Alex Pappas: The Times They Are A-Changin'

Rand Paul gets a standing ovation at Berkeley.      Delivering a rare speech for a Republican at this bastion of liberalism, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday was given multiple standing ovations by the left-wing audience after railing against government surveillance and warning the students: “Your right to privacy is under assault.”    ... MORE

The United States Vs. Toyota: Anatomy Of A Shakedown

by Judson Phillips.         Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday a $1.2 billion dollar settlement between Toyota and the U.S. government, ending a criminal probe into Toyota’s disclosure of alleged product defects. Most Americans, if they pay attention to this at all, will simply see a short blurb on the news with the announcement.  ... MORE

VIDEO: Tom Woods - Economics Of The Police State

Emma Roller: Millennials Are Down On Government

The future of hope and change.   Two recent studies—one released by the Pew Research Center and one by Third Way—show that the generation that helped elect President Obama in 2008 now identifies as independent more than ever. Millennials who may have voted with youthful exuberance in 2008 seem to have grown fatigued    ... MORE

Tim Cushing: The Perils Of Being A Snitch

No good bootlicking goes unpunished.     "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear," right? Here's how that works in reality: On Jan. 5, 2012, Paul Valin called the police to report he'd found a backpack containing what he believed to be meth-making equipment. That simple act of good citizenship landed his and wife Cindy's ...  MORE

VIDEO: Racism, Civil Rights And School Choice

Andrew Napolitano: Freedom For Me, But Not For Thee

The government is not us.     Initially, I was gratified to learn that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was unafraid to take on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over the issue of domestic spying. The CIA is limited by its charter to stealing secrets from foreigners outside the U.S. However,   ... MORE

Cellphone Justice And The Killing Of Kelly Thomas

by Paul Detrick.        Cops go free after beating an innocent man to death. On January 14, 2014, Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, two former police officers in Fullerton, California, were acquitted of manslaughter and second-degree murder charges in the death of Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old schizophrenic drifter. The two cops brutally beat   ... MORE

Kentucky State House Considering Gun Grab Nullification

by Joe Wolverton, II.       Making Madison and Jefferson proud. The Kentucky state House of Representatives is considering a bill that would nullify any federal attempt to take guns from citizens of the Bluegrass State. By voting for this measure, Kentucky state legislators could stand up and perform their constitutional obligation to check federal    ... MORE

J.D. Tuccille: New York And California Suck

For both taxpayers and freedom.     New York and California are the worst and second worst states in terms of tax burden, in what is less than shocking news from the financial website, WalletHub. The ranking tallies annual state and local taxes, and puts the Golden State and the Empire State at the bottom of the heap, with Wyoming and       ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Budget Busting

Why National Marijuana Legalization Will Happen

by Tom McKay.     Graphically illustrated in one chart. More and more, it seems like national marijuana legalization is happening, and happening fast. Marijuana is now legal in Colorado and Washington state, and state and local authorities around the country are rapidly following suit to decriminalize recreational pot or legalize its use for medical  ... MORE

Roger Meiners: Regulating Our Way To Prosperity

Government Math: More rules = more money.       If you’re wondering why the stock market has risen in recent months despite uninspiring economic news, look no further than the Federal Register. This massive volume, where all new regulations are published, promises a bright economic future that should ease anyone’s concern     ... MORE

VIDEO: The Gumbo Recipe That Works For Everybody

John Stossel: Spring Clean Government

Spring cleaning is a healthy tradition.      If only politicians did it! They don't. When Barack Obama ran for president, he promised to clean house, "I'm not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it's there. There are some that don't work." I cheered when I heard that! But politicians always   ... MORE

Political Correctness And The Slavery Of ObamaCare

by Ben S. Carson.  When I was in high school in Detroit, there was a great deal of emphasis on clothing. As I became increasingly interested in fitting in with the “in crowd,” fashion supplanted academic achievement in my hierarchy of importance. My grades plummeted and I became a person who was less pleasant and more self-absorbed.       ... MORE

America Has A Black-Market Problem, Not A Drug Problem

by Conor Friedersdorf.     General John F. Kelly, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, testified last week before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he argued, as generals tend to do, that he has inadequate resources to fulfill the missions assigned to him.  Here's how the Associated Press summed up his statement: The U.S.         ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Facts and Factions

A question of power.      At a time when polls show public opinion turning against the Democrats, some Republicans seem to be turning against each other. Even with the prospect of being able to win control of the Senate in this fall's elections, some Republicans are busy manufacturing ammunition for their own circular firing squad.   ... MORE

VIDEO: Fox News: Pennies and Nickels

If Spying On Senate Is So Bad, Why is it OK To Spy On Us?

by Ron Paul.      The incandescent hypocrisy of Diane Feinstein. The reaction of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to last week’s revelations that the CIA secretly searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers reveals much about what the elites in government think about the rest of us. “Spy on thee, but not on me!” The hypocrisy of Sen.     ... MORE

Alex Greig: Six Year Old Dies From Medical Pot Prohibition

Another victim of the drug war.      A little girl has died just days after a Utah bill, HB104, was named Charlee's Law in her honor. Six-year-old Charlee Nelson died on Saturday after battling a debilitating neurological disorder called Batten disease. On Thursday, the Utah Legislature passed a law named for Charlee that allows children    ... MORE

VIDEO: How The NSA Records All Phone Calls

Walter E Williams: Is There Wage Stagnation?

The answer may surprise you.     Many economists, politicians and pundits assert that median wages have stagnated since the 1970s. That's a call for government to do something about it. But before we look at the error in their assertion, let's work through an example that might shed a bit of light on the issue. Suppose that you paid me a straight $20  ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: A Tiger Of A Book

Keeping the welfare state from destroying America. Professor Amy Chua of the Yale law school is better known as a "Tiger Mom" because of her take-no-prisoners, tough love approach to raising children. She and her husband Jed Rubenfeld (a fellow Yale law professor) have written what may turn out to be the best book of this year. It is titled       ... MORE

70% Of U.S. Government Spending Is Checks To Individuals

by John Merline.      Vote buying is expensive for taxpayers. Buried deep in a section of President Obama's budget, released this week, is an eye-opening fact: This year, 70% of all the money the federal government spends will be in the form of direct payments to individuals, an all-time high. In effect, the government has become primarily a massive  ... MORE

Andrea Drusch: Now Feinstein Wants Drones Regulated

A newfound appreciation for liberty and privacy.       For Sen. Dianne Feinstein, regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles has gotten personal. In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday night, the California Democrat said a drone spied into the window of her home during a protest outside her house, and that privacy   ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Baby Boomers

How Kids Are Bringing Medical Marijuana to the States

by Emma Roller.       In conservative states like Alabama, Georgia, and Utah—where medical-marijuana bills would have sputtered and died on the floor ten years ago—legislatures are now passing pot measures with nearly unanimous support. What gives? "When you couldn't get bills introduced for a decade, and now they're passing like they're on   ... MORE

Democrats' Policies Make Income Inequality Worse

by George Will.   Someone who is determined to disbelieve something can manage to disregard an Everest of evidence for it. So Barack Obama will not temper his enthusiasm for increased equality with lucidity about the government’s role in exacerbating inequality. In the movie “Animal House,” Otter, incensed by the expulsion of his fraternity,    ... MORE

VIDEO: The Philosophy Of Liberty

Damon Root: Supreme Court To Rule On Cell Phone Privacy

Will High Court say yes to warrantless searches?     The Fourth Amendment protects our “persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” That includes the cell phones in our pockets, and the many private messages, photos, and videos those devices contain. But what happens if we get arrested for a    ... MORE

Edward Cline: Our Sociopathic Political Class

Deranged or just wrong about everything?      In his March 10th FrontPage column, “Obama’s Appeasement Leads to War,” about how appeasing tyrants has and will continue to lead to war and more international strife, Daniel Greenfield wrote: On the shield of the Strategic Air Command a steel mailed fist grips a lightning bolt   ... MORE

Zach Weissmueller: Oakland vs. Government Surveillance!

Defeating the Domain Awareness Center.     "Whether it's going back to the free speech movement, the Black Panthers, Occupy Oakland... we fight back," says Brian Hofer, an attorney affiliated with the Oakland Privacy Working Group, an association of Oakland residents fighting against the city's proposed Domain Awareness Center.    ... MORE

Cops Go Car To Car Conducting Warrantless Searches

Twelve lanes of traffic brought to standstill.      Thousands of motorists were brought to a standstill when police conducted a massive roadblock to find three crime suspects.  Twelve lanes of traffic were shut down and swarms of armed government agents combed through a giant traffic jam performing warrantless vehicle-to-vehicle searches.   ... MORE

VIDEO: Andrew Napolitano - Losing Liberty

Ann McFeatters: Those Revenue-Generating Traffic Cams

Something we all can hate.        Finally. An issue that unites both rabid Democrats and rabid Republicans: Those demon traffic cameras. Not too long ago in the otherwise very nice state of Ohio, on a quiet Sunday morning with no other cars in sight, I made a right-turn-on-red maneuver after slowing to 2 mph. A traffic camera caught me. A few weeks  ... MORE

Eric W. Dolan: House GOP Passes Bill To Force Obama To Crack Down On Marijuana In States That Have Legalized It

Tyrants say there's too much freedom going on.     Legislation approved by House Republicans would seek to force President Barack Obama to crack down on marijuana in states that have made the drug legal for medical or recreational use. The House passed the Enforce the Law Act by a vote of 233-181 on Wednesday. The bill was      ... MORE

VIDEO: You Gotta Fight For Your Property Rights


Smart meters are not so smart for the citizen. 

Ronald Bailey: Thank You, Edward Snowden!

Who betrayed the oath to protect the Constitution?      Since November, advertisements featuring the face of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have been wrapped around several city buses roaming the streets and avenues of Washington, D.C. The can't-miss ads featuring whistleblower Snowden's goateed visage cover ... MORE

Matt Welch: Obama's Mourning In America

Presiding over diminished expectations.     One of the best ways to survive the grotesque and empty power pageantry of Washington's annual State of the Union extravaganza is by visiting the University of California, Santa Barbara's online archive of past addresses and looking up the speeches that corresponded to where the current POTUS     ... MORE