Deroy Murdock: America Slides In Economic Freedom Index

U.S. struggles to stay in the top ten.   Good news! On economic freedom, America is in the global Top 10. Bad news: America is No. 10 — one blond hair ahead of Denmark. According to the 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, released Thursday by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong enjoys the earth’s freest economy. The Chinese ... MORE

Richard N. Weltz: Government Just Messes Things Up

How's all that government meddling working out for ya?   Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union an agricultural commissar from the Ukraine was summoned to the Agricultural Ministry in Moscow to report on the year's potato crop. "Ah, Comrade Minister," said the commissar, beaming, "If all the potatoes harvested this year were put into a single pile .... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Markets & Minorities

Patriot-News: What Separates Ron Paul From The Pack

Only Paul seeks to minimize the role of the state. At a recent GOP debate, the presidential candidates were asked what they would be doing on a Saturday night if they weren’t running for president. The responses were typically safe and predictable, mostly having to do with watching sports, but one brave soul said he would be reading an economics textbook.   ... MORE

Rachael Williams: In Defense Of Libertarians

A truly limited government is not extremism. Throughout the primary election season there's been a group unfairly villainized by the rest of the Republicans. Not the establishment (they can't be villianized enough for giving us McCain and trying to keep folks like Rand Paul from getting elected in 2010) -- I mean libertarians. Republicans like to villainize libertarians      ... MORE

VIDEO: Who's Lethal? Police or Tasers

Jennifer Lynch: Are Drones Watching You?

Drones catching on as new police state tool. Today, EFF filed suit against the Federal Aviation Administration seeking information on drone flights in the United States. The FAA is the sole entity within the federal government capable of authorizing domestic drone flights, and for too long now, it has failed to release specific and detailed information on .. MORE

Charles Hurt: Obama's Naked Thuggery

Liberals getting high on the elixir of power. After all these years it took a great constitutional scholar who had spent a life cloistered in academia and street work to utterly rape our most cherished Constitution. This business of bypassing the Senate to pick “recess” appointments to positions most Americans have never heard of may ... MORE

David Harsanyi: The GOP's Creative Destruction

Venture socialism is empathetic. Venture Capitalism is useful. Yes, it's true that unlike some Republicans, Democrats don't "enjoy firing people." They enjoy "investing" your money in exploding electric vehicles, bullet trains, and other highly unprofitable but morally satisfying economic misadventures. Venture socialism is certainly empathetic.   ... MORE

VIDEO: A Version Of Mitt For Everyone


Two reasons to pick Ron Paul. We know who Gingrich is. We don't know Romney.

Washington Times: The Free Market's New Frontier

America’s adventuresome spirit is not dead yet. President Obama, the naysayer in chief, may have grounded NASA’s government-issued astronauts, but space entrepreneurs are making plans to tank up and take off on their own. Last month, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced he is investing $200 million of his own fortune in a startup space  ... MORE


Jonah Goldberg: Romney's Authenticity Problem

Enthusiasm for the GOP frontrunner is lacking.   Mitt Romney is the most improbable of presidential candidates: a weak juggernaut. He is poised to sweep every primary contest — a first for a non-incumbent. And yet, in Republican ranks there’s an abiding sense that he should be beatable — and beaten. It’s not that Romney doesn’t have fans. His events in New   ... MORE

VIDEO: The Demonization Of Capitalism


A concern citizen speaks out on the widespread ignorance about capitalism.

Christopher Chantrill: Bad News On Unemployment

The labor force is not growing. Conservatives are anxious to see bad news in the drop in the headline unemployment rate to 8.5 percent. Yes, it's fabulous that employment is finally turning upwards, but the labor force isn't expanding as it should in a healthy recovery. The following two charts using data from the Household Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics  ... MORE

John Stossel: Champions Of Freedom

Who will fight for individual liberty? It's election season, and so once again people look for heroes. Is Ron Paul one? Maybe. He's fought a long, lonely battle to limit the power of government. As government grows, I yearn for champions of freedom who fight back. Rep. Paul has done that. But it's a mistake to look for heroes in politics. It's too ugly a business. My ... MORE

VIDEO: Andrew Napolitano - Does The Constitution Matter?

Roger L. Simon: Ron Paul Defends Romney & Capitalism

Texas congressman is a rare breed: politically honest.   I admit I have been critical of Ron Paul in the past, and still am regarding foreign policy, but I admire his forthright honesty in defense of Mitt Romney today. That’s a rare thing for a politician, particularly in the thick of the fight, but Paul seems to be a man who means what he says, good, bad or  ... MORE

A. Barton Hinkle: Rationing Speech To Minimize Thought

Why liberals favor campaign season censorship.  Liberals are nearly united against Citizens United. This means they are nearly united in favor of censorship. But that has not stopped the Supreme Court decision from being roundly denounced by everyone with progressive DNA – from the elderly solons at The New York Times to the youthful idealists of ... MORE

VIDEO: 3 Reasons We Should Cut Defense Spending


Attention conservatives!

NY Times: Companies Fined For Not Using Unavailable Fuel

Goofy green government strikes again.  When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law. But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient ... MORE 

Thomas Sowell: Kodak And The Post Office

Why government works so poorly.   The news that Eastman Kodak is preparing to file for bankruptcy, after being the leading photographic company in the world for more than a hundred years, truly marks the end of an era. The skills required to use the cameras and chemicals required by the photography of the mid-19th century were far beyond those of   ... MORE

Pedophiles To Be Given Disability Pay In Bankrupt Greece

Peeping Toms and pyromaniacs to also cash in.  Greek disability groups expressed anger Monday at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. The National Confederation of Disabled People called the action "incomprehensible," and said pedophiles are now ...   MORE

VIDEO: America CAN Change Its Direction


In 1940, Charlie Chaplin unwittingly made a pitch for Ron Paul.

Bob Aldelmann: Each Chevy Volt Costs Taxpayers $250,000

Green policy = wasting the green from citizen wallets.   The Mackinac Center for Public Policy just released a study showing that by the time all federal and state loans, grants, subsidies, and tax credits are figured in, each Chevy Volt costs taxpayers upwards of $250,000. James Hohman, the center’s assistant director of fiscal policy, counted a total of 18  ... MORE

Walter E Williams: In Greed I Trust

Have a second look at greed. Last week's column started off asking: "What human motivation gets the most wonderful things done?" The answer is that human greed is what gets wonderful things done. I wasn't talking about fraud, theft, dishonesty, special privileges from government or other forms of despicable behavior. I was talking about people trying ... MORE

VIDEO Obama's Stunning Abuse of Power

Tony Newman: Juries May Declare Peace In The Drug War

Liberty's last stand may take place in the jury room. Should juries vote "not guilty" on low-level marijuana charges to send a message about our country's insane drug policies? Jury nullification is a constitutional doctrine under which jurors can acquit defendants who are technically guilty but don't deserve punishment. As law professor Paul Butler wrote recently ... MORE

TIME: Regulating the Net Tops Congress' New Year Agenda

This anti-piracy law is a pretense for tyranny.    When Congress gaveled for the year in December, opponents of two Internet-censoring piracy bills cheered. Their efforts seemed to have blocked the legislation’s movement. But when Congress comes back later this month, it already has a first order of business: regulate the net. The House Judiciary      ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Questions For The Professor


On income disparity, minimum wage, school vouchers, health costs and more.

Viveca Novak: Military Donors Prefer Ron Paul

Military personnel support Paul on defense.   GOP presidential candidate and Air Force veteran Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) continues to highlight his strong support from members of the armed forces as he hits the campaign trail following his third-place finish in Iowa. And the numbers continue to bear him out, according to research by the Center for ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: Corporatism Vs. The Free Market

Don't blame the "mobility gap" on the free market.   “Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe.” That’s how The New York Times began a page-one news story yesterday. It is a thoughtful story that offer a variety of explanations—some of them mitigating—for the so-called mobility gap. This subject merits ... MORE

VIDEO: The GOP's Struggle for Identity in 2012

Collin Levy: Institute of Justice Is Litigating For Liberty

A campaign to restore lost rights.   The Republican presidential campaign is at full boil, and among the biggest players are so-called super PACs, political-action committees that can raise and spend as much money as they like. Mitt Romney's version helped ruin Newt Gingrich in Iowa, for example. For that right to free speech (not the ads), you can thank ... MORE