On the last day of 2013, Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily blocked the ObamaCare provision “forcing some religious-affiliated groups to provide health insurance coverage of birth control,” the New York Times reports. But the debate as the media typically present it misses an essential point: The contraception mandate violates…

Although the moral justification for capitalism is not that it helps the poor—but that it protects the rights of all—a major consequence of capitalism, where and to the degree it is legalized, is that it lifts people out of poverty. One area in which this can be readily seen is…

When children sit on Santa’s knee asking for gifts, it’s cute. When adults sit on Uncle Sam’s knee asking for handouts, it’s immoral. Although I often disagree with former Colorado governor Richard Lamm, his point about the difference between Santa and government is brilliant: Christmas is the time when kids…

Many conservatives and “liberals” are deeply confused about the meaning of rights and tolerance, as recent controversies—including the one over Duck Dynasty—make clear. So now is a good time to clarify and distinguish these ideas. What Are Rights? A “right” is a moral principle defining an individual’s proper “freedom of…

The A&E cable network recently suspended Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson for his ignorant tirade on the alleged sinfulness of homosexuality: It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man's anus. That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to…

Usually I don’t comment on the slime published by Salon, as its writers’ idea of journalism often is to publish the most audacious lies they can imagine and hope they can get away with it. But I’ll make an exception regarding a recent pack of lies Salon published about Ayn…

Whatever Nelson Mandela’s substantial flaws—among other things, he was a socialist who befriended dictators—he played an important role in overturning South Africa’s horrifically unjust apartheid system. The History Channel succinctly summarizes the nature of apartheid, which remained in effect until 1994: By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites…

The so-called “progressive” income tax is designed to tax “the rich” more—and that’s what it’s doing. CNBC reports: Buried inside a Congressional Budget Office [CBO] report this week was this nugget: when it comes to individual income taxes, the top 40 percent of wage earners in America pay 106 percent…

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) drove the company that produced Buckyballs—small magnets sold to adults as toys—out of business, then proceeded to target the company’s former CEO (Craig Zucker) personally for the costs of the CPSC-mandated recall. Zucker has heroically fought back, suing the CPSC. But Zucker is not…

Today, a Colorado court demanded that Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Bakeshop, bake wedding cakes for gay couples or face fines, the Associated Press reports. But Phillips—who disapproves of gay marriage and says he’ll close his shop rather than bake cakes for gay weddings—has a moral right to refuse to…

Today Congressman Jared Polis of Boulder lambasted the Colorado Oil and Gas Association for seeking to legally protect its members’ rights to produce energy in the face of fracking bans approved by voters in two Colorado cities. (The Denver Post reports the details of the legal battle.) The timing of…

Examples of sticker shock among former and current supporters of ObamaCare—once they find their insurance rates going up—keep piling up. (See also my previous posts.) Nurse Cathy Wagner “championed Obamacare, until she received a letter from her insurance company saying it was canceling her policy,” Denver’s CBS affiliate reports. “I…

A recent exchange about gun statistics illustrates the failure of libertarianism to base political freedom on anything other than personal or cultural opinion. In a recent blog post, Bryan Caplan, a libertarian anarchist and an economist at George Mason University (GMU), discusses a recent study linking gun ownership to suicide…

Voters in several Colorado communities recently elected to ban or severely restrict hydraulic fracturing (fracking)—a process by which energy producers have vastly expanded production of natural gas and oil—in their areas. (Of course, these voters continue to power their homes and automobiles using energy produced by fracking.) An editorial in…

SkyView Academy, a government-funded charter school in Colorado, recently cut ties with a religious charity after the American Humanist Association threatened to sue over the charity’s involvement, as the Denver Post reports. As part of a community service project, students helped the Samaritan’s Purse organization send “shoeboxes filled with hygiene…