FREE WHITEWATER

Liberty

Liberty

The Right to Bargain with Government

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It is a simple principle of liberty that any person, in any employ, should have the right to bargain peacefully with, and even against, his or her own government. No worldly thing is as powerful as the state: it alone possesses the right to tax and to arrest. No matter how influential other institutions may…

City, Elections, Liberty, Wisconsin

The Secular Call

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For the first time in her history, likely not to be repeated in our time, Wisconsin votes on the recall of her governor. If you are well and able, will you not turn out today? From every part of this beautiful but divided state, citizens will pour out to vote, exercising their right to select…

Liberty, Military, Police

Domestic drones as a threat to liberty

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America’s use of drones against her foreign enemies, for surveillance and lethal strikes, has been notably successful. We are sure to build new and more advanced drones for similar uses, and to expand our naval power without placing aviators at risk. Yet, something that has served so well in combat was sure to be proposed…

Libertarians, Liberty, Unions

A Libertarian Case for Organized Labor…

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…from Herbert Spencer. As a balance of power: “Everywhere aggression begets resistance and counter-aggression; and in our present transitional state, semi-militant and semi-industrial, trespasses have to be kept in check by the fear of retaliatory trespasses.” Via Reason (originally appearing in The Freeman). Generations later, we’re still in that transitional state. There are other justifications,…

Beautiful Whitewater, City, Elections, Law, Liberty

Beautiful Whitewater

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If we were to have a blizzard, covering all the city, today would yet be a lovely day. There are, of course, some individual losses for which there is no human recompense, but for the community, no day is more restorative, and so more welcome, than an election day. Today will be a bit sweeter,…

Laws/Regulations, Liberty

Reason’s April 2012 ‘Nanny of the Month’

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The accompanying narrative from Reason: We’ve got Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal demanding clean urine in exchange for welfare benefits (a bad idea that also doesn’t work as advertised, but hey, at least the boozers are safe!), North Carolina regulators busting a blogger for praising the paleo diet (an offense that can get you tossed in…

Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Wisconsin

The Place of Peace and Honesty

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Is there a place where hundreds of thousands have protested, packed their Capitol building, nearly a million later signing election petitions, without violence, at limited public costs, and without fraud? What spot of peace and honesty, integrity and democracy, is like that? Could there even be such a place, in all the world? There is.…

Libertarians, Liberty, Presidential race 2012

Not fear, but principled opposition, from libertarians to Rick Santorum

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Smart, conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin asks Why are libertarians afraid of Santorum? Our resolute opposition to his conservatism comes not from fear, as though irrational, but instead from our own liberty-oriented principles. (Rubin crafts her post title carefully to frame the discussion most favorably to Santorum.) David Boaz of Cato answers her question in the…

Libertarians, Liberty

The Existential Threats to Libertarianism

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There are only two dire threats to libertarianism The first is the threat of tyranny to all forms of independent thought (libertarian or otherwise). This is easy to see: Stalinism wasn’t a problem for libertarians; it was a threat to humanity. In America, a free and orderly republic, the state is a problem, but certainly…