My wife and I decided to move to Louisiana from Texas in 2015 for her to be closer to her family and for me to be closer to good gumbo. It was a difficult move because Texas was the land of opportunity with no income tax, a flourishing economy, and the best brisket in the […]
Everyone is libertarian . . . for themselves. The trick is getting people to be libertarian for everyone else as well. No one likes it when people to tell them what to do. Nobody wants a nagging, paternalistic busy-body constantly poking and prodding in their personal or even public life. It’s offensive to one’s sense […]
2015 was pretty bad for the concept of agreement. Religious differences spurred despicable terrorist attacks; protests across the US resulted in antagonism between racial minorities and police; and caustic political vitriol seemed to be at an all-time high across the globe. As one commentator wrote, “If you ask 100 different people how we should fix this […]
At a gathering of liberty-minded young professionals the other night, someone asked if there was a way to unify all libertarians. The joking answer was, “Don’t bring up abortion.” Libertarians—more than any group of people—can find common ground on just about everything, but when it comes to the contentious issue of abortion, it seems that […]
We are in the midst of a dramatic sea change in technological society. Just a few years ago, for services like getting a ride or a night’s stay, we had to rely on bloated, bureaucratic corporations. Now, with technology and the Internet, anyone with a computer can become an entrepreneur in 60 seconds and offer […]
Millennials are the most social-justice-warring generation ever and it’s hard to imagine anything less appealing to them than an old white man forgetting to check his privilege and doing something so insensitive as becoming president of the United States. Yet, here the are in a recent Monmouth study, saying that they want old, white Bernie […]
There has been a lot of discussion recently about rights and while I love that people are acknowledging there’s such a thing as rights, I’m also disheartened that it’s clear people have absolutely no logical concept of what they are. For instance, when people demand people respect for gay rights, or claim they have a […]
I’m seeing a lot of #loveWins tags and colorful profile pictures on Facebook recently. That’s great, I love love and I’m a big fan of all the colors of the rainbow. A full on double rainbow all the way? fuggheddaboutit! Unfortunately, I think people are getting it wrong here. Not to be a Debbie Downer […]
In the latest addition to papal encyclicals, Pope Francis lays out a complex mix of science, politics, and theology that can typically only be found in one of these documents. As the Holy Father writes in Laudato Si’, “The Catholic Church is open to dialogue with philosophical thought; this has enabled her to produce various […]
Indiana’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act has received an unprecedented amount of criticism recently—from political philosophy heavyweights such as Miley Cyrus and MC Hammer to the omniscient and omnipresent Facebook troll. I’ve been wanting to write about this topic for a while but it has been extremely difficult to wrap my head around people who […]