Ross Ulbricht Should Be Freed in a Fair TrialThe criminal trial of Ross Ulbricht, the man alleged to be the "Dread Pirate Roberts" who started the darknet's Silk Road website, is coming up soon. As might be expected, the prosecution in the case are engaging in shady tactics, such as not permitting the jury to hear about Ross's own political views.
The website was started with a driving motivation of creating a free marketplace for people to use to exchange peacefully. If Ross shares this view, why is this not a relevant fact... (more)
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Government Save Us From "Overpriced" Chinese FoodThis week's internet-fueled Outrage of the Week is the case of Harvard attorney Ben Edelman who has insisted on "notifying the authorities" to punish a small restaurant for "overcharging" the professor to the tune of four dollars.
Boston.com reported on the case, posting the full email exchange. Now, the profess ... (more)
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I Love Loosies and the People Who Sell ThemThe cops who ganged up on Eric Garner, got him into a chokehold, and mashed his face into the sidewalk didn't intend to kill him. They intended only to show him who's boss on the streets of Staten Island -- and show him in a way he would never forget.
As a Facebook friend of mine put it, instead they showed him in a way he will never remember.
This pretty much explains the cops' reckless disregard for Garner's life that day, and it is what makes the grand-jury sham ... (more)
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Obama's Plan for Better Policing: The Good, the Bad, and the Body CamerasYou may be shocked to hear that EFF doesn't think technology is a solution to every problem. That includes problems with the police and with public safety. And, as we've pointed out when it comes to drones and other types of local surveillance, we think adoption of new technology requires communities to understand and discuss the pros and cons.
That's why we think President Oba... (more)
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Statism: The Most Dangerous Religion (feat. Larken Rose)
Warning: Graphic content.
A compilation of Larken Rose audio clips taken from various radio interviews. With English, Dutch and Polish subtitles.
... (more)
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Leave Us All Alone! We Can't Breathe!The last words out of the mouth of strangling victim Eric Garner are actually a metaphor for how libertarians feel about the entire welfare-warfare state under which modern-day Americans have been born and raised.
Don't his words express precisely how we libertarians feel? Leave us alone, we say to the state. Get out of our faces. Get out of our lives. You're suffocating us. You're killing us -- literally, spiritually, financially, and economically.
Thomas Jefferson... (more)
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Just Like The StasiDon't you just love those Americans who celebrate how free they are under America's national-security state system?
I wonder if such Americans also celebrated how free people were who lived under East Germany's national-security state system.
I just read an interesting ... (more)
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Why Not Pardon Drug-War Victims in Addition to Turkeys?Prior to Thanksgiving, President Obama continued the presidential tradition of pardoning two turkeys. Too bad he didn't use the occasion to also pardon every single victim of the U.S. government's decades-long failed and destructive war on drugs.
I'm referring, of course, to all the people who have been convicted of violating federal laws against the possession or distribution of drugs, especially those people currently serving time in some federal penitentiary. Those people have ... (more)
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Taxpayers Near Ferguson Must Turn to Private SecurityThose who own private property in suburbs near Ferguson must hire private security for protection. Malls, shopping centers, and other valuables will be protected with private money. A story linked on Drudge today noted that the wealthy suburb of Clayton includes many private firms turning to private security, but apparently, private firms are being called in throughout t... (more) PAPA JOHN'S Manager Defends Store From Looters -- With Bare Hands... |
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Virginia Is for Lovers of Liquor MonopoliesA Virginia court recently sentenced 26-year-old Daries Lamont Coles to five years in jail for violating Virginia's drug laws. He joins a long line of other people who have met a similar fate in the decades-long war on drugs.
Meanwhile, the State of Virginia is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (VABC), a monopoly agency that has the exclusive privilege of selling liquor to people in Virginia.
The Virginia judge ... (more)
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We Are the Enemy: Is This the Lesson of Ferguson?If you dress police officers up as soldiers and you put them in military vehicles and you give them military weapons, they adopt a warrior mentality. We fight wars against enemies, and the enemies are the people who live in our cities—particularly in communities of color.—Thomas Nolan, criminology professor and former police officer
Should police officer Darren Wilson be held accountable for the shooting death of unarmed citizen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on Augu... (more)
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The Internet Memory Hole Imagine you are considering a candidate as a caregiver for your child. Or maybe you are vetting an applicant for a sensitive position in your company. Perhaps you’re researching a public figure for class or endorsing him in some manner. Whatever the situation, you open your browser and assess the linked information that pops up from a search. Nothing criminal or otherwise objectionable is present, so you proceed with confidence. But what if the information required for you to make a reasoned as... (more)
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Pop Art and Intellectual PropertyOne of the most iconic painters of the 20th century was Roy Lichtenstein, a New York based artist who, alongside Andy Warhol, came to fame as one of the defining voices in the American Pop Art movement. Pop Art was based around the idea of taking popular and lowbrow images, such as those found in advertising, and transforming them into high art. Warhol famously did this by painting large scale representations of Campbell's soup cans and hanging them in galleries. It was a concept that had never ... (more)
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Why Does The Media Ignore Straightforward Police Executions?The news is in, Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will not be indicted in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
There's so much to say about this case.
First and foremost, the media loves focusing on marginal cases like this, as opposed to straightforward police executions such as the murder of 20-year-old Jonathan Cuevas, a young man wh... (more)
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Cops Are Cowards
It would be nice if the mythology about "the brave men and women of law enforcement," and the image of police that you see on TV and in movies, in some way resembled reality. But it doesn't.
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Thank the Troops for Their Service to IslamAmericans are often exhorted to thank the troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan for defending our rights and freedoms. Yet, I have never heard anyone thanking the troops for fighting and dying for Islam.
Why not?
Yeah, I know what interventionists are already saying: "Jacob, are you crazy? Our troops don't fight and die for Islam. They're Christian warriors! They're over there defending our rights and freedoms by killing Muslims before they come over here a... (more)
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There is No Right to be ForgottenThe freedom of information offered by the internet has had drastic implications for liberty. To the benefit of individuals, it reduces information asymmetries with business and increases transparency in government. It allows us to make more informed decisions, where ignorance has long been the justification for all manner of government intervention programs.
On the other hand, the internet has created a whole slew of privacy worries, with vast accumulations of data that can easily... (more)
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Perpetual Lies About Freedom and DemocracyWhen U.S. governments take Americans into war, we hear them justify it as a fight for freedom. Often they rationalize it as an anti-tyranny fight, a pro-peace fight and a pro-democracy fight.
Freedom appeals to Americans. It is a core American value, even if it's not honored in practice here at home.
When politicians use freedom to justify war, they are making an emotional, not a reasoned, appeal. Why? It's because freedom, while a good thing, is never alone a suffi... (more)
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Who Trusts This Government to Regulate the Internet?The principle of net neutrality is easy to understand and support; to treat the delivery all data equally. This has been the status quo. Works great. Few oppose that, but supporting the principle of net neutrality is not the same thing as supporting the government's plan to enforce that principle.
The alleged problem that the government claims needs fixing is that Internet service providers (ISPs) want to charge different rates to websites for different levels of data usage, often... (more)
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Too Dumb for Democracy?Should Americans feel bad that we are the second-most-ignorant country in the world? (Italy is number one.)
Our penultimate status made the news recently, after research group Ipsos MORI announced the results of the first international study "to look at the gap between perception and reality" on questions of social policy. The issues included teenage pregnancy, immigration, and unemployment.
The result of the study, a... (more)
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Political Relativity and the Infinite Cynicism of ProhibitionistsThe evil singularity called “government” warps space-time in such a way that those closest to it are exempt from law’s effects — not merely the moral law, mind you, but some aspects of the laws of physics, as well.
Last June, Boise, Idaho resident William James Esbensen, who operated a medical marijuana co-op in Ontario, Oregon, was found guilty of receiving “proceeds” from marijuana sales, under a law that was no longer in effect. During the trial, prosecutor William Dugan — act... (more)
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