Ian Kirkwood: Big Brother Is Phoning

2014 is 1984.      When mobile phones first came into use, the big fear was radiation. Governments and the big phone companies said everything was safe but the worry remained that all of that electromagnetic energy pouring in and out from our ear-held phones would cause brain tumors. More recently, the biggest controversy over the new era of      ...  MORE

The Ten Worst Colleges For Free Speech: 2013

Freedom of expression is under assault.         College is where inquisitive minds go to be exposed to new ways of thinking. But on some campuses, the quest for knowledge is frustrated when administrators censor speech they would prefer be kept out of the marketplace of ideas. To close out the year, we at the Foundation for Individual Rights ... MORE

VIDEO: George Selgin - The Failure Of The Federal Reserve

Joseph Cox: The Privacy Threats Of 2014

The obliteration of privacy.       After Edward Snowden released some of the most significant national security leaks ever, we've been fed a constant stream of sickening revelations. Snowden's message has mostly been listened to, and the year culminated with him even getting a spot on prime time TV to tell us that “a child born today     ... MORE

Thirteen States Make Low-Skill Workers Less Employable

The cost of hiring has just been arbitrarily increased.       The minimum wage rose in 13 states as 2013 drew to a close. As many as 11 states and Washington, D.C., are expected to consider increases in 2014, and approval is likely in more than half of the 11, according to the National Employment Law Project, says USA Today. On January 1, ... MORE

VIDEO: The Herd Mentality May Trample Obama


Let's run them into the river!

Obamacare Puts Millions At Risk For Asset Forfeiture

Walter McLaughlin on Medicaid cost recovery.      When a bill the size and scope of Obamacare is dropped onto the desk of the average member of Congress, it’s safe to assume that they haven’t read it cover-to-cover before casting their vote. Had they done so with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, however, they     ... MORE

John Stossel: Common Core

Education stagnation vs school choice.           My TV producers asked our Facebook audience to vote for a topic they'd most like to hear discussed on my year-end show. The overwhelming winner, for some reason: the education standards program Common Core. Most Americans don't even know what that is. But they should. It's the       ... MORE

NSA Intercepts New Computers; Installs Spying Malware

NSA's spying toolbox.   The NSA has a secret unit that produces special equipment ranging from spyware for computers and cell phones to listening posts and USB sticks that work as bugging devices. When agents with the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division want to infiltrate a network or a computer, they turn to their technical experts.   ... MORE

Regulation Nation: 40,000 New Laws Take Effect In 2014

by Greg Toppo.    If you're a pale 17-year-old in Illinois, get your indoor tanning sessions in now. Starting Wednesday, they're strictly forbidden. A new state law takes effect Jan. 1 that bans anyone under 18 from using tanning salons in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois becomes the sixth state to keep teens out of the facilities, part of a growing trend of    ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The New Libertarians

How Government Wasted Taxpayer Dollars In 2013

3-D pizza printing, pole dancing, the $100,000 outhouse ... The federal government spent $680 billion more than it took in during the 2013 fiscal year. But despite shutting down much of Washington in an argument over how much debt to rack up in 2014, Uncle Sam continues to green-light spending on projects that only their contractors     ... MORE

Driver Arrested; Has Compartment That Could Store Drugs

Robby Soave reports on drug war tyranny.      Civil libertarians are criticizing Ohio police for arresting a driver because his car contained a compartment that could theoretically store illegal drugs, though no drugs were found at that time. The driver, 30-year-old Norman Gurley of Michigan, was pulled over for speeding. A highway patrolman   ... MORE

VIDEO: Kim Jong-Un Loves ObamaCare!

Wendy McElroy: Is The NSA Changing Bank Accounts?

The capability is clearly there.     The question would seem absurd if it were not for a 308-page report on the NSA that was released on December 12 by an Official White House Panel. Recommendation 31, “Institutional Measures for Cyberspace,” on page 37 and repeated on page 221 reads:  (1) Governments should not use surveillance to steal   ... MORE

America's First Marijuana Stores Open In Colorado

Rocky Mountain high gets a new meaning. America's first retail stores selling marijuana open for business in Colorado on Wednesday, putting the western state in the vanguard of the country's evolving attitudes on legalizing the drug. Officials in the state famous for its ski resorts and breathtaking mountain vistas have issued 348 retail    ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: A New Year And Old Problems

Caring is not a matter of words.        Whenever we stand on the threshold of a new year, we are tempted to forget the hazards of prophecy, and try to see what may lie on the other side of this arbitrary division of time. Sometimes we are content to try to change ourselves with New Year's resolutions to do better in some respect.         ... MORE

Sylvia Bokor: The Trillion-Plus Dollar Heist

Public servants or public masters?       Government produces nothing. It creates no wealth. Yet the District of Columbia is ranked as the richest area in the nation. Politicians and bureaucrats shriek that business people are "greedy." But facts show differently. Imagine voting yourself a raise and millions of dollars in allowances. Imagine    ... MORE

VIDEO: Fox News - Is Clapper A Criminal?

Ron Paul: Government Policies Hurt Low-Skill Workers

Economic ignorance is not a strategy.     Fast-food workers across the county have recently held a number of high profile protests to agitate for higher wages. These protests have been accompanied by efforts to increase the wages mandated by state and local minimum wage laws, as well as a renewed push in some states and localities to pass      ... MORE

Bryan Hyde: Utah Cops Can Legally Steal Your Property

New law erodes personal rights.         One particularly disturbing aspect of the approaching police state is the practice of civil asset forfeiture. This is when law enforcement is empowered to seize a person’s property — most often cash, cars, or homes — without due process or having to prove it is connected to a crime. In my        ... MORE

VIDEO: Who's Watching Little Brother

Walter E Williams: Parting Company

Which approach, civil or barbaric?       Here's a question that I've asked in the past that needs to be revisited. Unless one wishes to obfuscate, it has a simple yes or no answer. If one group of people prefers strong government control and management of people's lives while another group prefers liberty and desires to be left alone,     ... MORE

Renee Lewis: LAPD Deploys Drug Detection Roadblocks

The state against citizens.         The Los Angeles police department has announced a New Year’s crackdown on intoxicated drivers – with checkpoints to be set up across the county complete with breathalyzers and cheek swab tests that can detect recent drug use, the L.A. Times reported. Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer told CBS        ... MORE

What's In Store For Our Freedoms In 2014?

John W. Whitehead on the emerging police state.      In Harold Ramis’ classic 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, TV weatherman Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) is forced to live the same day over and over again until he not only gains some insight into his life but changes his priorities. Similarly, as I illustrate in my book A Government of Wolves:     ... MORE

Global Warming Scientists Trapped In Antarctic Ice

P. J. Gladnick on an inconvenient irony.     Somewhere far, far to the south where it is summer, a group of global warming scientists are trapped in the Antarctic ice. If you missed the irony of that situation, it is because much of the mainstream media has glossed over that rather inconvenient bit of hilarity. As an example here is an Associated   ... MORE

VIDEO: Freedom In 2013

Amie Stepanovich: Fourth Amendment Eroded

Our Constitution can't enforce itself.       The Fourth Amendment protects Americans' right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure. But government lawyers have argued repeatedly that this right should be limited, and the Supreme Court has often agreed. Amie Stepanovich, director of the domestic surveillance project at     ... MORE

Uruguay May Have Started Marijuana Legalization Storm

The idea is spreading in Latin America.       It’s barely been a month since Uruguay moved to legalize marijuana, and yet the effects of the decision are already being felt well outside of its borders. Neighboring Argentina, a long-time proponent of keeping marijuana illegal, gave its first indication that Uruguay’s pivot has tempted it to at least   ... MORE

VIDEO: The Bloomberg Legacy: 12 Years Of Little Tyrannies

Michael Lotfi: Why Mark Levin Is Wrong On Nullification

The rightful remedy to big government.     Mark Levin has one of the top-rated syndicated talk radio shows in the country. No one can deny that the lawyer and New York Times bestselling author commands major clout in conservative politics. However, should this clout serve as a warrant for millions of Americans to blindly follow him? In his      ... MORE

Camille Paglia: A Feminist Defense Of Masculine Virtues

by Bart Weiss.       'What you're seeing is how a civilization commits suicide," says Camille Paglia. This self-described "notorious Amazon feminist" isn't telling anyone to Lean In or asking Why Women Still Can't Have It All. No, her indictment may be as surprising as it is wide-ranging: The military is out of fashion, Americans undervalue manual     ... MORE

Daniel Greenfield: Lynching Free Speech

A necessary step on the road to totalitarianism.      The end of free speech will not necessarily come when there are soldiers in the streets, secret police in the alleyways and a mustachioed man screaming at you on a television set that can’t be turned off no matter how hard you turn the knob or click the buttons. Some of these things       ... MORE

Portable Drug Tests Deployed At Government Checkpoints

Warrantless searches are kicked up another notch.       The upcoming New Year’s crackdown on drunken driving will include a new test for many people who are pulled over — an oral swab that checks for marijuana, cocaine and other drugs. The voluntary swabbing has been used just 50 times this year. But Los Angeles City Atty. Mike      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Uncommon Wisdom

Paul Bedard: Excedrin Headache No. 2013

67% call it a 'bad year,' 40% a disaster.     Overshadowed by the bungled debut of Obamacare and congressional gridlock, most Americans in a new poll dubbed 2013 a bad year that will be quickly forgotten. For more than four-in-10, the perils of 2013 hit home hard. “Put simply, most Americans are happy to see 2013 go,” said the latest         ... MORE

Michigan Seeks To Make Theft By Police Illegal

by Sarah Hulett.        A state lawmaker wants to make it illegal to seize people's assets if they have not been convicted of a crime. Right now in Michigan, law enforcement can seize your car, your house, or other things you own as part of an investigation, even if it results in no criminal charges. The bill’s sponsor says that runs afoul of the basic things ... MORE

VIDEO: Free Will And Human Dignity

Obamacare Holds Some Nasty Surprises For Taxpayers

by Rick Moran.         If you are currently receiving a subsidy from the government for your health insurance, you better be aware that any "life changes" that occur during the year - marriage, divorce, increase in income - has to be reported to the IRS. Otherwise, you're liable to get a nasty surprise come tax time. Politico: It's a new responsibility    ... MORE

Does the Bell Toll for Excessive Public Pay?

by Steven Greenhut. “The art of government is to make two-thirds of the nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third,” mused Voltaire. Even that cynical French Enlightenment writer couldn’t imagine what would transpire one day in California, where a portion of the mere 15.3 percent of the public that works for government  ... MORE