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Latest Articles: Opinions/Editorials
Jaicomo and Nelson Respond to Codifiers' Errors
Post Date: 2023-08-07 23:04:52 by Charles_Byrd
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I received a long and thoughtful response to my post last month about the codified text of 42 U.S.C. 1983, from two lawyers at the Institute for Justice, Patrick Jaicomo and Daniel Nelson. I will reproduce it in full here (it continues after the break). Click for Full Text!
Great Evil Is Roaming the Streets of America
Post Date: 2023-08-07 22:58:49 by Charles_Byrd
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America’s societal decline appears to be accelerating. Hordes of predators are roaming our streets, drug addiction has risen to unprecedented levels, and crime is completely out of control. Some of the things that I am about to share with you are deeply disturbing. But we must face what is happening to us as a society, because we are in danger of losing everything. America is literally disappearing right in front of our eyes, and it is being replaced by a horror show. Sadly, I am not exaggerating one bit. Click for Full Text!
Constituting Unity
Post Date: 2023-08-02 21:03:14 by Charles_Byrd
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We live in an age of animosity. Americans are polarized, and often bitterly divided. And the institutions of our public life seem only to exacerbate our discord. Congress, the presidency, and the courts have all become arenas and objects of culture-war enmity, so that frustration with the constitutional system’s assorted dysfunctions is rampant. Too many Americans are therefore persuaded that our Constitution is unsuited to our contemporary circumstances—that it assumes a more unified society than we now have, makes it too difficult to adapt to changing times, and so in this divided era can only make our problems worse. But what if we are divided less because our constitution is ...
Don’t move backward on free speech
Post Date: 2023-08-01 22:41:59 by Charles_Byrd
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The more documents that Big Tech companies are forced to cough up through litigation and oversight, the clearer it becomes that there was in fact a coordinated campaign between social media platforms and the government to suppress speech that is inconvenient for those in power. This censorship runs counter to our nation’s founding principles. Congress and litigants should keep up the pressure on social media companies to reveal what they did, and safeguards need to be put in place to make sure this never happens again. Click for Full Text!
In Praise of Parking Lots
Post Date: 2023-07-31 21:15:25 by Charles_Byrd
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Even as a young boy I cringed whenever I heard Joni Mitchell chirruping out her 1970 hit song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” which was released when I was 11. I have no idea why this song irritated me so much as an adolescent and teenager, but when my ears were accosted by it recently as I strolled through a supermarket I realized why I – who am now staggering into geezerdom – loathe this song still. Click for Full Text!
When government bureaucrats masquerade as financial savants, watch out
Post Date: 2023-07-24 23:55:58 by Charles_Byrd
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“Get your ass to Pittsburgh,” barked the man whose hand was on one of the many money spigots that are irrigating the Biden administration’s industrial policy. The barker, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, was Jigar Shah, head of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office — whose lending capacity has been increased 10-fold, to $400 billion, by Congress. The person on the other end of the phone call, a business executive, obediently met Shah at a clean energy conference in Pittsburgh, and five months later had a $375 million LPO loan. Ford and its battery manufacturing partner have received from the LPO $9.2 billion that, presumably, private capital markets ...
The overdose crisis won't end until the drug war does
Post Date: 2023-07-21 18:16:20 by Charles_Byrd
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What I remember most from the press conference was Dononvan Lewis’s mother, Rebecca Duran. She was standing at the front of the room, just behind Columbus attorney Rex Elliott, and she was clearly devastated. Her son had been killed two days earlier by Columbus police, who were serving a warrant at 2 a.m., shot while unarmed and in his bed by officer Ricky Anderson. It was the third police shooting in eight days. Click for Full Text!
Want to Follow Your Dreams? The First Step Involves Hard Work
Post Date: 2023-07-21 18:14:13 by Charles_Byrd
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People are constantly told to follow their dreams, but doing so is futile without execution. Dreaming is a blueprint for future success; however, some people live in the dream instead of working to make it a reality. Ambition is insufficient to reap success, and many fail to realize their potential. Success is only actualized when you stop dreaming and start doing. Some believe that reading motivational books will lead them to prosperity, yet reading without application has never generated success. In a documentary about his life, Warren Buffett says that he reads voraciously to acquire useful skills. Reading without applying newly discovered principles is like going to school and ...
What if government is the negation of liberty?
Post Date: 2023-07-20 19:17:53 by Charles_Byrd
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What if liberty and democracy are opposites? What if the principle underlying liberty is to restrain the government to maximize individual autonomy? What if the principle underlying democracy is to unleash the government to give the people whatever they want? What if personal liberty is an individual birthright because we are created in the image and likeness of God? What if just as God is perfectly free, we are perfectly free? Click for Full Text!
If We Live by Lies, We Will Demand Deceitful Politicians
Post Date: 2023-07-20 19:07:49 by Charles_Byrd
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Recently, the AIER’s Senior Editor James Harrigan asked rhetorically, “When was the last time a politician of any description used the phrase ‘sacred honor’ with a straight face?” Jefferson, Harrigan pointed out, wasn’t “inventing the Declaration from whole cloth,” but instead, he was capturing “the American mind.” In his evocative Fourth of July essay “The Harmonizing Sentiments of the Day,” Harrigan concluded, “So we are left with one important question in our own time: What are the harmonizing sentiments of our day?” Once foreign to the “American mind,” dishonor and deceit are essential “harmonizing ...
'60s Denialism: Affirmative Action's Last Ditch Defense
Post Date: 2023-07-14 01:17:07 by Charles_Byrd
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As with many semantic corruptions, the left started it. They trivialized the term "denialism" by applying it not to the denial of a real tragedy, but to skepticism about an imagined climate doomsday. I would like to rehabilitate the phrase a little bit, if I could, by applying it to the denial of an historic phenomenon as real as the Holocaust and potentially as tragic. I refer here to the havoc wrought by the 1960s. Havoc came in many forms: the zeitgeist shift that undermined personal responsibility, the programs that undermined the family, and the social upheaval that glorified casual sex and single parenthood. Click for Full Text!
Lonely America: More Americans Are Living Alone Than Ever Before
Post Date: 2023-07-14 01:15:32 by Charles_Byrd
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Once upon a time, it was fairly rare to find someone that was living by themselves in America. But now that has completely changed. Americans are getting married later in life, couples are having fewer children, divorce is rampant, and millions of broken families litter our national landscape. As a result, the traditional family unit in the United States is weaker than it has ever been before. And that is extremely unfortunate, because the family is a fundamental support system in any society. Without strong families, no society is going to thrive for long. I knew that the percentage of single person households was rising, but this week I was stunned to learn that it has now reached almost ...
Obeisance to the “Greater Good”
Post Date: 2023-07-11 18:07:34 by Charles_Byrd
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Most people in the West are familiar with the biblical story of Moses. In this tale, a spiritual leader, chosen by God, leads his people out of Egypt to the promised land. The Israelites are saved. God provides Moses with a list of commandments that they are to live by – pretty basic stuff: Don’t kill people, don’t steal or lie, don’t cheat on your spouse, etc. Click for Full Text!
A Bear Market Rally and the Supreme Court Trumps Biden
Post Date: 2023-07-08 01:27:22 by Charles_Byrd
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June continued a stock market rally that produced big gains through the first half of the year. But what exactly is driving this rally and is it really justified by the economic fundamentals? Peter breaks it down in a recent podcast and concludes that this is likely a bear market rally. June was a fantastic month for the stock market, particularly the NASDAQ, which was up 12.8%. The S&P 500 charted an 8.3% increase. The Dow Jones finished up 3.4%. Click for Full Text!
Why Has the Entire Western World Abandoned Justice?
Post Date: 2023-07-08 01:11:05 by Charles_Byrd
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Julian Assange has been harassed on false charges for more than a decade and held in prison or in house arrest in the Ecuadoran embassy in London for a decade. Assange’s trouble began when two Swedish women each took him home to their beds and later complained that he hadn’t used a condom. One or both wanted him to take an Aids test. Foolishly, he refused, and one or both women went to the police to see if he could be required to take the test. Click for Full Text!
Recapturing the Spirit of Independence
Post Date: 2023-07-05 01:04:56 by Charles_Byrd
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This week Americans will gather around the grill, attend parades and watch fireworks displays, all in the celebration of the signing of our Declaration of Independence. At the same time, we will have thousands of bureaucrats, troops and agents stationed in countries across the globe being paid by American tax dollars. On the anniversary of our declaring our own independence from the British, it is certainly appropriate that we reflect on the nature and spirit of independent nationhood. While our founding fathers were individual men in a historically unique situation, they posited that the principles upon which they rested our national independence were timeless. Click for Full Text!
July 4th In Bizarro World
Post Date: 2023-07-05 00:55:48 by Charles_Byrd
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From colorful hot dog stands and front-porch grilling to car dealerships and fireworks — once again the people celebrate July 4th. The media will join the festivities and will air documentaries about the founding of the country, its struggles during the revolutionary war, the adoption of the Constitution and the various leaders that inspired a country to fight for its freedom. Journalists and pundits shall hold hands and sing their praises to the gods state. The mainstream, hailing from its intellectually void ivory tower will no doubt offer hosannas to our overlords. In the meantime, the message of freedom is nowhere to be seen. Indeed, quite the opposite tends to happen. Click for ...
What Do We Celebrate on the Fourth of July?
Post Date: 2023-07-05 00:45:20 by Charles_Byrd
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One way to appreciate the meaning of the Fourth of July is to reflect on what nearly every one of the Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls focuses on in his or her interviews and speeches. Apart from Texas Representative Ron Paul, who is openly libertarian while running as a Republican, all the rest are embarking upon the standard Santa Claus theme of presidential politics. In other words, they are promising to create more entitlements for us, telling us that if they become president, we will be getting more goodies from the federal government. Universal health care, higher minimum wages, subsidies to this industry and that, protection from foreign competitors and from ...
3 Things to Remember on Independence Day
Post Date: 2023-07-05 00:43:34 by Charles_Byrd
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It's difficult to say what most Americans commemorate or celebrate on Independence Day nowadays. Many appear to focus on some vague notion of "America." Others even take to jingoism equating the United States government with the very notion of "freedom." Lost in all of this is the fact that the Declaration of Independence — the document we're supposed to remember today — is a document that promotes secession, rebellion, and what the British at the time regarded as treason. Click for Full Text!
Has the Criminal Biden Regime Utterly and Totally Corrupted Medicare?
Post Date: 2023-07-04 00:29:44 by Charles_Byrd
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We are constantly told we cannot afford Social Security and Medicare. Fighting Russia in Ukraine is more important than the survivability of the American population. I doubt anything can wake up the ignorant insouciant American population, but perhaps the Biden regime’s rip-off of Medicare in the interest of Big Pharma profits can introduce some reality into American consciousness. Click for Full Text!
Film 'Sound of Freedom' a Whisper of Hope
Post Date: 2023-07-03 19:34:42 by Charles_Byrd
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Some things are so horrible they are difficult to even mention. Sex trafficking of children is one such unspeakable issue. However, a recent movie not only dares to breach the subject, it brings a ray a hope to the darkest of places. Click for Full Text!
Daniel Ellsberg Was Right. So Are Assange and Snowden.
Post Date: 2023-06-27 17:51:19 by Charles_Byrd
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Daniel Ellsberg died on June 16, and he remains one of the nation's most prominent whistleblowers who leaked secret government information to the public. Upon his death the general consensus among the writers of memorials for Ellsberg was that he was right to leak government secrets. As the editorial board at The Orange County Register recently put it, he was "a true American hero." They're right about Ellsberg. During the Vietnam War, through his release of the so-called Pentagon Papers in 1971, Ellsberg made public a large trove of secret government documents that exposed many of the Federal government's lies about its involvement throughout Indochina. Much of the ...
“Close to the Earth”: What America Can Learn From Irish Culture
Post Date: 2023-06-27 17:49:40 by Charles_Byrd
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"The average autochthonous Irishman is close to patriotism because he is close to the earth; he is close to domesticity because he is close to the earth; he is close to doctrinal theology and elaborate ritual because he is close to the earth. In short, he is close to the heavens because he is close to the earth." G.K. Chesterton wrote this in his book on George Bernard Shaw, and, as usual, the English writer hit at the essence of his subject with just a few words. I was recently in Ireland, and one of the things that struck me most during my visit was the centrality of the landscape. Click for Full Text!
Sometimes It Takes a Baby to Bring Out the Humanity in Us
Post Date: 2023-06-27 17:47:03 by Charles_Byrd
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Air travel today might be considered the triumph of individualism. It involves people in their own bubbles rushing to destinations with little human contact. It is a case of Hobbes’ “every man against every man” as all travelers compete with each other to navigate inside the lonely crowd. All think about themselves in a climate that can quickly degenerate into selfishness and unruliness whenever obstacles threaten personal comfort and agendas. Thus, except for travel companions, most people block others out. Air travel has become a sterile anti-social experience. Despite numerous occasions for interactions and close proximity with fellow travelers, most trips are boring and ...
Grab Your Wallets: The Reparations Game Is Rigged
Post Date: 2023-06-23 19:52:10 by Charles_Byrd
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Two weeks ago, I participated in a debate on reparations hosted by the American Public Square and later televised by KCPT, the PBS station in Kansas City. If I didn't know beforehand that the game was rigged, I did by the time the edited debate hit the airwaves. Grab your wallets, folks. The reparations crowd is coming for your money. The concept behind American Public Square is a reasonable one. Troubled by the increasing polarization of the electorate, former ambassador to Portugal Allan Katz founded the organization to bridge the partisan divide through civil discourse. Click for Full Text!
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