Author: Laurence M. Vance

Review of John Charles Chasteen, Getting High: Marijuana through the Ages (Rowman & Litlefield, 2016), viii + 157 pgs., hardcover. This is a fascinating and important book. Fascinating because of all the interesting historical details about marijuana it provides; important because it has the potential to educate and change the hearts and minds of those who support the government’s war on marijuana. The author, John Charles Chasteen, is actually a Latin American scholar and professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has written a number of books on Latin American history, and is an award-winning editor and translator of Latin … Continue reading →

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U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the ranking Democrat in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, recently told ESPN that current federal gambling laws are “obsolete” and “in desperate need of updating,” including those that deal with sports betting. Said Pallone: The laws need a wholesale review to see how they can actually work together and create a fairer playing field for all types of gambling, both online and offline, including sports betting and daily fantasy sports. At the same time, we must ensure the laws are actually creating an environment of integrity and accountability, and include strong consumer protections. I … Continue reading →

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One of surest ways to identify a totalitarian state is when a government prevents its citizens from leaving. The most infamous example of this tyranny is, of course, the Berlin Wall built by communist East Germany to keep its people from fleeing to West Germany. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and torn down in 1989. In the meantime, thousands of Germans risked their lives to breech the wall and flee to the West. Over a hundred never made it because they were killed by East German border guards who followed orders to shoot their fellow citizens who were … Continue reading →

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Not all Americans are celebrating the recently passed ballot measures relating to marijuana—especially some conservatives. People in the states of California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. People in the states of Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota voted to legalize the medical use of marijuana. People in the state of Montana voted to loosen restrictions on medical marijuana. Only in Arizona did an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana fail to pass. In an article for Public Discourse (“an online publication of the Witherspoon Institute that seeks to enhance the public understanding of the moral … Continue reading →

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The U.S. military is in trouble. Even after lowering enlistment standards, relaxing physical requirements for women, allowing homosexuals to serve openly, raising the age limit to join, expanding maternity and paternity leave, increasing childcare hours on base, updating the military promotion system, permitting women to be in combat positions, and opening up the military to transgender individuals, the military is having a recruitment problem. Speaking recently at the City College of New York, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter lamented that military recruiting is shrinking and “more and more military personnel are coming from fewer and fewer states.” Turns out that … Continue reading →

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Liberals and progressives, if they were honest, would say that Donald Trump should resign or jump off Trump Tower. Conservatives and libertarians, even if they would have preferred another Republican candidate to Trump, have been feverishly issuing proposals regarding what they believe Trump should do. Conservative think tanks and organizations especially would like nothing better than to draw Trump into their respective orbits. I take a different approach. Although there are certainly things that I think Trump should do, I am more interested in what he shouldn’t do. Instant Access to Current Spot Prices & Interactive Charts This is not … Continue reading →

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I recently reviewed Electing Not to Vote: Christian Reflections on Reasons for Not Voting. Since I afterward received several e-mails asking me if I voted in the election, I thought I would explain to a wider audience why I didn’t vote. Reading Electing Not to Vote did not persuade me to not vote. I was already a Christian non-voter. Although, as I mentioned in a 2012 article titled “My View of Politics,” I am a student of, and a commentator on, politics, I am not political in any way. Not only do I not vote, I don’t donate to political … Continue reading →

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Although the Libertarian Party has virtually no chance of winning any presidential election, the presidential campaign of any of its candidates in any such election can and should be used to promote libertarian ideas and educate Americans about libertarianism. This is not a hard thing to do. The usual Democratic and Republican candidates for president are always so bad on so many issues that it doesn’t take much effort to stand out from them. The Libertarian Party just needs to write a good, brief platform that espouses the libertarian philosophy and then let its candidates for president and vice president … Continue reading →

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Paid family leave is getting a lot of attention lately. And while there is certainly nothing wrong with paid family leave, and employers can benefit from it just as much as employees, there is everything wrong with it when government—at the federal, state, or local level—provides it or mandates that employers have to provide it. Since the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993—which mandated that eligible workers could take 12 weeks of unpaid leave—Democrats in Congress and liberal and progressive groups have been calling for the unpaid leave in the FMLA to be changed to … Continue reading →

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Another Columbus Day has come and gone, but not without protests and calls to change the name and focus of the holiday. But if we are going to get rid of Columbus Day, there are some other federal holidays that ought to be eliminated as well. Columbus Day was made a federal holiday in the United States in 1936. The original date was October 12—the date in 1492 that a sailor on the Pinta sighted an island in the Bahamas that Christopher Columbus would name San Salvador. By the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 (effective 1971), the Columbus Day … Continue reading →

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Let me say it right up front: yes, soldiers are culpable. I have maintained for years now the following propositions: Governments don’t kill, people do. You can’t have a war without soldiers. The state needs willing servants to do its dirty work. Only the troops can stop the drive to war. Killing in an unjust war is murder. Soldiers should be blamed for the death and destruction they mete out. Soldiers are responsible for the death and destruction they bring. The real heroes are those who refuse to fight. Yet, many Americans go to great lengths to excuse and defend … Continue reading →

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There are two things we can say about Republican plans: 1. There are a lot of them, 2. Thank God they are rarely implemented. This is especially true of Republican tax plans. Now, it is certainly true that the U.S. tax code is a vague, complex monstrosity that punishes success and transfers money from “the rich” to “the poor” via refundable tax credits. But the tax code doesn’t need to be reformed, fixed, simplified, made flatter, made fairer, or replaced with something else—it needs to be repealed. And this is the root of the problem with all Republican tax plans. … Continue reading →

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Although the whole Vietnam War was a crime from start to finish, one particular event that occurred on March 16, 1968, has always been remembered as particularly horrific: the My Lai Massacre. On that day U.S. soldiers from Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division, visited the village of My Lai and killed everything that moved, including chickens, pigs, cows, water buffalo, and hundreds of unarmed civilians. As described by Nick Turse in his book Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam: They gunned down old men sitting in their … Continue reading →

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“We’re losing qualified soldiers because of this,” said a transgender Army intelligence [sic] officer at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle who used to be a man until “he” spent “more than $50,000 on her transformation.” “This” was the U.S. military’s ban on transgender individuals serving openly in the armed forces. Although Capt. Peace legally changed his/her name, birth certificate, passport, and drivers license, and was known to his/her commanders as a woman, his/her peers were “under formal orders to refer to her as a man.” That was in 2015. Things changed on June 30, 2016, when Secretary of Defense … Continue reading →

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Americans of all political persuasions want something from the government, including libertarians. But what libertarians want from the government is quite different from what liberals and conservatives want. Liberals want much from government. To get an idea of just how much they want, just look at the new 2016 Democratic Party platform. Liberals, progressives, and socialists—all of whom always vote Democratic—want the government to: Raise workers’ wages Support working families Help more workers share in near-record corporate profits Expand access to affordable housing and homeownership Protect and expand Social Security Ensure a secure and dignified retirement Revitalize our nation’s Postal … Continue reading →

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