Costly State Energy Policies To Raise California Power 33%

Golden State residents to lose more gold.     has been a leader in production, in part due to federal and state level policies that provide incentives for producers of renewable power. However, a new report found that California’s policies will raise state power rates and associated costs by nearly 33 percent.       ... MORE

Fighting The Total Surveillance State In Our Schools

by John Whitehead.  “I would say there is a school-to-prison pipeline, but there is also a prison-to-school pipeline. [The use of security hardware (cameras, metal detectors and retina detectors) and the practice of treating students as suspects are strategies of the criminal justice system, and they have been flowing into the schools.] ... MORE

VIDEO: Rothbard: Involuntary Servitude - Conscription

Anna Mulrine: Will Women Have To Register For Draft? Yes

A great achievement for women's rights.    That may be a difficult question from a societal standpoint, but the answer is straightforward, according to a legal analysis. On Thursday, the Pentagon will lift its ban on women in combat. Now that the Pentagon is lifting its ban on women in combat, does this mean that women could potentially be drafted ... MORE

Look Who's Mocking Fascist Fear-Mongering Now

by A. Barton Hinkle. One of the arguments we’re hearing in the current debate about gun control is what might be called the anti-anti-tyranny argument. Coming from liberals, it’s a little rich. Some gun-rights supporters say the Second Amendment’s purpose is not merely to protect the right to hunt or defend yourself, but to guard against         ... MORE

VIDEO: Why Criminals Support Gun Control


It is dangerous to pick on the wrong girl.

THE HILL: Feinstein Launches Government Gun Grab

To begin by banning 150 types of rifles and handguns.    Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will introduce a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips on Thursday. Feinstein’s bill will expand the criteria for classifying military-style assault weapons from a 1994 law, which lapsed a decade later. Her new measure will ban the sale of about  ... MORE

'What Is Driving The Growth In Government Spending'

by Veronique de Rugy. This is not from NRO, the Cato Institute, or Reason: Spending on entitlement programs was about $500 billion per year in 1972 in today’s dollars. If it had increased at the same rate as the gross domestic product, it would now be about $1.4 trillion. Instead, it is now about $2.9 trillion per year. What this means is that there has ... MORE

Harry Biswanger: The Nature Of The Anti-Gun Campaign

A need to switch the national conversation. Whatever your views on whether or not there should be controls on guns, the anti-gun control movement needs discussion, because it is extreme. For instance, Monday morning on CNN, the news at 10a.m. ET opened with the issue of gun control and was of course unrelievedly slanted to the anti-gun ... MORE

John Stossel: Shopping Around For A Better Life

Thanks, California!    Thanks for your monstrous spending and absurd regulatory overreach! America needs you. We need Connecticut and Illinois, too! We need you the way we needed the Soviet Union, as models of failure, to warn us what happens if we believe those who say, "Government can." Moving to California was once the dream for many Americans.  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Environmental Scare Stories

Mike Riggs: Federal Court Rules In Favor Of Federal DEA

Will continue to classify marijuana with heroin.  The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled today in favor of the DEA's decision to keep marijuana a Schedule I drug--a classification for substances that are highly addictive and have no widely accepted medical benefits. "On the merits,  the question before the court is    ... MORE

Obama Promises A Big Push On Climate Change

by Ronald Bailey.     Yesterday, President Barack Obama devoted the biggest single section of his second inaugural address to the problem of climate change. He has clearly decided to make confronting climate change a central objective of his second term. In his second inaugural address the president declared, “We will respond to the threat of climate     ... MORE

VIDEO: Cop Arrests Citizen For Lawfully Carried Handgun


Public servants or public masters? Frightened cop quick to use force against compliant citizen.

Mike Ciandella: Matt Damon's Anti-Fracking Movie Flops

Bad investment for United Arab Emirates.   Matt Damon’s much hyped anti-fracking film “Promised Land” has failed to make the impact that its producers and environmental groups had hoped for. As of January 20, “Promised Land” has raked in a whopping total of $7,542,000 since it opened on December 28, according to Box Office Mojo. According  ... MORE

Rand Paul Tells Hillary Clinton: "I Would Have Fired You"

by Alexis Levinson.    Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been negligent in conducting her job, and said that if he were president, he would have relieved her of her post. Paul said that the fact that she was not aware of the requests of more security for the U.S. Embassy in Libya constituted “a failure of leadership” and said it    ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Do Gun Control Laws Control Guns?

They do not control crime.    The gun control controversy is only the latest of many issues to be debated almost solely in terms of fixed preconceptions, with little or no examination of hard facts. Media discussions of gun control are dominated by two factors: the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment. But the over-riding   ... MORE

Sin Tax Wars! 60.9% Of All Smokes In NY Go Untaxed

High taxes push consumers toward smugglers.    With all the nonsense that’s been going on in the Empire State of late – especially the Governor’s successful gun rantings - I’d begun to worry that New York was doomed for mediocrity. But for better or worse, you just can’t keep the government of this state down. If we can’t lead in freedom,   ... MORE

VIDEO: Why The Constitution Had To Be Destroyed


A speech from Professor Thomas DiLorenzo.

Aaron Klein: Homeland Security Is Hoarding Ammo

Scarcity created for everyone else. Will the U.S. soon face a critical situation in which the federal government– primarily the Department of Homeland Security – possesses an ammunition surplus while local and state authorities face ammunition shortages and backlogs in purchasing more rounds? Current trends could find the federal government with a  ... MORE

Welfare State Swells During Obama's First Term

Food stamp recipients increased 11,113 per day.   One way to mark the legacy of a presidency is to tally statistics, and at least one stat is not very flattering for President Obama: the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by 11,133 people every day during his first term. In 2009, when Obama took office, recipients of SNAP       ... MORE

VIDEO: Is America Too Big?

Melissa Gira Grant: The War On Sex Workers

An unholy alliance of feminists, cops, and conservatives.   On August 30, a 19-year-old woman in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was arrested after a prospective client called 911 on her. He claimed she raised her fee for services after their initial online contact. The cops took her away in handcuffs. There’s nothing particularly unusual about this story,  ... MORE

Emily Miller: The Era Of Big Government Is Renewed

Bigger government is answer to all problems.        President Obama may have used the word “together” seven times in his inauguration speech on the West Front of the Capitol on Monday, but he didn’t mean it. He spoke to unify those who agree with his plan to expand the federal government, not bring Republicans to the   ... MORE

Rand Paul Says GOP Must 'Evolve And Adapt'

by Mackenzie Weinger.    Sen. Rand Paul said on Sunday that he will make a decision on a 2016 presidential run within two years and plans to be a force in the refashioning the Republican Party regardless of whether he seeks the Oval Office. “We will continue to pursue and, you know, try to make that decision over the next two years or so,” the Kentucky  ... MORE

Steve Chapman: The War On Pot Is Not A Safe Bet

Unhealthy policy may go up in smoke.       As recreational drugs go, marijuana is relatively benign. Unlike alcohol, it doesn't stimulate violence or destroy livers. Unlike tobacco, it doesn't cause lung cancer and heart disease. The worst you can say is that it produces intense, unreasoning panic. Not in users, but in critics. Those critics have less influence ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Good Business From Bad News

Walter E Williams: Experts Aren't Deities

Let's look at experts. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was a mathematician and scientist. Newton has to be the greatest and most influential scientist who has ever lived. He laid the foundation for classical mechanics, and his genius transformed our understanding of science, particularly in the areas of physics, mathematics and astronomy. What's not widely known  ... MORE

Jon Gillooly: Georgia Rep Files Bill On Jury Nullification

Promoting fully informed juries.    State Rep. Charles Gregory (R-Kennesaw) has filed a bill that would ensure jurors are informed of their rights, including that of jury nullification, a procedure Marietta attorney Tom Cauthorn believes is dangerous. Gregory describes jury nullification in a criminal trial as what happens when a jury effectively nullifies  ... MORE

VIDEO: Obama Inaugural Rewind: Rhetoric vs Reality

Betsi Fores: New Study Refutes Minimum Wage Benefits

Minimum wage creates more, not less, poverty.     A new study concludes that increasing the minimum wage will lead to fewer jobs rather than less poverty. “The disconnect between the empirical evidence and the claims of wage hike advocates continues to grow,” said Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, which    ... MORE

Cop Tickets Man For Pointing Out He's In The Wrong

Funny video of a Barney Fife throwing his weight around.     A Venice cop on video makes up a "crime" to ticket a biker for because he made him look like a fool by pointing out he was in the wrong. A crowd gathers and joins in the fun, everyone agreeing the cop is insane. As a result of the man "arguing" with him, the criminal in uniform insists on     ... MORE

Rand Paul's Nullification Proposal Emerges In Gun Debate

By Carl Wicklander.  With a spate of shootings in recent months, there are calls for tighter gun control and President Obama has political capital to spend. Getting much of what he wanted with the fiscal cliff, the president has proposed twenty-three executive orders, a practice he criticized while a U.S. Senator, to address gun policy in the event Congress does not  ... MORE

FOX: 83% Think Government Spending Is Out Of Control

Seventeen percent are in denial.     More than eight in ten American voters (83 percent) think government spending is out of control, according to a Fox News poll released Friday.  That’s up from 78 percent who said so in 2010 and 62 percent in 2009.  Some 11 percent think spending is being managed carefully. The poll also finds almost all voters rate     ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Government's Drive For Power

You Can't Trust Obama On Pot, Why Trust Him With Guns?

By Debra Sanders. My Sunday column tells the story of Matthew Davies, 34, a medical marijuana dispensary owner, who is facing a minimum of seven years in prison because he believed that President Obama would direct his Justice Department not to prosecute people who use or distribute medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Sending  ...  MORE

Baylen Linnekin: The FDA's Pathetic Food Safety Proposal

Costly rules that won't make safer.    Earlier this month the FDA released drafts of two highly anticipated food-safety rules. The agency has billed the proposed regulations as key tools for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the biggest FDA food-safety update in more than seven decades, which President Obama signed.    ... MORE

VIDEO: 3 Most Interesting Supreme Court Cases In 2013

65% See Gun Rights As Protection Against Tyranny

from Rasmussen:       Two-out-of-three Americans recognize that their constitutional right to own a gun was intended to ensure their freedom. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65 percent of American Adults think the purpose of the Second Amendment is to make sure that people are able to protect     ... MORE

California, Unsaved, Speeds Toward A Wall Of Debt

by Steven Greenhut.     A cursory glance at Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget could make you believe that California’s days of fiscal gloom are over as he champions a balanced budget and newfound “fiscal restraint.” California had been floating in debt. Then Brown persuaded voters in November to increase sales and income taxes.         ... MORE