Jeff Nesbit: Majority Now Backs Marijuana Legalization

Something to celebrate on "Weed Day."   It's 4/20 time again this week. For those who aren't part of the Millennial generation, 4/20 is unofficial "Weed Day" in America —a counterculture phenomenon that has drawn up to 10,000 marijuana legalization activists at college campuses in the U.S. in some years. In years past, Weed Day counterculture  ... MORE

Barry Farber: Pitcher's Mound Needed In The White House

Why Obama deserves a 1-way trip to the showers.      Do “Big-Guys” ever “approach the mound” in politics? You know, like in baseball when the pitcher’s doing a miserable job and is about to be replaced? It’s reliably reported that beheadings used to be the “sport” that filled the seats in the stadium in Afghanistan. You need not go that ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: Taxation Is Theft

Government deploys the mafia model.       With a tax code that exceeds 72,000 pages in length and consumes more than six billion person hours per year to determine taxpayers' taxable income, with an IRS that has become a feared law unto itself, and with a government that continues to extract more wealth from every taxpaying American every year,  ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Education And Bureaucracy

Washington Times: A Good Day For The 2nd Amendment

Common sense prevails in Senate!     The president raged. The mayor of New York frothed. Joe Biden cried. But at the end of the day, common sense prevailed. The Senate killed the effort to unreasonably expand background checks for buyers of guns. The measure is not quite graveyard dead; it can be brought up again, but prospects for  ... MORE

Alexander Bolton: Rand Paul Mulls Presidential Run In 2016

A "larger microphone" to influence nation. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a star among Tea Party voters, said Wednesday he is considering running for president in 2016 in part because a White House bid would give him a "larger microphone" for his ideas.  The freshman senator said he would decide in 2014 if he'll mount a campaign for the Republican nomination.    ... MORE

VIDEO: Gone To The Dogs (By Government Mandate)

Time To Repeal The Renewable Fuel Standard

by Robert Bradley Jr.        If Washington were a business, counterproductive rules and regulations would be either reformed or revoked. But we’re not living in that world. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is gearing up to expand a destructive program that is criticized at both ends of the ideological divide. The      ... MORE

The Power Of The State Vs The Power Of Love

by Robert Higgs. For thousands of years, philosophers have argued that society must invest great power in the rulers because only great power can hold back the forces of evil—violence, plunder, and disorder. They have often conceded, of course, that this solution does have an unfortunate aspect, namely, that with great power, the rulers themselves     ... MORE

Pamela Geller: The Epic Failure Of Our Intel Agencies

Losing our liberties in trade for what security?       I find it very disconcerting that thirty-six hours (as of this writing) after the Boston terrorist bombing, law enforcement and counterterrorism officials are running hotlines and calls for "anyone seen with an unusually heavy, dark bag" in the Boston area.  A $50,000 reward has been offered for     ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Checking The Logic Of Background Checks

Thwarting criminals at the gun shop.    Urging Congress to expand background checks for gun buyers, President Obama claims the current system has "kept more than 2 million dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun" during the last two decades. If you understand why that claim is misleading, you will understand why background checks    ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - One Sweet Deal


A look at sugar subsidies. 

Poverty Pros & The Crony Capitalists Who Love Them

by Bill Freeza.   Yes, it looks like a wedding announcement out of The Onion, but when it comes to making a killing off the never-ending “War on Poverty,” the marriage of convenience between the financial services industry and federal bureaucrats is no laughing matter. The idea that government welfare programs could eliminate poverty, rather     ... MORE

Victor Davis Hanson: 1984 + 29

The Obama revolution.    Imagine if, during the campaign of 2008, someone had written the following: “If Barack Obama is elected president, then each year from now on the federal budget will be a trillion dollars in the red. He will pile up in two terms more debt than all previous presidents combined. Interest rates will stay at near zero; 7.6 percent       ... MORE

VIDEO: You Can Always Leave (A Taxation Insight)

John Stossel: A Post-Post Office World

A system of cumbersome inefficiency.  Even parts of government that look like a business never get run with the efficiency of a business. Just look at the post office. They buy commercials and tout their services the way private businesses do. They offer a service that customers want. But a real business can't get away with losing   ... MORE

Garry Reed: Man Facing 81 Years Seeks Jury Nullification

Pot dealer punished for refusing to rat out friends.   Today is Day One in Rich Paul's fight against legal prosecution for an act that the libertarians at CopBlock call "victimless actions." Paul, a political activist in New Hampshire, is charged with selling marijuana and faces up to 81 years in jail on felony charges. Paul had a chance to get the    ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Fact-Free Crusades

Cracking down on law-abiding citizens.    Amid all the heated, emotional advocacy of gun control, have you ever heard even one person present convincing hard evidence that tighter gun control laws have in fact reduced murders? Think about all the states, communities within states, as well as foreign countries, that have either tight gun control laws  ... MORE

Warming Advocates Struggle To Explain ... No Warming

by Rick Moran.    We've known since Climategate and the emails from the East Anglia climate center that warming advocates have been well aware of the lack of rising temperatures on the earth since at least 2000. Now, confronted with irrefutable evidence from one of global warming's biggest boosters - NASA - scientists who have based their careers and     ... MORE

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - Defining Racism

Mike Riggs: Three Drug War Programs Your Taxes Pay For

Torture, murder and terror. When's the last time you heard someone argue that we need to raise taxes to fund torture? Or to pay for violent paramilitary raids on peaceful U.S. citizens? Or to incentivize extrajudicial killings carried out by our own government, yes, but also by a neighboring country? Probably never. As every good citizen knows, taxes are   ... MORE

Jonathan Witt: Crime And The Nanny State

Did you know crime is actually down?    Against the backdrop of sluggish growth and high unemployment, one bright spot has been declining crime rates, with levels in the United States now about half what they were 20 years ago. This gradual decline holds true even in the perennially high-risk demographic of young men, suggesting it  ... MORE

VIDEO: Does Government Create Jobs?

Blow Off Pampered Greenies, Build Keystone XL

by Katie Kieffer.  Recycling is fine. Conservation is fine. But sometimes greenies cross the line. They expect you and me to go jobless and hungry so they can save a porcupine. President Obama has been pampering his radical greenie friends for far too long. Even the Presidents’ State Department has thrice declared Keystone XL to be      ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Immigration Sophistry

Sympathy for the plight of lawbreakers.  Most laws are meant to stop people from doing something, and to penalize those who disregard those laws. More generally, laws are meant to protect the society from the law breakers. But our immigration laws are different. Here the whole focus is on the "plight" of those who have broken the laws, and on     ... MORE

Moises Naim: The End Of Power

A takeover by the micropowers.     Power is shifting—from large, stable armies to loose bands of insurgents, from corporate leviathans to nimble start-ups, from presidential palaces to public squares. It has become harder to wield power and easier to lose it, and the world is becoming less predictable as a result. As people become more    ... MORE

Grover Norquist: One Hundred Years Of Tax Servitude

Happy birthday: The income tax is now 100 years old. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by three-fourths of the then-48 states. Stop me if you have heard this one, but the federal income tax was pushed by progressives who felt the rich should pay their fair share. They promised that only really rich people would have  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Climate Change & Global Greening

Walter E Williams: Price Versus Cost

The stifling effect of taxation.  Suppose you buy a gallon of gas for $3. How much did it cost you? You say, "Williams, that's a silly question. It cost $3." That's where you're mistaken, because there's a difference between price and cost. To prove that price and cost are not the same, consider the following. Suppose you live and work in New York   ... MORE

FBI: You Might Be A Terrorist If You Breathe

FBI sets a new standard of paranoia.      The FBI published 25 pamphlets and distributed them to people who work in the general public to give them information on how to spot a terrorist based on a number of “suspicious behavior” indicators. People at construction sites, electronic stores, beauty salons, airports and other places were advised on    ... MORE

VIDEO: Percentage Of Population On Food Stamps

Being Born Poor Doesn't Mean You Will Stay Poor

by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.   Long after he had established himself as one of America’s leading businessmen, as well as history’s greatest steelmaker, Andrew Carnegie reflected that “We all live in the richest and freest country in the world, where no man is limited except by his own mental attitude and his own desires.” At the time—a    ... MORE

NY Parents Demand Schools Dumb Down

Boycott planned against new math and English tests.   New York state education officials have been sounding the alarm for months: English and math tests that students will take this week and next will be harder than before and scores will drop. A video from the state Education Department warns, "We expect them to be lower." Statewide,    ... MORE

How Free Markets And Ingenuity Can Save The Planet

by Ronald Bailey.    “We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so,” warned the famed British television naturalist David Attenborough in the January Radio Times. He added: “It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the       ... MORE

Scott Miller: Nullification Is For Nutcases? Hardly

After all, there is a Tenth Amendment.  Some people want you to believe that only crazy people support resisting federal power on a state or local level.  They’re wrong. In a snarky, condescending article titled, “SC Nullification – Are these guys nuts?,” published in several Palmetto State newspapers, Phil Noble promoted the most repeated      ... MORE

VIDEO: F.A. Hayek - The Power Of Pricing

John Stossel - Government Plays Favorites

People say government must "help the little guy,   promote equality, level the playing field." People often go into government to do that. But even when people mean well, it's natural for them to help out their cronies. David Stockman, who ran the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, was criticized for saying the    ... MORE

Ben Wolfgang: Obama's Tax On The Pursuit Of Happiness

Sets his sights on vodka, golf and cigarettes. President Obama’s budget doesn’t just go after wealthy Americans. It’s also got new taxes on vodka, cigarettes and other unexpected items, ABC News reported. The fiscal 2014 spending plan, which looks to raise about $1.8 trillion in new revenue, also tackles golf courses, which can no longer be counted ... MORE

VIDEO: Need Some Serious Guidance On Gold?

Tax Freedom Day 2013 Is Five Days Later Than Last Year

The day you begin earning money for yourself.     April 18 will be Tax Freedom Day, the day when Americans have worked enough to pay all of their federal and state taxes for 2013 – a round total of $4.22 trillion, according to an analysis done by the Tax Foundation. That's five days later than in 2012. Americans will pay more than $2.76 trillion in    ... MORE

Conn Carroll: American Energy Revolutionized By Fracking

As green energy failed.      It's hard to remember now that President Obama's agenda has degenerated into a sham gun control bill with loopholes big enough to drive a Mack truck through, but back in 2008, progressives had big dreams about how to reshape the entire U.S. economy, starting with the energy sector. For years, liberal     ... MORE