Here they go again. The Obama administration has asked its allies in Congress to introduce legislation that would permit the feds to continue their march through the Fourth Amendment when it comes to obtaining private information about all of us. The Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the right to be left alone, was written largely in ... MORE
Another $171 million taxpayer dollars down the tubes. If you go to www.fiskerautomotive.com,
you see a picture of a red Fisker Karma sedan and the words, “Welcome.
New Site coming soon.” Ominously, if you click on the “Tomorrow” link
at the top of the page, nothing happens. In fact, none of the links on
the page produce any ... MORE
by David Harsanyi. One of the most seductive parts of President Barack Obama's political message (and the message of progressive Democrats in general) is sympathy for the poor and a willingness to talk about the disparities of capitalism -- about the rich being too rich and the poor being screwed. In some ways, it's the predominant message ... MORE
Tourist shop fights silly toy gun ban. The owner of a Midtown tourist shop is firing back at Mayor Bloomberg’s crusade against toy guns, filing papers to block a $60,000 fine from the city for selling lighters shaped like small pistols. “We don’t have the money,” said Fred Shayes, 49, who owns US Camera
& Computer Inc. near Penn ... MORE
Wifely wisdom and the checking of premises. One of the most exciting clichés in the English language is “Thinking outside the box”! Who among us has not thought, “If only I could think outside the box, like Gates and Jobs and Zuckerberg! If only! Then rainbows wouldn’t be something I’m constantly chasing. They’d be more like house ... MORE
Indoctrination with unexamined assumptions. While it is not possible to answer all the e-mails and letters from readers, many are thought-provoking, whether those thoughts are positive or negative. An e-mail from one young man simply asked for the sources of some facts about gun control that were mentioned in a recent column. It ... MORE
Market Fairness Act imposes an unnecessary burden. At a 2008 shareholders meeting, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos explained why he opposed requiring businesses like his to collect state and local taxes on their interstate sales. "We're not actually benefiting from any services that those states provide locally," Bezos said. ... MORE
Most naked taxpayer fleecing in recent memory. The Washington Times covered it in 2001. And so did Fox News. Jennifer Rubin wrote about it in 2008, and many writers on these pages have mentioned it since then. In 2011, Andrew Breitbart made it one of his most cared-about causes, following from his outing of on-again off-again, ... MORE
RGIII speaks out. Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III took to Twitter on Tuesday to complain about the “tyranny of political correctness” he believes is holding American culture “hostage.” “In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political
correctness,” the NFL player wrote on his official Twitter account. ... MORE
by Gene Healy. Last week, at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, President Obama and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter put partisanship aside and descended on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas to say nice things about our 43rd president, (They're all in the same racket, after all.) ... MORE
Paying higher rates to subsidize the old. Starting next year, the Affordable Care Act will limit how much health insurance premiums can vary based on age. Health insurers will be restricted to charging older people no more than three times higher premiums than they charge younger people. This is bad news for the young. It's a fact that ... MORE
Someone called politics "the art of the possible." But, in the era of
the modern welfare state, politics is largely the art of the
impossible. Those people morbid enough to keep track of politicians' promises may
remember how Barack Obama said that ObamaCare would lower medical costs
-- and lots of people bought it. But if you ... MORE
New technology challenges gun control laws. In February, the techie gun-rights group Defense Distributed unveiled a 3D-printed lower receiver for an AR-15 rifle that withstood hundreds of rounds of fire. A YouTube video of the component in action was accompanied by the terse statement, “Does not fail from firing stresses. 600+ rounds.” ... MORE
Why over a billion rounds? The Government Accountability Office tells Whispers it is now investigating large ammunition purchases
made by the Department of Homeland Security. Chuck Young, a spokesman
for GAO, says the investigation of the purchases is "just getting
underway." The congressional investigative agency is jumping into the fray ... MORE
Best hedge against inflation. Peter Schiff appeared on Fox Business this morning to talk about the market’s perception of gold, the extraordinary surge in gold sales this month, and hidden inflation in the US and Japan. “Gold has been up for 12 consecutive years. It’s entitled to a correction. It’s incredible how the media has jumped all over ... MORE
Crony capitalism is in the driver's seat. There aren’t many winners in the current economic climate. Most companies are struggling against the burdens of higher taxes, red tape and uncertainty, and there’s no opportunity to expand and prosper. Some companies, however, have found a shortcut through deep political connections to the Obama ... MORE
The liberal world vision and reality are often at variance, for example,
with equal pay for equal work. I've often watched "Lockup," a show that
features California supermax prisons, including Pelican Bay and
Corcoran. Often, a recalcitrant prisoner must be extracted from his cell
through brute force. I've never seen female guards remove a prisoner.
If they are part of the process at all, it's to videotape the ... MORE
Credo of the government bureaucrat. Once in a while, a government agency adopts a policy that is
logical, hardheaded, based on experience and unswayed by cheap
sentiment. This may be surprising enough to make you reconsider
your view of bureaucrats. But not to worry: It usually doesn't
last. In March the federal Transportation Security Administration . ... MORE
Introducing BENGHAZIGATE. Liberals don’t want honest Americans like you to have guns. Liberals
just want to arm foreign rebels in crapshoot attempts to “end global
violence.” But liberals feign ignorance when the rebels they arm end up
being criminals who kill innocent Americans like the late U.S.
Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. ... MORE
More bootlicking from the mainstream media. The New York Times published an editorial Monday that not only endorses last week’s police-military lockdown of Boston, but suggests that it was entirely consistent with democratic procedures. In “How to Handle a Terrorism Case,” the Times makes the absurd argument that the operation ... MORE
by Mark J. Perry. OK, I might have exaggerated a little bit with that headline and the Frosty photo above. But not by much, and only because Frosty probably doesn’t appear in any state statutes. But a new manpersondate in the state of Washington that legally bans any gender (aka male) bias in state statutes will replace “penmanship” ... MORE
by Ronald Bailey. My Gmail inbox has over 151,000 messages in it. I am an electronic pack rat afraid that I might delete just the email I may some day want to read or re-read. But there’s a drawback to my correspondence collection: Many government agencies believe that they can demand to peek, without my knowledge, at any of my ... MORE
Will not allow feds to run roughshod over Constitution. As gun control legislation stalls in Washington DC, Missouri is taking matters into its own hands. Known as the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” House Bill 436 passed
the Missouri House of Representatives 117-43. If the bill becomes state
law, it will nullify new federal gun laws. It would prohibit ... MORE
More hollow rhetoric from the ruling class. If you ever doubted the inability of the federal government to protect you from harm, events of the past few weeks should have been a clincher. While Congress was dithering about a background-check-for-gun-buyers bill, President Obama was out on the hustings — in full campaign mode — trying to gin up ... MORE
Cops not content to enforce the law; want to decide it. Police in Tacoma could soon be in real trouble over pot. The department could be found in contempt if they continue to refuse to return a small amount of marijuana seized from a man after a traffic stop. Municipal Court Judge Jack Emery repeated an order to police Thursday to return the ... MORE
There is no law against warning others of speed traps. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Ellisville Police Department Wednesday morning. The lawsuit claims the Ellisville police have been illegally ticketing drivers that flash their high beams to other drivers to warn them about speed traps. ACLU legal Director Tony ... MORE
Sneak passed go and collect $200. The Department of Agriculture, via the Mexican government, assures potentially ineligible immigrants that they can still apply for food stamps on behalf of their eligible children without giving information about their immigration status, according to documents released Thursday by Judicial Watch. The Daily Caller ... MORE