Hell no, he won’t go. In a defiant raspberry to the city Department of Education — and taxpayers — disgraced teacher Alan Rosenfeld, 66, won’t retire. Deemed a danger to kids, the typing teacher with a $10 million real estate portfolio hasn’t been allowed in a classroom for more than a decade, but still collects $100,049 a year in city salary — plus health benefits, a growing pension nest egg, vacation and sick pay. Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo can call for better teacher evaluations until they’re blue-faced, but Rosenfeld and six peers with similar gigs costing about $650,000 a year in total salaries are untouchable. Under a system shackled by protections for tenured teachers, they can’t be fired, the DOE says. “It’s an F-U,” a friend of Rosenfeld said of his refusal to quit. “He’s happy about it, and very proud that he beat the system. This is a great show-up-but-don’t-do-anything job.” Accused in 2001 of making lewd co...

Just got this in the mail from Young Americans for Liberty : Mr. Messamore, Today marks a serious step for YAL in a new direction. This morning, I walked over to the post office to mail a very important letter: YAL's application to become a tax deductible non-profit. And later this month, I'll be filing a second important application for YAL to create an affiliated Political Action Committee (PAC), so we can publicly endorse pro-liberty candidates running for office in 2012. So, Mr. Messamore, today I'm emailing you to give a brief explanation of the significant ways these developments will expand YAL's fight for liberty in 2012: * YAL's nonprofit status will allow 75-80% of our activities to be supported with tax-deductible donations, giving you a tax write-off for your contribution * These new divisions within YAL's organization will help me to better allocate funds to expand our educational and civics training programs and hire much-needed new s...

As someone who holds a business degree with a major in entrepreneurship, I absolutely loved this piece at Mises.org and I count myself incredibly lucky that my entrepreneurship professors, especially the chair of the department (who writes an excellent blog ), never filled our heads with the post-modern, relativistic, politically correct, absolutely and obviously false nonsense that all you have to do is try in order to succeed. In fact, stacks and stacks of financial projections we labored over for our various business ideas showed us just how easy it is to fail and just how important it is to fail on paper so you don't fail in real life. Success is about deliberate action that creates the necessary results to achieve a clear goal. Just trying isn't enough. Reality doesn't know or respect your best intentions or most fervent wishes. You've got to think, and then you've got to sweat. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Just minutes ago, one of my best friends who is finishing his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech updated his Facebook status, writing: Hey Everybody, reports are that there are 2 dead in VT shootings, one police officer and on unknown victim. I'm safe, and as far as I know, everybody i know is safe... Cell towers are all jammed, so if you can't get a hold of somebody, don't panic... towers probably just can't handle the traffic. A local news report confirms that a police officer is one of the shooting victims in this latest Virginia Tech massacre. ABCNews reminds us : Virginia Tech was the site of the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in 2007 when Seung-Hui Cho killed 33 students, faculty members and himself during a shooting rampage on the campus. Cho was a senior in English at the school. After the shooting at Virginia Tech, tighter security measures were instituted in schools all over the country, including new protocols for notifying students of emergencies...

This month marks Young Americans for Liberty's third birthday ! Can you believe YAL is ONLY three years old??? They've done so much in the name of freedom in such a short period of time. They have become the largest, most active, and fastest-growing liberty youth organization in the country in just three short years! Here's wishing YAL a very Happy Birthday and many years to come! Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

In this series called " Libertarian Talking Points ," we pose a talking point that aims for the heart of an issue - avoiding the "politically safe" answer to actually try and convince people of both the moral and effectual justifications for liberty. You argue its effectiveness, or propose how to rephrase it to win hearts and minds. If a gotcha attempt occurs, questioning a candidate's belief in the elimination of the Department of Education... "I'm afraid you're confusing the elimination of the Department of Education with the elimination of education itself. The Department of Education didn't come into existence until 1980. And its removal would eliminate the guidelines, requirements and mandates that prevent individual states, districts and schools from implementing pedagogical tactics they believe might create dramatic improvements in learning. Now, if you are able to present me with evidence that the Department of Education has impro...

I did an occupy-style notepad rant recently as an example for our notepad rant contest announced yesterday , but after reading this article , it was time to put down the sharpie and start typing. This rant will not fit on a notepad: The title of the article mentioned above is “Bernanke Says That Any Criticism Of The Federal Reserve Is Based On ‘Misconceptions.’” Oh really? So the Federal Reserve is absolutely perfect then? There is not a single thing wrong with it or how it’s run? Every act of the Federal Reserve during its century-long history has been a 100% success without blemish or flaw, and anybody who says otherwise just doesn’t understand?? It is precisely this mentality, and the public’s general acceptance of it, that has allowed the Federal Reserve and a complicit government in Washington to continue to perpetrate the central banking fraud against the American people. It is the mentality that economics is some sort of esoteric discipline shrouded in the aura of an untouch...

...that on the same night that Ron Paul called the subsidization of student loans a "total failure," Penn State University students with subsidized loans rioted over the firing of football coach Joe Paterno ? Carl Wicklander , Regular Columnist, T H L Articles Author's Page Website

Now this is interesting news : "States are lining up to drop out of No Child Left Behind, the education initiative that was promoted as a historic achievement of the Bush administration. Since President Barack Obama announced last month that he would sign an executive order allowing states to request waivers from mandatory participation in the program, at least 27 have signaled that they will ask to opt out, and most others are reviewing their options." Too bad Congress won't just repeal it. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Gardasil, a controversial vaccine for the sexually transmitted HPV virus, might soon be given to minors in California without parental consent if the sweeping proposal in a new bill-- AB 499-- becomes law after a Senate vote this week and a signature from Gov. Brown. Read all the gory details at my latest CAIVN piece. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

In my debut article at the (somewhat) newly-created Arizona Independent Voter Network website, I take a look at the rise of homeschooling in Arizona. All libertarians should see this and other advancements in the realm of school choice as a very positive trend! "As dissatisfaction with public education in Arizona grows and the debate over school choice intensifies, local and national experts are predicting a steady rise in the number of homeschooled students in Arizona." Read the entire article at AZIVN. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Reason recently interviewed Matt Damon at the "Save Our Teachers" rally in Washington, and a video of Damon laying the smack down on libertarians has been making its rounds in the public-sector-loving quarters of the blogosphere: I just wish the reporter was quick enough with her wits and a few facts to rebut Matt Damon's hollow argument as well as Michael Graham did yesterday at the Boston Herald : According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the average Boston teacher earned around $80,000 last year. That was the average. And that doesn’t include the generous health care or pension benefits, which would equal $100,000 in the private sector. All for just 180 days of work. Nationally, the average teacher salary is significantly lower — $53,000. But a teacher still earns more by herself (and about 75 percent of K-12 teachers are women) than the household income of the average American family. Once again, with summers and holida...

It appears that when listing one of President Obama's gaffes in using England to denote the U.K. (as part of my list of 100 ways Obama is just like Bush , which included a few gaffes for fun), I made a little mistake myself by saying Ireland would be offended. A commentator from Ireland (aptly named Sean) pointed out that not all of Ireland would be offended, just Northern Ireland. So to make sure that we're all straight about our geography and politics and you never make the mistakes that Obama or I made, the above Venn Diagram explains it all rather elegantly. Now you know, and can look intelligent correcting someone at a dinner party, especially if you do it with an English accent and you've been talking with one all night just because.