October 3, 2018

In FY 2018: Debt up $1,271,158,167,127; Feds borrowed $8,172 per every American with a job

fromXNSNews: The federal debt increased by $1,271,158,167,126.72 in fiscal 2018, according to data released today by the Treasury.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Due process reflects human nature and it is our best chance for fairness

fromTheHill: Due process acknowledges that accusers can be mistaken, confused, or lying. It attempts to separate evidence from error and malice in order to judge an accused on the former.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Voting rights for felons becoming a key issue for Democrats

fromGoverning.com: Florida has emerged as a battleground in the fight over the 6 million people, in and out of jail, who can't vote because they were convicted of a felony.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Why Kavanaugh's denial is air tight

fromReason: A column by Barry Farber. So what caused the stutter-stepping from “I want to be anonymous!” to “He tried to rape me!” and then “I’ll testify only after my demands are met”?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

USDA school lunches still stink

fromReason: School's back in session, and that it means time for reports of crummy government-approved school lunches.
Regulation Nation      Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Brett Kavanaugh's illegal beer consumption highlights the perversity of drinking ages

fromReason: The Supreme Court nominee's teenaged tippling was typical, although the law pretends otherwise.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

January 17, 2018

A breath of healthcare freedom for the New Year

fromCapitalismMagazine: For more than a century we have learned to expect that government can only grow more powerful. The elimination of the individual insurance mandate of ObamaCare should be celebrated as a reversal of this trend.

Regulation Nation

House votes for six more years of warrantless surveillance

fromNakedSecurity: If you’re a member of the US “intelligence community” – the FBI, CIA and NSA – this past Thursday was a great day for homeland security.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Constitutional ignorance -- perhaps contempt

fromCreators: Is it ignorance of or contempt for our Constitution that fuels the movement to abolish the Electoral College?

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

3 lessons from prohibition, which started today in 1919

fromReason: The 18th Amendment was ratified, extending an existing ban on liquor passed during World War I.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Harry Browne - Abolish the FDA

fromNakedSecurity: American consumers are risking their lives, being deprived of medicines and having their options destroyed due to the power of federal government busybodies.

Regulation Nation

Start saving now, because Social Security is screwed

fromReason: If Congress doesn't address its insolvency issues, payouts will need to be slashed by a quarter starting in fewer than 20 years.
The Government is Not Us     Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Ron Paul - Ending The Drug War

Feds Want To Lower Legal Driving Limit To One Drink

by Elizabeth Harrington.       More restrictions, less freedom. The National Transportation Safety Board wants to decrease the legal driving limit to one drink, lowering the legal limit on blood-alcohol content to 0.05 “or even lower.” The agency released its “most wanted list” on Wednesday, a laundry list of policies it would like implemented   ... MORE

Elizabeth Nolan Brown: Homeland Security Asking Hotel Staff To Report Lodgers That Use Too Many Condoms

Frequent minibar-restock is a no-no.      The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to pour time and taxpayer money into convincing the American people that there's an epidemic of sex trafficking here. So bad is this alleged epidemic that ordinary crime-control measures won't work, hence the department is recruiting truck drivers   ... MORE

Julia Vitullo Martin: Drunk With Power

How Prohibition led to big government.       If they think about Prohibition at all, most Americans probably accept Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter’s conclusion that it was a farce, a “ludicrous caricature of the reforming impulse,” an ineffective albeit financially costly moral crusade imposed on a reluctant populace. Decades   ... MORE

Little-Told Story Of How The U.S. Government Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition With Deadly Consequences

by Deborah Blum.   A reminder about public servants. It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat.    ... MORE

Michael Thomsen: Legalizing Weed Isn’t Enough

Permit marijuana use in public.    Recreational marijuana use has been legal in Seattle since 2012, but I still felt like I was getting away with something when I walked into a dispensary there this fall. There was a bouncer waiting behind a roped-off entryway on the otherwise quiet Capitol Hill side street. He passed my driver’s license through a  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Want My Blood? Get a Warrant.

Balking at warrantless alcohol testing.  Danny Birchfield drove his car into a ditch. Steve Beylund "nearly hit a stop sign while making a right hand turn into a driveway." William Bernard got his truck stuck in the river while trying to extract his boat. In his underwear. These embarrassing incidents—the first two of which happened in North Dakota,    ... MORE

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

Christopher Ingraham: One Of The Biggest Arguments Against Marijuana Legalization Is Falling Apart

Drug use continues a decade-long drop.     America's high school students are using drugs and alcohol at or near the lowest levels on record, according to federal data released Wednesday. The 2015 Monitoring the Future Survey, conducted by the University of Michigan and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)        ... MORE

Restrictions On Adult Alcohol Access Don't Make Us Safer

Data explodes popular fallacy.  Violent crime and binge drinking are two potential undesirable outcomes of access to alcohol. But is increased access to alcohol for adult drinkers a sufficient precondition for these attendant negative externalities of drinking? A recent look at the impact of changes to laws governing pub hours in England and Wales 10   ... MORE

Obamacare Rules Brew Trouble For Craft Beer Makers

By Eric Boehm.  Obamacare regulations could be brewing up trouble for small breweries wanting to grow. Beginning next year, restaurant chains with more than 20 locations nationwide will be subject to new rules requiring calorie information on all menus. Restaurants will have to measure menu items made in-house, but when it comes to    ... MORE

VIDEO: Nullified In Practice: Banning Sex Or Alcohol

Government Study Confirms Marijuana Impairs Drivers Less Than Alcohol, Casts Doubt on Stoned Driving Definitions

by Jacob Sullum.   A new study by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) confirms that marijuana has a less dramatic effect on driving than alcohol does and casts further doubt on the standard that Colorado and Washington use for determining when someone is too stoned to drive. In the double-blind study, 18 occasional cannabis   ... MORE

Ed Krayewski: The Long War on Guns

A failure called ATF.      "In a paramilitary-style operation, government agents invaded the neighborhood of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Tungren," the vignette reads. "A four-block area was sealed off, the neighborhood evacuated, and the Tungren home surrounded. Some of the agents ransacked their home, while others stood over the Tungrens     ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Blue Laws, Bootleggers & Baptists

Jeremy Egerer: Should Women Be Allowed To Drink?

A sobering thought.    In an age of social liberalism, you can expect to see many things become legal. One thing that hasn't become legal and that almost nobody has considered legalizing is childhood drinking.  And the reason nobody has really suggested it is because each and every one of us knows that children are idiots. You never really know what    ... MORE

VIDEO: 5 Stupid Alcohol Laws In Virginia

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Game Of Risk