November 11, 2019

Why raw butter producers are suing the FDA

fromReason: Raw butter advocates are understandably salty about a prohibition on interstate commerce.

Regulation Nation

Another drug-war massacre

fromFFF: Drug warriors are scratching their heads over what to do about the latest drug-war massacre in Mexico. They are considering three options -- but only one can succeed.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Elizabeth Warren wants to raise taxes by $26 trillion

fromReason: What she and Bernie Sanders are proposing is nothing short of a wholesale transformation of the size and scope of government.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

Snowden autobiography makes a plea for the Fourth Amendment, the right to privacy, and encryption

fromReason: America's most famous whistleblower calls for restricting the power of government.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - A New Rebellion for Freedom

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Rand explains the governing philosophy of modern day society and advocates the path toward freedom.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Japan wants to go cashless, but elderly aren't so keen

fromReuters: Only a totalitarian should be keen on a cashless society.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

Jan 18, 2019

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Trump's FBI inquiry

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, Tucker applies compelling reason to the allegations of Democrats and their media allies that Donald Trump is a Russian agent.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The slow diminishment of the 4th Amendment

fromDailySentinel: Colorado doesn't impose criminal penalties for refusing to submit to a warrantless search, but refusal leads to immediate, and virtually automatic, license revocation. Big penalty for invoking a right!

Police State America

Cannabis deliveries OK’d in California: 'The public spoke loud and clear'

fromUSAToday: California endorsed a rule Wednesday that will allow home marijuana deliveries statewide, even into communities that have banned commercial pot sales.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Defaming Milton Friedman

fromCATO: In the future, if you tell a student or a journalist that you favor free markets and limited government, there is a risk that they will ask you why you support dictatorships, torture, and corporate welfare.

Indoctrination and Censorship       Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Feds can't force you to unlock your iPhone with finger or face, judge rules

fromForbes: The ruling goes further to protect people’s private lives from government searches than any before and is being hailed as a potentially landmark decision.

Police State America

Jeff Sessions deals one more blow to criminal justice reform on his way out the door

fromReason: The former Attorney General has made it much for difficult for the DOJ to crack down on police departments accused of civil rights violations.

Police State America

Nov 7, 2018

San Francisco voters smack businesses with new tax to fund more homeless

fromCNBC: As high rents drive out productive citizens, SF seeks to build more homeless shelters to attract more unproductive citizens. 
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency           Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Federal judge advocates jury nullification in response to overzealous child pornography prosecution

fromReason: It just makes sense to let jurors know about their already established power to exercise discretion over bad laws and ill-considered prosecutions. 
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Walter E Williams: Skin in the game

fromCreators: It turns out that 45 percent of American households, nearly 78 million individuals, have no federal income tax obligation. That poses a serious political problem.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market     Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

It’s not just one bad apple. Little Rock’s police department Is rotten throughout

fromReason: Radley Balko thoroughly documents a culture of misconduct, incompetence, and poor training, and the unnecessary deaths that resulted. 
Police State America

Attorney: School needs lesson on Fourth Amendment

fromNewsNow: A public school district in Indiana has announced it will drug test students participating in extracurricular activities, a policy that is being criticized by a longtime civil liberties attorney. 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Two NY Dems find brand new way to crap on the Constitution in an effort to regulate guns

fromTwitchy: They are “drafting a bill that would allow authorities to review 3 years of social media history and 1 year of internet search history for anyone who wants to buy a gun” 
2nd Amendment Assaults

September 11, 2018

Andrew Napolitano: Kavanaugh is an enemy of the 4th Amendment

fromMises: Another police state advocate rises to power. Supreme Court Justices are supposed to interpret the Constitution, not determine which parts don't matter! 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption       Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

A mathematician says activists made his paper disappear because its findings offended them

fromReason: Truth is officially politically incorrect. At behest of a feminist professor, an academic journal's board reportedly threatened to "harass the journal until it died."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Paul Harvey - How Government Got Bigger and Citizens Got Littler

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Do you wonder how government transmogrified from servant to master? The means politicians have used to transfer power and control away from individual citizens to the ruling class. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption       The Government is Not Us

Walter E Williams: It's our Constitution -- not Kavanaugh

fromCreators: Those Americans rallying against Kavanaugh's confirmation are really against the U.S. Constitution rather than the man. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

John Stossel: Judging Kavanaugh

fromCreators: conservatives have more reason to be happy than libertarians.. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption      

VIDEO: Corruption@FBI - A Kangaroo Court Called FISA

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: We have now learned that the FISA Court is not a judicial review in any real sense but rather a glorified government rubber stamp. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption       The Government is Not Us

August 1, 2018

Supreme Court essentially nullifies 4th Amendment by denying Ross Ulbricht’s petition

fromFreeThoughtProject: The court's refusal to review Ulbricht's case—in spite of the alleged evidence to convict him being obtained without a warrant—shows the Fourth Amendment has been rendered impotent.  
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process       The Government is Not Us

FDA may soon allow MDMA prescriptions for PTSD

fromReason: MDMA, which was banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1985, could be available by prescription as soon as 2021.  
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

TSA's 'Quiet Skies' program raises legal and civil liberty questions

fromNBCNews: "We certainly need to have more information, but I think the concerns that they are profiling are pretty high," said one national security expert.  
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Walter E Williams: Some ideas to think about

fromTheBostonGlobe: A big, powerful government tends to draw into it people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man.  
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption      Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson: The Crushing Student Debt Bubble

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, Lenore Hawkins (Tematica Research) joins Tucker to discuss the student debt crisis, America’s ticking time bomb.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

If ObamaCare is an economic time bomb, Medicare for All would be a nuclear explosion

fromFoxNews: The so-called Medicare for All plan on which 60 Democrats are campaigning for Congress this year would cost $32 trillion over ten years.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

March 29, 2016

A new backdoor around the Fourth Amendment: The CLOUD Act

fromEFF: Government's latest scheme to violate your privacy. 
Government is Watching Every Move You Make       The Government is Not Us

Walter E Williams: How Ignorant We Are

fromCreators: The worst kind of ignorance is not knowing just how ignorant we are. That leads to the devastating pretense of knowledge that's part and parcel of the vision of intellectual elites and politicians. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Immigration and Diversity

fromLibertyPen: The legendary economist and historian shares his insights on immigration policy as well as the value of diversity. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

John Stossel: The Red Pill

fromCreators: In the movie "The Matrix," swallowing a red pill reveals the truth, while downing a blue pill leaves you trapped in illusion. Today, "taking the red pill" means seeing the lies of mainstream media. 
Media Bias on Parade     Indoctrination and Censorship

Cop charged for shooting 9yo girl in the head as he tried to kill her tiny dog in room full of kids

fromTheDailyMail: What makes this a story is that the officer was charged. Betts becomes the first cop in decades to be charged in an on-duty shooting that resulted in an injury or death. 
Police State America     The Government is Not Us

'Facebook will NEVER sell your information without consent': Mark Zuckerberg's claim in a 2009 interview

fromTheDailyMail: Video footage of the conversation was posted to Twitter by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. No wonder he has political aspirations. He's a natural born liar.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

February 24, 2018

Should teachers be armed?

fromLewRockwell: Government is the last place one should look for deciding how to protect school children, how to run schools, how to run police and how to produce law enforcement for its citizens.
2nd Amendment Assaults      The Government is Not Us

Police announce program to Illegally stop people for ‘SAFE driving

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: Safe driving is now a reason for police to pull you over, check the inside of your car, demand your papers, and stomp what is left of the 4th Amendment into the ground.
Police State America

Idaho is ignoring Obamacare rules. That could set off a free market chain reaction.

fromVox: Forget Obamacare's tyrannical dictates. Blue Cross of Idaho said it hopes to start selling noncompliant plans by early March.
Regulation Nation      Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

A high school student faces expulsion for noticing the square root symbol looks like a gun

fromReason: No adults seem embarrassed by this reaction. They should be.
2nd Amendment Assaults      Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Johnny Carson Interview 1967

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From 51 years ago, a classic interview with Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand.
The Government is Not Us     Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery   Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

“Cash must not be made the scapegoat”

fromWolfStreet: A rare defense of physical money by an ECB Board Member. “Protection of privacy matters to all of us. Privacy protects people from the risk of a surveillance state and thought police,” he said.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Government is Not Us

January 26, 2018

How the government is gutting the right to trial by jury

fromReason: What the 2nd Circuit’s opinion in U.S. v. Tigano reveals about the state of our criminal justice system
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Andrew Napolitano: A conspiracy of silence assaults privacy

fromCreators: This marks a public policy determination that the Constitution can be ignored or evaded by majority consent whenever it poses an obstacle to the government's purposes.
The Government is Not Us    Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Harry Browne - Eliminate Federal Welfare

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Author, financial expert and former presidential candidate Harry Browne contends that redistribution of income is not a proper role for the federal government.
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Author, financial expert and former presidential candidate Harry Browne contends that redistribution of income is not a proper role for the federal government.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market    The Pursuit of Happiness

NBA pushes for legal sports gambling nationwide and a cut of the action

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Author, financial expert and former presidential candidate Harry Browne contends that redistribution of income is not a proper role for the federal government.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Busybodies minding your own business: California may label coffee a cancer risk

fromCirca.com: A judge will decide whether coffee should be labeled as carcinogenic under a three-decade old law which is meant to warn Californians about potential harms.
Regulation Nation

January 12, 2018

Congress plotting to cut a hole in the 4th Amendment, again

fromCreators: Judge Andrew Napolitano asks whatever happened to the public promise to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution as it is written?

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Justice denied: The government Is not going to save us

fromRutherfordInstitute: A 26-year-old man was gunned down by police who banged on the wrong door , failed to identify themselves and then repeatedly shot and killed the innocent homeowner who answered the door while holding a gun in self-defense, but the justices of the high court refused to intervene to address police misconduct.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Twitter engineers to “ban a way of talking” to censor opposing political opinions

fromProjectVeritas: Former Twitter software engineer Abhinav Vadrevu on shadow banning: “they just think that no one is engaging with their content, when in reality, no one is seeing it”.

Indoctrination and Censorship

John Stossel: Punish poor people

fromCreators: When health totalitarians make suggestions, leftist politicians jump.
Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Don't Talk to Cops

fromYouTube: In praise of the 5th Amendment right not to be a witness against yourself.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle     Police State America

Federal legalization of pot would generate 1 million jobs & raise $130 billion

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: In addition to putting dent in failed 'War on Drugs,' legalization could put hundreds of thousands of people to work and generate billions in revenue.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

September 15, 2017

230 years after the Constitution, we’re walking a dangerous road 

from The Rutherford Institute: A look at what it means to live under the Constitution today.
The Government is Not Us

🎬  Walter E Williams - What is a Right? 

from LibertyPen: There are many misconceptions about what constitutes a right. Professor Williams provides clarity.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Court lets DEA keep evidence from warrantless search 

from TechDirt: The government's lawyers with robes conveniently decided that possible cause is just as good as probable cause. The state may do as it pleases. The Constitutional protections of the Fourth Amendment are now officially gutted.
The Government is Not Us

A case against the minimum wage 

from Forbes: The case AGAINST minimum wage is the case FOR economic liberty. Supporters focus only on the beneficiaries without regard to those shut out of the job market each time the entry bar is raised.
Regulation Nation

What does child porn smell like? DHS is training dogs to sniff it out 

from ReasonTV: This may not qualify as politically correct, but it is hard to contest this being filed under other nitwittery.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Permanent reauthorization of Section 702 of FISA 'borders on insanity' 

from The Caldwell County News: The This would be a final and permanent nail in the coffin for the Fourth Amendment.
Say goodbye to the notion of the "sovereign citizen".
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Edward Snowden - Order Without Justice

When Can The Police Search Your Cellphone?

by Julie Johnson.    Can an officer search your cellphone call log or text records to discover how you were using your phone? Absolutely. With a search warrant. Or when a phone’s owner gives an officer permission. Otherwise, an officer generally cannot search through a phone’s data, not even during an arrest, because of a 2014 decision by the U.S.  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: What Rand Paul Brought To The Race

The fate of the only small government candidate.  During the last Republican presidential debate in which he participated, Rand Paul condemned the National Security Agency's mass collection of Americans' telephone records, cautioned against reckless intervention in Syria's civil war, and declared that a "true fiscal conservative" must "look   ... MORE

What Are My Rights If The Police Want To Search My Car?

Just say no.   Police are only allowed to search your vehicle under very limited circumstances.   However, too many consent to incriminating searches because they do not know they can refuse or they feel intimidated. This information about police and vehicle searches can help you if you face one of these encounters.  It cannot be          ... MORE

VIDEO: Why NSA Spying Is Unconstitutional

High Court To Take Up Warrantless Alcohol Testing

by Sam Hananel.   The Fourth Amendment to have its day in court. The Supreme Court will decide whether states can criminalize a driver's refusal to take an alcohol test even if police have not obtained a search warrant. The justices on Friday agreed to hear three cases challenging laws in Minnesota and North Dakota that make it a crime for people   ... MORE

VIDEO: Rand Paul - Protecting The Fourth Amendment

Cutting Constitutional Corners Won't Stop Terrorism

by Andrew Napolitano.         If you were looking for a needle in a haystack, simple logic would tell you that the smaller the haystack the likelier you are to find the needle. Except for the government. Since Edward Snowden revealed the federal government's unlawful and unconstitutional use of federal statutes to justify spying on all  ... MORE

VIDEO: Andrew Napolitano - High Cost Of The War On Drugs

Ed Krayweski: Man Slams The Door On Cops Who Had No Warrant, Then Cops Break His Door Down And Kill Him

More from the American gestapo.   An unknown number of sheriff's deputies showed up at the trailer where John Livingston and Clayton Carroll lived at 3:30 a.m., looking for someone as part of an unspecified "assault investigation." The cops were apparently told the person they were looking for no longer lived there. According to Carroll,   ... MORE