Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Reason
by Reem Ibrahim

“The bill’s ‘duty of care’ could pressure platforms to suppress lawful speech in the name of protecting children.” (10/02/26)

https://reason.com/2026/10/02/rand-paul-was-right-to-block-the-senates-attempt-to-censor-the-internet/

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“Sometimes, cruel punishment is the usual, as in states like the People’s Republic of China. Everybody is a victim there. But entire ethnic or religious groups of people are routinely subjected to even more cruel tyranny than most Chinese people must put with. If Americans aren’t yet in this situation — not for lack of trying by various local, state, and federal autocrats — one reason is that instances of cruel and unusual punishment can be fought in court. Which is what Ken Jouppi is doing with the help of the Institute for Justice. What was Jouppi’s alleged crime? He let a passenger bring ‘visible’ containers of beer on board his Cessna 206. … Jouppi was punished 13 years ago, a year after the ‘crime,’ with three days in jail and a $1,500 fine. But that wasn’t good enough for the Alaska government, which tenaciously enforces local alcohol prohibitions — it demanded that Jouppi forfeit his $95,000 airplane.” (10/02/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/10/02/fly-the-cruel-and-unusual-skies/

Source: Law & Liberty
by Hans Zeiger

“Independence Hall is one of the great historic buildings because of what happened inside its walls.” (10/02/26)

https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-parthenon-of-the-republic/

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Shahid Islam

“Introductory economics textbooks devote considerable attention to market failure: monopoly power, externalities, public goods and asymmetric information. However, government failure deserves the same scrutiny. Markets are made up of imperfect human beings and so are governments. Legislators, regulators, and civil servants possess limited knowledge, imperfect foresight and incentives of their own. Evidence of market failure is not evidence that government intervention will improve the outcome. The relevant comparison is between feasible alternatives.” (10/02/26)

https://mises.org/power-market/government-failure-still-failure

Source: Asia Times
by Altaf Moti

“The war between the United States and Iran is no longer just a confrontation between Washington and Tehran. A second contest is taking shape alongside and behind it. China is not fighting the United States directly, but its economic, technological and diplomatic links to Iran are complicating Washington’s strategy and ability to win the conflict.” (10/02/26)

https://asiatimes.com/2026/10/the-china-factor-behind-the-iran-war/

Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman

“For laissez-faire liberal Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), political trouble began with ‘the unhesitating belief … that evils of all kinds should be dealt with by the State.’ The fatal first step is a government promise to rescue people from their own bad choices, such as their preference for indolence and other irresponsibility. That was a mistake because, as Spencer wrote elsewhere, ‘The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.’ Shielding people from their folly is not only bad in itself, but it also sets in motion a perverse political dynamic that, if allowed to persist, would doom freedom itself.” (10/02/26)

https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-spencer-foresaw-the-coming-slavery