Author: Laurence M. Vance

Whenever I hear someone say that U.S. troops fighting overseas somewhere, anywhere—it doesn’t matter where—are defending our freedoms, it makes me want to vomit, and for two reasons. The troops aren’t defending anything. They are engaging in the offense: intervening, violating, invading, occupying, killing, maiming, destroying, and making widows and orphans. This I have written about scores of times. But there is another reason hearing that the troops are defending our freedoms makes me nauseated. The troops couldn’t possibly be defending our freedoms because we don’t live in a free society. What are these freedoms that the troops are defending? … Continue reading →

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“I am getting more and more convinced that the war-peace question is the key to the whole libertarian business.” ~ Murray Rothbard That our enemy is the state, there is no question. As Rothbard explains: Briefly, the State is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area; in particular, it is the only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered but by coercion. While other individuals or institutions obtain their income by production of goods and services … Continue reading →

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Same-sex marriage was first legalized in the United States in Massachusetts in 2004. That came as no surprise. But then followed the states of Connecticut (2008), Iowa (2009), Vermont (2009), and New Hampshire (2010), plus Washington, D.C. By the time of the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (June 26, 2005), which ruled that marriage between same-sex couples was a fundamental right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, same-sex marriage was already legal in thirty-two other states, many because of federal court decisions, not by state court decisions, legislative statutes, or popular votes. But, as usually happens when it comes … Continue reading →

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Review of Robert Emmet Meagher, Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War (Cascade Books, 2014), xxi + 161 pgs, paperback. Much has been written about just war theory in recent years—some of it to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and some of it to condemn them. Robert Meagher does neither. He weighs just war theory in the balances and finds it wanting. Meagher is Professor of Humanities at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has “directed and participated in a range of events and programs concerned with healing the spiritual wounds of war in veterans, … Continue reading →

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I was surprised at the number of responses I received from active-duty military personnel after my recent article about military idolaters. All but one e-mail I received from them was positive. And every one of the positive responses I received said they answered “no” to all of the questions in my military idolater quiz. Some said that joining the military turned out to be a huge mistake. Most indicated that they were getting out as soon as they could. All said they despised being thanked for their service. But then there was the note from the sailor. He says he … Continue reading →

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Recent events in California and South Dakota illustrate perfectly the school gender conundrum. Students at Buchanan High School in Fresno, California, are protesting the school’s dress code after the local school board voted against recommendations to allow boys to have long hair and earrings and against removing language in the code that says dresses and skirts are for girls. Students switched gender norms for a day following the school board’s decision. Some students say that the dress codes are “sexist or non-inclusive to transgender students and those who don’t conform to one gender.” According to the Gay, Lesbian & Straight … Continue reading →

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President Obama has submitted his latest budget to Congress. It will be the last budget he submits to Congress, the last budget battle he faces with Congress, and the last time his budget will be dead on arrival in Congress. For the first time in history, the federal budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1 of  this year, will top $4 trillion. To put this in historical perspective, the federal budget first reached $100 billion in the fiscal year 1962. It first reached $1 trillion in the fiscal year 1987 (thank you, Ronnie). It first reached … Continue reading →

The post The Beltway Loves the Welfare-Warfare State appeared first on LewRockwell.

Military idolatry is the essence of American civil religion and has been since 9/11. It doesn’t matter where the troops go, why they go where they go, how long they stay where they go, whether they should go in the first place, what they do when they are there, how much it costs to keep them there, how much collateral damage they cause while there, how many widows and orphans they make while there, how much infrastructure they destroy when they are there, how many atrocities they commit while there, how many terrorists they recruit by being there, or whether … Continue reading →

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You’ve probably seen the signs. They are put on the corners of major intersections every tax season by tax preparation companies. This year they say something like this: Get up to $3,359 with one child! Get up to $5,548 with two children! Get up to $6,242 with three children! Or sometimes you will see the signs with an additional $1,000 per child: Get up to $4,359 with one child! Get up to $7,548 with two children! Get up to $9,242 with three children! Or sometimes the signs will just read like this: Get back up to $9,339!! (I have seen … Continue reading →

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Like most Islamic states, some states in America use criminal penalties to police the morality of their citizens. A recent attempt in Virginia to decriminalize adultery by reducing it from a criminal issue to a civil one has failed. According to the Code of Virginia, Title 18.2, “Crimes and Offenses Generally,” Chapter 8, “Crimes Involving Morals And Decency,” §18.2-365, “Adultery defined; penalty”: Any person, being married, who voluntarily shall have sexual intercourse with any person not his or her spouse shall be guilty of adultery, punishable as a Class 4 misdemeanor. A Class 4 misdemeanor is the lowest-level criminal offense … Continue reading →

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ENDA is dead, but the Equality Act yet lives. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), first introduced in the 103rd Congress in 1994 and in every Congress since then, except the 109th and the current 114th, would have forbidden an employer with 15 or more employees: (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment of the individual, because of such individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity; or (2) to limit, segregate, or classify the employees or applicants … Continue reading →

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Who are the real libertarians? Conservative Republicans who want to sucker libertarians to get their votes often describe themselves as libertarians or libertarian-leaning. Hollywood actors who favor the legalization of marijuana are sometimes referred to as libertarians—no matter what else they believe. Here are fifty questions about who should decide certain things that people, as individuals or as business owners, do or might want to do. The answers should make it abundantly clear who the real libertarians are. Who should decide whether you sell one of your kidneys? Who should decide whether you smoke marijuana? Who should decide to whom … Continue reading →

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Is Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a real conservative? Many of his conservative critics charge that he isn’t. This is a common tactic of conservatives: questioning the conservative credentials of their opponents while touting how conservative they are. As if there is any real difference between conservatives when their views are compared with libertarianism. And it is hard to take some of Trump’s critics seriously when they supported Romney in the last election. Two things should be noted about conservatives and conservatism. One, conservative wars are phony wars. And two, being more conservative is not necessarily a good thing. The … Continue reading →

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In response to an e-mail I received from a U.S. soldier a few years ago about an unnamed “false and cowardly article spreading foolish nonsense” that I had written back in 2009, I asked the question: “Are U.S. Soldiers Really This Dumb?” Unfortunately, the conclusion I reached was that the soldier’s comments in defense of the military were not just dumb, they were “really dumb.” I also said that this soldier was “an embarrassment to everyone in the military” and that “if these are the kind of people that are supposedly defending our freedoms, then we are in trouble.” Soldiers … Continue reading →

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As a “tax guy” I follow the Taxgirl blog at Forbes of Kelly Phillips. Because her posts are practical, not philosophical, they can profitably be read by Americans of any political persuasion. A recent post of Kelly’s was titled “10 Things You Absolutely Need To Know About Taxes.” Reading them got me thinking that there are 10 other things you absolutely need to know about taxes that are far more important. Here are the opening sentences to each of the 10 things Kelly explained: You may not have to file a federal income tax return. Even if you don’t need … Continue reading →

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