April 2, 2020

Why are so many journalists clamoring for a police state?

fromSpiked: The media pressure for a total lockdown has become overwhelming.
Police State America

Tear up your census form for a better America

fromReason: The government is perfectly capable of counting heads in a less-intrusive and more-hygienic way.
Regulation Nation

The virus is not invincible, but it’s exposing who’s irreplaceable

fromAmericanGreatness: When your refrigerator goes out under quarantine, do you really need another rant from Maxine Waters—or rather Home Depot to wheel up and connect a new one?
The Pursuit of Happiness

Walter E Williams: Managing a disaster

fromCreators: If consumers pay a higher price, it is because they see themselves as being better off acquiring the good than keeping their money in their pocket.
Regulation Nation

Checkpoints, arrests: These states are enforcing stay-at-home orders

fromKomoNews: While many states have statutes to enforce quarantines, the potential response to COVID-19 has raised concerns among civil libertarians.
Police State America

VIDEO: The nitwittery of Common Core for all to see

fromAllen.Tesla/YouTube: Common core is ridiculous and holds students back and confuses them by making math unnecessarily complex. A politically driven approach by the Obama administration.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

June 26, 2016

VIDEO: The Disgraceful Origins of America's War on Drugs

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From the History Channel, a look at what really initiated the war on drugs. This is NOT what the government put on the front porch for the goats to consume.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Citizenship checkpoints start to spread across the Constitution-free zone

fromActivistPost: It is slowly beginning to dawn on people that when you restrict the freedoms of certain groups, that arbitrary system of oppression eventually boomerangs back upon you.
The Government is Not Us    Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

The final assault in the war on cash

fromZeroHedge: If you value sound money, political freedom, limited government, taxation with representation, enterprise and privacy… then you’re going to hate this preview of coming attractions.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: How Government Makes Air Travel More Dangerous

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A look at hiring practices instituted by the Obama administration that rewards unemployment and ignorance of science while punishing military experience and education to promote diversity.
Regulation Nation       The Government is Not Us

Why they hate Tucker Carlson

fromAntiWar: No one is allowed to dissent from the official Establishment line and Carlson is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.
Indoctrination and Censorship       Media Bias on Parade

Judge rules cop can be sued for tasering teen’s genitals on video until he died

fromFreeThoughtProject: Despite police union protests, a federal judge has ruled that a police officer acted with excessive force when he tasered a teen's genitals—repeatedly—until the teen eventually died. 
Police State America

January 25, 2018

Things are getting worse, not better: round ups, checkpoints and national ID cards

fromRutherfordInstitute: We are not supposed to be living in a “show me your papers” society.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make   Police State America    The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Michael Boldin - Resisting Federal Tyranny

fromRutherfordInstitute: From the Tom Woods Show, Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, joins Tom to discuss actions by states to thwart federal overreach in a variety of areas.
The Government is Not Us    Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

State lawmakers push back on federal anti-marijuana moves

fromWeedMaps: Several national polls show that voters strongly support the right of states to set their own cannabis laws without federal interference.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Greedy California politicians make sure the black market for pot will thrive

fromNewsMax: "The existing black market for cannabis may prove formidable competitor to legal markets if new taxes lead to higher prices than available from illicit sources," the report warned. And they will.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Artificial intelligence is going to supercharge surveillance

fromTheVerge: What happens when digital eyes get the brains to match?
Government is Watching Every Move You Make   Police State America

WATCH: Over a dozen cops swarm, arrest tiny girl for sitting incorrectly on the subway

fromFreeThoughtProject: An unnamed LAPD officer had reportedly asked the small woman to remove her foot 
from an adjoining seat but she didn’t immediately comply.
Police State America    The Government is Not Us

January 19, 2018

The Case for Jury Nullification, Part I

fromPeoplesPundit: Nullification occurs when a jury votes “not guilty” because a law is either unjust or wrongly applied, not because a defendant is actually innocent.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Police now conducting mouth swab checkpoints to test drivers for marijuana

fromFreeThoughtProject: With the legalization of marijuana comes the bolstering of the police state and the new mouth swab checkpoints for weed are evidence of it.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     Police State America

The Case for Jury Nullification, Part II

fromPeoplesPundit: Nullification occurs when a jury votes “not guilty” because a law is either unjust or wrongly applied, not because a defendant is actually innocent.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

VIDEO: Our Corruption Coma

fromBillWhittle/YouTube: Remember when the world made sense and movies showed us evil just long enough to be vanquished? What happened? What spell have we been under?

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption      The Government is Not Us

You can't get $1 out of the bank in Venezuela. I tried.

fromCNNMoney: End-stage socialism is always a tragic sight. Cash is gone.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Duty, Charity and Love

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The brilliant philosopher expounds on three powerful concepts.

The Pursuit of Happiness

December 28, 2017

Federal agents can still seize marijuana at California checkpoints despite legalization

fromLATimes: California legalizes marijuana for recreational use Monday, but that won't stop the greedy hand of federal agents from seizing the drug — even in tiny amounts — on busy freeways and backcountry highways.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange    The Government is Not Us    Police State America

Time to defund the U.N.

fromCreators: Ben Shapiro column. The U.N. has always been a foolish fantasy, a League of Nations knockoff that's been about as productive and twice as irritating. It's an outmoded organization that's outlived whatever small usefulness it once had.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Study: Most ticketed pedestrians are innocent, only cited because cops don’t know the law

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: A recent study found that hundreds of innocent pedestrians are paying the price after they were issued erroneous tickets for crossing the street improperly.

Police State America

Congress Kicks Surveillance Debate into 2018

fromReason: Short extension of FISA snooping powers shoved into temporary spending bill.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Karen Straughan - In Defense of Men

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From the Tom Woods Show, writer-commentator Karen Straughan comments on feminism, sexual misconduct, the evolution of the boy scouts and the role of men in today’s society.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

New stricter California gun laws to take effect in 2018

fromKRON4: The California option destroyers never sleep. Now, California residents are restricted from buying ammo online among other freedom-reducing measures.

2nd Amendment Assaults    Regulation Nation

Police State America

Latest Update: August 10, 2017

Once again, our public servants go to wrong address and kill the man who lives there

Trump encourages police to brutalize suspects as cops applaud

Police devise new revenue scam by citing people who forget to press crosswalk button

New Texas law allows for separate courts when police are accused of crimes

A bill in Congress to limit liability for police departments that violate your rights

Georgia cops are now trained to arrest innocent people on false charges

Rules of engagement for interacting with police

VIDEO: When Police Pull You Over

VIDEO: Grandma Schools DUI Checkpoint Cop - Inspiring!

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

New Rankings Expose Worst “Policing for Profit” Offenders

Separating drivers from their money. When it comes to embracing transparency, no government enterprise fails more miserably than traffic enforcement. Police departments and municipalities resist disclosing the number of tickets they issue for fear of branding their communities as speed traps. And local courts routinely reduce speeding charges  ... MORE

Is Safety Just A Pretense? How One Police Dept Racked Up 1700 Citations Deploying Questionable DUI Checkpoints

by Angela Caputo.  On an unseasonably cool summer evening last year, Berwyn police officers stood at Ogden and East avenues eyeing cars as they crawled through a roadside check. The officers were working a special night DUI patrol, looking for bloodshot eyes, signs of drug use and vehicle violations like expired tags and broken lights, stopping vehicles   ... MORE

Sarah Longwell: A Call To Ditch Sobriety Checkpoints

Big hassle, lots of money and a tiny reward.   Americans should buckle up and brace themselves for particularly heavy traffic this Memorial Day weekend. According to estimates from AAA, more than 37 million vacationers will drive to a destination for the three-day break this year, the most in nearly a decade. Unfortunately, crowded highways  ... MORE

Illinois Finds DUI Checkpoints Both Costly And Ineffective

by David Rutter.    When last we visited the unhappy realm of drunken drivers, we were asking a valid question: What if DUI arrests are going down in Illinois because there are fewer sloshed drivers? That was true everywhere but on Lake County's non-municipal roadways where sheriff's deputies made 348 DUI arrests in 2013, the most of any county  ... MORE

Texas Knows Sobriety Checkpoints Are Unconstitutional

by Lily Dane.        Sobriety checkpoints (or "DUI checkpoints") are roadblocks that law enforcement officers set up on roads for the purpose of catching people driving under the influence of alcohol. Some of us also think they are used to generate revenue for police departments and the State, since the stops often result in citizens being slapped     ... MORE

More Citizens Refusing to Answer Questions at Checkpoints

by Philip Hodges.   We’re told that we have a right to remain silent. How ironic it is that these days we get arrested for doing just that – remaining silent. These particular checkpoints are run by the Border Patrol, but they’re nowhere near the Mexico-U.S. border. They’re within 100 miles of the border. So, the people they end up stopping and  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Unchecked Checkpoints

Court demands blind obedience to petty harassment. There are two ways to view the video of Richard Rynearson's March 2010 encounter with U.S. Border Patrol agents at an immigration checkpoint in Uvalde County, Texas. Authoritarians will say Rynearson should have been more cooperative, while libertarians will say the agents should   ... MORE

VIDEO: FOX NEWS - Individual Rights At DUI Checkpoints

Scott Shackford: One Way To Deal With DUI Checkpoints

Police aren’t happy about it.   Warren Redlich, back in 2010, was the Libertarian Party candidate for governor of New York (Nick Gillespie even highlighted him on the blog here). Needless to say, he didn’t win. But Redlich is back in the news getting publicity for his method of dealing with police DUI checkpoints in Florida (where he lives now) while     ... MORE

NBC Miami: A Legal Way Around DUI Checkpoints?

You may not want to roll down your window.   DUI checkpoints are used by multiple South Florida law enforcement agencies to try to keep the streets clear of intoxicated drivers. But, a local attorney says there’s a legal way around the checkpoints for any driver, while prosecutors say not so fast. “Normally what they look for is:   ... MORE

VIDEO: What To Do When The Police Question You

Jeffrey Tucker: Another Reason Uber Gets Banned

Depressing drunk drivers costs government revenue.  I live in a college town where drunk driving is a way of life. I once asked a policeman what his main job was in my town and he said very plainly: “stopping and arresting drunk drivers.” I asked how he knows whom to stop. His answer is that he has developed a nose for this.    ... MORE