September 27, 2019

A license for outrageous police conduct

fromReason: Qualified immunity protects cops from liability for actions that would land ordinary people in jail. Another double standard favoring government agents.

Police State America

IRS testing behavioral analytics to verify online users

fromNextGov: The agency is piloting a proof-of-concept that will track how individual taxpayers interact with its online systems by tracking behavior and movements through phones.

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Food is freedom: How Washington’s food subsidies have helped make Americans fat and sick

fromTheDailyBell: All told, the U.S. government spends $20 billion annually on farm subsidies, with approximately 39 percent of all farms receiving some sort of subsidy.

Economic Policy: Statism Vs The Free Market

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Dismantling America

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Upon completion of his book Dismantling America, in 2010, Dr. Sowell is interviewed by Peter Robinson of Uncommon Knowledge.

The Government is Not Us

The world’s most-surveilled cities

fromComparitech: Six are in America (San Francisco is one of them).

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Why Is the CDC still fostering potentially deadly confusion about vaping and lung disease?

fromReason: Contrary to the evidence, public health officials and journalists continue to link the recent outbreak of respiratory illnesses with legal e-cigarettes.

Regulation Nation

May 8, 2019

Supreme Court says no to NYC’s Second Amendment-avoidance scheme

fromActivistPost:  High Court denied the state’s request to delay briefing until NY resolved its rule making process. As a result, the briefing will go forward on the first true Second Amendment case since McDonald v. Chicago.

2nd Amendment Assaults

John Stossel: A lie, a myth and a question

fromReason:  Socialists like Bernie Sanders tell us that "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer." Bernie's wrong about that. The poor are much better off.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Democrats want to fight poverty, but don't value letting people work

fromReason:  All the welfare programs California Democrats can dream up won't do as much as some commonsense reforms to let people who want to work, work.

Regulation Nation             Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

15 questions Robert Mueller must answer

fromAmericanConservative:  1. You didn’t charge President Donald Trump with “collusion,” obstruction, or any other new crime. Tell us why. If the answer is “the evidence did not support it,” please say so.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

New Jersey politician wants to ban all bags—paper or plastic

fromReason:  The Garden State's plan to ban all grocery store bags could have negative consequences for consumer convenience and the environment.

Regulation Nation        Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Study finds burdensome federal regulations are 'hidden tax' which cost $1.9 trillion

fromWashingtonTimes:  'Regulatory costs are largely obscured from public view,' the research found.

Regulation Nation

Jan 29, 2019

America’s public schools have become socialist indoctrination factories

fromAmericanThinker: How is it that the same generation that has benefited more from capitalism than any other in human history is also the generation most willing to destroy it?

Indoctrination and Censorship

Washington state lawmaker wants to ban dwarf tossing, says it 'ridicules and demeans'

fromReason: What's actually demeaning is thinking you know what's best for an entire group of people.

Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Deep State Double Standard - The Persecution of Roger Stone

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: The Mueller investigation doggedly persecutes Trump associates over crimes not associated with Russian collusion but rather stimulated by his own inquisition.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process        Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

One way outraged Americans can beat Robert Mueller

fromAmericanThinker: Jury nullification can be used to rebuke abuses of power committed by unaccountable, out-of-control special counsels like Robert "Gestapo" Mueller.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process        Police State America

America's stubborn left clings to Nicolas Maduro despite all evidence

fromReason: It's time to admit the failure of Venezuela's "21st century socialism."

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

California governor calls for a tax on the very water citizens drink

fromTheFreeThought Project: Communities throughout the state struggle with dangerous pollutants in their supply, but opponents of the suggested tax say there is no need to tax residents in order to solve the problem.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery      Regulation Nation

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

March 8, 2018

It begins: Seattle cops conduct Nazi-style gun confiscations: no laws broken, no charges, no arrests

fromTheFreeThoughtProject: Using a new law, Seattle police raided a man's home and confiscated his guns with zero due process for entirely legal behavior. 
The Government is Not Us       2nd Amendment Assaults

Age discrimination suit against Dick's Sporting Goods and Walmart for refusing to sell rifle to 20-year-old

fromReason: Oregon law bans discrimination in selling goods based on age, so this lawsuit looks like a winner. 
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

NRA memberships surge in wake of anti-NRA protests, ‘media bias’

fromBreitbart: The Daily Mail reports that Google searches for “NRA membership” rose “4,900 percent” since the Florida attack. 
2nd Amendment Assaults      Media Bias on Parade

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Phil Donahue Interview 1979

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand enlightens Donahue on a variety of topics.
Regulation Nation      The Pursuit of Happiness       Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

SF to charge vacant-lot owners for rainwater that runs down the drain

fromCreators: They've finally did it. They are taxing you for the rain that falls on your property. 
Regulation Nation      The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Stand Straight Up

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From the Rubin Report, Psychologist Jordan Peterson discusses rule one of his new book, “12 Rules for Life”.
The Pursuit of Happiness

Regulation Nation

Latest Update: August 9, 2017

Innovation drives the small manufacturing boom—if it can survive regulatory meddling
Face first into bureaucratic madness – opening a hot dog stand in California
NYC law that makes dog-sitting illegal without a license
Trump is quietly stacking the labor board with union busters

County sued for requiring 10 page permit application to play Pokemon Go in s public park

Why Is Insider Trading Illegal? It shouldn't be.

California extends water restrictions despite abundant rainfall

Adult women can't consent to sex in Louisiana

Jake Macaulay: Men Invading Women’s Restrooms

The PC politicians are insisting on it.  The mayor of San Francisco has banned all publicly-funded city employees from traveling to North Carolina. The NBA is threatening to relocate next year’s All Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina, to another city. Corporate giants like American Airlines and Hollywood giants like Disney are threatening action  ... MORE

Anti-Party Law Turns Innocent Kids Into Criminals

by Steven Greenhut.   Orange County Republican Party Chairman Fred Whitaker got into GOP politics because of his “belief in individual liberty, limited government and a free market,” according to the party’s website. His recent actions as an Orange councilman, however, show too little regard for liberty, governmental limits or the Constitution’s     ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: How Regulators Quietly Drive Up Costs

Seen and unseen.    California political observers are understandably fixated on the goings-on in the state legislature, which is the living embodiment of what New York Judge Gideon Tucker wrote in an 1866 ruling: "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session." Reporters and commentators also focus on major legal  ... MORE

Brittany Hunter: How Congress Is Giving Up Its Power

Unelected bureaucrats now call most of the shots. Today, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law will hold a hearing on the growth of federal bureaucracy. At the center of the discussion is a legal principle known as “Chevron deference,” something few   ... MORE

Gov’t Regulations Weigh On Gloomy Small-Business Owners

an Investor's Business Daily editorial.        Red Tape: Two new surveys of small-business owners show they’re “treading water,” and the government isn’t throwing them any lifelines. Instead, it’s weighing them down with more and more costly and burdensome regulations. Optimism about economic conditions last month hit a two-year low     ... MORE

VIDEO: John Oliver - Special Districts (from HBO)

John Stossel: Regulating The Future

Government pretends it's the cause of progress.       Then it strangles innovation. We know government understands that new technologies are important. The military invests in robots and traffic cops use radar guns. But when the rest of us use robots or fly drones, government gets eager to put rules in place before things get   ... MORE

Repealing The FDA’s Stupid Menu-Labeling Mandate

by Baylen Linnekin.    Bring back common sense! Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 266-144 in favor of the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act of 2015. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. If passed, the bill would amend a host of menu-labeling rules that were adopted by the Food and Drug Administration   ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman & Phil Donahue Debate Regulation

Thomas Sowell: Complicating The Obvious

Electronic "improvement" rears its ugly head.      Engineers who design computerized products and services seem to have an almost fanatical determination to avoid using plain English. It is understandable when complicated processes require complicated operations. But when the very simplest things are designed with needless complications  ... MORE

Restrictions On Adult Alcohol Access Don't Make Us Safer

Data explodes popular fallacy.  Violent crime and binge drinking are two potential undesirable outcomes of access to alcohol. But is increased access to alcohol for adult drinkers a sufficient precondition for these attendant negative externalities of drinking? A recent look at the impact of changes to laws governing pub hours in England and Wales 10   ... MORE

Obama's Heaping Helping Of Government Regulations

a Press-Enterprise editorial.      The Obama administration may have been thankful that people were not paying attention on Thanksgiving to the 2,224 new regulations it is proposing. The government is required to publish an agenda of regulatory activities twice a year and, as the Daily Caller observes, “Obama has developed a habit of releasing   ... MORE

VIDEO: How One Group Of Tyrants Banned Gun Sales

VIDEO: John Stossel - Rule Breakers Vs Regulatory State