The road from sovereignty to slavery. A British author, residing in the United States for the past 30 years, created a small firestorm earlier this week with his candid observations that modern-day Americans have been duped by the government into accepting a European-style march toward socialism because we fail to ... MORE
Unintended (But Predictable) Consequences Of Drug War
by Radley Balko. Another drug war success:
Meth is cheaper, more potent than ever, and it’s all coming in through
international drug cartels. But hey, at least we’ve made life difficult
for allergy sufferers and arrested the occasional innocent parent or
grandparent along the way. Meanwhile in Britain, an MDMA crackdown has given rise ... MORE
Union Wants Violence Against Cops To Be Hate Crimes
by Joanna Rothkopf. The sanctity of the badge. On Monday, the National Fraternal Order of Police requested that crimes against its members be officially considered hate crimes,
a classification that means harsher penalties for offenders who have
targeted cops because they are cops. The union represents over 300,000
police officers. ... MORE
John W. Whitehead: Welcome To The Matrix
Enslaved by technology and the Internet of things. If ever Americans sell their birthright, it will be for the promise of expediency and comfort delivered by way of blazingly fast Internet, cell phone signals that never drop a call, thermostats that keep us at the perfect temperature without our having to raise a finger, and ... MORE
The Average College Freshman Reads At 7th Grade Level
by Maggie Lit. Dumb down accomplished. The average U.S. college freshman reads at a seventh grade level, according to an educational assessment report. “We are spending billions of dollars trying to send students to college and maintain them there when, on average, they read at about the grade 6 or 7 level, according to Renaissance ... MORE
Matt Kaiser: Overpunishment And Rationality
Injustice by prosecutorial discretion. Judge Jed S. Rakoff has launched a firestorm of conversation about his criticism of the federal criminal justice system in the New York Review of Books and his proposal for how to fix it. First, a bit of backstory for those who do not turn to the New York
Review of Books for commentary on the federal ... MORE
Scott Shackford: One Way Congress Can Help Fight Police Abuse Is By Ending The Incentives To Seize Assets
Remove the profit motive from policing. This election year has seen increased attention to the use and abuse of civil asset forfeiture programs by law enforcement agencies. These programs allow officers and federal law enforcers to seize and keep funds and property they claim are connected to crime. Asset forfeiture has been a huge force ... MORE
Limited Access To Hydrocodone Pushes Abusers To Heroin
Unintended consequences of DEA dictating health care. After the DEA ruled to make hydrocodone a schedule two drug, some health officials became concerned abusers would find more dangerous ways to feed their addiction. Now that hydrocodone isn't easily accessible, those who abused it aren't able to meet their addiction needs, ... MORE
Labels:
black market,
DEA,
drug war,
economics,
heroin,
incentives,
medicine,
painkillers,
restrictions
Jacob Sullum: Legal Pot Slips Through A Loophole
D.C. residents can breathe easier. Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House
Appropriations Committee,
says a rider in the omnibus spending bill that Congress enacted
last month stops the District of Columbia from legalizing
marijuana. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's congressional
delegate,
disagrees. So do D.C. Mayor ... MORE
Labels:
cannabis,
drug war,
government,
individual liberty,
initiative,
legalize,
marijuana,
prohibition
Psychiatrists Now Say Non-Conformity Is A Mental Illness
Only sheeple are ‘sane.’ The nail that sticks up will be hammered down. Modern psychiatry has become a hotbed of corruption, particularly the kind that seeks to demonize and declare mentally ill anyone who deviates from what is regarded as the norm. This is abundantly evident in the latest installment of the industry’s Diagnostic and Statistical ... MORE
John Stossel: Trust
Just check the ratings. Trust — society depends on it. For most of history, our ancestors lived in clans with other family
members, or in small villages. Everyone pretty much knew who was
trustworthy. People behaved better because they wanted good
relationships with family members and neighbors. It's one reason that
today we trust ... MORE
Labels:
economics,
free market,
government,
incentives,
integrity,
Internet,
rating,
voluntary exchange
Citizen Reporting Theft Has Bike Stolen In Police Station
by Steve Miller. Another one of those police reports, comin' up! A Chicago man might think twice the next time he goes into a police station to report something as stolen. On Friday night, 31-year-old Adam Wisneski rode his bike to the Shakespeare District police station on the Northwest Side to report a stolen iPhone. He says he didn’t have his bike ... MORE
Poll: Americans Realize That Government Is The Problem!
The lesson of hope and change has been learned. Confirming the 2014 election zeitgeist, a new Gallup poll finds that Americans are fed up with ever-encroaching, corrupt and incompetent government, as represented by ObamaCare and other federal policies. For the first time since Gallup has conducted polling, people say that the "biggest ... MORE
Labels:
collectivism,
government,
individual liberty,
Obama,
ObamaCare,
policy,
politics,
poll,
socialism
How Government Money Effects Climate Change Opinion
by Patrick J Michaels & Paul C "Chip" Knappenberger. In our post last week titled “Climate Alarmism: When is this Bozo Going Down?” we described how new research increasingly casts doubt on the validity of climate models and their projections of future climate change. It is increasing clear that climate models simply predict too much ... MORE
Thomas Sowell: The Equality Racket
Tactics of the ethnic grievance industry. Some time ago, burglars in England scrawled a message on the wall of a home they had looted: "RICH BASTARDS." Those two words captured the spirit of the politicized vision of equality — that it was a grievance when someone was better off than themselves. That, of course, is not the only meaning of ... MORE
Labels:
culture,
equal opportunity,
equality,
family,
liberalism,
politics,
race baiting,
society,
tactics
Walter E Williams: Liberals' Use Of Black People - Part II
Life on the liberal plantation. Last week's column focused on the ways liberals use blacks in pursuit of their leftist agenda, plus their demeaning attitudes toward black people. Most demeaning are their double standards. It was recently reported that Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House majority whip, spoke at a 2002 gathering hosted by ... MORE
VIDEO: Immigration Checkpoint Refusal Gone Wrong
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke
Kim Bellware: Despite Medical Marijuana Having Been Legal In Illinois For Over A Year, No Patients Have Benefited
Government obstruction at its best. Medical marijuana has been legal in Illinois for more than 365 days,
but the number of patients that have actually been able to get relief
from the drug remains a big fat zero. While 600 local patients have already been approved
for a medical marijuana card, there's no place to actually buy the
stuff. And ... MORE
Labels:
cannabis,
drug war,
health,
medical marijuana,
medicine,
prohibition,
regulation,
restrictions
Jim Monk: N.D. Bill Would Ban Use Of Sobriety Checkpoints
"Reasonable suspicion," what a concept! A bill in the North Dakota Legislature would prohibit the use of sobriety checkpoints. The Republican-sponsored measure says law enforcement may not perform a traffic stop unless the officer has "reasonable suspicion" of a violation. Senator Tom Campbell of Grafton says sobriety checkpoints ... MORE
Labels:
checkpoints,
DUI,
police,
police state,
probable cause,
roadblocks,
suspicion,
warrantless search
The Delirious Happiness Of Free Market Choice
by David John Marotta. In 2007, Malcolm Gladwell, author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point,” gave a TED talk on psychophysicist Howard Moskowitz.
According to Gladwell, Moskowitz has “done as much to make Americans
happy as perhaps anyone over the last twenty years.” His work and
subsequent fame was in the food science industry, but his ... MORE
IRS Horror Story Makes Past Scandals Pale In Comparison
IRS and their license to steal. There are times when it becomes absolutely impossible to support the remarkably bad judgment often displayed by federal agencies under the control of the current administration—even for those of us who are typically viewed as backers of many of this administration’s policies. The latest installment ... MORE
Labels:
asset forfeiture,
banking,
civil forfeiture,
crime,
federal,
government,
IRS,
justice,
theft
Is Obama the Drug Warrior Becoming Obama the Reformer?
by Jacob Sullum. In a 2011 Reason cover
story, I explained why drug policy reformers had been bitterly
disappointed by President Obama's performance during his first few
years in office. With the notable exception of his support for
shorter crack sentences, which Congress approved almost unanimously
in 2010, Obama had done very ... MORE
Labels:
drug war,
government,
legalize,
marijuana,
medical marijuana,
Obama,
prohibition,
sentencing
James Gattuso & Diane Katz: 10 Worst Regulations Of 2014
Laws beyond bad. As 2014 comes to a close, it is enveloped in red tape. From the
breakfast table to the night light, government regulators invaded nearly
every moment of our lives. Here’s our take on the 10 worst examples of
the past year: Number 10. Federal Censorship Commission: The Federal Communications Commission began considering a ... MORE
Labels:
banking,
censorship,
EPA,
free speech,
government,
Internet,
regulation,
restrictions,
taxicab
John W. Whitehead : You’re Either a Cop or Little People
A bad year for the little people. For those of us who have managed to survive 2014 with our lives intact and our freedoms hanging by a thread, it has been a year of crackdowns, clampdowns, shutdowns, showdowns, shootdowns, standdowns, knockdowns, putdowns, breakdowns, lockdowns, takedowns, slowdowns, meltdowns, and ... MORE
Labels:
authority,
brutality,
government,
police,
police state,
policing for profit,
raids,
SWAT,
violence
DUI Checkpoint: A Tactic To Avoid Warrantless Searches
Featuring the DUI Flyer video. Is a DUI checkpoint a violation of fourth amendment rights? Interpretations vary, but some claim it amounts to a warrantless search, and they feel their rights are being violated every time they submit to one. YouTuber HONORYOUROATH says there’s an additional concern. He worries that, even if a driver ... MORE
Labels:
authority,
checkpoints,
DUI,
government,
police state,
rights,
roadblocks,
warrantless search
Wendy McElroy: The Brain Drain, Gain and Retain
On incentives, freedom and prosperity. America is making emigration more difficult and expensive. Last year, for example, the cost of renouncing U.S. citizenship rose by over 400% from $450 to $2,350. Those who take the far more common step of simply and quietly leaving still remain vulnerable to a massive tax system that reaches ... MORE
Labels:
citizens,
citizenship,
emigration,
freedom,
incentives,
prosperity,
tax,
tax rates,
taxpayer
Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim Private Corporations Status; Contend They're Immune From Open Records Laws
by Radley Balko. So they're NOT public servants. That explains a lot. As part of the American Civil Liberties Union’s recent report on police militarization,
the Massachusetts chapter of the organization sent open records
requests to SWAT teams across that state. It received an interesting
response. As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in ... MORE
NYPD On "Strike" And Everybody Is Better Off!
by Michael Minkoff. Citizens reap dividends from intra-government squabble. The NYPD Officer Union has called for a semi-limited “virtual work stoppage” to punish Mayor DeBlasio and other people who, according to the NYPD, haven’t been faithful or loyal enough to the cause of police officers. The result has been that most people would be just ... MORE
Labels:
arrest,
authority,
citizens,
government,
incentives,
law enforcement,
police,
politics,
strikes
Resolve To Make 2015 The Year Of Repealing Bad Laws
by George Leef. A message to politicians. Look folks, I know that when you say you want to do what’s in the public interest, you mostly mean doing whatever helps you stay in office and calling it “the public interest.” Some of you, however, might actually want to do things that benefit the great mass of the people. This missive is directed ... MORE
Labels:
asset forfeiture,
civil forfeiture,
education,
government,
labor,
law,
licensing,
taxpayer,
workers
David Harsanyi: Thank Gridlock For Economic Turnaround
The Obama Boom is finally here. Gross domestic product grew by a healthy 5 percent in the third quarter, the strongest growth we've seen since 2003. Consumer spending looks as if it's going to be strong in 2015. Unemployment numbers have looked good. Buying power is up. And the stock market closed at 18,000 for the first time ever. All good ... MORE
California Begins Issuing Drivers' Licenses To Illegal Aliens
by Jazz Shaw. Welcome to 2015, with the usual hopes for new beginnings and fresh starts. Along with that, there is the expected flood of new laws going into effect all across the nation as proof of the various legislative bodies getting the work of the people done. The people of California in particular will see the fruits of their elected ... MORE
Labels:
California,
drivers,
illegal aliens,
incentives,
law,
liberalism,
licensing,
politics,
special interest
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