September 23, 2018

Trump's latest tariffs are about to hit you where it really hurts

fromBusinessInsider: For the first time, consumer goods are going to be directly hit by the new 10% duty, likely causing an immediate increase in prices for US shoppers.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

China's chilling 'social credit system' is straight out of dystopian sci-fi, and it's already switched on

fromScienceAlert: Coming to a tyranny near you?
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Meet the robot lawyer fighting fines, fees, and red tape

fromReason: DoNotPay is launching a "denial of service attack on the legal system to make it better."
Regulation Nation

State migration increasingly driven by taxes

fromReason: Tax competition between states is alive and well. Taxpayers in California, considered domestic livestock by the ruling class, must choose if living in a beautiful state is worth relentless exploitation.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Why electric vehicles are paper straw dumb

fromEricPetersAuto: Car companies no longer build cars for the market; they build them to satisfy the government.
Regulation Nation

Marine Le Pen furious after being ordered to undergo psychiatric tests

fromReason: The attack on free speech hits another level in France. Psychiatric test ordered in response to politically incorrect truth. Not even an allegation of falsehood. Coming to a police state near you?
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle      Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

June 15, 2016

How to drain the swamp: end the failed war on drugs

fromFFF: While the taxpayers of Flyover America were being shackled with what is now $20 trillion of public debt, the boondogglers and busybodies of the Imperial City were chopping up harmless cannabis plants.
The Government is Not Us       The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Radical plan to split California into three states earns spot on November ballot

fromLATimes: California’s 168-year run as a single entity, hugging the continent’s edge for hundreds of miles and sprawling east across mountains and desert, could come to an end next year.
The Pursuit of Happiness

Fact-checking the “fact-checkers”: Snopes & Politifact have a political agenda

fromOrganicPrepper: I never expected a hub-bub. I did my research, came to some conclusions, and titled my article, “Now It’s Illegal to Have a Shower and Do Laundry on the Same Day.”
Indoctrination and Censorship

Walter E Williams: Diversity and inclusion harm

fromCreators: The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are two federal agencies that fund university research and are consumed by diversity and inclusion ideology.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Chopping down own trees nets man $22,500 in fines

fromCBSNewYork: Cutting down the trees made his property safer however he failed to pay the Sheriff of Nottingham for the privilege. The notion of private property in America has become meaningless.
Regulation Nation

Disaster arrives for climate alarmists

fromRealClimateScience: Arctic sea ice volume is above normal, highest in thirteen years, and melting at the slowest rate on record
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

May 1, 2016

The economic case for free trade is stronger than ever

fromReason: But working-class identity politics threaten to ruin everything.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Why Americans are avoiding the doctor

fromMarketWatch: Despite having insurance, the costs are too high.
Regulation Nation           Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Good drivers are creating a budget shortfall, proving gov’t needs you to break the law to fund itself

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: One state has found that relying on a significant percentage of its budget to be derived from traffic fees and fines leads to a massive shortage when drivers fail to break the law.
The Government is Not Us

Democrats lose ground with millennials

fromReuters: An online survey of more than 16,000 registered voters ages 18 to 34 shows their support for Democrats over Republicans for Congress slipped by about 9 percentage points over the past two years.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Here is why North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons

fromTheNationalInterest: Kim's declaration that promises the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula is about survival.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Republicans love federal snooping

fromReason: (Unless it's against Trump).
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

April 16, 2016

Overdose deaths are the product of drug prohibition

fromCreators: The government's dirty little secret: Drug legalization will save lives.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

America's sinking public pension plans are now $1.4 trillion underwater

fromReason: More government malfeasance wherever you turn. Taxpayer contributions to pension plans have doubled in the past decade, but pension debt continues to increase.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Drivers using mobile phones could be fined without even knowing they’ve been caught

fromNews.com: NEW hi-tech cameras that detect drivers using their mobile phones without them even knowing and automatically issues fines could soon change everything.
Regulation Nation

The way we shop online will be threatened in the Supreme Court this week

fromReason: Plus: Ketamine nasal spray gets boost from Johnson & Johnson study and Philly protests over jailing of rapper Meek Mill.
Regulation Nation

Canada's Liberal party considers decriminalization of all illicit drugs

fromTheGuardian: Drug cartels and police unions will join forces to fight this.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: During raid on wrong home cops kill innocent unarmed dad—no charges

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: Cops are allowed to shoot first and ask questions later. They are given special privilege as agents of the state and are not to be confused with public servants.
Police State America

April 9, 2016

Cops kill innocent 84yo woman while trying to kill her mentally ill son in a hail of bullets

fromTheDailyLiberator: Police fired a hail of bullets at a covered window in an attempt to kill a mentally ill man—but they killed his elderly mother instead and blamed it on the fact that they were both wearing red shirts. 
Police State America

John Stossel: Poisonous taxes

fromCreators: Philadelphia gave $4 million of its new soda tax funds to a bureaucracy that spent the money on things like "hip-hop dance...to teach youth empowerment and social issues." 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market   

Columbia Student offended by professor who said negro was correct term in the '60s

fromReason: It doesn't take much to melt a snowflake. History will do the trick. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Walter E Williams: Black political power means zilch

fromCreators: The challenge for blacks is to take advantage of existing opportunities, and that involves addressing the anti-social, self-defeating behaviors and habits and attitudes endemic to the black underclass. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery      Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

New photos reveal Robert Mueller and Paul Manafort both worked with former Ukraine president in 2013

fromTheDuran: Robert Mueller is investigating Paul Manafort for working with Viktor Yanukovych in 2013. 
Mueller also worked with Yanukovych in 2013. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    

My family's peashooter is now an illegal 'assault weapon' in this Illinois town

fromReason: Legalizing extortion does not change the morality of the act. 
2nd Amendment Assaults      Regulation Nation

March 2, 2018

No jail sentence for woman who falsely claimed rape by three unidentified black men

fromReason: What should the proper punishment be in such cases?
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Brilliant Economic Insights

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Hanson looks at how the Obama administration deployed tribal affiliations to divide the American people by creation of a majority grievance culture.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Andrew Napolitano: In Defense of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

fromCreators: The Second Amendment was written to protect the right to self-defense — whether against bad guys, crazy people or a tyrannical government bent on destroying personal liberty.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Police unions defend bad cops who do awful things. Why won't they defend Broward County deputy?

fromReason: "Why bad cops need to pay their union dues" or "Get-out-of-jail-free cards aren't free."
Police State America

Dick’s Sporting Goods announces end to ‘assault rifle’ sales — again

fromBreitbart: The operative word is "again". Dick's made the same grandstanding claim on December 18, 2012.
2nd Amendment Assaults

From the land of fruits and nuts: California city ban distracted walking

fromCBSLosAngeles: The greedy hand of government hopes to pluck $500 from the wallets of any pedestrian listening to headphones or talking on an iPhone.
The Government is Not Us     Regulation Nation

February 26, 2018

The gun control debate isn’t really about guns. It’s about human rights.

fromTheFederalist: This isn’t just about my gun. It’s about every single individual’s fundamental right to liberty.
2nd Amendment Assaults

LA has criminalized poverty by making it illegal to sleep In cars

fromZeroHedge: The city of LA looks to feed its coffers by fining people sleeping in their cars. Whether this will be a lucrative source of revenue remains to be seen.
The Government is Not Us       Regulation Nation

8 attacks on freedom, from the Left and the Right

fromReason: Americans are still relatively free.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Rand Paul - A Different Republican

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Not all members of the GOP are equal. Libertarian Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky weighs in on issues of wealth, poverty, debt, gay marriage, welfare, Iraq, Afghanistan and national defense.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle        Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Second Florida survivor family now alleging CNN scripted narrative to push gun ban

fromFreeThoughtProject: A second Florida man, whose daughter survived the latest school shooting, has come forward alleging CNN was attempting to control the narrative on school violence.
2nd Amendment Assaults    Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Charlton Heston - The Right to Bear Arms

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The 2nd Amendment was established as freedom's guarantee. The legendary Charlton Heston (National Rifle Association President 1998-2003) makes this point with unmatched clarity and power.
2nd Amendment Assaults

December 27, 2017

Walter E Williams: Educational Rot

fromCreators: Professors at schools of education tend to have the lowest level of academic respectability. American education could benefit from eliminating schools of education.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Don’t regulate the internet. It holds the media accountable

from TheDailyCaller: Any attempt to regulate the internet comes into direct conflict with the First Amendment, which is what makes the internet work in the first place. Restricted online speech = one-sided political dialogue and less ideological diversity.
Media Bias on Parade   Indoctrination and Censorship

Santa calls it quits

from Reason: Red tape and the holidays.

Regulation Nation

Citizen pedophile hunter arrested for catching child predators better than police

from TheFreeThoughtProject: A self-proclaimed pedophile hunter, who lures would-be child molesters into public spaces where they can be arrested, has been arrested for this practice.

The Government is Not Us

Cities, volunteers clash over feeding homeless in public

from Yahoo: One reason for the clash is that citations to those feeding the homeless helps feed the coffers of politicians.

The Government is Not Us

When leftist virtue signaling goes horribly wrong

fromTheDailySheeple: HuffPost writer Andy Ostroy attempted to virtue signal as a progressive liberal by attacking Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina as a token black man and a “manipulated prop” being used to sell the tax bill. Then ...

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption   Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

December 26, 2017

Jury nullification: A powerful tool for the advancement of liberty

from Capitalism Magazine: You may see no better opportunity to advance liberty on an individual yet highly effective level.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Classic Thomas Sowell: Trickle Down Ignorance

from Capitalism Magazine: Students can spend years in educational institutions, discussing all sorts of issues, without ever having heard a coherent statement of the other side of those issues that differ from what their politically correct teachers say.

Indoctrination and Censorship    Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Dimming Christmas lights reflect Venezuela's grim crisis

from ABCNews: This season, for the first time in years, no festive lights will bring it to life.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

How fines and fees criminalize poverty: explained

from InJusticeToday: To increase revenue, many states and municipalities impose hefty fines on those charged with minor offenses like traffic violations, jaywalking, or even leaving a trashcan on the street.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process    The Government is Not Us

UNC takes steps to crack down on heckler’s veto

from LegalInsurrection: The “Campus Free Speech Act” requires a policy on free speech and free expression that guarantees “the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression” on campus.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Why governments treat you like a number, not an individual

fromTheDailyBell: Students can spend years in educational institutions, discussing all sorts of issues, without ever having heard a coherent statement of the other side of those issues that differ from what their politically correct teachers say.

Regulation Nation

October 21, 2017

Federal court ponders Constitutionality of prostitution ban

from Reason: "Why should it be illegal to sell something that you can give away for free?"
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

USA Liberty Act won’t fix what’s most broken with NSA internet surveillance

from EFF: The bill doesn’t end the practice of “backdoor searching,” when government agents — including domestic law enforcement — search through the NSA-gathered communications of Americans without any form of warrant from a judge.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Republicans officially give up trying to cut spending

from Reason: After all that fuss from 2009 onward, Rand Paul is the last Republican left objecting to the continued growth of government.
Economic Policy: Statism vs. The Free Market

DHS pays police millions to ticket and prosecute motorists

from MassPrivatei: Police pull over more than 50,000 drivers on a typical day, more than 20 million motorists every year. So why do they need more money still?
Police State America

50 state study shows that more requirements lead to less jobs

from Will-Law: States with more burdensome licensure requirements (fees, training hours, exams, and age requirements) had significantly lower employment in the ten professional occupations.
Regulation Nation

The media blackout of Clinton-uranium scandal senate probe

from CNS News: Media bias is currently “on full display,” Media Research Center President Brent Bozell warned Thursday as network news continued to ignore the Senate probe into the Clinton-Uranium scandal.
Media Bias on Parade

September 21, 2017

Who truly imperils our free society? 

from Creators Syndicate: A revealing and insightful look into the barbarians destroying America from within.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Hours after Hurricane Irma, Miami-Dade county tickets residents for code violations 

from New York Post: Government wasted no time identifying Hurricane Irma not just as a storm but a windfall.
The Government is Not Us

John Stossel: Detoured by Government

from Creators Syndicate: More and more Americans are learning that licensing is about revenue collection and restricting competition for incumbent businesses. It is not about consumer protection but rather cronyism.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Police in Oklahoma City fatally shoot man who was holding a stick

from New York Post: 2 cops see a man accused of no crimes holding a stick. One tasers him and the other shoots. The man dies. Cops get a vacation, man gets a funeral.
Police State America

France set to make wolf-whistling at women illegal

from Milo: Governments are relentless in their efforts control every facet of human behavior. Even the most benign expressions of unapproved thought are to be criminalized. France takes the lead.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

DHS pays police millions to ticket and prosecute motorists

from MassPrivatei: The odds of being ticketed by police are increasing at an alarming rate, as politicians and law enforcement invent new ways to take money from the public.
Police State America

Ed Spillane: Many Judges Continue To Jail Defendants Without Money To Pay Fines. Here Are The Alternatives.

Why one judge refuses to send such folks to jail.   Melissa J. showed up in my court last year with four kids in tow. Her children quietly watched from a nearby table while I spoke with her. The charges against her — driving with an invalid license, driving without insurance, not wearing a seat belt, failure to use a child safety seat properly  ... MORE

The Brute Force Of Government Spending On Autopilot

by Debra J. Saunders.   My car was towed from an area near a train station in San Francisco last month. I had parked in front of a small "No Parking" sign that I had not seen. I spent an hour looking for my car and calling an attendant who didn't answer the phone. When someone finally answered, she told me my car had been towed. It cost me $350.  ... MORE

Michael F. Haverluck: Homeschoolers Face 23 Years In Jail For Missing The Filing Deadlines Imposed By The State

Treating citizens like slaves.       Parents from two homeschooling families in Ohio face up to 23 years in jail for missing filing deadlines imposed by the state. Despite the fact that each of the families were relatively new to homeschooling in Ohio — along with hundreds of other families around the country who report having trouble navigating ... MORE

Texas Police Turning Into Mobile Debt Collectors

by John Cassidy.     Reduced to tax collectors with badges. Two new technologies and one failed state program could make highway travel perilous for Texans traveling between San Antonio, Austin and Houston. Law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction over I-10 east of San Antonio and I-35 between San Antonio and Austin have signed contracts   ... MORE

A Missouri Town Demands Substantive Due Process

by George Will.   Is this the future? If Pagedale, Mo., is a glimpse of the future, the future is going to be annoying. Pagedale might represent the future of governance unless some of its residents succeed in their lawsuit against their government. If they do, it will be because they successfully invoked the principle of substantive due process. Pagedale is  ... MORE

That Obamacare Penalty Will Be Bigger Than You Think

by Dan Mangan. The stick's getting a lot bigger — but it's not clear that many more people will choose the carrot as a result. Households that opt to go without health insurance in 2016 are set to get hit with an average Obamacare fine of $969. That is 47 percent higher than the average $661 penalty per uninsured household for this year, a new analysis  ... 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

In Iowa, Braiding Hair Risks Heavy Fines, Even Jail Time

by Nick Sibilla.   Achan Agit is no stranger to oppression. Born in what is now South Sudan, Achan was forced to flee her homeland in 2001 during the Second Sudanese Civil War. After living in Egypt as a refugee for three years (amid rampant xenophobia and racism), in 2004, she came to the United States and became a lawful permanent resident.   ... MORE

VIDEO: Rand Paul - Tyranny Of Bureaucrats