May 20, 2020

Why American life went on as normal during the killer pandemic of 1969

fromNYPost: “That generation approached viruses with calm, rationality and intelligence,” he said. “We left disease mitigation to medical professionals, individuals and families, rather than politics, politicians and government.”
The Government is Not Us

Will SCOTUS revoke its license for police abuse?

fromCreators: This week the Justices are considering 13 petitions involving the pernicious doctrine of qualified immunity.
Police State America

YouTube censors epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski for opposing lockdown

fromNYPost: Wittkowski believes the coronavirus should be allowed to achieve “herd immunity,” and that short of a vaccine the pandemic will only end after it has sufficiently spread through the population. 
Indoctrination and Censorship

The Breonna Taylor shooting shows how reckless drug war tactics lead to senseless deaths

fromReason: At this point, police can hardly be surprised when they are mistaken for armed criminals.
Police State America

Bill Barr, champion of justice

fromCreators: A lot of people hate Trump. And he does little to try to change their minds. But law enforcement shouldn't be a popularity contest, with prosecutors hounding individuals who haven't broken the law.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

10 ways a roadside police stop can go wrong

fromReason: What could happen—and what to do about it—if you get pulled over by the cops 
Police State America

Feb 11, 2019

The real reason 4 cops got shot in Houston last week

fromDailyBell:  When you look deeper at the case, you realize these cops didn’t get shot because of anti-police rhetoric. They got shot because they invaded an innocent couple’s home without announcing themselves.

Police State America   

Green new deal—same old progressive policies

fromReason:  Using climate change to justify government-guaranteed jobs, health care, and housing.

Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Jackboots in the morning: No one Is spared from this American nightmare

fromRutherfordInstitute:  Whatever dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now— rest assured, these same practices can and will be used against you when the government decides it wants.

Police State America

Bezos protests invasion of his privacy, as Amazon builds sprawling surveillance state for everyone else

fromTheIntercept:  If the surveillance powers of the NSA, FBI or other agencies were used to obtain incriminating information about Bezos due to their view of him as a political enemy ...

Government is Watching Every Move You Make

New York police killed her son, then refused to answer her questions. The law they’re hiding behind.

fromReason:  An obscure provision designed to protect personnel records makes it nearly impossible to hold the state’s cops accountable.

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

The libertarian case for a border wall

from71Republic:  Though the wall would require a small amount of force, its long-term savings in government spending shows a principled and pragmatic necessity.

The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

March 15, 2018

New Jersey prepares to raise taxes on "almost everything" as it nears financial disaster

fromZeroHedge: Taxpayers to bear more and more burden in order to satisfy the spending (vote-buying) desires of state politicians. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

TSA accused of searching domestic travelers’ devices with no warrant

fromARSTechnica: TSA has failed to fully respond to FOIA requests from the ACLU. 
Regulation Nation      Police State America

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Sanctuary from Homicide

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: From Tucker Carlson Tonight, a look at how sanctuary cities provide illegal immigrants with protection — even from charges of homicide.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption    The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - The Political Value of Crisis

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Professor Sowell explains the common political tactic of presenting a “crisis” as a means of forwarding their agenda. 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

There ought not be a law

fromReason: The world is an imperfect place, but laws tend to make things worse, not better. 
Regulation Nation

US drops four spots to 18th place in the happiness rankings

fromTheHill: "Perceptions of corruption in government and business have risen over time; and confidence in public institutions has waned." 
The Pursuit of Happiness

The Profit Incentives Driving The Police State

by John W. Whitehead. If there is an absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off. Not only are American taxpayers forced to “spend more on state, municipal, and federal taxes than the annual financial burdens of food, clothing, and housing combined,” but we’re  ... MORE

Protecting Consumers From Speech-Chilling Lawsuits

by Michael Beckerman.    Summer is almost here, which means sun, fun, and summer vacations. It also means many of us are going to be spending time browsing online reviews to preview the good, the bad, and the ugly on travel locations. Imagine a world in which a hotel company could sue customers because they didn’t like their stay. What if  ... MORE

The Brute Force Of Government Spending On Autopilot

by Debra J. Saunders.   My car was towed from an area near a train station in San Francisco last month. I had parked in front of a small "No Parking" sign that I had not seen. I spent an hour looking for my car and calling an attendant who didn't answer the phone. When someone finally answered, she told me my car had been towed. It cost me $350.  ... MORE

Two BIG Reasons NOT To Keep Your Cash In The Bank

by Mark Nestmann.     Don't lose your life savings. It’s bad enough depositing your money into a bank account and earning essentially zero interest on it, or in some countries, having a negative interest rate. It’s even worse knowing that once you deposit your money in a bank, it’s not really yours anymore. You have turned over your property to    ... 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

FBI Demands High Schools Rat Out “Anti-Gov't” Students

by Kurt Nimmo. Constitutionalists figure prominently on the target list. A new FBI initiative based on Britain’s “anti-terror” mass surveillance program instructs high schools across America to inform on students who express “anti-government” and “anarchist” political beliefs. “High school students are ideal targets for recruitment by violent extremists   ... MORE

George Will: Donald Trump Relishes Wrecking The GOP

With friends like this, who needs Democrats?    Lyndon Johnson simply was exasperated. Barack Obama's mischief was methodical. Four days before the 1966 congressional elections, Johnson, asked about criticism from Richard Nixon, testily responded: "I do not want to get into a debate .?.?. with a chronic campaigner like Mr. Nixon."      ... MORE

Debt Collection, At The End Of A Gun (Update)

by Scott Greenfield.     A good friend came to me decades ago with a problem. He received a letter from the Department of Education informing him that he had to repay his student loans that had been incurred decades earlier. He did repay them, he told me. “You have proof?” I asked. Are you kidding? It was 25 years ago. I threw the checks away decades  ... MORE

Armed Marshals Bust Man Over Unpaid Student Loan

by Michael Harthorne.   And they aren't stopping there. Seven armed US Marshals in combat gear showed up on the doorstep of 48-year-old Paul Aker's home Thursday in Houston, the New York Daily News reports. His crime? Failing to pay a $1,500 student loan he received in 1987. "I say, 'What is this all about?'" Aker recalls. "They say, 'Shut up,   ... MORE

How And Why Gov't Will ‘Borrow’ Your Retirement Savings

by Simon Black.    The stage is set. According to financial research firm ICI, total retirement assets in the Land of the Free now exceed $23 trillion. $7.3 trillion of that is held in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). That’s an appetizing figure, especially for a government that just passed $19 trillion in debt and is in pressing need of new funding sources.  ... MORE

Emails Reveal Press Literally Taking Orders From Hillary

by Jeff Blake.     The emails were obtained by Gawker as part of a large Freedom of Information Act request it made back in 2012. They show a 2009 exchange between Marc Ambinder, then-politics editor of The Atlantic, and Philippe Reines, a close assistant and adviser to Clinton during her days as Secretary of State. Ambinder asked Reines for  ... MORE

Robert Gore: How To Defeat Your Government

This outcome does not require a plan.     In a recent article, “How to Defeat Your Enemies,” SLL maintained that governments and their people were natural enemies, and that the most powerful adversarial tactic is “getting one’s enemies to fool themselves.” The article detailed the effective use of this tactic by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Cruz, Rubio Tie God To Governing

Why is faith over reason a plus?       If you attend a Republican presidential event on the campaign trail, you may come to wonder if you made a wrong turn and ended up in church. If you are not a believer—an evangelical Christian believer, that is—you may feel ever so slightly unwelcome. The deity-centric approach is working for Ted Cruz  ... MORE

Why Grand Juries Are A Prosecutor's Best Friend

by Sara J. Berman.   Choosing evidence to control the outcome. Unlike a preliminary hearing, held in court with the defense side present, the grand jury does not make its decision in the context of an adversary proceeding. Rather, grand jurors see and hear only what prosecutors put before them. (Prosecutors technically have an obligation to     ... MORE

VIDEO: The NSA Wouldn't Let Us In This Building

 (But We Found Out What's Inside)

New Way For Cops To Surveil You: Your Threat ‘Score’

by Justin Jouvenal.    While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect’s potential for violence the way a bank might run a credit report. The program scoured billions of data points, including arrest reports, property records, commercial    ... MORE

Child Molestation If Done By Private Individual: Ten-Year- Old Girl Gets 2-Minute TSA Patdown Over Juice Pouch

by Morgan Cook.     A Capri Sun juice pouch mistakenly left in a 10-year-old San Diego girl’s carry-on handbag led a TSA agent to subject the girl to almost two minutes of frisking and extra screening that lasted about an hour, her father said. Liquids exceeding 3 ounces are not allowed in carry-on bags, for fear they might contain explosives, but the    ... MORE