Jesse Walker: How a Suburban SWAT Team Sees Itself

Obviously, the government is not us.    Even some opponents of militarized law enforcement have been startled by the tactics and machinery on display in Ferguson, Missouri, this week. They might not have been surprised to see such a horror show in Boston or Los Angeles, but they didn't expect it in a suburban or small-town setting.   ... MORE

Matthew DesOrmeaux: Legalize Pot, Don't Socialize It

What if a state just legalized it?    The campaign to end the War on Drugs has gained momentum in recent years with state ballot initiatives legalizing recreational marijuana use in Colorado and Washington, and a similar referendum coming to Washington, DC on this year’s general election ballot. Along with the push to reform sentencing laws,   ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Path To A Free Society

Deroy Murdock: Global Warmists Getting Hot Under Collar

Where is the warming?     As I start to write these words, I am on my Manhattan balcony savoring a Friday evening. It normally is oppressive this time of year. Stifling humidity and sweltering temperatures relentlessly squeeze New Yorkers in a brutal vice. The infernal stickiness typically keeps it from cooling down, even at night. It is not unusual     ... MORE

Tim Cushing: Los Angeles Police Suddenly Develop Privacy Concerns When A Drone Flies Over Their Parking Lot

Funny how that works.           If your irony detector seems to be malfunctioning, this video of Los Angeles police officers confronting some activists flying a drone over a LAPD parking lot should reset it. At the very least, it should at least indicate whether the batteries need to be changed, as any powered irony detector should have the      ... MORE

VIDEO: The Forfeiture Machine Turns Cops Into Robbers

The Jury Won You The Right to Read This Newspaper

by Frank Parlato. As everyone knows, there is sometimes a difference between "the law" and justice. The framers of the constitution knew this and they imposed upon the government the right of the people to a trial by jury, making it the jury's responsibility to deliver justice, not uphold the law. This is evident in the writings of the founders of     ...  MORE

Barry Farber: Little Boy, Big Flash

In praise of the life-saving bomb.     A recent study revealed that over 98 percent of 3-year-olds believe the reason there’s glass on television sets is to keep the people from falling out! Is there a comparably grotesque absurdity among grown-ups? The answer is Yes, and it comes to mind every August when the anniversary of the      ... MORE

Wendy McElroy: Why the Lights of America are Dimming

You cannot create passion and talent.  But you can destroy them. When people are punished for their virtues, such as the drive to excel and to work hard, then passion and talent become liabilities. Sometimes people persist for the sheer joy of creation, for the fulfillment of doing work they love. Because that's when the magic happens,   ... MORE

Study: You Have 'Near-Zero' Impact on U.S. Policy

by Winton Hall.        A startling new political science study concludes that corporate interests and mega wealthy individuals control U.S. policy to such a degree that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy." The startling study, titled "Testing Theories  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Litigation Nightmare

ObamaCare Premiums To Rise By Average Of 7.5 Percent

by Elise Viebeck.  The high cost of the Affordable Care Act. Premiums on ObamaCare's health insurance exchanges will rise by an average of 7.5 percent next year, according to a new analysis. Data compiled by the Health Research Institute (HRI) at PricewaterhouseCoopers found modest changes in premiums for 27 states and the District of Columbia,  ... MORE

Americans Recognize Government Is Our Biggest Problem

by Rich Moran.     It is about time! One more sign that liberals are going to get spanked in November. A new Gallup poll shows that more Americans think government is the biggest problem in the country than any other issue. Washington Times: Americans say government, the economy and immigration are the top three problems facing    ... MORE

VIDEO: More Companies Closing Than Opening


Obamanomics: Crushing private enterprise with regulation.

John Stossel: Mindless Drones

As mindless as those who regulate them.   Drones — unmanned flying machines — will soon fill our skies. They conjure up fears, especially among some of my fellow libertarians, of spying and death from above. These fears aren't groundless. President Bush approved the use of armed drones against suspected terrorists overseas, and President     ... MORE

Police Officer Shoots And Kills Teen For Contempt

by George Sells. Your public servants at work. A community is shocked and angered after a Ferguson police officer shot and killed an 18-year old in the Canfield Green apartment complex Saturday afternoon.  At the request of the Ferguson Police Department, the St. Louis County Crimes Against Persons Unit has taken over the investigation of the    ... MORE

What Happens When Libertarian Fantasies Become Reality?

by Daniel J. Mitchell. No, this post is not about that kind of fantasy. Instead, we’re dealing strictly with public policy and specifically addressing whether the libertarian agenda is unrealistic. This is because when I talk to people about libertarianism, they often will say something mildly supportive such as: “I like the idea of getting         ... MORE

Richard A. Epstein: The Pax Americana Is Dead

Presidential leadership continues to be an oxymoron. Thomas Friedman, the respected New York Times columnist, tried to do a beleaguered President Barack Obama a favor by publishing a summary of an extended interview between the two men, which was grandly entitled “Obama on the World.” Friedman tried to present the President  ... MORE

VIDEO: ObamaCare Reality - Life Gets Tougher

Big Labor, Big Government Are Oppressing Farm Workers

by Matt Patterson.    The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, part of a package of amendments designed to secure civil liberties for all Americans. Unfortunately, farm workers in California’s Central Valley are finding their civil liberties stripped from them today — by a government    ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Attacking Achievement

The work of teachers' union lackeys.    New York's mayor, Bill de Blasio, like so many others who call themselves "progressive," is gung-ho to solve social problems. In fact, he is currently on a crusade to solve an educational problem that doesn't exist, even though there are plenty of other educational problems that definitely do exist. The    ... MORE

VIDEO: Radley Balko - Militarization Of Police

Colorado Teenagers Stubbornly Refuse to Smoke More Pot

Despite legalization.      New survey data from Colorado indicate that marijuana legalization so far has not led to an increase in pot smoking by teenagers, as prohibitionists warned it would. In the 2013 Healthy Kids Colorado survey, 37 percent of high school students reported that they had ever tried marijuana, down from 39 percent in 2011. The ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Get Ready For Denials

Terrorists are invited in through the back door.       Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera accused Matt Drudge's website of "the worst kind of jingoistic rhetoric ever" for carrying news stories about the dangers of illegal immigration. He said Drudge "is doing his best to stir up a civil war. I mean, shame on Matt Drudge." Republican Rep.   ... MORE

One Benefit Of Legalized Prostitution Seen In New Zealand

by Tim Worstall.     One of the great social public policy questions of our day is what is it that we should be doing about prostitution? Answers vary around the world: there are places where it is strictly verboeten and heavy punishments are meted out. There are also places like New Zealand and Germany where the entire system is legal and out in the  ... MORE

Laziness At The Expense Of Privacy And Freedom

by Leon Spencer.       John McAfee calls out Google and our own laziness. Computer antivirus software developer John McAfee made a surprise appearance at the Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas over the weekend, where he spoke about the "eroded nature of privacy in our lives today". McAfee, founder of the antivirus software company   ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Litigating For Liberty

Medical Marijuana Research Hits Wall of U.S. Law

by Serge F. Kovaleski.     More evidence the government is not us. Nearly four years ago, Dr. Sue Sisley, a psychiatrist at the University of Arizona, sought federal approval to study marijuana’s effectiveness in treating military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. She had no idea how difficult it would be. The proposal, which has the   ... MORE

Judge Protects IRS From Forensic Search For E-Mails

Another federal court helps a federal agency.       The IRS won what might be Round One in a series of contests pitting tea party groups against the agency, with a federal judge rejecting a conservative group’s bid for a court-appointed forensics expert to hunt for ex-official Lois Lerner’s lost emails. Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District    ... MORE

VIDEO: A Highway Robbery Known As Civil Asset Forfeiture

Burger Robot Poised to Disrupt Fast Food Industry

by Jason Dorrier.       The fruits of raising minimum wage. I saw the future of work in a San Francisco garage two years ago. Or rather, I was in proximity to the future of work, but happened to be looking the other direction. At the time, I was visiting a space startup building satellites behind a carport. But just behind them—a robot was cooking up  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Stoned Drivers - The Case Against Panic

The prohibitionist and his sketchy numbers.     If marijuana is legalized, John Mica warned at a recent congressional hearing, there will be blood. "In the last dozen years," the Florida Republican said, "we've had [half] a million Americans slaughtered on the highways…and half of those fatalities are related to people who are impaired through   ... MORE

Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ Finally Arrived?

by Robert Draper.     “Let’s say Ron Paul is Nirvana,” said Kennedy, the television personality and former MTV host, by way of explaining the sort of politician who excites libertarians like herself. “Like, the coolest, most amazing thing to come along in years, and the songs are nebulous but somehow meaningful, and the lead singer kills himself to   ... MORE

20 Different Obama Officials & Witnesses Have Lost Emails

by Jim Hoft.    Twenty different Obama officials, including Lois Lerner in the IRS and Marilynn Tavenner at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, have lost their emails – which is against the law. The National Review reported: The revelation that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Marilynn Tavenner did not retain her e-   ... MORE

VIDEO: Tim Delmastro - Freedom From Choice

The Continuing Outrage That Is Civil Asset Forfeiture

by Radley Balko.     The motorist advocacy site TheNewspaper.com has the story of 64-year-old Laura Dutton. Estelline, Tex., police officer Jason Fry was manning a speed trap (a spot where the speed limit suddenly drops) when he pulled Dutton over for driving 61 mph just into the 50 mph zone. Here’s what happened next: Officer Fry said   ... MORE

Washington Times Editorial: Water Vigilantes In California

Nobody likes a tattletale,   but snitching comes naturally to a certain kind of busybody.  The remarkable drought in California has produced a new category of righteous snitches called “water vigilantes.” They prowl through neighborhoods with smartphones, creeping through the shrubs and bushes in the dead of night looking for working sprinklers  ... MORE

VIDEO: TSA Gets Ideas On How To Speed Up The LIne

Feds Spend $450K To Help Indians With Climate Change

Taxpayers scalped, weather or not.         The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to spend up to $450,000 in taxpayer dollars to teach Native American tribes in the Great Basin region ”climate adaptation plans” for their hunting, fishing and gathering activities. “Due to climate change, the natural landscapes are becoming       ... MORE

Elderly Man Watches New Jersey Cops Tear Down His Home

Politicians wanted the land.    An elderly homeless man watched in tears as the home he'd built in the woods six years before was torn down by police. Sam's eyes filled up as he silently watched the sturdy, wooden structure bulldozed along with his carefully tended garden trimmed with a white picket fence. Until last month, Sam lived in a woodland   ... MORE