February 24, 2020

Why it's so hard to escape America's "anti-poverty" programs

fromMises: The state has created a permanent underclass.

The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

Rand Paul: End the Afghanistan war and bring our soldiers home

fromNewsweek: Just as government cannot provide absolute safety at home, it cannot guarantee perpetual stability abroad. Nation-building only endangers our troops.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Death by socialized medicine

fromDailyMail: Laura Hillier, 18, died after waiting for a bone marrow transplant during a hospital bed shortage in Canada, despite having willing donors available.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus the Free Market

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Racism is the Lowest Form of Collectivism

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Ayn Rand identifies the true nature of racism and the steps that can be taken against it.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

California bill would require occupational licenses for porn actors, strippers, cam girls

fromReason: Adult performers are outraged at the proposed licensing requirements.
Regulation Nation

This is what happens when you take 550 doses of LSD at once

fromVice: A mindblower. You don't know what you think you know.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

April 15, 2019

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks deserve our thanks for making governments more transparent

fromReason:  The world is a better place now that it's harder than ever for governments to keep secrets.

The Government is Not Us       Government is Watching Every Move You Make     

The Washington establishment seems pretty happy about Julian Assange’s arrest

fromReason:  Deep state tyrants figure to sleep a little better if they can eliminate Assange.

The Government is Not Us       Government is Watching Every Move You Make 

Assisted dying: The death panels are coming

fromGaryNorth:  Rationing is inevitable in a world of scarcity. You can ration by price: high monetary bid wins. You can ration by standing in line: first come, first served. You can ration by bureaucratic procedure: fill out forms. 
But there is always rationing.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Why an internet regulator is a bad idea

fromSpiked:  We should be stripping away curbs on speech – not adding more.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Looking into surveillance

fromProvidenceJournal:  If our government has improperly used its immense power to spy on citizens for political purposes, it is vital that it be stopped, and those involved be punished, lest we become a police state.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America

Your Volvo will soon call the cops on you if it thinks you've been drinking

fromZeroHedge:  It is unclear if demand for Volvos will collapse as a result of big brother watching over every move, or if potential customers will welcome this latest incursion of their privacy.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make        Police State America

Feb 26, 2019

California lawmakers propose soda tax, outlawing super-size sugary drinks

fromLATimes:  California's tyrannical politicians cannot stop minding YOUR own business.

Regulation Nation        Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

How The Jussie Smollett hoax reveals the scope of the surveillance state

fromActivistPost:  Modern technology is changing the approach to justice right before our eyes, as well as the See Something, Say Something citizen watch program.  This is the new surveillance state.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Venezuela aid trucks set ablaze as Maduro tells Trump: "yankee, go home"

fromZeroHedge:  The socialist goals of equality will have been achieved once everyone starves to death.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Study shows concealed carry permit holders break laws far less than cops

fromFreeThoughtProject:  A study of gun statistics across the country found that concealed carry permit holders break the law far less than police officers.

2nd Amendment Assaults

Walter E Williams: Hate crime hoaxes - the bad and the good

fromCreators:  This type of hoax is part and parcel of the left's broad agenda of victimology, fraudulence and gimmickry, plus gross media gullibility, incompetence and political attention seeking.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Trump vs. the FBI: Who are the good guys?

fromDailyBell:  “All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” -Frank Herbert, Author of Dune

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Feb 22, 2019

How socialism broke Venezuela

fromCommentaryMagazine:  The tragic journey from Perez to Chavez to Maduro.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

FBI plotting to keep DNA of ENTIRE population on file to create ‘nation of suspects’

fromDailyStar:  President Donald Trump has signed the Rapid DNA Act into law which means the police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested but not yet convicted of a crime.

The Government is Not Us            Government is Watching Every Move You 

Our disastrous obsession with equality

fromMises:  “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” — Milton Friedman

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Victor Davis Hanson: Changing reality with words

fromTownhall:  Beware of euphemisms. Radical changes in vocabulary are usually admissions that reality is unwelcome or indefensible.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Study: Crackdown on prescriptions drove up Hep. C infections

fromFreeBeacon:  Government regulations succeeded only in transforming Oxycontin users into heroin addicts.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange      Regulation Nation

Arizona trying to become first in U.S. to require citizen DNA

fromActivistPost:  The ruling class finds it in their interest to know more about their human livestock.

The Government is Not Us            Government is Watching Every Move You 

Jan 3, 2019

Prices rise as the minimum wage increases in several states

fromAP: Arbitrary increases in the cost of labor gouge into the limited resources of the poor, making them even more dependent on government.

Economic Policy Versus The Free Market     The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency     Regulation Nation

New Washington gun laws spark defiance

fromKomoNews: Washington rolled out a new law barring anyone under the age of 21, including military personnel, from purchasing a semi-automatic rifle on Tuesday.

2nd Amendment Assaults

VIDEO: Rand Paul - Pulling out of Syria

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: An explanation of why pulling out of Syria is essential.

Defense Versus The War Machine

44 numbers from 2018 that are almost too crazy to believe

fromTheEconomicCollapse: Was 2018 everything that you expected it to be?  Every year contains surprises, but 2018 truly turned out to be a year that we will never forget.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Trump administration sets record for lowest number of regulations

fromAmericanThinker: An undeniable success of the Trump administration has been a radical altering of the mindset of federal agencies when it comes to creating new regulations.

Regulation Nation

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

October 26, 2018

What a bunch of idiots!

fromSovereignMan: FICO decided that they would reinvent the way they calculate the scores– giving a big boost to people with bad credit. People who have a history of not paying their bills will immediately be deemed creditworthy.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The shocking differences between Google and DuckDuckGo

fromLibertarianNews: Don't be a chump. Don't be tracked and manipulated. Make DuckDuckGo your default web search engine.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Thousands line up for zero-down-payment, subprime mortgages

fromCNBC: Deja Vu. Borrowers can have low credit scores, but have to go through an education session about the program and submit all necessary documents, from income statements to phone bills.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Brothers face $450,000 in fines for cutting trees on their own property without asking gov’t first

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: For removing invasive trees on their own property, two brothers are being fined a half million dollars because they didn't ask the state for permission first.
The Government is Not Us     Regulation Nation

The NEW social media: alternatives to Facebook, YouTube,Twitter, and other Big Tech platforms

fromActivistPost: You probably won’t find your parents, your best friend from kindergarten, and your Aunt Suzie on these platforms – not yet, anyway. But what you WILL be able to do is speak without fear of censorship.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The public sector pension crisis

fromReason: Will your state pay what its politicians promised? Almost certainly not.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

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

September 17, 2018

The cure for homelessness

fromMises: One of most fascinating aspects of progressives is the blindness they display to the adverse consequences of their very own government programs.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market         The Welfare State: Promoting Dependence

VIDEO: Charles Murray - Regulation Nation: A Strategy to Fight Back

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Charles Murray puts forward a strategy to confront regulatory state tyranny.
Regulation Nation

Congress just passed a $150 billion spending package without any consideration for looming deficit

fromReason: Just days after the latest CBO projections showed the deficit getting worse, Congress signs off on another bi-partisan spending increase.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The game is rigged: Congress invites no consumer privacy advocates to its consumer privacy hearing

fromEFF: The upcoming hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee may be the launch pad for this strategy of undoing stronger state laws.
The Government is Not Us         Government is Watching Every Move You Make

WATCH: Cops dump 17 rounds into ‘good samaritan’ veteran as he tried to break up a fight

fromReason: A father of three and a Navy veteran was gunned down by two police officers as he tried to be a good Samaritan and break up a fight outside of a Portland bar. As usual, the cops are excused of accountability.
Police State America

Google caught on camera showing its bias

fromReason: The video within the article is evidence of the tech elitists who believe they should control what citizens see in searches so that Trump's trashed and all the successful things go unseen. 
Media Bias on Parade

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

September 3, 2018

Justice department discloses NO FISA Court hearings held on Carter Page warrants

fromJudicialWatch: This is no small story. The FISA court has been exposed as simply a government rubber stamp for warrantless searches. NO review.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process      Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

New lawsuit shows your phone is unsafe at American borders

fromEngadget: It appears that now everyone's phones, despite country of origin or cause, are subject to nonconsensual seizure and search -- even if we refuse to give up our passwords.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The incredible, rage-inducing inside story of America’s student debt machine

fromMotherJones: Why is the nation’s flagship loan forgiveness program failing the people it’s supposed to help?
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

John Stossel: Social media censorship

fromCreators: Now that Google can search everything you've said, YouTube may flag it as misinformation. Facebook can track what all your friends have said, too. Activists stand ready to get angry about all of it.
Media Bias on Parade

A young mom was justified in a shooting, but a past marijuana charge means prison time

fromReason: Authorities say Krissy Noble was justified in shooting and killing a home intruder while she was pregnant. Jury nullification was created for cases like this. Learn it.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange    Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Coffee does not merit cancer warning label ordered in California, FDA says

fromNPR: Not that facts matter in California, but just so YOU know.
Regulation Nation    Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

August 3, 2018

Federal Judge Breaks Up Albuquerque’s Car Theft Ring

fromSpiked: A new ruling says the city’s civil forfeiture program violates the right to due process. Car theft becomes more difficult for the police department.
Police State America

The ACLU is turning its back on free speech

fromCreators: Once a civil liberties champion, the ACLU has exposed itself as just a leftwing front group, explicitly endorsing the view that free speech can harm ‘marginalized’ groups by undermining their civil rights.  
Indoctrination and Censorship

Keeping cops hands out of your pocket

fromAmericanConservative: The Supreme Court recently agreed to rule on a case that could have a major impact on whether civil asset forfeiture can continue to serve as low hanging fruit for bureaucratic interests run amok.  
Police State America     The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: How Trump Transformed the Democratic Party Into the World's Dumbest Religion

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A once principled political party has devolved into a kooky religion where all things Trump are satanic. Tammy Bruce breaks down the situation with Tucker Carlson.   
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption     Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

John Stossel: Working for tips

fromCreators: As usual, those who want the government to decide that workers must be paid more insist that "women and minorities" are hurt by the market. But waitress Alcieli Felipe says the politicians should butt out.  
Regulation Nation

Facebook blocks searches for pages that reference marijuana—even those of government agencies

fromReason: The platform is struggling to handle contradictory laws about legal and illegal use of pot.  
Indoctrination and Censorship      The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

July 25, 2016

More and more of what we do depends on government permission

fromReason: The granting or withholding of that approval is a powerful lever over our lives.  
Regulation Nation     The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Tony Podesta Vs Paul Manafort - The Equality Under the Law Myth

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The myth of equal justice under the law exposed for all to see.  
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process       The Government is Not Us

New Kamala Harris bill asks federal taxpayers to subsidize California's high housing costs

fromReason: Expensive tax credits for renters are not the solution to America's housing woes. As with high speed rail, California asks the nation's taxpayers to save them from their own nitwittery.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Trump to propose blocking California’s clean car standards: report

fromTheHill: Revokes California's waiver from the Clean Air Act. Would end mandate to continue making cars lighter and less safe. Throws a monkey-wrench into Brown's plan to force electric cars.  
Regulation Nation

Trump administration plans to offer $12 billion in emergency aid for farmers hurt by tariffs

fromCNBC: Crony capitalism kicked up a notch. Trump ushers in a new era of tariffs, subsidies and bailouts.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Walter E Willliams: Can we trust experts?

fromCreators: People whom we've trusted as experts have often been wrong beyond imagination. 
It's nothing new.  
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market     Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

July 2, 2016

Laws that are 'impossible' to follow can still be Constitutional, says California court

fromTheIntercept: California judges insure the state remains the gold standard for nitwittery, deciding that just because it is impossible to comply with a law doesn’t make it invalid.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process     Regulation Nation    Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Cops arrested a black man. He called them Nazis, so he was charged with a hate crime.

fromReason: "This is not what the hate crime statute was for. This is criminalizing pure speech, and that violates the First Amendment."
Police State America

Marijuana legalization is having its best year ever

fromVox: From Canada to Vermont to Oklahoma to California, this has been a huge year for legalization advocates.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Shocking moment a cop uses a stun gun on a suspect sitting on a curb who WAS following police orders

fromTheDailyMail:     Video shows a Lancaster, Pennsylvania police officer deploy his Taser on a nonviolent man complying with orders.
Police State America

The wiretap rooms

fromTheIntercept: The NSA’s hidden spy hubs in eight U.S. cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Home builders are building smaller homes because of Trump's tariffs

fromEconomicPolicyJournal: Lumber is the biggest component of a new home. An average house last year had more than $60,000 in wood products. Since early last year, lumber costs have shot up by more than 60 percent.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

June 13, 2016

Anti-drug police unit admitted it conducts illegal no-knock raids

fromToledoBlade: The DEU never bothered with its own investigation of these South Carolina cops, or even an after-action examination to determine what went wrong. They must believe the ends justify their means.
The Government is Not Us       Police State America

Why President Trump may well flip-flop on marijuana legalization

fromFortune: President Donald Trump said he would “probably” support a new bipartisan bill that would return decision-making on marijuana laws to individual states. 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Tommy Robinson’s right to free speech morally trumps all laws that violate it

fromTheObjectiveStandard: The real reason Robinson was arrested and jailed is that he has spoken out vociferously against jihad, Sharia law, Islam-inspired child rape, and mass Islamic immigration into England.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Civil asset forfeiture is a form of legal theft

fromToledoBlade: A 64-year-old Cleveland man is suing U.S. Customs and Border Protection for strip-searching him and seizing more than $58,000 in cash from him without charging him with a crime.
The Government is Not Us       Police State America

Jeff Sessions struggles to get planned marijuana crackdown going

fromWallStreetJournal: Attorney general vowed to toughen federal enforcement of the drug, but he doesn’t have support from Trump or Congress. 
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Country Time stands up to “arcane laws” against kids lemonade stands

fromActivistPost: Popular lemonade brand is “taking a stand for lemonade stands” and pledging to help kids cover the costs of city permits when young kids end up getting their lemonade stands shut down and fined.
Regulation Nation

May 19, 2016

Rhode Island governor signs executive order to seize guns

fromConservativeDailyPost: Gina Raimondo’s overreaching order allows law enforcement officers to take guns away from those in “red flag” cases.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Socialist Seattle deploys another tax against employment

fromConservativeDailyPost: Seattle's idiotic tax on workers put the tyranny of local government on full display.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

House passes another violation of the Tenth Amendment to federalize criminal law

fromConservativeDailyPost: This time they deploy a hate crime bill to codify cops as above the average citizen.
The Government is Not Us     Police State America

The Protect and Serve Act could make the fight against police brutality more difficult

fromPaste: Pimped by police unions, that was the whole idea.
Police State America

California cities are free to regulate gun stores out of existence

fromConservativeDailyPost: A "sanctuary" from the 2nd Amendment liberty? More setbacks in the Golden State as the Supreme Court declines to take a case about city zoning.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Why regulations are another elite war against common folk

fromTheFederalist: Regulation creates unforeseen issues, which are papered over by more regulations. Eventually what we’re left with is a 20,000-page bill destined to fail.
Regulation Nation

May 9, 2016

Andrew Napolitano: Prosecutors and the rule of law

fromCreators: The practice of indicting a person for a matter utterly unrelated to the core of the government's investigation in order to turn the indicted person into a government witness is commonplace.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

VIDEO: FBI as a Political Weapon

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Once a primary tool of justice, the FBI has now shown itself to be a weaponized political instrument, relentlessly harassing a series of political opponents.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption       The Government is Not Us

Walter E Williams: Before and after welfare handouts

fromCreators: Before the welfare state, charity embodied both a sense of gratitude on the behalf of the recipient and magnanimity on the behalves of donors. There was a sense of civility by the recipients.
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

Over-regulation is making us more vulnerable to disease

fromReason: Regulatory precaution, not rising temperatures, is the main driver for the increase in vector-borne disease.
Regulation Nation

In dysfunctional California, libraries are 21st century homeless shelters

fromUSNews: The Golden State is looking more like Venezuela every day.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

The GOP needs a dose of Jordan Peterson

fromReason: The Republican Party needs to seek professional help. Badly. Perhaps it should consult with Dr. Jordan Peterson.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

January 8, 2018

VIDEO: How the State justifies homicide

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Crime Watch Daily, a Mesa cop faces the legal system after he executes an unarmed man who violated no laws.

Police State America

Regulations at 'lowest count since records began being kept in the mid-1970s'

fromReason: Economy advances while administrative state recedes; lefty commentators hardest hit.
Regulation Nation

Trillion-Dollar Deficit Deja Vu

fromReason: Debt and deficits mount as lawmakers remain addicted to borrowing and spending.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

This week in media bias history: Kennedy would have helped woman, if he hadn’t drowned her

fromNewsBusters: Every day in 2018, research director Rich Noyes will be tweeting out “This Day in Media Bias History” from the files of NewsBusters and the MRC. Here’s a recap of the first week’s examples.
Media Bias on Parade

It’s time to decriminalize marijuana

fromNationalReview: Rather than blaming Jeff Sessions for enforcing the law, Congress should pass new legislation and put it on the president’s desk. It’s time to do the right thing the right, constitutional way.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange    Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

VIDEO: Harry Browne - Our obese federal government

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Former Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne joins radio host Art Bell for a conversation on the relentless growth of the federal government.
The Government is Not Us     Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption