LibertyPen

September 5, 2017

Prices should rise during crises like Hurricane Harvey

from Reason: Prices serve an important function. They attract resources to where they are needed most. This is not price gouging, it is the beauty of capitalism at work.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Trump quietly nominates mass surveillance advocate to “protect” your privacy rights

from Activist Post: Like those who came before him, Trump is an authoritarian and as such wants to empower the state at the expense of the individual. The government is not us.
The Government is Watching Every Move You Make

The Utah nurse is not alone — police have a history of abusing professionals rendering aid

from The Free Thought Project: The Body Cam footage of a nurse being violent arrested for doing her job and refusing to break the law may be shocking, but it's not uncommon. Badges do not put one above the law.
Police State America

REPORT: America’s top universities deny students fair hearings

from FIRE: A new survey reveals that the overwhelming majority of America’s top universities fail to provide students accused of serious misconduct with the most basic elements of fair procedure.
Indoctrination and Censorship

September 4, 2017

The greening of Gore's bank account

from Forbes: How crony capitalists used environmentalist propaganda to justify fattening their accounts with taxpayer dollars.

Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

How society grew cold

from The Daily Bell: Compelling essay about how dependence on institutions is now out of control. A far more interesting piece than the title suggests.

The Government is Not Us

How Facebook, Twitter silence conservative voices online

from The Hill: The intolerant left recognizes they cannot win the arena of ideas. Therefore, censorship.

Indoctrination and Censorship

Congress is finally working to defund civil asset forfeiture

from The Hill: Jeff Sessions may be thwarted in this ratcheting of the police state.

Police State America

September 2, 2017

Hollywood & New Yorkers Agree: We should aspire to be more like starving Venezuelans

from Squawker: The Bernie Sanders' mentality of imposing universal poverty as a means to achieve equality.
Leftists would be wise to grasp the wisdom of Milton Friedman: “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.
A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”

Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Ohio’s Campus Free Speech Act helps build free minds, free people

from The Hill: Free speech is the best antidote for poisonous ideas. That is why the intolerant left is so scared of it.
Students need to explore their ideas, not constrain them. Education is about learning how to think, not being told what to think.

Indoctrination and Censorship

FDA pushing forward with terrible menu-labeling rules

from The Hill: Unless this idiotic provision of ObamaCare is repealed, menu labeling will continue to be abnormally costly and ineffective (since costly and ineffective is the normal state of government).

Regulation Nation

September 1, 2017

Cop attempts to force a nurse to violate hospital policy and US Constitution

from Salt Lake Tribune: Video shows Utah nurse being dragged into police car after refusing to let officer take blood from unconscious victim. Some cops seem to forget they are public servants and not kings making up the law as they go.

Police State America

Memos show Comey cleared Hillary before interviewing her and 17 other key witnesses

from the Free Thought Project: Now we know for certain. The fix was in.

The Government is Not Us

Battlefield America is the new normal. We are not in Mayberry anymore

from LewRockwell.com: “If we’re training cops as soldiers, giving them equipment like soldiers, dressing them up as soldiers, when are they going to pick up the mentality of soldiers? If you look at the police department, their creed is to protect and to serve. A soldier’s mission is to engage his enemy in close combat and kill him. Do we want police officers to have that mentality? Of course not.”— Arthur Rizer, former police officer

Police State America

When government can't take "not guilty" for an answer

from Reason.com: The federal government cannot let go of legal proceedings resulting from the 2014 Bundy ranch standoff over control of western lands. The feds are engaged in an extended grudge match against western dissidents, without regard for the cost to justice or the taxpayers.

Justice is a Result, Not Just a Process

Terrorism? You stand a higher chance of being crushed by a vending machine

from the Daily Bell: Human beings have a 1 in 3,000,000 chance of suffering from a terror attack. Yet there is currently a 100% chance that Social Security runs out of money in 2034. Only one of these manages to find its way into the news.
Defense versus the War Machine