Author: Laurence M. Vance

The tenth annual Values Voter Summit was held last month in Washington, D.C. About 2,700 religious conservatives registered to attend the event. The Summit was created in 2006 “to provide a forum to help inform and mobilize citizens across America to preserve the bedrock values of traditional marriage, religious liberty, sanctity of life and limited government that make our nation strong.” CNN described it as “one of the conservative movement’s marquee annual events” and Sean Hannity called it “the premier conservative event now in the country.” This year’s event featured old guard conservatives like Bill Bennett, Gary Bauer, and Oliver … Continue reading →

“When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves.” ~ Herbert Spencer Stalin and his government never starved a single Ukrainian. Hitler and his government never gassed a single Jew. Mao and his government never beat to death a single Chinese peasant. And even though the senseless, immoral, unnecessary, and unjust invasion and occupation of Iraq resulted in a pile of a million dead bodies, the U.S. president and his government never killed anyone. The U.S. government didn’t kill any Iraqis during … Continue reading →

There is, of course, no such thing as an Old Testament Christian, since the disciples of Jesus Christ were “called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26), well into the first century A.D. But how else are we to describe certain twenty-first century Christian apologists for the U.S. military and its wars of aggression and occupation? Old Testament Christians—usually followed by Christian armchair warriors, Christian Coalition moralists, evangelical warvangelicals, Catholic just war theorists, reich-wing Christian nationalists, theocon Values Voters, imperial Christians, pro-lifers for mass murder, Red-State Christian fascists, bloodthirsty Christian conservatives, nuclear Christians, Christian Coalition moralists, Religious Right warmongers, God and … Continue reading →

“Nowhere does the Constitution allow businesses to discriminate against others for religious reasons” ~ The Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie Today being Constitution Day means that any educational institution receiving federal funds must hold an educational program about the Constitution on this day. As a libertarian, I see it as the perfect day, not to pledge to, swear allegiance to, or honor the Constitution, but to point out some of the latest nonsense that is being said about the Constitution. September 17th has been designated Constitution Day because it is the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. … Continue reading →

Conservatives are once again having a field day over a video produced by conservative media analyst Mark Dice. Back in 2013, Dice released a video of him asking Obama supporters to sign a petition to repeal the Bill of Rights. Almost everyone he asked signed the petition. Now Dice has released a new video of him asking supporters of Hillary Clinton if they agree with her plan to repeal the Bill of Rights. There is no such plan, of course, but the video shows person after person agreeing that it would be a good idea to repeal the Bill of … Continue reading →

“Conservatives love to drop my father’s name and try to find candidates that act and think like he did.” ~ Michael Reagan Conservative Republicans who want to sucker libertarians to get their votes often describe themselves as libertarian-leaning. Conservative Republicans who want to sucker other conservatives to get their votes often refer to themselves as constitutional conservatives. But conservative Republicans who want to sucker their fellow Republicans to get their votes often call themselves Reagan Republicans. According to many Republicans, Reagan was the greatest president in their lifetime. Others consider him to be the greatest president in the twentieth century. … Continue reading →

This talk was given on August 8 at the Christians for Liberty conference in Austin, Texas. Although I have been writing from the perspective of a conservative Christian libertarian for the past twenty years, it was not until 2009 that I first wrote something about the Drug War. This is because I knew the negative reaction I would receive from conservatives—and especially Christian conservatives. But after writing that initial article, there has been no turning back. I now write about the Drug War, not as much as I write about Christianity and war, but quite often. Do you want to … Continue reading →

Even though it is true that the government currently bans all kinds of things, I am asking a serious question. Let me expand and clarify it. Is the federal government authorized by the Constitution to make illegal the possession of any substance that it deems it to be harmful, hazardous, immoral, addictive, threatening, damaging, injurious, destructive, unsafe, or dangerous to an individual or to society? I am not talking about state governments—that is a separate issue. I am talking about the U.S. national government that was set up by the Constitution in 1789. The Constitution that was amended in 1791, … Continue reading →

It never fails. Every time I write anything about taxes I get long, rambling e-mails from tax trolls who scour the Internet looking for articles about taxes so they can contact the writers and impress them with their knowledge of the tax code. These tax trolls usually call themselves “non-taxpayers.” They say things like: paying taxes is voluntary, the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified, most Americans aren’t required to pay income tax, many Americans have gotten refunds of all the money withheld from their paychecks, and the income tax is a classical liberal tax on federal employments, offices, and … Continue reading →

Conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians are outraged at the Supreme Court decision in favor of the government recognizing same-sex marriage in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. They are outraged that the Supreme Court redefined marriage. They are outraged that there will now be pressure put on ministers to marry same-sex couples. They are outraged that the homosexual lobby has won another victory. They are outraged that two Supreme Court justices didn’t recuse themselves since they performed same-sex weddings before hearing the case. They are outraged that the legalization of marriages between three or more people will certainly be the … Continue reading →

Every four years, during the presidential election season, Republican candidates criticize the abuses of the IRS and the complexity of the tax code. This time is no different. Sometimes Republicans introduce their own tax reform plans. This year Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee have their plan and Senator Rand Paul has his. With the large number of Republican candidates running for president this time, there will certainly be others. Republicans invariably talk about the need to shift to a flat tax that is both “fair” and “simple,” yet still raises enough money for the federal government. The tax rates … Continue reading →

Conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians are not going to like what I am going to say. And neither are most ordinary conservatives. But that has never stopped me before. The recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges was inevitable: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State. It was inevitable because exactly two years before, the Supreme Court, in the case of United … Continue reading →

Jeb Bush, like his father and brother before him, and like all of the Republicans and conservatives who, although they may disagree with Jeb on Common Core and immigration, agree with him wholeheartedly on this issue, hasn’t the slightest idea what a free society is. Bush officially declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination earlier this month in the small town of Derry, New Hampshire (the state that holds the first primary). Speaking at a small, historic opera house known for hosting political events, Bush promised that if elected he would create sustained national economic growth of 4 percent, … Continue reading →

Does facilitating the buying and selling of drugs make one a libertarian? Of course it doesn’t. But that hasn’t stopped some libertarians from making Ross Ulbricht a libertarian hero. Ulbricht was the creator of the Silk Road website, an online marketplace for the sale of heroin, cocaine, and other illegal drugs. As all libertarians are painfully aware, Ulbricht, was earlier this year found guilty by a federal court of narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and other dubious federal crimes, and was recently sentenced to life in prison without parole. This is an outrageous and unjust sentence for a victimless crime. Too … Continue reading →

Review of Mike Lee, Our Lost Constitution: The Willful Subversion of America’s Founding Document (Sentinel, 2015), x + 244 pgs., hardcover. One might get the impression from reading Senator Mike Lee’s new book that he and his fellow Republicans in Congress who talk about the Constitution actually believe in following it. And the same could be said for the conservatives who endorse the book on the back of its dust jacket: Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Edwin Meese, and Larry Arnn. This doesn’t mean that Lee has not written a good book. He has, or at least the first part of … Continue reading →