A thinly disguised effort to change the subject. When President Obama chose a Friday before a three-day holiday weekend to address a matter as profound as the NSA spying scandal, I suspected he would raise issues that he hoped the media would ignore. That's because the Reagan White House did a study in the early 1980s and ... MORE
Ending the war on pot. Obama says he doesn’t want to end up a forgotten, no-name president. His refreshingly frank comments on marijuana legalization suggest a big way he could make that happen. David Remnick’s new, long profile of President Barack Obama in The New Yorker
is filled with all sorts of revelatory tidbits, none more ... MORE
The law cannot constrain those who interpret it. President Obama has some nerve. He opened his speech on
NSA spying by likening his surveillance regime to Paul Revere and
the Sons of Liberty. How insulting! They were helping people resist
government tyranny, and the British spied on them to put down the
coming rebellion. ... MORE
Love nature but hate the tyranny of bureaucrats' rules. We already waste billions on pointless gestures that make people think we're addressing global warming, but the earth doesn't notice or care. What exactly is "global warming" anyway? That's really four questions: 1. Is the globe warming? Probably. Global temperatures have risen. ... MORE
Read all four parts of this essay! Someone summarized Barack Obama in three words — "educated," "smart"
and "ignorant." Unfortunately, those same three words would describe all
too many of the people who come out of our most prestigious colleges
and universities today. President Obama seems completely ... MORE
Case of the coked-up cops. Asset forfeiture laws give police officers an incentive to bust people with property to seize. But few have taken this practice as far as the police of Sunrise, Florida, who posed as cocaine suppliers to lure targets into town. According to the Broward County Sun Sentinel, which exposed the strategy in October, ... MORE
by Jacob Sullum. Although the federal government accuses Kerri and Brian Kaley of trafficking in stolen medical devices, it has been unable to identify any victims of this alleged criminal scheme. That has not stopped the Justice Department from freezing the assets they need to defend themselves. The Supreme Court is now considering ... MORE
Police safety is above citizens' rights and the law. No one knows how many times police shoot and kill Americans every year. Most estimates put the number at a few hundred a year, but we don’t know the details, including how many of these killed people presented a real threat to anyone. The U.S. government does not do body counts, as ... MORE
Impotence not seen as a virtue. "I've got a pen," said President Obama early this week. "I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions ... that move the ball forward." "When I can act on my own without Congress, I'm going to do so," the president added Wednesday at North Carolina State. Thus did Obama signal that ... MORE
Can't blame spies for wanting ignorant prey. BuzzFeed’s Benny Johnson has written
an article outlining the degree of violent hatred some people
working in the U.S. intelligence community have for NSA
whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Some highlights: “In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an
American, I personally ... MORE
by Edwin A. Locke. What should we remember on Martin Luther King Day? In his “I Have a Dream” speech Dr. King said: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” This statement means that in judging other men, ... MORE
by Frank Salvato. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This quote,
often attributed to Voltaire, is at the heart of our First Amendment
right to free speech, at least where the authority of our government is
concerned. A free society, and, in fact, a free people, must be able
to speak freely in order to ... MORE
Why stop at weed? Now that Colorado and Washington state have nullified and defied
federal law by re-legalizing marijuana, it is the time to re-legalize
all drugs and kickstart the domino effect that will finally put an end
to the disastrous war on drugs. Since marijuana is a comparably safe drug to legal products like
alcohol and tobacco while also ... MORE
An 'untargeted' global sweep. The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents. The untargeted collection and storage of SMS messages – including their contacts ... MORE
Reading between the syllables. Statism, the concentration of power in the government at the expense of individual liberty, cannot be sold to the American people. The statists in this country have always cloaked their agenda, marching us blindfolded toward the elimination of our freedom and our rights. Statists do not dare announce: ... MORE
An effort to ban semi-automatic handguns. Fresno County Superior Court will once again be the battleground between pro-gun rights forces and the California Attorney General’s Office. Opponents say the new technology that the law attempts to put in place — microstamping — is unproven and unworkable. They believe the legislation is ... MORE