Obama's dishonesty obscures real issues. Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency's massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess. The belated recognition of this ... MORE
No good guys in Syria. There is an almost unanimous consensus that, when it comes to Syria, the United States has a “duty” to do something. The arguments for intervention range from spreading democracy to stopping the slaughter of civilians. Unfortunately, few have provided cogent arguments for why American soldiers should be ... MORE
Why the oversight can never be adequate. It’s clear that congressional oversight of the government’s intelligence activities is either inadequate or flawed. Asked if he believes there has been enough oversight of the NSA, Senate majority leader Harry Reid was dismissive last week: “Enough is something that’s in the eye of the beholder.” ... MORE
Another reason the war on drugs is a failure. A trillion dollars deep and arguably no further forward, the war on
drugs continues to meet new fronts. Only recently have designer drugs
taken hold in forms that effectively mimic the physiologic effects of
the substances we've spent decades and lives and fortunes to eliminate.
The target moves ... MORE
The extent of government lawlessness is massive. The Associated Press dropped a bombshell report yesterday that claims the NSA's secret Internet spy program Prism is just a small part of a much more "expansive and intrusive" digital spying effort. According to the AP, the NSA copies ALL INTERNET traffic in and out of the United ... MORE
The evidence is abundant. Are Americans becoming more libertarian on cultural issues? I see evidence that they are, in poll findings and election results on three unrelated issues -- marijuana legalization, same-sex marriage and gun rights. Start with pot. Last November voters in the states of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana, ... MORE
Contempt for liberty by progressives. Grutter v. Bollinger was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the University of Michigan Law School's racial admissions policy. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the majority, said the U.S. Constitution "does not prohibit the Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in ... MORE
by Sheldon Richman. It’s bad enough the federal government spies on us. Must it insult our intelligence too? The government’s response to Edward Snowden’s leaks about the National Security Agency’s secret monitoring of the Internet and collection of our telephone logs is a mass of contradictions. Officials have said the disclosures are (1) old ... MORE
Claiming citizenship will be enough. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out an Arizona law that required evidence of citizenship when people register to vote, in a victory for minority-rights advocates and the Obama administration. The justices, voting 7-2, said Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship law runs afoul of a federal statute that sets out ... MORE