Free Speech: A Relic Of The American Past

by John W. Whitehead.     Living in a representative republic means that each person has the right to take a stand for what they think is right, whether that means marching outside the halls of government, wearing clothing with provocative statements, or simply holding up a sign. That’s what the First Amendment is supposed to be about.        ... MORE

Why Milton Friedman's Vision For A Bitcoin Was Accurate

by Victoria Wagner Ross.      Bitcoin has had many supporters and many critics as it exploded in popularity and news over the past year. CoinDesk has featured Milton Friedman’s predictions today about a decentralized currency and how it will be part of the future in a global economy. Consider the numbers of 25,000 merchants now        ... MORE

VIDEO: M. Friedman - Conversation On Safety Regulations

CBS Sacramento: California Agency Taxes $3M By Mistake, Then Claims State Law Prevents Them From Giving It Back

California gets to keep what it can steal.          A Sacramento fire district that wrongly taxed homeowners more than $3 million due to a clerical error will not be issuing a full refund of that money, a Call Kurtis investigation has learned. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said it will only return about half of that money, angering some      ... MORE

Supreme Court Hides From Montana Gun Rights Issue

by Bob Unruh.        The High Court just says no to Tenth Amendment. Contending it is “fruitless” to expect that the federal government would rein in its own “lust” for tyranny, the instigator of a years-long conflict with Washington over the Interstate Commerce Clause says the battle is over. At least for now. Gary Marbut, president of the Montana     ... MORE

VIDEO: Who Is Ayn Rand?

Andrew Napolitano: How To Handle Monster Putin

Can an old dog learn new tricks?          What happens when the United States government participates meaningfully in toppling foreign governments in the name of spreading democracy? That behavior usually results in unintended consequences and often produces disasters. When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, initially to search for     ...  MORE

DEA: "Every Single Parent" Opposes Pot Legalization

by Nick Gillespie. Except for the ones that don't. Thomas Harrigan (pictured) is deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Adminstration (DEA). Yesterday, reports The Huffington Post, he told the House Services Committee that "Marijuana destroys lives and families, undermines our economy, and insults our common values."  ... MORE

Gun Control: A War Not A Conversation

by William A. Levinson.     President Obama said previously that the nation needed to have a "conversation" about gun control, and he reiterated this agenda in his State of the Union speech. New York's Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has subsequently boasted that his SAFE Act has criminalized law-abiding gun owners for "offenses" such as having  ... MORE

Barry Farber: An Impudent Putin, A Flaccid Obama

Russia looks to rebuild an empire.    One Hollywood marriage was so disastrous that when she (Ethel Merman) wrote her autobiography, she left the chapter about her marriage to him (Ernest Borgnine) completely blank! Pretend I’m doing that now to President Obama’s speech of Friday, Feb. 28, about Russian troop movements against Ukraine.      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Government Land Grabs

LA City Council Bans Anti-Smoking Device In Public

by Jacob Sullum.      Who says no one likes cancer? As expected, the Los Angeles City Council today voted unanimously to ban vaping everywhere that smoking is banned, including indoor workplaces and outdoor locations such as parks, beaches, and restaurant patios. Although one of the main rationales for the ban is that children might      ... MORE

Why Republicans Are Surrendering On The Debt Ceiling

by Molly Ball.    The last stage of grieving is acceptance. The first wave of Tea Party lawmakers strode into Congress in 2011 on a wave of denial and anger. They were angry at President Obama and business as usual in Washington. But they were also in denial about their power—or rather powerlessness—to change it. Three years later, the right-wingers ... MORE

VIDEO: Virtue & Vice At Mardi Gras

John Stossel: Budget Baloney

Regurgitating hope and change.     This week, President Barack Obama proposed "a budget that will create new jobs in manufacturing and energy and innovation and infrastructure, and we'll pay for every dime of it by cutting unnecessary spending, closing wasteful tax loopholes!" What? I must have fallen asleep and woken up in 2008. That could     ... MORE

Florida Cops Deployed Warrantless Cellphone Tracking

Sunshine state or police state?      Police in Florida have offered a startling excuse for having used a controversial “stingray” cellphone tracking gadget 200 times without ever telling a judge: the device’s manufacturer made them sign a non-disclosure agreement that they say prevented them from telling the courts. The shocking       ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Freedom Is Not Free

Protect the Constitution and it will protect you.     There may be something to the claim that all people want to be free. But it is a demonstrable fact that freedom has been under attack, usually successfully, for thousands of years. The Federal Communications Commission's recent plan to have a "study" of how editorial      ... MORE

Joel Kotkin: Politics Runs Real Energy Out Of California

Banking on expensive alternative energy.         More bleak economic news for the average Joe. The recent decision by Occidental Petroleum to move its headquarters to Houston from Los Angeles, where it was founded over a half-century ago, confirms the futility and delusion embodied in California's ultragreen energy policies.   ... MORE

VIDEO: Greg Gutfeld - Who Need Protection From E-Cigs?

Verizon Reveals More About Federal Spying on Customers

by Josh Peterson.            They can hear you now (the Feds, that is). Verizon updated its transparency report Monday to include orders issued by the nation’s spy court. During the first six months of 2013, the nation’s spy court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, ordered Verizon between zero to 999 times to hand over content for 4,000 to     ... MORE

Nine Reasons Why The Minimum Wage Is A Terrible Idea

by Ira Stoll.          President Obama and congressional Democrats are pressing to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Here are nine reasons why that’s a bad idea. 1. It’s a big country. The costs of living, especially housing, vary widely in America from state to state and city to city. If the point of raising the minimum wage is to    ... MORE

VIDEO: The Favorite For The 2014 Lie Of The Year


Last year's winner is in contention again.

Should Bigots Be Allowed To Exclude Gays And Blacks?

by Sheldon Richman.          We can oppose bigotry without politicians. Should the government coercively sanction business owners who, out of apparent religious conviction, refuse to serve particular customers? While such behavior is repugnant, the refusal to serve someone because of his or her race, ethnicity, or sexual      ... MORE

Julia Angwin: Has Privacy Become A Luxury Good?

Will the middle class be priced out of privacy?     Last year, I spent more than $2,200 and countless hours trying to protect my privacy. Some of the items I bought — a $230 service that encrypted my data in the Internet cloud; a $35 privacy filter to shield my laptop screen from coffee-shop voyeurs; and a $420 subscription to a portable      ...MORE

S.M. Oliva: Michael Jordan Vs. Free Speech

Circuit court ruling gives fame a First Amendment veto.     In 2009, Michael Jordan's entry into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was marred by a “petty and punitive” speech focused more on settling old scores than celebrating his legendary career. As Yahoo Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski wrote at the time: “This wasn't a    ... MORE

Steve Chapman: For Ships Of State, A Looming Iceberg

The crushing burden of government employee pensions.     If you're in the hospital with multiple fractures, a staph infection and a collapsed lung, you may not take great comfort when your doctor informs you that his last patient has it worse, being dead. Sometimes encouraging comparisons are not that encouraging. So Chicagoans didn't        ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Privileged People

Michael Goodwin: Rich Taxpayers Are Shrugging New York

DeBlasio is driving out city's source of wealth.     Money — it’s the root of all evil. Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Or at least an unfair advantage. That’s the gist of the liberals’ creed and justification for their war on wealth. The other half of their view holds that the poor are innocent victims of life’s rigged game. Their     ... MORE

Toni Clarke: E-Cig Industry Braces For Regulatory Attack

Anti-smoking device has political enemies.     Big Pharma and Big Tobacco to name two. Lobbyists for electronic cigarette companies have been beating a path to the White House, hoping to prevent the administration from imposing strict, and possibly costly, rules on the burgeoning $2 billion industry. In November and December,        ... MORE

VIDEO: A Police Grade Breathalyzer Tested At A Bar


Why everyone should refuse all DUI tests.

Walter E Williams: Black People Duped

The liberal vision of a stacked deck not necessary.     People in the media and academia are mostly leftists hellbent on growing government and controlling our lives. Black people, their politicians and civil rights organizations have become unwitting accomplices. The leftist pretense of concern for the well-being of black people confers    ... MORE

Lawrence M. Ludlow: TSA = Thousands Of Sexual Assailants

The degradation of travel.     Ever since the blowback retaliation of 9/11, the government has subjected people trapped in the United States with a constant stream of propaganda, war-making tax-theft, police-state spying, and outright physical and sexual molestation at airports. Although oodles of self-deceived parrots (my apologies to that noble bird  ... MORE

The Ham Sandwich Standard

Civil liberties and the Supreme Court.       When the state accuses you of a crime and seizes your assets before trial, thus preventing you from hiring the counsel of your choice, what recourse do you have? That question is at the heart of Kaley v United States, a case the United States Supreme Court issued its decision on this week. The answer,   ... MORE

Federal Fly Swatters: Pit Bulls vs. Poodles

by Edward Cline.          Why have the feds bought 1.5 billion rounds of ammo? And outfitted local law enforcement agencies with warfighting gear? Is it to combat Islamic terrorism? Or you? It may come as a surprise to many, but the Library of Congress has its own SWAT team, 85 bodies strong. Learning this elicited a chuckle from me and a          ... MORE

VIDEO: Stephen Halbrook - The Real 2nd Amendment

TSA Reportedly Demands To Inspect Luggage For Bitcoin

by Gregory Ferenstein.        Davi Baker wasn’t quite sure how to comply with the TSA’s demands to inspect his bags for Bitcoin. Baker had found himself in a testy exchange with airport security personnel during an enhanced screening, and they wanted an additional search of his belongings. “We saw Bitcoin in your bag and need to check,”   ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: Will Six Californias Be Better Than One?

Many feel unrepresented by the state legislature.      When most people think of secession, they think of the type of disturbing events unfolding in the Ukraine. But efforts to break up political boundaries could be coming to California, albeit in a laid-back and peaceful manner, as Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper   ... MORE

VIDEO: Mr. Wonderful Takes CNN Reporter To School


A lesson on the top 1 percent. 

Alaska Could Become Third State To Legalize Marijuana

by Jeff Perlah.         Under a proposal that qualified Wednesday for a statewide ballot, Alaska voters this summer will get to determine whether the Last Frontier will become the third state to legalize the sale of marijuana and its recreational use. On Aug. 17, the marijuana initiative -- as well as a measure to increase the state's minimum wage by   ... MORE

Cold-Hearted EPA Wants More Regulations On Wood Stoves

Feds make staying warm 25 percent more expensive.     The Environmental Protection Agency wants to place new regulations on wood-burning stoves and fireplaces replacing the current guidelines which were adopted in 1988. The EPA claims their new regulations would reduce emissions by 80 percent. "What they're asking now is really       ... MORE