The Institute of Justice, a civil rights public-interest law firm, is challenging municipal regulations that prevent people from renting out their own homes: “The rule is a rental ban on renting out your home,” said Anthony Sanders, an attorney with the Minnesota Chapter of the Institute of Justice, a libertarian non-profit based in Virginia. Sanders…
Liberty
Crime, Law, Liberty
Gallup Reports Record Number in Favor of Legalizing Marijuana Use
by JOHN ADAMS •
Respected polling-firm Gallup reports that for the first time, half of all Americans support legalizing marijuana use. Fifty-percent of all Americans favor legalization; that’s a huge jump from forty years ago. The ongoing trend is also clear: younger Americans are more likely to support, and senior citizens more likely to oppose, legalization. In another twenty…
Free Markets, Libertarians, Liberty, Poverty
Philosopher Matt Zwolinski on ‘Bleeding-Heart Libertarians,’ The Poor, and Social Justice
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve posted before on libertarian professor Matt Zwolinski’s left-of-center libertarianism (see, from the Daily Caller, Seven reasons progressives should be more libertarian). Here’s a video where he discusses so-called ‘bleeding heart’ libertarianism. Although I don’t think of myself as more of a left or more of a right-of-center libertarian, there’s nothing in Zwolinski’s emphasis on…
Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Reason’s Nanny of the Month for September 2011: San Juan Capistrano City Attorney Omar Sandoval
by JOHN ADAMS •
If you thought that home Bible study (or other, similar gatherings) would never be banned in America, then you would find yourself … mistaken. Below is the description accompanying the September video. The Fromms are right to seek redress. Nanny of the Month turns two years’ old this October, and the busybodies who want to…
Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Institute for Justice takes on the Milwaukee Taxi Cartel
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a question, in times of struggling businesses and high unemployment, that should concern everyone: What to do about oppressive regulations and crony capitalism in Milwaukee? The IJ describes what’s at issue: Should the city of Milwaukee be allowed to outlaw competition in the taxi market, causing permits to rise in price from $85 to…
Freedom of Speech, Laws/Regulations, Liberty, Taxes/Taxation
Banned Books Week, 9.24 – 10.1
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s Banned Books Week, from September 24th to October 1st: During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2011 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held…
Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Legislator responsible for Transportation Security Administration says dismantle, privatize the agency
by JOHN ADAMS •
Indeed. Long, long overdue. The agency is one of America’s greatest contemporary mistakes. They’ve been accused of rampant thievery, spending billions of dollars like drunken sailors, groping children and little old ladies, and making everyone take off their shoes. But the real job of the tens of thousands of screeners at the Transportation Security Administration…
Books, Free Markets, Liberty, Planning
Luskin on Atlas Shrugged, Paul Krugman, and Crony Capitalism
by JOHN ADAMS •
Donald Luskin’s spent years criticizing Krugman, not as much for Krugman’s economic accomplishments (Krugman’s a Nobel laureate) but for his subsequent politico-economic columns in the New York Times. Krugman is Luskin’s white whale, but that obsession isn’t as interesting to me as Luskin’s observation (toward the end of the video) that Atlas Shrugged is, principally,…
Libertarians, Liberty, Politics
Can Libertarians Be Christian? Must Libertarians Be Socially Liberal?
by JOHN ADAMS •
One hears all sorts of questions like this, about whether libertarianism requires a certain religious view, or a certain social outlook. One can certainly be a Christian and libertarian, and libertarians run the range from socially liberal to socially conservative. Although libertarianism is more influential in America than ever (so much so that many groups…
Holiday, Law, Liberty
Constitution Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Matt Welch Debates Ann Coulter on the Iraq War, TSA, and Using Torture
by JOHN ADAMS •
Reason editor-in-chief Matt Welch debated Ann Coulter on a special Stossel episode dedicated to how the government has responded to 9/11. Welch debated Coulter on how secure America is after invading Iraq, creating the TSA, and implementing torture for information gathering. Air Date: September 8, 2011. I’m with Welch on all three, believing particularly that…
Freedom of Speech, Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Recall Signs on Lawns as Protected Political Speech
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a lingering – but easy to answer – question about whether it’s legal to put a conventional, ordinary-sized ‘Recall Walker’ sign on your private lawn. Yes, it is. It’s a free speech right that cannot be abridged by state or local election ordinances limiting the mere display on private property of conventional political signs.…
Liberty, Tyranny
Russia’s Struggling Democracy, Twenty Years On
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Defending Street Vendors, Food Trucks, and Consumer Choice
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s an update in the battle for economic freedom and consumer choice. I’ve written before about how incumbent, brick-and-mortar restaurants try to use government to shield themselves from food-truck competitors. Those restaurateurs do not — will never — deserve governmental protection. They made a free choice to open a store, instead of operating a truck,…