June 13, 2020

The year gun control died

fromReason: Gun opponents would leave predatory cops armed and their victims helpless. So much for that idea.
2nd Amendment Assaults

It turns out you can spot a bad apple. You just can’t remove one.

fromJonathanTurley: Around the country, the percentage of civilian complaints that result in disciplinary action is astonishingly low. And the rate at which offending officers are severely disciplined is effectively zero.
Police State America

Sen. Rand Paul: Slapping someone could get you 10 years in prison under federal 'anti-lynching' bill

fromInformationLiberation: Senator Paul is "single-handedly" holding this atrocious bill up as the GOP-controlled senate is too cowardly to stand against it, lest they be perceived as "pro-lynching." 
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Seattle "Autonomous Zone" now has a "heavily-armed" warlord as crime spikes 300%

fromZeroHedge: "Anarchists just took over Seattle and the Liberal Democrat Governor just said he knows “nothing about that”. -- Donald Trump
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

The extraordinary hypocrisy of public health experts

fromSpiked: They support BLM marchers but wanted to deny medical care to lockdown protesters.
Regulation Nation

Devouring its own: How many on the left fostered the violent movement now rioting across the country

fromJonathanTurley: Despite its violent history, some Democratic leaders have been enablers or outright supporters of the Antifa movement, insisting that such groups cannot be compared to extreme right wing groups.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Feb 18, 2019

VIDEO: Off the Rails - California's High Speed Boondoggle

fromLibertyPen/YouTube:  A tribute to the ability of politicians to rip off taxpayer money and grab citizen land with no accountability. 

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market         Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Feds collect record individual income taxes in calendar 2018--as debt climbs

fromCNSNews:  The federal government collected a record $1,665,484,000,000 in individual income taxes in calendar year 2018, according to the Monthly Treasury Statements for the year.

Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market       Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

These are dangerous times, and the government is to blame

fromRutherfordInstitute:  Mind you, it is not because of violent crime, which remains at an all-time low, or because of terrorism, which is statistically rare. The real danger comes from the U.S. government its powers to has granted to its standing army to steal, cheat, harass, detain, brutalize, terrorize, torture and kill.

The Government is Not Us         Police State America

You can't say that on Twitter

fromCreators:  She tweeted that "men are not women," and for that, Meghan Murphy, feminist journalist, was banned from Twitter. The truth qualifies as "hate speech" for some of the gnomes at Twitter HQ.

Indoctrination and Censorship          Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The ‘war on drugs’ is causing great damage

fromTheGuardian:  Readers discuss the best way to combat the violence fueled by the drugs trade.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Majority of California residents want to leave: poll

fromBreitbart:  Sixty-two percent of respondents realize the Golden State's best days are in the past.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery        Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Feb 13, 2019

Rights and non-rights: a simple way to distinguish the two

fromFEE:  It’s readily apparent today that Americans are of widely different views on what a right is, how many we have, where rights come from, or why we have any in the first place.

Individual Liberty: America's First Principle 

Some Washington sheriffs refuse to enforce new gun laws

fromABCNews:  Sheriffs in a dozen Washington counties say they won't enforce the state's sweeping new restrictions on semi-automatic rifles until the courts decide whether they are constitutional.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Police can seize cash in the mail. An innocent man found out the hard way.

fromGreenvilleNews:  Not since the days of the Sheriff of Nottingham have cops so openly practiced state-sponsored theft.

Police State America

Senator files '420' marijuana bill to legalize it federally

fromForbes:  The proposal would remove it from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), impose more taxes on sales and create a system of permits for businesses to engage in cannabis commerce.

The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Study: voter ID laws don’t stop people voting

fromFreeBeacon:  Strict voter ID laws do not suppress turnout, a new paper finds, regardless of sex, race, Hispanic identity, or party affiliation.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Abuse of Force: Body camera video shows man tased 11 times by officers in Arizona

fromKSHBKansasCity:  Multiple independent law enforcement experts, who agreed to review the incident, said the officers’ conduct was unlawful, potentially criminal.

Police State America

Dec 11, 2018

Trump’s attorney general pick William Barr rejects separation of church and state

fromPatheos: Barr constructed the current drug war and the punitive criminal justice system. His appointment is not good news.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Silicon Valley morphing into the morality police

fromCreators: Tech giants use their near-monopoly powers to censor any thoughts they do not approve.
Media Bias on Parade       Indoctrination and Censorship

What’s the matter with Portland?

fromRonPaulInstitute: The prosperous city has become the epicenter for antifa lunatics and the political violence they routinely deploy.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

How Phoenix explains a rise in police violence: It’s the civilians’ fault

fromRonPaulInstitute: The prosperous city has become the epicenter for antifa lunatics and the political violence they routinely deploy.
Police State America

Supreme Court sides with Planned Parenthood in funding fight

fromCNN: Robed lawyers decide that the Constitution protects funding to politically correct organizations, even though it is nowhere to be found in the document and prohibited by the Tenth Amendment.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery     The Welfare State: Promoting Dependency

As marijuana industry grows, modern chefs tackle edible weed

fromNBCNews: Edibles spending in Canada and the United States topped $1 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow more than $4.1 billion by 2022, analysts say.
The Pursuit of Happiness

Dec 9, 2018

The Russia investigation is about criminalizing peace

fromRonPaulInstitute: The mainstream left and state serving-media voices are trying to gaslight an entire generation into believing any candidate that wants peace with Russia may be a foreign conspirator.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Taxpayers to be held liable after cops tortured man strapped to a chair with pepper spray

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: A judge has refused to dismiss excessive force claims against police after multiple officers were seen on video surrounding a man in a restraint chair and hitting him with pepper spray in his face.
Police State America

Feds received whistleblower evidence in 2017 alleging Clinton Foundation wrongdoing

fromTheHill: Is the Clinton family charity really the international do-gooder that earned a perfect four-star rating from Charity Navigator, or does it suffer from corruption and illegalities as conservatives allege?
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

VIDEO: Fake News Reports: The Migrant Caravan

fromLibertyPen/YouTube: Perhaps nothing is more illustrative of media bias than coverage of the migrant caravan. Tucker Carlson, Buck Sexton.
Media Bias on Parade

When nonviolence isn't enough

fromReason: Does the right to self-defense apply against agents of the state?
The Government is Not Us

The violence against women act is an insult to fairness

fromTheDailyCaller: from Wendy McElroy: "Any legislation that benefits one gender at the expense of another or one race at the expense of another is invalid on its face, and it should be rejected."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Nov 26, 2018

Beijing to judge every resident based on behavior by end of 2020

fromBloomberg: Coming to a tyranny near you? China’s plan to judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior is moving a step closer to reality.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Dear TSA, please stop molesting kids at the airport

fromCreators: "Normally, I would have reported this incident to the proper authorities. Inappropriate contact with a child is a criminal act. But in this case, the proper authorities were the ones feeling up the kid."
The Government is Not Us

VIDEOS: Migrant caravan storms border, U.S. shuts down crossing in response

fromGrabieNews: Some in the caravan are launching projectiles at U.S. border authorities.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Violence Against Women Act diminishes the seriousness of domestic violence

fromTheHill: An opinion piece from Wendy McElroy. The pending bill would expand the definition of DV in a way that could harm abused women and other innocent people. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Thomas Sowell returns

fromReason: America's top social scientist on what has changed since he sat down with Reason 38 years ago.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Trump's Trade war bailout program Is a predictable mess

fromReason: More than 1,100 people living in America's 50 largest cities have received bailout funds intended for farmers harmed by Trump's trade war.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Nov 2, 2018

If you want political violence to end, make politics less important

fromReason: Even when Americans don't love their political allies, they hate their opponents.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

We are losing the vital American value of tolerance

fromTheFederalist: Tolerance is one of the most important and enduring American values. If we lose it, we lose almost everything.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Victor Davis Hanson: Wolves in Wolves Clothing

fromAmericanGreatness: The result of a progressive wolf baying proudly as a left-winger is that as we head to the 2018 midterm, progressives may soon blow what should be a big win for the out party in any president’s first term.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Dad at McDonald's with kids shoots and kills masked gunman who opened fire

fromCBSNews: Why smart shooters choose gun-free zones.
2nd Amendment Assaults

4 more states could legalize medical or recreational marijuana next week

fromReason: Ballot initiatives in Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah will give voters a chance to loosen their cannabis laws.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

VIDEO: Tom Woods - The Tale of the Slave

fromStatelessLiberty/YouTube: Are you brave enough to answer the question posed by this video? "The Tale of the Slave" features in Robert Nozick's book, "Anarchy, State and Utopia"
The Government is Not Us

April 4, 2016

The deep rooted crisis of police violence in the USA

fromReason: Executive Producer Eddie Conway and David Correia, author of Police: A Field Guide, examine police propaganda that criminalizes victims of police violence and works to halt any radical responses to it. See video
Police State America

Students stage walkout in support of Second Amendment

fromPJMedia: Unlike the first student walkout, this one was self-motivated and not under penalty of suspension from school officials. 
2nd Amendment Assaults

'Being cash-free puts us at risk of attack': Swedes turn against cashlessness

fromReason: Sweden’s central bank governor has called for public control over its payment system. Others say a fully digital system is vulnerable to fraud and attack. 
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Walter E Williams: Discrimination and disparities

fromWalterEWilliams: I don’t mind saying that this column represents a grossly understated review of “Discrimination and Disparities,” just published by my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell. 
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The unintended consequences of the minimum wage

fromCapitalismMagazine: The federal government began dictating the minimum lawful amount an employer must pay someone working for them in 1933, as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. 
Regulation Nation

Don't look to the state to keep social media companies from imposing ideological conformity

fromReason: Facebook, Google, and Twitter may be smug and presumptuous, but we can go elsewhere. 
Indoctrination and Censorship      Media Bias on Parade

January 20, 2018

The undoing of limited government

fromTheWashingtonTimes: The elites in the federal government and the deep state — the parts of the government that are unauthorized by the Constitution and that operate in the dark, what candidate Trump called “the swamp” — have formed a consensus that marches the might of the government toward total Orwellian surveillance.
The Government is Not Us      Government is Watching Every Move You Make    Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Silence is betrayal: Get up, stand up, speak up for your rights

fromTheRuthrfordInstitute: Enough with the deafening silence in the face of outright corruption, base immorality, denigrating language, demoralizing greed, abject cruelty, derision, cynicism, violence, oppression and tyranny.
The Government is Not Us 

Stop warrantless snooping on Americans

fromCreators: Over the course of two hours last Thursday morning, Donald Trump offered two diametrically opposed takes on a surveillance bill making its way through Congress. Both were wrong.   
Government is Watching Every Move You Make 

The originalist case for jury nullification

fromReason: Is there a place in our system for a jury to acquit because the jurors believe the underlying law is unconstitutional?
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

House bill seeks to end war on marijuana, spark recovery instead

fromForbes: Recovery from our generations-long war on cannabis must include a range of efforts at the federal level, from adjusting the role and responsibility of law enforcement to reinvesting in communities.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

John Stossel: Selling Hate

fromCreators: The Southern Poverty Law Center is now a hate group itself. It's a money-grabbing slander machine.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Sharon Cohen: Chicago's $662 Million Police Misconduct Bill

But few officers punished.   In this city's troubled history of police misconduct, Eric Caine's case may be unrivaled: It took more than 25 years and $10 million to resolve. For decades, he maintained he didn't brutally kill an elderly couple. The police, he said, beat him into a false confession. Locked up at age 20, he was freed at 46, bewildered by a world  ... MORE

Man Charged With Breaking A Trooper’s Fist With His Face

by Larry Hohol.   Public servants or government thugs? A motorist was viciously beaten, tasered, and maced repeatedly, then charged with 24 separate crimes and maliciously prosecuted for every one of them. He was beaten four (4) times over the course of 11-hours, and not once had he acted maliciously. The incident stemmed from his driving while  ... MORE

VIDEO: Ted Cruz - Gun Violence In America

VIDEO: Sticks And Stones

Video Of Long Beach Killing By Police Of Suspect Released; Officer Shot His Partner, Then Both Cops Shot The Suspect

by Brian Doherty. So what was the crime for which Noel Aguilar had been apprehended?   Riding a bike wearing headphones.   Petty law enforcement claims another life. When Noel Aguilar was shot and killed by two officers in Long Beach, California, in May 2014, the police initially reported that Aguilar had shot Officer Albert Murad before     ... MORE

Police Shooting Videos Spark Need For Reform

by Steven Greenhut.    It’s easy to understand why law-enforcement lobbyists have largely opposed efforts to expand the use of officer body cameras. As we see in Chicago—and now in San Francisco—the video images of police shootings may be at odds with what officers said took place. In Chicago, protesters have been demanding the         ... MORE

FBI Admits Police Violence Tracking System Is A Travesty

by T.C. Sottek.    The Washington Post reported today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to replace its inadequate system for tracking police violence by 2017; an FBI official is calling it a "travesty." "We are responding to a real human outcry," FBI assistant director Stephen L. Morris told the Post. "People want to know what police are doing, and   ... 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

More Guns, Less Gun Violence Between 1993 And 2013

see related article

Jacob Davidson: A Criminologist’s Case Against Gun Control

A law professor explains why he is skeptical.   In the wake of the recent mass shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood that claimed three lives, President Barack Obama called the incidents of gun violence in America “not normal.” “Enough is enough,” Obama said. According to one count, there have been 351 mass shootings in the United     ... MORE

Innocent Man Paralyzed After Unprovoked Police Beating

Cops arbitrarily destroy a man's life.    Family say a man beaten by three officers with the San Antonio police department last year is now paralyzed from the chest down after surgeons experienced complications attempting to repair his spine. Forty-three-year-old Roger Carlos was in the 10600 block of Westover Hills Blvd. in May, 2014 taking    ... MORE