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

Robert Epstein: The New Mind Control

What you don't know can hurt you.    The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do. Over the past century, more than a few great writers have expressed concern about humanity’s future. In The Iron Heel (1908), the American writer Jack London pictured a world in which a    ... MORE

John Stossel: Breaking The Rules

Innovators are the true public servants.      Humans need rules. Rules make life more predictable. But when the rules multiply, the world needs some rule-breakers. The creator of the underground website Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison for creating an online space that allowed people to use bitcoins to buy and sell things.   ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Eating Up Junk Science

Richard Berman: Manufacturing A Food Scare

Marketing to the uninformed.   The wisdom of crowds is a concept that has remarkable predictability. Often, the dispersed knowledge of millions of people making informed decisions is more reliable than the informed bias of policy activists. When it comes to the latest food scare, antibiotics and resistant bacteria, polling shows the public   ... MORE

The Lights Of Times Square Are A Beautiful Thing

by Michael J. Hurd.  The dimmer could be turned on the bright lights of New York City as the Big Apple is facing pressure to remove its iconic oversized billboards from Times Square. A 2012 federal transportation law designated Times Square an ‘arterial route’. It means that the famous Broadway and 7th Avenue intersection falls under the 1965   ... MORE

The Hidden Privacy Threat of … Flashlight Apps?

by Robert McMillian. When I downloaded the Flashlight app to my iPhone, I was in a jam. I was camping, I think. Or maybe a pen had rolled under my couch. I remember that smug sense of self-congratulation after I downloaded the software, which converted the iPhone’s LED flash into a steady and bright beam of light. But I shouldn't have been so   ... MORE

President Pinocchio On ObamaCare Advertising

"We didn't make it hard sell," he said.       New Congressional estimates show the Obama administration is requesting another $774 million for Obamacare “outreach” and advertising in the 2015 budget. This is on top of the estimated $684 million they spent this year and the $52 million they spent on high-profile ads with athletes and        ... MORE

S.M. Oliva: Michael Jordan Vs. Free Speech

Circuit court ruling gives fame a First Amendment veto.     In 2009, Michael Jordan's entry into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was marred by a “petty and punitive” speech focused more on settling old scores than celebrating his legendary career. As Yahoo Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski wrote at the time: “This wasn't a    ... MORE

Is There Anything More American Than Bob Dylan Doing a Patriotic Super Bowl Ad for a Foreign-Owned Carmaker?

by Nick Gillespie.      Absolutely not. And that's kind of wonderful. Bob Dylan's controversial Super Bowl ad for Chrysler opens with the Maestro himself asking, “Is there anything more American than America?” It’s the sort of koan-like, WTF riddle that defines his most memorable music. Dylan is the master of the rhetorical question, whether       ... MORE

Advertising Jury Nullification Concerns Prosecutors

They fear good jurors may nullify bad laws.     The illuminated billboard in the Judiciary Square Metro station near the F Street entrance was strategically placed. Prospective jurors who take the subway to D.C. Superior Court and exit near the National Building Museum see these words: “Good jurors nullify bad laws” and “You have the right to  ... MORE

Zach Walton: Verizon Patents A DVR That Spies On You

Cameras and microphones that monitor your home.   Verizon is moving into the targeted ad business in a big way. The wireless carrier announced a new campaign yesterday called Verizon Selects that would allow them to share a customer’s info with advertisers. Now the carrier has patented a device that makes its previous tracking efforts       ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Wealth Creation Is Not The Enemy

Obama's serious misunderstanding of capitalism.   President Obama accuses Mitt Romney of putting profits above people by striving to create wealth rather than jobs during his 15 years at Bain Capital. This critique of Romney's work at the private equity firm, which Obama says will be central to his re-election campaign, betrays a       ... MORE

Tricia Escobedo: Group Argues Weed Is Safer Than Booze

Ad campaign injects reality into Colorado debate.   Colorado advocacy group is spending thousands of dollars to convince people that smoking pot is safer than drinking alcohol. It's an attempt by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol to rally support for a vote in November that would legalize the drug for recreational use.  ... MORE