Examples abound. We are a scant 40 years away from the futuristic world that science fiction author Philip K. Dick envisioned for Minority Report in which the government is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful, and if you dare to step out of line, dark-clad police SWAT teams will crack a few skulls to bring the populace under control. Unfortunately, ... MORE
Steve Chapman: Putin In Syria - So What?
Vladimir Putin is having a field day in the Middle East. He has sent Russian planes to bomb rebels in Syria. He has reached an intelligence-sharing agreement with Syria, Iran and Iraq. At the U.N. Monday, he reaffirmed his commitment to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He seems determined to fill the regional vacuum ... MORE
Labels:
foreign policy,
Iran,
ISIS,
Islamic state,
Middle East,
Russia,
strategy,
Syria,
terrorism,
war
John Stossel: The Cult of Victims
People benefit by playing the victim. The world has enough real problems without declaring everyone a "victim." Bill Clinton says Hillary is a victim of a right-wing conspiracy. Lindsay Lohan, when jailed for driving drunk and breaking parole, says she's a victim of cruel and unusual punishment. Michael Sam says his NFL career would have gone ... MORE
Keith Crosby: Stand Up Now Or Kneel Forever
Judge wisely. In the United States a jury of 12 has much more power than the attorneys or judges want you to know. I urge all who are honored to serve either as a Grand Juror or Petit Juror to study and know this power before appearing to serve. John Jay, the first chief justice of our Supreme Court and a Founding Father, said, "It is presumed that ... MORE
Labels:
court,
Founding Fathers,
juror,
jury,
jury nullification,
justice,
law,
ruling,
Supreme Court
Trump on 60 Minutes: “We Need Socialized Medicine”
by Emily Zanotti. This weekend, I got my third health insurance cancellation notice in three years. First, they cancelled the wonderful individual plan we bought for ourselves before the Obamacare law kicked in, after threatening to raise the price on it by over 50%. Then, they cancelled the plan we selected from the then-nonworking ... MORE
M. David: Is It Ever Legal To Shoot Cops?
Badges do not grant special rights. Is it ever legal to shoot cops? A growing number of states
are passing laws that say that yes, in fact, sometimes it is well within
a citizen’s rights to shoot a police officer. Other states have already ruled in favor of citizens shooting police officers in self-defense, (even hip-hop legend Tupac walked ... MORE
Police State America: NJ Supreme Court Overrules Fourth Amendment - No Warrants Necessary To Search Vehicles
by Joe Gullo. Why citizens need to understand jury nullification. New Jersey Supreme Court ruling will allow police to search a vehicle without a warrant. According to the ruling, warrantless searches of vehicles can only be done when police have probable cause to believe the vehicle contains contraband or evidence and the circumstances give rise to ... MORE
The War On Sex Trafficking Is The New War On Drugs
by Elizabeth Nolan Brown. "Sex Trafficking of Americans: The Girls Next Door." "Sex-trafficking sweep nets arrests near Phoenix truck stops." "Man becomes 1st jailed under new human trafficking law." Conduct a Google news search for the word trafficking in 2015 and you'll find pages of stories about the commercial sex trade, in which hundreds of ... MORE
Crony Socialism: Government Bailouts Do Not Save Jobs
by Doug Reich. [Back in 2012,] in a bizarre harangue delivered to the DNC delegates, ex-Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm hysterically chanted that hundreds of thousands of jobs were “saved” by the federal government’s bailout of General Motors. According to her, these jobs were “saved” thanks only to the largess of the Dear Leader and ... MORE
Labels:
bailout,
capitalism,
crony capitalism,
cronyism,
economics,
government,
politics,
socialism,
tax
Bruce Wright: Marijuana Legalization 2015 - US Pot Arrests Increased In 2014 With 1 Every 45 Seconds, FBI Data Show
It's easier than chasing down bad guys. Even as many U.S. states continue to reform and ease legislation
governing the use of marijuana, both medicinal and recreational,
enforcement of laws against the drug's use has apparently hardened.
Nearly 701,000 people were arrested in 2014 for marijuana-related
offenses, which means roughly one arrest ... MORE
Labels:
arrest,
drug war,
law enforcement,
legalize,
marijuana,
police,
police state,
victimless crimes
71% Of Americans Think Civil Asset Forfeiture Is Wrong
by Kevin Drum. Too bad politicians don't care. Julian Sanchez draws my attention to a YouGov poll from last month about civil asset forfeiture, the practice of confiscating money that police merely believe to be connected to a crime. What do Americans think of this? - Which of these options comes closest to your opinion about what SHOULD be ... MORE
Ira Stoll: A Warning About The Politics Of Crowds
The tactics of Trump, Sanders and the Pope. The voice I find myself missing this political season is that of Fouad Ajami, who died last year. Not so much for Ajami’s insights into the area that was his academic speciality, the Middle East, though one certainly wishes for his thoughts on the Islamic State, the humanitarian disaster that is Syria, and ... MORE
School Choice Can Help Quell Urban Violence
by Lewis M. Andrews. What is most remarkable about reports of escalating urban violence across America is that politicians and the media remain just as narrowly focused on police tactics in the aftermath of Ferguson and Baltimore. Even as 2015 murder rates for Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City (Missouri), New Orleans, St. Louis, Washington, DC, ... MORE
The Free Market: It’s Like Uber, But For Everything
by Robert Tracinski. If it sometimes seems like it’s impossible to restore the free market, as if every new wave of government regulation is irreversible, then consider that one form of regulation, which is common in the most dogmatically big-government enclaves in the country, is being pretty much completely dismantled before our eyes. And it’s the ... MORE
Dr. Michael Hurd: Wage Theft
What a racket. Hillary Clinton promises to jail employers who engage in “wage theft.” Wage theft. What could possibly justify that? It sounds like
taking wages away from innocent, hard-working people, brazenly stealing
their hard earned property. Should people guilty of “wage theft” be
immediately jailed? Of course! I did a little research on the ... MORE
Deirdre Reilly: Pope Francis, Tear Down this Wall!
Unlike Vatican City, the pope preaches open borders for U.S. Pope Francis urged a policy of open borders and open arms to immigrants in his speech to Congress Thursday, telling lawmakers not to worry about the numbers of refugees seeking refuge on foreign shores. Apparently, the pope forgot about the fortress he lives in, with an impenetrable ... MORE
How The Postal Service Continues To Burn Money
by Ken Blackwell. Most people are going to tell you that they can’t stand seeing good
money go to waste. When it comes to the U.S. government, however,
wasteful spending continues to be the name of the game. A repeat culprit
of government waste — the United States Postal Service (USPS),
which recorded a revenue loss of $5.5 billion ... MORE
Labels:
bureaucracy,
economics,
government,
incentives,
mail,
post office,
spending,
vehicles,
waste
Henry L. Miller: The Dirty Truth About "Organic"
In denial of reality. Passionate advocates of organic farming and foods resemble members of a religious cult, one founded on a “back to Nature” mentality. They are not so fundamentalist, however, that they do not make concessions to reality. For example, organic standards arbitrarily define which pesticides are acceptable, but allow “deviations” ... MORE
Thomas Sowell: The 'Affordable Housing' Fraud
Housing is unaffordable BECAUSE of politicians. Nowhere has there been so much hand-wringing over a lack of "affordable housing," as among politicians and others in coastal California. And nobody has done more to make housing unaffordable than those same politicians and their supporters. A recent survey showed that the average monthly ... MORE
Labels:
government,
housing,
manipulation,
politicians,
prices,
real estate,
regulation,
restrictions
Walter E Williams: Unnecessary Loss Of Life
Politically correct rules of engagement. War is nasty, brutal and costly. In our latest wars, many of the casualties suffered by American troops are a direct result of their having to obey rules of engagement created by politicians who have never set foot on — or even seen — a battlefield. Today's battlefield commanders must be alert to the ... MORE
Labels:
government,
media,
military,
political correctness,
politicians,
restrictions,
rules,
soldiers,
war
Is Obamacare Officially A Money Laundering Scheme?
by Mytheos Holt. Could the failed Obamacare exchanges have been merely an excuse to direct payola to safely Democratic states? Based on a new report from the Government Accountability Office, and the actions of acting head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Studies (CMS) Andrew Slavitt, the answer may well be yes. Let’s start with the report. ... MORE
The Pope’s 3 Biggest Hypocrisies While In America
by Joshua Krauss. For a man who is supposed to represent the highest virtues of Christianity, Pope Francis sure has habit of racking up hypocrisies on a regular basis. However, it’s surprising how many of these hypocrisies were spawned in just the past few days. In fact, they’ve been mounting since the moment he embarked on his trip to North ... MORE
Jacob Sullum: Did Marijuana Make Him Do It?
What passes for the prohibitionist's cautionary tale. Between 1911, when Massachusetts became the first state to ban marijuana, and 1937, when Congress made pot prohibition the law of the land, cannabis acquired a reputation as a "killer drug" that drove people to irrational acts of violence. Since 2012, when Colorado became the first state ... MORE
Lawmakers: U.S. Plan For Internet May Be Unconstitutional
by Rudy Takala. President Obama's plan to "internationalize" the Internet may be unconstitutional, key members of Congress are claiming. The group of lawmakers sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office last week, saying the plan to relinquish oversight of Internet domain name functions to a global, multi-stakeholder body raised ... MORE
Labels:
Congress,
Constitution,
executive order,
GAO,
government,
Internet,
Obama,
overreach,
Ted Cruz
How Jeb Bush Would Destroy The Internet & Your Privacy
by Trevor Timm. Do you want to live in a country where Internet Service Providers can slow down and censor your internet traffic at will, where the NSA has vastly more power than it does today and where end-to-end encryption may be illegal? Then Jeb Bush is the Republican presidential contender for you: he has positioned himself ... MORE
Labels:
encryption,
government,
Internet,
Jeb Bush,
NSA,
privacy,
regulation,
Republican,
restrictions
Government Likes To Steal Stuff: How One State Tries To Keep Civil Asset Forfeiture Victims From Fighting Back
by George Leef. According to the Institute for Justice’s grading of the states on how bad they are when it comes to civil asset forfeiture, Arizona is among the worst, getting a grade of D. (Only five states are worse, with D-minus grades.) One reason why Arizona deserves its bad grade is the fact that its law attempts to deter individuals who have had ... MORE
SF’s LAST GUN SHOP To Close Over City’s New Regs
by Jessica Chasmar. San Francisco’s
last gun shop has been a defiant fixture against the liberal city’s
suffocating arms policies for more than 60 years, but a new set of
regulations is forcing the owners to finally throw in the towel. The proposed new regulations would require High Bridge Arms in San Francisco’s Mission District to videotape all transactions ... MORE
Labels:
consumer,
freedom,
government,
gun control,
liberalism,
politicians,
regulation,
restrictions
427 Former Congress Members Are Lobbyists Or Advisors
by Joe Schoffstall. Why cronyism is so entrenched. More than 400 former members of Congress have passed through the revolving door by making the move to K Street as lobbyists or as senior advisers performing similar work, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The trend of former members, congressional staffers, and federal ... MORE
Labels:
Congress,
crony capitalism,
cronyism,
government,
incentives,
lobbyist,
politics,
special interest
VIDEO: A Banned Segment From Saturday Night Live
The 1998 Robert Smigel animated short film "Conspiracy Theory Rock", part of a March 1998 "TV Funhouse" segment, has been removed from all subsequent airings of the Saturday Night Live episode where it originally appeared. NBC claimed the edit (critical of their parent company) was done because it "wasn't funny". NBC is owned by General Electric/Westinghouse.
Robby Soave: Man Jailed For Traffic Ticket Dies In Cell After 17 Days of Torture - Officers Watched It Happen
In the state's custody. It was a death sentence. David Stojcevski, a 32-year-old resident of Roseville, Michigan, was arrested for failing to pay a $772 fine stemming from careless driving. A court ordered him to spend a month in the Macomb County jail. Over the next 17 days of his incarceration in a brightly lit cell—where he was denied clothing ... MORE
Labels:
abuse,
addiction,
death,
decay,
government,
incarceration,
public service,
punishment,
tactics
Ken White: If I Just Talk To The Police I Can Clear This Up
— The Dangerous Delusion.“Don’t talk to law enforcement without consulting a lawyer” is simple advice. Anyone can follow it. Most of us understand why it’s a good idea. But too many people reject the advice because of a common and misplaced fear. It’s the fear that if they don’t return that detective’s call immediately, if they don’t invite FBI ... MORE
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