The great benefactor of Austrian economics and champion of liberty and sound money has passed on at the age of 80 after a struggle with cancer. See the remembrances by Lew Rockwell and Eric Garris.

I wonder how much carbon will be expended by California’s politicians and green authoritarians in the drive to ban black automobiles and restrict plasma TVs. How many noxious fumes will be emitted by agitators for such controls?

Activists are outraged over Obama’s raid of Emmalyn’s California Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco, but they should not be surprised. Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had promised to end federal medical marijuana raids, as conducted by both Clinton and Bush’s administrations, leaving alone dispensaries operating legally under state law. Obama broke the spirit of...
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Those of us concerned with the voluntary sector are puzzled by the dichotomy between President Obama’s professed belief in the importance of the non-profit sector throughout his campaign, inauguration, and early administration, as in this statement: …the change that Americans are looking for will not come from government alone. There is a force for...
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It turns out it’s not only Obama’s political appointments who suffer from misunderstanding that tax laws apply to everyone. While researching figures for my blog post on charitable deductions, I came across this detail: the Obamas themselves filed an erroneous tax return for 2006, taking a charitable deduction for $13,000 contributed to the Congressional...
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What will be next? Will the neocons return to the Democratic Party? This just in from Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard blog: I asked the boss for a reaction to the Afghan speech. He said he would have framed a few things differently, but his basic response was: “All hail Obama!”

Despite having promised not to raid medical marijuana facilities operating legally under state law, Obama’s administration yesterday raided a medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco. On what basis? Alleged state law violations. Specifically, evasion of state sales taxes. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws notes, “The normal process in such cases...
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It’s official (and about time)! Robert Higgs will be interviewed on C-SPAN In Depth on April 5 (and again on April 6). Three hours of Bob and every book he’s written. Don’t miss it!

The “war on terror” is out but of course its substance remains and even expands. The Obama administration has ended the use of Bush’s terminology, but not Bush’s despotic anti-terror policies. The administration will continue indefinite executive detention of terror suspects and others swept up in the guise of anti-terrorism—but it will not call...
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Ted Rall is one of the principled leftists who have not been blindsided by the Obama presidency. He writes, Obama’s inaugural address may have promised to “reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” but—in all the ways that matter—he’s keeping all of Bush’s outrageous policies in place. Sure, he talks...
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