Obama Has A Database On Everything About Everybody

Watch Maxine Waters discuss it on video. Here’s Maxine Waters. This was last Sunday on TV One’s Washington Watch with Roland Martin. Maxine Waters, Democrat from California. Her district is basically the Watts area of Los Angeles, and Roland Martin said, “The reality is like anything else, you’d better get what you can while Obama’s there       ... MORE

Ryan Gallagher: Protect Your Data From The Feds

The threat of silence.     For the past few months, some of the world’s leading cryptographers have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new invention. Today, they’ve decided it’s time to tell all. Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments’ feathers with a “surveillance-proof” smartphone    ... MORE

Brian Phillips: Supply And Demand In Education

A free market in learning.   In recent years, it has become increasingly popular to argue that government should be operated more like a business. As an example, a manifesto written by sixteen public school executives explains how to fix public schools: Let’s stop ignoring basic economic principles of supply and demand and focus on how we can establish ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Labels And Philosophy

John Stossel: Ban This! Ban That! Ban This And That!

I like to bet on sports.   Having a stake in the game, even if it's just five bucks, makes it more exciting. I also like playing poker. "Unacceptable!" say politicians in much of America. "Gambling sometimes leads to 'addiction,' destitute families!" Well, it can. So politicians ban it. It's why we no longer see a poker game in the back of bars. Half  ... MORE

Obama Gives Himself Permission To Kill

by Andrew Napolitano.     After stonewalling for more than a year federal judges and ordinary citizens who sought the revelation of its secret legal research justifying the presidential use of drones to kill persons overseas—even Americans—claiming the research was so sensitive and so secret that it could not be revealed without serious     ... MORE

VIDEO: Giving Away Money Costs More Than You Think

ObamaCare Red Tape Burden: 127,602,371 Hours Yearly

Enough time to carve out 1,039 Mt. Rushmores. Complying with the raging tsunami of new Obamacare rules and regulations will cost American businesses and families 127 million hours annually, enough time to carve out another 1,039 Mount Rushmores which took 14 years complete, according to a new House report. Based on figures    ... MORE

David Deming: What If Atlas Shrugged?

Dark ages revisited. Atlas Shrugged is the title of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel in which the world grinds to a halt after the productive segment of society goes on strike. Tired of being demonized and exploited, the world's innovators and entrepreneurs simply walk away. What would happen to the US today if the fossil fuel industry went on a strike ... MORE

Bob Barr: Uncle Sam, Privacy Hypocrite

The "do not track" option please.   If one were to read the Federal Trade Commission’s recent staff report discussing ways to protect consumer privacy in mobile apps, one might conclude the federal government genuinely was concerned about consumer privacy. Among other recommendations, the report supports safeguards such as   ... MORE

Efforts Surge In Congress To Reform Pot Laws

by Alfonso Serrano. Driven by a groundswell of public opinion, Colorado and Washington state last November became the first states in the U.S. to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. That wave of support, it now seems clear, has echoed through the U.S. Congress, which Tuesday formally questioned the federal government’s prohibitionist drug policy in  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Texas Vs California Gun Laws

Washington Times: Beverage Socialism Sours The Market

Big Milk + big government = raw deal for consumers. When it comes to milk, government isn’t interested in your health. The red tape imposed on this breakfast favorite isn’t just there to ensure dairy products aren’t spoiled. Rather, the rules intentionally limit competition and keep prices high. In this crony capitalist venture, consumers are the  ... MORE

Sara Gates: Imaginary Grenade Causes Alarm For Officials

"I can't believe I got dispended," says 7-year-old.   Fictitious friends and games of make-believe may be allowed on the playground at one Colorado elementary school, but imaginary weapons certainly are not. The family of Alex Evans, a second-grade student at Mary Blair Elementary School in Loveland, learned that rule the hard way  ... MORE

VIDEO: Ending Civil Asset Forfeiture Abuse


How states can be tough on crime and respect property rights.

Jacob Sullum: The Perils Of Pushing Pot Prohibition

Will administration oppose hope and change?   Three months ago, voters in Colorado and Washington approved ballot initiatives aimed at legalizing the possession, production, and distribution of marijuana. A month later, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would settle on a response to this historic development     ... MORE

Thomas Sowell - Prophets And Losses II

Federally-issued blue smoke and mirrors. People on both sides of tax issues often speak of such things as a "$300 billion tax increase" or a "$500 billion tax decrease." That is fine if they are looking back at something that has already happened. But it can be sheer nonsense if they are talking about a proposed increase or decrease in the tax rate.          ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Prophets And Losses

Somebody could use a new crystal ball.        Now that the federal government is playing an ever larger role in the economy, a look at Washington's track record seems to be long overdue. The recent release of the Federal Reserve Board's transcripts of its deliberations back in 2007 shows that their economic prophecies were way off. How much    ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Women In Combat

Inequality in the name of equality.   A senior Defense Department official said the ban on women in combat should be lifted because the military's goal is "to provide a level, gender-neutral playing field." I'd like to think the goal of the military should be to have the toughest, meanest fighting force possible. But let's look at "gender-neutral playing    ... MORE

VIDEO: Andrew Napolitano - Your Body Is Your Temple

A. Barton Hinkle: Everything Fun Is Illegal In Virginia

Warning: no fornication allowed.   Only one or two centuries late, Virginia lawmakers have decided it is none of their business if unmarried couples share a roof. So the legislators are now working diligently to repeal the state’s law against “lewd and lascivious cohabitation.” Huzzahs all ’round for that. But do not unclutch thy bodice yet. Virginia law  ... MORE

The Relentless March Of The U.S. Police State

by Robert Higgs.    Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, wrote recently: An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject   ... MORE

VIDEO: Milwaukee Cop Bullies A Citizen For Sport


POLICE STATE AMERICA: A "public servant" commands a lawful citizen to leave a public street.

Katie Kieffer: How Gays And Women Get Their Own Way

Should strive toward equality, not social acceptance.   Gays can be leaders. Women can be leaders. Without realizing it, I think gays and women inadvertently work against their own objective of equality when they force private organizations to support gay and female leaders. As I wrote here, gays and women are already equal   ... MORE

Corey Rangel: Student Suspended Over Picture Of Gun

Political correctness run amok.   A high school student in Florence said he has been suspended because of a picture of a gun. Daniel McClaine Jr., a freshman at Poston Butte High School, said he saved the picture as his desktop background on his school-issued computer. A teacher noticed it and turned him in. The picture shows an AK-47 ... MORE

How Litigation Threatens Professional Football

by Steve Chapman. Professional football is the most popular spectator sport in America, which is one reason yesterday’s Super Bowl was expected to draw 110 million viewers. With its famous athletes, storied franchises, and lucrative TV contracts, it's an industry whose future appears limitless. But football has a problem: the specter of mass brain  ... MORE

Bill Would OK Internet Gambling Across State Lines

by Hannah Dreier.  The nation's gambling capital is taking steps to make sure it is not dealt out of the lucrative online poker market as more states enter the bourgeoning industry. Soon after the Nevada Legislature begins its four-month session on Monday, lawmakers are expected to begin debating a bill that would let companies  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Texas Vs California Economic Policy

Sara Sorcher: When Can The Government Kill Americans?

The White House Won't Say.        Sen. Ron Wyden has spent two years demanding that the Obama administration share its legal opinions justifying the targeted assassinations of suspected American terrorists abroad. After all, as a member of the Intelligence Committee, the Oregon Democrat is entitled (and cleared) to know. How can his panel   ... MORE

Gene Johnson: Effort Building To Change US Pot Laws

A federal pot tax?    An effort is building in Congress to change U.S. marijuana laws, including moves to legalize the industrial production of hemp and establish a hefty federal pot tax. While passage this year could be a longshot, lawmakers from both parties have been quietly working on several bills, the first of which Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer   ... MORE

VIDEO: Why Are Voters So Uninformed?

Rand Paul To Take On TSA Once Again

Privatize security.    We’ve complained long and hard about the TSA and it’s terrible “security” practices for years. It’s a horrible agency that should have never been instituted. Fortunately, Rand Paul is on the case: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he will very likely re-introduce legislation to drastically scale back the Transportation Securities        ... MORE

All You Need To Know About "Assault Rifles"

Scare terms and reality.  There are many articles on the internet where people can learn the origins of the term “assault rifle”, so I won’t go into that here. Nor will I get into the topic of gun control effectiveness. Larry Correia has done such a good job here that anything I add would be redundant. “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what   ... MORE

IRS: Cheapest ObamaCare Plan Will Be $20,000 Per Family

by Matt Cover.      In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year. Under Obamacare, Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the IRS. The IRS's assumption that the      ... MORE

David Bier: The Coming National Identification System

Big Brother is watching you.      “Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this joke, Ronald Reagan swatted down a national identification card — or an enhanced Social Security card — proposed by his attorney general in 1981. For more than three decades since, attempts to implement the proposal have all met with failure, but now         ... MORE

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - A Philosophy Of Self-Ownership

Baylen Linnekin: Food Freedom Vs. Regulatory Busybodies

The state of things are looking up.   While national stories like the multi-pronged assault on energy drinks and the FDA’s proposed Food Safety Modernization Act rules rightly grab headlines—and often my attention—it’s perhaps too easy to overlook the fact that much of what’s good and bad in the area of food law and policy is taking place in our backyards    ... MORE

Mike Riggs: The Pot Reform Movement Picks Up Speed

Four more states to reform pot laws in 2013. It's been only two months since Washington and Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana, but the advocates who raised millions to pass Amendment 64 and Initiative 502 aren't wasting time celebrating. In addition to helping craft the rules and regulations in the Centennial and Evergreen   ... MORE

VIDEO: Nanny of the Month - Jan 2013


Busybodies minding your own business. Will it be permits for strippers or prison for smokers?

Devin Brian: Price Gouging On Guns?

Where is the outrage? Every time there is a natural disaster of some sort, gas station owners are considered monstrous for raising prices to coincide with increased demand of their scarce resources. However, I have not heard anyone calling for the immediate lynching of those greedy gun shop owners who have doubled or even tripled prices on    ... MORE

Donald Lambro: Economy Progresses Downward

Americans re-elected this recession.    When millions of voters went to the polls in November to narrowly re-elect Barack Obama, the economy was rapidly shrinking toward recessionary levels. In the last three months of 2012, the gross domestic product — the measurement of everything America produces — fell to an annualized rate of 0.1 percent, the      ... MORE