TSA Denies Stonewalling Nude Body-Scanner Court Order

by David Kravets.    The Transportation Security Administration denied Thursday it was stonewalling a federal appeals court’s year-old decision demanding the agency hold public hearings concerning the so-called nude body scanners installed in U.S. airport security checkpoints. On July 15, 2011, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ... MORE

Robby Soave: Campaign For Obama, Get College Credit

Your tax dollars at work.   A public university in Colorado may have violated state law by offering students course credit if they volunteered with President Obama’s re-election campaign. A blog post on the Adams State University website billed the opportunity as a “12 week long organizing internship for the Obama Campaign.” Both the blog  ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Agriculture Subsidies

Barry Farber: Obama's Mainstreaming Of Marxism

The commies like Barrack. So what? An email came though with the subject line, “Yikes! Look who just endorsed Obama for 4 more years!” I scrambled to get past the tease and into the revelation. I expected the villain would be a prominent Republican governor or mayor or some major conservative having one of those fits that swept Arianna Huffington  ... MORE

John Stossel: Because Prohibition Worked So Well ...

Why to we continue the war on drugs? Forty years ago, the United States locked up fewer than 200 of every 100,000 Americans. Then President Nixon declared war on drugs. Now we lock up more of our people than any other country — more even than the authoritarian regimes in Russia and China. A war on drugs — on people, that is — is unworthy of a    ... MORE 

VIDEO: Understanding Inflation

Katie Kieffer: RINOS Play FarmVille

Farming is a game to RINOS (Republicans In Name Only). But farming is not a game. Not in America. We are the world’s No. 1 exporter of wheat, corn and soybeans. If we mess up, global food prices soar, livestock die, and streets erupt in riots. The GOP is supposed to be the party that “gets” economics. Republicans pride themselves ... MORE

Daren Jonescu: The Last Line Of Defense: Property

The fight for property rights is the fight for reason. "Property is theft." Proudhon's classic anarchist paradox is more than a catchy slogan for international leftism.  It encapsulates a complete and comprehensively absurd view of humanity -- one which finds its contemporary apotheosis in President Obama's more prosaic rendition, "You didn't build that."  ... MORE

James V. DeLong: America's Crisis Of Political Legitimacy

Finding the road back to consent and stability.   The Founders were right to posit that a breakdown of the limits of government would cause a breakdown of consent. Only 22 percent of likely voters say the current government has the consent of the governed. Across many decades, my mind’s eye sees Professor Samuel Beer pacing the   ... MORE

Daniel Greenfield: Why You Will Never Buy A Car Again

Obama cars are coming. If you’ve been waiting around to buy a new car, better hurry up. If Obama gets his way, the only car you will be able to buy will be a small hybrid cube and will cost more than you can afford. The Obama administration has finalized new fuel economy rules that will require the fleet-wide average of new cars and trucks sold in ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Airport Security Screenings

Thomas Sowell: Entitlement Reform

The young, not the elderly, should be alarmed.  For those of us who like to believe that human beings are rational, trying to explain what happens in politics can be a real challenge. For example, that segment of the population that has the least to fear from a reform of Medicare or Social Security is the most fearful — namely, those already receiving    ... MORE

Stephen Mauzy: Why Free Markets

The best political economy imaginable.    To exchange for greater benefit is as natural to humans as any innate bodily function.  Exchange needn't be taught or explicated.  No inculcation need occur.  It just happens.  A kindergartener exchanges his juice box for another kindergartener's cupcake.  Because of inequality of wants --      ... MORE

VIDEO: Introduction to the CAFR

Jennifer Alexander: Why The Feds Won't Reschedule Pot

International treaty trumps national self-interest.   Activists have been working for years to reform state and local marijuana laws throughout the nation through decriminalization, implementation of medical marijuana laws and, most recently, attempts at legalizing marijuana. Many opponents, and even some activists, argue      ... MORE

Russell Hasan: Prostitution And Coercion

Economic pressure is not coercion. I was recently thinking about why prostitution is illegal. As a libertarian I think that it should be legal, as an extension of people’s absolute right to own their own bodies. But many Americans disagree. If there is a rational, persuasive argument against the legalization of prostitutes (or “sex workers,” as they should be   ... MORE

Omar Ghate: Ayn Rand's Appeal

The real question is why her appeal isn't greater.   Paul Ryan is Romney’s pick for Vice President and now Ayn Rand’s name is on everyone’s lips. Many on the left are pillorying Ryan as an unrealistic “ideologue” because of his Rand connection. Many on the right accede, quickly trying to set aside Ryan’s admiration for "Atlas Shrugged" as youthful     ... MORE

Walter E Williams: The Rich Don't Pay Enough?

Obama exploits ignorance on taxes.    If you listen to America's political hacks, mainstream media talking heads and their socialist allies, you can't help but reach the conclusion that the nation's tax burden is borne by the poor and middleclass while the rich get off scot-free. Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for The Wall     ... MORE

VIDEO: Murray Rothbard On The Origins Of Regulation

Steve Chapman: Truth About Obama & Welfare Reform

Detaching work mandates from welfare checks. The old line is that there's a simple way to know a politician is lying: His lips are moving. Odds are good that any lurid charge leveled against a candidate is largely fraudulent. So it was no surprise that when Mitt Romney accused Barack Obama of gutting welfare work requirements, fact checkers   ... MORE

Barry Farber: Who Can Blame Democratic Defectors?

Party faithful jump off a sinking ship.  The deli restaurant in Miami Beach where I busboyed one college summer was Dubrow’s, on the south side of Lincoln Road. Our competitor, Wolfie’s, across the street leapt into the lead. About the only customers we ever got were when Wolfie’s was full. One night the boss came in and caught Jimmy,     ... MORE

VIDEO: When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A Crony

Ronald Bailey: Someone's Watching

You can't escape the intrusive state. Privacy encompasses the real and virtual spaces where you can think your most heretical thoughts without the fear of social and political consequences and where you can seal the bonds of love and friendship. In Privacy, Garret Keizer grapples with the meaning and importance of maintaining places where   ... MORE

Gary Owen: Housing Crisis Redux

New wave of subprime loans demanded by government.    The 2008 melt down of the economy was a lesson.  The government learned well and is doing it better this time. A new wave of subprime mortgages is here, more powerful than the  tsunami that washed away the worlds economy with the Community  Reinvestment Act.  William Tucker informs us     ... MORE

James E. Miller: Law Enforcement Is Not Your Friend

Police arrogance and abuse have become commonplace.   Across the West, instances of abuse of authority by domestic police forces are becoming more prevalent.  Two weeks ago, two police officers in my hometown accosted my brother as he walked back to his car after purchasing a six pack of beer.  The officers, who thought my brother was up     ... MORE

Daniel Halper: U.S. On Track For $20 Trillion Debt In 2016

Obama budget adds $4.4 trillion in next four years.  By the end of this year, the federal debt is expected to be $16.2 trillion, which is $6.2 trillion more than when President Obama first came into office four years ago. Moreover, new analysis by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee finds that, over the next 4 years, if      ... MORE

VIDEO: Obamanomics: A Legacy of Wasteful Spending

How The Smokey Bear Effect Led To Raging Wildfires

by Christopher Joyce. The history of fire in the American Southwest is buried in a catacomb of rooms under the bleachers of the football stadium at the University of Arizona. Here rules Professor Thomas Swetnam, tree ring expert. You want to read a tree ring? You go to Tom. He's a big, burly guy with a beard and a true love for trees. Tree sections are       ... MORE

Paul Miller: Obama Or Romney? Libertarians Must Choose

It’s depressing to be a libertarian.  We usually spend election night with our few friends in a watering hole or in our parents’ basement listening to Rush albums. Libertarians are smarter than voters who blindly vote Democrat or support the Republicans who do more preaching about limited government than actually practicing it — that’s what we tell     ... MORE

VIDEO: How Property Rights Affect Everyday Decisions

Anna Marie Hartman: Legalizing Medical Pot On ARK Ballot

Freedom for doctors to treat patients.      A proposal to legalize medical marijuana will be on the November ballot in Arkansas. Medical marijuana advocates succeeded in getting their proposal before Arkansas voters after turning in more than 74,000 signatures to the Arkansas Secretary of State's office. The group called Arkansans for  ... MORE

Washington Free Beacon: Battling Obama At The Box Office

Interest in learning Obama's roots catching fire.   A politically charged documentary called 2016: Obama’s America turned heads last weekend when it grossed a whopping $1.24 million out of just 169 theaters. The $2.5 million independent film, which is being distributed by Utah-based Rocky Mountain Pictures, premiered in Houston six   ... MORE