By my reading, almost nothing the federal government does is Constitutional. The entire national security state and empire are dubious at best. The welfare state is unauthorized. Nothing in Article I, Section 8, the clause empowering Congress to legislate, gives that body the general authority over education, health care, the environment, most businesses, and...
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Yesterday on The Beacon I noted that the Federal Reserve’s new “quantitative easing” measure, QE3, is an example of crony capitalism: the use of public policy to increase the profitability of specific firms and industries. Today I want to compare QE3 with another example of crony capitalism to reinforce the point. General Motors provides...
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There’s almost nothing to add to the story below covered by Judicial Watch, the Canada Free Press, U.S. News and World Report, and others. Eleven years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Americans are subjected daily to humiliation, not to mention extreme inconvenience, by the “security” measures instituted by the grand new agency created...
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For a former community organizer, President Obama certainly seems to support anti-democratic activity with zeal—from his disproportionate use of Executive Orders, to this most recent action: According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, At approximately 11:30 am EDT [Thursday], the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White...
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In the days following 9/11, we heard many poignant recordings of phone messages between victims caught up in the terrorist attacks and their families. Perhaps the most stirring was that from the mother of Mark Bingham, informing her son aboard United Flight 93 that planes were being used as weapons and urging him to...
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...to realize the metal detector isn’t plugged in? No one knows how long it took for the light to dawn yesterday morning for one TSA agent at New York’s busy JFK International Terminal that his metal detector had been unplugged—apparently for hours: Amazingly, he failed to realize that alert lights never flashed once as...
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Of special interest to all freedom lovers is the sweeping, new, epic, independent film directed by Dean Wright, written by Michael Love and starring Andy Garcia, For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada, that has just been released in theaters across the U.S. This story is one with particular interest to Garcia, the...
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One might think that a Catholic priest removed from his position for sexually abusing children might find it difficult to find gainful employment. And one might think that this is a good thing—especially that he find it difficult to find employment involving intimate contact with children. But the Transportation Security Administration apparently thinks differently....
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It’s not enough, apparently, that the TSA has a well-established record for humiliating, degrading, stealing from, bullying, and terrifying the traveling public. Its agents’ arrogance is now moving into the realm of actually life-threatening. A Type-1 diabetic teen’s insulin pump was broken by a TSA scanner, despite her showing a TSA agent her pump...
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Robert Higgs Exposes Delusions of Power Why have so many Americans abandoned the Jeffersonian principle that the best government is that which governs least? In his new book, Delusions of Power: New Explorations of the State, War, and Economy, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs suggests that part of the reason is that we...
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