Jacob Sullum: Funeral Rights And Free Speech

Sacrificing liberty in an ostentatious display of patriotism.   On June 21, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law that made flag burning a state crime, ruling that it violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. A month later, Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas) introduced a bill that made flag burning a federal crime. Approved by     ... MORE

Amy Payne: Taxpayers' Auto Bailout Losses Mounting

UAW the winners, taxpayers the predictable losers. Taxpayers will lose even more on the auto bailout than previously thought, as the Treasury has just revised its estimate upward to $25 billion. This may still underestimate the losses to come—yet President Obama plans to tout the auto bailout as a key accomplishment of his Administration.   ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: November's Choices

We are in terrible straits this presidential election.    We have a choice between a president who has posed more of a danger to personal freedom than any in the past 150 years and a Republican team that wants to return to Bush-style big government. President Barack Obama has begun to show his hand at private fundraisers and in unscripted      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Corporate Freeloaders

Caroline Baum: Flying With Milton Friedman

Milton proved ideas matter. As I was leaving the house for a full day of travel, I wanted something to read during airport holdovers and almost certain delays. My only prerequisite was that the book be small enough to fit in my purse. Whether I grabbed Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom because of recent tributes to the Nobel laureate — he    ... MORE

Ayn Rand's Long Journey To The Heart Of American Politics

by Jennifer Burns.    In the heyday of her celebrity, it often seemed that the only appropriate public response to Ayn Rand was dismissal. In 1961, Newsweek magazine sent a reporter to investigate the growing circle of devotees clustered around the right wing novelist. Visiting the New York City headquarters of Rand’s Objectivist movement, the reporter declared ... MORE

VIDEO: Voting Libertarian For One Election

Some In GOP Argue For Repeal Of 17th Amendment

The way to return to states' rights.  A Senate candidate's comment about repealing the 17th Amendment has some people thumbing through their Constitutions and others talking about the issue of states' rights. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican, is a former House of Representatives member who is running in Michigan against an incumbent, Senator Debbie    ... MORE

Europe's Worst Police State: 'Thought Criminals' Targeted

by Santiago Alvarez.     Every year the German government proudly promotes its persecution of peaceful dissidents, which it lumps together with violent criminals as “enemies of the [German] constitution.” Never mind that Germany doesn’t even have a constitution. On July 18 of this year, the German government released the figures of government persecution ... MORE

Mike Riggs: Obama Is Making It Difficult To Get Pain Meds

The administration declares war on pain relief.    In July 2011, the Office of National Drug Control Policy released its longterm plan for reducing prescription drug abuse. One of the bullet points in that report was this: "Write and disseminate a Model Pain Clinic Regulation Law within 12 months." Twelve months later, the ONDCP has yet to (publicly)   ... MORE

John Stossel: There Ought Not To Be A Law

Free individuals do everything better.    I’m a libertarian in part because I see a false choice offered by the political left and right: government control of the economy -- or government control of our personal lives. People on both sides think of themselves as freedom lovers. The left thinks government can lessen income inequality. The   ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas DiLorenzo - Myth Of The Robber Barons

Rick Dewsburry: U.S. Government Is Spying On Everyone

Details released by Wikileaks.    Anyone who takes a photograph at high-risk locations is logged as a suspected terrorist on a vast network of secret spy cameras linked to the U.S. Government, according to leaked emails. People pointing cameras in New York are regarded as suspicious and the facial recognition images of them from the civilian CCTV are   ... MORE