Steven Greenhut: California Lawmakers Target Gun Rights

An opportunity to tangle gun rights with red tape.     It took only days before California’s lefty legislators reacted to the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy with a fusillade of bills designed to take California closer to Democratic leaders’ unstated but obvious goal: making it essentially illegal for citizens to own firearms in    ... MORE

Leonard Peikoff: Christmas Should Be More Commercial

Santa Claus is a thoroughly American invention.    Christmas in America is an exuberant display of human ingenuity, capitalist productivity, and the enjoyment of life. Yet all of these are castigated as “materialistic”; the real meaning of the holiday, we are told, is assorted Nativity tales and altruist injunctions (e.g., love thy neighbor)   ... MORE

Joseph Shattan: Right Of Revolution?

Reflections on a senator and the 2nd Amendment.      About 15 years ago, I served on the staff of a Senator who was an ardent opponent of gun control. Once I asked him why he was so adamantly opposed to any restrictions on gun sales, when even the police favored banning sales of certain kinds of assault weapons. The Senator dismissed these     ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Tax Cuts For The Rich

NRA Membership Has Increased Since Newtown Shootings

by Alexander Abad-Santos.   You would think, after a 20-year-old with legal guns killed 20 first-graders in Newtown, Connecticut, that the National Rifle Association wouldn't be doing too well — what with the initial outcry over its silence and the ensuing outcry over the gun lobby's brief statement late Tuesday. But you would be wrong. Fox News ... MORE

Obamas Cost America Far More Than Royals Cost Britain

Is it hate or envy toward the rich?   US taxpayers spent a staggering $1.4 Billion (yes, with a B) on the Obamas according to author Robert Keith Gray in his new book Presidential Perks Gone Royal! Compare that to only $57.8 million the Brits shelled out for their royals and you have to ask what is going on with President Obama. Now word comes that he and  ... MORE

VIDEO: The Best and Worst Christmas Films


(Libertarian Edition)

Steve Chapman: Wrong Answers For Mass Shootings

Rounding up the usual suspects.      The film "Casablanca" has many famous lines, but none more immortal than Capt. Renault's order after seeing a Nazi officer shot by Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick Blaine: "Round up the usual suspects." He issues that command to give the impression he's trying to solve the crime. In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, the   ... MORE

TSA-Style Gropings Coming Soon To Public Schools

Children to be treated like cattle.      Anytime I hear leftists look for solutions I am skeptical. Speaking in Newtown, Connecticut, Obama stated with absolute resolution, "These tragedies must end, and to end them we must change."  We have heard that word "change" before.  We must change.  OK.  How exactly?  A madman goes on a rampage and the ... MORE 

William N Grigg: Merely Being Arrested Can Ruin You Life

So why an epidemic of unnecessary arrests?  “You never have a ‘right’ to resist arrest,” insists Des Moines-based attorney Harley Erbe (who is wrong, of course). There are two reasons why Mundanes must immediately submit to “commands” issued by the state’s costumed enforcers, Erbe explains: “First, officers’ safety is a paramount    ... MORE

What If Nothing Or Nobody Is To Blame For Adam Lanza?

by Ron Fournier.  What if there is nobody or nothing to blame for Adam Lanza's heinous acts? Other than Lanza, of course. What if school security and the school psychiatrist kept an eye on Lanza since his freshman year? The Wall Street Journal has a compelling narrative about the red flags addressed. What if he had a form of autism that has little or no    ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Obama's Drug War

Barry Farber: Every Gun Control Argument Is Nonsense

The answer is more bullets 'going the other way.'   It’s likely you and I disagree over gun control a lot more than you think we do. This argument cuts a lot deeper than any “fiscal cliff,” Middle East, taxing the rich or any of the so-called hot controversies. I realized that in early January of 1959 in Havana, Cuba, which was lawless as of New     ... MORE

A Shakedown, Not A Fair Shake For The Middle Class

Kumar Rao on the drug war.  In the wake of President Obama's re-election and the fervor around "fiscal cliff" negotiations, issues related to middle class empowerment and fairness are rightfully at the center of our national policy agenda. Decisions related to tax burden allocations and spending priorities are being made that have the potential  ... MORE

VIDEO: How Indianapolis Fixed Its Parking Problems

Thomas Sowell - Forward To The Past

Stumbling into a backward future.     The political slogan "Forward" served Barack Obama well during this year's election campaign. It said that he was for going forward, while Republicans were for "going back to the failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place." It was great political rhetoric and great political theater. Moreover, the       ... MORE

John Stossel - It's The Spending, Stupid!

Why the account is overdrawn by $16 trillion.      Listening to progressive media pundits, I'd think the most evil man in the universe is Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. His crime? He heads a movement that asks political candidates to pledge not to raise taxes. I think Grover accomplished a lot. But I wish he'd convinced       ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Invincible Ignorance

A knee-jerk is not an enlightened response.    Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of "gun control" advocates? The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available.       ... MORE

Radley Balko: The Police State Comes To Arkansas

Unfortunately, not an exaggeration:    "[Police are] going to be in SWAT gear and have AR-15s around their neck," Stovall said. "If you're out walking, we're going to stop you, ask why you're out walking, check for your ID." Stovall said while some people may be offended by the actions of his department, they should not be. "We're going to do it to       ... MORE

VIDEO: Antonin Scalia - Text And Intent

Jacob G Hornberger: Those Government Gun-Free Zones

It’s no big surprise.  A gun massacre brings out the gun-control crowd, which loudly demands that gun control be imposed on the American people, as if that would have prevented the massacre in Connecticut. It’s really a shame to have to trot out the same arguments exposing the fallacies of statist thinking, but, alas, it must be done.       ... MORE

Walter E Williams: A Hundred Percent Of Nothing

The power to control Detroit.    JoAnn Watson, Detroit city council member, said, "Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president, and there ought to be a quid pro quo." In other words, President Obama should send the nearly bankrupted city of Detroit millions in taxpayer bailout money. But there's a painful lesson     ... MORE

VIDEO: Penn & Teller: Bullshit! - Gun Control


WARNING: Mature content.

Right To Work Laws Are, Indeed, Libertarian

by Shikma Dalmia. Every time Right to Work is in the news, a civil war breaks out among libertarians about whether it is consistent with libertarianism or not. On one side are folks like me who think that right-to-work laws are a modest advance for worker freedom because they exempt workers from having to pay mandatory union dues as a condition  ... MORE

NY Post: Reading, 'Riting And Race

Is arithmetic racist?   Are English and science and art? These might seem like stupid questions, but — speaking of stupid — a federal judge says the answer is yes, they are, and slapped New York City with a judgment that could cost the school system hundreds of millions. The case involves a 16-year-old lawsuit, a handful of unqualified teachers who tried  ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: Wishing You Capitalism On Earth

The right wish.   We wish each other "peace on earth." Wishing is not enough. We must act on this wish by promoting capitalism on earth. Too many people (including some religious leaders) are promoting the idea that re-distribution of wealth or “social justice” is the best way to foster peace. But Christians and Jews need only read the Old         ... MORE

Cynthia V. Ward: Fairness And Freedom

Fairness is a value judgment. In the fight over taxing the rich, those with good values are losing the judgment. They are losing because they have failed to name, and defend, the moral right which ought to define fairness toward all taxpayers: the right to own and to keep the wealth you create. President Obama proudly articulates the moral case for    ... MORE

VIDEO: FOX NEWS - No Warrants Necessary

Jacob Sullum: The Magical Thinking Of Gun Controllers

Obama showcases it at Sandy Hook memorial.  On Sunday night, speaking at a memorial service for the 26 victims of Adam Lanza's horrifying shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, President Obama provided a window onto the magical thinking of people who think such appalling crimes could be prevented if only we     ... MORE

Ronald Bailey: Your Cellphone Is Spying On You

Big Brother has been outsourced.   The police can find out where you are, where you’ve been, even where you’re going. All thanks to that handy little human tracking device in your pocket: your cellphone. There are 331 million cellphone subscriptions—about 20 million more than there are residents—in the United States. Nearly 90 percent of adult  ... MORE

VIDEO: I, Pencil: The Movie

Christopher Elliott: 3 Reasons Terrorists Laugh At Us

Thanks, TSA. Nothing will wipe a grin off your face faster than a squad of Navy SEALs rappelling into your anonymous compound from a Black Hawk. But while Osama Bin Laden is dead and gone, and unable to mock America's clumsy efforts to protect its planes from our Homeland-fueled fantasies, his disciples are more than capable of laughing at us. And laugh they  ... MORE

Jacob G. Hornberger: Drug-War Tyranny In Its Purest Form

Government is efficient at ruining lives. Stephanie George, who is now 42 years old, has spent the last 15 years of her life in jail. That might turn out to be a short period of time, given that her sentence is life without parole. She has no hope of ever being released from jail. Her crime? Living in a house in which her boyfriend maintained a    ... MORE

Tony Newman: 9 Signs The War On Drugs Is Almost Over

Moves toward a rational drug policy.    This year will go down in history as the the beginning of the end to America’s longest failed war: the war on drugs. Voters in Colorado and Washington made worldwide news by legalizing marijuana, Presidents around Latin America spoke out passionately against the drug war, and award-winning movies     ... MORE

Mark Steyn: The Doctor Won't See You Now

American health care is in a bureaucratic death grip.    A few years ago, my small local hospital asked a Senate staffer if she could assist them in obtaining federal money for a new building. So she did, expediting the process by which that particular corner of northern New Hampshire was deemed to be “under-served” and thus eligible for the fed gravy.  ... MORE

VIDEO: Growing Government, Expanding Failure

4 Awful Reactions To Sandy Hook School Shooting

by Nick Gillespie. Horrific events such as the mass shooting at Newtown, Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School are terrible enough in showcasing the evil that men do. But they also regularly bring out the worst in observers, commentators, and pundits who will never let a lack of knowledge or expertise stand in the way of making grand           ... MORE

Could Guns Really Be Effectively Banned In America?

by Robert Wenzel.      In this post, I will not discuss the very strong libertarian philosophical arguments as to why individuals should be allowed to carry guns. Instead, I want to take a look at the practical issue.  Suppose Congress passed legislation that banned all guns. Legislation so strong that it required that all guns be turned in. There are 285 million guns in   ... MORE

VIDEO: Death to Pennies

Bruce Johnson's Bernanke's Cow Bell In The Night

One thing is for certain: Bernanke is committed.     But so is a one-trick pony.  However, is blind commitment to a theory a virtue or a frailty? The Federal Reserve chairman continues to push the chips out to the center of the table with both hands.  He knows that low interest rates create employment.  He is certain.  Well, pretty certain.     ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Gun Rights Find A New Home

Illinois cannot maintain its fiat ban on concealed-carry.  There are certain constants to life in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln has always been revered. The Cubs always find a way to lose. Lake Michigan never goes dry. Letting citizens carrying concealed firearms is out of the question. But one of those is no longer true. Tuesday, a federal appeals court said      ... MORE