Sovereign Man

A new Gallup poll finds that 29% of Americans now say government itself is the country’s biggest problem. That’s a higher percentage than people who think America’s biggest problem is the economy. Or immigration. Or inflation. Think about that for a moment. The institution whose entire job is to solve... Read more

Try to wire $15,000 to a foreign bank account sometime. You’ll be asked to fill out compliance forms explaining the purpose of the transfer. Your bank’s compliance department will review the transaction. A Currency Transaction Report will be filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. And depending on the bank,... Read more

“OK, so now I just want a bunker,” a close friend of mine texted over the weekend. And I get it. Fear, apprehension, unease… these are completely normal feelings right now. Google Trends shows that searches for “WW3” and “nuclear war” spiked over the weekend.  Similar hashtags on social media... Read more

Western civilization is starting to feel like one big satire. And at some point you have to stop and remind yourself— none of this is normal. And you’re not crazy for thinking so. Here are a few of this week’s most absurd stories in case you missed them. In New... Read more

In 1954, Frank Sinatra was on top of the world. He’d just won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity — a comeback role that rescued his career after years of decline and a voice hemorrhage that nearly ended it all. Hollywood was paying him... Read more

In 1779, in a textile workshop in the English village of Anstey, a young apprentice named Ned Ludd was put to work on a knitting machine — one of the large mechanical frames that wove thread into stockings. He was too slow. His master had him whipped for it. So... Read more

Just imagine how tranquil your retirement could be in… sunny Afghanistan! You could wake up in the morning to the pleasant sound of celebratory gunfire… then artfully dodge landmines left behind by not one, but two different superpower invasions on your way to witness the day’s beheading. You could cap... Read more

For decades, Germany operated its rail system on an honor model. There were no turnstiles, no barriers. Passengers bought tickets, boarded trains, and conductors performed random spot checks to make sure everyone had paid. It was a system built on trust— and for a long time, it worked, because Germany... Read more

These days there aren’t too many people clamoring to move to New York City. Maybe it’s the rats. Or the high taxes. Or the homeless. Or the socialism. You can see the effect in the city’s population numbers: in 2018, roughly 8.4 million people lived in the five boroughs. Today,... Read more

The Congressional Budget Office just released its annual long-term budget outlook. And, as usual, the numbers are grim. Also as usual, practically no one in Congress is paying attention. America’s elected representatives are focused on everything else— virtue signaling, trying to keep illegal immigrants in the country, launching lawsuits against government... Read more

In January 1933, a farmer named Wallace Kramp was about to lose everything. A lender in Wood County, Ohio was foreclosing on his farm over an $800 mortgage he couldn’t pay. Kramp wasn’t a bad farmer. It was actually the government’s fault: during World War I, the US government had... Read more

In January 2025, the federal government employed about 3 million people. By November, that number had fallen by roughly 270,000 workers — a reduction of about 9%. According to the Cato Institute, that was the largest peacetime federal workforce reduction EVER. More than 150,000 employees took the “Fork in the... Read more