November 17, 2017

Asset forfeiture gone wild: after pot raids, cops legally steal 7 houses

from High Times: Michigan cops seize the homes of seven medical marijuana patients. In practice, asset forfeiture (legalized theft) has become an irreplaceable (even though immoral) revenue stream for American law enforcement officers.
Police State America

Supreme Court abortion case could promote free speech by both sides

from USA Today: California idiocy goes to trial. Red states might have to stop requiring advice some consider propaganda. And pro or con, both sides could end up having to trust women more.
Indoctrination and Censorship   The Government is Not Us

The state of street-level surveillance

from EFF: EFF’s “Street-Level Surveillance” project shines light on the advanced surveillance technologies that law enforcement agencies routinely deploy in our communities.
Police State America   Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Tighter gun laws will leave libertarians better-armed than everybody else

from Reason: In a politically polarized America, gun control is destined to be obeyed primarily by its advocates.
2nd Amendment Assaults

California mandates send electricity prices skyrocketing, but Texas free market policies keeps prices low

from Fox News: In 2017, Californians paid almost double – 86 percent more – to keep the lights on and run manufacturing than did Texans.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Jury acquits ‘nice guy’ who admitted selling cannabis to a cop

from Leafly: The Declaration of Independence states that America exists to produce a government that will protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness implies self-determination so long as it does not intrude on the rights of others. Gambling, drugs and prostitution are all pursuits of happiness and should be nullified by a jury.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange   Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

November 13, 2017

Wonders of socialism: Venezuelan kids turn to prostitution for food

from Yahoo: End stage socialism: girls as young as 12 working at brothels, all driven there because of the hunger crisis.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Once taboo, socialism finds comrades among US millennials

from Yahoo: Reaping the harvest of a dumbed-down America. Those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market   Indoctrination and Censorship

Texas church shooter’s last two Facebook posts were “supporting Antifa”

from Got News: The media does not want you to know that Texas church shooter Devin Patrick Kelley had a history of violent anti-Christian threats and supporting Antifa.
Media Bias on Parade

Media silent on Dem senator’s corruption trial despite lynch mob coverage of Roy Moore

from Downtrend: As day three of the concerted push to kill the U.S. Senate bid of Alabama’s Judge Roy Moore gets underway, there is an enormous double standard at play with the media.
Media Bias on Parade

Giving real meaning to Veterans Day

from Capitalism Magazine: Veterans Day arouses three emotions in Americans: solemnity, because it celebrates the veterans who have defended our great country; sadness, because so many have lost their lives and pride, because they have fought so well.
Defense Versus The War Machine

California will put free tampons in schools

from Circa: A legislative analysis estimated that it will cost "millions of dollars" to install the dispensers and "hundreds of thousands" to stock them. But that does not discourage the drunken sailors of Sacramento.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

October 25, 2017

Britain says no the term "pregnant woman" as it excludes transgender people

from FoxNews: For those suffering from gender dysphoria, it is apparently considered unkind to suggest a womb is necessary
in order to be pregnant.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

California's six-figure pension club has 62,000 members

from Reason: And seven retirees in Los Angeles pulled down more than $1 million each in retirement benefits last year. "Public service" has its privileges.
Economic Policy: Statism vs. The Free Market

Lies and manipulation: The sorry state of global climate alarmism

from WattsUpWithThat?: While practitioners of environmental religion fret about one-tenth of one degree, India has real concerns: food and water.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Europe: journalists against free speech

from GatestoneInstitute: Gone is all pretense that journalism is about reporting the facts.
Media Bias on Parade

Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Wyden unveil privacy-protecting surveillance reform bill

from Reason: Two senators fight back against the surveillance society and the police state to protect individual from their government.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Don’t call the cops if you’re autistic, deaf, mentally ill, disabled or old

from Rutherford Institute: Sometimes it’s dangerous enough calling the cops when you’re not contending with a disability. Unfortunately, the risks just skyrocket when a disability is involved.
Police State America

October 3, 2017

Freedom of conscience is the foundation of all freedom

from Liberty.me: The essence of freedom is the ability to be true to oneself.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

⭐️  Flip-flopping on free speech

from NewYorker: Great piece on the fight for the First Amendment, on campuses and football fields, from the sixties to today.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Marijuana prohibition turns 80

from NORML: The government propaganda that has dictated marijuana policy for the past eight decades is withering, but still prevails in some of the union's most backward states.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

California seeks ban on fossil fuel cars, laying the groundwork to ban human driven cars

from Activist Post: Looks like the nitwits who make up California's ruling class would have out-of-state drivers check their cars at the border since no fuel will be sold. That should be great for tourism.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Smart billboards target individual motorists and spy on license plates and cellphones 

from MassPrivatel: A new age of "advertised spying" is dawning.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

PC Stalinism: the EU bans cartoons critical of the EU

from Spiked!: In a move totally unsurprising to anyone who has been paying attention, the EU has shown its authoritarian colors by banning cartoons from one of its own exhibitions.
Indoctrination and Censorship

September 27, 2017

When the government declared war on the First Amendment

from Reason: It all started with President Woodrow Wilson a hundred years ago.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Mel Brooks: Political correctness 'is the death of comedy'

from CNS News: Blazing Saddles could not be made today. Too many snowflakes might melt.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The coming war on business

from NY Times: So much more than the title suggests. A great article to explain how racism has polluted an otherwise worthwhile move to embrace traditional American principles.
The Government is Not Us

Brazil’s latest outbreak of drug gang violence highlights the real culprit: the war on drugs

from The Intercept: Legalization is their answer. "The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success.”
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

John Stossel: Entrepreneur saves free college courses from government ban

from Reason: An internet entrepreneur saved 20,000+ free online college lectures after the government declared them illegal.
Indoctrination and Censorship

California considers following China with combustion-engine car ban

from Bloomberg: This makes sense -- but only in explaining where California's goofy Governor Brown gets his guidance.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Scott Shackford: Jerry Brown Admits $15 Minimum Wage Does Not Make Economic Sense, Approves It Anyway

Smart economics is not a consideration. California Gov. Jerry Brown simply does not care about what will happen to citizens in non-urban parts of the state under a $15 minimum wage. He didn’t literally say that, but what he did say when today was that he understood that there may be some bad outcomes for such a massive, unprecedented mandate. And then he signed it into law anyway. ... MORE

Richmond California Establishes A New Low By Paying Criminals Up To $1000 A Month Not To Shoot People

by Jennifer Cruz.  A San Francisco suburb has taken an unconventional approach to fighting crime by essentially paying a sort of monthly salary to ex-cons in exchange for them staying out of trouble and helping others to do the same. The program, known as Operation Peacemaker Fellowship, targets some of the most violent offenders in Richmond,     ... MORE

How The West Was Shunned In Primary Politics

by Froma Harrop.   There's a not-insignificant part of the United States known as the West Coast. It includes such prominent states as California, Oregon and Washington. These states have yet to hold a single presidential primary or caucus. But at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, this population center of 50 million-plus souls was informed that the ... MORE

California’s Carl’s Jr. Says So Long, Golden State

They know when they are not wanted.  States: To hear Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, you’d think that taxes can go up to 60% or even 80%, and businesses and investors will just … pay up. But the growing number of businesses stampeding out of high tax areas suggest that they’re very wrong. We got more evidence of that this week when CKE   ... MORE

VIDEO: The Man Who Wants To Stop Pot In California

California Grants Driver's Licenses To 605,000 Illegal Aliens

Pass Go, collect $200.  Some 605,000 undocumented immigrants who live in California were granted driver's licenses in 2015, the first year they have been able to enjoy that benefit, officials said Monday. The law known as AB60 took effect on January 2, 2015. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) expects a total of about 1.4 million people   ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: California's Deep Debt Problems

The bureaucratic pension burden. For those who wonder about the practical importance of transparency, I offer as evidence the latest result of a modest rule change in California from a mind-numbingly named organization—the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, or GASB (pronounced Gaz-bee). The group's stated goal is to promote  ... MORE

Melody Gutierrez: Jerry Brown's Scheme To Grow Welfare And Fix Roads Will Cost California Taxpayers Big Time

$7 billion more to be spent on IHSS welfare expansion.  Gov. Jerry Brown doubled down on his calls for fiscal prudence as he delivered a State of the State speech Thursday that recounted what California has accomplished and proposed little in the way of new policies or programs. Instead, Brown said his focus this year will be on how the state   ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: Price Controls Will Slow Drug Innovation

More bad ideas from the left coast. The California state legislature has a habit of legislating by anecdote. Assembly members or senators may have a bad experience at a state agency or with private industry and they write a bill to address it. Often, legislators offer proposals based on the latest news cycle. Ultimately there are hearings, a long vetting   ... MORE

TSA Will Stop Accepting Driver's Licenses From 9 States

by Nick Gillespie.    The last time we took notice of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), it was to inform you that the unpopular, expensive, and ineffectual outfit had decided it could force travelers on domestic airline flights to go through full-body scanners. Previously, TSA had allowed folks to submit instead to a full-body pat-down.     ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: Regulation A Sure Bet For Fantasy Games

California's option destroyers never sleep.   "Fantasy sports" has come a long way from the office football pool. Instead of passing around photocopied spreadsheets and collecting a few bucks from cubicle mates, players now go to sophisticated web sites, where they can make daily wagers—and not just trudge through a long sports season    ... MORE

California Has Plenty Of Water — And Too Much Politics

by Steven Greenhut. Almost everyone knows California is running out of water as it enters the fourth year of a grueling drought. The results are stark, as massive reservoirs turn into mud pits, and state inspectors fine residents for watering their lawns. But in the state's second most populous county, there's a problem of a different sort. The San Diego   ... MORE

Guess What Marijuana Is Being Blamed For Now

by Sean Willliams.       We're less than three weeks away from the calendar ticking over to a new year -- a year that very well could be the most important for the marijuana industry to date. We can certainly look back on some of the milestone events within the marijuana industry over the past two decades and argue that they've been pivotal        ... MORE

Jerry Brown Pimps 'Coercive Power of the State' In Paris

by Rob Nikolewski.     For the public good as determined by political elites. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) raised some eyebrows while attending the United Nations Climate Summit in Paris, proclaiming the "coercive power of the central state" is needed to promote good public policy, specifically when it comes to a cleaner environment.     ... MORE

California Climate Policies Chilling Housing Growth

by Steven Greenhut. The California Supreme Court's decision late last month to reject a nearly 6,000-page environmental report for a proposed development north of Los Angeles will not only delay or possibly kill a new suburban community. It will make it much more difficult for developers anywhere in California to build large-scale housing projects.     ... MORE