Andrew Napolitano: Spies In New Brunswick

Whose side is government on?   On June 2, 2009, a janitor in an office building in New Brunswick, N.J., noticed what he thought was terrorist-related literature and sophisticated surveillance equipment in an office he had been assigned to clean. He told his boss, who called the local police, who notified the FBI. Later in the day, the FBI and the New Brunswick  ... MORE

Gary Jason: Like The Price Of Gas? Just Wait!

Obama's post-November plans for our energy sector. The worthy journalists of the mainstream media have not seen fit to raise urgent questions about the soaring price of gas, and the current administration's role in causing it. Contrast that with the intensely critical commentary directed at George W. Bush when gas spiked during the latter part of his tenure ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - The Case For School Choice


Parental choice vs bureaucratic monopoly.

Katie Kieffer: Santorum Fails Constitution 101

Rick is not happy with our founding document.     I think Sen. Rick Santorum would make a great community organizer. Unfortunately, we are trying to remove, not re-elect, a community organizer in the White House. Both Santorum and President Obama have a track record of ignoring the Constitution and implementing their personal ideologies at the  ... MORE

Michael Barone: Why Liberals Like Taxing The Wealthy

They favor the government over the voluntary sector. I have long been puzzled by the enthusiasm with which many young liberal bloggers cheer on proposals to raise tax rates on high earners. I can understand why they might favor them, but not why they seem to invest so much psychic energy in the issue. Some of this may just be team ball: You cheer when your  ... MORE

VIDEO: A Death Sentence From The Drug War

KOB News 4: Albuquerque Dog Becomes Registered Voter

Now we know why Democrats howl at voter ID. An Albuquerque man says he successfully registered his dog to vote in Bernalillo County. The dog owner said he saw a voter registration booth on the University of New Mexico's campus a few weeks ago and decided to see how easy it would be to register his dog to vote. He said he was trying to expose the      ... MORE  

Jeremy Pelofsky: U.S. Court Upholds Free Speech

Tobacco health labels violate free speech.    A U.S. judge sided with tobacco companies on Wednesday, ruling that regulations requiring large graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging and advertising violate free-speech rights under the U.S. Constitution. Cigarette makers challenged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's rule requiring companies    ... MORE

Greg Beato: Say Goodbye To The King-Sized Snicker Bar

Michelle Obama is acting sweet to Big Candy. In 1998, a Colorado handyman was snowmobiling in the mountains outside of Steamboat Springs when he got swept up in an avalanche that buried his vehicle and left him stranded in a blizzard. Provisioned with nothing more than two butane lighters and a Snickers bar, the man endured 40 mph winds and ... MORE

Jacob Huebert: Consumers Should Decide Who Succeeds

Politicians should get out of the protection racket.    Should a government bureaucrat have the power to arbitrarily decide who’s allowed to start a business and who isn’t?  Most readers of this website — and most Americans — have a ready answer to that question: No. But in many cities and states, government officials have the power to do just that.     ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Illegal Everything - Pt 2


Lobbyists pay politicians to regulate away their competition.

Jacob Hornerger: Libertarians Vesus Liberals On The Poor

Incentives to produce are the key.    Wouldn't it be great to have national debate between liberals and libertarians over whose philosophy and policies help the poor? For decades liberals have claimed that the welfare-state/regulated-economy way of life helps the poor. That has been the major rationale for the statist way of life under which we have all been  ... MORE

John Stossel: Rampant Fallacies Of Prohibition

A narcotic cop rethinks his position.    Unlike Bill Clinton, President Obama admits he inhaled! "Frequently," he said. "That was the point."People laugh when politicians talk about their drug use. The audience laughed during a 2003 CNN Democratic presidential primary debate when John Kerry, John Edwards and Howard Dean admitted smoking weed. Yet those  ... MORE

VIDEO: Nullify the NDAA! (Spread This Video)

Fannie Mae Needs Another $4.6Billion From Taxpayers

Government bailouts, the gift that keeps on giving. Mortgage giant Fannie Mae said Wednesday that it lost money in the fourth quarter and is asking the federal government for nearly $4.6 billion in aid to cover its deficit. Washington, D.C.-based Fannie said it lost roughly $2.4 billion in the October-December quarter, stung by declining home prices.      ... MORE

Michael Tanner: Sickening Regulation

ObamaCare regulations continue to multiply.   Never underestimate the brilliance of our federal bureaucracy. The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it must delay implementation of new reimbursement codes for Medicare. Those new regulations would have increased the total number of reimbursement codes from the current  ... MORE

Victor Volsky: A Guide To The Liberal Mind

You might be a liberal if ....    As a great fan of Jeff Foxworthy, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to use his hilarious you-might-be-a-redneck comedy routine in an attempt to characterize the liberal mindset (tweaking Jeff's forumla a bit to convert it from the suppositional to the unconditional). So, with apologies to the wonderful country ... MORE

Freedom Of Religion Vs. Freedom From Religion

by Ronald Bailey. “I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum declared. “What kind of country do we live in that says only people of nonfaith can come into the public square and make their case?" Whatever can the former Pennsylvania senator be talking about? How much more ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stosell: Illegal Everything


Part One

Dr. Milton R. Wolf: Is This Still America?

Control freeaks assault the land of the free.    “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” warned the late President Reagan. It’s probably a good thing the Gipper hasn’t been forced to witness what the current generation of authoritarian rulers has done to the land of the free and home of the brave. Public schools in San Antonio have ... MORE

Voice Of America: U.S. Vows To Continue War On Drugs

Homeland Security chief thinks drug war is a good cause. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the US was not losing its decades-long "war on drugs." Napolitano defended Washington's anti-narcotics efforts Monday in Mexico City after a meeting with Mexican Interior Minister Alejandro Poire. "With respect to, 'is the drug war a failure ... MORE

VIDEO: What are the Limits of Democracy?

Privacy Group Urges Privacy Rules For Domestic Drones

by Mark Rockwell. More than 100 privacy groups, experts and individuals have petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration to address the impact of aerial drones in the U.S. as the agency move to implement new rules for the vehicles’ domestic use. President Obama signed a $63.4 billion Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill on Feb. 14 that opens the ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Equality Or Inequality

Equality without destroying liberty.   Rick Santorum's speech at the Detroit Economic Club stirred a bit of controversy when he said: "I'm not about equality of result when it comes to income inequality. There is income inequality in America. There always has been, and hopefully — and I do say that — there always will be." That kind of statement, though having ... MORE

Scott Bittle/Jean Johnson: Presidents And The Price Of Oil

The great energy challenge.   If you’re a primary voter, you’ve got your pick of candidates who’ll promise to bring down the price of gasoline. Unfortunately, whoever wins is going to run up against the limits of presidential power pretty quickly. The fact is that presidents don’t have that much authority over the price of oil, for a number of virtually  ... MORE

Ross Kaminsky: Obama's Food Stamp Fetish

Free food for one seventh of the population.    The food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed The Animals" because the animal may grow dependent ... MORE

VIDEO: The Drones Are Coming!


Government is deploying spies in the sky to monitor the American people.

Sheldon Richman: The Myth Of The Greater Good

Politicians must stop acting like the ends justify the means. I—and most other people, I assume—grew up being taught that the end doesn’t justify the means. Basically, this is an injunction not to rationalize one’s behavior while using other people as mere means to one’s ends. Most people apply that principle day to day. If you want at an item on a       ... MORE

Julia Angwin: FBI Turns Off Thousands Of GPS Devices

Probable cause makes a comeback. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann. Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said ... MORE

VIDEO: Why You Should Consider Chevy Volt

Scott Mayer: The Audacity Of Ambition

Downsizing the American Dream. President Obama seems to be downsizing the American Dream. In an insufficiently noticed January 25th speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he said: "Folks don't have unrealistic ambitions. They do believe that if they work hard they should be able to achieve that small measure of an American Dream." "Unrealistic ambitions" -- is he ... MORE

Andres Oppenheimer: Legalization Forces Gaining Ground

Could the end of the drug war be in sight?     For the first time since the United States launched its "war on drugs" four decades ago, there are signs that the forces supporting legalization or de-criminalization of illegal drugs are gaining momentum across the hemisphere. Granted, this is a debate that is just starting at government levels, and that will   ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Pandering At The Pump

Avoid D.C. if  gas market wisdom is what you want.   In the field of petroleum, location is everything. If you want to find oil, you don't drill in Rhode Island. And if you want to find wisdom about gasoline markets, you avoid Washington, D.C. In good times, the confusion and folly of our elected leaders have only limited impact. But when pump prices rise to ... MORE

Barry Farber: Obama's Political Hypnotism

Illusions eventually collide with reality.   Did they teach you about “psychic income” in school? Great stuff. If you like your work, for example, you’re getting more income, “psychic income,” than your paycheck indicates. If you love your work, you’re getting even more. If you love your work and meet people who become lifetime keeper-treasures, you’re a   ... MORE

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - It's The Elderly, Stupid!


A major reason why America's economic outlook is bleak.

Linda Chavez: Lighten Up On Political Correctness

Tyranny with manners.    Have we become so hypersensitive that a phrase in use for half a millennia must now be banished from the English lexicon? I'm speaking, of course, of the furor created last week when ESPN's mobile site ran a story headlined "A Chink in the Armor." The idiom is commonly used to describe the vulnerability in an otherwise  ... MORE

STANDARD-EXAMINER: End DUI Checkpoints

What ever happened to probable cause?   The Utah Legislature is mulling over House Bill 140, which would prohibit law enforcement from setting up DUI checkpoints across the state. Pressure from law enforcement agencies and interest groups may stifle that effort, but it's the correct move. There's no evidence that law enforcement officers, stopping ... MORE

VIDEO: Michael Steele Says Taxes Are Voluntary

NY Times: Big Government Eyeballs Social Media Debates

Keywords like cops and marijuana raise eyebrows. Analysts for a Department of Homeland Security program that monitors social networks like Twitter and Facebook have been instructed to produce reports on policy debates related to the department, a newly disclosed manual shows. The manual, a 2011 reference guide for analysts working with the  ... MORE        

Louis Loftus: The Drug War Can Endanger Americans

If ruining lives is the goal, the drug war is a success.  In a debate over the legalization of marijuana, it is common that the side speaking against the motion will often ask as a last resort, "Why should such a thing be made legal?"  Well, to begin with, our society is such that the burden of proof concerning the legality of an act or substance is not on those who ... MORE