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Lawrence W. Reed

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The Uncommon Ella Knowles Haskell →

September 19, 2023

Some people may look back on late 19th Century America in disdain because women couldn’t vote. But consider the context: For most of human history, nobody could vote—neither man nor woman. You did as you were told, as serf, slave or subject. Women could not vote in Mexico, for instance, until 1953.

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The Island That Saved Hundreds of Refugees →

September 5, 2023

All over the world, a year before World War II even started, doors were closing to Jewish refugees. One tiny island offered to accept a huge number.

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Georgia Liked Bryan →

September 1, 2023

Were Georgians right when they endorsed William Jennings Bryan all three times he ran for President? Personally, I wouldn’t have voted for him even once, so now you know where I stand.

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Lessons from the 2003 Heat Wave →

August 29, 2023

The staggering death toll in France is a reminder of what can happen when private initiative is replaced with government “safety nets.”

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A Tale of Two Fires: Maui and Michigan →

August 26, 2023

The tragedy in Hawaii reminded Biden of his kitchen; but the horrific nature of it and government’s culpability in it brought to my mind another event, long forgotten.

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Cleopatra's Money Mistakes →

August 23, 2023

In the face of soaring prices, do you suppose the inflating Ptolemies repented by cutting their spending, balancing their budgets, and restoring sound money?

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Montana--Cool for Coolidge! →

August 22, 2023

Did Montanans make the right choice by giving Coolidge their votes in 1924? You bet they did.

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Remembering a Great Polish Patriot: Jan Nowak-Jezioranski →

August 15, 2023

Looking to models of courage such as Jan Nowak-Jezioranski for inspiration will help us grow in courage ourselves. We may need it when we least expect it.

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The Lesson of Aurelian: Beware of False Reformers →

August 8, 2023

Like most dictators, Aurelian thought he was special. Inscribed on some of the coins he minted, and which bore his image, was the phrase, deus et dominus natus, meaning “god and born ruler.”

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The Best Treasury Secretary America Ever Had →

August 3, 2023

It was under Coolidge that the Mellon Plan achieved its fullest implementation, and the country was all the better for it.

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The Emperor Who Tried to Restore Sound Money →

August 1, 2023

Most political leaders are happy to cowardly defer real reform to some future generation and, in the meantime, do nothing more than “manage” the decline. Pertinax was different.

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What’s a sapelo? →

July 26, 2023

Before this book, I thought “tabby” was one of the more common names for a house cat. Now I know it’s a kind of concrete made with oyster shells.

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Satchmo Comes to Great Falls →

July 18, 2023

People said he had a voice like gravel, and they meant it as a high compliment. 

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Australia and Its Gold Standard →

July 11, 2023

Governments don’t like gold because they can’t print it is a truism worth canonizing in the Book of Proverbs. The experiences of Australia, the UK and the US.

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They Actually Banned Sliced Bread →

July 6, 2023

Why have a “commerce clause” in the first place if the federal government can declare that you’re doing commerce—interstate or otherwise—even if you’re not?

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Mayor Cleveland Nixes Public Funding for the 4th of July →

June 29, 2023

Personally, Grover loved pork in his sausage, but he hated it in bills.

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One of History's Greatest Stories Ever! →

June 27, 2023

Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, to their eternal credit, proved that even the most entrenched of laws and policies can be changed by people of courage, character and conscience.

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The Origins of "No Taxation Without Representation" →

June 25, 2023

When the English Civil War began in 1642, John Hampden was among the first the King unsuccessfully attempted to arrest.

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Montana's Home School Heroes →

June 20, 2023

The state’s roughly 7,400 home school children (as reported by the Associated Press) are saving Montana taxpayers well over ten million bucks this year. Nationwide, homeschoolers save the public upwards of $56 billion.

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Wanted: Moral Courage →

June 20, 2023

When we see acts of moral courage, we should recognize and applaud those who show it. We should feel emboldened to practice more of it ourselves.

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Recent “Best of Web”

Featured
The End of the Climate Cult
Dec 4, 2025
The End of the Climate Cult
Dec 4, 2025

The climatastrophe has been a terrible mistake. It diverted attention from real environmental problems, cost a fortune, impoverished consumers, perpetuated poverty, frightened young people into infertility, wasted years of our time, undermined democracy and corrupted science. Time to bury the parrot — Matt Ridley.


Dec 4, 2025
Government Shutdown Exposed the Biggest Lie in Education
Oct 31, 2025
Government Shutdown Exposed the Biggest Lie in Education
Oct 31, 2025

“For decades, teachers unions and the liberal allies they bankroll in D.C. have told the American people that without the federal bureaucracy, education would crumble,” writes Ryan Walters.

Oct 31, 2025
Millions Gather to Express Total Ignorance
Oct 18, 2025
Millions Gather to Express Total Ignorance
Oct 18, 2025

“We're going to join our voices together and let the message ring loud and clear that we are uneducated rubes in desperate need of a middle-school social studies class,” said one man. Problem is, they DID have middle-school social studies, at great expense to the taxpayer, and still turned out to be rubes. Maybe there’s a connection??

Oct 18, 2025

Recent Quotes

Featured
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025

“The true meaning of America, you ask? It’s in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman’s badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper. ... In all these things, and many more, you’ll find America. In all these things, you’ll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me” — Actor, poet, and the most decorated American of World War II, Audie Murphy.

Feb 11, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

Feb 1, 2025
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023

“There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it — from his book, Musashi.

Mar 20, 2023

Recent Blogs

Featured
Foreword to "Chasing Value" by Simon Studer
Dec 21, 2025
Foreword to "Chasing Value" by Simon Studer
Dec 21, 2025

From income inequality to jobs to politics to personal independence, Simon Studer shows how value—subjective, personal value, the only kind there is—makes the world go round. Most readers of this book will never see the world the same way again. And that, you will learn, is a very good thing. A wonderful contribution in the Austrian School tradition.

Dec 21, 2025
Books for Winter Evenings
Dec 19, 2025
Books for Winter Evenings
Dec 19, 2025

Thomas Jefferson once said, “I cannot live without books.” Indeed, he owned about 6,000 of them, which he sold to Congress in 1815.

Dec 19, 2025
A Montana Moment to Remember
Dec 17, 2025
A Montana Moment to Remember
Dec 17, 2025

A testament to a friendship that hopefully will endure forever.

Dec 17, 2025