Legalize Recreational DrugsI suspect that most readers of The Beacon tend to favor personal freedoms to a sufficient degree that they will immediately agree with the title of this post. If we want to live in a free country, freedom has to mean that we are free to make choices that others, including others in positions of authority, believe are bad choices. We are not free if we are only allowed to choose options government believes are good for us.
The tremendous harm that the war on drugs has around the wo... (more)
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Decriminalization, Legalization, or Freedom?In between drug prohibition and drug freedom are two concepts that are often confused.
Drug prohibition is the criminalization of the production, distribution, and possession of drugs as currently exists in the United States on the federal level and in most of the 50 states. Drug freedom is the complete absence of federal and state laws and regulations concerning drugs because what a man wants to grow, sell, or smoke is his natural right.
Drug decriminalization is t... (more)
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It's Time to Strengthen Our Knife-Control Laws......after fourteen people were stabbed today at a Texas Community College. All knives should be registered with the government; everyone should undergo a background check before being allowed to purchase dinnerware; all knives now on the market should be dulled and their sharp edges made square; all boy scouts known to possess pen... (more)
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The National-Security State, Not North Korea, Is the Root of Our WoesIn the current crisis with North Korea, what you see coming out of the mainstream media is the same mindset that characterizes the Pentagon and the CIA. The communists are engaging in provocation and threats of aggression and the U.S. national-security state, just minding its own business, now has to take the time and trouble to respond.
Of course, when the U.S. national-security state, through the UN, imposes one more in a long series of sanctions against North Korea, it's consid... (more)
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The Psycho-Therapeutic School System: Pathologizing Childhood“There’s a tremendous push where if the kid’s behavior is thought to be quote-unquote abnormal – if they’re not sitting quietly at their desk – that’s pathological, instead of just childhood.” - Dr. Jerome Groopman, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School
According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control, a staggering 6.4 million American children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been ... (more)
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Nationalizing ChildrenWe must remove the children from the crude influence of their families. We must take them over and, to speak frankly, nationalize them.
– Instructions given at a congress of Soviet educators in 1918 (cited in Separating School & State: How to Liberate America’s Families, by Sheldon Richman, pg. xv).
[The Soviet family] is an organic part of Soviet society.... (more)
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MSNBC Host: Your Kids Belong to the CollectiveIn the video below, college professor and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry says your children are not yours -- they are owned by the community. She says public education has failed because we have not allowed the state to confiscate more of our money.
"We have to break through our private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families," says the professor of political science at Tulane University, where she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Proj... (more)
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The Totalitarianism of Universal Background ChecksFinally, some sanity, and from a somewhat unexpected source. The ACLU is concerned about the civil liberties implications of the new Harry Reid Senate bill to establish so-called “universal background checks” for firearms purchases. The organization has tended toward silence on gun rights, but at least now it recognizes aspects of the problem with t... (more)
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Destroying the Switzerland of Central AmericaLeave it to the U.S. national-security state to destroy another country, this one being Costa Rica, known as the "Switzerland of Central America" and whose national slogan is "pura vida"--"pure life."
How is the U.S. government now destroying Costa Rica? No, not with bombs or missiles--at least not yet--but with its much-vaunted drug war, which the Pentagon and the CIA are expanding in Latin America since that their adventures in Afghanistan and the Middle East might be winding do... (more)
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"State Control": What the UN Firearms Treaty is All About"Comrades! Turn in your weapons!"
White House mouthpiece Jay Carney says that the Obama administration will “conduct a thorough review” of the UN’s newly enacted gun control pact “to determine whether to sign the treaty.” The suspense is hardly unbearable, given that the UN treaty would codify the proposition that national governments ... (more)
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Millbrook v. US: Holding the Government Accountable for Misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”―Thomas Paine At a time when the courts are increasingly giving deference to the police and prioritizing security over civil liberties, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Millbrook v. United States is a glimmer of hope in a sea of gloom.
Handed down on the second day of the Court’s same-sex marriage arguments, Millbrook has been largel... (more)
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Cold War Dinosaurs in KoreaYesterday, the Boston Globe reported:
"The US military said Monday it had signed an agreement 2 ½ years in the making to support South Korea in countering North Korean provocations... By putting the allies' combined commitment on paper, the agreemen... (more)
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Where (in the States) Can You Find Freedom?If you’re looking for freedom, which state should you live in? Government oppression at the state level comes in various forms and levels. Since Galt’s Gulch doesn’t exist, people must prioritize the state intrusions they can live with. For those valuing freedom, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is providing a new “Freedom in the 50 States” report providing a clue on where to live.
Alex Pareene writing for Salon.com scoffs at the... (more)
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A Laughable Excuse for Invading IraqAmong the most laughable excuses for invading Iraq was the one that said that the U.S. government invaded the country to help free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein's tyranny. That was the big excuse that was trotted out after the WMD excuse proved to be unfounded.
For one thing, there was never any concern for the well-being of the Iraqi people prior to the invasion. Recall, for example, the 11 years of brutal sanctions that preceded the invasion. Year after year, the Iraqi pe... (more)
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Totalitarianism is the New NormalFirst it was a secret “kill list” on which Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama names those he wishes to be assassinated. The names included American citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan who died in a drone strike in Yemen on September 30th, 2011. Neither was indicted or charged with a crime. They were killed as 'terrorists' at the discretion of one man whose signature now constitutes due process.
Then, on March 20th, the Obama administration put a $5 million bounty on... (more)
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The Liberal Blind SpotOne of the distinguishing characteristics of liberals is their inability to focus on the unseen consequences of statist policies. They're able to see the direct, immediate consequences of such policies but they have a blind spot when it comes to the adverse consequences that cannot be seen.
A good example of this phenomenon occurred recently in a book review published in the Washington Post. The review was of a book entitled The Last Line of Defense written by Virginia Attorne... (more)
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On the RichTry as he might, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon will never shake the label of being an overly privileged, money-grubbing banker elite. In business and politics, used to be heralded as a man of impeccable character. President Obama once called the head of the modern House of Morgan "one of the smartest bankers we got." When asked what candidate he thought would be splendid at running the U.S. Tr... (more)
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North Korea's Prison Camps -- and America'sAfter returning from a recent trip to North Korea, former NBA star Dennis Rodman sat for an interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous. After Rodman declared that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, whom he had met on his trip, was "a great guy," Stephanopolous, apparently taken aback by the remark, said incredulously, "A great guy who puts 200,000 people in prison camps?"
Rodman replied that "it's amazing how we do the same thing here."
"We have pri... (more)
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Given The Chance, All Governments Would Abolish Freedom Of SpeechWith the support of leaders from all major political parties, the British government has announced plans to create an official “press regulator” empowered to impose fines and demand prominent corrections of stories deemed to be unreliable. The new restrictions would also apply to bloggers and other independent Web-based commentators.
Britain is not alone in this... (more)
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Attorney General Eric Holder: If the President Does It, It's Legal “I never thought I would see the day when a Justice Department would claim that only the most extreme infliction of pain and physical abuse constitutes torture and that acts that are merely cruel, inhuman and degrading are consistent with United States law and policy, that the Supreme Court would have to order the president of the United States to treat detainees in accordance with the Geneva Convention, never thought that I would see that a president would act in direct defia ... (more)
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Praising the Troops for Defending Our "Rights" and "Freedoms"Have you ever wondered what people mean when they praise the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for defending our rights and freedoms here at home? This is one of the most popular and important bromides of our time. Given that we hear it all the time, especially in church and at sporting events, wouldn't it be good to contemplate what people mean by it?
I think everyone by now will agree that the 9/11 attacks were not the first stage of a giant terrorist invasion of the United States.... (more)
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Gun Control: It BackfiresIf I were an extremely cynical gun manufacturer, I would save some extra profits to give to Democratic candidates for president. Such presidents come to the White House under a cloud. No matter how many photo ops they hold with guns, many people suspect that they want to ban them.
It’s not a crazy assumption, either. In government’s ideal world, the politicians and their bureaucratic armies would have all the guns and the people would have none.
We know ... (more)
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