Jacob Sullum: Unbanned in Phoenix

States don't have to fight war on drugs. On May 27 Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer asked a federal judge to decide whether her state’s Medical Marijuana Act, narrowly approved by voters last November, “complies with federal law” or is “preempted in whole or in part because of an irreconcilable conflict with federal law.” Oddly, Brewer expressed no preference between those ... MORE

Robert J. Mack: Watergate Times Three

White House corruption surfaces. You think Richard Nixon's presidency was the worst scandal ever? Well, so far anyway. It all started with a tape holding a door open at the Watergate complex in Washington, D. C., discovered by a security guard 39 years ago on June 17, 1972. That discovery started a sinister chapter in America's history, fueled by the fervent investigative work of ... MORE

VIDEO: Andrew Napolitano - Wealth, Taxes & Ponzi

James E. Miller: TSA And Unproductive Labor

TSA is essentially a government make-work program. Last month, I attended the 19th annual State Policy Network conference in Seattle, Washington. Although the conference was informative and enjoyable, I took home a different lesson on free-market enterprise. This was my first trip on an airplane since President Obama upped the intensity of the screening process the ... MORE

California's Effort To Shackle The 2nd Amendment

Gun control bill seeks to ban open carry. On Gov. Jerry Brown's desk is a bid to bar Californians from openly carrying firearms, legislation that could open a new front in the state's decades-old gun control debate. The measure, aimed at an increasingly popular tactic used by 2nd Amendment activists, would make California the first state since 1987 to outlaw the ... MORE

W. James Antle, III: Cafeteria Constitutionalists

Some thoughts for Constitution Day. Last week, in my inbox appeared an invitation to an event sponsored by a major Beltway liberal organization. They were putting on a talk about the dangers of the Tea Party subtitled "The conservative effort to make everything unconstitutional." In selling the shindig, my would-be hosts trotted out all the golden oldies made famous in ... MORE

VIDEO: Peter Schiff On The Future Of The U.S. Economy

John Stosell: Ponzi! Ponzi! Ponzi!


A vote buying scam or a retirement plan? Ponzi! Ponzi! Ponzi! There, I said it. To the extent people believe there are trust funds with their names on them, Social Security is absolutely a Ponzi scheme. So is Medicare. People need to hear it. Many people think that when the government takes payroll tax from their paychecks, it goes to something like a savings ... MORE

Thomas Lifson: Crony Capitalism At LightSquared

Worse than Solyndra. Add the name LightSquared to your crony capitalism watch list. The story emerging has elements even worse than the squandering of half a billion dollars on an Obama bundler's venture. Brendan Sasso of The Hill reports: LightSquared plans to provide high-speed wholesale wireless service nationwide through a network of satellites and land-based cell towers ... MORE

Wendy McElroy: To Serve And Protect -- The State

Protect yourself, because the police are paid not to care.  Last month, an international rights tribunal slapped America across the face through a showcase ruling that has no legal force. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that Jessica Lenahan could sue the Castle Rock, Colorado, police department for its refusal in 1999 to enforce a restraining order ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Is College A Rip-off?

Deep Corruption At The Obama Justice Department

by Quin Hillyer.  Start rattling the chains. Start ratcheting up the hue and cry. Fire up the masses. It's long past time to force mass resignations at, and possible prosecutions of members of, the Obama Justice Department -- and, more broadly, of the West Wing itself. Forgive all the links, but the scope of the corruption is so large as to defy adequate descriptions, in a single ... MORE

A. Barton Hinkle: The Renewable Energy Boondoggle

The truth about wind and solar power. Last month Glen Besa, the director of the Sierra Club's Virginia chapter, rebuked Dominion Virginia Power for failing to "jump-start the clean, renewable energy industry in Virginia. ... Offshore wind, which is plentiful off Virginia's coast, could create 10,000 jobs in the commonwealth. It is time for Dominion to make major investments ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Back To The Future

Part I   Part II   Part III  Those who are impressed by words seem to think that President Barack Obama made a great speech to Congress last week. But, when you look beyond the rhetoric, what did he say that was fundamentally different from what he has been saying and doing all along? Are we to continue doing the same kinds of things that have failed again and again, just because ... MORE

Mark Steyn - Pass This Jobs Bill!


Commentator Mark Steyn gives due respect to Obama's jobs bill.

Jacob Sullum: You Say 'Ponzi Scheme,' I Say Fraud

A distinction without a difference. At the Republican presidential debate in Tampa on Monday night, Mitt Romney said Rick Perry has needlessly "scared seniors" by calling Social Security "a Ponzi scheme." Romney, more sensitive to the anxieties of retirees, prefers to say "the American people have been effectively defrauded out of their    ... MORE

Jon N Hall: Inequality -- It's A Good Thing

The conflict between liberty and equality. Equality is the highest value of the American political left. So the left is always on the lookout for any trace of inequality. And of course they find it -- everywhere. That's because equality doesn't exist in this world, except when we get down on the micro level. On the micro level of quarks, electrons, photons, and such, equality reigns ... MORE

Gary Johnson: The Invisible Man Running For President

Why does the media shut him out? The 2012 race for the GOP nomination has been raging lately.  With the entrance of Rick Perry, many media outlets are becoming increasingly excited over the novelty of a new candidate.  What about the novelty of unique ideas? Governor Gary Johnson has been running for President since April 21st.  He was in the first Republican debate on  ... MORE

VIDEO: Ron Paul On The Welfare State

Walter E Williams: Too Much Higher Education

Just think about it. Too much of anything is just as much a misallocation of resources as it is too little, and that applies to higher education just as it applies to everything else. A recent study from The Center for College Affordability and Productivity titled "From Wall Street to Wal-Mart," by Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart, Matthew Denhart, Christopher     ... MORE