January 27, 2020

Population control isn't the answer to climate change. Capitalism Is.

fromReason: "Wealthier, more developed societies are both better positioned to adapt to issues, to problems like climate change and climate impacts," says Nordhaus. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

Two different Americas

fromZeroHedge: America is not the country it was founded to be. Twelve major differences that beg the question: Was the abandonment of America’s sound founding principles the reason for the dysfunction today?

The Government is Not Us

Joe Biden’s ‘conspiracy theory’ memo to U.S. media doesn’t match the facts

fromJohnSolomon: Fact: Ukraine law enforcement reopened the Burisma investigation in early 2019, well before President Trump mentioned the matter to Ukraine’s new president Vlodymyr Zelensky.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

People rarely die after using opioids prescribed for them

fromReason: The focus on pain pill prescriptions has led to policies that deprive bona fide patients of the medication they need while pushing black-market substitutes, which are far more unpredictable and dangerous.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Amazon Echo’s privacy issues go way beyond voice recordings

fromActivistPost: Major privacy concerns are starting to emerge in the way Alexa devices interact with other services – risking a dystopian spiral of increasing surveillance and control.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Male trans MMA fighter who beat up women dubbed ‘bravest athlete in history’

fromDailyBell: Why this requires courage—much less the most courage of any athlete ever—is never explained. More likely, he is just a woman-hating bully.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

May 1, 2019

America’s drug war is ruining the world

fromTheNation:  It is verifiable. 
A half-century of Washington’s harsh drug prohibition policies has brought misery to millions across the globe.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Andrew Klavin - Making Sense of a World Gone Mad

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  From a speech delivered at Hillsdale College, commentator Andrew Klavin shares his insights on the modern war of ideas.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Can the damage done by the CDC's opioid guidelines be reversed?

fromReason:  It is no public service when the law enforcement establishment makes mandatory medical policy.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Kamala Harris: We need to raise taxes on the middle class and force workers into unions

fromTownhall:  Democrats like Harris would not only roll back middle class benefits by raising their taxes, they're gunning to undo the policy progress that has led to robust employment and GDP growth.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

NSA says warrantless searches of Americans’ data rose in 2018

fromTechCrunch:  You wouldn't know it now, but there was a time when the Fourth Amendment had teeth.

The Government is Not Us           Police State America        Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Activists say Biden's hardline drugs policies didn't apply to his children's cocaine and marijuana use

fromTownhall:  During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden helped craft some of the strictest anti-drug laws of the 1980s and 1990s. However, his own children were able to avoid the brunt of these laws.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Nov 21, 2018

Thomas Sowell: Moral bankruptcy

fromCreators: The Democratic Party's attack on charter schools. "Denying children what can be their one chance in life is a new low, even for politicians." If only children had as good of a union as the teachers.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption     The Government is Not Us

The government says falconers have to give up their privacy and free speech rights in order to own birds

fromReason: Now the Falconers Are Suing. "I'm treated no differently from a common felon on parole." 
Regulation Nation       The Government is Not Us

Justice Department discloses no FISA court hearings held on Carter Page warrants

fromJudicialWatch: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance courts rubber-stamped the Carter Page spy warrants without holding one hearing on these extraordinary requests to spy on the Trump team. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Opponents of campus free-speech laws forgot the history of the civil rights movement

fromForbes: "In short, we all need the First Amendment. We all need legal protection of our right to question and debate, without which democracy declines into stagnancy".
Indoctrination and Censorship

AMA decries the impact of the CDC's opioid guidelines on pain treatment

fromReason: Politicians should not overrule doctors when it comes to pain control. The physician group says widespread "misapplication" of the guidelines is hurting patients. 
Regulation Nation      The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Walter E Williams: Fruits of college indoctrination

fromCreators: "Much of today's incivility and contempt for personal liberty has its roots on college campuses, and most of the uncivil and contemptuous are people with college backgrounds". 
Indoctrination and Censorship

June 5, 2016

Badge of impunity

fromARSTecnica: Government courts do not hold other government agents accountable.
Police State America

The government’s cure for the opioid epidemic may be worse than the disease

fromReason: When the government's cure for the "epidemic" proves worse than the disease, it's time to try something new.  
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

White privilege has become a religion, complete with church ladies

fromTheFederalist: How enlightened these faithful must be to voluntarily enjoy having their sins denounced!  
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

SWAT team burns baby with flash distraction device while on drug hunt

fromARSTecnica: Cops send 2-year-old to hospital during quest to incarcerate nonviolent drug offenders.  
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Police use of Amazon’s face-recognition service draws privacy warnings

fromARSTecnica: “From a law enforcement or intelligence perspective, smart appliances are very valuable tools that can let us monitor or listen to individuals,” says a former FBI executive assistant director.  
Police State America     Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Civil asset forfeiture: highway robbery marketed as a drug enforcement tool

fromARSTecnica: The morality of theft doesn't change because it has been legalized. And, what citizens had this authority in order to delegate it to government?  
Police State America     The Government is Not Us

May 15, 2016

California politicians are hellbent on telling you how to live

fromReason: Now, our so-called "representatives" are seeking to force you on to buses and trains by making life more inconvenient. This is called public service.
Regulation Nation   The Government is Not Us

Walter E Williams: Kanye and Democrats

fromCreators: West raps, "See, that's the problem with this damn nation. All blacks gotta be Democrats. 
Man, we ain't made it off the plantation."
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

This Taco Bell can't get a liquor license because city officials don't like Taco Bell

fromReason: But the pizza place next door can have one.
Regulation Nation

California's boneheaded solar remedy for climate change

fromReason: Good intentions are a possibility, but awful policies are the routine reality.
Regulation Nation

Mueller may have a conflict — and it leads directly to a Russian oligarch

fromTheHill: A corrupt political weapon known as the FBI is slowly but steadily being exposed.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

On marijuana and opioids — the DEA has no clue what it’s talking about

fromTheHill: This is hardly breaking news but it is at least being finally acknowledged in some media.
The War On Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

May 11, 2016

The lethal success of pain pill restrictions

fromCreators: Restricting access to pain pills also seems to be increasing the percentage of opioid users who begin with heroin. No wonder the drug warrior lobby wants this.
Regulation Nation    The War Against Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Promoted as a law enforcement tool, this practice is actually highway robbery

fromKMBC9: How the state has set itself up to legally steal you stuff even though you are never even charged with wrongdoing.
Police State America

Man protests police department's violation of speech rights, so cops arrest him

fromReason: Stamford, Connecticut, police chief objects to salty language on a sign. That’s not a crime.
Police State America

Illinois police claim if marijuana is legalized, they'll have to kill their police dogs

fromCreators: Dog gone. Cops now argue that nonviolent people must be imprisoned as a dog-saving program.
The War Against Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

John Stossel: Hating DeVos

fromCreators: An administrator who is fighting to empower parents and cut government is a natural target of the left.
Regulation Nation

Seattle’s proposed employment tax is just the city's latest self-inflicted wound

fromCreators: City officials seem dedicated to driving away the businesses that create prosperity. They are behaving as if they are in California.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market      Regulation Nation

March 27, 2016

CDC admits Rx opioid deaths ‘significantly inflated’

fromThePainNewsNetwork: So-called epidemic is wildly exaggerated. Four CDC researchers say many overdoses involving illicit fentanyl and other synthetic black market opioids have been counted as prescription drug deaths. 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     Regulation Nation

FDA’s low-nicotine cigarette scheme is an invitation to black market vendors

fromReason: People will find sources for what they want no matter what presumptuous regulators say. 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     Regulation Nation

Unlawful FISA spying widespread under Obama administration

fromTheEpochTimes: Relaxation of privacy policies paved the way for FBI and NSA to spy on Americans. 
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

FL students who begged gov’t to take their rights away, now angry gov’t took away their rights

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: These poor little dupes were encouraged by government to protest—and now they are getting what they asked for—less rights. 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange     Regulation Nation

Study: More students are getting A's, but SAT scores aren't keeping up

fromCBSNews: New research shows that 47 percent of high school seniors graduated last year with an "A" average -- up from about 39 percent in 1998. But average SAT scores fell 24 points in that same period. 
Indoctrination and Censorship

Chicago dungeon master to teach college students BDSM practices

fromTheCollegeFix: Higher education 2018. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

November 8, 2017

Opioid commission mistakenly blames pain treatment for drug deaths

from Reason: The panel wants to make prescription analgesics even harder to obtain.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

CNN caught editing video to make Trump look like a feckless boor in Japan 

from TheGatewayPundit: This is CNN. Compare the story to the video.
Media Bias on Parade

'Something has happened and it's very bad' - Democrats throwing Hillary Clinton under the bus

from AllNewsPipeline: Pundits are asking about what is coming.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Good guy with a gun: Stephen Willeford named as man who stopped Texas shooter

from Breitbart: Since criminals, by definition, do not obey laws. Gun control only disarms the good guys. This is why
we don't want good guys disarmed.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Walter E Williams: Ignorance Versus Stupidity

from Creators: The beauty of market allocation of goods and services, compared with government fiat, is no one person needs to know all that's necessary to get apples to your supermarket.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

The anatomy of a national nervous breakdown

from Rutherford Institute: How do you keep a nation safe when not even seemingly “safe places” like churches and rock
concerts and shopping malls are immune from violence?
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

October 27, 2017

When it comes to surveillance, watch the watchmen

from NY Times: The relationship between security and liberty is often described as a balancing act. This act can’t take place if we’re not informed about the technology used to safeguard our security.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Hashd al-Sha’abi commander calls for US forces withdrawal from Iraq

from PressTV: "To the US secretary of state, your military forces must prepare now to get out of our homeland Iraq immediately and without delay once the ISIS elimination excuse is over."
Defense Versus The War Machine

Health care is not a right

from Capitalism Magazine: If your mere desire for something, anything, imposes a duty on other people to satisfy you, then they have no choice in their lives, no say in what they do, they have no liberty, they cannot pursue their happiness.
The Pursuit of Happiness

Major study shows legal weed reversed a decade of rising opioid deaths in Colorado

from FreeThoughtProject: The end of cannabis prohibition is paying many dividends for society.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Identitarianism and the Splintering of Democracy

from Quillette: This very good piece looks at how identity politics plays out in a representative democracy.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Sessions continues to push 'gateway drug' myth about marijuana

from Reason: "Much of the addiction starts with marijuana." Jeff Sessions attempts to peddle 20th century propaganda long after the train has left the station.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

October 23, 2017

America has built the most comfortable civilization in the world

from PJMedia: Human civilization can be described as a long crawl away from a life that was nasty, brutal and short.
America is winning that race.
The Pursuit of Happiness

3 stories that show Big Brother is alive and well

from The Daily Bell: 1. Getting Clever with Fear to Restrict the Internet. 2. Prosecutors pick a target, THEN find a crime.
3. Fitbit and pacemaker info used to catch criminals.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Why you may need a passport next year to fly from city to city within the United States 

from Reason: A passport to fly within the country, but no ID to vote. Government serves the politician not the people.
Regulation Nation

U.S. ran $666 billion deficit in fiscal 2017, sixth highest on record

from Wall Street Journal: "U.S. revenue and spending both hit record highs in fiscal 2017.
Economic Policy: Statism vs. The Free Market

Alabama police use asset forfeiture to ruin an innocent small business owner

from Reason: How government has set things up so police departments can take anything they want with impunity.
Police State America    The Government is Not Us

Former NFL players say league should allow players to use marijuana to treat pain, injuries

from Reason: Former player: If there's any sport or league that should be leading the way in experiments with cannibis,
of course it's the NFL.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange