VIDEO: Why Is Higher Education So Expensive?

Jimmy Carter Says Marijuana Should Be Decriminalized

by Nick Wing.     Former President Jimmy Carter gave a full-throated endorsement of state efforts to legalize marijuana during an appearance at a CNN forum aired on Tuesday. Carter, who as president supported an era of marijuana decriminalization in the mid-1970s, told CNN's Suzanne Malveaux that he was "in favor" of states that were taking steps   ... MORE

Ed Morrissey: You Have The Right To Not Pay Union Dues

Union dues are not an entitlement.   The battle between unions and state governments continued this week — just as it has for the last two years — in territory normally considered friendly for labor organizations. In the winter of 2011, Wisconsin forced an end to mandatory union contributions for state employees — and conservatives        ... MORE

Gene Healy: Homeland Security Grants Subsidize Dystopia

The war on terror has come home. "Do I think al Qaeda is going to target Pumpkin Fest? No, but are there fringe groups that want to make a statement? Yes." That's the police chief of Keene, N.H. (pop. 23,000), justifying his decision to buy a BearCat armored personnel carrier with a federal Department of Homeland Security grant. After all, you      ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Taxing The Poor

How the poor are made to pay. With all the talk about taxing the rich, we hear very little talk about taxing the poor. Yet the marginal tax rate on someone living in poverty can sometimes be higher than the marginal tax rate on millionaires. While it is true that nearly half the households in the country pay no income tax at all, the      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Tragedy Of The Commons

Walter E Williams: Government-Created Financial Crisis

Suppose you saw a building on fire.    Would you seek counsel from the arsonist who set it ablaze for advice on how to put it out? You say, "Williams, you'd have to be a lunatic to do that!" But that's precisely what we've done: turned to the people who created our fiscal crisis to fix it. I have never read a better account of our doing just that than in John A.  ... MORE

Will Congress Rein In Warrantless Spying On Americans?

Congress has a brief chance to pass key reforms.    The US government's warrantless surveillance powers largely remain a mystery, even to most of the members of Congress who are set to reauthorize them this week. A small group of senators, however, is planning to introduce a handful of amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance    ... MORE

VIDEO: The White House Experiments With Weed


 Ethan Nadelmann: The White House Experiments With Weed

Col. K Allard: Sequestration Spotlights Real Defense Abuses

Billions lost in cozy bureaucratic status quo.  A panel of defense-industry executives complained last week to a National Press Club audience about the defense budget cuts known as sequestration. Calling those reductions “irresponsible,” TASC CEO David Langstaff said sequestration would shatter “our ability to execute U.S. national   ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: Romanticizing Taxation

The irresistible temptation to spend other people's money.    In the debate over avoiding the "fiscal cliff"—especially over whose taxes should and shouldn't be raised—I detect an annoying attempt to romanticize taxation. I read this as an act of desperation on the part of those who want higher taxes on the wealthy, for there is nothing romantic about   ... MORE