A look at the real world effects of drug legalization on little children.
Veronique De Rugy: The Truth About Obama's 2012 Budget
Separating economic myth from economic fact.Fact 1: Debt and spending will continue to grow and deficits will continue to persist under the president’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request. ... MORE
Robert Tracinski: Public Unions & The Socialist Eutopia
The Democratic lawmakers who have gone on the lam in Wisconsin and Indiana-and who knows where else next-are exhibiting a literal fight-or-flight response, the reaction of an animal facing a threat to its very existence. Why? Because it is a threat to their existence. The battle of Wisconsin is about the viability of the Democratic Party, and more: it is about the viability of the basic social ideal of the left. ... MORERepublicans Seek Repeal of Incandescent Bulb Ban
CFLs are more expensive, contain mercury and made in China.Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) has announced that he plans to introduce legislation to reverse the ban on incandescent light bulbs which is scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2014. The ban was included in a comprehensive energy bill that President George W. Bush signed into law in 2007 as an amendment, and was intended as a means ... MORE
Obama Completes The Trifecta
Or, how to jump that pesky separation of powers obstacle.With a bold political announcement, President Baarack Obama has completed the trifecta -- de facto coups which bring into his White House the powers and functions of the other two branches, as outlined in our Constitution. That document assigns the legislative function to Congress, but the Executive Branch blithely and routinely ... MORE
Steve Chapman: The Politicians Are The Real Problem
How public employees and taxpayers got scammed.Public employees have been cramming the Wisconsin state Capitol to protest the governor's plan to cut their take-home pay and gut their collective bargaining rights. You can't blame them for objecting when the state reneges on a deal. But they should have been protesting years ago, when politicians and union leaders ... MORE
VIDEO: CAGW's Porker of the Month for Feb. 2011!
Citizens Against Government Waste have their February winner.
Douglas French: Banking Turnaround?
The headline is that the U.S. banking industry turned around in a big way in 2010 earning $87.5 billion, the highest since 2007. That’s a huge jump from 2009′s industry loss of $10.6 billion. Unemployment is still high at 9% according to the government, commercial real estate values are still in the dumps and home values according to Case-Shiller are still declining. Banks in the aggregate even charged off roughly the same ... MOREVeronique De Rugy: Losing The Brains Race
America is spending more on education while producing worse outcomes.In November the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its Program for International Student Assessment scores, measuring educational achievement in 65 countries. The results are depressingly familiar: While students in many developed nations have been learning more and more over time, ... MORE
Thomas Sowell: Reckless Spending - High Speed Rail
Nothing more clearly illustrates the utter irresponsibility of Barack Obama than his advocacy of "high-speed rail." The man is not stupid. He knows how to use words that will sound wonderful to people who do not bother to stop and think. High-speed rail may be feasible in parts of Europe or Japan, where the population density is much higher than in the United States. But, without enough people packed into a given space, ... MOREJohn Stossel: Why Does Government Suppress Information
Sunday night is Oscar night! Think you know who's going to win? Want to make a bet? The Hollywood Stock Exchange allows people to bet on which movies, actors, directors, etc. will take home Academy Awards. You can also bet on how much money a movie might make. It's called a prediction market ... except unlike other prediction markets, bettors can't use real money. What fun is that? ... MORERadley Balko: The Mind Of A Police Dog
How misconceptions about dogs can lead to abuse of humans.For the first few years I had her, I was impressed by my late dog Harper's uncanny ability to assess people's character. She hated every crappy landlord and bad roommate. Barked at them. Snarled at them. Wouldn't go near them. But if I brought home a date I liked, Harper, a Shar Pei/Labrador mix, would curl up right next to ... MORE
Walter E Williams: Democracy Versus Liberty
It is truly disgusting for me to hear politicians, national and international talking heads and pseudo-academics praising the Middle East stirrings as democracy movements. We also hear democracy as the description of our own political system. Like the founders of our nation, I find democracy and majority rule a contemptible form of government. You say, "Whoa, Williams, you really have to explain yourself this time!" ... MOREMichael Pento: Geithner's Failed Makeover
The plan does not address the Fed's role in making interest rates arbitrarily low.To counter the increasing demands that government reduce its micromanagement of the economy, last week the Obama Administration offered a fig leaf in the form of a white paper entitled "Reforming America's Housing Finance Market." In addition to marking the official end of the Bush era "ownership society," ... MORE
Steve Chapman: Police Cameras and Crime
Can a surveillance state make us safer?If you want to be on TV, don't go to Los Angeles or New York. Come to Chicago, where your wish is certain to be fulfilled. In fact, you couldn't avoid it if you wanted to, thanks to the nation's most extensive network of police surveillance cameras. Anytime you walk out your door, you may find an audience. ... MORE
VIDEO: Ayn Rand - In Defense of Capitalism
Ayn Rand explains the necessity of capitalism to a free society.
S. Fred Singer - The Sad State Of The State Of California
Many must be wondering whether the state of California is beyond repair.This is particularly true after the November 2010 elections when its citizens voted for the same politicians that have brought them the same failed policies. As deficits mount and taxes increase, productive people and enterprises are leaving California for more hospitable states. Inevitably, there will be a tipping point when ... MORE
David Harsanyi: An Assault On Taxpayers
The more we grow the government's education monopoly, the worse it will get.When Dan Nerad, the superintendent of schools in Madison, Wis., was informed that 40 percent of the teachers union was calling in sick this week (evidently, something's going around), he shut down the entire operation. "At this ratio," he explained, "we have serious concerns about our ability to maintain safe and secure school environments." ... MORE
FCC Commish For Government Intervention in Journalism
Success of FOX News pits government official against First Amendment.Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps decried the decline of “real journalism” and called for the government to intervene during a speech to the FCBA on Tuesday. According to The Hill, Copps told the audience that he was disappointed in the commission’s inability to act. Copps went on to say that the decline ... MORE
Tom Bowden: 1 in 4 Americans Needs Permission To Work
In a fascinating article, the Wall Street Journal reports that the percentage of workers who need a state license to do their jobs is growing steadily. That percentage was 5% in the 1950s. In 2008, it was 23%. Think about it: one of every four workers is not permitted to work without begging permission from a bureaucrat. While I don’t agree with the article’s assumption that licensure is an acceptable government activity ... MOREThomas Sowell: Rocky and Republicans
Rocky Marciano was the only heavyweight champion who never lost a single fight in his whole career— and, at the time, he seemed the least likely fighter to do that. In many a boxing match, he was battered, bruised and bleeding. One of the reasons Marciano took so much punishment in the ring was that he had shorter arms than most other heavyweights. It was easier for others to hit him than for him to hit them. ... MOREVIDEO: John Stossel - Economic Freedom in Free Fall
John Stossel interview guests Dr. Kim Holmes (Heritage Foundation) and David Henderson (Hoover Institution) about America's decline in economic freedom.
John Stossel: Is Seasteading the Future?
Escape the suffocating chains of intrusive government by starting your own country! That's Patri Friedman's idea. He comes from an impressive line of libertarian thinkers. Milton Friedman, the Nobel-prize-winning free-market economist, was his grandfather. His father is David Friedman, author of the libertarian classic "The Machinery of Freedom." Milton Friedman advocated severely limited government. ... MORE
Michael Boldin: California -- A Nullifier's Paradise?
Nullification. The word evokes images of white-haired men with tri-fold hats, holding up signs about the "evils" of Obamacare and socialism. States around the country are considering laws to reject federal laws on health care, guns, the Environmental Protection Agency regulations and more. The pundits scream "racism," the legal experts cite the "supremacy clause," and the entire country - left to right - ... MOREWalter E Williams: Self-Inflicted Poverty
Why is it that Egyptians do well in the U.S. but not Egypt? We could make that same observation and pose that same question about Nigerians, Cambodians, Jamaicans and others of the underdeveloped world who migrate to the U.S. Until recently, we could make the same observation about Indians in India, and the Chinese citizens of the People's Republic of China, but not Chinese citizens of Hong Kong ... MOREDan Walters: California Drivers Targeted As Cash Cows
Debt-creating politicians look to transfer misdeeds to the backs of motorists. California has 30-plus million motor vehicles and 24-plus million licensed drivers and auto travel is, like it or not, fundamental to life as we Californians know it. That's why we motorists are captive cash cows. Politicians know we must drive to live and therefore assume that no matter how hard they hit us, we'll pay up. MORE
The CLASS Act Is No Class Act
Another big government tax is poised to assault your pocketbook.In the coming months, the Department of Health and Human Services will be ironing out the details of the CLASS Act and submitting information to employers in preparation for enrolling their employees into the voluntary program in 2012. It will probably catch most businesses off guard, for it’s a provision of ObamaCare ... MORE
VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Varieties of Nothing
How politicians often disguise nothing as something to assuage public opinion.
Terry Paulson: Choice, Not Compromise
Individual rights were to supersede any government power. Rep. Paul Ryan’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union provides a clue to the political battle that is coming: “The principles that guide us; they are anchored in the wisdom of the founders in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and in the words of the American Constitution. They have to do with the importance of ... MORE
Amy Sullivan: Stay Classy, TSA
MALE TSA AGENT: "Hey, I thought she was mine! I was gonna do her!"Ever since the TSA started putting back-scatter devices into use at selected airports last fall, I've been waiting to have the chance to opt out and register a one-woman protest against the machines. (Jeff Goldberg doesn't get to have all the fun.) However, most of my recent air travel has been with a tiny traveling companion, ... MORE
VIDEO: Davy Crockett - Not Yours to Give
The lesson learned by Davy Crockett has been lost on today's Congress.
CBO: Obamacare Will Cost 800,000 Jobs
That's one number Democrats will not be able to fudge.by Rick Moran. I feel for CBO director Doug Elmendorf. He is stuck between Democrats giving him fabricated Obamacare numbers to base his estimates on and his duty to give Congress accurate information. Yesterday, Elmendorf got it right. Testifying before the House Budget Committee, the Weekly Standard Blog relates the following ... MORE
Damon W. Root: Are We All Originalists Now?
On May 27, 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down the New Deal’s National Industrial Recovery Act for exceeding Congress’ lawful authority “to regulate commerce...among the several states.” In response, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt denounced the Court for adhering to the Constitution’s original meaning. “The country was in the horse-and-buggy age when that clause was written,” Roosevelt ... MOREVIDEO: Ayn Rand - Collectivized Ethics
Does society have an obligation to care for the poor and the less fortunate?
Justice Scalia's Timely Advice
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia offered the members of Congress who attended his "constitutional seminar" some timely advice: read The Federalist Papers. This advice, if heeded by members of the 112th Congress, would represent a welcome change in the priorities of our national legislature. From the defeated Phil Hare, who admitted he "didn't worry about the Constitution" to ... MOREThomas Sowell: Undermining Allies
While everyone's attention seems to be focused on the crisis in Egypt, a bombshell revelation about the administration's foreign policy in Europe has largely gone unnoticed. The British newspaper The Telegraph has reported that part of the price which President Obama paid to get Russia to sign the START treaty, limiting nuclear arms, was revealing to the Russians the hitherto secret size of the British ... MOREDavid Harsanyi: Obama's Crony Capitalism
It's time to separate market and state.
When will you wing nuts stop referring to our economic restructuring as "socialism"? Winning the 21st century is all about business. This week, a pro-business Barack Obama implored the rent-seeking CEOs of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to look into their sinister hearts: "Ask yourselves what you can do for America ... MORE
Ronald Bailey: The Unseen Consequences of "Green Jobs"
Will investing in clean energy harm the economy? In his State of the Union speech a couple of weeks ago, President Barack Obama planned to “win the future” by, among many other things, having the federal government “invest” in “clean energy technology—an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.” But ... MORE
VIDEO: John Stossel's State of the Union
High debt, rampant spending and a government growing like a cancer.
What's a competent president to do?
Joseph Ashby: Investment in Decline
Pinning a nation's economic hopes on bridges to nowhere gets nowhere.As the young year progresses, the dominoes of American decline continue to fall. From a White House soiree with Red China to President Obama's "investment"-plugging State of the Union to the Administration's response to Egypt's uprising a rudderless America is on full display. If 2010 was the year of national legislative suicide ... MORE
Peter Suderman: Julius Genachowski, Internet Cop
Obama's top man at the FCC tries to regulate the Net. Robert McDowell becomes effusive when talking about the World Wide Web. “The beauty of the Internet is that it has been somewhat lawless,” says the Republican, one of five appointees who run the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The lack of government mandates, McDowell says, has made the Net “the greatest ... MOREVIDEO: Licensing Gone Wild: 82-Year-Old Barber Shut Down
Another example of tail-chasing bureaucrats creating more unemployment.
Thomas Sowell: The 'Judicial Activist' Ploy
Now that two different federal courts have declared ObamaCare unconstitutional, the administration's answer is to call the courts guilty of "judicial activism." Barack Obama has a rhetorical solution for every problem. Remember the repeated claims of "shovel-ready" projects that needed only federal stimulus ... MOREWalter E Williams: A Killer Agency
Sam Kazman's "Drug Approvals and Deadly Delays" article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Winter 2010), tells a story about how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's policies have led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Let's look at how it happens. During the FDA's drug approval process, it confronts the possibility of two errors. If the FDA approves a drug that ... MOREStar Parker: Promote Freedom? Let's Start At Home
Watching the wave of unrest in the Middle East, there are lessons to consider regarding how we view the world and how we manage our lives here at home. I’d call it getting perspective on what you can control and what you can’t. It should be pretty clear that the upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt came as complete surprises. No one predicted them. Is this because no one was paying attention? MORESteve Chapman: America the Conservative?
How to understand American politics.If you want proof that America is a conservative country, Ronald Reagan provides it. Once seen as a reactionary nincompoop, he's probably the most respected president of the last 50 years. Highways and buildings bear his name. Republicans compete to see who can lavish the most praise on him .... MORE
VIDEO: Who Is Stealing Your Purchasing Power?
Our dollar is a medium of exchange and a standard of value, but what about its purchasing power?
Interview with Walter Williams: The State Against Blacks
The welfare state has done what slavery couldn't do --- destroy the black family.'Sometimes I sarcastically, perhaps cynically, say that I'm glad that I received virtually all of my education before it became fashionable for white people to like black people," writes Walter Williams in his new autobiography, "Up from the Projects." "By that I mean that I encountered back then a more honest assessment of my strengths ... MORE
VIDEO: So You Think Money Is The Root Of All Evil?
Francisco D'Anconia's classic remarks about money from Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED.
Veronique De Rugy: The Truth About the Debt Ceiling
Separating economic fact from economic myth.The statutory debt limit, or debt ceiling, was designed to control congressional spending by limiting the amount of debt the federal government could accumulate. Clearly, it has not fulfilled its legislative purpose. In fact, the government has lost its ability to monitor its own spending. Having to raise the debt ceiling yet again is a sign ... MORE
Cal Marijuana Advocates Debate New Legalization Effort
The drive to put another marijuana legalization initiative on the California ballot took a step forward Saturday when activists from across the state squeezed into a crowded conference center here to launch the debate over writing the next ballot measure. The campaign for Proposition 19, which lost 54% to 46% ... MOREVIDEO: Walter E Williams - Greed is Good
Acting in our own enlightened self-interest frequently results in service to our fellow man.
Obama's Energy Policy Triggers Nationwide Blackouts
The rolling blackouts now being implemented in Texas and across the country as record cold weather grips the United States are a direct consequence of the Obama administration’s agenda to lay siege to the coal industry, launch a takeover of infrastructure under the contrived global warming scam, and help usher in the post industrial collapse of America. ... MORETom Woods: Nullification - Answering the Objections
In January 2011 my book Nullification became notorious when it was linked to a bill that declared Barack Obama’s health care law unconstitutional and therefore void and of no effect in the state of Idaho. (Other states have been introducing similar bills, but Idaho grabbed the media’s attention.) Legislators had read it, the news media reported, and while Governor Butch Otter turned down a state senator’s offer ... MOREDavid Harsanyi: The Right Kind of Activism
Does the federal court system exist to rubber stamp legislation?For discussion's sake, let's just concede that every four years or so the American public is fooled into voting for a demagogue who's mastered a pleasant-sounding, market-tested populism. Let's then imagine—this is for discussion only—that this person's resulting agenda, cheery but mildly authoritarian, passes with public support. MORE
ReasonTV: Busybodies Minding Your Own Business
YOUR GOVERNMENT - we're just one more regulation away from nirvana!
VIDEO: Stossel-Coulter Drug War Debate
The Drug War has now been going on for 40 years? How's it working out for us?
Does Our Society Not Care About Prostitutes?
It's time to acknowledge prostitutes are human beings whose welfare is important.Many of you may have read or heard the story of Phillip Markoff, the "Craigslist Killer" who murdered Julissa Brissman and attacked three other working girls. Lifetime has made a killing (no pun intented) off its movie portrayal of Phillip Markoff. Tellingly, the movie barely even mentioned the lives .... MORE
Judge Vinson Also Smacks Down Crony Capitalism
Judge Vinson's individual mandate ruling is seen --properly -- as a defeat for ObamaCare and a win for individual freedom. And it is all of that, of course. But there's more. Perhaps almost as pleasing as the affirmation of individual freedom and dismissal of a government-run society is the smack down Judge Vinson's ruling gave to the concept of "crony capitalism." MOREJohn Stossel: I Can Balance the Budget
The Congressional Budget Office says the current year's budget deficit will be a record $1.5 trillion. It also says that over the next decade we're on track for annual deficits of "only" $768 billion. I suspect the CBO has hired Rosy Scenario to do the bookkeeping, but let's take that number at face ... MORE53 Years Ago, Ayn Rand saw America's Future.
"Who is John Galt?" The winner of the Atlas Shrugged video contest explains why you need to know.
Russia Moving to Gold Standard?
With the value of the U.S. dollar exponentially declining since the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913, it comes as no surprise that many world leaders and international economists have expressed their desire for a new world reserve currency. In light of the global financial crisis, Russia may be moving toward ... MOREWalter E Williams: Black Education
In my "Black Education Disaster" column (12/22/10), I presented National Assessment of Educational Progress test data that demonstrated that an average black high school graduate had a level of reading, writing and math proficiency of a white seventh- or eight-grader. The public education establishment bears part of the responsibility for this disaster, but a greater portion is borne by black students and their parents, ... MOREThomas Sowell: Spilled Milk
The EPA's quest to protect citizens from milk spills (at great expense).Despite the old saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk," the Environmental Protection Agency is doing just that. We all understand why the Environmental Protection Agency was given the power to issue regulations to guard against oil spills, such as that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska or the more recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico .... MORE
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