In honor of Presidents Day, I’m posting Thomas DiLorenzo’s piece on Grover Cleveland, which he calls The Last Good Democrat: In the post-war years the Democratic Party possessed most of what was left of the states’ rights, strict constructionist Jeffersonians in American politics. The party had its share of scoundrels, politics being what it is, [...]

On December 23, 1783, George Washington addressed the Continental Congress for the last time as Commander of the Continental Army. Today, the original copy of the speech, in Washington’s own handwriting will be unveiled to the public: It was a speech so moving the crowd wept. It was a speech so personally important George Washington’s [...]

The already sordid case from Manassas Park has taken another turn. Greg L, the proprietor of BVBL, has received a cease and desist letter from an attorney who represents the City of Manassas Park, its police chief, and several other officers. I would say this is unbelievable, but it’s actually SOP for city officials caught [...]

While the United States military concentrates its resources on keeping together a country that is clearly splintering apart, the men who killed 3,000 Americans on September 11th are gaining strength again: WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over [...]

As we mark the 275th anniversary of the birth of America’s first President, Robert Higgs argues that we need more President’s who don’t aspire to greatness: In the New York Times Magazine for December 15, 1996, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., presented the results of a poll of historians asked to rank the presidents (excepting only [...]

As George W. Bush settles into his final two years, knowing that he’s lost his Congress and has become increasingly a lame duck, the question of his legacy looms large. As Bush marks the Presidents Day holiday and George Washington’s 275th birthday on Monday, he faces a drumbeat a criticism for the event that will [...]

A 58 year old man in New York was fired by IBM recently because he was visiting adult chat rooms on company time using company computers. In response, he’s suing IBM claiming protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act: WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A man who was fired by IBM for visiting an adult chat [...]

George Will has an interesting, generally positive, profile of Texas Congressman and Presidential Candidate Ron Paul in this week’s Newsweek: Most congressional offices are decorated with photos of representatives gripping and grinning with presidents and other eminences. Paul, who thinks the presidency has swollen to anticonstitutional proportions, has photos of two Austrian School economists, Friedrich [...]

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, blames teacher unions for most of what’s wrong with education today: AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as [...]

George Mason University Economics Professor Russell Roberts challenges the conventional wisdom that workers are better off when there are more labor unions: When more than 90% of the private-sector labor force isn’t unionized, why do 97% of us earn above the minimum wage? If our bargaining power is so pitiful, why don’t greedy employers exploit [...]

And oddly enough, it appears to largely be Republicans firing Republicans for investigating fellow Republicans… 6 of 7 Dismissed U.S. Attorneys Had Positive Job Evaluations (emphasis added) All but one of the U.S. attorneys recently fired by the Justice Department had positive job reviews before they were dismissed, but many ran into political trouble with [...]

On Tuesday, the Wharton Police Department in Texas shot a 17-year old boy, Daniel Castillo Jr. to death. The SWAT team was serving a search warrant looking for drugs after the police allegedly witnessed a drug deal take place at the residence. According to the family, Castillo was unarmed and asleep when the SWAT team [...]

Leonard Frieling, associate municipal court judge of 8 years in Lafayette, Colorado says he cannot enforce the city’s proposed marijuana ordinance. Though the ordinance will be voted on next week, by all indications it will pass the city council. The new law increases the maximum fine for marijuana possession (small amounts) from $100 to $1000 [...]

Congressman Virgil Goode (R-Virginia) has done it again. He made another dumbass comment about Muslims. From his speech, against the anti-surge resolution: “In now way do I want to comfort and encourage the radical Muslims that want to destroy our country and who want to wipe the so called infidels like myself and many of [...]

The Democrats’s meaningless anti-surge resolution passed the House on a near party-line vote. One of the groups formed to fight the anti-surge resolution is the Victory Caucus, a group that includes in its leadership Hugh Hewitt, Austin Bay, Ed Morrissey, and former Assistant Secretary of Defence Frank Gaffney. Their overall goal is to support victory [...]

Let’s set up a little thought experiment, and think about how different people might react. Scenario 1: Nathan awakes in the middle of the night, startled by a loud noise. He heads into the closet, grabs his pistol, and goes to investigate. He lives in Washington DC, and his firearm is completely unregistered. As he [...]

In response to an odd and unlikely scenario, where passengers got stuck on the tarmac for 10 hours waiting for clearance to take off, Congress is suggesting we institute an Airline Passenger Bill Of Rights. In all honesty, considering the fact that air travel is so heavily regulated by the feds, one would think that [...]

The government, in it’s quest to control your life, is holding up people’s deposits with Neteller as “evidence”… Neteller says U.S. authorities have frozen access to about $55 million in U.S.-based accounts. “As a result of the restrictions placed by third parties, court-ordered seizures and related legal concerns, (Neteller) is unable to make payments to [...]

In what can only be described as a fundamentally silly decision, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a never-enforced Alabama law banning the sale of sex toys: Atlanta — In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Alabama statute banning the commercial distribution of [...]

Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr created a bit of a political tornado back in December when he announced he was not only joining, but also taking a leadership position in, the Libertarian Party. In the March issue of Reason, David Weigel takes a look at Barr’s move and asks whether it is really a good [...]