Politics & Rights

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) claims the motto of freedom, opportunity, and enterprise. But, by “freedom,” apparently, some at AEI now mean that government should be free to forcibly take your wealth and give it to others, at least within certain (undefined and undefinable) limits.

Paul Ryan hopes to make federal welfare more efficient by consolidating federal agencies, sending more federal welfare money to state governments as grants, and more. If Ryan’s plan reduces welfare dependency and gives taxpayers better results for their dollars, it might represent a marginal improvement over current policy. But it is still riddled with political and moral problems.

Actor Kristen Bell recently portrayed a left-wing activist version of Mary Poppins in a Funny or Die video calling for a higher federal minimum wage. But a minimum wage violates the rights of employers to operate their businesses as they see fit, including their rights to offer terms of employment that they judge best for their businesses.

The French government has passed an “anti-Amazon” amendment. As France24 reports, the measure forbids “online giants such as Amazon, and others including French retailer FNAC, from delivering books free of charge.” The obvious intent of the measure is to cut down Amazon in order to prop up other stores.

As the Daily Caller reports, it turns out that the hard drives of various other IRS officials who communicated with Lois Lerner also crashed. Reassuringly, though, according to IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane, the total number of related crashes is still “less than 20”! As Remy asks, "What are the Chances?"

I was going to write something brief about the clear-cut situation in Israel and Gaza, but then I listened to Pat Condell’s near-perfect commentary on the matter and decided simply to share his video. Watch it, share it, and, of course, stand with Israel. But, importantly, also demand of your congressional representatives that they vocally support Israel.

Although in today’s context questions regarding immigration are complex matters involving the welfare state, laws governing citizenship, threats of cross-border crime and terrorism, and various other issues, the proper principle guiding any thinking about immigration is—as with every political issue—that of individual rights.

On the issue of free speech Cruz has emerged as a champion of individual rights and the First Amendment. FreedomWorks recently released a video in which Cruz takes to task Democrats who wish to amend the First Amendment in light of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and to allow Congress to regulate political speech.

Hamas—which controls the “Palestinian” government—is a terrorist organization whose members have faith that they are required by “Allah” to annihilate Israel. Israel has a moral right not only to defend itself against Hamas’s aggression, but also to wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.

Far from showing that government should restrict immigration of rights-respecting people even more severely, today’s immigration crisis further illustrates why government should stop violating the rights of rights-respecting people to immigrate and the rights of citizens to voluntarily associate with such immigrants.