The Government Is Not Us

Latest Update: July 30, 2017
It’s your money but you can’t have it:  EU proposes bank account freezes
State law forces bystanders to help police making arrest — or go to jail
Massachusetts drug bill would imprison you for having a hidden compartment in your car
Senate bill to force citizens to register cash not in a bank, violators get 10 years in prison
Colorado cops used warrantless searches on the poor to imprison them and train police dogs
All crimes are legal when government is the perp: The FBI and child porn
VIDEO: John Stossel: The Audacity of the Elites

Here’s Why It’s All But Impossible To Fire A Fed

by Kathryn Watson.  Federal workers are far more likely to be audited by the IRS or get arrested for drunk driving than they are to be fired from the civil service payroll for poor performance or misconduct. The odds are one-in-175 for the IRS audit and one-in-200 for the drunk driving arrest, while the odds for a fed to be fired in a given year are one-in   ... MORE

VIDEO: 3 Supreme Court Cases To Watch

VIDEO: John Oliver On Public Defenders

Supreme Court May Curb Power Of Public Employee Unions

by Michael Hiltzik. The author thinks this is bad news. To all those who detected a shift toward progressive thinking in the Supreme Court's rulings last week protecting the Affordable Care Act and legalizing gay marriage: You should stop celebrating now. That's because the court has taken up a case that poses a mortal threat to the cause of collective     ... MORE

VIDEO: Why Big Unions Have The Best Politicians $ Can Buy

Ed Krayewski: Freddie Gray Death Ruled Homicide - All Cops Involved Being Charged Are Still Drawing Paychecks

Government has its perks.     The state's attorney, Marilyn Mosby, announced Freddie Gray's death, from a spinal injury incurred while in police custody, has been ruled a homicide. Mosby announced charges for all the officers involved. ABC News reports: Mosby announced a series of charges now facing the six police officers involved in putting     ... MORE

VIDEO: NY Cop On A Vulgar Power Trip Reveals Why The General Public Is Seeing Law Enforcement As Them, Not Us

Context: The driver had pulled around and gestured that the officer should use his turn signal, casually and non-offensively, and kept driving.  What followed was a horrifying glimpse of power going to someone’s head when they are granted a shiny badge and forget who they work for.    ... MORE

LA County To Pay Photographers Over Police Harassment

by Jillian Steinhauer.  A move toward respecting citizen rights. In the resolution of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, Los Angeles County will pay three photographers who were harassed by members of the LA County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) a total of $50,000 in damages. The LASD has  ... MORE

It Is Hard To Fire Government Workers Behaving Badly

from CBS News.    In the private sector, if you're caught viewing porn on company time or intimidating a co-worker, you'd probably be fired immediately; not so if you're a federal employee. A CBS News investigation looks at how hard it is for the U.S. government to discipline or fire employees who behave badly. With examples ranging from       ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Government Debt On The Road To Ruin

Promise today, figure out how to pay tomorrow.  Americans are addicted to living beyond their means, at least when it comes to the functions of government. That's why the federal debt tripled over the past decade and under President Barack Obama's budget plan would keep growing indefinitely. Why not? If you don't have to pay for all   ... MORE

Union Wants Violence Against Cops To Be Hate Crimes

by Joanna Rothkopf.     The sanctity of the badge. On Monday, the National Fraternal Order of Police requested that crimes against its members be officially considered hate crimes, a classification that means harsher penalties for offenders who have targeted cops because they are cops. The union represents over 300,000 police officers.       ... MORE

The Messy Politics of California's Overcrowded Prison Crisis

by Zach Weissmueller. "A prison that deprives prisoners of basic sustenance, including adequate medical care, is incompatible with the concept of human dignity and has no place in civilized society," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority in a Supreme Court ruling against Governor Jerry Brown and the state of California in the   ... MORE

VIDEO: Lawrence Reed - Federal Bureaucracy Nitwittery

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - The Plight Of Federal Employees

Steve Chapman: For Ships Of State, A Looming Iceberg

The crushing burden of government employee pensions.     If you're in the hospital with multiple fractures, a staph infection and a collapsed lung, you may not take great comfort when your doctor informs you that his last patient has it worse, being dead. Sometimes encouraging comparisons are not that encouraging. So Chicagoans didn't        ... MORE

VIDEO: Nick Gillespie - Austerity And Reality

Does the Bell Toll for Excessive Public Pay?

by Steven Greenhut. “The art of government is to make two-thirds of the nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third,” mused Voltaire. Even that cynical French Enlightenment writer couldn’t imagine what would transpire one day in California, where a portion of the mere 15.3 percent of the public that works for government  ... MORE

Jonah Goldberg: Trust Us - This Will Be Good For You

The government thinks you're stupid, or at least ignorant.     This isn't just an indictment of the current government or an indictment of government itself. It's simply a statement of fact. At its core, the government exists to do certain things that people aren't equipped to do on their own. The list of those things has gotten longer and      ... MORE

VIDEO: eEconomics: The Value Of Financial Regulation