Dec 19, 2018

A crisis in the making: Know your rights or you will lose them

fromTheRutherfordInstitute: We are approaching critical mass, the point at which all hell breaks loose. The government is pushing us ever closer to a constitutional crisis.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Why Banks will shut you down for nothing that is actually Illegal

fromArmstongEconomics: The government fines banks if its customers are caught doing wrong incentivizing the process of ditching customers who use cash instead of conveniently trackable credit cards.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

73% of top U.S. universities do not guarantee the presumption of innocence in sexual misconduct trials

fromReason: The long-held judicial concept known as the presumption of innocence is now hopelessly out-of-style. At college campuses, it must take a back seat to #MeToo feelgoodism. 

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery    Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Report: 9 in 10 colleges restrict free speech

fromWatchDog.Org: Ninety percent of public and private higher education institutions in the U.S. restrict the speech of their faculty and students, according to a new report produced by FIRE.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Democracy Is a threat to individual liberty

from71Republic: Democracy is flawed when it comes to protecting the rights of the individual, but is successful in restricting those rights.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Mueller destroyed messages from Peter Strzok's iPhone; OIG recovers 19,000 new "FBI lovebird" texts

fromZeroHedge: Nothing to see here! After Strzok was kicked off the special counsel investigation, Mueller's Records Officer scrubbed Strzok's iPhone after determining "it contained no substantive text messages." 

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Nov 19, 2018

Democrat calls for gun confiscation, suggests nuking Americans who fight back

fromDailyWire: Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) suggested using nuclear weapons against American citizens who oppose his far-left gun control agenda, which includes forcing Americans to give up their semi-automatic weapons.
2nd Amendment Assaults

A new sanctuary city for Second Amendment rights

fromMother Jones: In the city of Republic, Washington, the police chief is refusing to enforce new state gun restrictions and the mayor backs him up.
2nd Amendment Assaults

How the Washington Post idiotically tried to use Elvis’s medal of freedom as proof of Trump’s racism

fromRedState: Trump Derangement Syndrome knows no bounds.
Media Bias on Parade

Prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing documents poses grave threats to press freedom

fromTheIntercept: Arguments justifying the Trump administration’s prosecution of Assange are grounded in a combination of legal ignorance, factual falsehoods, and dangerous authoritarianism.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

The first step in the fight for criminal justice reform

fromCreators: It has finally dawned on lawmakers that all those years of imposing mandatory minimum sentences were largely to blame for our grossly over-bloated prisons.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Trump’s Nominee to replace Kavanaugh Is a staunch defender of dwarf-tossing

fromMotherJones: She recognizes the right of the dwarf to be tossed.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Nov 17, 2018

Rand Paul: Next A.G. must defend individual liberty from power-hungry deep state

fromBreitbart: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) offered his thoughts on who should replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions during an interview with Breitbart News Deputy Political Editor Amanda House.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

The Pentagon fails its first comprehensive audit

fromReason: According to Deputy Secretary Patrick Shanahan, no one expected it to pass anyway.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Venezuela is rolling out a new ID card manufactured in China that can track, reward, and punish citizens

fromBusinessInsider: The ID transmits data about cardholders to government computer servers, and is increasingly linked to subsidized food, health, and other social programs most Venezuelans rely on to survive.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

CNN’s Acosta back at White House after judge’s ruling

fromAP: Anti-Trump reporter Jim Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, was back in the saddle this afternoon. However, the White House said it would be developing new rules for orderly press conferences.
Media Bias on Parade

US gov’t accidentally reveals they’re charging Julian Assange

fromFreeThoughtProject: The US government accidentally copied and pasted information from sealed documents indicating that they have already charged Julian Assange for his journalism.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

British school bans expensive coats so poor students won't 'feel stigmatized'

fromReason: Bans like these just encourage a victim mentality.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Nov 9, 2018

The West is failing Julian Assange

fromConsortiumNews: Let’s start with the cat. You never would have thought one of these beloved felines would play a crucial role in the Julian Assange case, would you?
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Three Cheers for the Return of Divided Government

fromReason: Democrats will be able to check the worst parts of Trump's presidency in a way Republicans never would, but will otherwise be very limited.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

America goes to war

fromUNZ: Some critics are beginning to recognize that the United States has become a country addicted to war and one need look no farther than the federal budget, where everything is being cut except military spending.
Defense Versus The War Machine

A grave threat to private property: civil asset forfeiture is really policing for profit

fromWestHawaiiToday: In a legal process known as civil asset forfeiture, government allows police to seize, then keep or sell any property as long as they allege it was involved in a crime. 
Police State America       Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Jury nullification ensures liberty

fromBillingsGazette: Before the Declaration of Independence was written jurors in the colonies were refusing to enforce King George's laws that they considered unjust. Today that is called jury nullification.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Marijuana legalization had a pretty good election night: won 3, lost 1.

fromVox: Full legalization won in Michigan, and medical legalization won in Missouri and Utah. Reefer madness still rules in North Dakota.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

September 27, 2018

Empowering personal liberty, not systems of control, solves societal problems

fromAbovetheLaw: China is developing a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion citizens. For some, "social credit" will bring great opportunities — for others, punishment. Coming to a tyranny near you?
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: The Trouble with Google

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: We know one entity proven to interfere with American elections and support the most oppressive communist dictatorship in the world.
Media Bias on Parade              Government is Watching Every Move You Make

A federal court rules that IRS agents who demanded to watch a woman use the bathroom were clearly violating standards of decency. The government appeals.

fromTheDailyBell: The IRS literally tried to justify this ritualistic degradation of an innocent human being’s most basic dignity by calling it ‘standard procedure’. Public service or pervert service?
The Government is Not Us

Digital dictatorship: China exerts control over population through "social credit" system

fromZeroHedge: China is developing a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion citizens. For some, "social credit" will bring great opportunities — for others, punishment. Coming to a tyranny near you?
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Michelle Obama encourages people who "know nothing about nothing" to vote

fromInfowars: Democrats unveil their voter registration strategy for the midterms.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation has exposed the Democrats as threat to Constitution

fromAmericanSpectator: This is disgusting on a scale we may never have experienced in modern American history — for which one side in our politics is responsible.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

September 7, 2018

Why the American establishment has lost credibility

fromReason: Three incidents last week demonstrate the problem. 
Indoctrination and Censorship     Media Bias on Parade

How government regulations made healthcare so expensive

fromMises: The U.S. “health care cost crisis” didn’t start until 1965. The government increased demand with the passage of Medicare and Medicaid while restricting the supply of doctors and hospitals. 
Regulation Nation

Paving the road to the end of NATO

fromStrategicCulture: Trump is saying Europe’s defense isn’t our responsibility anymore. He’s saying you don’t get to have your Iranian oil and hollow out our economy at the same time. 
Defense Versus The War Machine

Tucker Carlson on NYT op-ed: We have 'a pretty good idea' who wrote it

fromTheHill: Anonymous sources, uh huh. Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday said he has "a pretty good idea who wrote" an anonymous bombshell New York Times op-ed that is highly critical of President Trump. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption     Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - Reflections on Lost Liberty

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Life, Liberty and Levin, Dr. Walter E Williams joins Mark to discuss the current state of liberty in post-Constitutional America. 
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Kaepernick and Nike show the morality of capitalism. (and we should celebrate it)

fromCreators: Capitalism is economic freedom and freedom is the soil in which all seeds can be planted. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

July 9, 2016

Government calls it forfeiture, but it’s theft

fromBloomberg: If America is a Christian nation, why is stealing okay?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Smart technology sees through walls to track and identify people

fromNBCNews: A group of researchers and students at MIT have developed an intelligent radar-like technology that makes it possible to see through walls to track people as they move around.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Defying Congress, Jeff Sessions keeps blocking medical marijuana research

fromReason: Two years after accepting applications, the DEA has yet to grant licenses to growers.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

If civility is out of style, where do we end up next?

fromReason: Yearning for the days when interrupting your debate opponent was considered the height of incivility.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Caribbean nations agree to consider marijuana legalization

fromMarijuanaMoment: Caribbean nations agreed to consider marijuana reclassification, noting “human and religious rights” issues as well as “the economic benefits to be derived” from legalization.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

The next Supreme Court Justice must uphold the principles of individual liberty

fromDailyTorch: There is always an adversary looking to limit freedom, and our surest line of defense is the Constitution.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle      The Pursuit of Happiness

May 17, 2016

Supreme Court strikes down federal law that prohibited states from legalizing sports gambling

fromReason: “A more direct affront to state sovereignty is not easy to imagine.”
The War Against Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Seattle plans to punish the productive in order to subsidize bums

fromDailyMail: Democrats take care of their constituency. Seattle will tax companies including Amazon and Starbucks $275 per employee to provide shelter for the homeless in $48million scheme.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The issue is liberty, not gambling

fromTheWallStreetJournal: The high court takes a rare stand in defense of the Tenth Amendment.
The War Against Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

The University of New Hampshire earns FIRE’s top rating for free speech

fromFosters: The free exchange of ideas continues to survive in some quarters.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Stop asking what happened before someone started filming police brutality

fromTheIntercept: Most folks don't wear camcorders and only start filming when things start turning ugly.
Police State America

Justices Thomas and Gorsuch just hinted they would end privacy as we know it

fromTheDailyBeast: The rights of the individual continue to shrink as the authority of the government continues to expand, as Thomas and Gorsuch seem to have joined the parade.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

February 22, 2018

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - The Proper Role of Government

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Dr. Williams explains the legitimate functions of government as designed by our founders and laments America’s trek from land of liberty toward totalitarian state.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Border bouncers don't need Big Brother spying powers over Americans

fromReason: ICE and border patrol agents want access to NSA intel obtained without warrants.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Revealed: two secret cogs in the FBI national surveillance machine

fromForbes: Civil liberties activists, legal experts and even former intelligence analysts are crying foul about the possibility of widespread domestic surveillance occurring across America with zero oversight.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Rand Paul bids to mold the GOP in his image

fromMcClatchy: Is Sen. Rand Paul the new Steve Bannon, the former Trump aide who promised to wage a “season of war” on the Republican establishment and champion like-minded conservatives?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The incomprehensible horror of Venezuelan socialism

fromPeoplesPunditDaily: Street vendors in Venezuela are weaving baskets from banknotes after 13,000 per cent inflation rendered them practically worthless.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The hypocrisy of the New York Times: America is a surveillance state

fromActivistPost: The New York Times is more than willing to point out the surveillance state in China and other nations; however, they remain silent about America’s surveillance.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make     Media Bias on Parade

December 20, 2017

University teaches white employees how to overcome the ‘discomfort’ of being white 

from TheCollegeFix: The goal was to help participants in “unpacking Whiteness” to support students and staff with issues and efforts “related to identity and social justice,” the website added.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Walter E Williams: Fascism and Communism

from Creators: Death by government. The reason leftists give communists, the world's most horrible murderers, a pass is that they sympathize with the chief goal of communism: restricting personal liberty.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Bus drivers have become 'true police informants'

from MassPrivatei: For years, DHS and law enforcement have been turning buses into rolling surveillance platforms, outfitting them with surveillance cameras inside and out and using microphones to spy on passengers.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: The Vision of Barry Goldwater

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Barry Goldwater was a champion of the traditional American values of individual liberty and economic freedom. Excerpts from his 1964 Republican Presidential Nomination Speech.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Political journalists have themselves to blame for sinking credibility

from Reason: Sloppy work creates self-inflicted wounds.
Media Bias on Parade

Thomas Sowell: 'Tax Cuts for the Rich'?

from Creators: How is the claim of "tax cuts for the rich" false? Let me count the ways. More important, you can easily check out the facts for yourself with a simple visit to your local public library or, for those more computer-minded, on the Internet.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

December 18, 2017

The end of free speech

from Reason: In 2017, the left eats its own and the right shows its true colors.
Indoctrination and Censorship

FBI edits to Clinton exoneration go far beyond what was previously known; Comey implicated

ZeroHedge: The letter reveals specific edits in a coordinated conspiracy among top FBI brass to decriminalize Clinton's conduct by changing legal terms and phrases, omitting key information, and minimizing the role of the Intelligence Community.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Since feeding the homeless is now illegal, a group carried AR15s to give out food—it worked

from theFreeThoughtProject: A large group of well-armed good samaritans took to the streets this week to openly break a bad law to help the homeless and those less fortunate.
Regulation Nation

What happens after the next 9/11

from LewRockwell: We’re going backwards in most areas of personal freedom. And America, of all places, is leading the way.
Police State America

NYT prints government-funded propaganda about government-funded propaganda

from FAIR: Social media manipulation is in urgent need of robust discussion. But outlets that focus only on attempts by official US enemies, and never direct any criticism inwards, aren’t concerned with an earnest discussion of the problem.
Indoctrination and Censorship   Media Bias on Parade

Judicial Watch President: "Forget Mueller," The real question is "do we need to shut down the FBI?"

from ZeroHedge: Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said it's time to move beyond discussing whether it's appropriate to shut down Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and move on to consider whether it's now time to consider shutting down the FBI.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption   Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

November 21, 2017

Don’t just give thanks, pay it forward one act of kindness at a time

from Rutherford Institute: It’s been a hard, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning kind of year filled with violence and ill will. It’s been a year of too much hate and too little kindness.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Top NSA whistleblower claims "Russiagate" a fake to increase war-spending

from Zero Hedge: Basically, he is saying that the keepers of the keys are blocking the public from the truth, because they know that the truth will expose the fact that they’ve been lying to the public, all along.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Asset forfeiture: inherently abusive, and awful in Alabama

from YellowHammer: Outright thievery unmasked. One town uses a “speed trap” not just to generate outlandish fines but also to seize property.
Police State America    The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - The Expanding Nature of Government

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Friedman explains why the philosophy of government has become that of the cancer cell: growth for the sake of growth.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Sex, jobs and smoking: What's legal for teens in your state?

from Reason: In California, you can work and get an abortion without parental consent at 12, but you must be 21 to buy a vaping device.
Regulation Nation

Venezuela's default disaster

from Mises: Socialism always promises heaven and gives hell.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Latest Update: August 9, 2017
Individualism is increasing across the world
Top 5 ways to “back up” your freedom
Report: nanny state meddlers are crushing personal freedom in Europe
Breaking up California is an idea that won't go away, for good reason
WALTER E WILLIAMS - Let's Fight Tyranny
VIDEO: Walter E Williams - Secession and Nullification
VIDEO: Richard Epstein - Limited Government Spinning Out of Control
ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Due Process is Vital to Freedom

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Congress Created a Monster

Those of us who believe that the Constitution means what it says have been arguing since the late 1970s that congressional efforts to strengthen national security by weakening personal liberty are unconstitutional, un-American and ineffective. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Congress passed in the aftermath of President Richard Nixon's use of the CIA and the FBI to spy on his political opponents, has unleashed demons that now seem beyond the government's control and are more pervasive than anything Nixon could have dreamed of.  ... MORE

5 Reasons Conservatives Should Support Pot Legalization

by James McClure.   Ever wonder how to bring up marijuana with your conservative friends, family or coworkers? You're in luck because there's an activist group that specializes in getting that sort of discussion started. RAMP (Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition) is dedicated to persuading people to rethink their position on cannabis. We     ... MORE

VIDEO: Comedy, College & The Fight To Save Free Speech

Libertarian Party Candidates Perceive Government And Freedom Issues Very Differently From The 2 Major Parties

by Ed Krayewski.     2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate and former Republican New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson avoided offering up doctrinaire answers in the second part of the first-ever nationally televised Libertarian Party presidential debate, hosted by John Stossel, that aired on Fox Business (4/7). Johnson insisted the role of government was  ... MORE

Panama Papers About Gov't Corruption, Not 'Tax Evasion'

by Ed Krayewski.     The "Panama Papers" are the largest leak in world history, revealing millions of documents related to the offshore accounts of politicians, former politicians, and billionaires around the world. Despite much of the media's focus on tax evasion as the primary theme of the Panama Papers story, which embarrassed governments are   ... MORE

John Stossel: Freedom To Disagree

To each his own.    "Should a Jewish baker be forced to bake a cake for a Nazi wedding?" I asked that strange but important question during last week's debate between three Libertarian presidential candidates. You can see the second hour of that debate Friday, on my Fox Business Network TV show. If you're disappointed by Democrats' and Republicans'    ... MORE

That Weirdly Interesting Libertarian Party Debate On Fox

by Jeffrey Tucker.      Hooray for John Stossel! He has dedicated two issues of his wonderful show on Fox Business to hosting a debate between Libertarian Party aspirants to the presidency. The format is great. The questions in part one were solid. John does an excellent job. And the candidates were fascinating to watch. Within the LP itself, this    ... MORE