VIDEO: Another Federal Assault On States' Rights


War against drugs becomes war against doctors and their patients.

Iowa Poll: Ron Paul Is The "Most Principled" Candidate

CBSNews.com.  When Republicans and Independents who are planning to attend next month’s Iowa Republican caucuses were asked who they believe is the “most principled” candidate in the Republican field, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas ranked first with 24 percent, according to a Des Moines Register poll released Sunday. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was second with 17 ... MORE

Anthony Gregory: Do You Believe In Magic?

Free market magic, that is. I protested when San Francisco began cracking down on Happy Meals with its cleverly worded edict to prohibit restaurants from giving away toys aimed at children with food that did not satisfy its nutritional standards. But perhaps I despaired too soon. As it turns out, the magic of the market, the ingenuity of McDonald’s, and the incompetence of   ... MORE

ViDEO: Harry Browne - The Coming Devaluation


Insightful economic conversation (taped 9-3-70) remains relevant today.
Note Mr. Browne predicts that, "as an act of economic desperation," our government will have to "renege on their promise to foreign governments to pay one ounce of gold for every $35 turned in at the Treasury." On August 15, 1971, the Nixon Administration did so.

Michael Hurd: Obama's Kind Of Immigrants

The welfare-regulatory state is the problem. Newsmax.com reports: Illegal immigration costs Arizona $1.6 billion a year – a staggering 19 percent of the state’s budget – Gov. Jan Brewer said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, adding that the Obama administration is turning a blind eye to it since migrants will help register Democratic voters. “It’s unfortunate ... MORE

John Stossel: Blocking The Path Out Of Poverty

To promote the welfare state.  Have you noticed how government takes sides against the little guy? Street vending has been a path out of poverty for Americans. And like other such paths (say, driving a taxi), this one is increasingly difficult to navigate. Why? Because entrenched interests don't like competition. So they lobby their powerful friends to erect high ... MORE

VIDEO: Missing You - The Incandescent Light Bulb Song


Remy mourns the impending loss of his beloved incandescent light bulbs.
BEAT THE 1/1/12 BAN:  Buy 48 100W incandescent bulbs for $35.

Greg Beato: Pepper Spray's Progressive Origins

Government's favorite air freshener also works for individuals.  In late September, a New York cop started spritzing Occupy Wall Street protestors with the predatory zeal of a Macy’s fragrance demonstrator dispensing free samples of Kim Kardashian’s latest perfume. Then, Seattle’s finest chemically neutralized an 84-year-old grannie. Next there was Lt. John Pike in ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Ever Wonder Why?


America is the exception, not the rule.

The Unintended Consequences Of Racial Preferences

by George Will.  The Supreme Court faces a discomfiting decision. If it chooses, as it should, to hear a case concerning racial preferences in admissions at the University of Texas, the court will confront evidence of its complicity in harming the supposed beneficiaries of preferences the court has enabled and encouraged. In the 1978 Bakke case concerning preferences in a      ... MORE

Feds Declare Advocating Jury Nullification Is A Crime

The heavy hand of the state strikes again.  One of the long-term legacies of expanding the powers of federal prosecutors is that they now are able to criminalize just about everything, including legal behavior. The latest outrage is in New York City, where the feds have charged Julian P. Heicklen, a 79-year-old retired chemistry professor from Penn State University ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Is Salt A Silent Killer Or Silent Seasoning?

Bad science pushes busybody federal effort forward.   "Put down the salt shaker and back away from the table. And don't even think about going for the chips." Those are lines you may hear on a TV police drama of the future, when the federal drive to curb salt consumption reaches cruising speed. Last year, the government's Institute of Medicine urged the Food and Drug     ... MORE

VIDEO: The Vulnerable Underbelly Of Newt Gingrich

Rand Paul: War On Terror Doesn't Justify Retreat On Rights

Constitution entitles American citizens to civilian trial.    James Madison, father of the Constitution, warned, “The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become instruments of tyranny at home.” Abraham Lincoln had similar thoughts, saying, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Ending Income Inequality?

A question for Paul Krugman.   Benefiting from a hint from an article titled "Is Harry Potter Making You Poorer?", written by my colleague Dr. John Goodman, president of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, I've come up with an explanation and a way to end income inequality in America, possibly around the world. Joanne Rowling was a welfare mother in ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Gingrich And Immigration

The crux of the matter.  Now that Newt Gingrich has become the latest in a series of Republican front-runners, he is getting the kinds of scrutiny and attacks that have done in other front-runners. One of the issues that have aroused concern among conservative Republicans is that of amnesty for illegal immigrants, especially after Gingrich said that it would not be  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Public Sector Unions

Bill Frezza: Cause Of Market Failure In Higher Education

What China knows that we do not.   A little noticed Associated Press news story last week reported that China now plans to phase out college majors that consistently produce unemployable graduates. Any program in which 60% of the graduates failed to find work for two consecutive years would face funding reductions until supply was brought back into balance ... MORE

NY Times: Democrats Abandon White Working Class

Party to focus on a welfare state coalition.  For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class. All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working ... MORE

WSJ Editorial: The United States Of EPA

Ms. Jackson's agency takes over automobile design. Here's one good way to consider the vote in 2012: It's about whether to re-elect President Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which these days runs most the U.S. economy. The EPA heaved its weight against another industry this month, issuing a regulation to sharply increase fuel     ... MORE

VIDEO: Ron Paul's Path To Smaller Government


Limited government begins with making the 10th Amendment matter.

Washington Times: Time To Stock Up On Light Bulbs

Government ban on mercury-free fixtures starts Jan 1.  Within four weeks, it will be a crime to manufacture a 100-watt version of Thomas A. Edison’s brilliant invention. Thanks to a Democratic Congress and the signature of President George W. Bush in 2007, anti-industrial zealots at the Energy Department received authority to blot out one of the greatest achievements of the industrial age.       ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Balanced-Budget Amendment Delusion

Wrong tool to halt the growth of government.  When I graduated from college in 1976, I got a job in Washington with the National Taxpayers Union, which was working to get a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget. Someone graduating today could sign up there and pursue the same goal. The balanced-budget amendment has never ... MORE

Josh Wolford: Police Are Tracking Your Every Move

Law enforcement aid requires personal liberty sacrifice.  Privacy. It’s on everyone’s minds these days. A couple of months ago it was Apple and Google that were drawing the ire of consumers with the storing of location data. And of course, Facebook is always mentioned when people discuss their concerns about online privacy. But as technology gets better, and ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Fairness Or Freedom?

Karin McQuillan: Scientific Revolt Against Global Warming

Global warming "consensus" losing ground. Global warming became a cause to save life on earth before it had a chance to become good science. The belief that fossil fuel use is an emergency destroying our planet by CO2 emissions took over the media and political arena by storm. The issue was politicized so quickly that the normal scientific process was stunted. ... MORE

Mark Steyn: More, More, More

What does government have in common with a porn actress? I see Andrea True died earlier this month. The late disco diva enjoyed a brief moment of global celebrity in 1976 with her ubiquitous glitterball favorite: More More More.  In honor of Andrea’s passing, I have asked my congressman to propose the adoption of this song as the U.S.     ... MORE

New Poll: Ron Paul With Firm Lead In Iowa

Candidate largely ignored by all but the people.  Texas Congressman Ron Paul continues to boast high numbers in public polls despite the lack of media attention that he has received throughout the race for the GOP primary. Just prior to the start of last night’s GOP debate, Paul’s poll numbers were at their highest since the start of the race. According to Revolution PAC ... MORE

VIDEO: Andrew Napolitano - What If There Was Tyranny?


What if freedom was a myth?

John Stossel: Land Of Free Speech -- Sometimes

We're proud that America is the land of free speech. That right is recognized in the First Amendment, and we usually take it seriously. It wasn't always the case. In John Adams' administration, the Sedition Act made it a crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment, "to write, print, utter or publish ... any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government ... ... MORE

Larry Elder: Hey OWS, Wealth Isn't A Civil Right

Why Peter is getting very uneasy.  There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Everything demanded by the Occupy Wall Streeters -- whether "free" health care, a "world-class education" or a "guaranteed living-wage income regardless of employment" status -- costs money. When a CEO makes a lot of money in the private sector, it is because his company -- rightly or ... MORE

John Stossel: The Lost Lesson Of Thanksgiving

Pilgrims learned all about the "tragedy of the commons."    Had today's political class been in power in 1623, tomorrow's holiday would have been called "Starvation Day" instead of Thanksgiving. Of course, most of us wouldn't be alive to celebrate it. Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native   ... MORE

VIDEO: Penn & Teller - Patriotism

WSJ Editorial: Obama Makes Carter Look Good

Carter didn't substitute his priorities for the nation's.  The good news is that growing economies can afford a great deal of government, if not quite as much as the Europeans and the U.S. have promised themselves. The bad news is that "policy error" are the saddest words in the language. These words, starting in the 1960s, came to dominate serious post mortems ... MORE

Daniel Griswold: How Capitalism Saved The Pilgrims

Sometimes, father knows best. When I was growing up, my father would occasionally tell me the story around this time of year of how private property rights saved the Pilgrims from starvation. When the Pilgrims first arrived in 1620, as my father told the story, they tried to live communally according to the spirit of the Mayflower Compact. What crops they grew were put ... MORE

Charles Kadlec: Social Justice, Greed And OWS

Why more liberty, less government is the answer.   It seems to be almost a law of human nature that it is easier for people to agree on a negative program on the hatred of an enemy, on the envy of those better off than on any positive task.”  Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom    Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has provided a rare up-close and personal look at a social  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Money Hole


America is going broke! John exposes the serial spending and pork laden programs.

WSJ Editorial: Thank You, Grover Norquist

That Americans pay too little tax is not the problem.    So it's all Grover Norquist's fault. Democrats and the media are singing in unison that the reason Congress's antideficit super committee has failed is because of the conservative activist's magical antitax spell over Republicans. Not to enhance this Beltway fable, but thank you, Mr. Norquist. By reminding     ... MORE

Doug Bandow: Time To Gut, Not Cut, The Federal Gov't

The solution is simple, just not easy.    Washington’s vaunted debt reduction supercommittee has failed.  The dozen members were unable to agree on a package of deficit reduction measures which would only have slowed the fast rising tide of federal red ink.  It will probably take the Second Coming before legislators voluntarily halt the wild taxpayer-paid party on the ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Alice In Liberal Land

Avoiding reality has its appeal.  "Alice in Wonderland" was written by a professor who also wrote a book on symbolic logic. So it is not surprising that Alice encountered not only strange behavior in Wonderland, but also strange and illogical reasoning -- of a sort too often found in the real world, and which a logician would be very much aware of. If Alice could visit the world ... MORE

VIDEO: Terror, Security and Money


Why is there no balance of risk and reward?

Walter E Williams: Should The Rich Be Condemned?

The ignorant see capitalism as only benefiting the rich. Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb, the phonograph, the DC motor and other items in everyday use and became wealthy by doing so. Thomas Watson founded IBM and became rich through his company's contribution to the computation revolution. Lloyd Conover, while in the employ of Pfizer ... MORE

Forbes: America Before The Entitlement State

by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.   Reacting to calls for cuts in entitlement programs, House Democrat Henry Waxman fumed: “The Republicans want us to repeal the twentieth century.” Sound bites don’t get much better than that. After all, the world before the twentieth century–before the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society–was a dark ... MORE

REUTERS: Super Committee Is A Super Flop

Debt-reduction efforts will be led by voters in 2012. The failure of a congressional deficit-cutting "super committee" means the tough work of putting the United States' finances on a stable path will likely have to wait until 2013 at the earliest. Barring some unforeseen development, the Republican and Democratic co-chairs of the committee are due to issue a joint  ... MORE

VIDEO: President Obama, Where Are The Jobs?


Only crony capitalism seems to have been stimulated.

AP: Ron Paul Is Gaining Traction In Iowa

Liberty candidate is rising in the polls. Texas Rep. Ron Paul is emerging as a significant factor in the Republican presidential race, especially in Iowa. He's been long dismissed by the GOP establishment, but the libertarian-leaning candidate is now turning heads beyond his hard-core followers - and rising in some polls - just weeks before the state holds the leadoff    ... MORE

Reality Check: Coming Financial Crisis By The Numbers

30 reasons for major concern. The United States is drowning in a sea of red ink from coast to coast and most Americans have absolutely no idea what is about to happen.  Hopefully you have started to prepare for the coming U.S. financial crisis.  If not, hopefully this article will be a wake up call for you.  Right now, governments all over Europe are on the verge of ... MORE

VIDEO: 3 Reasons Not To Bail Out Student Loan Borrowers

Charles Krauthammer: The Pipeline Sellout

Obama puts politics over nation, again.  In 2008, the slogan was “Yes We Can.” For 2011–12, it’s “We Can’t Wait.” What happened in between? Candidate Obama, the vessel into which myriad dreams were poured, met the reality of governance. His near–$1 trillion stimulus begat a stagnant economy with 9 percent unemployment. His attempt at Wall Street reform left ... MORE