LibertyPen

November 29, 2017

Supreme court cellphone case puts free speech – not just privacy – at risk

from Guardian: Carpenter v United States has rightly prompted concerns over surveillance. But it could also have drastic implications for personal freedom in the digital age.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

This awful SCOTUS decision helped create today's civil asset forfeiture racket

from Reason: Bennis v. Michigan should be overruled.
Police State America Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Teachers attend 'LGGBDTTTIQQAAP' sensitivity training (WTF?)

from PJMedia: The alphabet soup of PC gender nitwittery in Canada.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Nervous about traffic stops? I am. You should be too

from Rutherford Institute: We’ve all been there before. You’re driving along and you see a pair of flashing blue lights in your rearview mirror. Whether or not you’ve done anything wrong, you get a sinking feeling in your stomach.
Police State America

The real reason the media pushes “sexual liberation”

from The Daily Bell: When you pursue personal liberation, individual freedom, your life will only improve, right up until your last moments on this Earth. When you pursue so-called sexual liberation, your prospects of happiness decay day by day.
The Pursuit of Happiness

State courts say early-morning pot raids were gratuitous and illegal

from Reason: These cases show how blithely drug warriors resort to terrifying and potentially deadly tactics in response to "crimes" that violate no one's rights, even when safer alternatives are readily available.
Police State America The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

November 28, 2017

These laws are eroding public trust with police. And they are hurting good officers too

from Sacramento Bee: Here is the point that always gets lost in discussions about police brutality: The system is rigged in favor of the police every time it is alleged.
Police State America

The Motherboard guide to avoiding state surveillance

from Motherboard: A straightforward guide to privacy, messaging, and keeping yourself safe from passive and active surveillance.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Mother, Air Force vet kidnapped, sent to Rikers for traveling in NY with her legal Texas handgun

from TheFreeThoughtProject: For carrying her legally purchased and licensed handgun in her vehicle as she traveled through New York, a mother of two and honorably discharged veteran was arrested and charged with a felony.
Police State America 2nd Amendment Assaults

Walter E Williams: Black Self-Sabotage

from Creators: How long will black people accept the educational destruction of black youngsters — something that only benefits the education establishment?
Indoctrination and Censorship

Trump calls for media competition to win FAKE NEWS trophy

from DownTrend: The smart money is on CNN.
Media Bias on Parade

Legalization a boon to more than just marijuana markets

from the Las Vegas Sun: “Let’s put it like this: A rising tide takes all ships,” said Stuart Titus, CEO of San Diego-based General Hemp. “It’s incredible to see the growth in the industry.”
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

November 27, 2017

Warning: one of these monopolies is going to control you

from TheDailyBell: It is time to break up the only true monopoly in the United States, the federal government.
The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Social Security Lies and Deception

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Milton explains how Social Security, which was sold to the American people as an insurance scheme, is in reality a bad tax and a bad welfare distribution system.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

On Roy Moore: When did 'proof' become immaterial?

from WND: Most definitely a man in his 30s who tries to make out with a 14-year-old girl deserves 30 days in the electric chair. But have you ever forced yourself to face up to the other side of things? A Barry Farber column.
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Freedom for Television and Radio

from Mises: There is one important area of American life where no effective freedom of speech or the press does or can exist under the present system. That is the entire field of radio and television.
Regulation Nation

Bay Area takes police-state approach to tobacco

from Spectator: San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities have banned vaping and flavored tobacco, thus exposing their progressive hypocrisy.
Regulation Nation

Facebook removed this small town business’s ads for American flags because it sell guns

from TheDailyCaller: Facebook unmasked. The Sportsman’s Shop says it can no longer advertise products like American flags on Facebook because its Facebook page promotes the sales of guns, and includes links that lead to the same.
Indoctrination and Censorship

November 24, 2017

Good Samaritans shutdown, ticketed for feeding homeless during Thanksgiving holiday

from TheFreeThoughtProject: Feeding the homeless is now illegal in Atlanta and you will be ticketed and extorted unless you pay the state for permission beforehand.
Regulation Nation

VIDEO: Libertarian Car Talk

from LibertyPen/YouTube: From the Tom Woods Show, Eric Peters on the latest libertarian car issues.
Regulation Nation

NSA Internet surveillance under Section 702 violates the First Amendment

from EFF: It’s not just our Fourth Amendment rights to privacy that are in the crosshairs, but also our First Amendment rights. These rights to anonymously speak, associate, access information, and engage in political activism are the bedrock of our democracy, and they’re endangered by the NSA’s pervasive surveillance.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

How Jeff Sessions plans to end medical marijuana before the year is over

from Newsweek: Sessions is known for being one of the nation's toughest critics of legal pot. He once said the KKK was "OK until I found out they smoked pot."
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai: Killing Net Neutrality will set the Internet free

from Reason: Promises that "we're going to see an explosion in the kinds of connectivity and the depth of that connectivity" like never before.
Regulation Nation

Pro–net neutrality graphic makes argument against net neutrality

from Reason: Do net neutrality advocates fear consumer choice?
Regulation Nation

November 23, 2017

Thankful for Property Rights on Thanksgiving Day

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Private property became the foundation for building the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. A John Stossel column.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Statewide ban on e-cigarettes indoors in New York starts today

from Syracuse.com: The heavy-handed government nannies will allow free people to vape in their private homes -- for now.
Regulation Nation The Government is Not Us

With TSA on the ropes, holiday travel may be a bear

from Politico: A potentially record-setting uptick in travel this Thanksgiving will coincide with TSA's implementation of new screening rules.
The Government is Not Us

Feminist supports making false rape allegations against men

from Downtrend: Feminist writer Emily Lindin: Here’s an unpopular opinion: I’m actually not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs over false sexual assault/harassment allegations.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - The Minimum Wage

from LibertyPen/YouTube: In just over two minutes, Friedman explains the driving force behind the counter-productive practice of minimum wage.
Regulation Nation Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

VIDEO: Owen Benjamin - Fighting Back the Thought Police

from LibertyPen/YouTube: From the Tom Woods Show, Comedian/commentator Owen Benjamin shares how he successfully dealt with attacks from the PC thought police.
Indoctrination and Censorship Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

November 22, 2017

HuffPo memory-holes piece blasting Al Franken’s alleged victims as partisan liars

from Brieitbart: On Friday, the day after two women accused Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) of harassment, HuffPo published an article titled, “The Framing Of Al Franken By Two Trump Supporters." The story was removed just a few hours later.
Media Bias on Parade

Black leaders silent over Mugabe’s destruction of Zimbabwe

from Capitalism Magazine: Walter E Williams: "There’s a deafening silence, the same silence when Africa’s black tyrants elsewhere on the continent commit brutalities making those committed by former colonial masters pale in comparison."
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Pennsylvania cops terrorize elderly couple after confusing hibiscus plants for marijuana

from PhotographyIsNotaCrime: The woman was forced to stand outside in her underwear and handcuffed for ten minutes, then walked barefoot down a gravel driveway to a squad car where she remained handcuffed for four and a half hours.
The Government is Not Us The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Cop sentenced to 5 years for shooting into car of teens, 16 times

from TheFreeThoughtProject: Chicago police officer Marco Proano was sentenced for dumping 16 rounds into a car occupied by six unarmed teens who posed no threat.
Police State America

The good, the bad, and the unspeakably ugly: a reason surveillance reform bill primer

from Reason: Congress must make a choice before the end of the year on the level of protections Americans get from unwarranted snooping.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

FCC plans total repeal of net neutrality rules

from CNet: Chairman Ajit Pai says he's fixing the Obama-era "mistake," which allowed the US government to micromanage the internet.
Regulation Nation

November 21, 2017

Don’t just give thanks, pay it forward one act of kindness at a time

from Rutherford Institute: It’s been a hard, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning kind of year filled with violence and ill will. It’s been a year of too much hate and too little kindness.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Top NSA whistleblower claims "Russiagate" a fake to increase war-spending

from Zero Hedge: Basically, he is saying that the keepers of the keys are blocking the public from the truth, because they know that the truth will expose the fact that they’ve been lying to the public, all along.
Defense Versus The War Machine

Asset forfeiture: inherently abusive, and awful in Alabama

from YellowHammer: Outright thievery unmasked. One town uses a “speed trap” not just to generate outlandish fines but also to seize property.
Police State America The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - The Expanding Nature of Government

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Friedman explains why the philosophy of government has become that of the cancer cell: growth for the sake of growth.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Sex, jobs and smoking: What's legal for teens in your state?

from Reason: In California, you can work and get an abortion without parental consent at 12, but you must be 21 to buy a vaping device.
Regulation Nation

Venezuela's default disaster

from Mises: Socialism always promises heaven and gives hell.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

November 20, 2017

The Clintons’ day of reckoning

from LewRockwell.com: When the Harvey Weinstein story broke about a month ago, I offered that the reason (after decades of such behavior) might have something to do with the democrats getting tired of telling Hillary to go away.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Trump brags about his deregulation—and he may be right

from Reason: Pruning back regulation doesn't have to be a partisan issue.
Regulation Nation

The FISA amendments reauthorization act restricts Congress, not surveillance

from EFF: The bill squanders several opportunities for meaningful reform and, astonishingly, manages to push civil liberties backwards, restricting surveillance reforms, not surveillance itself.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The disappearing right to earn a living

from The Atlantic: Want to become a florist in Louisiana? A home-entertainment installer in Connecticut? Or a barber anywhere? You’re going to need a license for that—and it’s going to cost you.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Why people will happily line up to be microchipped like dogs

from Zero Hedge: First come the sheep voluntarily, then come the holdouts brought in by force.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

What National Review gets wrong about the opioid crisis and the war on drugs

from TheDailyBell: Libertarians understand that drug prohibition itself has been the cause of the widespread use of hard drugs, while many conservatives remain blind.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

November 18, 2017

The spurious move to stifle speech on campus because it is 'dehumanizing'

from Reason: The latest tactics for intolerant leftists to silence opinions academics and like-minded students disagree with.
Indoctrination and Censorship

FCC approves TV technology that gives better pictures but less privacy

from Reuters: Of course they approved the technology, government likely subsidized it. It allows third parties to tap into television recording devices (cameras, voice activation), a fundamental piece of the puzzle if 1984 is the instruction manual.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

New rules with hefty fees set for growing, selling marijuana in California

from KTLA5: An array of licenses, permits and fees insure the black market will flourish in the Golden State for the foreseeable future.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

FDA loyalty to Big Pharma exposed in move to ban plant that’s CURING opioid addiction

from The Free Thought Project: Sometimes the goals of crony capitalism and the drug war clash.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange The Government is Not Us

VIDEO: Tucker Carlson - Can Government Force Speech Against Your Beliefs?

from LibertyPen/YouTube: Can state politicians demand a Catholic pregnancy center to pimp pro-abortion propaganda. The state of California says yes. Attorney Thomas Glessner is filing a lawsuit that says no.
Indoctrination and Censorship

High schoolers win $3 million against sheriff for warrantless drug search molestation

from NY Daily News: The molesting cops continue on the job, ever vigilant in their quest to rid drugs from bras everywhere.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange Police State America

November 17, 2017

Asset forfeiture gone wild: after pot raids, cops legally steal 7 houses

from High Times: Michigan cops seize the homes of seven medical marijuana patients. In practice, asset forfeiture (legalized theft) has become an irreplaceable (even though immoral) revenue stream for American law enforcement officers.
Police State America

Supreme Court abortion case could promote free speech by both sides

from USA Today: California idiocy goes to trial. Red states might have to stop requiring advice some consider propaganda. And pro or con, both sides could end up having to trust women more.
Indoctrination and Censorship The Government is Not Us

The state of street-level surveillance

from EFF: EFF’s “Street-Level Surveillance” project shines light on the advanced surveillance technologies that law enforcement agencies routinely deploy in our communities.
Police State America Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Tighter gun laws will leave libertarians better-armed than everybody else

from Reason: In a politically polarized America, gun control is destined to be obeyed primarily by its advocates.
2nd Amendment Assaults

California mandates send electricity prices skyrocketing, but Texas free market policies keeps prices low

from Fox News: In 2017, Californians paid almost double – 86 percent more – to keep the lights on and run manufacturing than did Texans.
Economic Policy: Statism Versus The Free Market

Jury acquits ‘nice guy’ who admitted selling cannabis to a cop

from Leafly: The Declaration of Independence states that America exists to produce a government that will protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness implies self-determination so long as it does not intrude on the rights of others. Gambling, drugs and prostitution are all pursuits of happiness and should be nullified by a jury.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

November 16, 2017

VIDEO: Why I Hate The Left, by Owen Benjamin

from Owen Benjamin/YouTube: In the video, Benjamin explains what he means by "the Left." He also talks about political debate, and the idea that if debate isn’t centered around common goals, it’s fruitless.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Gov't approves first-ever med with digital tracking system

from Newser: The stated pretense for this tracking pill is to remind mentally challenged patients to take their meds.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

VIDEO: Hillary's Deception - The Trump-Russia Dossier

from LibertyPen/YouTube: A collection of news clips that explain the issues surrounding the Trump-Russia dossier, a phony document fabricated by British intelligent agent Christopher Steele and funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption