While visiting the White House on his first day in the United States this year, Pope Francis made a strong plea on behalf of religious liberty, which he pointedly directed at President Obama. This came shortly before he made an unscheduled visit with the Little Sisters of the Poor, who are suing the Obama administration over their own right not to include artificial contraception as part of their health insurance plan, which is mandated by Obamacare regulations.

New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman has ruled that fantasy football companies such as FanDuel and DraftKings must cease and desist operation in New York. Because of New York’s historic role in consumer protection this ruling may spread into other jurisdictions. According to the New York Times, Mr. Schneiderman said:

During Monday’s chaotic day of demonstrations at the University of Missouri, professor Melissa Click accomplished something she may have never done before in her academic career – taught an important lesson. Click, an assistant professor of mass media at Mizzou’s communications department, was recorded intimidating and threatening student journalists trying to document the protests occurring on campus.

When an investor buys an annuity or another retirement product from an insurance or mutual fund company, the contract is constant and enforceable through the United States court system. When a United States taxpayer is forced to pay for a government backed retirement system such as the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program (OASDI) — also known as Social Security — the “contract” can be, and is, changed on a regular basis by the United States government, and those changes are generally not to the benefit of the taxpayer.

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This article is adapted from a talk delivered at this past weekend’s Mises Circle event in Phoenix.

The topic of our symposium this morning is “What Must Be Done,” which originally was the title of a talk given by Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe at a Mises Institute conference in 1997. Hoppe posed his title as a declarative, but it’s also the question we all wrestle with as libertarians in a world so dominated by the state and its apologists.