by Daniel Greenfield. The gun control debate, like all debates with the left, is reducible to the question of whether we are individuals who make our own decisions or a great squishy social mass that helplessly responds to stimuli. Do people kill with guns or does the availability of guns kill people? Do bad eating habits kill people or does the ... MORE
Ed Morrissey: Probable Cause No Longer Required
Government free to rifle through records at will. Remember when government needed something called a warrant or even probable cause to look at your records? Good times, good times.
I’m nostalgic for the halcyon days of, er, February of this year,
before the Attorney General of the United States signed off on an order
allowing the ... MORE
Labels:
government,
Homeland Security,
individual liberty,
privacy,
probable cause,
snooping,
spying
Opposing Out-Of-Control Government Spying
by Andrew Napolitano. After President Richard Nixon
was forced from office in 1974, congressional investigators discovered
what they believed was the full extent of his use of the FBI and the CIA
to engage in domestic spying. In that pre-digital era, the spying
consisted of listening to telephone calls, opening mail, and using
undercover agents to ... MORE
Ross Kaminsky: Death By A Thousand Regulatory Cuts
Prepare for the worst. The public debate over the “fiscal cliff,” the combination of
automatic spending cuts and tax rate increases that our nation is
about to careen into in 2013, started the same way Republicans
always begin following an electoral setback: badly. John Boehner
seemed to be negotiating with himself, and conservative pundit ... MORE
Labels:
economics,
entrepreneur,
fiscal cliff,
government,
Obama,
regulation,
restrictions,
tax rates
VIDEO: How The Constitution Was Destroyed
Judge Napolitano discusses the influence of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
How Much Taxation Would Fund Current Spending?
by Justin Hohn. To best understand this spending aspect of the current budget negotiations in Washington, we must answer one crucial question: how much taxation on the top income-earners would be required to fully fund the present level of government spending? To do so, we must first make the unreasonable assumption that the rich will not respond ... MORE
Who Benefits From The Mortgage Interest Deduction?
by Anthony Randazzo & Dean Stansel. The federal income tax code is riddled with loopholes, deductions, and credits designed to promote various social goals and benefit assorted groups of Americans. One of the largest of these is the mortgage interest deduction (MID), which allowed taxpayers to claim benefits of $82.7 billion in ... MORE
Philly Court Strikes Blow Against Asset Forfeiture Regime
by Eric Boehm. A Commonwealth Court ruling is being hailed as a victory for property rights and a small blow against civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow the state to seize private property that may be connected to a crime. In a
decision filed last month, Commonwealth Court Judge Dan
Pellegrini called the state’s civil asset ... MORE
Nullification - An Overview Of Its Many Forms
by Benjamin W. Mankowski Sr. In the nullification movement, there are varying degrees and methods of nullifying certain federal acts. One who has been with the movement a while could forget and hyper focus on one, leaving someone new to the movement to think of nullification as a very narrow spectrum. To eliminate that ... MORE
ObamaCare's Cruel War On Patient-Centered Healthcare
by Sally Pipes. In just a few weeks, when the calendar flips to 2013, millions of Americans will get their first taste of Obamacare — a $2,500 cap on their flexible spending accounts. That’s down from the previous $5,000 cap — and thus equivalent to a tax hike for any family that had been putting more into their FSAs to cover out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. ... MORE
Labels:
bureaucracy,
government,
health care,
insurance,
ObamaCare,
regulation,
restrictions,
spending
John Stossel: Government Gone Bad
A problem that thinks its a solution. Politicians claim they make our lives better by passing laws. But laws rarely improve life. They go wrong. Unintended consequences are inevitable. Most voters don't pay enough attention to notice. They read headlines. They watch the Rose Garden signing ceremonies and hear the pundits declare that ... MORE
Jimmy Carter Says Marijuana Should Be Decriminalized
by Nick Wing. Former President Jimmy Carter gave a full-throated endorsement of state efforts to legalize marijuana during an appearance at a CNN forum aired on Tuesday. Carter, who as president supported an era of marijuana
decriminalization in the mid-1970s, told CNN's Suzanne Malveaux that he
was "in favor" of states that were taking steps ... MORE
Labels:
drug war,
government,
individual liberty,
justice,
marijuana,
prison,
prohibition,
restrictions
Ed Morrissey: You Have The Right To Not Pay Union Dues
Union dues are not an entitlement. The battle between unions and state governments continued this week — just as it has for the last two years — in territory normally considered friendly for labor organizations. In the winter of 2011, Wisconsin forced an end to mandatory union contributions for state employees — and conservatives ... MORE
Gene Healy: Homeland Security Grants Subsidize Dystopia
The war on terror has come home. "Do I think al Qaeda is going to target Pumpkin Fest? No, but are there fringe groups that want to make a statement? Yes." That's the police chief of Keene, N.H. (pop. 23,000), justifying his decision to buy a BearCat armored personnel carrier with a federal Department of Homeland Security grant. After all, you ... MORE
Labels:
bureaucracy,
government,
Homeland Security,
police state,
politics,
security,
waste,
weapons
Thomas Sowell: Taxing The Poor
How the poor are made to pay. With all the talk about taxing the rich, we hear very little talk
about taxing the poor. Yet the marginal tax rate on someone living in
poverty can sometimes be higher than the marginal tax rate on
millionaires. While it is true that nearly half the households in the country pay
no income tax at all, the ... MORE
Labels:
economics,
Federal Reserve,
government,
inflation,
monetary,
rich,
tax,
theft,
welfare state
Walter E Williams: Government-Created Financial Crisis
Suppose you saw a building on fire. Would you seek counsel from the
arsonist who set it ablaze for advice on how to put it out? You say,
"Williams, you'd have to be a lunatic to do that!" But that's precisely
what we've done: turned to the people who created our fiscal crisis to
fix it. I have never read a better account of our doing just that than
in John A. ... MORE
Labels:
Congress,
crony capitalism,
economics,
Federal Reserve,
free market,
gold,
government,
Obama
Will Congress Rein In Warrantless Spying On Americans?
Congress has a brief chance to pass key reforms. The US government's warrantless surveillance powers largely remain a mystery, even to most of the members of Congress who are set to reauthorize them this week. A small group of senators, however, is planning to introduce a handful of amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance ... MORE
Col. K Allard: Sequestration Spotlights Real Defense Abuses
Billions lost in cozy bureaucratic status quo. A panel of defense-industry executives complained last week to a National Press Club audience about the defense budget cuts known as sequestration. Calling those reductions “irresponsible,” TASC CEO David Langstaff said sequestration would shatter “our ability to execute U.S. national ... MORE
Sheldon Richman: Romanticizing Taxation
The irresistible temptation to spend other people's money. In the debate over avoiding the "fiscal cliff"—especially over whose taxes should and shouldn't be raised—I detect an annoying attempt to romanticize taxation. I read this as an act of desperation on the part of those who want higher taxes on the wealthy, for there is nothing romantic about ... MORE
Labels:
economics,
FDR,
fiscal cliff,
force,
government,
justice,
politicians,
society,
spending,
tax
Katie Kieffer: True Drone Lies
Superheroes often live double lives. But so do super-villains. For
four years, the Obama administration has been living a double-life
regarding drones. Publicly, the president and his leadership tell us they are using
drones to protect our borders and promote national security. The
administration dismisses challenges to its drone policies as ... MORE
Michael Barone: Mexican Migration May Be Over
A historical view. Is mass migration from Mexico to the United States a thing of the past? At
least for the moment, it is. Last May, the Pew Hispanic Center, in a
study based on U.S. and Mexican statistics, reported that net migration
from Mexico to this country had fallen to zero from 2005 to 2010. Pew
said 20,000 more people moved to Mexico from the ... MORE
Despite New Taxes, California's Revenues Are In Freefall
The rich are voting with their feet. California State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget. Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now ... MORE
David Rosen: The Police Know Where You're Driving
Cameras focused on collecting license plate data. Departments have already begun deploying Orwellian license-plate reading technologies across the country. A building at 55 Broadway, in lower Manhattan, is home to the Lower
Manhattan Security Coordination Center, the locus of the New York Police
Department’s massive intelligence-gathering ... MORE
VIDEO: A Cop Reveals How To Manufacture Drug Busts
The drug war is a war on YOU. Lodging in Collinsville (with Michael Reichert)
Becky Akers: Gutsy Granny Stumps The TSA
How to treat the government groppers. A reader who wished me to identify her by name and location until I talked her out of it offered this advice for Women of a Certain Age who must endure aviation’s gulag: …I never go through the back scatter machine -- and in [the airport closest to her home], there are no options, the regular metal detectors ... MORE
Labels:
airport,
government,
individual liberty,
privacy,
snooping,
spying,
surveillance,
travel,
TSA
Caroline May: Food Stamp Use Hits Another Record High
Spending has doubled in last four years alone. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, reached another high in September, according to new data released by the United Stated Department of Agriculture. The most recent data on SNAP participation were released Friday, and showed that ... MORE
Scott Holleran: The Bum, The Cop And The Facts
The moral of the story. This is about the barefoot Times Square bum bestowed with a pair of
boots on a cold November night by a policeman whose act of charity was
photographed by an Arizona tourist. The bum, it turns out, was seen last
Sunday on the Upper West Side. The new boots, valued at $100, were
nowhere to be seen. The policeman, ... MORE
There Is A Snitch Riding In Your Car With You
Black boxes in cars raise privacy concerns. Many motorists don’t know it, but it’s likely that every time they get behind the wheel, there’s a snitch along for the ride. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday proposed long-delayed regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include event data recorders — better known as “black boxes” — ... MORE
Betsy McCaughey: Obama Dives Over Constitutional Cliff
The president's unprecedented power grab. President Obama went over the constitutional cliff this week, demanding more power than the U.S. Constitution allows any president to have. All Americans — regardless of party affiliation — should shudder at the president's attempted power grab and say no. Compromising on taxes and ... MORE
Another State To Consider ObamaCare Nullification
Four and counting. Since the Supreme Court rendered its opinion on the constitutionality of a mandatory federal health care system last summer, many Americans consider the matter settled. But others recognize that despite the pronouncement of five robed federal employees, the Constitution still does not delegate Congress the ... MORE
VIDEO: Censorship and "Unlearning Liberty"
Greg Lukianoff (FIRE), spoke with Reason TV's Nick Gillespie about his new book.
The Enterprise Of Law: Justice Without The State
A book review by George C. Leef. Nearly everyone agrees that a few core government functions —foremost among them the provision of law and justice—can’t be performed in a free market. A handful of rogue thinkers, however, questions this conventional wisdom. Foremost among them is Florida State University economics professor Bruce ... MORE
Peter Schiff: The Fantasy Of A 91% Top Income Tax Rate
An Edsel of an economic idea. Democratic Party leaders, President Obama in particular, are forever telling the country that wealthy Americans are taxed at too low a rate and pay too little in taxes. The need to correct this seeming injustice is framed not simply in terms of fairness. Higher tax rates on the wealthy, we're told, would ... MORE
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