Free Republic

When the first compact discs arrived on the Australian market in 1983, they ranged in price from $900-$1800. The price didn’t hold back the rapid adoption of the technology

The Libertarian Party held its convention this weekend in Reno, Nevada. In a huge shift in leadership, the Mises Caucus swept the floor and took control of the Libertarian Party. The #RenoReset is complete. For those unfamiliar with the Mises Caucus or Libertarian Party politics, they can be best described as Ron Paul Revolution 2.0, the people who supported Dr. Paul in his 2008 and 2012 Presidential campaigns. The LP became a landing zone for many of Ron Paul’s followers after the GOP went to great lengths to silence Dr. Paul during the campaign. However, many grew tired of LP...

One could say Virginia Democrats got what they deserved for getting involved with the Lincoln Project in the run-up to Tuesday’s election. There was the incident last Friday when the Lincoln Project paid Democrat Party officials to dress as “white supremacists” and volunteer for Republican Glenn Youngkin’s campaign. The stunt failed, the perpetrators were identified, and Democrats were left with egg on their faces for trying to paint the leader of the most diverse statewide ticket in Virginia history as a racist. As noteworthy as that was, it did not change the trajectory of the race. The tide had turned...

Lincoln Project (TLP) co-founder George Conway said the organization “should shut down, absent full disclosure of its finances” in response to fresh reporting that TLP knew about the inappropriate behavior by Co-founder John Weaver as early as last year, along with additional information conveying that one-third of “TLP’s fundraising went to a firm run by one of the founders,” from which the four co-founders “were paid.”

To go by the post-election commentary, we libertarians are a powerful group holding sway over American politics and policy. Yet Team Blue and Team Red still enthusiastically embrace authoritarianism and scorn our insistence on letting people run their own lives. Despite growing recognition that libertarians matter, Democrats and Republicans show little sign of extending an olive branch to people who oppose efforts to make government more abusive and intrusive. They know we exist, but they keep us in opposition. How long a shadow do we throw over American politics? "According to the latest figures, the Libertarian candidate for president, Jo...

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told Fox News’ “Outnumbered Overtime” Monday that he wants to convince Georgia libertarians to vote Republican in the upcoming U.S. Senatorial election runoffs. Republican Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face a January 5 runoff against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in order to keep their jobs in the Senate and maintain GOP control. “One of the things that I’ve taken upon myself is to try to encourage – there was a little over 100,000 people who voted for Shane Hazel, the libertarian candidate, and I think those people can find a...

Given the party's track record, any Libertarian running for a state-level office would have to be full of almost nutty hubris to expect to win. But next year Marshall Burt will become the only sitting Libertarian state legislator, in Wyoming, and one of only five persons to ever win such a seat solely as a Libertarian. And he says he entered his race certain that he not only could but would win it. "Being a Marine, I don't have a notion of failure, right? I didn't have the notion of failing or I wouldn't have started," Burt said in a...

U.S.—Trump is polling high among an unexpected group: libertarians, who were energized and drawn to Trump's cause after the New York Times revealed that he paid as little as $750 in federal taxes some years. "Only paying a few hundred in federal theft? This guy is my hero!" said libertarian man Murray Mickelson of New Hampshire. "If only all of us could be that smart with our taxes." "The less theft, the better!"

A friend of mine has a massive collection, I do mean huge, of vinyl records that has avoided being destroyed by flooding for quite some time despite being stored in a basement. However, we finally had a big one that really did a number on them, and I'm not sure if they're salvageable. A lot of them are valuable and some are even rare, so this is just a shame. Does anyone have any tips on cleaning up vinyl (not bakelite) records and the best way to determine if they are beyond saving? Anything would help. Thanks!

@jimantleThe 2020 Libertarian Party presidential nominee has been bitten by a possibly rabid bat. @jimantleFor those seeking additional information. @Jorgensen4POTUSI will not be able to attend the campaign rally tomorrow morning. I will be getting a rabies vaccine as a precaution after having been bitten by a bat near the start of this campaign tour! I have every intention of participating in the FLAME march and I will deliver remarks at...

Republicans and Democrats may be sniping at each other over the partial government shutdown, but it’s the Libertarian Party which is putting words to action. Libertarians have organized multiple national park cleanups over the last week to show maybe the government isn’t needed to provide services.

A moment of stunned silence on the MSNBC "Morning Joe" set this morning, when Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson asked, "What is Aleppo?" "Morning Joe' contributor Mike Barnicle asked Johnson, "What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?" "About?" Johnson said. "Aleppo," Barnicle repeated. "And what is Aleppo?" Johnson asked.

JOHN DANKOSKY, HOST: Up next: how to tell your CD from your MP3, from your AAC. But first, let's start with the LP. When I was a kid, music took up a lot of room - not in your hard drive, but in your life. Being an audiophile meant devoting shelves and shelves and shelves and shelves to your album collection. And when you moved out of your parents' house, out of your first apartment, you hauled milk crates filled with your music collection onto your next life. And these days, most of us probably get our music in the...

A new Gallup poll out this morning, September 24, 2014, found that 58% of Americans strongly want a third political party choice in the candidates because the two older parties "do such a poor job" representing the people. This number is little changed from a Gallup poll asking the same question in 2007. The third largest political party is the Libertarian Party, yet its candidates face unfair hurdles of ballot access and media exclusion. Many states in the nation purposely raise the bar for Libertarian Party candidates to have their name printed on the ballot alongside the Republican and Democratic...

CORBIN — LEXINGTON (AP) — Kentucky Senate President David Williams told a group of law students that state legislators, not voters, should choose members of the U.S. Senate — comments that drew a negative reaction from Kentucky’s two senators. Declaring himself “a tea partier,” Williams on Wednesday called for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides for popular election of U.S. senators, the Lexington-Herald Leader reported. Williams is seeking the Republican nomination for governor next year.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- The Libertarian Party is considering running a candidate in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, saying GOP nominee Rand Paul -- the son of a former Libertarian presidential candidate -- has betrayed the party's values. Party Vice Chairman Joshua Koch said Wednesday that Paul has been a black eye for Libertarians because of stands he's taken on issues, including his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Koch said Paul is not a Libertarian. He called Paul and his Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, "faces of the same bad coin."

I recently had the opportunity to interview Alexander Snitker, the Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate in Florida. My editor, who had heard Snitker speak at a campaign stop, gave me the assignment to interview him. “I want you to really work him over. Hit him hard on the issues,” he told me in stereotypical editor fashion. So I dutifully set out to do just that. I had heard the name, but I knew almost nothing about him. After doing a bit of homework on Snitker, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Some of his positions seemed like they were straight...

Libertarians blast Sotomayor pickObama Court nominee ruled government should discriminate based on race WASHINGTON -- America’s third largest party Tuesday criticized President Barack Obama’s nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, citing past rulings that public employers should discriminate in hiring based on race. “While Judge Sotomayor deserves a fair and impartial hearing, Supreme Court justices should be nominated for their thorough knowledge of and adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law,” said William Redpath, Libertarian National Committee Chairman. “By nominating Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama has made it clear he prefers an activist...

(snip)After the speech a volunteer from Paul’s Campaign for Liberty asked Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) about it, and he weighed in against Graham. There was almost a pejorative comment a moment ago. Sen. Graham spoke and said “I’m not a libertarian,” whatever, whatever, as if that’s an evil word. Liberty is the hallmark of the American experiment … People say, you know, “Mark, you’re kind of libertarian,” you know, and they say it as if it’s an evil word, like you’re a communist or something. I’m like: Throw me in that briar patch … I’ve been accused of being a...

Poll: Independents reject Obama, agree with Libertarian PartyPolling shows independents aren't buying Obama’s promises of prosperity through Big Government WASHINGTON -- Despite a deep financial crisis and the election of a left-wing president, political independents still see “big government” as a greater than “big business” by an unchanged two-to-one margin, America’s third-largest party notes today. “Independent voters believed Candidate Obama when he said he would be mainstream. Their trusting votes gave him a narrow victory,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. “But now that the real Barack Obama has revealed himself, they’re not following his bootlegger turn toward...