There is one step now proposed, supported by government propaganda, which seems to me to strike at the very basis of freedom. It is the proposal that we establish compulsory military training in time of peace. The power to take a boy from his home and subject him to complete government discipline is the most serious limitation on freedom that can
Introduction by Murray N. Rothbard We are all indebted to Carl Watner for uncovering an unknown work by the great Lysander Spooner, one that managed to escape the editor of Spooner’s Collected Works . Both the title and the substance of “Vices are not Crimes” highlight the unique role that morality and moral principle had for Spooner among the
[This article is excerpted from Let’s Abolish Government .] The free administration of justice was a principle of the common law, and it must necessarily be a part of every system of government which is not designed to be an engine in the hands of the rich for the oppression of the poor. In saying that the free administration of justice was a
[ No Treason , no. 1, was first printed in 1867, just after the American Civil War. An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Brad O’Connell, is available for download .] The question of treason is distinct from that of slavery, and it is the same that it would have been if free states, instead of slave states, had seceded. On the part of
There has been debate about “net neutrality” [1] for a while now, but it has not yet gone beyond a declaration of principles [2] and a small fine to a rural telecommunications service provider. [3] However, this situation could change in the near future, for the worse. On October 22, 2009, the FCC issued a Notice for Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) “in
Since the Second World War, the deep-seated enmity between France and Germany, whose governments waged war against each other thrice in less than a century, has been exhausted. Restrained from resuming their fratricidal tendencies by the bonds of the corporatist European Coal and Steel Community, eventually superseded by the European Union (EU),
The feds have decided there’s no difference between men and women. The result? There’s no men’s wrestling at Illinois State. None at Notre Dame. None at Princeton. The soccer players, too, are gone from Illinois State. In a recent two year period, 24 colleges and universities did away with men’s wrestling. Another 31 dropped men’s golf. Men’s
Bill Clinton’s unpaid legal bills now exceed his net assets by several million dollars. And now, just as the president is getting ready to pack his bags, Franette McCulloch has seen to it that he’ll have one more lawsuit to deal with, one more charge of sexual harassment, and one more demand for $1 million on his way out the door. It started in
With the Enron collapse making headlines, all the usual suspects in government and the media are beating the drums for more government regulation of the financial world. As a result, we are hearing specious arguments about alleged “conflicts of interest” amongst brokerage firm equity analysts. This issue is spearheaded by a ruthless New York
As you read this, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is deciding whether the Internet file-sharing service Napster will continue operating or be shut down by a lower court’s injunction issued last July. The injunction was stayed by a two-judge panel of the same appeals court and allows Napster to keep
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.