The Most Successful Terrorist Organization in History

Article by Patrick Cockburn. —————————————————————————————————— Al Qaeda is the most successful terrorist organization in history. By destroying the World Trade Centre in New York on 9/11 it provoked the US into launching wars damaging to itself in Afghanistan and Iraq. Al Qaeda aimed to destroy the status quo […]

A Libertarian Case for Monarchy

Article by Leland B. Yeager. Another contribution to our discussion. This one is somewhat more interesting, given that it’s written from the perspective of a self-identified libertarian. Hat tip to David Heleniak. ——————————————————————————————————- Clear thought and discussion suffer when all sorts of good things, like liberty, equality, fraternity, […]

It Still Wasn’t Worth It, and Is More War Coming?

Article by Anthony Gregory. —————————————————————————————————- The U.S. has finally killed Osama bin Laden, the press and the administration report. Many will say this vindicates the war on terrorism, but it doesn’t. The Wall Street Journal says, “The development capped a manhunt of more than a decade for the […]

Osama Won

Article by Radley Balko. ——————————————————————————————————- In The Looming Tower, the Pulitzer-winning history of al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11, author Lawrence Wright lays out how Osama bin Laden’s motivation for the attacks that he planned in the 1990s, and then the September 11 attacks, was to draw the […]

Osama bin Laden’s Second Death

Article by Paul Craig Roberts. ———————————————————————————————— If today were April 1 and not May 2, we could dismiss as an April fool’s joke this morning’s headline that Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight in Pakistan and quickly buried at sea. As it is, we must take […]

Why bin Laden’s Ghost Is Smiling

Article by Eric Margolis. ————————————————————————————————————————————— The assassination of Osama bin Laden by US Special Forces in Abbotabad, Pakistan will likely assure Barack Obama’s victory in the 2012 presidential race. Republican hawks will have a hard time pressing their claims that Obama is “soft on terrorism.” Details about the […]

Careerism and Psychopathy in the US Military

Geez, who would’ve thought? Article by G. I. Wilson, USMC Ret. —————————————————————————————————- This essay attempts to make it easier for you to identify the quality and character of military officers and civilian bureaucrats, to increase your awareness and recognition of careerism and its consequences. As Americans, we all […]

Economic Terror Wins the Day: We're in a Depression

Article by Mike Whitney. —————————————————————————————————————————- On Thursday, Gallup reported that “More than half of Americans say the U.S. economy is in a recession or a depression despite official data that show a moderate recovery…..The April 20-23 Gallup survey… found that only 27 percent said the economy is growing. […]

Anarcho-Monarchism

Article by David B. Hart. This is relevant to our recent discussion of monarchism here at ATS. It’s an odd point of view, obviously, but I think it’s one that deserves to be heard. ——————————————————————————————————– The only thing I know that J.R.R. Tolkien and Salvador Dalí had in […]

Prison

One man shares his experiences. —————————————————————————————————— Forget everything you’ve ever heard about prison. Forget about the stories of tennis courts on one extreme, and dropping soap on the other. How these myths, among others, began is beyond me. I suppose that the subject of prison is ripe for […]

Obama Says U.S. Killed Osama bin Laden, but Questions Remain

Article by Alex Newman. ——————————————————————————————————- Reputed terrorist mastermind and former U.S. government ally Osama bin Laden has been killed by a military operation in Pakistan, President Barack Obama and other American officials claimed on the night of May 1. Bin Laden’s body was subsequently dumped at sea, according […]

Appeals Court: No Hacking Required to Be Prosecuted as a Hacker

Article by David Kravets. Corporate policy is now law. Hayek once remarked that the hallmark of totalitarian law was not necessarily its brutality (concentration camps, gulags, and all that) as much as its arbitrariness and inconsistency. Here it is. —————————————————————————————————- Employees may be prosecuted under a federal antihacking […]

Pub singer arrested for racism after Chinese passers-by hear him perform Kung Fu Fighting

From the Daily Mail. Yet another example of why totalitarian humanism is to be taken seriously, rather than dismissed as an inconsequential amusement. —————————————————————————————————– A pub singer has been arrested on suspicion of racism for singing the classic chart hit Kung Fu Fighting. The song, performed by Simon […]

Osama bin Laden Killed: 'Justice Is Done,' President Says

From ABC News. Obama has very likely secured his reelection now. ——————————————————————————————————- Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, President Obama announced tonight. The president called the killing of bin Laden the “most significant achievement to date” […]

Gaddafi family deaths reinforce doubts about Nato's UN mandate

From the Guardian. —————————————————————————————————- NATO is facing urgent questions about the legality of its air strike on a Gaddafi family compound at the weekend, which the Libyan government said had killed the leader’s second youngest son, 29-year old Saif al-Arab, and three grandchildren under 12. The grandchildren were […]

No-Fault Police Murder in Seattle

by William Norman Grigg. ——————————————————————————————————————————— Former Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk was dismissed from his job in February after the department’s firearms review board ruled that his shooting of John T. Williams was “unjustified.” While prowling Seattle’s streets last August 30, Birk saw Williams in a crosswalk carrying […]

College is for Suckers

Article by Gary North. ————————————————————————————————— In the best universities, we find mega-classes of 500 to 1,000 students. Lower division students sit in huge lecture halls and listen to a professor give a lecture that could just as well be in a digital format on a server. If an […]

The Justice System is Criminal

Duh? Article by Bill Anderson. —————————————————————————————————– Last month the U.S. Supreme Court in Connick v. Thompson dismissed a $14 million judgment against the former district attorney of New Orleans although prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence in the wrongful murder and robbery conviction of John Thompson. Thompson spent 14 […]

Leave Syria to the Syrians

Article by Charles Glass. ———————————————————————————————— This is not a good time to be running the Middle East desk at the State Department. If you happen to be him or her, take my advice: Do nothing. Especially in Syria. Let all the think tanks and lobbyists submit their recommendations. […]

Limo Driver Murders Limousine Liberal!

Article by Jim Goad. ——————————————————————————————————– It’s no coincidence that both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were born into cozy bourgeois households nestled high above the dirty claws of proletarian squalor. Neither is it a coincidence that the loudest voices squalling these days against “the rich” and “the powerful” […]

The tribes of Libya: a brief history

Article by Geoffrey Clarfield. ————————————————————————————————- On Feb. 20, the world woke up to news that a group of Libyan rebels in the eastern part of the country (the coastal bulge known, since ancient times, as Cyrenaica) had risen up against Muammar Gaddafi. News outlets quickly framed the revolt […]

The rise of the cybersecurity-industrial complex

Article by Timothy B. Carney. ————————————————————————————————– The $100 billion Washington will spend on cybersecurity in the next decade may be less about guarding America from a real threat, and more about enriching revolving-door lobbyists and satisfying pork-hungry politicians. A new working paper by Mercatus Center authors Jerry Brito […]

Wishful Thinking

Article by Stephen Walt. —————————————————————————————————— A realistic foreign policy seeks to deal with the world as it is, shorn of political illusions. Realists emphasize that even close allies often have conflicting interests, that cooperation between states is difficult to achieve or sustain, and that the conduct of nations […]

Immigration Detention and the Rural

From the Legal Ruralism blog. —————————————————————————————————— Many immigrants who have been placed in removal proceedings in the U.S. the past few years have been asking themselves the same question: why was I sent to a detention facility in the middle of nowhere? In California, for example, immigrants who […]

Childhood’s End for Humanity?

Article by Kevin Carson. —————————————————————————————————– History, since the agricultural revolution, can be usefully conceptualized as an offensive-defensive arms race between technologies of abundance and social structures of expropriation. Until the appearance of agriculture, human society didn’t produce a large enough surplus to support much in the way of […]

The No-State Solution

Article by David D’Amato. ——————————————————————————————————— “I place the chances for the birth of a Palestinian state this fall at fifty-fifty,” says Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab for CNN. Citing the “favor” toward the idea of the “world community,” Kuttab notes that — to satisfy the U.S. — there may […]

Is Kevin Carson Right or Wrong? Are Anarcho-Capitalists "True" Anarchists

Commentary by Charles Johnson. —————————————————————————————————– First, William cited it as an example of a particular kind of view about freed markets (the view that they tend to have centrifugal effects on economic ownership and thus to undermine bossism, landlordism, and other forms of economic hierarchy). This view may […]

What WikiLeaks Hath Wrought

Article by Joseph Margulies. —————————————————————————————————— WikiLeaks recently released a trove of secret risk assessments regarding nearly every prisoner who has ever been held at Guantánamo Bay. I have been continually involved in Guantánamo litigation longer than any lawyer in the world, having been counsel of record in Rasul […]

Companies can block customers' class-action lawsuits, Supreme Court rules

Article by David C. Savage. —————————————————————————————————- The Supreme Court gave corporations a major win Wednesday, ruling in a 5-4 decision that companies can block their disgruntled customers from joining together in a class-action lawsuit. The ruling arose from a California lawsuit involving cellphones, but it will have a […]

A Libertarian Case Against Immigration

Article by Peter Brimelow. Viewing Brimelow’s article along with this piece from Anthony Gregory and Walter Block makes for an interesting comparison/contrast. —————————————————————————————————- Walter Block says that it was contemplating this phenomenon of one ethnic group swamping another, specifically the Russians swamping the Baltic Republics, that caused Murray […]

Redistribution and the State

Article by E.D. Kain. ———————————————————————————————— I’ve written recently about what I termed ‘front-end’ redistribution. That is, redistribution of wealth and resources prior to state redistribution – or, the way it should be in a perfect world. One example of this is collective bargaining between organized labor and management. […]

Why do Americans still dislike atheists?

Article by Gregory Pauland and Phil Zuckerman. As an atheist myself, I could not care less about “bigotry” against atheists. The last thing I would want to see is atheists jumping on the “poor us, we’re so oppressed” victimology bandwagon. Hence, my general dislike of the “new atheist” […]

Anarchy and Efficient Law

Lecture by David Friedman. ———————————————————————————————— Well-known anarcho-capitalist thinker David D. Friedman on the subject of “Anarchy and Efficient Law”, from the Mises Brasil Austrian Economics seminar.

Denmark Saves Billions by Slashing Immigration

Article by Kevin DeAnna. ————————————————————————————————– A report from the government of Denmark has concluded that the nation’s restrictions on immigration have saved the country 6.7 billion Euros. “Now that we can see that it does matter who comes into the country, I have no scruples in further restricting […]

Blood Sport: A Brief Look at the Sometimes Violent Resistance to Public Funding of Sports Stadiums in Arizona

From Infoshop. —————————————————————————————————– “I will say I’m sorry I shot you the day you stand before the court and admit what you did was an act of violence.” Those were the uncompromising words Larry Naman, a 57 year-old homeless man with what up to that point had been […]

Stop Saying This Is a Nation of Immigrants!

Article by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. ————————————————————————————————– A nation of immigrants: This is a convenient myth developed as a response to the 1960s movements against colonialism, neocolonialism, and white supremacy. The ruling class and its brain trust offered multiculturalism, diversity, and affirmative action in response to demands for decolonization, justice, […]

Read This Book!

http://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2011/04/read-this-book.html ——————————————————————————————————– A compelling case for a stateless society. Anarchy happens when people organize their lives peacefully and voluntarily— without the aggressive violence of the state. This simple but powerful book explains why the state is illegitimate, unnecessary, and dangerous, and what we can do to begin achieving […]

The Prophet of Judgement Day

Article by Edmund D. Cohen. Dr. Cohen discusses the case of radio evangelist and uber-fruitbat Harold Camping, who claims the Christian Judgment Day is going to happen on May 21. ———————————————————————————————————– My clearest recurring impression of Camping is his deep, un spoken longing that his way of life—wandering […]

Hate Speech Makes a Comeback

Article by Pat Buchanan. ————————————————————————————————— Well, it sure didn’t take long for the Tucson Truce to collapse. After Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot on Jan. 8 by a berserker who killed six others, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and wounded 13, the media were aflame […]

The Crimes of National Pride

Article by David D’Amato. ——————————————————————————————————– “Thailand and Cambodia have,” according to BBC News, “reached a ceasefire after a week of fighting along a disputed border … . Both countries said the truce was struck following talks between the two militaries.” The border between the two countries has been […]

A Pretty Picture Painted With Prison Bars

Article by Darian Worden. ————————————————————————————————- As the British royal wedding fades out of the news cycle, it’s important to take a look at the freedoms that were trampled to make it a perfect day for royalty. In the days leading up to the wedding, numerous squats and social […]

In Defense of Royalty

Article by Jef Costello. —————————————————————————————————- In recent months, when I would think ruefully of the peculiar life I lead, I took some solace in the thought that soon my invitation to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding would arrive. Alas it did not, and I am writing these […]