One of my biggest pet peeves is, during election time, when newspapers publish a list of which candidates they endorse in the upcoming race.   Often this is a list of political candidates who have purchased the most advertising space from a particular newspaper.  In some cases, an editorial would run explaining why the newspaper had endorsed the candidate.

At the Queens Courier, the first newspaper at which I worked, candidates were able to bribe the publisher to publish an article smearing their opponents with less than flattering information that was ancient history and had no relevance whatsoever aside from the fact that a candidate had paid for said article to be published.

How can the editorial board of any newspaper say with a straight face that they are unbiased when they clearly make no effort to hide their bias and publish a list of the candidates they support?  How many people actually go out and vote for a candidate simply because their newspaper endorses them?  Is it any surprise that journalism has lost most if not all of the credibility this profession once had? (more…)

Some college students, inspired by the larger Occupy Movement inspired by OWS as well as in a show of solidarity with OWS, have occupied public spaces on their universities’ campuses, protesting such issues as tuition hikes and demanding increased scholarship funds for low-income students.  The most famous of these campus occupations have been the one at University of California Davis during which campus police doused the protestors with large amounts of pepper spray.

The spraying of the occupiers quickly became infamous, spurring national debate about police abuse.  The image and video footage of the incident has since gone viral and has even evolved into an Internet meme called Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop. (more…)

I’ve been mulling over which multimedia format to use to amplify my blog (videoblogging, podcasting, etc.) and I’ve decided to go with libertarian-themed Internet memes.  I created one this morning and would love to share with you.  Enjoy!

I couldn’t roll my eyes fast or hard enough at this ridiculous remark.

I replied, “Why should they test me for drug in order to get welfare benefits?  Nobody drug tested me when the state was stealing the money from my paycheck.”  Of course, you don’t have to be employed own property to pay local, state or federal taxes, as I’ve explained in a previous post.  But when most people think of taxpayers, they only include property owners and the employed within that definition.  But the system is set up so that everyone, including the unemployed, people on welfare, those whose incomes are from criminal activity and even illegal aliens are still paying taxes when they pay a bill or buy something. (more…)

1.  Is government the antithesis of liberty?

Yes and no.  Government by itself is not the antithesis of liberty.  It is the initiation of force and the implied threat of such initiation of force that is a threat of liberty.  The use of force and the implied threat of force, both lethal and non-lethal, is the only real power government has and is the sole purpose for its existence. (more…)

The media further solidifies this image of the Occupy demonstrations as being a socialist movement by flooding newspaper, television and Internet with oodles of images of protestors wearing Che Guevara t-shirts, holding up images of Karl Marx and waving the anarcho-socialist flag.  But this isn’t Manhattan; labor unions and other big-government cheerleaders might be less likely to join an Occupy protest in libertarian-leaning New Hampshire.  In fact, the local limited government crowd might produce enough numbers to counter the progressive feel of other Occupy demonstrations elsewhere in the country. (more…)

Why was Harrington handled so roughly by this officer assigned to West Manchester High?  This kid isn’t exactly a model student.  At 17, he’s still taking sophomore classes, and doesn’t spend to much time worrying about classwork, or homework for that matter.  He stole his sister’s purse (also a student in the high school) with the intention of returning the purse to her after lunch period. His teachers and principal asked him for the purse, and he refused.  Apparently since the school officials felt they didn’t have the right to use physical force on Harrington to retrieve his sister’s purse without any legal repercussions, they sent in someone who they believed did. (more…)

So far the protest has received some media attention, with the mainstream media initially refusing to cover the protests but eventually have had to as independent media outlets and mountains of video footage of the event emerged on YouTube.  The first MSM outlet I’ve seen cover the OWS (other than a somewhat biased New York Times article) was a surprising editorial by MSNBC.  From the looks of these videos, it appears that almost every participant is equipped with some sort of video recording device.  The paramilitary organization known as the New York City Police Department has reacted to the protest with mass arrests, barricading protestors, assaulting them and dousing their eyes with pepper spray. (more…)