When Principles Should Trump Economics

Any proper economic analysis of coercion should at least make an honest effort to count the cost to the victim of being coerced. For example, the coercive practice of compulsory education is so customary now that few ever think about the economic consequences; many do not even consider it a deprivation of the child's liberty;…

Professionals, Teach Thyselves

Some unfortunate homeschooled kids are upset when discovering that they, as specific individuals, must take remedial math when starting college. I get this - but why do these students not realize that this is also true for about half of those who attended government-provided and -managed and -regulated schools? This is not a reason for…

Educating the Poor

Many people claim that government must educate, because otherwise the poor would not be able to afford education for their children. The only problem with this theory is the facts. There can hardy be any educator in America who is unfamiliar with the "achievement gap." No informed educator should be ignorant of the colossal failures…

Democrat/Teacher Split

New York Governor Cuomo recently lambasted the Teachers' Unions. This is a bit shocking, since he's a died-in-the-wool Democrat, and not the only one. Cuomo said he openly disagreed with a teacher union member who said he represents the students. “No, you don’t,” Cuomo said he told the person. “You represent the teachers. Teacher salaries,…

Double Standards For Police

A Florida man earned his 15 minutes of fame for doing something really stupid. Michael Foster saw 62 year old Clarence Daniels put a holstered weapon in his pants - a legal action in Florida. Foster followed the man into a Walmart, screamed "He's got a gun," placed him in a choke hold, and threw…

Defenders of Freedom: Needed Back Home.

The enemies of American freedom are not overseas. No foreign dictator wrote any "free speech zone" ordinances in America. No foreign dictator is responsible for SWAT teams breaking down the doors of people, shooting their dogs and sometimes their children, all based upon unsubstantiated rumors ("tips") that there might be drugs and weapons. No foreign…

Regulate All The Cooks?

Folks often praise my seafood paella, my Spanish tortilla, and my pot roasts. How did I learn to cook? I'll divulge my secret: pure self-defense. I either had to learn to cook, or pretend to love my first wife's cooking. Never was a woman so ill-prepared for the challenges of the kitchen, nor so stubbornly…

To Be Respected, Law Must Be Respectable.

Frédéric Bastiat wrote La Loi (The Law) in 1850, detailing how the law had been perverted from the protection of life, liberty, and property, to the practice of spoliation or legalized plunder. No society can exist if respect for the law does not prevail to some degree, but the surest means of ensuring that laws…

Speaking of …

I've spent decades collecting information about education, its history, its effects, its origins, and developing the case for 100% separation of school and state. Folks in Charlotte, NC, in Southern California, and in Pittsburgh have heard variations. I've got a large slide deck, and the skills to deliver a speech off the cuff, or anything…

Socialists Must Be Capitalists

It is fashionable in academia . . . that is, among people who have never run a business, or at least not a large-scale business - to decry capitalism as the root of all evils, and to suggest that worker-owned communes would solve all the problems of the world. Well, there's a wee problem. Even…