“In my opinion, if I pay to own something, I’ve paid to own all the things it can do … assuming I can figure out how to make it do those things. The manufacturers of ”owned,’ but with subscription-only features’ goods, though, frown on homebrew tinkerers jail-breaking those products instead of forking over cash in perpetuity. And they’ve got ‘intellectual property’ law on their side. They don’t have to care about your happiness.” (01/20/26)
“One of the positions that conservatives pride themselves on most is their dedication to free markets. They extol the virtues of the free market in pamphlets and speeches, and they regularly denounce the idea of government control. … Certainly, American conservatism has long been defined by the rhetoric of free markets. But a quick glance at conservative policy positions is all that is needed to call the sincerity of this rhetoric into question. Indeed, the policies conservatives advocate very often go against the free-market principles that they claim to hold. Perhaps the most glaring example of this contradiction is the conservative position on free trade.” (01/20/26)
“One Friday morning in September 2023, my neurologist told me she suspected that I had ALS. I was completely healthy — or so I thought — and in the prime of my life. I had two adult children, a great career, and a wonderful marriage. I was 56, and both of my parents were still alive. My diagnosis was confirmed two months later. I felt as if I had just been told not only that I would die, but that I would be tortured to death, and that it would drag out over several years. … About a year after my diagnosis, joy returned to my life thanks to the support of my family and friends, therapy, antidepressants, and a daily meditation practice. But the most important factor in my emotional recovery was gaining the knowledge that I can make the decision to end my own life when my suffering becomes unbearable.” (01/20/26)
“Supporters of the acquisition often cite estimates suggesting Greenland holds between roughly $2 trillion and $4 trillion in natural resources, including rare earth elements, hydrocarbons, and other critical minerals. At the same time, media reports and policy commentary have floated a hypothetical purchase price in the range of approximately $500 billion to $800 billion. Taken together, these two claims reveal a glaring contradiction. Natural resources are not cash balances. They represent long-dated option value: future streams of potential revenue that may or may not be realized depending on extraction costs, infrastructure investment, environmental constraints, political consent, and commodity prices. … Even setting aside valuation, the Greenland proposal fails a more basic test: symmetry. If historical ties, strategic relevance, and latent economic value were sufficient grounds for territorial acquisition, then several European powers could assert claims to US territory with equal legitimacy.” (01/20/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by staff
“This video is making the rounds — and it’s one every American should see. The video shows law enforcement showing up on the doorstep of Florida resident Raquel Pacheco. What did she do? She criticized the mayor on Facebook. Police coming to our doorsteps for lawful political speech — speech that doesn’t remotely rise to the level of incitement, harassment, or a true threat — is absolutely intolerable in a free society.” (01/20/26)
“Writers often try to gild their tawdry times or dignify their flawed leaders with lofty literary analogies — notably, America as the New Jerusalem; Lincoln as Moses leading his people through the wilderness of the Civil War; the Kennedy White House as an incarnation of King Arthur’s ‘Camelot,’ or Lyndon Johnson living his last years as a latter-day King Lear, cast off by his ungrateful children into the moors of south Texas. But what are we going to do with Donald Trump? Wouldn’t his vanity, his vulgarity, and his relentless pursuit of money and minerals in every corner of the globe turn any literary analogies into soggy clichés? Like the showman P.T. Barnum, Trump is an American original, whose true metaphors can be found only in comic books (America’s one true art form), not literature.” (01/20/25)
“Like all new frontiers touted as necessary and worthwhile, the cashless society is advertised as a supremely convenient way to facilitate financial transactions while avoiding such silly inconveniences as carrying cash and scouting for a money dispenser. A cashless society also facilitates inequality, manifests a pattern of conduct easily monitored by both private companies and State agencies, and repudiates the notion of valid tender. It also subordinates its users to a digital ecosystem that can, at any given moment, fail.” (01/20/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Everyone hates Israel now, and what’s funny is this wouldn’t have happened if our society had been the tiniest bit normal about Gaza. If everyone wasn’t constantly being forcefully told they’re not seeing what they’re seeing, it wouldn’t have become so personal for them. If western governments had just said ‘this is bad’ when news came out about Israel bombing a hospital instead of ‘THIS ISN’T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE THERE’S A HAMAS BASE IN EVERY HEALTHCARE FACILITY YOU ARE BEING ANTISEMITIC.’ If the news media had just said ‘this is bad’ when Israel systematically exterminated journalists in Gaza instead of reporting ‘three killed in what IDF describes as strike on terrorist vehicle’ over and over again.” (01/21/25)
“The assassination of Charlie Kirk (conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA) and its aftermath has led to a surge in public discussion about the nature and limits of free speech. The Trump administration, citing threats from Anti-Fa, designated it as a terrorist organization and in the process, also took aim at speech that is constitutionally protected. One late night TV host, Jimmy Kimmel, was temporarily fired due to pressure from the FCC and then reinstated. Whether the Trump administration represents a singular threat to the First Amendment, or whether ‘the left’ or ‘right’ is the larger threat to free speech are arguable points, but not ones that I will attempt to settle in this essay. Instead, in this essay I aim to make a left-wing case for pure tolerance, or in other words, of the necessity and practicality of tolerating speech by those viewed as intolerant.” (01/20/26)
