Who Should Make Medical Choices For You?

by Lawrence W. Reed.       Almost a decade ago, I went to Canada to obtain a customized medical procedure on both of my eyes—a procedure not yet approved by federal authorities in the United States. It involved a new “wavefront” LASIK technology designed for patients with a combination of astigmatism and very thin corneas. For more     ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: Spying And Lying

You can trust the government to lie.      When Edward Snowden first revealed the spying the NSA has been conducting on what was then thought to be only customers of Verizon, the government was embarrassed, but it reluctantly acknowledged that Snowden revealed a truth. He had, after all, displayed an accurate and faithful copy  ... MORE

VIDEO: The Marijuana Industry - Moving Forward

B Doherty, S Shackford & R Bailey: Be Very Afraid

Why innocent people have plenty to fear.        In early June, former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden jump-started a national debate on government spying when he leaked information about several top-secret mass surveillance programs in the U.S. and Britain. Snowden fled his home in Hawaii ahead of the ... MORE

John Stossel: Make Trade, Not War

Cooperation can achieve what force cannot.        What's up with so many Democrats wanting missile strikes on Syria, while Republicans balk? I'm told Republicans are the war party. Is this just hypocrisy? Politicians change their position on military intervention when their own party controls the White House? Historian Thaddeus Russell says   ... MORE

VIDEO: Does The NSA Violate Your Constitutional Rights?

Steve Chapman: Nullification Makes A Comeback

The 21st century is the golden age of gun rights.        All 50 states allow the carrying of concealed weapons. The once-toothless Second Amendment finally has real potency. Even after the Newtown massacre, Congress rejected new restrictions on firearms. Monday's Washington Navy Yard shooting is not likely to change that.      ...  MORE

Florida Man Killed By Police Over Seatbelt Violation

Public servant runs over suspected wrongdoer.     The family of a Florida man killed by a police cruiser during a pursuit released shocking dash cam footage of the incident on Wednesday, described by their attorney as an 'execution in a vegetable garden.' Marlon Brown, 38 and a father of three, died on May 8 under the car driven by DeLand    ... MORE

Michelle Malkin: Government Is A Threat To Public Safety

Forget gun control.     America needs government control. Have you noticed the common thread among several mass killings and homeland security incidents lately? Time and again, it's the control freaks in Washington who have fallen down on their jobs, allowing crazies, creeps and criminals to roam free and wreak havoc while ignoring     ... MORE

The Republican Argument For Legalizing Marijuana

by Ryan Schuette.     “Children are growing up with a total lack of respect for the Constitution and for the law," Pauline Sabin, the first woman to sit on the Republican National Committee, said in regard to prohibition in 1932. "The young see the law broken at home and upon the street," she added. "Can we expect them to be lawful?”    ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - War Powers

Sheldon H. Danziger: The Mismeasure Of Poverty

We are officially losers in the war on poverty.      THE Census Bureau reported yesterday that the poverty rate in America held stable between 2011 and 2012, at about 15 percent. According to the official measure, poverty today is higher than it was in 1973, when it reached a historical low of 11.1 percent.  To many, this dismaying fact     ... MORE       

Jacob Sullum: Tolerating Pot With A Frown

Why the feds had to let legalization happen.         Last month, 296 days after voters in Colorado and Washington decided to legalize marijuana, the U.S. Justice Department responded with a memo that leans toward accommodation rather than confrontation. Last week, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the author  ... MORE

VIDEO: Detroit's War On Small Bussiness

Give Back? It's Time For The 99% To Give Back To The 1%

by Harry Binswanger.      It’s time to gore another collectivist sacred cow. This time it’s the popular idea that the successful are obliged to “give back to the community.” That oft-heard claim assumes that the wealth of high-earners is taken away from “the community.” And beneath that lies the perverted Marxist notion that wealth is accumulated ... MORE

W A Beatty: What John Adams Foretold Has Come True

Obama ushers in the 2nd president's dire prediction.      John Adams, in 1787, said: Property is surely a right of mankind as really as liberty. ... but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, ... in sharing it equally with its present possessors. Debts would be abolished first;   ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Minimum Wage Madness

Revisiting well-intended idiocy.       Political crusades for raising the minimum wage are back again. Advocates of minimum wage laws often give themselves credit for being more "compassionate" towards "the poor." But they seldom bother to check what are the actual consequences of such laws. One of the simplest and most fundamental    ... MORE

A Majority Of Americans Oppose The Internet Sales Tax

Our "representatives" continue to pursue it anyway.     Public support is waning for the Marketplace Fairness Act, according to a new poll commissioned by the National Taxpayers Union and the R Street InstituteThe poll, which was released last week, found that 57 percent of all likely voters oppose legislation like the Marketplace      ... MORE

VIDEO: Why Is California Jailing Landscapers?

Rand Paul: 'We Went Crazy On The War On Drugs'

by Jacob Sullum.      During a community meeting in a mostly black neighborhood of Louisville yesterday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) pressed his case for sentencing reform. “We went crazy on the War on Drugs,” he said. “We have people in jail for life for nonviolent drug crimes. I think this is a crime in and of itself.” Paul is sponsoring legislation     ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Student Indoctrination

Teaching what to think, not how to think.       The new college academic year has begun, and unfortunately, so has student indoctrination. Let's look at some of it. William Penn, Michigan State University professor of creative writing, greeted his first day of class with an anti-Republican rant. Campus Reform, a project of the       ... MORE

VIDEO: Cops Shoot Into Crowd Trying To Kill Unarmed Man


Bloomberg's heroes. NYPD goons shot two innocent women in their attempt to kill an unarmed man they thought was reaching for a gun. In a previous shooting a few months back NYPD goons shot seven innocent bystanders in order to kill one man. Mayor Bloomberg said the officers were "heroes."

Aaron Blake: Biden Pitches Napolitano For Supreme Court

And he doesn't mean Andrew!   Vice President Biden pitched Janet Napolitano on Friday as a future Supreme Court Justice. "My staff, when I said I was going to say it,they said, 'No, don't make news,' " Biden said at a ceremony marking the end of Napolitano's tenure as Homeland Security Secretary. Biden then said: "I think Janet should be on the      ... MORE

Thousands Cited For Possessing Pot On Federal Land

The victims of Obama's low priority.     Karen Strand didn't think she'd get in trouble for having a small container of medical marijuana when she went hiking in Olympic National Park this summer. President Barack Obama, she remembered, had said the federal government had "bigger fish to fry" than people who follow state marijuana laws,   ... MORE

Michael J. Hurd: Does The State Own Your Child?

Obama and Germany say yes.         The Romeike family, Christian evangelicals, wanted to homeschool their children, but the German authorities wouldn’t permit it.  So the Romeikes came to America (Tennessee, to be precise), where there’s lots of homeschooling, and where a federal judge granted them asylum. The Germans didn’t  ... MORE

Bryan Hyde: Are Speed Limits For Safety Or Revenue

Red, white and blue are supposedly the colors of freedom. But that’s not what most of us feel when we see them strobing in our rear-view mirror. Most drivers, no matter how conscientious, experience a type of anxiety when they spot a police car while driving. This is particularly true when a police car is following us. It’s not that  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Progressives And War

Six Ways The Drug War Intrudes On Your Life

Whether you use illegal substances or not.      Many Americans who do not use illegal "drugs" assume exemption from drug war policies. But regardless of how much marijuana you do or don't smoke, the U.S. war on drugs affects nearly everyone. While some prohibition tactics are more obvious than others, the drug war has slyly pushed its way into   ... MORE

Fox News: 70 Federall Agencies Have Armed Divisions

Armed EPA raid sheds light on situation.      The recent uproar over armed EPA agents descending on a tiny Alaska mining town is shedding light on the fact that 40 federal agencies – including nearly a dozen typically not associated with law enforcement -- have armed divisions. The agencies employ about 120,000 full-time officers    ... MORE

VIDEO: ObamaCare Summed Up In One Sentence

Steve Chapman: Obama And The Misery Of A Second Term

"All glory is fleeting."         Everyone elected president comes into office modeling himself on some predecessor: Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan. But those who win re-election eventually end up wondering whether they should have emulated James K. Polk instead. Why? Because he promised to serve only one term, and he stuck  ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: Burping John Kerry

John Kerry burped. Excuse him.        That’s how he does foreign policy. Don a burping pad before asking him questions; you never know whether he will spit out war or peace. Last Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry held a press conference. CBS reporter Margaret Brennan asked Kerry how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could avoid a U.S. air  ... MORE

Be Aware Of Your Rights As A Potential Juror Or Defendant

Rachel Colon on fully informed juries.      If you are called to be on a criminal jury, knowing your rights in the process will help. In the U.S. justice system, a jury is our chance as citizens to have a final say regarding a law under which a defendant is being charged. We are empowered by the Constitution to judge both the law and      ... MORE

Katherine Mangu-Ward: A Font To Discourage NSA Snooping

Fighting back against tyranny.     The ZXX font is designed to be difficult for machines to read. Former National Security Agency contractor Sang Mun created the font as a response to increasing government incursions on privacy. “I have become dedicated to researching ways to ‘articulate our unfreedom’ and to continue the evolution      ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell On Liberalism

Carl M. Cannon: The Asset-Forfeiture Racket

Don't steal, the government hates competition.      Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray summoned the political fortitude this past week to veto a “living wage” measure passed by the D.C. Council. The bill, with the Orwellian title, the Larger Retailer Accountability Act, would have raised the minimum wage for Wal-Mart employees – but only   ... MORE

Stella Morabito: The Dynamics Of Tyranny

I am he as you are he and you are me and ...       Before George Orwell wrote 1984, there was Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. If you're not acquainted with Zamyatin's novel, you will find it an extraordinary study on the dynamics of tyranny. Zamyatin, a Russian, wrote We around 1921. It was immediately banned by the Soviet censorship board, but   ... MORE

VIDEO: Is Money Speech?

Supreme Court Frees 2,837 Convicted Alien Sex Offenders

by Alissa Tabirian.      Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released 2,837 convicted criminal alien sex offenders back into American communities in order to comply with a Supreme Court decision authored by Clinton-appointed Justice Stephen Breyer, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The 2,837 sex   ... MORE

Turn The Police State Against Itself For Better Government

by Robert Taylor.      With the exponential growth of an incredibly intrusive surveillance state threatening to virtually destroy the Bill of Rights and the privacy of millions of Americans, the possibility of repealing or severely scaling back a federalized Big Brother in the United States seems remote. The technology at the state's fingertips,   ... MORE