Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts

April 5, 2020


People's skepticism about Covid-19 is the fault of the lying mass media

fromThe Medium: If outlets like WaPo had done a better job oof consolidating their reputation as a reliable news source, people would believe them.
Media Bias on Parade

Court finds bump stock ban may constitute a taking, because the federal government lacks a police power

fromTheVolokhConspiracy: The Court will allow the federal government to try and explain which enumerated power justifies a taking without compensation.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle               2nd Amendment Assaults

Dump the FDA for a healthier America

fromReason: The agency has hampered widespread Covid-19 testing and the production of both protective gear and hand sanitizer.
Regulation Nation

How 'price gouging' helps consumers during the Coronavirus pandemic

fromReason: Q&A with Duke's Michael C. Munger, who also believes that big cities will see rationing and that higher education will never be the same.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

Five reasons COVID-19 is the best thing to happen to public education

fromTheVolokhConspiracy: While it is disruptive to the economy, as well as public school children and parents, a whole lot of good will come out of school closings.
Indoctrination and Censorship

As gov’t continues seizing power, Covid-19 response goes from hand washing to house arrest

fromTheFreeThoughtProcess: Just because we’re fighting an unseen enemy in the form of a virus doesn’t mean we have to relinquish every shred of our humanity, our common sense, or our freedoms.
Regulation Nation          The Government is Not Us

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

January 24, 2020


Facial recognition and the danger of automated authoritarianism

fromReason: Hundreds of police departments are using facial recognition technology without oversight.


People no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life, survey shows

fromTripleHack: A growing sense of inequality is undermining trust in both society's institutions and capitalism, according to a long-running global survey.

Walter E Williams: Diversity and inclusion insanity

fromCreators: George Orwell was absolutely right when he said, "There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The big loser in the Iowa debate? CNN’s reputation

fromFAIR: One really does get the impression that if CNN were holding a debate on the Titanic, the first question would literally be about rearranging the deck chairs.
Media Bias on Parade

The evil list

fromSlate: Which tech companies are really doing the most harm? Here are the 30 most dangerous, ranked by the people who know.

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - The Suicide of Capitalism

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The principles of capitalism are the principles of American individualism. So why is economic freedom now under threat? An insightful look into this question from Ayn Rand. (1961)

November 25, 2019


When the villain is Obama, not Trump, news suddenly becomes not worth reporting

fromNYPost: Using, or ignoring, facts in accordance with whether they create the desired impression is the principal agenda of today’s media.
Media Bias on Parade

Roger Stone, convicted for bragging

fromTownhall: The lesson learned is if you are a high-level Trump supporter, you can expect the Deep State to come after you. The left is sending a message to Trump supporters to beware of helping him in 2020.

Giving government vast snooping authority is one thing Democrats and Republicans both like

fromReason: They simply disagree over who should be in charge of misusing and abusing those excessive powers.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - The Proper Role of the Press

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: More relevant today than ever.
Media Bias on Parade

In Virginia, and elsewhere, gun supporters prepare to defy new laws

fromMSN: The concept is modeled after the “sanctuary city” stance that some localities have taken in response to federal immigration enforcement efforts.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Vaping panic ignores how e-cigarettes save lives

fromReason: H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." The rub against vaping, and other smokeless tobacco products, is that people enjoy it.

June 24, 2019


House votes down amendment to ban warrantless spying on Americans

fromDigitalJournal: The Charlatans, who are SO quick to swear on the Bible that they will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, have just effectively repealed the Fourth Amendment.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make           The Government is Not Us

Warrantless arrest and the role of probable cause

fromSearchLight: “Probable cause” are a powerful words for police officers, but that doesn't mean they can arrest a person on a hunch. Although there need not be absolute certainty, there must be more than mere suspicion.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

The Jackboots are coming: Mass arrests, power grabs and the politics of fear

fromTheRutherfordInstitute: How do you persuade a populace to embrace totalitarianism, that goose-stepping form of tyranny in which the government has all of the power and “we the people” have none?
Police State America           The Government is Not Us

Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez plan to cap credit card interest rates will backfire on consumers

fromUSAToday: The effective elimination of usury ceilings transformed the credit card market, as many previously-excluded consumers gained access to credit cards for the first time.

June 21, 2019


Decentralize the drug war — on the way to abolishing it

fromTheDailyBell: It was only a few decades ago that legalizing marijuana was still considered fringe. Now, marijuana legalization is a commonly accepted policy proposition.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Bernie Sanders - How America would Feel the Bern

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Bernie Sanders' vision for America, in his own words.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market           Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

"He will get subpoenaed": Congressman assures 'triggered' Joe Scarborough that Mueller will testify

fromZeroHedge: "It's going to happen. He will get subpoenaed."
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Enemy of the state: The war on Julian Assange

fromMedium: Assange is to be made an example of to journalists not only in the US but in other nations as well. If he winds up extradited and found guilty, this will be a hammerblow to reporters who constantly are working on exposed truths and secrets and pertains not only to the US but to other governments as well.
Indoctrination and Censorship              The Government is Not Us

Central planning is poisonous to innovation

fromCreators: It was only a few decades ago that legalizing marijuana was still considered fringe. Now, marijuana legalization is a commonly accepted policy proposition.
Regulation Nation

We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies

fromNYDailyNews: A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.
Police State America                                 The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

June 10, 2019


U.S. government’s moves against Julian Assange are a blueprint for making journalists into felons

fromTheStar: Empowering prosecutors to decide who does or doesn’t deserve press protections would restrict “freedom of the press” to a small, cloistered priesthood of privileged citizens designated by the government as “journalists.” The First Amendment was written to avoid precisely that danger.  
The Government is Not Us        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Homelessness - California's Ugly Growth Industry

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: California has an epidemic of homelessness that is hard to believe. A look at what is going on in Golden State’s richest cities. Karen Hix, Tucker Carlson.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

Hacking dirty government secrets is not a crime

fromCounterpunch: "Corporate media’s instant reversal on Assange—from rapist scum to First Amendment hero—elevates self-serving hypocrisy to high art. But that’s OK. Whatever gets Assange closer to freedom is welcome."  
The Government is Not Us        Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphones

fromNBCNews: “The world should know that what they’re doing out here is crazy,” said a man who refused to share his passcode with police.  
Police State America

You’re under arrest: How the police state muzzles our right to speak truth to power

fromRutherfordInstitute: "What the architects of the police state want are submissive, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority and don’t speak out against government misconduct."  
Police State America

Oakland, California decriminalizes magic mushrooms and peyote

fromUSAToday: The city council’s vote directed law enforcement to cease investigating and prosecuting individuals for using or possessing drugs sourced from plants, cacti and – most commonly – mushrooms.  

May 31, 2019


Alexa ‘could be about to get even creepier,’ Amazon patent reveals

fromYahooNews: It would alter how Echo works - so that instead of waiting for its ‘wake word’, Alexa, it would effectively be listening all the time. Only a potent 2nd Amendment will keep this from eventually being mandatory.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson - Evaluating Donald Trump

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A brilliant analysis of the phenomenon known as Donald Trump.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Press freedom: Widespread confusion about who counts as a journalist and whether it matters

fromCreators: We have a First Amendment. Freedom is not a special privilege that belongs only to officially recognized journalists. It applies to all of us when we use technologies of mass communication.
The Government is Not Us     Indoctrination and Censorship

Cops strip-searched a 4-year-old after mom's errand took too long

fromReason: How dare the authorities not only second-guess a mom's very safe decision, but take their investigation so far beyond the bounds of common sense—and decency?
Police State America

Tide of public opinion is turning in Assange’s favor

fromConsortiumNews: The indictment of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act has profoundly affected press coverage of the WikiLeaks founder.
The Government is Not Us     Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption      Indoctrination and Censorship

The Right’s latest tactic on gun laws? Just don’t enforce them

fromRollingStone: Counties across the country are sticking it to “big city elites” by declaring themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries”

May 20, 2019


Why everyone in the U.S. who counts wants Julian Assange dead

fromCommonDreams:   It's not for being a jerk that the Establishment state wants the Wikileaks publisher dead. They want him dead for publishing videos like these. Only the bravest will watch the video contained within.
The Government is Not Us       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    Defense Versus The War Machine

Some US cities are moving into real-time facial surveillance

fromWired:   The lack of federal rules on facial recognition may create a patchwork of surveillance regimes inside the US.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Camille Paglia: Neo feminism teaching women to live in ‘a permanently juvenile condition’

fromCommonDreams:   “What I am saying throughout my work is that girls who are indoctrinated to see men not as equals but as oppressors and rapists are condemned to remain in a permanently juvenile condition for life."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Larry Elder - Reparations for Slavery

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:   Commentator/author Larry Elder comments on a scheme to extract money from people who were never slave owners and give it to people who were never slaves.

Federal funding for California bullet train boondoggle formally canceled

fromReason:   Jerry Brown's bait and switch scheme goes up in flames, as taxpayers suffer another ramification of the Obama administration.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Is California ready to ban gas-powered cars? Not yet. But they're thinking about it

fromUSAToday:   Fresh of the high-speed rail fiasco, state politicians plot yet another way to torture citizens.

May 3, 2019


Extradition hearing "life & death" for Assange and journalism itself

fromZeroHedge:  Conviction under the 1917 law geared toward protecting the nation's military secrets and most sensitive security matters could result in life in prison or even the death penalty for Assange.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The real ‘bombshells’ are about to hit their targets

fromAmericanGreatness:  In the next several weeks, Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to issue his summation of the potential abuse of FISA by top officials in the Obama Administration.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

US abandons all semblance of rule of law to go after Assange

fromDailyBell:  Apparently a judge’s contempt of court order trumps due process, the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, and all semblance of Western legal standards.
Police State America       The Government is Not Us     Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Should America Intervene in Venezuela?

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From Tucker Carlson Tonight, General Douglas MacGregor discusses the ramifications 
of U.S. intervention in Venezuela.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Time to abolish Congress

fromTownhall:  Congress has either ceded or overstepped its constitutional authority since long ago. Would we really be worse off without a federal legislature?

April 22, 2019


Financial tyranny: America has become a pay-to-play exercise in fascism

fromRutherfordInstitute:  We get taxed on how much we earn, taxed on what we eat, taxed on what we buy, taxed on where we go, taxed on what we drive, and taxed on how much is left of our assets when we die, and yet we have no real say in how the government runs, or how our taxpayer funds are used.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The battle Isn't right vs left. It’s statism vs. individualism

fromFEE:  How high does the death toll need to get before people realize that communism, like its sister ideology of Nazism, is despicably evil?

Ancestry websites giving FBI access to DNA data

fromActivistPost:  FamilyTreeDNA is the first company known to be cooperating directly with the FBI to give its agents access to its genealogy database, according to a BuzzFeed report.
Police State America     Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Tucker Carlson: Assange's real sin was preventing Hillary Clinton from becoming president

fromFoxNews:  He only told the truth and used her own words. Unforgivable.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Assange and the unforgivable sin of disemboweling official narratives

fromCharlesHughSmith:  There is really only one unforgivable sin in the political realm, and that's destroying the official narrative by revealing the facts of the matter. This is why whistleblowers who make public the secret machinery of the elaborately artful lies underpinning all official narratives are hounded to the ends of the Earth.
The Government is Not Us

The Assange exception to the First Amendment

fromReason:  Freedom of the press is not limited to "legitimate journalists."

April 12, 2019


Alexa is listening to everything you say

fromBloomberg:  Tens of millions of very foolish people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The best reason to not buy any new car

fromEricPetersAuto:  Free health care, free college tuition, free child care are the beacons for the liberal Left. Everything but the freedom to think for yourself.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The miserable, squalid campaign to stifle Tucker Carlson

fromTheSpectator:  The Fox News host’s only real crime is daring to be provocative in a dull media world.
Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - The Shame of White Privilege and Other Leftist Crimes

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  A look at the apologetic whining from Democratic presidential candidates for having been born white, advocating borders, failing to champion reparations to blacks and other high PC crimes.


Feb 28, 2019


Marijuana legalization bills are advancing in several states

fromForbes:  Marijuana legalization advocates came into 2019 expecting it to be a huge year for cannabis, and lawmakers around the country are not disappointing them so far.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

No drugs, no crime and just pennies for school: how police use civil asset forfeiture

fromPulitzerCenter:  In the past two decades, the federal government took in $36.5 billion in assets police seized from the America people, many of whom never were charged with a crime or shown to have drugs.
Police State America

Political bias is destroying people’s faith in journalism

fromNYPost:  A war on liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not enough. Democrats go for the trifecta, as 44 vote for infanticide.
Media Bias on Parade

Apple's intensifying privacy & encryption stance worsening FBI struggles with lawbreakers 'going dark'

fromAppleInsider:  Because of Apple's and other companies' stances on end-to-end encryption, the U.S. government's trouble in intercepting online communications is only accelerating.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Additional Little Rock residents share stories of "unjustified" no-knock warrants

fromKATV:  Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump: "So as long as officers know that police involved shooting reviews that are meaningless rubber-stamps, they have no incentive to change their behavior."
Police State America

How Is abortion after birth not news?

fromLATimes:  A war on liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not enough. Democrats go for the trifecta, as 44 vote for infanticide.

Feb 25, 2019


The case for legalizing blackmail

fromMises:  Don't confuse blackmail with extortion. Extortion is about applying pressure under threat of bodily harm. Blackmail is about applying pressure under threat of simply revealing the truth.

Phony Houston drug warrant prompts FBI investigation and review of 1,400 cases

fromReason:  Lying to justify a search that killed two people could be a capital crime.

NYC fast-food workers stunned some are being fired after $15 minimum wage hike

fromFEE:  Serving as ground zero for the $15 minimum wage battle, New York City saw its fast-food workers also serve as the subjects in an experiment that completely ignored the laws of economics.

The top four reasons California Is unsustainable

fromForbes:   California is moving ever farther left and wants the nation to pay for it. Economically, it is on a high-speed rail to unsustainability.

VIDEO: Away with Pretenses - Unabashed Media Bias

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From Tucker Carlson Tonight, commentary from Lara Logan and Brit Hume on how the pretense of objectivity no longer exists in modern journalism.

To reduce money in politics, slash the size of government

fromReason:  Reformers always have a new scheme to take “the money out of politics," but it usually just makes the government larger and campaign spending increase.

Dec 15, 2018


Truth and free speech are being taken away from us

fromForeignPolicyJournal: "Moreover, as the claim is that government was harmed by Wikileaks publishing the truth, Assange’s secret indictment sets the precedent that truth is harmful to government."

DEA spy cameras In vacuum cleaners: surveillance state

fromZeroHedge: The government website USASpending.gov reports that "the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) awarded a contract to an American defense company to build a vacuum cleaner for surveillance purposes."
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The media incentives to align themselves with the state at the expense of truth

fromCaitlinJohnstone: Insightful explanation of the why the mainstream media becomes a statist propaganda tool. 
Media Bias on Parade

Walter E Williams: Acceptable racism

fromCreators: Muhammad Ali had it right when he said: "Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

It’s in America’s best interests to stop overspending on our military

fromtheFederalist: We spend gobs of money on our military, so what do we get in return? A lot of foreign intervention that has little clear benefit to Americans.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Trump's cluelessness is his best defense against charges that he 'knowingly and willfully' violated law

fromCreators: If Trump did not recognize hush payments to his (alleged) former mistresses as illegal campaign contributions, he is not criminally culpable.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

June 7, 2016

DHS plans to compile a list of all bloggers, journalists and “social media influencers”

fromTheMostImportantNews: If LibertyPen's flame is extinguished, you will know why.
The Government is Not Us

Trump has broken the spell of climate change mania

fromGlobalWarmingPolicyForum: Since Mr Trump walked out of the Paris agreement one year ago, it has been fascinating to watch the decline of media interest in “saving the planet”.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Politicizing the FBI: How James Comey succeeded where Richard Nixon failed

fromTheDailyCaller: If there was any doubt about the political motivation of Comey, it was removed by his rhetoric following his ouster, clothed in talk of FBI independence and ethics, but revealing raging anti-Trump animus.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Donald Trump’s Tariffs get pushback from Koch Brothers

fromTheInquisitr: The Koch campaign might force other Republicans to reconsider their fiscal positions and publicly denounce Trump tariffs in an effort to connect with voters.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Hallmark of an economic ponzi scheme

fromHussmanFunds: The constant creation of low-grade debt in order to finance consumption and income shortfalls among some members of the economy, using the massive surpluses earned by other members of the economy.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Six sports betting legalization myths

fromARSTecnica: Thanks to the Supreme Court doing its job, the federal ban on sports betting has been overturned. Individuals can now command their assets. Now, let's dispel the popular myths.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

February 12, 2018


Convictions thrown out after police caught paying labs for positive DUI test results

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: A judge has ruled that the practice of state forensics labs receiving financial compensation for positive tests that lead to DUI convictions is unconstitutional. 
Police State America    The Government is Not Us

CNN’s reporting not holding up too well

fromConsultingByRPM: A look back at CNN's now debunked contention that infamous Steele dossier was not fake nor funded by the Clinton campaign.
Indoctrination and Censorship     Media Bias on Parade

When will it stop? Conservatives who vowed to cut spending keep spending

fromMcClatchyDCBureau: Old Chinese Proverb: When I talk, I put on my mask. When I act, I take it off.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      The Government is Not Us

Journalists "begging" not to be told about surveillance abuses; "propagandists" in newsrooms

fromZeroHedge: Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson said she has never seen journalists "so uncurious and begging" not to be told about alleged or supposed violations of citizens rights.
Indoctrination and Censorship     Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - What is Monetary Policy?

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Friedman brilliantly explains monetary policy, what money really is, the Federal Reserve and the price system.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

$20 billion hidden in the swamp: Feds redact 255,000 salaries

fromZeroHedge: The only thing the bureaucratic resistance hates more than President Trump is the disclosure of their own salaries.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption      The Government is Not Us