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Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
SHARE Monday, December 1, 2025 You Must Refuse Illegal Orders. If This Be Treason, Make The Most Of It.
You must refuse illegal orders.
If it's "treason" or "sedition" to state that fact, then every instructor in every basic training class on military law is a traitor who's been teaching treason and preaching sedition to every recruit since 1950, when the UCMJ was adopted ... and probably long before that.
SHARE Monday, December 1, 2025 Quiet, Piggy: Reporters Aren't Trump's Subordinates
Trump's only subordinates (with respect to his position as president of the United States) are employees of the federal government's executive branch. Literally everyone else in the country is either his equal or his superior.
SHARE Saturday, November 8, 2025 SCOTUS Passport Ruling: A Distraction from the Real Issue
If the purpose of a passport is to establish that the government has issued a particular person a Very Special Important Permission Slip to Travel, matching that person's fingerprint to a fingerprint on the passport is sufficient. Anything more is about bureaucratic control fetishes, not a desire to identify travelers.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 6, 2025 Against Moral Panic: Or, Dolls Aren't Real Kids
Do we want fewer or more child molesters? If the former, we'll stop letting moral panic drive our legal and political demands.
SHARE Monday, November 3, 2025 The Administration Just Admitted War Powers Don't Cover Trump's Caribbean Murder Spree
If the drone strike campaign in the Caribbean isn't war, what is it? It's not law enforcement. In law enforcement, there are investigations, charges filed, judicial warrants issued, and attempts at arrest. These drone strikes include none of those elements except, supposedly, investigations. They also take place entirely outside the legal jurisdiction of the United States. Not war. Not law enforcement. What, then? Murder.
SHARE Monday, November 3, 2025 Tariffs: The Truth May Hurt Trump, But Trump's Lies Hurt You
Estimates vary -- in large part because Trump's tariffs rates seem to change by the minute on the basis of his whims and tantrums -- but over the last few months he's hiked your household's annual tax bill by at least $2,500, and probably closer to $5,000.
That's a lot of money to spend humoring one guy's "throw myself on the floor and hold my breath 'til I turn blue" approach to trade/tax policy.
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Gaza: Yes, It's A War
Trying to separate war from the genocide and ethnic cleansing that often accompanies it is cheap moralizing for propaganda points.
SHARE Sunday, October 5, 2025 Shutdown Theater, Briar Patch Edition
The two wings of America's single-party state, and their pet media, treat the threat of a "government shutdown" as existential, and spend a lot more time trying to pre-emptively apportion blame to each other than trying to do a deal.
In reality, these "shutdowns" are pure Hollywood magic, all special effects -- "no animals or bureaucrats were harmed in this production."
SHARE Sunday, October 5, 2025 Yes, James Comey is a Liar ... and a Distraction
It seems like Comey's tenure was mostly lies. So pardon me if I decline to break out even the world's smallest violin for his current legal problems.
On the other hand, it's also true that this prosecution has nothing whatsoever to do with the alleged lie in question.
(9 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Trump, RFK Jr. May Be Right About Acetaminophen, But Why The Rush?
Maybe there's really no causal link to autism/ADHD; maybe there is. But with any number of pain relief options out there, does it really make sense to continue using a drug we already knew was bad for us?
SHARE Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Brendan Carr and Donald Trump: Another Jawbone, Another Ass
There's nothing new about "jawboning," the practice of politicians and bureaucrats using political condemnation, often coupled with regulatory or legal threats, to bludgeon private sector actors into submission.
SHARE Friday, September 19, 2025 Charlie Kirk: The Value of a Legacy Is Subjective
In a perfect world, Charlie Kirk's supporters would focus on, and mine the legacy value of, his reputation as an advocate of free speech and debate. Whatever one thinks of the views he promoted and defended, there's 24-karat gold in the notion that verbal argument is, in both moral and practical terms, better than physical violence as a means of resolving disputes.
We do not live in a perfect world.
SHARE Tuesday, September 16, 2025 Hoplophobes Say The Strangest Things
Yes, they're scared, but that kind of goes with the whole "irrational fear" thing, doesn't it?
For some reason, though, they say they're MORE scared of "open carry" than of "concealed carry."
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 14, 2025 Charlie Kirk: This Too Shall Pass, Unfortunately
If there's one thing we should all be able to agree on, it's that no one should be murdered for speaking.
In the aftermath of Charlie "Prove Me Wrong" Kirk's murder at a Utah campus event, it's clear that no, we don't all agree on that.
SHARE Sunday, September 14, 2025 Now The Feds Want In On The University Patent Racket
If the feds won't eliminate patents and government research funding, they should at least eliminate any and all combinations of the two, rather than demanding their own taste of the racket's revenues.
SHARE Wednesday, September 10, 2025 Shutdown Theater: Every Play Eventually Ends Its Run
It's Max Bialystock's and Leo Bloom's wildest dream: "Springtime for Hitler" isn't just a money-making (for them, but nobody else) flop, it's history's longest-running such flop!
The last time US politicians actually (and very temporarily) paid off their ever-growing debt was 190 years ago in 1835. The last time they even managed to theoretically balance one year's budget was 24 years ago in 2001.