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Vin Suprynowicz's Columns Archive

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Vin Suprynowicz

On Nov. 15, 2003, an 85-year-old retired Marine Corps colonel died of congestive heart failure at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs.

He was a combat veteran of World War II. Reason enough to honor him. But this Marine was

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Despite the Constitution, only in Vermont (and now Alaska) do Americans not need to fear arrest and jail if they carry a concealed firearm without a government “permit.”

So, wishing to do their part to keep the crime rate down (John Lott and Pro

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

A friend suggested we try the new “Triple George” white-tablecloth restaurant -- wedged between Hogs & Heifers and the equally new “Celebrity” drag-queen lip-sync joint on Third Street near Ogden, in downtown Las Vegas -- late last month.

The am

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

There is widespread public awareness of the growing abuse of eminent domain in this country, following the awful decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last spring that authorized the city of New London, Conn., to seize the attractive homes of local citi

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Insurance is a wonderful invention of the free market.

Owners of properties which face a reasonably predictable chance of loss -- ships’ cargoes, for instance -- voluntarily pay some portion of that value to an insurer.

Funded by private in

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

In the face of soaring rates and brown-outs, the gerrymandered and ultra-leftist California Legislature panicked and pulled the plug on an electric deregulation scheme which was half-hearted (and thus largely foredoomed) in the first place.

They

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Nature cultists have been lying for decades about the supposedly “devastating” impacts of ranching, mining, lumbering, and just about any other productive use of the Western lands that you can think of.

One of their favorite tactics is to post m

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Across Europe, women are bearing fewer than the 2.07 children apiece which are necessary to maintain population levels (excluding immigration) in peacetime.

One result has indeed been immigration -- lots of it. That’s created a problem integrati

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

The Founding Fathers, having promised us a small central government that would seldom meddle in local affairs, might be shocked to drive across this country today.

Along the interstates, scarcely a county doesn’t sport its quota of distinctive w

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

In 1998, Gary Sherwood Small of Pennsylvania bought a handgun at a federally licensed gun store.

He answered “No” to the “ever been convicted of a felony?” question on a federal form, although he had been paroled only a few days before from a Ja

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Let’s respond to one more letter on my Sept. 11 column on the fading of the ancient American virtue of self-reliance, in the face of the endless blandishments of the welfare state, and then call it quits.

One Anders Mikkelsen wrote in from somew

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

The Mainstream Press paid little attention -- wouldn’t want to risk upsetting the lowing herd of worker drones just as they’re about to surrender their little calves and heifers to a lifetime of tender socialist propagandizing by the unionized minion

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Some subscribers reported receiving an incomplete column for this date, so we are resending it.

The Mainstream Press paid little attention -- wouldn’t want to risk upsetting the lowing herd of worker drones just as they’re about to surrend

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Last week, we started dealing with the mail on my Sept. 11 column about the fading American virtue of self-sufficiency, as hastened by the growth of the welfare state, on display in the person of the mendicant class of New Orleans at the Superdome in

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Vin Suprynowicz

Haven’t heard enough euphemisms in the John Roberts confirmation hearings, where Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Animal Farm -- that champion of “leaving us alone” who would have armed goons invade our homes and jail us for growing pot or mounting a “bad” w

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Vin Suprynowicz

On Sept. 8, President Bush signed an executive order suspending the Davis-Bacon Act and allowing contractors to pay actual going rates to rebuild flood-stricken New Orleans.

The AFL-CIO immediately began squawking. “Employers are all too eager t

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Some mail rolled in, responding to my Sept. 11 column on the aggrieved residents of inner-city New Orleans.

These were residents who, admittedly, had been ordered to the Superdome by city authorities despite the woeful lack of supplies or facili

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

Nature cultists have been lying for decades about the supposedly “devastating” impacts of ranching, mining, lumbering, and just about any other productive use of the Western lands that you can think of.

One of their favorite tactics is to post m

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

There is a final defense against excessive taxation -- one that tyrants and their henchmen have been railing against since Pharaoh sent his armies chasing Moses to the Red Sea.

Those who face unacceptable levels of confiscation of their li

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Vin Suprynowicz

Juicier details will doubtless emerge -- I’m betting we’ll see faked-up emergency response plans; levee repair money diverted to build fancy marinas, riverboats, and casinos; the “best and the bravest” abandoning their posts and the buses that

Article Image The Libertarian

Vin Suprynowicz

A few worthwhile books have crossed the desk lately, the most notable being Thomas E. Woods’ “Politically Incorrect Guide to American History,” Regnery, $19.95.

This is a non-threatening 246-page large-format paperback. In fact, what I mis

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Vin Suprynowicz

Labor Day has a different history in America than in Europe, points out Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and editor of the book “Breaking Away: The Future of Cities.”

Europe’s Labor Day observance was announ

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Vin Suprynowicz

Being a libertarian, I’m pro-choice -- and against government intervention -- in just about everything. Given the levels of privacy and intimacy involved, that certainly applies to people’s reproductive decisions.

Unfortunately, many who c

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Vin Suprynowicz

“Transportation For All? It’s your call,” advise the massive billboards that stare down at Las Vegas drivers in the Spaghetti Bowl and along other major travelways this month.

The irony is, those drivers’ own tax dollars are being used in th

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Vin Suprynowicz

The U.S. Supreme Court’s execrable Kelo vs. New London decision -- holding local government can seize any property, no matter how prosperous, and turn it over to a different private owner so long as this is held to somehow benefit the amorphous

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Vin Suprynowicz

Despite flying in bands of Philippine mercenaries armed with sneakers, chalk and pointers, the gargantuan Clark County School District claims it’s still short 287 teachers to start the school year, and will fill those gaps with long-term substi

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Vin Suprynowicz

For the record, I see little evidence President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge John G. Roberts of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, an honors graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law who has argued 39 c

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Vin Suprynowicz

The forces of political correctness strive mightily to promote “alternative” energy sources at every turn -- and regardless of the cost or inconvenience to everyone else.

For example, always-PC California for years has required auto manufact

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Vin Suprynowicz

What happens to the staff of a unionized, government-run school that gets a reputation for being a “bad” school, whether that be for academic performance, or behavioral problems, or (all too often) both?

The few good teachers promptly use

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