Thomas Sowell - The Fallacy Of Redistribution

It is not complicated. The recently discovered tape on which Barack Obama said back in 1998 that he believes in redistribution is not really news. He said the same thing to Joe the Plumber four years ago. But the surfacing of this tape may serve a useful purpose if it gets people to thinking about what the consequences of redistribution are.     ... MORE

Warrantless Spying Bill Passes House, Moves To Senate

Legalizing tyranny. The House of Representatives voted to renew the dangerous FISA Amendment Act—which hands the NSA broad, warrantless surveillance powers over Americans’ international communications—for another five years. Sadly, the House refused to add any new oversight powers or privacy protections, despite ample evidence the NSA has ... MORE

VIDEO: A Layman's Guide To Jury Nullification

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Free Speech Is Not Negotiable

They are perhaps the most dangerous words ever written: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”          ... MORE

Adam Levine: Government's Epic Fail On Privacy

94 Million Americans exposed to identity theft.   When you hear a number like "94 million" in the news, it's usually because somebody won the lottery. This time around, no such luck. This 94 million is the number of Americans' files in which personal information has been exposed, since 2009, to potential identity theft through data breaches at government ... MORE

VIDEO: Pat Condell - A Word To Rioting Muslims


Let's just put it out on the front steps where the goats can get it.

Legalize Marijuana in 2012? It Could Happen In 3 States

Colorado, Oregon and Washington eye a new cash cow.   A catchy pro-marijuana jingle for Colorado voters considering legalizing the drug goes like this: "Jobs for our people. Money for schools. Who could ask for more?" It's a bit more complicated than that in the three states — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — that could become the first   ... MORE

NY Times Editorial: California And The Fourth Amendment

State takes to seizing DNA without a warrant.  On Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is scheduled to reconsider whether California violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against searches and seizures by requiring police to take DNA samples from people arrested but not yet convicted of felonies.  ... MORE

Gary North: 100 Percent Chance That U.S. Will Default

There is good reason to prepare for a catastrophe.    It is not often that readers get a clear-cut choice between two forecasts. Most forecasts have wiggle room. Not the following. 1. The United States government will default.  2. The United States government will not default. I hold the first position. John T. Harvey holds the second. He wrote a ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: Defense Of Romney's "47%" Comment

Sometimes, the truth hurts. As readers of this column and viewers of Fox News Channel may know, I have not hesitated to criticize Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and the governor himself. I have argued that his message is muddled and his values are unknown beyond his ardent wish to improve economic conditions through the use of free    ... MORE

VIDEO: Murray Rothbard - To Expand And Inflate

John Stossel: I Like Gary Johnson

Choosing against governmental coercion.   All political candidates call themselves freedom-lovers, but they are not. Neither major party really opposes government control of the economy or of our personal lives. I'm a libertarian because I see the false choice offered by political left and right: Democrats talk about personal liberty; Republicans talk about    ... MORE

Washington Times: Obama's Moocher Culture

Obama voters want gravy train to keep flowing.    The liberal media went wild over a video of Mitt Romney saying people who pay no taxes and live off government handouts have no reason to vote for him. Left unsaid is that Barack Obama has been running on exactly that platform. When it comes to the culture of dependency, President ... MORE

VIDEO: Should We End the Fed?

Peter Wilson: The Progressive War On Parking

Putting the squeeze on private transportation.      Mark your calendars: September 21 is international PARK(ing) Day, described as "annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into 'PARK(ing)' spaces."  Get it?  The place you "park" your car becomes a "park."  It's a      ... MORE

Citizens May Get Temporary Reprieve From Drones

by Joan Lowy.  Difficult to resolve safety and security obstacles may prevent the Federal Aviation Administration from meeting a deadline to allow civilian drones routine access to U.S. skies within three years, according to a report released Tuesday by a government watchdog. The FAA is under pressure from Congress, industry and other      ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: The Great Tax Divide

JFK and John Maynard Keynes both knew it. There was a time when Democrats and Republicans alike could talk sense about tax rates, in terms of what is best for the economy, without demagoguery about "tax cuts for the rich." Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy spoke plainly about the fact that higher tax rates on   ... MORE

William Martin: Marijuana, A Case For Legalization

The policy is the greater harm. More than 100 million people in this country have tried marijuana at some point. More than 28 million will do so this year. It will not make them dangerous or more interesting. It should not make them criminals. Marijuana’s critics cite proven negative effects of heavy use: loss of concentration and short-term memory,     ... MORE

VIDEO: A Story Of Enterprise (1955)

Top Muslim Calls For U.N. To End Free Speech

Free thinking identified as an insult to Islam. One of the world’s most influential Muslims is now calling on the United Nations – in light of the YouTube movie blamed for violent protests across the Mideast – to impose international restrictions on free speech, criminalizing any statement that impugns Islam. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, a  ... MORE

Juror In Cannabis Nullification Case Speaks Out!

Doing justice, not merely law enforcement.  As reported earlier, a NH jury has found a man not guilty of growing cannabis in the first-ever (that I know of) use of jury nullification in NH! Now one of the jurors, who happens to be a Free State Project participant, Cathleen, is speaking out. Below is her written statement about her experience on the  ... MORE

VIDEO: Why are Chicago teachers on strike?

Arnold Ahlert: What Does A Police State Look Like?

On the future of progressivism.     So, what does a police state look like? A police state is place where massive amounts of government corruption and/or incompetence are covered up by an equally corrupt and/or incompetent media. It is a place where a film-maker’s first amendment rights are secondary to the sensibilities of murderous ... MORE

FSU: U.S. Drops To 18th In Economic Freedom

Home of capitalism. The United States, perceived to be a champion of economic freedom, plunged to a new low, number 18, in the latest rankings of the 2012 Economic Freedom of the World report co-authored by Florida State University economics Professor James Gwartney. The report is published by Canada's Fraser Institute in cooperation with     ... MORE

New Technology Gives Police Power To Block Devices

No more shooting video of protests, cops?   Apple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, from any public gathering or venue they deem “sensitive”, and “protected from externalities.” In other words, these powers will have control over  ... MORE

Why Business (& The Rest Of Us) Need Limited Government

by Jaana Woiceshyn.   Many people take government involvement in the economy for granted. They agree that government should, among other things, determine who business should hire (equal opportunity/affirmative action legislation), what and how to pay employees (minimum wage laws, insider trading laws) and how    ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - What Liberates People?

Ralph R. Reiland: We're Going Backward

Obama keeps saying we're moving forward.     They say the economy is moving in the right direction, that we should stay the course, that it takes time to pull out of the recession that began in late 2007. In fact, things are getting worse. The economy was creating 153,000 new jobs per month last year. That dropped during the first seven months ... MORE

Walter E Williams - Academic Dishonesy

Preparation for failure? Many of the nation's colleges and universities have become cesspools of indoctrination, intolerance, academic dishonesty and an "enlightened" form of racism. This is a decades-old trend. In a 1991 speech, Yale President Benno Schmidt warned: "The most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on our campuses. The assumption ... MORE

VIDEO: Buckyballs vs Consumer Safety Commission

Bruce Bialosky: Crony Capitalism Running Rampant

No limits to political arrogance.    “Government ’help’ to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.” That is what Ayn Rand has to say about government involvement in the world of business, but the full extent of this practice is difficult to nail down ... MORE

Raquel Okyay: Golden State Devalues Gun Rights

California's political thugs seek to shred basic rights. We know America is in big trouble when power corrupted law enforcement and California’s liberal state legislature ban together to create new laws that regulate, pre-punish, and harass law abiding gun owners. In the name of safety and protection, lawmakers being obsessed with violating    ... MORE

New Hampshire Jury Exercises Its Nullification Powers

Empowered jury just says 'no' -- to the law.     In a developing story that has hit Reason.com, an NH jury has acquitted a man facing a felony for growing cannabis! It’s our first real-life case of jury nullification here in NH and the jury nullification law hasn’t even gone into effect yet. Kudos to the judge for reading a fair and easy-to-understand jury  ... MORE

Chicago Strike Shows Why We Need School Choice

by Star Parker. It says something about today’s public education reality that the two sides in the teachers’ union dispute in Chicago are the union and the mayor. Allegedly the point of schools is to educate children. But which side in this dispute has sole interest in children and their parents? The answer, of course, is neither side.Unions are about   ... MORE

VIDEO: Social Security As A Wealth Redistribution


Walter E Williams explains Social Security is really a handout.

A. Randazzo: How Quantitative Easing Helps The Rich

And soaks the rest of us.    The decision is in: Unlimited quantitative easing. That was the announcement from the Federal Open Market Committee this afternoon, launching a third round of purchases of securities in a bid to boost the economy and reduce unemployment. This time, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and crew are     ... MORE

Washington Times: Saving Gas, Wasting Lives

Costly consequences of the new fuel-efficiency standards. President Obama’s latest fuel-efficiency decree means consumers will have to turn in their SUVs and pickup trucks for tiny, European-style city cars within the next few years. It’s also likely to produce another, more costly consequence: a lot more death on America’s roads. Last month,  ... MORE

VIDEO: The Message of Freedom in One Minute

Debra J. Saunders: Price Of Obama's 'College Affordability'

Soaring debt encouraged by the president. "No family should have to set aside a college acceptance letter because they don't have the money," President Barack Obama told the Democratic National Convention as he accepted his party's nomination in Charlotte, N.C., this month. That sentence -- key in Obama's "college affordability" agenda        ... MORE

Drug Sentences Driving Federal Prison Population Growth

by Phillip Smith.     In a report released Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that growth in the federal prison population is outstripping the Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) rated capacity to house prisoners and that the bulge in federal prisoners is largely attributable to drug prisoners and longer sentences for them. That growing     ... MORE