Congress Poised To Order Audit Of Federal Reserve

by Stephen Dinan.  Rand Paul takes on his dad's cause. After years of being blocked by Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Senate will finally get a chance next year to vote on legislation to force a broad audit of the Federal Reserve’s decision-making. Once championed in Congress by former Rep. Ron Paul, the push to force the country’s central   ... MORE

21,000 Regulations Under Obama, 2,375 More In 2015

Obama's regulation frenzy.   The pace of agencies issuing new rules and regulations has hit a record high under President Obama, whose administration’s rules have filled 468,500 pages in the Federal Register. And, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the president is poised to unleash another 2,375 new rules on American       ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Government As Decision-Maker

David Perera: Smart Grid Powers Up Privacy Worries

"Smart" means they are data-mining instruments.  The better to monitor us with. The next Big Data threat to our privacy may come from the electricity we consume in our homes. “Smart” online power meters are tracking energy use — and that data may soon be worth more than the electricity they distribute. The Department of Energy ... MORE

Radley Balko: A Drug Informant Lies, An Innocent Man Dies

When home invaders are from the government.   Back in July, we looked at the case of Jason Wescott, a Florida man shot and killed by a police SWAT team during a drug raid over an alleged sale of $200 worth of pot to a police informant. The tragedy was exacerbated by the fact that according to friends and relatives, Wescott had been       ... MORE

VIDEO: It's Always Sunny In Government?

John Stossel: Ignorance

No wonder Cuba wallows in poverty.    Last week, the New York Times reported that the Castro brothers opened a special business zone where foreign companies "would be given greater control over setting wages at factories. ... (P)roposals would be approved or rejected within 60 days." What? If I want to give someone a raise, I have to wait up ... MORE

Paul Derienzo: The State Of Pot Today

Clearing the smoke around legalization.  Marijuana legalization is on the move as ballot measures to free the weed are spreading like a prairie fire across the American landscape. In November voters legalized marijuana for recreation in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia. They join voters in Washington State and Colorado who legalized  ... MORE

Don't Blame Me - The Year's Highlights In Buck Passing

by Jacob Sullum.  For years New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has insisted that people who pay for sex and the intermediaries who facilitate that exchange are responsible for violence against women. Hence his February 26 column celebrating the arrests of men who were guilty of nothing but negotiating terms with cops posing as   ... MORE

NYPD Punishes City by Citing, Arresting Fewer Citizens

by Scott Shackford.   That'll teach em! Right now in New York City, guys selling black market cigarettes are much, much less likely to be harassed and arrested (or worse) by the New York Police Department. Apparently, or at least in the eyes of the New York Post, we’re supposed to see this as a bad thing (people not getting arrested is    ... MORE

VIDEO: Control Freaks And The Damage They Do

Armed Intruders Fail To Heed Warning From Homeowner With Gun To Not Take Another Step, Then Pay The Price

by Dave Urbanski.       In the space of five days the city of Memphis, Tennessee, has seen its second fatal shooting by a homeowner against reported armed home intruders. TheBlaze reported the first instance which occurred Tuesday when a woman answered a knock at a front door. When two men reportedly forced their way in — one of them   ... MORE

DUI Checkpoints - Are They Legal & What Are Your Rights?

by Marc Saggese.       They go by a number of different names: DUI checkpoints, administrative roadblocks, mobile checkpoints, or as they are referred to by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, sobriety checkpoints. No matter the title, they all have the same effect: to allow the police to stop your vehicle for no articulable reason, ask   ... MORE

VIDEO: Explaining The Myth Of Individualism

Brian Doherty: Making Colorado Safe For Guns And Pot

Marijuana smokers and the right to carry guns.  Two Colorado firearms instructors are planning a ballot initiative in their state to help smash a huge violation of citizens' rights: that marijuana smokers, according to the federal government, are not allowed to own guns. The 1968 Gun Control Act declared in section 922(g) that unlawful    ... MORE

Michelle Malkin: Obamacare's Annus Horribilis

There's no candy coating the truth:       Obamacare has had a very terrible, horrible, crappy, none-too-happy year. What it really means is that the victims of Obamacare — taxpayers, health care consumers, health care providers, employers and employees — have had a hellish, nightmarish 2014. Let's start with premiums. President Candy   ... MORE

Radley Balko: Horrifying Civil Liberties Predictions - 2015

Sound familiar? Sometimes, real life can be stranger than parody. This can be particularly true when it comes to the beat we cover here at The Watch, civil liberties. With that in mind, I’ve gone out on a limb to make some predictions about what might happen on the civil liberties front in 2015. I realize that some of these prognostications may seem a   ... MORE

Jonathan Gruber Knew ObamaCare Will NOT Be Affordable

by Patrick Howley.   All of it was a lie. President Obama’s health care adviser Jonathan Gruber said that the Affordable Care Act would definitely not be affordable while he was writing the bill with the White House. As Gruber continues to withhold documents while he awaits a call-back for more testimony before the House Oversight and Government ... MORE

VIDEO: Jeff Berwick - End The Drug War

How Bush & Obama Turned America Into Police State

Government takes full advantage of 9-11.      Rodney Martin, a former congressional staffer, says that former president George W. Bush and President Barack Obama have transformed the US into a police state following the 9/11 attacks. Martin made the remarks when asked about a report that showed a number of decisions made by American    ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Liberals' Use Of Black People

Cover for the liberal agenda. Back in the day, when hunting was the major source of food, hunters often used stalking horses as a means of sneaking up on their quarry. They would walk on the opposite side of the horse until they were close enough to place a good shot on whatever they were hunting. A stalking horse not only concealed them but    ... MORE

VIDEO: Should College Football Players Be Paid?

Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts On The Passing Scene

Pearls of wisdom.      Now that Barack Obama is ruling by decree, he seems more like a king than a president. Maybe it is time we change the way we address him. "Your Majesty" may be a little too much, but perhaps "Your Royal Glibness" might be appropriate. It tells us a lot about academia that the president of Smith College quickly       ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: 2014 - A Year Of Anniversaries

2014 has been a year of anniversaries.        It was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War — a war which many at the time saw as madness, and predicted that it would be the harbinger of a Second World War a generation later. 2014 was also the 70th anniversary of the fateful landing at Normandy that marked the beginning of  ... MORE

Here Are 10 Outrageous 'Zero Tolerance' Follies of 2014

by Lenore Skenazy.    Are your children safe at school? That depends on if you're worried about bullies or administrators.  Here are 10 of the most infamous "zero tolerance" punishments handed down to kids—and even some adults—this year. 1. Student, 13, shares lunch, gets detention   A 13-year-old boy at Weaverville Elementary School in         ... MORE

Bernie Sanders's 12-Point Socialist Plan for America

by Pedro Gonzales.  Every committed revolutionary needs a plan. Karl Marx had one, and so did Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.  Add to that group socialist senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, who is considering running for president (as a Democrat) and has already announced a 12-point plan at the Huffington Post.  He writes: As Vermont's   ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Gambling Nannies

Police State America: Man Jailed For Recording Cops

Public servants don't want their behavior public.   An Orlando man was jailed for recording police as they arrested another individual. The man subsequently sued for taking his phone and for false arrest and won a settlement of $15,000. The Blaze reported: Alberto Troche, who sued Orlando police for wrongfully jailing him and taking     ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: The 5 Best Drug Scares of 2014

Drunks, e-cigs, pot and more.        The history of drug control in America is a series of panic-propelled policies, most of which have not turned out very well. Those of us who support a calmer, more tolerant approach to psychoactive substances therefore spend much of our time defusing scares aimed at justifying or expanding the         ... MORE

VIDEO: Nanny Of The Year 2014 - And The Winner Is ....


Who is the most outrageous busybody trying to mind YOUR own business?

Want To Cut Police Brutality? Make Cops Pay The Price

by Bonnie Kristian. It would be good for taxpayers -- and justice. Eric Garner's family plans to sue the New York Police Department for $75 million. Tamir Rice's parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Michael Brown's family may likewise launch a civil suit against the St. Louis police. No matter the outcome of these three legal actions,    ... MORE

Documents Reveal Encryption That NSA Can't Crack

by Dhananjay Harkare.   National Security Agency also known as NSA, the US intelligence agency has been a hot topic of discussion after former member Edward Snowden revealed its dark side. An archive of Snowden’s documents suggests the encryption schemes that NSA can break easily along with those it can’t crack. The reports suggest that by      ... MORE

NSA Reports Detail Decade's Worth Of Privacy Violations

by Jesse Byrnes.    The National Security Agency has quietly released more than a decade of reports detailing surveillance activities that potentially violated U.S. citizens' privacy rights. Covering NSA activities from mid-2001 to 2013, the heavily-redacted reports document possible abuses, including instances of employees emailing classified   ... MORE

"The Most Important Film Of The 21st Century"

by Joe Williams.    Edward Snowden, the computer whiz who blew the whistle on widespread surveillance against American citizens, speaks for himself in a real-life spy thriller. From a Hong Kong hideout to a temporary Russian haven, documentarian Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald uncover the story in virtual real time.        ... MORE

VIDEO: Wendy McElroy - Fallacy Of The Rape Culture

The Year The Crusade Against 'Rape Culture' Stumbled

by Cathy Young.     December has not been a good month for the feminist crusade against the "rape culture." The Rolling Stone account of a horrific fraternity gang rape at the University of Virginia, which many advocates saw as a possible "tipping point"—a shocking wake-up call demonstrating that even the most brutal sexual assaults on   ... MORE

Even Small Towns Are Loading Up On Grenade Launchers

Cities are gearing up for war.   Custer is a nice little town in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Not quite the tourist center of the area—that’s really more up toward Keystone and Mount Rushmore—it still get its share of summer visitors’ traffic. Enough, anyway, to support just over 2,000 people, out of a county population somewhere around   ... MORE

VIDEO: Save A Drowning Baby?


Should individuals be required to save drowning babies?

Kevin D. Williamson: Tinker, Tailor, Stalker, Spy

The NSA uses powers to spy on wives and girl friends.     A private investigator once explained to me why he always turned down husband-and-wife cases: If your marriage has gone so sour that the best course of action you can think of is hiring a guy to spy on your spouse, then you don’t need an investigator — you need a minister, a    ... MORE

The World's 10 Most Responsible Governments

by Kenneth Rapoza.           Want a limited government that’s held accountable by society? Then start packing. With all this talk about fiscal responsibility in the U.S. and Europe, the World Justice Project’s latest rule of law index gives civil society a sense of which governments are fair and accountable. And the U.S. is not even in the top 15.      ... MORE