REAL ID: Intrusive Legislation
by Marc Guttman

In 2000, a friend and I after reuniting in Nepal decided to explore Tibet and did some of the hardest traveling either one of us had ever done.

Few truck drivers would pick us up for fear of punishment. We often would hide underneath sandbags in the back of trucks. Furthermore, there were occasional checkpoints. Fortunately, at the very first checkpoint, the guard did not figure us for national threats and allowed us to “purchase” travel visas. Gladly we avoided prison and had a remarkable experience.

I never dreamed I would live under this kind of authoritarianism and have to “present my papers” at home. But, on May 10, 2005, U.S. senators voted unanimously, without debate, to pass the unconstitutional Real ID Act that had stealthily been written into a military appropriations bill.........................................More

May 18, 2008

What If Public Schools Were Abolished?
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

In American culture, public schools are praised in public and criticized in private, which is roughly the opposite of how we tend to treat large-scale enterprises like Wal-Mart. In public, everyone says that Wal-Mart is awful, filled with shoddy foreign products and exploiting workers. But in private, we buy the well-priced, quality goods, and long lines of people hope to be hired.

Why is this? It has something to do with the fact that public schools are part of our civic religion, the primary evidence that people cite to show that local government serves us. And there is a psychological element. Most of us turn our kids over to them, so surely they must have our best interest at heart! .....................................More

February 9, 2008

Gold and Economic Freedom
By Alan Greenspan

An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense - perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire - that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.

In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society....................................more

January 18, 2008

Myth and Truth About Libertarianism
By Murray N. Rothbard

Libertarianism is the fastest growing political creed in America today. Before judging and evaluating libertarianism, it is vitally important to find out precisely what that doctrine is, and, more particularly, what it is not. It is especially important to clear up a number of misconceptions about libertarianism that are held by most people, and particularly by conservatives. In this essay I shall enumerate and critically analyze the most common myths that are held about libertarianism. When these are cleared away, people will then be able to discuss libertarianism free of egregious myths and misconceptions, and to deal with it as it should be on its very own merits or demerits..........more

January 14, 2008

Our present featured essay is actually a book by a Connecticut author on economics. It is a classic written in 1946, and has gone through several printings over the years. It is "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt. You can read it here for free, or purchase it here.

REAL ID: Intrusive Legislation by Marc Guttman

REAL ID: Intrusive Legislation
by Marc Guttman