Politics & Rights

Marking the second important court ruling within a week defending freedom of speech in Colorado, the Tenth Circuit court ruled yesterday that Citizens United need not comply with Colorado’s campaign reporting and disclosure laws in releasing and distributing a documentary—Rocky Mountain Heist—criticizing Democrat politicians and activists.

Marking a significant victory for free speech, U.S. district court judge John Kane has ruled that the Coalition for Secular Government need not comply with Colorado’s byzantine registration and reporting requirements in order to finance and distribute an issue paper that argues against a statewide ballot measure.

Here is yet another golden opportunity for the United States and Israel to help foment a pro-freedom (or at least anti-theocracy) revolution in Iran that could end our shared number-one enemy and the enemy of all freedom-loving Iranians: the Iranian theocracy. Boroujerdi’s popularity and predicament amount to a powder keg that needs only to be ignited.

Leon Panetta, former director of the CIA and secretary of defense, says that defeating our enemies in the Middle East and North Africa will require a thirty-year war. The only reason Americans will accept a long war is that they have lost (or never gained) confidence in their right to defend themselves against those who seek to kill them.

The U.S. State Department has endorsed a handbook titled United Against Terrorism, published by a Muslim group in Canada. The handbook recommends (among other things) that "Jihad is a noble concept in Islam." Will Americans continue to permit our government to call our Islamic enemy a non-Islamic enemy?

The causes of war include statism, collectivism, altruism, mysticism; those of peace include capitalism, individualism, egoism, rationality.

That “ginseng police” are raiding root diggers for possessing ginseng at the “wrong” time of year speaks to the insanity of the government’s ginseng regulations—and indicates how regulations in any area of business violate people’s rights, disrupt the free exchange of goods and services, and lead to myriad seemingly irresolvable conflicts.

The “rights” sought by the union are the “freedom” not to associate voluntarily, but to violate the rights of employers to run their businesses as they see fit and to enter into voluntary, mutually consensual contracts with employees. Specifically, the union wants to use the force of government to coerce business owners to “bargain” with unions.

Although the Supreme Court’s groundbreaking Citizens United decision threw out blanket prohibitions on groups of people spending money on political speech, government remained legally free to require speakers to report their identities and expenditures, thereby outlawing anonymous speech. The latest legal battle regarding such censorship laws is taking place in Colorado, with Citizens United again on the front line.

Steven Rose, a Christian owner of a pizza parlor in Arkansas, recently received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) stating that the 10 percent discount he offers to customers who bring in a church bulletin is unlawful. But Rose is correct in pointing out that, as a private business owner, he has a right to offer discounts as he sees fit.