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A Primer On Domestic Spying

“The Framers ... conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men.” — Justice Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) While we were all consumed by impeachment, a pernicious piece of legislation was slowly and silently making its way through Congress. It is a renewal of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act of 2001 has three sections that are scheduled to expire on March 15. One of those sections is the infamous 215, which authorizes the federal government to capture without a warrant ...

She’s Rubbing Her Nose… Do We Do The Same?

As you know, we harbor a lot of cynicism in this country. Especially when it comes to politics and politicians. In the last few weeks I was three times reminded why. One reminder was a Donald Trump campaign commercial. It ran footage of both President Clinton and President Obama. In the clips, each of them railed against illegal immigration. Each promised to spend millions more to tighten our southern border. Each promised to address and fix border problems. Each made clear that sneaking across our borders was wrong and the US would not tolerate it. Sandwiched between the clips of ...

Tyranny Of The Tamiflunatics

Beware of clickbait character assassins masquerading as “journalists.” This is a lesson America should have learned after the mass media defamation of the Covington Catholic schoolboys last year. Just a few weeks ago, innocent teenager Nick Sandmann won a multimillion-dollar settlement against CNN for leaping to conclusions and attempting to ruin his life in pursuit of a political agenda driven by confirmation bias. The Washington Post and NBC News face similar lawsuits for potential damages totaling more than a half-billion dollars. False allegations have consequences. And yet, ...

Entrepreneurship: The Real Team Sport

In a recent episode of “SportsCenter,” discussing the life and legacy of Kobe Bryant, sportscaster Stephen A. Smith related a story about Bryant’s post-NBA career aspirations. A journalist asked Bryant whether he’d like to become a media personality like Oprah. No, Bryant reportedly replied, “I’d like to be like Harpo (Studios).” This signaled his intention to transition himself from product — i.e., world-renowned championship basketball talent — to producer. Bryant understood that, in doing so, he was entering an entirely new arena, and a game just as competitive and ...

Perpetual Impending Doom Gets Tiresome

We will soon run out of affordable energy, and industrial society is going to implode. Just ask William Stanley Jevons, an economist who wrote “The Coal Question” in 1906. Through his careful calculations, he proved that the rate of coal use would outstrip supplies in the near future and there would be economic disaster. The world is going to run out of food because the population is outstripping our ability to produce it. Just ask Thomas Malthus of the 1800s, or better yet, Paul Erhlich, the 1960’s academic rock star whose 1968 book, “The Population Bomb”, predicted mass ...

Trying To Avoid The Bulk Balk

I, like most people, I imagine, have a love-hate relationship with the big bulk stores — you know, Costco, Sam’s Club, the stores so large that they usually sit on a street named after them, the stores with shipment garage doors so massive they must have ordered them used from a UFO hangar at Area 51. There is much to love and hate about these bulk businesses. On one hand, they are always so crowded that I’m confident I’ll be arrested for ginormous-cart-related manslaughter — or at the very least find myself on the receiving end of a class action suit on behalf of the ...