Some critics of government overreach have regularly welcomed United States government shutdowns, arguing that they provide relief — if only temporarily — from spending and bossing around by government that threatens both freedom and prosperity. For them, the announcement from the Donald Trump administration that the government shutdown that started this week could lead to the cancelation of billions of dollars in spending on “clean energy” authorized during the preceding presidential administration could seem a welcome relief.
Continue reading“Safe and effective.” That was the phrase often repeated by people trying to maximize the injections of coronavirus “vaccine” shots during the coronavirus scare. This claim about the shots was wrong. The shots turned out instead to be dangerous and ineffective.
Continue readingOn Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a repeal of a substantial tax increase on marijuana sales in the state. By raising the cost of marijuana on the legal market, the tax increase was leading people to opt instead for making purchases on the black market.
Continue readingCharlie Kirk became well known and helped build his organization Turning Point USA by coming on to college campuses to present views that some students and, often, the people running the colleges did not want aired. In doing so, he helped advance the exercise of free speech at colleges. It was at one of his campus events at which he was discussing and debating issues that Kirk was murdered last week.
Continue readingThe Trump administration’s Department of State has been placing a high priority on denying the granting of visas to, and revoking visas from, people who have said things critical of the Israel government, including the Israel government’s war activities. That looks like it is an early step of a trend at the United States government department. In a new Fox News interview this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced his desire that the State Department would make an addition to the list of thoughtcrimes for which visas may be denied and revoked.
Continue readingIn Milan Kundera’s debut novel The Joke, the character Ludvik Jahn in communist Czechoslovakia is expelled from college and the Communist Party and ends up conscripted to a hard labor camp as a result of a joke he included in a post card message to a friend. The joke was judged to run afoul of the ruling ideology.
Continue readingBack in the 1980s, I was not a fan of the television show Miami Vice. The focus of the show — cops Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs enforcing laws against vice — was not appealing. Stop the crackdown on vice — including by bowing out of the war on drugs — and follow a policy of live and let live instead, I thought. Miami and the rest of America would be a freer and safer place as a result.
Continue reading“Take the guns first; go through due process second,” recommended Donald Trump in a meeting with Congress members during his first term as president. Through this comment offered in support of imposing rights-trampling “red flag” laws to deprive people of their guns, Trump displayed disdain for the right to bear arms and the right to due process, both protected in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.
Continue readingIn February, I highlighted a statement by Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph L. Abraham, commending it for its pro-freedom tone. I also noted that “I will be watching for follow-up actions.” Well, on Thursday, Abraham came out with a powerful editorial again strongly arguing for employing a pro-freedom approach in relation to medical issues.
Continue readingIn July, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which was recently criticized by United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for its major financial backing from and cozy relationship with Big Pharma, launched an effort urging state and local governments to eliminate virtually all exemptions parents can claim to protect their children from the plethora of vaccine shots required for attendance at school or daycare. On Wednesday, Florida State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced in a speech at an event where he shared the stage with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis the commencement of an effort backed by Ladapo and DeSantis to take the opposite course of action — eliminate all vaccine mandates in the state.
Continue reading