A Little More Liberty Lost: 40,000 New State Laws to Take Effect in 2012
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good [...]
Liberty: If a Dwarf Wants to Be Tossed in Florida, He Should Be Free to Do So
A state representative in Florida wants to bring back the outlawed sport of “dwarf tossing.” No kidding. So Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, filed a bill this week to bring back “dwarf tossing,” the barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989. ”I’m on [...]
Not Every Human Problem Deserves a Law
There are probably not a tremendous number of issues upon which I agree with California Governor Jerry Brown. Here’s one: To the Members of the California State Senate: I am returning Senate Bill 105 without my signature. This measure would impose criminal penalties on a child under the age of 18 and his or her [...]
Race-Baiting Asshat Alert: Andre Carson (D-IN)
The race-baiting asshat is a peculiar species: devoid of actual ideas (or the brains to form them), they resort to wearing their ass for a hat, and blaming things they don’t like -or can’t explain- on racism. Another intriguing feature is they almost always have a big D (which in this case stands for Dumbass) [...]
Why Do Governments Feel the Need to Try and Regulate Everything?
The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. Thomas Jefferson wrote those words a long time ago. In the intervening 200+ years, our American government (at all levels) has morphed into something quite different from that espoused by Mr. Jefferson. It has become [...]
Another Example of the Ever-Expanding (and Increasingly Incompetent) State: Arrested for Riding Bike to School
This story is almost unbelievable. I say almost, because these days there’s almost no limit to the ways that bureaucrats and public employees can circumvent common sense in an attempt to force their will on the citizenry. In Tennessee, apparently, it’s against the law to allow your kid to ride their bike to school. What [...]
When Government Does it, It’s “For the Public Good”; When YOU Do it, It’s a Crime
What is it? It’s called legal plunder, and the government uses it to justify all kinds of things. This is an excellent presentation from The Philosophy of Liberty. Watch, and learn. (H/T to The Pretense of Knowledge)
Shame: Goshen College Seeks “Alternative” to National Anthem to Satisfy the Diversity Monster
This is incredible. Goshen College, a Mennonite-based school in Goshen, Indiana, announced it has directed its president “find an alternative to playing the Star-Spangled Banner that fits with sports tradition, that honors country and that resonates with Goshen College’s core values and respects the views of diverse constituencies.” I realize that the Mennonites are “peace-loving people”, [...]
Are You a Classical Liberal? Learn Liberty.
I found an excellent online resource called Learn Liberty. It’s full of video lectures and resources you can use to educate (or re-educate) yourself about the fundamentals of liberty. These are the same ideas that the Founders used when forming our system of government here in America. Here’s an excellent (short) video lecture from Nigel [...]
America’s Crisis of Confidence
Doctor Zero -without a doubt my current favorite writer- has a wonderful post on America’s crisis of confidence. He says we don’t believe in freedom any more. As we give over more and more control to the state, we leave less and less space for the exercise of liberty by individuals. If we don’t stem [...]
Of burning Korans, and American flags
Doctor Zero’s latest excellent column from September 11 contrasts the hysteria in the media over the Florida pastor’s threat to burn a Koran with the abuse that’s regularly heaped on the American flag. Whenever Americans commit what is deemed to be an offense to some country, ethnicity, or religious group, that group grabs up some [...]
Seriously? RFID tags on school children?
This is not some proposal – they’re actually doing it. This is unbelievable to me. A school system in California (why am I not surprised?) is having kids who attend wear a jersey with a radio tracking device, so they can keep track of their whereabouts, movements, and whether they’ve eaten. Of course, it was [...]
It would seem, someplace, that there’s some overhead.
This is actually the full version of the excerpt I posted earlier. Except for the exact figures, names, and cultural references, this speech by Ronald Reagan in 1964 could have been given last week. The intrusions and transgressions of the leviathan federal government are exponentially larger. The ideas of the progressives haven’t changed all that [...]
