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Evgeny Morozov brings attention to an alarming story in the Boston Globe — an account of a man who had his driver’s license revoked by a machine. “An antiterrorism computerized facial recognition system that scans a database of millions of state driver’s license images had picked his as a possible fraud” simply because the system’s [...]
Filed under: liberties
It’s not exactly a secret that I’ve long been a fan of professional wrestling. These days, this also means being a fan of Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and its current top star John Cena. But not every fan likes Cena. In fact, some downright hate him. Though packaged as the ultimate good guy—whose [...]
Filed under: Foreign policy, liberties, Politics, War, World
Back in March, I sat down with my friend and Independent Institute Research Editor Anthony Gregory to discuss Barack Obama’s foreign policy, the renegades of American history, and his research on the origins of habeas corpus, and you can download or listen to that conversation here. This is the first podcast that I produced every aspect of, [...]
Filed under: Culture, Decentralism, Foreign policy, History, Ideas, Law, libertarianism, liberties, War
Washingtonians had their city’s downtown cut in half after the 9/11 attack. Broad Pennsylvania Avenue, the city’s widest downtown artery, passes in front of the White House and was permanently closed to traffic. The security crazies then also shut down “E” street which passes way south at the back of the White House; a major [...]
Filed under: liberties
Yesterday, two journalists were arrested for taking pictures and filming a public meeting of the D.C. Taxi Commission. One of those journalists was Jim Epstein of Reason Magazine, and you can read his account here or watch his video of the event: This is downright Soviet. If people don’t have the right to record public [...]
Forty years ago today, Richard Nixon announced that “we must wage what I have called total war against public enemy number one in the United States, the problem of dangerous drugs.” It has not gone well. Illicit drugs are easily available and continue to be used by tens of millions of Americans. For this complete [...]
David Weigel reports on the colorful libertarian activists of Keene, New Hampshire: This city is one of the epicenters of the Free State Project, the decade-old effort to build a libertarian beachhead of 20,000 like-minded souls in New Hampshire. So far, 909 people have fulfilled the pledge and moved to the state, and around 50—Freeman thinks—currently [...]
Filed under: libertarianism, liberties
Throughout the day, people sent me a story about a SWAT team in Stockton, California raiding a man’s house because his estranged wife defaulted on her student loans. According to the Department of Education, the raid was not executed over bad student loans, but it was part of an unspecified “ongoing criminal investigation.” That’s troubling but [...]
If Americans needed another reminder of why the Democratic Party is absolutely worthless, they got it during last week’s Patriot Act extension debate when Senate Majority leader Harry Reid again behaved exactly like the Bush-era Republicans he once vigorously opposed. In 2005, Reid bragged to fellow Democrats, “We killed the Patriot Act.” Today, Reid says [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, liberties, Politics
And the drugs have won. Take a look at this news report from Tennessee on how law enforcement agencies are using civil asset forfeiture to “fight” drugs: This report doesn’t explain much about how civil asset forfeiture works, so here’s a crash course. Under federal law, if police believe property was involved in a crime, [...]