Politics & Rights

Within hours of the September 16 massacre at the Washington Navy Yard, various commentators and politicians were calling for more restrictive gun laws—on the theory that the government should respond to murders committed by a psychotic man by further restricting the liberties of rights-respecting Americans. How absurd. There is a…

The phrase in vogue today with advocates of minimum wage laws—laws forcing employers to pay employees more than they otherwise would—is “living wage.” But, apart from laws mandating a minimum wage, this phrase has no referent in reality. And laws dictating minimum wages are immoral. To get a sense of…

Had the satirical publican The Onion existed during America’s founding era, this is the sort of story it might have run: In New York City, it is a crime to serve dinner in your home for a fee. The “criminals” involved could have their kitchens shut down by the city’s…

Astonishing as it is that we must argue for the principle that the U.S. military should be deployed exclusively in service of America’s self-interest, we must. As Craig Biddle explained on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many Americans, including our politicians, advocate a foreign policy that sacrifices American…

[Published on September 11, 2013; unfortunately still relevant.] Twelve years have passed since September 11, 2001, when Islamic terrorists attacked the United States, murdered nearly three thousand Americans, and tore apart the lives of countless more. During these years, Islamic terrorists have continued plotting, attacking, and killing Americans, not only…

It is unclear whether the Obama administration will proceed with an “unbelievably small” military strike against the Syrian regime or plead with Bashar al-Assad to surrender its chemical weapons. One thing that is clear, however, is that to pursue military action in Syria as a means of stopping Iran’s nuclear…

What is the Obama administration’s mission in Syria? Secretary of State John Kerry recently spelled it out: We will be able to hold Bashar al-Assad accountable without engaging in troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort in a very limited, very targeted, short-term effort that degrades…

If you purchased ebooks from select publishers, the government is offering to force those publishers to send you “settlement” funds as part of the government’s antitrust action against them. As a matter of justice, you should refuse those funds—as I have done. To accept them would be to sanction the…

California raisin farmers Marvin and Laura Horne decided to sell all of the raisins they produced—and thereby ran afoul of the law. As NPR reports, the Raisin Administrative Committee (RAC) dictates what percentage of his raisin crop a California producer is permitted to sell each year. The RAC—backed by the…

As I wrote last December, the U.S. government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) forced out of business Maxfield and Oberton, the producers of the adult toys Buckyballs—small powerful magnets that can be arranged in intricate designs. I summarized: [B]ecause a few parents irresponsibly let their toddlers eat Buckyballs, and because…