Free Republic

Ross Ulbricht was a quiet nerd -- an Eagle Scout who never cursed. Then he became a libertarian, and he decided, "I want to use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion." By coercion, Ulbricht meant force. He viewed laws against drugs as coercion -- government force that stops people from living the way they want. So he created a website called Silk Road. Silk Road let people buy and sell contraband -- mostly drugs -- using bitcoin. The site became successful quickly. It soon carried a billion dollars in transactions. Because Silk Road didn't use...

The government is open again. That's too bad. One day, one of these shutdowns should be permanent. We would still have far more government than the Founding Fathers envisioned. That's because even during so-called shutdowns, a third of federal employees -- nearly a million people -- remain on the job, declared "essential" government workers. Military pay continues, too, although political commentators, eager to make a shutdown sound scarier, repeatedly claimed that military families were being cut off. Here's a list of functions that kept going during the "shutdown": --Law enforcement. --Border Patrol. --The TSA. --Air traffic controllers. --The CDC. --Amtrak....

We need to sell more rhino horns, quickly. That may be the only way to save rhinos from extinction. Today, rhinos vanish because poachers kill them for their horns. Businesses turn their horns into ornaments or quack health potions. Some horns sell for $300,000. No wonder poachers risk their lives for one. How do you fight an incentive that strong? Flood the market! That's a solution suggested by Matthew Markus. Markus's biotech company can make artificial rhino horn in a laboratory that's virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. Put enough of that lab-grown horn on the market and supply and...

President Donald Trump drives people crazy. Especially those in the media. They hate him so much, they leap on every anti-Trump rumor. The Federalist's Jordyn Pair points out that the press repeatedly told us that a dozen Trump administration members were about to be fired, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Press Secretary Sean Spicer and strategists Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. Months later, all still work for or with the administration. I actually wish Sessions had been fired, but Trump's staff reshufflings are no more frequent than those of other administrations, including President Obama's. The media so desperately want...

Fox's John Stossel penned a column on the "Green Baloney" at The New York Times featuring a May 13 story headlined "In Reversal, E.P.A. Eases Path for a Mine Near Alaska's Bristol Bay." It came with a big aerial picture of Dillingham, a fishing village on an inlet of the bay. We'll get to how "near" the mine is to the bay in a minute. They have hoped to mine copper, gold, and silver at the site. While this was just another of their stories about how Donald Trump will poison America, it caught my eye because of the big...

Expect more craziness this weekend. Earth Day is Saturday. This year's theme: Government must "do more" about climate change because "consequences of inaction are too high to risk." They make it sound so simple: 1) Man causes global warming. 2) Warming is obviously harmful. 3) Government can stop it. Each claim is dubious or wrong. This weekend at a movie, I was surprised to be assaulted again by former Vice President Al Gore. In a preview, a puffy-looking Gore suddenly appeared, attacking Donald Trump and mocking critics of his previous movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," the deceitful documentary that spreads fear...

"Trump may have just signed a death warrant for our planet!" warns CNN host Van Jones. "Disaster for Clean Water, Air," says the Environmental Working Group. Give me a break. Regulation zealots and much of the media are furious because President Donald Trump canceled Barack Obama's attempt to limit carbon dioxide emissions. But Trump did the right thing. CO2 is what we exhale. It's not a pollutant. It is, however, a greenhouse gas, and such gases increase global warming. It's possible that this will lead to a spiral of climate change that will destroy much of Earth! But probably not....

Donald Trump will be busy Friday. He and Mike Pence have promised, Mother Jones magazine points out, that on Trump's first day in office he will repeal Obamacare, end the "war on coal," expel illegal immigrants, begin construction of a "beautiful Southern border wall," fix the Department of Veterans Affairs, come up with a plan to stop ISIS, get rid of "gun-free zones," "start taking care of our ... military," withdraw from the TPP trade agreement, cut regulations and designate China a currency manipulator. OK, much of that was probably just campaign talk. I'm grateful for that. I hope...

Now that I no longer do a weekly TV show, I have more time to read my local paper. Sadly, that's The New York Times. The Times actually does some good reporting, but their political and economic coverage is filled with deceit. Can I find deceit every day? You bet. Take a look at a few days just last week. --Thursday: The front page: "NAFTA's promise is falling short, Mexicans agree." Wow, the Times now embraces Donald Trump's position on trade? Economists estimate that 14 million jobs depend upon NAFTA, but people everywhere often oppose trade because the smaller number...

Tomorrow, as you celebrate the meal the Pilgrims ate with Indians, pause a moment to thank private property. I know that seems weird, but before that first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims nearly starved to death because they didn't respect private property. When they first arrived in Massachusetts, they acted like Bernie Sanders wants us to act. They farmed "collectively." Pilgrims said, "We'll grow food together and divide the harvest equally." Bad idea. Economists call this the "tragedy of the commons." When everyone works "together," some people don't work very hard. Likewise, when the crops were ready to eat, some grabbed extra...

,/center> I was so dumb last week. I wrote my column Tuesday -- before election results were in. I assumed Hillary Clinton would be president-elect. I looked so stupid. On Facebook, commenters pounced: You owe Trump an apology! I'm sorry for the lies you continued about him! You were never fair! You're nothing but another left-wing mouthpiece. You're a washed up, anti-American gutless TV host! I was wrong because I trusted the bettors. That's usually not dumb. The best predictor of things has been betting markets. They are more accurate because they reflect the wisdom of crowds. Crowds can be...

America is often described as a society without the Old World's aristocracy. Yet we still have people who feel entitled to boss the rest of us around. The "elite" media, the political class, Hollywood and university professors think their opinions are obviously correct, so they must educate us peasants. OK, so they don't call us "peasants" anymore. Now we are "deplorables" -- conservatives or libertarians. Or Trump supporters. The elite have a lot of influence over how we see things. I don't like Donald Trump. I used to. I once found him refreshing and honest. Now I think he's a...

This week, as Democrats fawn over Hillary Clinton, I'm struck by how both Clintons continue to thrive despite their remarkable record of sleazy dealings. The just released documentary "Clinton Cash," based on a book by Peter Schweizer, explains how they make big money by selling access to themselves. In a conversation, Schweizer told me how the Clintons use "speaking fees" to get around bribery laws. "If somebody gave a politician or family member money for a favor, that's breaking the law. But if you say it's a speaking fee, and you pay double or triple the normal rate, that seems...

"The experience of having everybody around me on campus say the left is the way to go and then...seeing communism collapse made me think maybe the libertarians have a better handle on how these things work," says Todd Seavey, author of the new book Libertarianism for Beginners. "While the Soviet Union existed, the Marxists on campus were rooting for the Soviet Union." A New York-baseed comic-book writer, one-time producer for TV's own John Stossel, and a contributor to Splice Today, Seavey found his way toward libertarianism while attending Brown University in the late 1980s. His new graphic book, Libertarianism for...

Stossel: I have lung cancer. My medical care is excellent but the customer service stinks By John Stossel Published April 20, 2016 I write this from the hospital. Seems I have lung cancer. My doctors tell me my growth was caught early and I'll be fine. Soon I will barely notice that a fifth of my lung is gone. I believe them. After all, I'm at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked it No. 1 in New York. I get excellent medical care here. But as a consumer reporter, I have to say, the hospital's customer service...

I write this from the hospital. Seems I have lung cancer. My doctors tell me my growth was caught early and I'll be fine. Soon I will barely notice that a fifth of my lung is gone. I believe them. After all, I'm at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked it No. 1 in New York. I get excellent medical care here. But as a consumer reporter, I have to say, the hospital's customer service stinks. Doctors keep me waiting for hours, and no one bothers to call or email to say, "I'm running late." Few doctors give...

The Libertarian Party might get more votes this year. Before the primaries, Time Magazine, frequent pusher of trends that do not exist, put Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken.) on its cover and called him the "most interesting man in politics." Then Paul fizzled, and pundits said the "libertarian moment," if there ever was one, had ended. But Sen. Paul never ran as a libertarian. He ran as a libertarian-ish Republican, and he wasn't particularly convincing when he got to speak in debates. Americans were unimpressed. But now that, according to ElectionBettingOdds.com, the presidential race will be a choice between Donald Trump...

I'm told that the public is "angry" at today's politicians. Eighty-two percent disapprove of the job Congress is doing. So will Tuesday's election bring a big shakeup? No. Congressional reelection rates never drop below 85 percent. The last big "wave" election was 1994, when Democrats lost control of both houses. The media called it a "revolution," and the late Peter Jennings from ABC likened Americans to 2-year-olds throwing a tantrum. Even that year, the reelection rate was 90 percent.Matt Kibbe of the group FreedomWorks and Hadley Heath Manning of Independent Women's Forum came on my show to say they don't...

Reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s story sounds familiar to me: A major network got tired of her reports criticizing government. She no longer works there. The CBS correspondent reported on Fast and Furious, the shifting explanation for the Benghazi and Libya attacks and the bungled rollout of the Obamacare website. “But as time went on, it was harder to get stories on,” she said. “There are people who simply would rather just avoid the headache of going after powers that be because of the pushback that comes with it, which has become very organized and well-financed,” she said on my TV show....

It's tax time. I'm too scared to do my taxes. I'm sure I'll get something wrong and my enemies in government will persecute -- no, I mean prosecute -- me. So I hired Bob. Bob's my accountant. I like Bob, but I don't like that I have to have an accountant. I don't want to spend time keeping records and talking to Bob about boring things I don't understand, and I really don't want to pay Bob. But I have to. What a waste. Once, I calculated what I could do with the money I give Bob. I could have...