Sean Murphy: Lawmakers Look To Expand Gun Rights

You only get one chance at self-defense. The high-profile shooting death of an unarmed Florida teenager by a neighborhood watch captain has prompted rallies and protests across the country, including in Oklahoma, but state leaders say it won’t affect the push for greater gun rights in Oklahoma. While officials in some states, like Florida, are taking a   ... MORE

Emily Miller: America's High Tax Leadership

Highest corporate tax in the developed world. The United States is now, officially, the worst place to do business in the developed world. On Sunday, Japan lowered its corporate tax rate in the hopes of luring business to its shores, handing the title of highest tax rate to the Land of the Free. The market reaction on Monday will tell whether money will begin flowing ... MORE

Andrew C. McCarthy: Statism Goes To Court

Health care should not be a federal concern at all. Well, I can’t imagine that that — that the Commerce Clause would — would forbid Congress from taking into account this deeply embedded social norm.” This was Solicitor General Donald Verrilli on Day Two of the great Obamacare case. At issue was Affordable Care Act’s most controversial aspect:  ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: How To Think LIke The Ruling Class

Understanding the origins of state power.   In the beginning ruling classes had a problem. It will be familiar to those acquainted with the Austrian critique of central economic planning: Rulers could not know what they needed to know to do the job they wanted to do. Societies, even seemingly primitive ones, are complex networks held together by ... MORE

VIDEO: Harry Browne - Maximizing Personal Freedom

Andrew Napolitano: The Real Question About ObamaCare

Can the government force you to eat broccoli?   This week, the Supreme Court measured Obamacare to see whether it fits within the confines of the Constitution. The big picture is whether the Constitution limits the behavior of the federal government to the plain meaning and historical context of the Constitution, or whether clever lawyers and politicians ... MORE

Matt Patterson: Obama Kills Coal - As Promised

Higher electricity prices will affect the poor most. “If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”- Candidate Barack Obama, 2008. Well, we can’t say we weren’t warned. This week, the unelected, unaccountable     ... MORE

VIDEO: Remy: Health Care Mandates vs Pizza Toppings

Dr. Mark Siegel: Individual Mandate Isn't The Worst Part

Doctors, patients, and the future of ObamaCare.   Imagine if the government mandated that you buy an expensive certificate to eat at a certain restaurant chain, but you quickly discovered that this chain only provided you with limited food options and didn’t hire additional chefs or waiters to cover the new volume of customers. Moreover, what if   ... MORE

Alex Dobuzinskis: Branson Calls To End The Drug War

The billionaire adventurist advocates liberty. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, involved in such ventures as selling space travel to the affluent, is now pushing for people to have the freedom to get high here on Earth without risking going to jail. The British billionaire argues criminal punishment fails to stem drug abuse, and is calling on countries     ... MORE

William Ward: The Unseen Message Of The Hunger Games

Sparking a thirst for liberty?    Though the liberal media and leftist Hollywood are wrapping themselves in The Hunger Games, the book series' pro-individualism, anti-socialist/communist/totalitarianism message has thus far eluded them -- but the legions of children reading the books are getting the message. When I learned that my teenage sons -- macho young lads ... MORE

Shikha Dalmia: Forget About Income Inequality

It's economic opportunities that will help the poor. Reading David Grusky’s essay is a strange experience: with the wrong diagnosis, he gets half of the right cure. Grusky maintains that the central problem confronting America is income inequality. He argues that the root cause of this malady lies in how rich people acquire their pre-tax income—by rigging the ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Human Livestock

S.F. GATE: Cops Pose As Bunnies To Write Seat Belt Tickets

And you thought bunnies were not in the rodent family? Officers in West Palm Beach, Fla., have come up with a diabolical new use for a giant bunny costume. According to the Palm Beach Post, a cop dressed in the costume Wednesday stood in a median with a sign that read “Have a safe, hoppy holiday. Buckle up!” While bemused motorists waved  ... MORE & VIDEO

Jacob Laksin: Obama's World Bank Pick Hates Capitalism

The president shows his true colors.   Imagine if President Obama appointed radical Noam Chomsky, who has denounced capitalism as a “murderously destructive catastrophe,” to head up a committee on economic growth. That’s less of a stretch than it may seem, considering Obama’s nominee to head the World Bank, current Dartmouth College  ... MORE

VIDEO: Public Pension Crisis: The Solution

Steve Chapman: Toward The Conquest Of World Poverty

Even communist eventually have to make peace with reality. Progress can often be defined as the stuff that happens while humanity is preoccupied with everything that is going wrong. On the surface, the first decade of the 21st century looks like an ugly parade of terrorism, war and economic convulsion. But in one important sense it stands as   ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: Californians Love Taxes

But they don't like government reform.  A funny thing happened after California officials announced the shutdown of 70 state parks in the face of an estimated $33 million in budget cutbacks: Private companies, wealthy donors, nonprofit organizations and local governments came up with ways to keep many parks open. Eleven parks have already been    ... MORE

George F. Will: Economic Liberty Needs Protection

Using regulations as a weapon.   Ali Bokhari, now 39, emigrated from Pakistan in 2000 and eventually settled in Nashville, Tenn., as a taxi driver, and soon experienced a quintessentially American itch, a nagging sense that “I cannot grow.” But he had an idea: “I can build a better business model for something Nashville has been missing.” He built it, and now knows ... MORE

John Stossel: Big Government Makes Us Small

Know-it-all politicians are job killers.   Politicians say they "create jobs." In fact, only the private sector generates the information needed to create real, productive jobs. Since this current post-recession job recovery is the slowest in 80 years, you'd think that even know-it-all politicians would want to sweep away the labyrinth of government regulations that    ... MORE

VIDEO: Public Pension Crisis: The Problem