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

September 26, 2017

In Venezuela, they were teachers and doctors. To buy food, they became prostitutes.

from Miami Herald: As Venezuela’s economy continues to collapse amid food shortages, hyperinflation and U.S. sanctions, waves of economic refugees have fled the country.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

RT may soon be dropped by US providers, courtesy of McCain & Graham 

from RT: RT is a Russian news outlet and should be taken in context. The cellophane patriot McCain wants them censored, but that is not the values of the true American patriots who founded this land.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Walter E Williams: Not a Day Care

from Creator's Syndicate: Many colleges have become hotbeds of what might be labeled as enlightened racism. Students at the University of California, Berkeley created "safe spaces" for people of color.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

There's nothing funny about Trump's troubling policing edicts

from Reason: The president is sending a message that law enforcement has more latitude now to bend and break the rules.
Police State America

Chicago’s awesome new soda tax produces predicted results

from HotAir: "The local retailers report that more than 4 in 10 local stores have seen a drop in beverage sales of at least 30%."
Regulation Nation

St Louis protests: Journalists say they were beaten and arrested by police while covering demonstrations

from Independent: Cops beat up the reporters who were chronicling their actions.
Police State America

September 25, 2017

Has asset forfeiture gone too far? Damn right Skippy!

from FoxNews: How the legalized theft of one man's truck brings the morality of civil asset forfeiture to light.
Police State America

Oklahoma is imprisoning so many people it can’t hire enough guards to keep up

from In These Times: “Prison guard unions often have a strong incentive to push back against reforms, because so much of what we spend on incarceration goes to correctional officers,” explains John Pfaff, a Fordham Law School professor.
Police State America

Scientists go after the media for highlighting a study showing IPCC climate models were wrong

from Watts Up With That!: Sadly, these scientists cannot rejoice that things are not as bad as they thought because the new finding threatens their funding.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

UC Berkeley’s ‘Free Speech Week’ officially canceled, appeared to be set-up from the start

from The Mercury News: Email suggests organizers didn’t intend for the event to happen
Indoctrination and Censorship

Sweden's 'man-free' music festival prompts response from transgender people

from Fox News: The ban on men, it turns out, only applies to what Knyckare described as “cisgender men”—which is a term for men whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. That's not very PC.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Judge approves surveillance on Reno buses

from Mohave Valley Daily News: If you are in public, you are in government's space and will be monitored and recorded. That is what public means these days.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

September 23, 2017

The treasonous media hates America

from LibertyCrier: Compelling evidence is presented in an 11-minute video of Trump's words and media coverage.
Media Bias on Parade

Unlawful rental registries: Coming soon to a city near you

from The Free Thought Project: Unlike the federal government, local government cannot print money. In order to grow, they have to mine for new revenue sources.
The Government is Not Us

Cop who threw handcuffed man into lake and watched him drown, gets only 10 days in jail

from The Free Thought Project: To prove once and for all that no one is above the law, the state punishes one of its own.
Police State America

Look around! Common law works. government statute doesn’t.

from The Daily Bell: Wouldn’t that be great if you could simply base your actions on common sense and respect for the standards of a community?
Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Rand Paul: ‘I won’t be bribed or bullied’ on repeal vote

from The Hill: Rand Paul is one of the few politicians who was actually committed to repealing Obamacare. He has voted to do so each time. But he will not rubber stamp Obamacare Lite.
Regulation Nation

California demands money from Gatorade to protect water from slander

from Reason: California politicians take nitwittery to the next level in order to shakedown a productive corporation.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

September 22, 2017

The politician behind California high speed rail now says it's 'almost a crime' 

from Reason: The creator of the scheme is suing to keep it from happening.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

In Florida it’s illegal to power your home with solar panels—thanks to lobbying 

from The Free Thought Project: The function of government is about enriching cronies, not representing citizens.
The Government is Not Us

Unleashing the power of mockery on annoying social justice warriors

from Creators Syndicate: In a culture where humorless leftists scolds seek to impose their rule upon us normals by sucking every drop of joy out of life, it is the conservative smartass who is the true subversive.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

 🎬  Do You Have the Courage to Dissent?

from LearnLiberty: Does peer pressure have you running with the crowd or are you guided by the judgment of your mind?
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

This is how Californians take back their privacy

from The Sacramento Bee: An internet privacy bill failed to pass California’s Legislature this session, so advocates are pushing a measure for the November 2018 ballot.

Feminist claims sex dolls can be raped 

from Milo: If boys can be girls by simple proclamation, isn't anything possible?
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

September 21, 2017

Who truly imperils our free society? 

from Creators Syndicate: A revealing and insightful look into the barbarians destroying America from within.
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Hours after Hurricane Irma, Miami-Dade county tickets residents for code violations 

from New York Post: Government wasted no time identifying Hurricane Irma not just as a storm but a windfall.
The Government is Not Us

John Stossel: Detoured by Government

from Creators Syndicate: More and more Americans are learning that licensing is about revenue collection and restricting competition for incumbent businesses. It is not about consumer protection but rather cronyism.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Police in Oklahoma City fatally shoot man who was holding a stick

from New York Post: 2 cops see a man accused of no crimes holding a stick. One tasers him and the other shoots. The man dies. Cops get a vacation, man gets a funeral.
Police State America

France set to make wolf-whistling at women illegal

from Milo: Governments are relentless in their efforts control every facet of human behavior. Even the most benign expressions of unapproved thought are to be criminalized. France takes the lead.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

DHS pays police millions to ticket and prosecute motorists

from MassPrivatei: The odds of being ticketed by police are increasing at an alarming rate, as politicians and law enforcement invent new ways to take money from the public.
Police State America

September 20, 2017

The silencing of dissent

from TruthDig: The ruling elites, who grasp that the reigning ideology of global corporate capitalism and imperial expansion no longer has moral or intellectual credibility, have mounted a campaign to shut down the platforms given to their critics.
Indoctrination and Censorship

Venezuelan price controls lead to predictable shortages

from Reason: Venezuelan grocery stores only have products shoppers don't want.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Princeton’s Constitution Day lecture titled ‘F*ck Free Speech’

from National Review: This logic-challenged professor knocks those who value free speech on campus, while using her position as a campus leader to spearhead a project that openly calls the president “racist” (hate speech if directed at a lefty).
Indoctrination and Censorship

Trump vindicated: report says Obama government wiretapped Trump campaign

from Breitbart: Just in case you watch CNN or were away for the weekend, you may have missed this one.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Governments turn tables by suing public records requesters

from Associated Press: The new tactic of corrupt government agencies is to sue those make  FOIA requests, banking that the high costs of defending themselves will silence them.
The Government is Not Us

Unapproved thought is violence

from American Thinker: The cockamamie rationale that uttering unapproved or unconventional speech is can be perceived as violence to some, thereby justifying actual violent behavior.
Indoctrination and Censorship

September 19, 2017

How the government can steal your stuff: 6 questions about civil asset forfeiture answered

from The Conversation: Civil asset forfeiture laws let authorities, such as federal marshals or local sheriffs, seize property – cash, a house, a car, a cellphone – that they suspect is involved in criminal activity.
Police State America

Stop encouraging people to live in dangerous places

from Reason: Make Harvey and Irma our last blank checks, and from here on out, have people pay their own freight for living dangerously.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Walter E Williams: The Welfare State Legacy

from Creators Syndicate: So you think that the problems of today's black Americans are a result of a legacy of slavery, racial discrimination and poverty?
The Welfare State: Promoting Dependence

Internet raises $80k for hot dog vendor mugged by government

from Foundation for Economic Freedom: A cop steals money from a hot dog vendor's wallet. Then, the Internet provides justice.
Police State America

🎬  So you think money is the root of all evil?

from LibertyPen: Excerpts from Atlas Shrugged in response to the comment that money is the root of all evil. From the brilliant Ayn Rand
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

America does not need socialism, but more laissez-faire capitalism

from Capitalism Magazine: Very often bad ideas do not die. They simply reappear during periods of supposed social and political crisis in slightly different intellectual garb.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

September 18, 2017

Should you tell the cops you have a gun?

from Reason: Some gun owners argue that disclosure is considerate and prudent, while others worry it will escalate a routine traffic stop into a tense, unpleasant, and possibly life-threatening encounter.
2nd Amendment Assaults

25 most commonly used recreational drugs in America

from St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The drugs Americans prefer most. Of course, all of them are either illegal or severely restricted and heavily taxed. Government reverence for the pursuit of happiness is not exactly that of the founders.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Irma watch: How likely are prohibitions on ‘price gouging’ to help the poor?

from The American Spectator: Some gun owners argue that disclosure is considerate and prudent, while others worry it will escalate a routine traffic stop into a tense, unpleasant, and possibly life-threatening encounter.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Gun rights top media poll

from The Daily Caller: Lost in the storm of hurricane coverage, a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll demonstrates Americans’ growing support for gun rights. 

2nd Amendment Assaults

John Stossel: The best part of the Constitution

from Reason: Stossel shares his thoughts about Constitution Day (September 17).
Individual Liberty: America's First Principle

Will Las Vegas be ‘Amsterdam on steroids’? Door opens for pot lounges

from NBC News: What happens in Vegas will still stay in Vegas — but perhaps no longer behind closed doors, at least when it comes to pot.
The War on Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

September 16, 2017

Maduro drops all pretense, vows to become a dictator to ensure “economic peace” in Venezuela 

from PanAm Post: End stage socialism for all to see. Leftists and children should be careful what they wish for.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Sheriff forced to pay own money for sending SWAT team after cop who criticized him 

from The Free Thought Project: A Louisiana Sheriff, who sent a SWAT team after a fellow officer who exposed his corruption, is now being held accountable with a civil lawsuit. Of course, no criminal or disciplinary actions have been taken.
Police State America

 🎬  Thomas DiLorenzo - The Revolution of 1913 

LibertyPen: Ever wonder how our beautiful country, founded on individual liberty, has morphed into its present state of a powerful central government attempting to dictate every facet of your life? The events of 1913 contains the answers.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

The self-driving vehicle future will be the end of privacy 

from The Activist Post: The vehicles sensors will constantly be sucking up data (weather, traffic, speed, location, time, date) and feeding it into the navigation system, potentially revealing private details to law enforcement and other hackers.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Cops claim standard procedure used as teen is tasered to death 

from The Free Thought Project: Cops caught on video tasering a teen in his genitals until he died and saying they were going to kill him, now claim this is standard procedure.
Police State America