In recent days, as the trial unfolded of a horrific homicide at a track meet in Texas, public debate raged over the meaning of “self-defense.” While there are many different facets to the self-defense angle of that case, one key issue that is worth considering in more detail concerns the owner’s right to exclude anyone from his premises.
College athletics, particularly in the South, has long been one of the great institutions of this country. While the terminally anti-social may be quick to dismiss popular sports as “sportsball” and the latter half of “bread and circuses,” the reality is that popular sports have long served as an important connection in civil society, creating multi-generational stories of success and defeat, and providing valuable lessons about grit, hard work, and determination.
There are two types of human beings in this world: those who wait for someone to tell them what to do, and those who build structures that force the world to move at their rhythm. Modern state-monopolized education is engineered exclusively for the former. The contemporary school system operates as a direct administrative descendant of the nineteenth-century Prussian factory model.
It is trite to observe that the ideal of free speech applies not only to those with whom we agree, but also—even more so—to those with whom we disagree. Free speech is always important in defending liberty, but it becomes even more so when debating the justice of war. The causes of war are inevitably contested, and it would be impossible to avoid the evils of aggressive wars if critical voices against war are silenced.
Reactions to the latest jobs report focused on the unexpectedly large increase in total employment. There was a large increase in private employment over the past month. This is good news. The ratio of Federal to private employees also declined last month. This relative decline in Federal employment is good news, public agencies are bloated, overstaffed (as seen in the next graph).
Prof. Dr. Karl-Friedrich Israel delivers the Laudatio in honor of Dr. Ron Paul, recipient of the 2026 Hayek Medal awarded at the Annual Conference of the German Hayek Society on May 22, 2026, in Münster, Germany.
Murray N. Rothbard was a system builder in the mode of Ludwig von Mises, Frank H. Knight, and Friedrich A. Hayek. Like these eminent economists, Rothbard concluded that mastery of pure economic theory alone does not get one very far. Social, economic, and political problems are intertwined and complex and require a grand theory to address them. The social theorist must be familiar with such diverse disciplines as epistemology, political philosophy, politics, history, and economics. For Rothbard, the unifying theme of social theory was liberty.
