Many of my fellow contributors have written about the abuses of police departments in various parts of the country, but the Duke University Lacrosse case highlights another problem in our legal system, the out of control prosecutor: RALEIGH, N.C. — The state bar has added ethics charges to a complaint filed against the prosecutor who [...]

It seems that police in Atlanta, Georgia have been arresting a lot of people for violating a law that gives them an extraordinary degree of discretion: Adrienne Carmichael didn’t understand how little it could take for her 17-year-old son to land in jail on a disorderly conduct charge. “I thought [disorderly conduct] was if you [...]

In Wednesday’s Washington Post, Courtland Milloy responds to readers who have criticized his stand against forcing parents to immunize their pre-teen daughters against the human papillomavirus (HPV): Let’s get something straight: I am not against a vaccine that prevents strains of the human papillomavirus, as some readers have contended. Nor am I for cervical cancer, [...]

It’s been a few years since I’ve actually taken anything any President says in a State of the Union address seriously. Nonetheless, there are a few things that President Bush said tonight that I have to question: WASHINGTON (CNN) — Faced with a widely unpopular war in Iraq and a Democratic Congress, President Bush in [...]

If we had a free market in education, this would be simple. If you don’t make it to parent-teacher conferences, the private school your child is attending can threaten to expel, or threaten to issue its own fine, etc. But when the government is involved, you’re headed in front of a judge, buddy!

According to a new report, securities laws and restrictions on the immigration of talented professionals are harming American equity markets: Cumbersome securities regulation and immigration restrictions are diminishing the importance of the nation’s financial markets, according to a report by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. released yesterday. New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) [...]

According to Sitemeter, The Liberty Papers crossed the 100,000 mark as far as unique visits today. It’s quite a milestone, especially considering that over 40,000 of those visits occurred in the last two months. I’d like to thank the contributors here, who have turned a blog that was fairly inactive a few months ago into [...]

Less than two weeks after it was announced, President Bush’s so-called surge plan for Iraq is in serious trouble. Yesterday, Virginia Senator John Warner, a Republican who has long been pro-defense, came out against the plan: Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, yesterday endorsed a new resolution [...]

Dave Kopel is giving a run down of 2008 Presidential contenders from both parties and their stance on the Second Amendment. Most of the results aren’t surprising: Top tier. Nearly perfect pro-Second Amendment records: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas). Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). Former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R-Vir.). Former Gov. Mike Huckabee [...]

The Florida legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill today that supposedlyaddresses Florida’s insurance crisis. The solutions these Solons came up with are: The biggest savings are expected to come from expanding insurers’ access to the state’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which pays claims when insurers can’t. Insurance companies pay into the fund, but the coverage is cheaper [...]

Tomorrow evening, the nations broadcast and cable networks will interrupt their regular programming for the annual spectacle that is the State of the Union Address. While it’s not quite as ridiculous as Great Britain’s absurdly monarchical State Opening Of Parliament, it nonetheless has it’s moments. Which is why, I think, Gene Healy’s column on how [...]

Rush Limbaugh took a jab at the current field of GOP Presidential candidates today on his radio show: CALLER: What do you think about Brownback’s chances? RUSH: (Laughs.) CALLER: My son seems to think that he is too much “church and state,” and people are tired of it, and I love your song because my [...]

Like me, you many not like Hillary Clinton’s message very much, but her campaign may signal the end of public financing of Presidential campaigns, and that’s a very good thing: The public financing system designed to clean up presidential campaigns in the wake of the Watergate scandal may have died on Saturday when Sen. Hillary [...]

Reason Magazine’s Brian Doherty interviewed Texas Congressman, and possible Presidential candidate, Ron Paul and, as is usually the case with Congressman Paul, the results were interesting: First, Paul clarified the status of his Presidential campaign: Reason: Does launching an official exploratory committee necessarily mean you will end up launching an official campaign? Ron Paul: Last [...]

The entire population in the village of Fago, Spain is a suspect in the mayor’s murder. And understandably so: “There is no shortage of contenders. During his 12 years in office, the mayor, a member of the conservative Popular Party and the owner of the village’s only guest house, had been involved in almost four [...]

All, Due to a technical glitch which has been causing periodic downtime, our hosting company will be moving the blog to a new server this afternoon (about 4 PM EST). If the site is down during the transition, we apologize, but hopefully this will improve the uptime in general. UPDATE — We lost a few [...]

Here in Georgia, we’ve finally gotten enough representatives with the cojones to take on the Blue Laws (thanks Sen Harp!), the repeal of which is overwhelmingly supported by the people of Georgia. It’s still a baby step, as it only opens up beer and wine, and simply moves the decision to individual counties, rather than [...]

Over at Slate, Jack Shaffer makes a persuasive case for eliminated the Federal Communications Commission: Suppose Congress had established in the early 19th century a Federal Publications Commission to regulate the newspaper, magazine, and newsletter businesses. The supporters of the FPC would have argued that such regulation was necessary because paper-pulp-grade timber is a scarce [...]

The Bush Administration has been leaking selective portions of the policy proposals that will be contained in President Bush’s State of the Union speech including a proposal to reform health insurance that actually makes sense: President Bush will propose a deep tax break for Americans who purchase their own medical insurance and would finance it [...]

The Wall Street Journal conducted an email interview with Milton Friedman in July, 2006. The interview was never published, presumably because Friedman was ailing, although they don’t actually say why. It’s available on Opinion Journal, no subscription needed: Milton Friedman @ Rest. I pulled out a few quotes I found interesting. Friedman was a critical [...]