LibertyPen

October 17, 2017

Survey find Americans’ views on free speech is a whole bunch of crazy

from the Daily Bell: Why a whole bunch of crazy?
"There are no contradictions. If you see a contradiction, check your premises. One of them is wrong" -- Ayn Rand
Indoctrination and Censorship

Who's the Harvey Weinstein of sex work? The police

from Reason: This week has a lot of people wondering "who's the Harvey Weinstein?" of their industry. For sex workers, the answer is all too often a local cop.
Police State America

Chicago's soda tax fizzles

from Reason: Everybody realized it was about bringing in money, not improving public health.
Regulation Nation

⭐️ Walter E Williams: Who pays what in taxes?

from Creators: Today, some politicians argue that the rich must pay their fair share and label the proposed changes in tax law as tax cuts for the rich. Let's look at who pays what.
Economic Policy: Statism vs. The Free Market

Rand Paul: The insurance companies are extorting us, Trump stopped that

from RealClearPolitics: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) discusses the president's executive order on the Affordable Care Act, why he says the plan is an attempt to empower consumers and why this could be a bipartisan issue.
Regulation Nation

ICE’s civil forfeiture guidelines leaked, and they’re not good

from RealClearPolitics: A government handbook reveals details of its legalized theft program. The concern is strictly about the value of property with no consideration of justice.
The Government is Not Us

October 16, 2017

California politicians demand pet stores must sell rescue animals only

from LATimes: The option destroyers never sleep. Now they are dictating to pet store owners what they must sell.
Regulation Nation

In a cashless world, you'd better pray the power never goes out

from Mises: Consider how screwed you would be if you were in Puerto Rico with no cash.
Economic Policy: Statism vs. The Free Market

NFL protests: Anthem controversy forgets who we are, and strive to be

from Detroit Free Press: Kneeling, or sitting, or otherwise protesting during the anthem may be seen as distasteful or even disrespectful. But it’s permissible expression. And nothing about it is actually infringing on anyone else’s rights.
Indoctrination and Censorship

⭐️ Video: Ayn Rand - How to Rule Mankind

from LibertyPen: Straight from the playbook of socialists and the politically-correct left.
The Government is Not Us

Amazon & Walmart's in-home and car delivery service will let police conduct warrantless searches

from MassPrivatel: Recently, Walmart shocked privacy conscious Americans by announcing they wanted customers to let Walmart employees inside their homes.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

A culture of compliance breeds despots and predators

from Rutherford Institute: It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a politician, an entertainment mogul, a corporate CEO or a police officer: give any one person (or government agency) too much power and allow him or her or it to believe that they are entitled, untouchable and will not be held accountable for their actions, and those powers will eventually be abused.
The Government is Not Us

October 14, 2017

A nigger and an Uncle Tom

from SlowtoWrite: Samuel Sey: The term Uncle Tom is a racial slur for Black men perceived as submissive to White people—Black men like me. I am perceived as submissive to White people because I do not submit to Black people.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

How we learned not to care about America's wars

from Common Dreams: Sixteen years of autopilot wars, but who’s counting?
Defense vs. The War Machine

⭐️ John Stossel: Let Them Leave

from Creators: America was founded on an act of secession from England. So why do so many people now see secession as a terrible thing?
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

How the minimum wage entrenches inequality and economic privilege

from the Federalist: Early minimum wage proponents knew what they were doing, by pricing “undesirable” workers out of the labor force to perpetuate minority poverty. Let’s not finish their work for them.
Regulation Nation

New TSA screening means airport security hell is about to get worse

from The Manual: “Well, at least it can’t get any worse.” These days, that seems to be the mantra for most air travelers just before the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) enacts some new program that does just that.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The federal government never lets a serious crisis go to waste

from Reason: "The expansion of federal power has not been steady and inexorable; it has grown through sudden, quantum leaps in times of emergency, most especially war. The crises eventually subside, but many of the powers remain—to be built upon later when the next crisis unfolds."
The Government is Not Us

October 13, 2017

Scalias all the way down

from the Wall Street Journal: The primary value of Trump is revealed. While the press goes wild over tweets, Donald is remaking the federal judiciary.
Justice is a Result, Not a Process

Smart devices are snitching on owners and rewriting the criminal justice system

from Activist Post: A new type of court case is slowly but steadily emerging within the American legal system: alleged crimes being detected from data supplied by smart devices.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Is taking a knee protected speech?

from Creators: From the great Andrew Napolitiano. Some jurisdictions — such as California, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and New York — give more protection to employees for expressive conduct in the workplace than others do.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Bump stock ban retroactively criminalizes possession of legally acquired products

from Reason: Government looks to turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals as current owners of newly prohibited devices can now go to prison for keeping them.
2nd Amendment Assaults

Not-so-Great Britain to criminalize reading extremist content online

from StephenLendman: 15 years for illegal reading. Will Americans resist this final nail in the coffin of free speech?
Indoctrination and Censorship

If 'no one wants to take our guns,' stop saying the opposite

from Creators: A column by Larry Elder. he "common sense" goal of many "gun control activists" is not a ban on this or that feature but a ban on civilian ownership of guns.
2nd Amendment Assaults

October 4, 2017

Feds Give Americans the frog treatment

from Reason: A plan by the Department of Homeland Security to collect social media information on American citizens,
including their "handles" and even their search results.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

CNN continues to solidify its place atop the fake news dung heap

from American Spectator: 24/7 party politics disguised as news.
Media Bias on Parade

Studies confirm, free people are happier

from TheDailyBell: Even people who think that the government should be less involved in daily life are happier than
people who think society needs more rules.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

⭐️ The deep theory behind stifling speech

from The Savvy Street: A brilliant, but long, piece on how philosophy is responsible for the rise in political correctness and
how philosophy can also fix it.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Stop manipulating the worst shooting in U.S. history to support your political views

from LongRoom: Those eager to make this tragedy about gun control are going to run into a lot of factual difficulties,
not just political ones.
2nd Amendment Assaults

John Stossel: Disabled by Government

from Creators: After government nitwittery removes 20,000 university lectures from access, an entrepreneur comes
to the rescue.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

October 3, 2017

Freedom of conscience is the foundation of all freedom

from Liberty.me: The essence of freedom is the ability to be true to oneself.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

⭐️ Flip-flopping on free speech

from NewYorker: Great piece on the fight for the First Amendment, on campuses and football fields, from the sixties to today.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Marijuana prohibition turns 80

from NORML: The government propaganda that has dictated marijuana policy for the past eight decades is withering, but still prevails in some of the union's most backward states.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

California seeks ban on fossil fuel cars, laying the groundwork to ban human driven cars

from Activist Post: Looks like the nitwits who make up California's ruling class would have out-of-state drivers check their cars at the border since no fuel will be sold. That should be great for tourism.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Smart billboards target individual motorists and spy on license plates and cellphones

from MassPrivatel: A new age of "advertised spying" is dawning.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

PC Stalinism: the EU bans cartoons critical of the EU

from Spiked!: In a move totally unsurprising to anyone who has been paying attention, the EU has shown its authoritarian colors by banning cartoons from one of its own exhibitions.
Indoctrination and Censorship

October 2, 2017

8 really bad laws that went into effect today

from Reason: From cellphone tracking in Connecticut to gummy bear bans in Colorado and bitcoin surveillance in Japan.
The Government is Not Us

Cops now hiding behind kids on school buses to bust people texting while driving

from The Free Thought Project: In a new revenue generation scheme, police across the country are now using school buses as a vantage point to catch drivers who are texting while driving.
Police State America

🎬 VIDEO: Rush Limbaugh - The Plot to Kill the NFL

from LibertyPen: While some say the NFL protests are about police brutality and free speech, Limbaugh makes a compelling case that the end game is to weaken and destroy the NFL.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Bogus stoned driving arrests highlight dubious methods of 'drug recognition experts'

from Reason: A lawsuit by three sober drivers who were busted for DUI questions the pot-detecting abilities of DREs.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Marijuana drive-thrus and online weed orders are a real possibility in this state

from Motley Fool: The Pine Tree State could have consumers seeing a new form of green, at the drive-thru window and via online checkout, by next year.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Police union complains that public got to see them roughing up Utah nurse

from Reason: Transparency about behavior of government employees is not a violation of due process.
Police State America

September 29, 2017

Why we need to shrink the national debt, and fast!

from ReasonTV: It was big news when our national debt passed the $20 trillion mark. What's less understood is exactly why having such a massive debt is a bad thing. The short answer is that too much debt slows economic growth, reducing living standards.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

The new electronic police state

from TechCrunch: According to the government, your privacy protections evaporate the moment you set foot in an airport.
Police State America

Poll finds most young people worry about government surveillance ‘tracking their communications’

from Newsweek: As well they should.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make.

U.S. tech giants slowly introduce censorship online

from National Review: Companies adopt communist Chinese censorship ideology. YouTube, the worst offender, is owned by Google who fires employees with unacceptable ideas and strips “offensive” channels of their ad-earnings.
Indoctrination and Censorship

ISIS fanatics show baby-faced child suicide bomber blowing himself up new propaganda video

from The Sun: Stills from a video show a twisted adult jihadi teaching the young teenager how to operate the controls of a suicide car. Americans can hardly contemplate such evil.
Defense vs The War Machine

RIP Hugh “Hef” Hefner, a patriot, hero, and testament to the American dream

from Milo: He was not just the man that created America’s most iconic adult-oriented, sexually-liberated publication, Playboy, as he actively fought against both censorship and discrimination of all stripes.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

September 28, 2017

The campus free-speech crisis deepens

from National Review: Suspending or expelling students who shout-down speakers, disrupt campus events, or take over campus buildings is the single most important step that can be taken to end the free-speech crisis. Yet administrators will not act.
Indoctrination and Censorship

The secret slush funds of asset forfeiture

from Reason: Two investigations published this week reveal how police and prosecutors spend asset forfeiture funds outside the public eye.
Police State America

Patriots and protesters should take a knee for the Constitution

from Rutherford Institute: John Whitehead talks about patriotism and President Trump’s call for “respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem.”
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Florida town booted food truck offering meals to hurricane survivors after nearby restaurant complained

from Reason: Does government exist to serve the people or represent well-connected cronies? You decide.
The Government is Not Us

Illegal immigration cost Americans a record $135 billion last year

from The Washington Examiner: John Whitehead talks about patriotism and President Trump’s call for “respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem.”
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Jeff Sessions just made the chief of the DEA look like a pothead's hero

from Reason: Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg reportedly resigned in part over the Justice Department's obstruction of marijuana research.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

September 27, 2017

When the government declared war on the First Amendment

from Reason: It all started with President Woodrow Wilson a hundred years ago.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Mel Brooks: Political correctness 'is the death of comedy'

from CNS News: Blazing Saddles could not be made today. Too many snowflakes might melt.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

The coming war on business

from NY Times: So much more than the title suggests. A great article to explain how racism has polluted an otherwise worthwhile move to embrace traditional American principles.
The Government is Not Us

Brazil’s latest outbreak of drug gang violence highlights the real culprit: the war on drugs

from The Intercept: Legalization is their answer. "The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success.”
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

John Stossel: Entrepreneur saves free college courses from government ban

from Reason: An internet entrepreneur saved 20,000+ free online college lectures after the government declared them illegal.
Indoctrination and Censorship

California considers following China with combustion-engine car ban

from Bloomberg: This makes sense -- but only in explaining where California's goofy Governor Brown gets his guidance.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market