Idiocy. That’s all I can use to preface this: The 26-page draft obtained by CNN attempts to woo GOP senators in part by calling for “concrete benchmarks” to secure the border before granting illegal immigrants the opportunity to gain legal status. Those benchmarks include: increasing the number of border patrol officers and U.S. Immigration and [...]

From Matt Welch, @ Reason: I have also “knowingly employ[ed] an unauthorized alien,” and “intentionally employ[ed] unauthorized aliens” (or at least, I had a pretty good idea that the dudes in front of Home Depot had a non-trivial chance of being “unauthorized”). Speaking of which, “unauthorized” is my new favorite illegal/undocumented term of art. “Unauthorized.” [...]

Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a California law that made it illegal to sell “violent” video games to minors. Today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the State of California’s appeal in that case: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide whether free speech rights are more important than [...]

Via Twitter, I came up this 2007 Examiner article by Dan Riehl of Riehl World View that offers what seems like the beginning of a way out of what has been little more than three year long shouting match over the subject of immigration, illegal immigrants, and immigration reform: As with current and past generations, [...]

From Walter Block, Defending the Undefendable (pg 194 of the Mises printing): Anything goes between consenting adults, and (implicitly) nothing goes but that which is between consenting adults. Restraint and coercion are two sides of the same coin: the use of improper force on another. Restraint of behavior between consenting adults is imprisonment, coercion to [...]

I just happened to come across this wonderful rant from Tom Martino concerning Earth Day and environmentalism. For those of you who live outside the Denver media market, Tom Martino (a.k.a. ‘The Troubleshooter’) isn’t a political commentator per se but a consumer advocate with both a radio and TV show (similar to Clark Howard, but [...]

In one of the early Republican debates in the 2008 election cycle, Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani sparred over the September 11th attacks and the role that U.S. foreign policy choices may have played in inciting the attacks: On Iraq, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the Libertarian candidate for president in 1988, stood alone in [...]

Well, since I broached the third rail subject last night, I might as well atone with something a little lighter. I saw this and thought it was pretty cool. Click on the below photo to link to Flowing Data, the original source. Hat Tip: The Big Picture

First, Megan McArdle: I am a big fan of roundabouts, and wish that America used more of them in place of intersections or interchanges. Unfortunately, because we don’t have a lot of roundabouts here, drivers don’t quite get them, and they tend to behave very aggressively–particularly, for some reason, those coming off of K Street. [...]

In libertarian circles, the abortion issue is a thorny one, for the same reason as in the general political spectrum: it depends on a priori beliefs outside those of a political philosophy. It comes down to two different potential mutually exclusive beliefs: The intrinsic “human-ness” of a fetus begins at conception, or viability, or wherever [...]

This is an excerpt from a post from the blog Classical Liberal that was written in response to the post Doug wrote yesterday regarding the University of Maryland student police beating caught on tape. As long as men and women in uniform (State-issued costumes) carry out these violent acts, we think it’s okay, because they’re [...]

The Bill of Rights provides citizens basic protections against unlawful searches and seizures via the Fourth Amendment, protections against self incrimination via the Fifth Amendment, and the right to an attorney via the Sixth Amendment. On a theoretical level, most people probably know this but what does this mean on a practical level? If the [...]

Call this one the “MSM Edition”: The law promises that people can keep coverage they like, largely unchanged. For members of Congress and their aides, the federal employees health program offers much to like. But, the report says, the men and women who wrote the law may find that the guarantee of stability does not [...]

It’s always a raucous time on the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Maryland after a basketball game, especially after a game against the Terrapins long-time ACC rival Duke, and March 5th was no exception as about 28 students ended up getting arrested for rowdy behavior and public intoxication. In turns out, though, that [...]

America’s Third President was born 267 years ago today. Since there isn’t anything to write about Jefferson that hasn’t already been said, it seems appropriate to let his words speak for themselves from the text of the two written documents that he was most proud of throughout his life. First, from the Virginia Statute For [...]

After months of rumors and speculation, Justice John Paul Stevens officially announced today that he is retiring from the Supreme Court: WASHINGTON — Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, the leader of the liberals on the Supreme Court, announced on Friday that he will retire at the end of this term, setting up a confirmation battle [...]

Bruce at QandO is ruminating on the VAT, which is likely the next step on paying for Leviathan. But it doesn’t make sense. If Congress is working so hard to make their new programs deficit neutral, why are they looking for big new hidden revenue sources?

Fox’s Neil Cavuto spoke last week with Adam Sharp, the blogger who posted a video of a Democratic Congressman saying he doesn’t worry about the Constitution: Sharp is, of course, referring to a book by Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds titled An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big [...]

The census is a bit of a lightning rod for libertarians, largely due to the questions in addition to the actual enumeration. Fundamentally question #1 on the census is definitely Constitutional, and I’d say the additional questions asked are mostly harmless. But I didn’t fill those out. I answered question #1, and only question #1. [...]

John Stossel did a piece on Fox Business Channel about what a libertarian actually is: Laugh of the day was the guy who thought a libertarian was “a librarian who takes liberties.”