Senator Jay Rockefeller, hailing from the peace-loving state of West Virginia, believes that the programming on your television is too violent. And nothing– not even the first amendment– will stop him from trying to protect you from that television. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he will push legislation in the coming weeks to limit violent [...]

Pete Wells of The New York Times writes today about what may well be one of the most inventive extensions of intellectual property law that I’ve ever seen: Sometimes, Rebecca Charles wishes she were a little less influential. She was, she asserts, the first chef in New York who took lobster rolls, fried clams and [...]

David Boaz examines yesterday’s Supreme Court near evisceration of the First Amendment, and comes up with this idea: Maybe libertarians should try to describe their philosophy by saying “libertarians believe in the free speech that liberals used to believe in, and the economic freedom that conservatives used to believe in.” Works for me. H/T: Coyote [...]

Much was made of last week’s announcement by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that he was leaving the GOP, and much of the buzz was because of speculation that this announcement might lead to an independent run for the White House. As this press release from the Club For Growth demonstrates, if he runs, no [...]

The Central Intelligence Agency has opened up the so-called “family jewels”, the until-now secret record of CIA actions in the 1970s that have been the subject of discussion for decades. To say the least, the picture isn’t pretty: WASHINGTON — The CIA released hundreds of pages of internal reports Tuesday on assassination plots, secret drug [...]

Dan Riehl on the Republicans and Democrats: At the risk of being politically incorrect, is it really worth voting in an election when D stands for Dumb-ass and R stands for retarded? Perhaps not. I could always do something constructive like go fishing on election day. I can’t think of a time when I have [...]

White House spokesperson Dana Perino tries to explain Dick Cheney’s bizarre assertion that he’s not part of the Executive Branch:

Starting yesterday, the Washington Post began running a four-part series on the Vice-Presidency of Dick Cheney, during which we have seen the role of the Vice-President increase in behind-the-scenes power to an extent never before seen in American history. The first two articles have focused on Cheney’s role in the War in Iraq and the [...]

Regular commenter VRB recently asked me what libertarians thought of this story, regarding the poor and black former property owners in New Orleans getting screwed out of their homes by the government: Evidence of eminent domain abuse can be found in the overwhelmingly-Black Lower 9th Ward, where the city bulldozed homes without informing their owners. [...]

The Supreme Court ruled today that atheists don’t have standing to challenge their exclusion from President Bush’s faith-based initiatives programs: The Supreme Court today handed President Bush’s faith-based initiatives program a victory, ruling that federal taxpayers cannot challenge the constitutionality of the White House’s efforts to help religious groups obtain government funding for their social [...]

California Senator Diane Feinstein indicated yesterday that she might consider reviving the so-called fairness doctrine: Feinstein, speaking on “Fox News Sunday” with Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said talk radio in particular has presented a one-sided view of immigration reform legislation being considered by the Senate. U.S. talk radio is dominated by conservative voices. “This is [...]

The Supreme Court declined the opportunity to strike a blow for the rights of students, instead choosing to uphold a Principal’s decision to suspend a student for displaying what was clearly a nonsensical sign: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court tightened limits on student speech Monday, ruling against a high school student and his 14-foot-long “Bong [...]

It was a close vote, but the Supreme Court today struck down a key provision of the McCain-Feingold law: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court loosened restrictions Monday on corporate- and union-funded television ads that air close to elections, weakening a key provision of a landmark campaign finance law. The court, split 5-4, upheld an appeals [...]

As someone who recently moved cross-country, I know that there are definite advantages and disadvantages to living in certain places. Government regulation in a state rarely defines life in that state, but can definitely impact quite a lot of aspects. Now that I live in California, I know that the advantages of perfect weather and [...]

I’ve long agreed with Lysander Spooner who wrote: IX. The Secret Ballot What is the motive behind the secret ballot? This, and only this: Like other confederates in crime, those who use it are not friends, but enemies, and they are afraid to be known, and to have their individual doings known, even to each [...]

Hugo Chavez, like most socialists, is starting to have paranoid delusions. He seems to think that America, a nation stuck in two middle eastern nations, led by a President who considers Venezuela to be problem number 16 on a 10-item list, is going to invade Venezuela. And the man who cares so much about his [...]

Turns out, it’s the poor who are hurt the most by eminent domain abuse: According to the data, those who live under the threat of eminent domain consistently live on significantly fewer earnings, with a median income of less than $19,000, compared to more than $23,000 in nearby neighborhoods. Twenty-five percent live at or below [...]

In response to my post about the lack of transparency in the new Democratic Congress, a comment was posted about Congressman/Presidential Candidate Ron Paul’s apparent exercise of the earmark “privilege.” I’d summarize the funding requests, but they amount to 65 pages of a PDF file that can be accessed here. And, quite honestly, they surprise [...]

There’s no better time to teach someone about just how much government regulation sucks than when they’re an 11 year old girl running a lemonade stand: H/T: Lew Rockwell