Jacob Sullum: Is That A Spy In Your Pocket?

Warrantless cellphone tracking threatens your privacy.   In January the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that tracking a suspect's movements by attaching a GPS transmitter to his car counts as a "search" under the Fourth Amendment. But because the majority opinion emphasized the physical intrusion needed to surreptitiously install ... MORE

Richard F Miniter: Education Decline, One Step At A Time

SMART arguments for dumb ideas.   Some time ago, I joined the National Council for the Social Studies, the NCSS. I've since had that membership canceled -- I suspect because they read some of my pieces and realize I'm neither a social studies teacher nor a groupie. However, thanks to that fleeting association, I remain on several NCSS e-mailing lists ... MORE

VIDEO: Phillip K Howard - The Death Of Common Sense

Cal Thomas: The Citizen And The Government

A moral, political and economic lesson.  In the Aesop Fable "The Grasshopper and the Ant," there are moral, economic and political lessons for our time, or any other. As the story goes, the lazy grasshopper wiles away his summer days singing and hopping and having an all-around good time while industrious ants work and march and struggle to carry ... MORE

Washington Times: Land Of The Drones

Government is gaining ground in the sky. In the Age of Obama, Uncle Sam is watching. High-tech surveillance aircraft once limited to the use of the world’s largest military organizations are now finding their way to local law-enforcement agencies. With the ability to put an eye in the sky over every square inch of U.S. soil, these machines ... MORE

VIDEO: Penn Jillette On Obama's Drug Hypocrisy


strong language warning

Let's Not Forget Why Our Ancestors Came Here

by Richard Rahn. If you are a nonimmigrant American reading this, do you know why your ancestors came to America? The fact is, a large percentage of immigrants were trying to escape various forms of government persecution, including religious and tax persecution. The American Revolution was set off, in part, by a tax on tea that ranged from about 10 percent to 33 percent ... MORE

How Strong Property Rights Promote Social Equality

by Timothy B. Lee.  In today’s poetic justice news, Star Wars creator George Lucas is planning to take revenge on his meddlesome Marin Valley neighbors. For years, he’s been trying to get permission to build a new studio in Marin County. But his neighbors wouldn’t budge, insisting that it was a place for homes, not businesses. So now Lucas is pulling out ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Big Lies In Politics

Unrealistic hopes spawn liars.    The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy them, and only in the short run. The current outbreaks of riots in Europe show what happens when the truth catches up with both ... MORE

Greg Beato: Michelle Obama Shrinks Your Snickers

King-sized no more. In 1998 a Colorado handyman got swept up in an avalanche that buried his snowmobile and left him stranded in a blizzard. For five days and four nights, rescue teams struggled to locate him. Luckily, the Snickers bar he had in his pocket was a king-sized version. Every one of its 510 calories helped him survive his ordeal.   ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - When People Don't Matter

Walter E Williams: Should Black People Tolerate This?

Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered.     Ninety-four percent of the time, the murderer is another black person. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1976 and 2011, there were 279,384 black murder victims. Using the 94 percent figure means that 262,621 were murdered by other blacks. Though blacks are 13 percent of the     ... MORE

Veronique de Rugy: America's Small-Business Fetish

When it comes to job creation, size doesn't matter. On February 12, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sent a message to his 62,550 followers on Twitter: “Small business is the job growth engine in this country and we need to pursue policies that reflect that reality to create jobs.” Cantor was wrong on both counts. Despite overwhelming conventional  ... MORE

VIDEO: Are Free Markets Fair?

Thomas Sowell: A Book For Republicans

Class warfare: good politics and bad government.   Democrats have been having a field day with the cry of "tax cuts for the rich" — for which Republicans seem to have no reply. This is especially surprising, because Democrats made the same arguments back in the 1920s, and the Republicans then not only had a reply, but one that eventually carried the day  ... MORE

Peter Ferrara: Obama's Unemployment Rate Stuck At 11%

America's decline is not inevitable.   This latest recession started in December, 2007.  Since the Great Depression 75 years ago, recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously lasting 16 months, not counting this latest spooky downturn. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the recognized scorekeeper of when  ... MORE

Laurence M Vance: The War On Drugs: Cui Bono?


Who benefits from government's drug war? Cui bono, a maxim of Cassius quoted by Cicero meaning “who benefits?” or “to whose advantage?” is a useful principle when investigating political assassinations, conspiracy theories, mysterious deaths — and the war on drugs. The war on drugs, which actually began in the United States before World War I with the  ... MORE

Jim Mahoney: California Dreamin': A Nightmare Of Collapse

A state dying from self-inflicted wounds. There was a time when the California dream conjured visions of sun, endless summers, hot love, cool breezes, and muscle cars.  The California economy, once the world's 7th largest, supported these dreams -- carrying us into the future on its brawny young shoulders.  Innovation in aviation, computers, and countless ... MORE

VIDEO: Harry Browne - Cashing Out Social Security

Daniel J Flynn: Football Does A Body Good

Nannyism doesn't.    Should consenting adults be allowed to play football? Prior to a debate on the subject at New York University earlier this month, 53 percent of the audience opposed a ban on college football (and just 16 percent supported). Following the debate, 53 percent of the audience supported a ban. That dramatic opinion shift comes in ... MORE

Daren Jonescu: The Vanishing Feeling Of Freedom

It is hard for some to understand what is at stake. The primary reason why it is so difficult to defend political liberty today is because freedom is a rational construct, and thus cannot be understood by the irrational.  Children, or adults whose moral reasoning skills are stalled at childish levels, are unable to experience it -- they literally don't   ... MORE