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The 9th International Students For Liberty Conference (ISFLC16) is just a week away, and Liberty.me plans to be out in full force! Several familiar faces of Liberty.me will be speaking at the conference like Jeffrey Tucker, Julie Borowski, and Lucy Steigerwald. Plus, Liberty.me is also hosting the conference’s Media Lounge, where Liberty.me content creators can gather in a space to collaborate and conduct interviews. You simply won’t want to miss the largest gathering of young libertarians in the world. Best of all, as a Liberty.me subscriber, SFL has arranged a discount just for you. Use the promo code ISFLC16 for...

By Students For Liberty Vote5 1

For most Americans, fears of terrorism have been fading from memory since the end of the Iraq War. As the world just witnessed, however, the threat of global terrorism is once again a reality thanks to the emergence of a radical, new, jihadist group – the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Only by understanding how ISIS emerged and what exactly its leaders want can we address the threat it now poses. As it stands, the world’s leaders are ignoring vital information that may lead to disastrous consequences at the hands of ISIS. So how did ISIS emerge? As...

By Students For Liberty Vote0 0

A recent editorial by Lew Rockwell is titled, “Open Borders: A Libertarian Reappraisal.” But this isn’t a new look at immigration from the libertarian perspective. It’s actually a reevaluation of libertarianism, where Rockwell decides border control matters more than the principles of liberty. He’s not alone. An amazingly high number of libertarians switch sides when immigration is the topic. “We have a welfare state,” they cry. “These teeming hordes don’t appreciate our heritage of liberty.” With this most recent piece, Rockwell’s upped the claim. He argues that politically unwelcome immigration violates personal property rights as understood by libertarians. Rockwell’s approach...

By Students For Liberty Vote6 18

As libertarians, our inclination is to defend free speech at all costs. But as people – and people who care deeply about oppression – it’s our obligation to look deeper into the tension between free speech advocacy and the black experience at Mizzou and Yale. There’s a larger context in which we must understand the events leading up to these tipping points. We can, in no way, excuse protesters for how they treated student journalist Tim Tai, but we can – and should – dig deeper into their experience with oppression on campus. We should interrogate how the Constitution’s definition...

By Students For Liberty Vote1 4

In Tuesday night’s GOP popularity contest, Marco Rubio claimed, “Welders make more than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.” While the grammatically incorrect claim has already been debunked, what interests me more is what this quip reveals about Rubio’s sense of life. To be clear, I’m only singling out Rubio because his stupid quip is a good jumping-off place for what I’d like to discuss. Much of what I say here can probably be said about all politicians. I pity Marco Rubio. He has succumbed to the evil that is politics and makes his living out of it. He...

By Students For Liberty Vote5 2

On Tuesday, Ohioans chose not to adopt Issue 3, which would have legalized the recreational sale of marijuana in the state. The ballot initiative had ten major funders (former 98 Degrees star Nick Lachey among them) and included language that limited cultivation to their own companies. Despite widespread support for ending marijuana prohibition in Ohio and nationwide, the measure faced major opposition and was decisively defeated. Some opposition is to to be expected. The state legalization efforts in Colorado, Alaska, and Oregon faced strong opposition from opponents citing community health and safety as their main argument. They claimed that marijuana...

By Students For Liberty Vote4 2

Learn more about the right to bear arms with SFL’s #NotJustAGun campaign. It’s undeniable, for criminal justice scholars and sociologists, that Terry stops are one of the worst things that has ever happened to black America. Stop and frisk policies, along with racial profiling, rose to prominence largely as a part of the 1960s “tough on crime” rhetoric and hysteria. In 1968,the Supreme Court held that, upon reasonable suspicion, the police may detain someone and “lightly frisk” them for weapons if they have reason to believe the suspect is “armed and dangerous.” This vague language, combined with the rampant racism...

By Students For Liberty Vote3 10

WASHINGTON, DC – With the national debt surpassing $18,000,000,000,000, Congress has decided to put out tip jars all over Capitol Hill in a mass effort to reduce the overwhelming and rapidly increasing national debt. “We’re all taking steps to be proactive,” said Representative John Boehner, “we can’t just all sit around and do nothing. So we’ve been brainstorming ways to alleviate this immense burden from the shoulders of American citizens. Because we care.” In fact, it was concern for the well-being of the nation that led to the measure in the first place. “When you consider that the debt per...

By Students For Liberty Vote0 0

The world we live in is full of imperfections. As one looks around society, it’s not hard to find examples of externalities, imperfect information, or collective action problems that leave public goods insufficiently dispersed. But from these failures, it’s all too easy to leap to advocating idealized solutions. The problems we’re trying to solve arose from imperfect institutions populated by imperfect people. Positing perfection on the part of the institutions one advocates to solve a problem is unrealistic. Economist Harold Demsetz called this error the “nirvana fallacy.” Demsetz wrote that: “the view that now pervades much public policy economics implicitly presents the relevant...

By Students For Liberty Vote2 0

California looms at the precipice of a water crisis unseen in the history of the region. While many commentators and politicians are quick to blame markets for over-consumption, the current management system represents anything but open markets. For years, the government of California has encouraged costly and inefficient use of water in a largely arid state by preventing the establishment of a transient and functional water market. Rather than encourage water use based on actual need and efficient allocation determined by price, the current system in California massively subsidizes the price of water and serves special interests. The western United...

By Students For Liberty Vote3 2

Last call for ISFLC16 Discounts! Feb 16, 2016

The Rise of ISIS: A Lesson in How it Might End Jan 24, 2016

I Want Lew Rockwell to Be Libertarian on Immigration Jan 19, 2016

Libertarians, It’s Time to Decide: Compassion or Free Speech Purism? Nov 18, 2015

We Need More Philosophers and Fewer Politicians Nov 17, 2015

Monopolies Are Not the Way to Legalize Marijuana Nov 11, 2015

Congress Puts Out Tip Jars In An Effort To Reduce National Debt Sep 9, 2015

The Nirvana Fallacy Sep 3, 2015

Free markets are the solution to the California water crisis Aug 29, 2015