Some good news from the District of Columbia:
The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage in the District, as the city moves quickly to join five states in allowing gay couples to marry.
After months of debate, the council passed the bill 11 to 2. It still must take [...]
The man wanted in connection with the murder yesterday in Washington State of four police officers was previously paroled from a 95 year sentence thanks to then Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee:
Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police [...]
Apparently, the Swiss may be neutral but they aren’t very tolerant:
PARIS — Voters in Switzerland decided Sunday to ban the building of minarets, in a referendum that showed an unexpected level of resentment against Muslim immigrants in a country long known for discretion and tolerance.
Opinion polls in recent months [...]
This will be the only post of the day, and likely the last until sometime on Saturday or Sunday, so Happy Thanksgiving everyone. In case you’re interested, my wine recommendations from a few years ago still stand, so go out, buy some, and enjoy.
In the meantime, courtesy of one [...]
Well, I suppose this was inevitable:
CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS, who don’t believe in conventional medicine, are nonetheless keen to grab some of the cash the government will soon be splurging on health reform.
Church leaders want health insurers to reimburse “spiritual health” practitioners who pray for the sick, reports the Washington [...]
The numbers continue to look bad for the Democrat’s health care reform plans:
Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.
The latest [...]
Well, this is no surprise:
WASHINGTON - The economy grew at a 2.8 percent pace last quarter, as the recovery got off to a slower start than first thought.
The Commerce Department’s new reading on gross domestic product wasn’t as energetic as the 3.5 percent growth rate for the July-September period [...]
Shortly after Thanksgiving, we should know what the President has decided to do in Afghanistan:
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama held a final strategy session with top aides on whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and plans to announce his decision within days, the White House said.
NBC News [...]
I was a guest on this week’s United Liberty podcast:
On November 16th, the national debt for our nation broke the $12 trillion dollar mark.  Jason, Brett and Doug had joked on Twitter about getting together to “celebrate” this accomplishment by having a few drinks.  Since geography [...]
One of these days Republicans are going to be back in power. Unless they understand why things went so wrong during the 2000-2006 period they will just make the same mistakes. I think it’s essential to the future success of conservatism that there be a full accounting of the failures [...]
NEW YORK (AP) - A lawyer for one of five men facing trial for the Sept. 11 attacks says the men plan to plead not guilty and use the trial to express their political views.
Attorney Scott Fenstermaker says his client Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and the [...]
Anne C. Heller, author of Ayn Rand and the World She Made, spoke to the Wall Street Journal about Rand’s days in Hollywood, and dropped a hint about a possible picture deal based on her biography:
My review of Heller’s book can be found here.
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Once again politics shows us what it has in common with the world’s oldest profession:
Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase.
On the eve of Saturday’s showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn’t secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of [...]
The state that helped light the fire that sent Barack Obama to the White House isn’t so pleased with him right now:
Fewer than half of Iowans approve of President Barack Obama’s performance in office a year after he carried the state in the 2008 election, according to The Des [...]
On a party-line vote:
WASHINGTON – Invoking the name of Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats united Saturday night to push historic health care legislation past a key Senate hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama. There was not a vote to spare.
The [...]
Senator Blanche Lincoln announced this afternoon that she will vote to open debate on the Senate health care package:
Sen. Blanche Lincoln is a yes for debating health reform, but a no for the public option, and she and fellow centrists are making clear they expect Senate Majority Leader Harry [...]
The game wasn’t nearly as close as the score makes it seem:
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Ohio State intercepted four passes by Michigan freshman Tate Forcier, and the OSU offense did just enough today to offer some breathing room as the Rose Bowl-bound Buckeyes gained their sixth straight victory in [...]
Oh wait, this is Washington, they don’t call it bribery, they call it “leverage”:
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said Friday night that she’s “leaning towards” voting to start debate on the health care bill – which would leave Democrats just a single vote shy of clearing a critical test for [...]
So what if Sarah Palin didn’t write this book? Even God used earthly scribes to write the Bible
No, I’m not kidding:
This does not bode well for the prospects of H.R. 1207 in the Senate:
A growing effort in the House to require periodic audits of the Federal Reserve is little more than “great PR,” one Republican senator stressed Friday.
Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson’s (D-Fla.) effort to subject much [...]
The national debt belongs to both parties. But at least the Democrats don’t go on Fox News day after day proclaiming how fiscally conservative they are, and organize tea parties to rant about deficits, without ever putting forward any plan for reducing them. Nor do they pretend that they have [...]
Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, spoke to Reason.tv recently about her new book:
My review of Burns’ biography can be found here.
And, yes Sarah Palin did support the TARP bailout.
These people walk among us, and they vote.
More bad poll numbers for the White House:
PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Daily tracking results [...]
In a word, wow:
Senator John McCain’s future in the U.S. Senate may be a little less assured than previously thought.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely 2010 Republican Primary voters in Arizona finds the longtime incumbent in a virtual tie with potential challenger J.D. Hayworth. McCain earns 45% [...]
It’s been noted before that there’s very little about the Pledge of Allegiance that is compatible with the values of individual liberty that the United States was founded on:
Allegiance is a state of loyalty or devotion. A declaration of allegiance is not something to be taken lightly. It is [...]
Peter Schiff recently spoke to Students For Liberty chapter at Harvard University, here’s the entire ten-part, approximately 90 minute, speech:
A few weeks ago, I posted this video showing Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Stoddard clearly and blatantly stealing documents from the file of a defense attorney:
Well, the Judge held a hearing in the matter and Stoddard got read the riot act:
A Maricopa County judge on Tuesday [...]
It would seem that the honeymoon is ending:
Washington (CNN) - Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday morning indicates that 38 percent of the [...]
Some provocative words from the former Senator from Tennessee:
Former Sen. Fred Thompson today intensified his party’s criticism of President Obama’s long deliberation over policy in Afghanistan, announcing that Obama’s delay signals that “the war has been lost” and that nothing the president now does will “make any difference.”
“It really [...]
Rand Paul, who’s running for Senate in Kentucky, has come out with a very hard-line stand on the issue of trials for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda members:
BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY – Leading United States Senate candidate Rand Paul today criticized the Obama administration’s decision to close the [...]
Doug Hoffman is now mathematically eliminated from any possibility of overtaking Bill Owens in the final vote count:
It’s now mathematically impossible for Doug Hoffman to take the lead in the New York special election, with his deficit now larger than the number of outstanding ballots left to be counted.
Hoffman [...]
Ayn Rand died twenty seven years ago, and yet her novels and ideas remain as widely distributed, controversial, and inspiring today as they were when they were first written. Both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged continue [...]
After beating back efforts to weaken it substantially, H.R. 1207, the bill first proposed by Congressman Ron Paul to authorize a General Accounting Office audit of the Federal Reserve System, has passed a crucial House committee vote:
WASHINGTON — In a display of populist anger toward the Federal Reserve, [...]
Following up on earlier reports that he had decided to drop out of the New York Governor’s race, it now sounds like Rudy Giuliani has other political ambitions:
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided against running for governor, but is strongly considering running for U.S. Senate instead, sources told [...]
Outside of her husband Frank O’Connor, and possibly even to a greater extent than he, there were no two people closer to Ayn Rand than Barbara and Nathaniel Branden.
Here they are, in separate interviews, discussing Rand, her ideas, and the movement they were a part of:
Barbara Branden:
Nathaniel Branden:
For me the [...]
This is a speech by The Cato Institute’s Vice-President David Boaz that everyone who cares about liberty needs to listen to:
Partial transcript is available here.
So says The New York Times:
Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has decided not to run for governor of New York next year after months of mulling a candidacy, according to people who have been told of the decision.
His decision is a blow to many Republican leaders, who had viewed [...]
According to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, a majority of Republicans do not believe that President Obama won the 2008 Election legitimately:
PPP’s newest national survey finds that a 52% majority of GOP voters nationally think that ACORN stole the Presidential election for Barack Obama last year, [...]
Quite honestly, this may qualify as one of the dumbest things a Senator has ever said:
If the U.S. captures Osama bin Laden, there’s no need to interrogate him, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of that committee, said that arguments raised [...]
The birther caucus is alive and well on Capitol Hill:
It’s been a little while since a good confrontation between a birther and a member of Congress, but here’s one from last week: a constituent of Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) asking his congressman why Republicans won’t do anything about the [...]
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