Like countless similar news stories recently, a report on Business Insider claims: "Residents from 5 US states could soon need a passport for a domestic flight." The idea is that the Transportation Security Administration will begin to enforce the REAL ID Act in 2016 by denying airport access to travelers from non-compliant states.
“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk: culture-death is a clear possib... (more)
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece titled, "An Apology to an Immigrant." In the piece, I discussed my experience with thinking through the immigration debate, and offered sources that not only debunk many commonly-held myths regarding immigration, but also offer information on the benefits immigrants bring to the United States.
The response was about what I expected--people told me I was ... (more)
According to my local government, I'm just now beginning my fifth year as a homeschooling dad. That's how long state law has required us to file the paperwork.
In that time, I've heard homeschoolers called elitists (because not everyone can afford to educate their own children), snobs (because it is assumed that we look down on those who send their kids to group schools), religious fanatics (because, well, aren't all homescho... (more)
No one is admitting to any hard numbers right now, but it looks like Pope Francis’s visit to the United States may be costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in security alone. That’s a conservative estimate. That doesn’t count the cost of lost commerce to small businesses in impacted “security zones” and the massive o... (more)
Government Motors executives knowingly kept putting faulty ignition switches on vehicles, playing the numbers game and covering up its con game that killed 120+ people. Then they pocket the US Justice Department and walk away with inconsequential fines and no criminal prosecution.
The Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) will have 3 corporate officers/managers sent to prison for a very long time for ... (more)
I'm not ruling out a sudden surge, but, as for this writing, it seems very likely that Rand Paul will not get the Republican nomination, at least not this time. Maybe the future will be different.
Let's reflect on the meaning of this and its implications for the future of liberty.
Based on my social feeds, many libertarians are drawing the wrong lessons. They say that the reason Rand didn't pull it off is because he departed too much from the script. He should hav... (more)
Listen to Lew and Tom discuss Trump, Fiorina, Paul, Bush, Kasich, Rubio, Carson, etc., in this rousing debate analysis that won't be like what you heard on CNN.
David Friedman once said that “government can’t even give anything away.” Given how much of electoral competition consists of promises to give people things, that is a striking indictment of government.
Unfortunately, it is all-too-commonly true. Government dollars (ultimately from citizens’ pockets) frequently benefit people other than those they target. Further, they also provide different goods and services than intended.
For example, government wants to help col... (more)
That's Bill de Blasio, the current mayor of New York City, who was elected in 2013 after running unabashedly as the progressive, socially democratic candidate. I find it interesting that people are surprised by the mayor's illiberal stands on many (... (more)
“Every day in communities across the United States, children and adolescents spend the majority of their waking hours in schools that have increasingly come to resemble places of detention more than places of learning. From metal detectors to drug tests, from increased policing to all-seeing electronic surveillance, the public schools of the twenty-first century reflect a society that has become fixated on crime, security and violence.”—Investigative journalist Annette Fuentes
Is capitalism moral or greedy? If it's based on greed and selfishness, what's the best alternative economic system? Perhaps socialism? And if capitalism is moral, what makes it so? Walter Williams, a renowned economist at George Mason University, answers these questions and more.
For the next year, we are all going to have to endure the presidential campaign and its accompanying blowhard speeches, insipid commentaries, and vapid debates.
At the same time, many people will be terribly excited over the opportunity they get every four years to elect the person who will wield omnipotent power over their lives. It’s really not surprising that people get so excited about the presidential race because it’s the only time when the person who will rule over them wil... (more)
Consider the impact on the civil liberties of the American people of four of the non-stop wars that the U.S. government has been waging for a very long time: the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, the war on immigrants, and the war on wealth. These four wars have converted what was once a free country into a police state, making the United States the most over-incarcerated nation in the world.
The war on drugs has subjected people to an untold number of searches of persons, homes... (more)
"Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse." - Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
What began with the passage of the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach... (more)
"The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers," exclaimed Dick the Butcher, a zealous follower of revolutionary Jack Cade in the second part of Shakespeare’s Henry VI.
Attorney and law professor William C. Bradford, until recently an instructor at West Point, would be a bit more discriminating. Rather than killing all lawyers or legal scholars, Bradfor... (more)
"So, I figured I'd ask you," said my contractor. "You're a lot smarter than me and--"
That's when I stopped him.
Tom knows I am a college professor, and he wanted to ask my advice on his daughter's education. He's an ex-Marine who never went to college. It makes sense to ask an educator for advice about education, but why does that make me smarter?
I thought about all the times I've asked Tom's advice about the house we are renovating, and about all t... (more)
To give a brief synopsis of Accused, Catoosa County, Georgia, authorities in 2008 charged Craft, then a kindergarten teacher, of 22 counts of child molestation, with the three accusing ... (more)
Last week Europe saw one of its worst crises in decades. Tens of thousands of migrants entered the European Union via Hungary, demanding passage to their hoped-for final destination, Germany.
While the media focuses on the human tragedy of so many people uprooted and traveling in dangerous circumstances, there is very little attention given to the events that led them to leave their countries. Certainly we all feel for the displaced people, especially the children, but let’s not f... (more)
Nearly 1.7 million high school students took the SAT college aptitude exam this year--a record high. But the good news appears to stop there. According to Bloomberg Business:
Students in the high school class of 2015 turned in the lo
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