The Humble Libertarian original

My new book about the seriously cancerous life and personality of Karl Marx is out this week. Get "Karl Marx Never Bathed" here . Or enjoy this excerpt: Introduction - The Setting For This Book A zombie is haunting the world — the zombie of communism. All the powers of good old fashioned Reason and basic Science have entered into a holy alliance to finally put this zombie back in the grave where it belongs. But we just can’t seem to get through to the brainless, undead monster that refuses to die, despite the wreckage of a century with half the world living under the nightmare of mass murder, police state repression, forced labor camps, and millions upon millions of starving people, dead because of the fatal conceit of violent bureaucrats who couldn’t manage their way out of a paper bag much less the complexity of industries like farming and manufacturing that require specialized knowledge and you know, price signals to help them allocate resources effectively. ...

This is an absolutely phenomenal interview between some sharp students at the University of Wisconsin and some pretty dim-witted NSA recruiters. Do yourself a favor and listen to this while following along on the written transcript at one of the students' blogs under the blog title, "The NSA Comes Recruiting." Can someone please fire David Gregory and give his job to Madiha Tahir, the journalism student that asked many of the questions and published the recording and transcript above?

This spring, Young Americans for Liberty hosted 10 State Conventions all across the country for the first time ever!! They've partnered with state and national organizations nationwide to bring one-day campus events designed to build stronger state networks, advance their activists' knowledge and skills, and inspire attendees to their best activism yet. Video summary:

Unionized Hot Dog Stand vs. Right to Work Hot Dog Stand = Very funny student activism video from Young Americans for Liberty :

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...

Senator Rand Paul's speech at the historically black college was pretty good, but not great. Watching the speech (full video at C-SPAN and full text below), I certainly think Paul did a great job talking about drug policy in a sensible way. He even got an applause break or two for his statements on drug policy. This was my favorite part of the speech (other than the Q&A, perhaps, which I liked better than a lot of the speech): 'I am working with Democratic senators to make sure that kids who make bad decisions such as non-violent possession of drugs are not imprisoned for lengthy sentences. I am working to make sure that first time offenders are put into counseling and not imprisoned with hardened criminals. We should not take away anyone’s future over one mistake. Let me tell you the tale of two young men. Both of them made mistakes. Both of them were said to have used illegal drugs. One of them was white and from a privileged background. He had important friends, ...

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

Young Americans for Liberty is kicking off its 2011 National Convention today! This year, it's longer, bigger, and better than ever: a week-long event from Monday to Friday, with 131 top youth activists from 99 campuses in 34 states, and some AMAZING guest speakers like Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and Justin Amash among others. The goal of this event is to identify the top young libertarian activists from around the country and bring them together to the Leadership Institute in Arlington, VA for the very best training on how to mobilize the philosophy of liberty into political action and victory! YAL's executive director, Jeff Frazee doesn't say this very often, but his goal is to find and groom the future leaders of this country-- the kind of people who are going to run successful campaigns, become key figures in the media, and yes, even run for some of our nation's highest political offices-- and from these positions of influence, lead the country to make the kind of r...

Yesterday I featured a video saying: This is some of the most brilliant, cutting, hysterically comical satire I have seen all year. Watch this video of a "counter-protester" at a rally against Orlando Police for arresting people that feed the homeless. If you didn't watch it, you really should! So today, while browsing one of my favorite websites, Reddit.com , I saw that the man in this video was conducting an AMA interview (something the reddit community does, which stands for "Ask Me Anything") that had been voted to the front page. In it, he discloses that he is an active YAL member! I am affiliated with YAL. Young Americans for Liberty. You can actually read my write up on this media stunt as I am a contributor to their website. http://www.yaliberty.org/posts/lone-man-explains-to-wftv-news-just-why-he-loves-the-orlando-police-department Awesome. Just one more reason to love YAL. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author...

The 2011 International Students For Liberty Conference is the biggest gathering of pro-liberty students in history. It is going to be an excellent weekend with some of the most respected libertarian thinkers and the biggest names in student activism. There will also be a live taping of John Stossel's show. This is absolutely HUGE for the student libertarian movement. Read about the details here at Silver Underground . Ross Kenyon , Assistant Editor, T H L Articles | Author's Page

No, it’s not an abortion rant. My topic is education in general and the weird phenomenon of “school choice” advocacy in particular. But the parallels between the two issues deserve exploration. The school choice movement, broadly defined, proposes to improve public education — the state’s mandate to provide K-12 schooling to all comers — by introducing “market values” in the form of competition between schools (“public,” i.e. government-operated, and private) for the tax dollars allocated to that mandate. The school choice movement breaks down into three camps: Charter schools supporters, voucher advocates and tax credit advocates. Read the rest of Thomas L. Knapp's article at The Center for a Stateless Society . James Tuttle , Regular Columnist, T H L Articles | Author's Page | Website

School choice should be the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Rich people already have school choice, both because they have the ability to live in good school districts and they have the resources to send their kids to private schools. Poor people, by contrast, are warehoused in failing government schools. As we think about our game plan to “win the future,” our black and Latino students won’t be competing with China and Finland – they’re on track to scrap it out with Bulgaria and Mexico. Read the rest of Dan Mitchell's article at International Liberty Dan Mitchell is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute Filed by Grant Davies , Regular Columnist, T H L Articles | Author's Page | Website

Hello my fellow Humble Libertarians, The Atlas Economic Research Foundation is sponsoring an essay contest for undergraduate and graduate students, junior faculty, and policy writers under the age of 36. The general topic is sound money, but there are variety of more specific topics about the relevance of sound money which are outlined in the link below. The prize for the overall winning essay is $2000 with prizes of $500 for other outstanding undergraduate essays. The deadline for submission is January 15th. Further information is provided HERE. The length of the essay is at least 1500 words, which is about 6 pages. I encourage everyone to try your hand at this to brush up on your writing skills, and maybe even win $2000! Atlas's Sound Money Project recently published A Guide To Sound Money by Judy Shelton which is a great and short read on the subject if you're looking for ideas. Remember the deadline is next Saturday. In Peace, Love, and Liberty, Eric Sharp Eric Sharp , Re...

If anything has made my blood pressure spike this week ( and it's been a bad week ), it would be today's Huffington Post article reporting the collusion of corporate banks and colleges across the country to exploit students' private information and push credit cards on them: Some of the nation's largest and most elite universities stand to gain millions of dollars from selling the names and addresses of students and alumni to credit card companies while granting the companies special access to school events, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found. The schools and their alumni associations are entitled to receive payments that multiply as students use their cards. Some colleges can receive bonuses when students incur debt... "The fact that schools are getting paid for students to rack up debt is a disgrace," said congressman Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat and former professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He said that banks...

Here's a little video I made yesterday for Young Americans for Liberty . In my opinion, one of the very most important things the libertarian movement in the United States can do is reach university students, who are bright, intelligent, savvy, hardworking, and intuitively see that something has gone terribly wrong with our society. They will be our nation's future, and they are the most receptive to our movement's ideas. Check it out: If you enjoyed this video- please spread it far and wide! W. E. Messamore , Editor in Chief Articles | Author's Page

The Students For Liberty Bastiat Project “The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.” As students for liberty, we are well acquainted with economic fallacies. For as long as the debate over liberty has been waged, our opponents have used unsound arguments to try to justify greater government involvement in our economic affairs. Our generation is not the first to be confronted by these erroneous arguments. In fact, they have already been confronted and proved fallacious by Frederick Bastiat. A 19th century French political economist, Bastiat dedicated his life to proving that government by its nature possesses neither the moral authority to intervene in our economic freedom nor the practical ability to create prosperity through intervention. Bastiat’s analysis is as relevant now as it was when he first penned the famous critiques. To defeat the economic fallacies once again, Students For Liberty is partnering with the...