Daily Articles

The Surveillance State Is Making a List, and You’re On It

by John W. Whitehead December 18, 2024

“He sees you when you’re sleeping He knows when you’re awake He knows when you’ve been bad or good So be good for goodness’ sake!” —“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” You’d better watch out—you’d better not pout—you’d better not cry—‘cos I’m telling you why: this Christmas, it’s the Surveillance State that’s making a list and checking it twice, and it won’t matter whether ...

Medicare: Expand, Reform, or Eliminate?

by Laurence M. Vance December 13, 2024

Although the nuances of the beliefs of Democrats, liberals, and progressives may be obscure, there is one thing that they all agree on: the expansion of Medicare. Medicare is a government health-insurance program for people age 65 or older, people under age 65 with certain disabilities, people of all ages with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or ...

Political Riptides Threaten to Overwhelm the Nation

by John W. Whitehead December 10, 2024

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place ...

The Evil of Property Taxes

by Laurence M. Vance December 4, 2024

There were more than 140 ballot measures in 41 states during the election last month. While all eyes were on the ballot measures relating to abortion and marijuana, there were 10 ballot measures in eight states relating in some way to property taxes, and one more is coming up in an election in Louisiana on December 7. There were ballot ...

Using Russia to Suppress Speech at Home, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2024

Part 1 | Part 2 By enacting the First Amendment, our American ancestors were acknowledging that the federal government would inevitably attract people who would try to shut down speech that the government disapproved of. After all, if there was no concern that federal officials would try to suppress speech, there would have been no reason to enact the ...

The King James Test for American Democracy

by James Bovard December 1, 2024

On December 1, President Joe Biden announced that he was pardoning his son Hunter for all the crimes he committed from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024. President Biden absolved all of his son’s felonies because of his “serious addictions” and because Hunter was purportedly mistreated by Biden’s own appointees at the Justice Department. But going back 40 ...

How Not to Cut Federal Spending

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2024

Former congressman, governor of Indiana, and vice president Michael “Mike” Pence is struggling to regain relevancy. He is probably the most prominent Republican in the country to not endorse his former boss Donald Trump for president, after dropping out of the 2024 Republican presidential race before a single caucus or primary took place. Pence said he had not spoken ...

The Classical Liberal Case for the Freedom to Move

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2024

The idea of making a case for “open borders” arouses a great deal of disagreement and disapproval. Open borders, in the minds of some, implies no borders, it is argued and feared. There may be some who oppose the notion of political borders due to their disapproval of any form of government with a geographical area of responsible jurisdiction. ...

The New Deal as the Great Reset, Part 2

by Robert E. Wright December 1, 2024

Part 1 | Part 2 The New Deal effectively killed off what was left of the ninth and tenth amendments, the ones that protect unenumerated individual rights and states’ rights. Occupational-licensing laws that restricted entry into a growing number of occupations to an educated few in the name of consumer safety, for example, trounced the ancient, commonsense, and hence ...

The Deep State Wants to Terminate the Constitution

by John W. Whitehead November 22, 2024

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary.”—Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale This is how it begins. This is how it always begins, justified in the name of national security. Mass roundups. Raids. Indefinite detentions in concentration camps. Martial law. The erosion of habeas corpus protections. The suspension of the Constitution, at least for select segments of the ...

A Dictatorship Disguised as Democracy

by John W. Whitehead November 18, 2024

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”—James Madison Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unadulterated power in any branch of government is a menace to freedom, but concentrated power across all ...

We Still Need Marijuana Freedom

by Laurence M. Vance November 15, 2024

Although all eyes during the recent election were primarily on the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and secondarily on the contests between the blue team and the red team for control of the U.S. House and Senate, ballots in many states also contained candidates for state and local offices and referendums. More than 140 ballot measures appeared on ...