Politics & Rights

Robert Begley reviews Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, by Andrew Breitbart.

Should municipal and county government be permitted to own and operate local high-speed Internet systems—Community Broadband Networks (CBNs)? Timothy Karr of Freepress.net and Gerry Smith of Huffington Post (among other writers) argue that governments should be permitted to own and operate CBNs because this provides “competition” against big Internet service…

News that the Internal Revenue Service targeted Tea Party and conservative groups for extra scrutiny rightly has blown into a major scandal. But the scandal points to a deeper question: Why are most Americans not outraged by the IRS’s daily violations of individual rights? Consider the main abuses. The IRS…

Yesterday a Pennsylvania jury convicted Kermit Gosnell of first-degree murder for killing three babies, of involuntary manslaughter for contributing to the drug overdose of a pregnant woman, and of various other offenses. According to the grand jury report of the case (as cited by the Atlantic), Gosnell “regularly and illegally…

On September 11, 2012—the anniversary of the Islamist assault on the World Trade Center and other American targets—Islamists assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, murdering four people, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The response of the Obama administration to this attack has been first to lie about…

The government taxes different corporations radically different amounts and in significantly different ways. A new study by the General Accountability Office (GAO) examined “special exemptions and exclusions, credits, deductions, deferrals, and preferential tax rates” regarding corporate taxes. Some 80 different corporate tax structures are designed to “support federal policy goals”…

On May 5, President Obama delivered the commencement speech at Ohio State University. Invoking the Founders, he implored graduates to embrace the “quintessentially American value[s] of optimism; altruism; empathy; tolerance; a sense of community; a sense of service”—and to reject a “society that celebrates individual ambition above all else.” It…

When members of Congress can gain financially by supporting, blocking, or rigging legislation that affects their investments, they have an unacceptable conflict of interests. Last year, Barack Obama signed a law intended to solve or at least mitigate the problem—the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. A major provision…

Last Friday, after a week of public outrage over widespread flight delays and cancellations, Congress passed legislation granting the FAA $253 million to restore its air traffic control staff to pre-sequester levels. While the bill may have quelled public unrest and ensured congressional members a timely flight home for their…

The proposed federal Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) grants states the authority to compel online and catalog retailers ("remote sellers"), no matter where they are located, to collect sales tax at the time of a transaction—exactly like local retailers are already required to do. The issue the bill purportedly aims to…