Tyrants seek to limit degree of success. Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits. The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill ... MORE
Government's power grab will be reversed or expanded. During the coming year, the threat to freedom will proceed on multiple fronts. Each will require specific action. We are rapidly running out of time to prevent the destruction of the quality, availability and freedom of American medicine, and our best and last chance is upon us. In March 2012 ... MORE
by Frank Miniter. If James Anthony Bailey and P.T. Barnum had seen the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) they just might have conceded their “Greatest Show on Earth” needed more guns, sideshows and characters. Because come one, come all, the SHOT Show has no comparison on Earth and, in fact, is especially interesting this year because gun ... MORE
Citizens get routine virtual pat-downs to walk sidewalks. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS in New York his department is looking to deploy Terahertz Imaging Detection scanners on the street in the war on “illegal guns.” Kelly said the scanners would be used in “reasonably suspicious circumstances” and intended to cut down on the number ... MORE
The proper vision of liberty includes responsibility. The idea of a society where people are free to "do their own thing" is an appealing one. It is implicit in the slogan "live and let live," which has been adopted by many libertarian groups, and it is also an idea that was central to the Marxist idea of liberation from the alienation of labor under capitalism (which is ... MORE
From where American exceptionalism came. The recent deaths of Vaclav Havel, first president of the Czech Republic and worldwide defender of human freedoms, and Kim Jong-Il, supreme leader of Stalinist North Korea, give cause for reflection on the important values of freedom and liberty. Their deaths occurring within a day of each other is mere ... MORE
They can't afford to lose small government voters. The warnings are coming from the unlikeliest of places. First Sarah Palin tells Fox News that “the worst thing that the GOP establishment can do is marginalize Ron Paul and his supporters.” Then that sentiment was echoed by Sen. Jim DeMint, speaking on The Laura Ingraham Show, when he warned ... MORE
An ignored disparity. With all the talk about "disparities" in innumerable contexts, there is one very important disparity that gets remarkably little attention -- disparities in the ability to create wealth. People who are preoccupied, or even obsessed, with disparities in income are seldom interested much, or at all, in the disparities in the ability to create ... MORE
The colostomy bag should be the agency's icon. In an about-face, the feds have admitted wrongdoing in the cases of two elderly women who say they were strip-searched at Kennedy Airport by overzealous screeners. Federal officials had initially insisted that all “screening procedures were followed” after Ruth Sherman, 89, and Lenore Zimmerman ... MORE
Authorities overriding freedom of expression and speech. The Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments in FCC v. Fox. In this important first amendment case, the Judges will determine whether to enact significant limitations to the Federal Communication Commission’s power to censor the airwaves. The proximate issue concerns FCC’s ... MORE
Because Washington creates more problems than it solves. This Republican primary season has proven quite promising for believers in governmental restraint. The landscape appeared bleak for conservatives alienated by the cable news partisanship and tiresome talk radio echo chamber. It was safe to assume America was set for another bland ... MORE
More Fed meddling won't help. The media have busied themselves with touting the big economic rebound they see brewing in the U.S. We hope they're right. But if they are, why is the Federal Reserve getting ready to print even more money? The media argument goes like this: After years of struggling, the economy is finally churning out jobs. Last month ... MORE
What Ron Paul's critics refuse to admit. When pundits and rival politicians call Ron Paul an “isolationist,” they mislead the American people—and they know it. They know it? How could they not: Ron Paul is for unilateral, unconditional free trade. He believes any American should be perfectly free to buy from or sell to any person in the world. In that ... MORE
An election on the Founders' vision? Of course President Obama is not concentrating on campaigning, White House press spokesmen assured us — as the president headed off to Chicago for three fundraisers and a drop-in at his campaign headquarters, two days after a high-roller fundraising choked off traffic five blocks from the White House, with the assistance of ... MORE
Bullies rule society when need is the basis of morality. The Beatles once rocked America with their cover version of “Money (That’s What I Want).” Today, I’ll rock you with my version. Capitalism don't get everything it's true. What it don't get I can't use. Now gimme capitalism (that's what I want). Anti-capitalist sentiment is creeping into American culture ... MORE
24 stats say America's economic future is not bright. Beware of bubbles of false hope. Right now there is a lot of talk about how the U.S. economy is improving, but it is all a lie. The mainstream media can be very seductive. When you sit down to watch television your brain tends to go into a very relaxed mode. In such a state, it becomes easy to slip ... MORE
Fines dished out for failing to buy the nonexistent. Peering ahead at the worst possible outcomes of Obamacare five years from now, imagine that individuals were being fined by the Department of Health and Human Services for failing to buy health insurance -- even though insurance companies have withdrawn from the market and aren't offering it ... MORE
Lame campaign to discret the Austrian school. When a presidential candidate declares, as Ron Paul has, “We’re all Austrians now,” it’s inevitable that his critics would try to discredit him—whether they understand what he’s talking about or not. That’s what Matthew Yglesias does in his Slate piece “What Is ‘Austrian Economics’?” I recommend the piece because it's ... MORE
U.S. struggles to stay in the top ten. Good news! On economic freedom, America is in the global Top 10. Bad news: America is No. 10 — one blond hair ahead of Denmark. According to the 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, released Thursday by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong enjoys the earth’s freest economy. The Chinese ... MORE
How's all that government meddling working out for ya? Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union an agricultural commissar from the Ukraine was summoned to the Agricultural Ministry in Moscow to report on the year's potato crop. "Ah, Comrade Minister," said the commissar, beaming, "If all the potatoes harvested this year were put into a single pile .... MORE
Only Paul seeks to minimize the role of the state. At a recent GOP debate, the presidential candidates were asked what they would be doing on a Saturday night if they weren’t running for president. The responses were typically safe and predictable, mostly having to do with watching sports, but one brave soul said he would be reading an economics textbook. ... MORE
A truly limited government is not extremism. Throughout the primary election season there's been a group unfairly villainized by the rest of the Republicans. Not the establishment (they can't be villianized enough for giving us McCain and trying to keep folks like Rand Paul from getting elected in 2010) -- I mean libertarians. Republicans like to villainize libertarians ... MORE
Drones catching on as new police state tool. Today, EFF filed suit against the Federal Aviation Administration seeking information on drone flights in the United States. The FAA is the sole entity within the federal government capable of authorizing domestic drone flights, and for too long now, it has failed to release specific and detailed information on .. MORE
Liberals getting high on the elixir of power. After all these years it took a great constitutional scholar who had spent a life cloistered in academia and street work to utterly rape our most cherished Constitution. This business of bypassing the Senate to pick “recess” appointments to positions most Americans have never heard of may ... MORE
Venture socialism is empathetic. Venture Capitalism is useful. Yes, it's true that unlike some Republicans, Democrats don't "enjoy firing people." They enjoy "investing" your money in exploding electric vehicles, bullet trains, and other highly unprofitable but morally satisfying economic misadventures. Venture socialism is certainly empathetic. ... MORE
America’s adventuresome spirit is not dead yet. President Obama, the naysayer in chief, may have grounded NASA’s government-issued astronauts, but space entrepreneurs are making plans to tank up and take off on their own. Last month, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced he is investing $200 million of his own fortune in a startup space ... MORE
Enthusiasm for the GOP frontrunner is lacking. Mitt Romney is the most improbable of presidential candidates: a weak juggernaut. He is poised to sweep every primary contest — a first for a non-incumbent. And yet, in Republican ranks there’s an abiding sense that he should be beatable — and beaten. It’s not that Romney doesn’t have fans. His events in New ... MORE
The labor force is not growing. Conservatives are anxious to see bad news in the drop in the headline unemployment rate to 8.5 percent. Yes, it's fabulous that employment is finally turning upwards, but the labor force isn't expanding as it should in a healthy recovery. The following two charts using data from the Household Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics ... MORE
Who will fight for individual liberty? It's election season, and so once again people look for heroes. Is Ron Paul one? Maybe. He's fought a long, lonely battle to limit the power of government. As government grows, I yearn for champions of freedom who fight back. Rep. Paul has done that. But it's a mistake to look for heroes in politics. It's too ugly a business. My ... MORE