In 2004, Maurice Underwood was just a man with a van. When he made the decision to start his own moving company, Underwood was running an established small business in Reno, Nev., providing home cleaning services. A moving business was a natural next step, he thought, after he noticed several of his clients inquiring about […]
Laissez-Faire Today
Top Alternatives to Paper Money
I leave Liberty Forum in New Hampshire, a three-day gathering of hundreds of people who are trying to find ways of living freer lives in times of despotic control. With me I have three types of nonpaper, nongovernmental monies. They all operate in competition with the government’s dollar. These include Bitcoin, the mind-blowing digital currency that has techno-geeks, edgy global traders, and even the World Bank buzzing about its potential to finally separate money from the state.
Forcing Ayn Rand on the Students?
John Goedde, chairman of the Idaho Senate’s Education Committee, introduced legislation a couple weeks ago that would require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and pass a test on it to graduate from high school. Why Atlas Shrugged? Goedde told a colleague that reading the book made his son a […]
The Case of the 5-Year Old Bubble Gun Terrorist
A few weeks ago in the Land of the Free, a five-year-old girl in Pennsylvania was labeled a terrorist threat. Fortunately for the citizens of Northumberland County, local authorities managed to detain this nefarious kindergartener before she could exact her villainous deeds on thousands of innocents. Authorities were tipped off after someone overheard a conversation […]
National Security and Your Digital Data
One of the most dangerous threats to liberty and privacy today is called the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act,” or CISPA. The activists slayed this monster last year. Or so it seemed. But of course, the beast didn’t die. Some powerful members of Congress are pushing it again. CISPA would allow government to force […]
To Drone, or Not to Drone?
Decent folk don’t need Dick Cheney to describe something as “a good policy” to know it’s probably a bad idea. But just in case they missed the point the first time around, the former VP was on television last week to hammer it home for them. In an interview with CBS This Morning, Cheney brushed […]
The Basement Beneath the Wage Floor
There are certain sounds that tend to make people crazy. Think of nails on a chalkboard. An infant screaming nonstop on a long flight. A piercing whistle that won’t go away. Now we need to add another: a U.S. president who thinks he can legislate high wages into law. For anyone who knows the basics […]
The Future of Drones in America
Drones are wildly popular on the battlefield. Now they can claim victory elsewhere. The use of drones within U.S. borders — in car chases, to monitor wildfires, or for simple surveillance — is uniting political parties and people more often at odds. Their concern: The widespread use of drones among civilians represents a deep and […]
The Drones Are Watching and Waiting
The topic of drones came up on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Advertising guru and pro-drone Donny Deutsch pushed back against a skeptical Joe Scarborough saying, “What’s the big deal? There was no due process at Waco.” It’s just a difference in technology, he said. “It’s a more advanced way of dealing with problems,” Deutsch contended with […]
One Hundred Years of Intrusions
Imagine a time when the government knew nothing about the money in your bank. It cared nothing about how much you made, where you made it, and what you did with it. You could take your earnings in gold, silver, paper, or anything else, and never filed a sheet with the government. How you earned […]