The level of economic ignorance in America astounds and saddens me. This morning and advocate for a local project told a TV reporter that, "The cost won't be as high because we've got some federal money." Wrong. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. The fact you obtained funds doesn't change the cost of your project. The price-tag remains..
Read more133 Words or Less: Egregious TSA Hypocrisy
The TSA recently fired two agents caught in a scheme to allow a male screener to grope “hot men.” According to NBC News, the male agent signaled a coworker when he spotted a guy he wanted to grope, then she would enter the sex of the passenger as female, triggering an anomaly requiring a groin..
Read more133 Words or Less: Foreign Policy Central Planning Fails Just Like Economic Central Planning
Centralized economic planning fails due to a knowledge problem. No individual, nor group of individuals, can command all of the information necessary to anticipate every possible outcome of a policy. The solution they conceive for one problem inevitably results in unintended consequences and unforeseen negative impacts that ripple through the economy. The American right generally..
Read moreSubmit to the Law…Always?
In the decades prior to the Civil War, hundreds of men and women risked their own lives and freedom to help blacks escape slavery in the South. I used to consider the people who organized and ran the Underground Railroad heroic, but apparently I was wrong. They were merely lawbreakers who deserved nothing more than..
Read morePower v. Authority
Frequently, federal supremacists tell me that the Civil War “settled” the issue of state sovereignty. Essentially, apologists for absolute federal power advancing this argument hold a “might makes right” point of view. From their perspective, the intent of the Constitution means nothing. The fact that Lincoln ultimately fielded superior military force makes his view, and..
Read more133 Words or Less: You’re Shredding the Constitution
Our motto at the Tenth Amendment Center is, “Follow the Constitution, every issue, every time, no exceptions, no excuses.” The US launched yet another illegal war with no declaration by Congress. Many justify the president’s unilateral decision to bomb Syria, arguing, “It needs to be done,” or, “Every president since Roosevelt has done it.” Exceptions..
Read moreConservative Foreign Policy Centralizers
This question perplexes me: how is it that in the modern conservative mind, when it comes to domestic and economic policy, government can't do anything right and the people making the decisions are imbeciles, but when it comes to foreign policy, these exact same people suddenly become geniuses? Consider... Conservatives hate the idea of centralized..
Read moreStep Off the 3×5 Card of Acceptable Opinion
I've noticed a lot of Americans have a complete inability to consider any idea that falls outside of the 3x5 index card of acceptable opinion. (Thank you Tom Woods for that vivid metaphor!) When confronted with a concept that strays beyond what they consider "mainstream," I find that many people recoil reflexively. I hear things..
Read moreConstitution 101: What Does it Mean to ‘Declare War?’
In last week's Constitution 101 article, we looked at war powers and determined that it was the role of Congress, not the president, to initiate war. Article I Sec. 8 delegates Congress the power to “declare war.” Article II Sec. 2 designates the president “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United..
Read moreAmericans Playing Monopoly: Court Takes On Another Case It Shouldn’t
In the United States, we have a monopoly government by judiciary. Not only have we monopolized almost all power at the federal level, we have placed nearly unlimited authority in the hands of nine federal employees staffing the Supreme Court. On top of exercising virtually unlimited veto power over every state and local law, these..
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