• "Well written, well researched, and the thesis put forth is well argued.... Woods has opened up an area of historical analysis that should invite further study."
    -Journal of American History

  • "During these times that challenge our freedoms there is no one more qualified to make U.S. history relevant to the fight against big government than Thomas Woods."
    -Barry Goldwater Jr.
    Former Member of Congress

  • "I strongly recommend Woods's work."
    -The Honorable Ron Paul,
    U.S. House of Representatives

  • "Written with great clarity and fluency, making the complex philosophical and theological concepts approachable."
    -Journal of American Studies

  • "A must-read."
    -Barron's

  • "An excellent reading source for anyone interested in financial markets, and much more so for anyone interested in learning about capitalism without all the misinterpretations being thrown about in the financial media."
    -Asia Times

  • "Provocative, well-written, and deserves to be read."
    -Catholic Historical Review

  • "An engaging and important contribution to scholarship on the history of American Catholicism."
    -Journal of the Historical Society

  • "Woods and [co-author Kevin] Gutzman appeal to both left and right in this constitutionalist jeremiad…. The authors' exegeses of the Constitution and court decisions, heavy on original intent arguments, are lucid and telling."
    -Publishers Weekly

  • "A marvelous read. Every chapter taught me something new and unexpected."
    -Tom Bethell, senior editor,
    The American Spectator

  • "The hottest book today is Meltdown, by my friend Tom Woods."
    -Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst,
    FOX News Channel

  • "Should be required reading."
    -Economic Affairs (London)

  • "Woods, one of the best classical liberal [libertarian] scholars of his generation, has once more placed us in his debt with this lucid and tightly argued book."
    -David Gordon, The Mises Review

  • "Tom Woods is one of my dearest allies in the struggle against wrong-headed and dangerous economic policy."
    -Peter Schiff

Astronauts Needed

A Netherlands-based nonprofit organization needs astronauts for a settlement on Mars, to be established in 2023.

Here’s their pitch for the project:

Unlearn the Propaganda!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Sedkowski/100001467305337 Paul Sedkowski

    How cool. Let’s volunteer Obama for that one. And all the neocons too while we’re at it.

  • Michael Mills

    No thanks, I want a Free Mars, lets let Totalitarianism develop organically there rather then exporting it galactically ;-)

  • Stephen

    This raises an interesting philosophical
    question related to the debate over whether you can sell yourself into
    slavery (I agree with the
    Rothbardian argument that you can’t separate yourself from your will): Mars One will hand out only one-way tickets, so once the volunteers arrive on Mars, they’ll be there the rest of their lives. So, if you enter into a voluntary agreement, but the nature of the
    agreement is such that you cannot physically get out of it (you’re stuck
    on Mars and entirely dependent on the resources provided to you for
    survival and communication with the outside world), how does
    libertarianism deal with this?

  • Franklin

    It’s not slavery; it’s a choice.
    If you prefer to stay on the blue planet vs. the red planet, then don’t volunteer.

  • Sam Pondet

    What a stupid idea. Send people off to an uninhabitable planet, to live as close to death as you can come. With no long term solution to the utter lack of living environment? They’re trying to sprint before they’ve even learned how to crawl yet.

    “Johnny we’re sending you off to live in a pod on a planet you can’t live on without an expensive suit that allows you to walk for a short while in your outside environment. Also you can’t grow anything or raise livestock, and must depend on the governments of Earth remembering that you’re still there, and consistently bringing you the necessary amount of food and water before you starve to death. Also, once you step on that shuttle you can never come back. Have fun and don’t get too excited about looking at rusted rocks and eating food out of a tube for the rest of your life!”

    What’s the point in having a colony if you can’t do anything on it, and have to live on the edge of the slightest electrical, mechanical, or slight human or unforced error immediately killing you?

    I love space. My dream in the future is becoming a major investor in terraforming technology that changes the environment on planets enough so that humans and other lifeforms can survive on planets that normally wouldn’t be able to. Like Mars. That and being able to hop on a spaceship and just cruise the galaxy. Though with government’s iron grip on space technology and the inevitability of government feeling threatened that they might not be needed to enforce their police state on different colonies, my dream will probably only exist in alternate universes where people are sane, and the word government invokes derision and many laughs at the water cooler

  • Sam Pondet

    The same way you can argue as a libertarian that you should be allowed to murder yourself. You are committing aggression against yourself but, are exercising your right to self-ownership. I doubt too many libertarians would feel to bad about stupid people signing away their right to life, property, and every other natural right they forfeit by signing a contract to be a slave, then 20 years later wanting to bail and starts reaching for the rights he willingly signed away.

    Legally if he wanted out you’d have to go get him to stay consistent with the idea that you cannot sign your natural rights away. So the contract would only be valid until the signer didn’t want to be a slave anymore.

  • Rob Nabakowski

    Every time I heard the balding younger gentleman talk, I heard Goldmember from Austin Powers. I could have sword at one point that he said the, “project was toight.”

  • Stephen

    Obviously I understand that it’s not slavery, and I do think the answer
    is relatively straightforward: a voluntary choice to maroon yourself
    doesn’t impose positive obligations on others. But, if you buy into the
    argument that you can sell yourself into slavery (which I don’t, but respected libertarians like Walter Block do), then
    this situation is very similar. I think this illustrates why Dr. Block’s
    argument is wrong, but still, I think this is an interesting scenario to contemplate.