This is where you come in. Government wants you to play a role in the "shutdown" of the federal government. Your role is to panic. Republicans and Democrats both assume that shutting some government is a terrible thing. The press concurs. "Shutdown threatens fragile economy," warns Politico. "Federal workers turn to prayer," ... MORE
Andrew Napolitano: America The Lawless
Committing crimes to the sounds of official rejoicing. Before you rejoice that the government has seized an alleged terrorist in Libya who was indicted for planning the notorious 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, before you join the House of Representatives in a standing ovation for the Capitol Hill Police who killed a woman ... MORE
VIDEO: MIlton Friedman - Too Many Laws
A discussion about the proliferation of laws in America and their impact on society.
Labels:
addiction,
drug war,
ethics,
free trade,
prohibition,
self-interest,
suicide,
victimless crimes
Silk Road Raising Questions About Govt Spying (Again)
by Raj Sabhlok at Forbes. It’s a case that’s captured everyone’s attention — pirates, drug trafficking, hit men, government intrigue. By now, few people haven’t heard about Silk Road, run by the now notorious Dread Pirate Roberts, a pseudonym from the film “The Princess Bride.” It’s an interesting next chapter to perhaps the biggest news ... MORE
Labels:
drug war,
FBI,
government,
law enforcement,
privacy,
snooping,
spying,
surveillance,
tracking
L. Brent Bozell: The Ministry Of Confusion
Observations on official tail-chasing. I can think of one reason to end the federal shutdown: There are a lot of stupid people now roaming the streets. The Feds, however, do not have a monopoly on idiocy. Bureaucratic bumbling can be found wherever there's large government, even on the state, and yes, on the county level. ... MORE
Stephen DeMaura: The Creepy Business Of Patent Trolls
Leaching enemies of innovation. Free markets and pro-paycheck policy are necessary to build a strong economy rich with quality employment opportunities for all Americans. As the country has shifted from a manufacturing, labor-intensive workforce toward technology- and innovation-based jobs, it is important that we continue to ... MORE
Labels:
entrepreneur,
free market,
innovation,
lawsuit,
legislation,
patent law,
prosperity,
technology
Ed Krayewski: Who Cares About Miriam Carey?
Epidemic of police violence is largely ignored. The story of a shooting on Capitol Hill last Thursday unfolded in the typical way. Reports of “shots fired” led to speculation of a mass shooter. Local police, in this case the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP), ordered a lockdown “requiring” members of Congress and their staff to “shelter in place.” ... MORE
America's Authoritarian Instruments of Compliance
John W. Whitehead on the modern school system. These days, it is far too easy to rattle off the outrageous examples of zero tolerance policy run amok in our nation’s schools. A 14-year-old student arrested for texting in class. Three middle school aged boys in Florida thrown to the ground by police officers wielding rifles, who ... MORE
ObamaCare Will Share Info With IRS And Law Enforcement
by Jeryl Bier. Maryland's Health Connection, the state's Obamacare marketplace, has
been plagued by delays in the first days of open enrollment. If users
are able to endure long page-loading delays, they are presented with the
website's privacy policy,
a ubiquitous fine-print feature on websites that often go unread.
Nevertheless, ... MORE
Lee Cary: The Black Swan In The Perfect Storm.
The Black Swan is Arithmetic. She is coming and she is already here. In Detroit, you see her in the debris of a once great American city. The Perfect Storm is the confluence of events that will wreak economic havoc on America. It need not have anything to do with the current debt ceiling controversy. Most don't see it coming. For them, it will ... MORE
George Will Compares ObamaCare To Fugitive Slave Act
Bad laws can be changed. Conservative columnist and pundit George Will on Wednesday compared Obamacare to the Fugitive Slave Act and segregation to demonstrate the "bruising, untidy, utterly Democratic" process of changing laws. In an interview with NPR's "Morning Edition," host Steve Inskeep asked Will about President Barack Obama's ... MORE
Labels:
debt ceiling,
democracy,
government,
history,
law,
ObamaCare,
politics,
Republican,
strategy
AP: U.S. Adults Are Dumber Than The Average Human
Obama's reelection finally explained. It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either. In math, reading and problem-solving using technology – all skills
considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength –
American adults scored ... MORE
The Corruptions Of Being The World's Policeman
Matt Welch on the folly of playing international sheriff. In making the case for a Syrian war to the Senate on September 3, Secretary of State John Kerry made so many bad arguments-including insisting repeatedly that the proposed bombing campaign would in fact not be a war, at least "in the classic sense"-that most viewers probably ... MORE
Freedom Of Speech Vs Embarrassing The Government
by Michael J. Hurd. A federal employee decides to write a book on his knowledge of a known government scandal. After signing a book contract with a major publisher, the book deal is subsequently forbidden—by the government. Does this sound like a George Orwell novel? Or an Ayn Rand work of fiction? No. It’s really happening. Not in a ... MORE
Dominick Armentano: Minimum Wage, Maximum Nonsense
Policy would work if money grew on trees. In his 2013 State of the Union message, President Obama suggested that Congress
increase the federal hourly minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25
to at least $9. Several states are also debating an increase; indeed,
the California Legislature recently approved and Gov. Jerry Brown
just signed ... MORE
Labels:
economics,
government,
incentives,
labor,
low-skill workers,
minimum wage,
Obama,
regulation
Jacob Sullum: The Doomed Economics Of Drug Prohibition
Drug war no match for incentives of the black market. One indisputable achievement of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, which overthrew a regime that alternately cracked down on opium production and profited from it, was an enormous increase in drug seizures. Between 2000 and 2010, according to a study published last week by the online ... MORE
California Joins The Nullification Parade
California governor signs a Liberty Preservation Act. It just got a lot harder for President Obama to indefinitely detain residents of California. On October 1, Governor Jerry Brown (shown) announced he had signed AB 351 into law. The new statute, called the California Liberty Preservation Act, outlaws the participation of any agency of the ... MORE
Labels:
California,
Constitution,
detentions,
justice,
legislation,
libertarian,
liberty,
NDAA,
Obama
FOX NEWS POLL: Majority Against Raising Debt Ceiling
But politicians LOVE to spend. Soon Congress will have to vote on raising the nation’s debt limit so the federal government can borrow more money to make good on its spending commitments. If it were up to the American public, they would vote no -- with a majority saying the debt limit should only be raised after major spending cuts have been ... MORE
Labels:
Congress,
debt ceiling,
economics,
government,
policy,
politicians,
poll,
Republican,
spending
Thomas Sowell - Inarticulate Republicans
Could they sell blankets to Eskimos? If the continued existence of mathematics depended on the ability of the Republicans to defend the proposition that two plus two equals four, that would probably mean the end of mathematics and of all the things that require mathematics. Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, ... MORE
Healthy Defiance Protects Us From Control Freak Majority
by J.D. Tuccille. An old joke has a policeman parking his car outside a bar shortly before closing time. He's certain he'll bag a tipsy driver or two toward his arrest quota. Immediately, an obvious drunk stumbles from the bar. The drunk drops and retrieves his car keys repeatedly as people leave the bar, enter their vehicles and head home. ... MORE
Labels:
busybody,
democracy,
freedom,
government,
individual liberty,
politics,
rebellion,
regulation
Thomas Sowell: Who Shut Down The Government?
This is not complicated. Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans. There is really nothing complicated about the facts. ... MORE
Walter E Williams: Racial Trade-Offs
Everything has a cost. Trade-offs apply to our economic lives, as well as our political lives. That means getting more of one thing requires giving up something else. Let's look at some examples. Black congressmen and black public officials in general, including Barack Obama, always side with teachers unions in their opposition to educational vouchers ... MORE
Labels:
education,
government,
race,
race baiting,
school choice,
schools,
teachers,
unions,
vouchers
Esther Goldberg: Why Is This Not A National Tragedy?
A troubled mother shot dead and politicians applaud. An unarmed 34-year-old woman suffering from postpartum depression is surrounded by the authorities while sitting in her car, and gunned down in cold blood. She is blocked in. She cannot move. And yet she is killed by heavily armed security officers. Her one-year old child witnesses ... MORE
John Solomon: ATF Seeks To Block Fast And Furious Book
Bureaucracy looks to hide inconvenient truth. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is blocking the main whistleblower in the Fast and Furious case from publishing a book, claiming his retelling of the Mexico
“gun-walking” scandal will hurt morale inside the embattled law
enforcement agency, according to ... MORE
Labels:
ATF,
Eric Holder,
Fast and Furious,
government,
gun running,
law enforcement,
whistleblowers
Silk Road Bust Hints At FBI's New Cybercrime Powers
by Hal Hodson. The biggest drug marketplace on the internet has been busted. The illicit empire of the Silk Road came
crashing down on Wednesday after its founder Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread
Pirate Roberts , was arrested and charged with narcotics trafficking,
money laundering, computer-hacking and attempted murder. He was caught ... MORE
Kentucky ObamaCare Warning: No Expectation Of Privacy
by Elizabeth Harrington. The Kentucky Obamacare marketplace has no “expectation of privacy,”
warning its prospective customers that their information can be
monitored and shared with government bureaucrats. When clicking “let’s get started” on the state-run health insurance marketplace “kynect,” the user is quickly prompted ... MORE
Barry Farber: America Has 'Tea-Kettled'
Is America on Candid Camera? Once I read an article about a tribe in Africa that had an interesting custom. At tribal meetings a person could talk for as long as – and only for as long as – he could stand on one foot. How strange! How foreign! How primitive! Right? Sen. Ted Cruz and Jimmy Stewart (in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”) would ... MORE
Andrew Kloster: Help! The Government Took My Property
Welcome to the world of “civil asset forfeiture". What if government officials took your property and told you that
they could keep it—even if you had done nothing wrong? That’s exactly what happened to Terry Dehko, a victim of civil asset forfeiture. Dehko is an immigrant owner of a grocery store who fled to the U.S.
to escape ... MORE
Welcome To The Era Of Unlimited Government
by Nick Gillespie. It’s a telling coincidence that the latest scandalous revelation about the National Security Agency (NSA) is hitting the front pages just as the enrollment period specified by the Affordable Care Act (ACA, a.k.a. Obamacare) is getting started. Each of these things underscores different but related aspects of the virtually ... MORE
Mick Hume: Free Speech Threats In The U.S. And U.K.
Who stands up for our first freedoms? Everybody in public life in the US and UK claims to believe in freedom of expression and a free press. Strange, then, that a growing number of people should now choose to exercise that freedom in order to declare that it should be limited—at least for others. The mantra of the moment is, “Of course I ... MORE
Brian Wilson: Revenge Rape And The First Amendment
Liberty requires responsibility. Long dead English playwright William Congreve penned the famous (paraphrased) line: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Thanks to today’s cell phone technology and wandering morals, we will see if the First Amendment’s “free speech” will withstand the latest furious onslaught from one Holly Jacobs ... MORE
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