We Are The Government: The Power Of Jury Nullification

by John W. Whitehead. Saddled with a corporate media that marches in lockstep with the government, elected officials who dance to the tune of their corporate benefactors, and a court system that serves to maintain order rather than mete out justice, Americans often feel as if they have no voice and no recourse when it comes to holding government    ... MORE

Denver Post Editorial: Jury Nullification Is Not A Crime

City violates First Amendment rights.     More force, threats and intimidation from government. It is astonishing that Denver police would arrest someone for handing out political literature outside a courthouse. It's even more astonishing that prosecutors would charge that person with seven felony counts of jury tampering. Yet that is what happened ... MORE

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - Death By Government

United States Drops In Overall Freedom Ranking -- Again

by Casey Harper.   Freedom in US is headed toward the sunset. A new report on the freedom of countries around the world ranks the United States 20th, putting countries like Chile and the United Kingdom ahead of the U.S. Last year, the U.S. was ranked 17th, but a steady decline of economic freedom and “rule of law” has dropped the level    ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: The Deceptions Of Hillary Clinton

She might find her candidacy deleted.       While the scandal surrounding the emails sent and received by Hillary Clinton during her time as U.S. secretary of state continues to grow, Clinton has resorted to laughing it off. This past weekend she told an audience of Iowa Democrats that she loves her Snapchat account because the messages    ... MORE

VIDEO: Can Americans Still Take A Joke? Comedians Say No

Police State Update: 61-Year-Old Man Violently Attacked By Police And Arrested For Singing A 'Beach Boys' Song

by Matt Agorist.  A 61-year-old Pennsylvania man, Jim Osche likes to go out into public and sing as a means of relieving stress. On Friday, however, Osche’s stress relief would be met with police brutality. As Osche walked down the sidewalk in front of Shula’s Steakhouse in downtown Allentown, the restaurant guests seemed to be pleasantly  VIDEO INCLUDED ... MORE

Robert P. Murphy: Capitalists Have A Better Plan

Listening to the feedback of profit and loss.      To early 20th-century intellectuals, capitalism looked like anarchy. Why, they wondered, would we trust deliberative, conscious guidance when building a house but not when building an economy? It was fashionable among these socialist intellectuals to espouse “planning” as a much more    ... MORE

President Obama’s Department Of Injustice

by Alec Karakatsanis.  The policy should be considered a crime. Last month, President Obama used his clemency power to reduce the sentences of 46 federal prisoners locked up on drug-related charges. But for the last six years, his administration has worked repeatedly behind the scenes to ensure that tens of thousands of poor people — disproportionately ... MORE

Ron Paul: The Seamless Web Of Liberty

Toward a free society.        Many people think the Internal Revenue Service was violating civil liberties when it harassed tea party groups. After all, the groups were targeted because they wanted to exercise their civil liberty to challenge government policies. However, the specific issue in the IRS case was the groups’ application for tax-exempt status, ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Monopoly Madness

We're Doing Our Trophy Kids A Great Disservice

by Stephen Moore.        Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison became an overnight cultural hero when he announced this week that he doesn't want his kids to accept trophies they "haven't earned." Harrison tweeted that he was returning his sons' "participation trophies," all the rage in kids' sports these days. Awards, he said, should be for    ... MORE

Can A Free Society Work For The Less Clever?

by Stephen Hicks.     Honestly now: Do you have what it takes? We all like to think we’re smarter than average, but the math is cruel. Half of us are below median intelligence, and some of us are considerably lower. So why should we think that freedom is a good policy for everyone? I believe freedom is the best policy, but sometimes that is a hard     ... MORE

VIDEO: Jerry Day - The Identity Trap

John Stossel: Breaking The Rules

Innovators are the true public servants.      Humans need rules. Rules make life more predictable. But when the rules multiply, the world needs some rule-breakers. The creator of the underground website Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison for creating an online space that allowed people to use bitcoins to buy and sell things.   ... MORE

How Helicoptered Kids Become Hypersensitive Students

by Lenore Skenazy.     Creating the scaredy cat generation. This is the article everyone’s talking about: “The Coddling of the American Mind,” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, on the cover of this month’s Atlantic. It discusses the idea taking root on college campuses that students cannot be exposed to ideas, words, or phrases that     ... MORE

Chris Edwards: Why The Federal Government Fails

The 5 structural reasons.        Most Americans think that the federal government is incompetent and wasteful. Their negative view is not surprising given the steady stream of scandals emanating from Washington. Scholarly studies support the idea that many federal activities are misguided and harmful. A recent book on federal performance    ... MORE

Steve Weis: When Curtains Block Justice

A parody of “When Phone Encryption Blocks Justice”.    In June, a laptop was stolen from a bedroom on a Monday afternoon in Palo Alto, CA, a suburb 15 miles south of San Francisco. There were no witnesses to the larceny, and no surveillance footage either. With a laptop thief on the loose and few leads at their disposal, investigators  ... MORE

VIDEO: Rand Paul - Eliminating Department Of Education

Mychal Massie: The Establishment Vs. We The People

Don't fall for elites' 'consensus' argument, again.      Quoting journalist Lewis Lapham, Attorney John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute wrote: “The shaping of the will of Congress and the choosing of the American president has become a privilege reserved to the country’s equestrian classes, aka the 20 [percent] of the population that   ... MORE

Random Thoughts On The Passing Scene

by Thomas Sowell.     Stupid people can cause problems, but it usually takes brilliant people to create a real catastrophe. President Obama's "agreement" with Iran looks very much like "the emperor's new clothes." We are supposed to pretend that there is something there, when there is nothing there that will stop, or even slow down, Iran's      ... MORE

VIDEO: Hillary's Emails, Politics And More

Wash Post: "The Libertarian Moment Is Over, Or Is It?"

by Nick Gillespie.      Former Reason staffer David Weigel, now at the Washington Post, looks at Rand Paul's sagging fortunes in the run for the Republican presidential nomination and writes: One year ago, in a flag-planting cover story for the New York Times magazine, Robert Draper asked whether a “libertarian moment” had come at last.       ... MORE

These 17 States Could Have Legalized Marijuana Soon

by Kyle Jaeger.      A marijuana legalization initiative in Ohio received enough signatures to get on the November 2015 ballot, Secretary of State Jon Husted announced on Tuesday, much to the excitement of the measure's pro-pot supporters. If it passes, Ohio will become the fifth state (plus the District of Columbia) to allow people 21 or older to   ... MORE

Do Christians & Conservatives Really Desire A Police State?

by Pastor Chuck Baldwin.  Washington's criminal class is bipartisan. A Nazi-like, Stalin-like, Mao-like Police State is being constructed in earnest in America. It started with the Patriot Act in 2001. And it has only gotten worse every year since. And, in reality, this burgeoning Police State has no serious opposition–with the exception of 75 million + gun owners.  ... MORE

AT&T Has “Partnership” With NSA To Spy On US Internet

by Clayton Browne.     Your world delivered. The most recent release of secret documents by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden makes it clear that telecom giant AT&T has been actively cooperating with the NSA in its large scale program to spy on the internet traffic of Americans. Based on the documents, it appears that AT&T has been        ... MORE

VIDEO: The Lie Of The Left

Paul Detrick: Do Rappers Have 1st Amendment Protection?

After all, popular speech needs no protection.     The movie Straight Outta Compton, which opens this weekend, dramatizes the emergence of southern California hip-hop rap group N.W.A. In 1988, the group's album of the same name popularized gangsta rap music with lyrics detailing the realities of life in gang-ridden South Central L.A.   ... MORE

More Unemployment Ahead As Minimum-Wage Offensive Will Likely Speed Arrival Of Robot-Powered Restaurants

by Lydia DePillis.   Crowded. That’s how Ed Rensi remembers what life was like working at McDonald’s in 1966. There were about double the number of people working in the store — 70 or 80, as opposed to the 30 or 40 there today — because preparing the food just took a lot more doing. “When I first started at McDonald’s making 85 cents an  ... MORE

VIDEO: James Madison vs. "States Can't Do That"

Walter E Williams: Academic Fascism II

Anti-free speech and racist diversity policies.      Last week's column highlighted college campus absurdities and the ongoing attack on free speech and plain common sense. As parents gear up to fork over $20,000 to $60,000 for college tuition, they might benefit from knowing what greets their youngsters. Deceitful college officials, who  ... MORE

Hillary Has Lots To Hide. Her Emails Reveal She Sought Out Book On “How to Delete Something So It Stays Deleted”

by Michael Krieger.  Sending inconvenient truths to their grave. As I’ve said many times before, the best part about Hillary Clinton running for President, is that she’s so unbelievably corrupt and shady, not a week goes by without a new scandal or embarrassment. It makes the insulting charade of U.S. elections at least somewhat comical. In the      ... MORE

The Case Against Jury Nullification -- Rebutted

by Ilya Somin, Washington Post.    JUSTICE IS A RESULT, not just a process. In a recent post, co-blogger Orin Kerr offers a thoughtful critique of my and Glenn Reynolds’ recent defenses of jury nullification. Orin’s points have some validity.  But, on balance, I still think that jury nullification is likely to be more beneficial than harmful relative  ... MORE

Geoff Henley: How U.S. Laws Foster Police Brutality

Unreasonable force is sadly not the question.   Pervasive police brutality will persist far longer than the public suspects. Why? The answer is simple: the law allows it. Under Graham v. Connor, the Supreme Court requires that Fourth Amendment excessive force claims be analyzed from the officer’s perspective during the incident. Judges are not    ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - The Reagan Years

Stephanie Slade: Why I Am A Pro-Life Libertarian

LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.     There's a belief on the American left that says it's impossible to be both a principled libertarian and a principled pro-lifer—that the two positions are somehow intellectually incompatible. It's been popping up more often lately as liberal writers look for ways to criticize Sen. Rand Paul, as in     ... MORE

Religious Sex Perverts: ISIS Enshrines A Theology Of Rape

by Rukmini Callimachi.  In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin.  Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted.  He bound her hands    ... MORE

Nick Gillespie: Ron Paul Endorses Rand

The "only one who is standing up for your liberty."  Should the son inherit the votes of the father? Ron Paul, the former congressman and presidential candidate who sparked a libertarian "revolution" during his last two bids for the White House, is endorsing his son, Sen. Rand Paul, for president. In a letter that Paul campaign insiders say is "going out ... MORE

Why Libertarians Should Oppose Gov't Vaccine Program

by D. Saul Weiner.       There is a lot of controversy in society today surrounding vaccines. As with the larger society, there is significant disagreement among libertarians on the topic. In this article, I lay out the many solid reasons why libertarians should oppose the government vaccine program. Just to be clear upfront, this is a different issue from   ... MORE