Rounding up the usual suspects. The film "Casablanca" has many famous lines, but none more immortal than Capt. Renault's order after seeing a Nazi officer shot by Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick Blaine: "Round up the usual suspects." He issues that command to give the impression he's trying to solve the crime. In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, the ... MORESteve Chapman: Wrong Answers For Mass Shootings
Rounding up the usual suspects. The film "Casablanca" has many famous lines, but none more immortal than Capt. Renault's order after seeing a Nazi officer shot by Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick Blaine: "Round up the usual suspects." He issues that command to give the impression he's trying to solve the crime. In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, the ... MORETSA-Style Gropings Coming Soon To Public Schools
Children to be treated like cattle. Anytime I hear leftists look for solutions I am skeptical. Speaking in Newtown, Connecticut, Obama stated with absolute resolution, "These tragedies must end, and to end them we must change." We have heard that word "change" before. We must change. OK. How exactly? A madman goes on a rampage and the ... MORE William N Grigg: Merely Being Arrested Can Ruin You Life
So why an epidemic of unnecessary arrests? “You never have a ‘right’ to resist arrest,” insists Des Moines-based attorney Harley Erbe (who is wrong, of course). There are two reasons why Mundanes must immediately submit to “commands” issued by the state’s costumed enforcers, Erbe explains: “First, officers’ safety is a paramount ... MOREWhat If Nothing Or Nobody Is To Blame For Adam Lanza?
by Ron Fournier. What if there is nobody or nothing to blame for Adam Lanza's heinous acts? Other than Lanza, of course. What if school security and the school psychiatrist kept an eye on Lanza since his freshman year? The Wall Street Journal has a compelling narrative about the red flags addressed. What if he had a form of autism that has little or no ... MOREBarry Farber: Every Gun Control Argument Is Nonsense
The answer is more bullets 'going the other way.' It’s likely you and I disagree over gun control a lot more than you think we do. This argument cuts a lot deeper than any “fiscal cliff,” Middle East, taxing the rich or any of the so-called hot controversies. I realized that in early January of 1959 in Havana, Cuba, which was lawless as of New ... MOREA Shakedown, Not A Fair Shake For The Middle Class
Kumar Rao on the drug war. In the wake of President Obama's re-election and the fervor around "fiscal cliff" negotiations, issues related to middle class empowerment and fairness are rightfully at the center of our national policy agenda. Decisions related to tax burden allocations and spending priorities are being made that have the potential ... MOREThomas Sowell - Forward To The Past
Stumbling into a backward future. The political slogan "Forward" served Barack Obama well during this year's election campaign. It said that he was for going forward, while Republicans were for "going back to the failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place." It was great political rhetoric and great political theater. Moreover, the ... MOREJohn Stossel - It's The Spending, Stupid!
Why the account is overdrawn by $16 trillion. Listening to progressive media pundits, I'd think the most evil man in the universe is Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. His crime? He heads a movement that asks political candidates to pledge not to raise taxes. I think Grover accomplished a lot. But I wish he'd convinced ... MOREThomas Sowell: Invincible Ignorance
A knee-jerk is not an enlightened response. Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of "gun control" advocates? The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do
not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens,
while people bent on violence find firearms readily available. ... MORE
Radley Balko: The Police State Comes To Arkansas
Unfortunately, not an exaggeration: "[Police are] going to be in SWAT gear and have AR-15s around their neck," Stovall said. "If you're out walking, we're going to stop you, ask why you're out walking, check for your ID." Stovall said while some people may be offended by the actions of his department, they should not be. "We're going to do it to ... MOREJacob G Hornberger: Those Government Gun-Free Zones
It’s no big surprise. A gun massacre brings out the gun-control crowd, which loudly demands that gun control be imposed on the American people, as if that would have prevented the massacre in Connecticut. It’s really a shame to have to trot out the same arguments exposing the fallacies of statist thinking, but, alas, it must be done. ... MOREWalter E Williams: A Hundred Percent Of Nothing
The power to control Detroit. JoAnn Watson, Detroit city council member, said, "Our people in an
overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president, and there
ought to be a quid pro quo." In other words, President Obama should send
the nearly bankrupted city of Detroit millions in taxpayer bailout
money. But there's a painful lesson ... MORERight To Work Laws Are, Indeed, Libertarian
by Shikma Dalmia. Every time Right to Work is in the news, a civil war breaks out
among libertarians about whether it is consistent with
libertarianism or not. On one side are folks like me who think that
right-to-work laws are a modest advance for worker freedom because
they exempt workers from having to pay mandatory union dues as a
condition ... MORENY Post: Reading, 'Riting And Race
Is arithmetic racist? Are English and science and art? These might seem like stupid questions, but — speaking of stupid — a federal judge says the answer is yes, they are, and slapped New York City with a judgment that could cost the school system hundreds of millions. The case involves a 16-year-old lawsuit, a handful of unqualified teachers who tried ... MOREKatie Kieffer: Wishing You Capitalism On Earth
The right wish. We wish each other "peace on earth." Wishing is not enough. We must act on this wish by promoting capitalism on earth. Too many people (including some religious leaders)
are promoting the idea that re-distribution of wealth or “social
justice” is the best way to foster peace. But Christians and Jews need
only read the Old ... MORE
Cynthia V. Ward: Fairness And Freedom
Fairness is a value judgment. In the fight over taxing the rich, those with good values are losing the judgment. They are losing because they have failed to name, and defend, the moral right which ought to define fairness toward all taxpayers: the right to own and to keep the wealth you create. President Obama proudly articulates the moral case for ... MOREJacob Sullum: The Magical Thinking Of Gun Controllers
Obama showcases it at Sandy Hook memorial. On Sunday night,
speaking at a memorial service for the 26 victims of Adam
Lanza's horrifying
shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton,
Connecticut, President Obama provided a window onto the magical
thinking of people who think such appalling crimes could be
prevented if only we ... MORERonald Bailey: Your Cellphone Is Spying On You
Big Brother has been outsourced. The police can find out where you are, where you’ve been, even where you’re going. All thanks to that handy little human tracking device in your pocket: your cellphone. There are 331 million cellphone subscriptions—about 20 million more than there are residents—in the United States. Nearly 90 percent of adult ... MOREChristopher Elliott: 3 Reasons Terrorists Laugh At Us
Thanks, TSA. Nothing will wipe a grin off your face faster than a squad of Navy SEALs rappelling into your anonymous compound from a Black Hawk. But while Osama Bin Laden is dead and gone, and unable to mock America's clumsy efforts to protect its planes from our Homeland-fueled fantasies, his disciples are more than capable of laughing at us. And laugh they ... MOREJacob G. Hornberger: Drug-War Tyranny In Its Purest Form
Government is efficient at ruining lives. Stephanie George, who is now 42 years old, has spent the last 15 years of her life in jail. That might turn out to be a short period of time, given that her sentence is life without parole. She has no hope of ever being released from jail. Her crime? Living in a house in which her boyfriend maintained a ... MORETony Newman: 9 Signs The War On Drugs Is Almost Over
Moves toward a rational drug policy. This year will go down in history as the the beginning of the end to America’s longest failed war: the war on drugs. Voters in Colorado and Washington made worldwide news by legalizing marijuana, Presidents around Latin America spoke out passionately against the drug war, and award-winning movies ... MOREMark Steyn: The Doctor Won't See You Now
American health care is in a bureaucratic death grip. A few years ago, my small local hospital asked a Senate staffer if she could assist them in obtaining federal money for a new building. So she did, expediting the process by which that particular corner of northern New Hampshire was deemed to be “under-served” and thus eligible for the fed gravy. ... MORE4 Awful Reactions To Sandy Hook School Shooting
by Nick Gillespie. Horrific events such as
the mass shooting at Newtown, Connecticut's Sandy Hook
Elementary School are terrible enough in showcasing the evil that
men do. But they also regularly bring out the worst in observers,
commentators, and pundits who will never let a lack of knowledge or
expertise stand in the way of making grand ... MORECould Guns Really Be Effectively Banned In America?
by Robert Wenzel. In this post, I will not discuss the very strong libertarian philosophical arguments as to why individuals should be allowed to carry guns. Instead, I want to take a look at the practical issue. Suppose Congress passed legislation that banned all guns. Legislation so strong that it required that all guns be turned in. There are 285 million guns in ... MOREBruce Johnson's Bernanke's Cow Bell In The Night
One thing is for certain: Bernanke is committed. But so is a one-trick pony. However, is blind commitment to a theory a virtue or a frailty? The Federal Reserve chairman continues to push the chips out to the center of the table with both hands. He knows that low interest rates create employment. He is certain. Well, pretty certain. ... MORESteve Chapman: Gun Rights Find A New Home
Illinois cannot maintain its fiat ban on concealed-carry. There are certain constants to life in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln has always been revered. The Cubs always find a way to lose. Lake Michigan never goes dry. Letting citizens carrying concealed firearms is out of the question. But one of those is no longer true. Tuesday, a federal appeals court said ... MOREGun Control, People Control And Thought Control
by Daniel Greenfield. The gun control debate, like all debates with the left, is reducible to the question of whether we are individuals who make our own decisions or a great squishy social mass that helplessly responds to stimuli. Do people kill with guns or does the availability of guns kill people? Do bad eating habits kill people or does the ... MOREEd Morrissey: Probable Cause No Longer Required
Government free to rifle through records at will. Remember when government needed something called a warrant or even probable cause to look at your records? Good times, good times.
I’m nostalgic for the halcyon days of, er, February of this year,
before the Attorney General of the United States signed off on an order
allowing the ... MOREOpposing Out-Of-Control Government Spying
by Andrew Napolitano. After President Richard Nixon
was forced from office in 1974, congressional investigators discovered
what they believed was the full extent of his use of the FBI and the CIA
to engage in domestic spying. In that pre-digital era, the spying
consisted of listening to telephone calls, opening mail, and using
undercover agents to ... MORERoss Kaminsky: Death By A Thousand Regulatory Cuts
Prepare for the worst. The public debate over the “fiscal cliff,” the combination of
automatic spending cuts and tax rate increases that our nation is
about to careen into in 2013, started the same way Republicans
always begin following an electoral setback: badly. John Boehner
seemed to be negotiating with himself, and conservative pundit ... MOREVIDEO: How The Constitution Was Destroyed
Judge Napolitano discusses the influence of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
How Much Taxation Would Fund Current Spending?
by Justin Hohn. To best understand this spending aspect of the current budget negotiations in Washington, we must answer one crucial question: how much taxation on the top income-earners would be required to fully fund the present level of government spending? To do so, we must first make the unreasonable assumption that the rich will not respond ... MOREWho Benefits From The Mortgage Interest Deduction?
by Anthony Randazzo & Dean Stansel. The federal income tax code is riddled with loopholes, deductions, and credits designed to promote various social goals and benefit assorted groups of Americans. One of the largest of these is the mortgage interest deduction (MID), which allowed taxpayers to claim benefits of $82.7 billion in ... MOREPhilly Court Strikes Blow Against Asset Forfeiture Regime
by Eric Boehm. A Commonwealth Court ruling is being hailed as a victory for property rights and a small blow against civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow the state to seize private property that may be connected to a crime. In a
decision filed last month, Commonwealth Court Judge Dan
Pellegrini called the state’s civil asset ... MORE
Nullification - An Overview Of Its Many Forms
by Benjamin W. Mankowski Sr. In the nullification movement, there are varying degrees and methods of nullifying certain federal acts. One who has been with the movement a while could forget and hyper focus on one, leaving someone new to the movement to think of nullification as a very narrow spectrum. To eliminate that ... MOREObamaCare's Cruel War On Patient-Centered Healthcare
by Sally Pipes. In just a few weeks, when the calendar flips to 2013, millions of Americans will get their first taste of Obamacare — a $2,500 cap on their flexible spending accounts. That’s down from the previous $5,000 cap — and thus equivalent to a tax hike for any family that had been putting more into their FSAs to cover out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. ... MOREJohn Stossel: Government Gone Bad
A problem that thinks its a solution. Politicians claim they make our lives better by passing laws. But laws rarely improve life. They go wrong. Unintended consequences are inevitable. Most voters don't pay enough attention to notice. They read headlines. They watch the Rose Garden signing ceremonies and hear the pundits declare that ... MOREJimmy Carter Says Marijuana Should Be Decriminalized
by Nick Wing. Former President Jimmy Carter gave a full-throated endorsement of state efforts to legalize marijuana during an appearance at a CNN forum aired on Tuesday. Carter, who as president supported an era of marijuana
decriminalization in the mid-1970s, told CNN's Suzanne Malveaux that he
was "in favor" of states that were taking steps ... MOREEd Morrissey: You Have The Right To Not Pay Union Dues
Union dues are not an entitlement. The battle between unions and state governments continued this week — just as it has for the last two years — in territory normally considered friendly for labor organizations. In the winter of 2011, Wisconsin forced an end to mandatory union contributions for state employees — and conservatives ... MORE
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