Editor and publisher of Homeland Stupidity.
A Rasmussen poll released Thursday shows that only 21 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. government has the "consent of the governed" as specified in the Declaration of Independence.
It's tax season again. And for many of us, the idea of doing taxes and giving the IRS the pound of flesh they demand is a harrowing thought. One Austin, Texas, man, claiming to have been fed up with being ripped off by the IRS for over 20 years, flew a small plane into a building containing the local IRS office this morning.
Gardner Goldsmith looks back at history, in an attempt to answer the question: Is government-enforced copyright and patent "protection" reconcilable with a free society?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will announce Friday that it is dropping a controversial plan to track livestock.
By a 70-30 vote, the Senate confirmed embattled Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term Wednesday afternoon.
Private sector union membership has been on a slow and steady decline for decades. While union leaders decry the numbers, saying that good union jobs are disappearing, the reality behind unions is much more complex. To an extent, they have become a victim of their own success.
With literally nothing to show for the $100 billion it has wasted so far, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants even more money to "strengthen" Head Start, a preschool program its own study finds is a failure.
Not only aren't your children learning much of anything in public school, they may well be in mortal danger, thanks in part to the attitudes and beliefs of their teachers and school administrators.
The Internal Revenue Service seems less interested in providing "customer service" and more in intimidating you into paying up, whether you truly owe anything or not.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, during its $180 billion bailout of American International Group, Inc., instructed AIG to omit details of its purchase of certain toxic assets from a December 24, 2008, Securities and Exchange Commission filing, according to e-mails between the company and the Fed released Thursday.
You have maybe two months to stock up on the necessities of life before food prices rise dramatically, potentially prompting a global food panic, widespread famine, and quite possibly the long-expected collapse of the U.S. economy.
Two days after serving two journalists with subpoenas demanding that they reveal a confidential source, a move that prompted widespread backlash among frequent fliers, the Transportation Security Administration has withdrawn the subpoenas and returned a damaged laptop to one of the writers.
The Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit has shown exactly how ineffective most of the post-September 11 security measures have been in providing actual security, even as passengers flying in its aftermath experience even more stringent security theater.
If you're struggling to make ends meet in this economy, you aren't alone. But government employees aren't with you. The average federal government employee takes home far more in salary and benefits than you do, their pay has risen throughout the recession, and is set to continue to rise.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is buying beef and chicken to serve to your children in public school that fast-food chains reject as poor quality or even unsafe.
Low-income children on Medicaid are given antipsychotic drugs at a rate four times higher than children covered by private insurance, and for less serious conditions, according to new research to be published early next year. Do children on government health care get drugged more often because they need it, or because it's easier for the bureaucrats?
As the economy continues to falter, the number of charities formed in the U.S. has risen dramatically, a phenomenon that some in Washington want to stop.
Google posted an apology for image search results in which the top image depicted first lady Michelle Obama as an ape. The image, however, was just one of dozens of images of celebrities and political figures altered to look like apes.
The document-leaking web site Wikileaks announced Tuesday that it would release 500,000 alphanumeric pager messages sent on September 11, 2001. I'm brewing coffee and preparing to "live" blog the more interesting of these half million intercepts as they are released over the next 24 hours.
The Metropolitan Police of London will compensate the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, who police officers shot and killed in 2005 mistakenly believing he was a suicide bomber.
The House Financial Services Committee voted Thursday to add Rep. Ron Paul's broadly supported proposal to audit the Federal Reserve to a larger banking reform package.
The flooding which nearly wiped the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, La., off the map after Hurricane Katrina was caused by the Army Corps of Engineers failing to maintain a navigation channel through the city, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Chicago, long one of the most corrupt cities in America, has seen three of its government bureaucrats commit suicide in recent memory, the latest being the president of its school board.
On Monday, the Washington Blade and several other gay newspapers were shut down after the Small Business Administration, which had put them in receivership, was unable to sell them.
New Hampshire's guarantee of a $250,000 line of credit for a local newspaper freshly emerged from bankruptcy is raising fresh questions about whether media outlets which receive government assistance can remain independent, and whether government should offer such assistance at all.
Raising a child is probably the most important thing a person will ever do in life. Yet we constantly hear stories of child abuse and neglect.
Prosecutors trying to put you in prison for a crime you didn't commit can fabricate evidence, coerce witnesses into lying on the stand, and enjoy absolute immunity. They cannot go to prison. They cannot even be sued. They aren't even likely to get so much as a reprimand from the bar association or from their bosses, even after publicly admitting to framing you.
An error in a national criminal record database cost Eschol Amelia Studnitz her job.
What have you got to hide? The answer may shock you: If you're like most Americans, you have far more than you realize that you need to be hiding, and not doing so may be putting you and your family in grave danger.
Your bank balance is running low, but you use your debit card around town to make a few small purchases -- say, a coffee at Starbucks, a couple of movie tickets, and some screws at the hardware store. When you get home you find out you have actually overdrawn your account and your bank has charged you $30 overdraft fees on each of those small purchases. Complaining to the bank gets you nowhere. What do you do?
Police officers dressed as gangbangers shot and killed a northeast Georgia pastor Tuesday as he was trying to drive away from a convenience store.
The federal government needs to hire 600,000 people over the next three years, including 273,000 for "mission-critical" positions, according to a survey released Thursday by a statist think tank.
Many Americans who still support Democratic health care proposals have no idea what would actually happen to health care should they pass, according to the New York Times, but are turning out in support on an 11-city bus tour anyway.
You could power 9,800 homes for a year on the energy that the U.S. Department of Energy is wasting by not using setback thermostats in its facilities, many of which already have them installed.
A five year old e-mail forward purporting to describe a "Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican" is making the rounds again this week. The e-mail, originally published at Michael Moore's web site, is a fictional account of Joe the Republican, who supposedly derives numerous benefits from "liberals" who have interfered in his life using government in ways he never saw or understood, ostensibly in order to make him safer, healthier and happier.
An Iraq war veteran once told me he thought his Veterans Administration doctor was trying to kill him. It seems the latest VA cost-saving trick is to try to frighten veterans to death.
Arguments from pragmatism fail to convince because people refuse to believe studies and statistics, and arguments from principle fail because they are too abstract for people to grasp. How, then, does one argue for liberty?
The debate over health care reform has turned violent in the last week as protesters on both sides of the issue clashed in cities across the country, revealing a long-simmering civil unrest.
For less than $150 you can buy all the parts necessary to construct an improvised explosive device that can be carried undetected into virtually any federal building in the country, thanks in large part to security weaknesses with the Federal Protective Service, the agency charged with protecting those buildings.
If you have a credit card, you've almost certainly just received, or are about to receive, a notice that your rates, fees and minimum payments are going up. For this you can thank Congress.
It has become clear to even the least astute observer that the United States is in decline and has been so for some time now. Despite the hollow promises of the government's talking heads, however, worse is yet to come. What is to become of the United States of America? Will the beacon of liberty, already dangerously dim, be finally extinguished?
Many of you reading this are government employees yourselves. Are you aware of wrongdoing within your agency or department? Have you tried to report it through established channels such as an inspector general and gotten absolutely nowhere -- or gotten fired, or worse? Now a new option is open to you.
Did you buy extra ammunition after Barack Obama was elected President, and are you still concerned that he might ban your guns? Are you concerned that the economic crisis could devolve into a depression, or worse? Do you think the federal government has overstepped its authority under the Constitution? If so, the government thinks you're a right-wing extremist and a potential terrorist threat.
The Transportation Security Administration compromised security testing of airport security screeners at as many as 11 airports by sending out an e-mail about the tests and failing to report the compromise, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.
Dick Heller, who thinks of himself as "just a regular guy," became part of history June 26, 2008, when the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in the landmark Second Amendment case which bears his name. Heller and the lead attorney on his legal team, Dane von Breichenruchardt, tell the story of how they won and what legal challenges they will bring next.
Last July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid of a home allegedly looking for a fugitive alien. Instead, they found a Customs and Border Protection officer.
Those of us who criticize the government have no end of material to work with. There's far more stupidity in government than I'll ever have time to publish, let alone write about myself. Yet I believe that we who criticize should also offer solutions to the problems we point out, and moreover, that when those solutions improve the state of things, that we should act to implement them. As part of this, I want to hear from you about what you want to see Homeland Stupidity do.
"When my goal is to get something on the table, to have my issue actually be resolved," says Angela Keaton, "all they really need to know is: war bad, peace good."
To those of you who are facing layoffs, foreclosure, or worse, help can't come fast enough. But so far all you've been offered is a measly $400 tax rebate and vague promises about how the bailouts and the stimulus package will create more jobs and get the economy moving again. And of course, you're doubtful. You're right to be.
For Dick Heller, the battle to reclaim Second Amendment rights from the District of Columbia was over 30 years in the making, and it isn't over yet.
So many of the world's billionaires and other great achievers, past and present, never graduated from high school, or never even went to school at all, that one begins to wonder if there's a pattern here. Could removing your children from public school entirely be a key to their future success?
When I think of public schools, the first thing that comes to mind now is the high school principal who was removed from his position and escorted from the building by police because he wanted his teachers to use lesson plans. Everyone knows public schools are broken. Can they be fixed?
The June 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller Supreme Court decision was hailed as a victory by advocates of gun rights. It was also hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. Who is right to claim victory? And what legal challenges do gun owners face in the future?
If you consider yourself a citizen of the United States of America, or of any other country, you should not watch this video until you have mentally prepared yourself to have everything you believe in challenged. You have been warned.
Dr. Mary Ruwart is a quiet heroine of the liberty movement. In addition to being author of one of the most widely cited books on liberty, she is also a pharmaceutical industry insider, and at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, she told exactly why prescription drugs (and health care generally) are expensive and difficult to access, and how many people have died because of it.
If you've ever seen professional wrestler Glen Jacobs at his day job, you may be quite surprised to hear him speak when he's not at work.
When alcohol was prohibited in the United States, it didn't take long for people to recognize it as a universally bad idea. Yet the same is true of the prohibition of other drugs, and for the same reasons. A popular slogan at the time was, "Save Our Children: Stamp Out Prohibition." Perhaps we should bring it back, because the war on drugs certainly is endangering our children.
As virtually everyone is aware, the Internet has changed the way people do business and how they live their lives. It has also changed the way people do activism.
"Most people do not value liberty," says Libertarian Party founder David Nolan, "at least not as much as we do." What does this mean for those who wish to spread the message of freedom?
Separate school and state? But how will children get an education unless the government gives it to them?
What happens when 500 activists for freedom converge on the same hotel in one of the freest places left in this country?
You haven't done anything wrong, so why should you worry about surveillance? It was Cardinal Richelieu who said, "If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in them to hang him." The United States doesn't hang innocent people any more, but it certainly does imprison them by the millions, and occasionally does kill them.
The U.S. military paid just under $1 million for two 19 cent flat washers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
A fundamental change occurs in the psyche of most people who work for the government. They begin to develop a superiority complex. After a while, they begin to believe they can do whatever they want to anyone who isn't part of their exclusive club. And to an extent, they're right: they have all the guns, after all. Here are a few examples of government employees showing their disdain for the ordinary people whose money they live on.
It's that time again, time for outgoing government bureaucrats to make room for fresh new faces and to say goodbye. Today, outgoing Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said goodbye to the country in a video. Of course, the government can't seem to do anything right, and now we can add making simple videos to that list.
Illinois governor Milorad "Rod" Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges, for allegedly attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, and trying to have Chicago Tribune editorial board members fired.
Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Ian Freeman will spend 100 days in jail because he questioned the legitimacy of a system which would penalize him for having a couch in his yard and conduct his trial in secret.
With there being less than a hair's difference between presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain, many Americans are going to wake up today still undecided on which to vote for, the giant douche or the turd sandwich. Today I want to share with you how I think you should approach the polls on this Election Day, 2008.
We've all heard the real economic news by now, or worse, experienced it. You've gone to the bank to find it closed, or you've gotten laid off, or you're just feeling the pinch in your wallet as money grows ever tighter. You need to understand how and why it happened if you're going to get yourself out of this economic mess, because surely you've figured out by now that your so-called leaders in Washington aren't going to do it; they seem hell-bent on making things even worse for you.
It's bad enough that the federal government wants to spend trillions of dollars of your children's money to bail out financial institutions that should be allowed to collapse for the good of the economy. But under the terms of the proposed bailout plan, the government will be able to rescue bad banks in secret.
I get more spam than most, and I just hit the Junk button for most of it. But when spam comes in with my real name attached, then I give the spammer a few minutes of extra attention. Usually this results in their web hosting and advertising accounts being canceled.
Last week the world of finance was rocked hard as the policies of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government finally came home to roost, with one major investment bank going under and many more in dire straits and being bought up at fire-sale prices.
There's just too much information on the Internet these days, and it's killing the poor old newspaper. That's why we need a tax on information technology to reduce the flow of information, according to one proposal.
Would anyone fly again if they knew the government's security procedures weren't intended to make people safe, but only to make them feel safe?Would you?
A three-week trial program where illegal immigrants could voluntarily leave the country without being arrested has ended with only eight people signing up.
Americans should be marching on D.C. by the millions with pitchforks in hand in protest of what the government has done to the economy and the nothing it plans to do about it. Yet they aren't, primarily because they don't understand the problem.
Protesters gathered Wednesday afternoon at the opening of the RFID in Fashion conference in New York City to urge clothing manufacturers and retailers not to embed tracking chips into articles of clothing.
Perhaps the webmaster at Lamperd Less Lethal needs an electric shock.
The federal government has tried almost everything in its various bids to get undocumented immigrants out of the country. Now it's trying something simple and unusual: just asking them to please leave.
"Your safety is our priority," the Transportation Security Administration web site tells us. So how does the TSA explain these four ways it's keeping air travelers unsafe?
A congressionally mandated study released Wednesday found that the U.S. national security system is outdated and needs major restructuring.
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin announced that the city would begin citing residents who did not vacate the FEMA trailers in which they have been living.
The global financial system is about to collapse because the U.S. dollar is about to collapse. The U.S. dollar is about to collapse because of a simple economic fact that no one has the power to change or conceal.
On July 4 I woke up in Pennsylvania, in a mansion which had served as a station on the Underground Railroad, that network of people and places which helped slaves escape their bondage before and during the Civil War. And I thought that, with the replacement of yesterday's chattel slavery with today's universal bondage, it may be time for a new Underground Railroad.
You check in at the airline ticket counter. But instead of a boarding pass, you get shackled with an electronic bracelet which tracks your every move, contains all your personal information, and can shock you senseless. This vision of the future of air security is being floated around the Department of Homeland Security's research and development office.
Transportation Security Administration employees have a hard time getting their workplace concerns addressed, despite several agency initiatives, contributing to low morale and one in six screeners quitting their jobs each year, and potentially threatening airline security.
We finally know why the federal government prevented Wal-Mart from delivering water to Hurricane Katrina victims: it was free.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday that the individual right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment was nevertheless open to regulation, restriction, licensing and registration, just like the First Amendment.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama not only wants to raise the price of your gas, he wants to raise the price of your food. Not to mention tax you to death for the privilege.
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators received a no-bid contract worth millions of dollars to implement a "verification hub" connecting state and federal databases under the REAL ID program.
So far the federal government has done little to respond to the historic floods in eastern Iowa which are among the worst in recorded history. In order to maintain tyranny in the flooded areas, local governments have had to step up to meet the challenge.
If you missed the fifth annual Porcupine Freedom Festival in Gilford, N.H., last week, make plans now to attend the next one.
The only place on the planet can you find hundreds of liberty loving activists who are actually doing something to advance the cause of freedom is right here in Gilford, N.H., at the fifth annual Porcupine Freedom Festival.
Indiana residents affected by Saturday's flooding shouldn't expect assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency any time soon, and perhaps not at all.
President George W. Bush on Friday signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to verify the employment eligibility status of federal contractors and subcontractors.
It's May again, that time of year when the Department of Homeland Security hands out millions of dollars of your hard-earned money to whoever it wants for the strangest of reasons, or none at all, in the name of "infrastructure protection." Today's stupid spending: $184,415 for a casino shuttle.
The war on terror could be recast as "A Global Struggle for Security and Progress," according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo.
If "Truth is treason in the empire of lies," as Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) writes in his new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, then Paul has certainly committed treason by laying out the truth of the precarious state of the United States in 2008.
When the next hurricane threatens to strike, how will you get the news? For that matter, will you survive? Some want to give the Federal Emergency Management Agency even more authority over disaster response than it already has, even while it struggles to modernize the country's emergency alert system.
Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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